A Study Of Oral English Teaching And Learning In Vocational Colleges From The Perspective Of Constructivism

With the increasing development of China’ economy and society, the communicationbetween China and other countries is on the rise, which contribute to the increasing demandsof foreign languages especially English. As a result, oral English plays an important role inEnglish learning and it is necessary for learners to improve their oral English. While thetraditional teaching models cannot meet the teaching demand now, Constructivist learningtheory (CLT), an important branch of the cognitive theory has arisen a considerable amount ofinterest as a new teaching method. Constructivist learning theory lay much emphasis on the thelearners’ self-control. The learning environment, interaction and dialogue are essential for theknowledge construction. CLT advocates that the learning process is an active process ofconcept construction. In the thesis, the author makes an attempt to apply constructivist learningtheory to vocational college teaching in order to probe into oral English teaching models froma constructivist perspective.The paper first provides a brief introduction, which includes a general description of thestatus quo of oral English teaching in vocational colleges, the necessity of the reform in oralEnglish teaching, the significance and innovation of the study, and the structure of the paper.Then the paper gives a brief literature review on constructivist learning theory, including abrief review of studies of constructivist learning theory, and a brief review of relevant studiesin China and on abroad. Then the paper explores the constructivist models, the teachers andstudents in the models.After having a general understanding of constructivism, we come to the application ofconstructivist learning theory to oral English teaching at vocational colleges. In order to testifythat students’ oral English proficiency can be improved mostly through the application ofthe constructivist learning theory and find out whether the constructivist teaching model is aneffective one for oral English teaching in vocational colleges. The author carries out a teachingexperiment between controlled class and experimental class on the base of CLT for a term.Methods of the research such as questionnaires, teaching design, tests, are applied into theempirical study step by step. Then, the author analyzes the results and makes a discussionabout the differences between traditional oral English teaching and constructivist oral Englishteaching. Finally the author presents the findings of the research: the application ofconstructivist learning theory would help to enhance the students’ motivation and improvetheir language ability effectively, especially their oral English competence; as well as the students’ autonomous learning ability in oral English class has been improved greatly. Theconstructivist teaching model is very useful for oral English teaching in vocational colleges. Atthe same time, new requirements are specified by the application of constructivist learningtheory to teachers.The final part is the conclusion, which provides a summary of the whole paper, presentsthe findings of the study again. Of course the author also points out the limitation of the thesis,offers some suggestions for future studies, and hopes that this paper can provide some help toapply the CLT to vocational oral English teaching and learning.