On Constructivism-Based English Teaching Model For Art Majors Of Higher Vocational Colleges

With the development and prosperity of cultural industries, the close exchanges of art have increased sharply between China and the world. It results in an ever-increasing employment demand for art talents who are skilled in English language and professional art knowledge as well. Meanwhile, one of the most important aims of higher vocational college education is to satisfy the employment demand. Therefore, higher vocational colleges have been embracing the age of enrollment expansion of art majors. While art majors whose English entrance requirements are much lower than others, they cannot fit into the traditional English teaching model.In order to improve English proficiency of art majors of higher vocational colleges, the thesis will study curriculum setting, teaching contents, teaching materials, teaching methods and evaluation systems from the perspective of constructivism to explore an English teaching model suitable for art majors. In this way art majors can be cultivated into talents who are competitive in the job market.The present research tries to explore the following questions:1. What are the main existing problems in English teaching and learning to art majors of higher vocational colleges?2. What needs to be improved or reformed in English teaching and learning to art majors of higher vocational colleges?The research questions are intended to be answered by means of action research of questionnaires and interviews. The questionnaires are designed based on the needs analysis of learning-centered framework (Hutchinson T.&Waters A.2004) and all the data collected are counted and analyzed by Excel WPS, the tables and figures representing each question is generated automatically by using the orders in Excel2007. The interviews outline are revised on the basis of structured interviews (Dudley-Evan&St. Johns,1998). Subjects of the questionnaire were200students from four art majors in Anhui Broadcasting Vocational College, including100second-year students and100third-year students. Subjects for the interview include four parts:English teachers, specialized course teachers, graduates from the above four majors and the enterprise samples. Combining the results of the survey, the thesis further analyzes and summarizes some measures to reform English teaching model for art majors of higher vocational colleges from the perspective of constructivism continuously. Measures include:first, to develop proper textbooks which are relevant to art knowledge and also meet art students’ basic English proficiency; second, to adopt the situational approach, project-based method and the communicative method in the view of constructivism; third, the communicative mechanism of English teachers and specialized art courses as well as teaching evaluation diversification etc. After the implementation of the measures, an evaluation of the constructivism-based English teaching model is made based on questionnaires and interviews.Major findings of the study are presented as follows:firstly, the main existing problem in English teaching and learning to art majors of higher vocational colleges is that the inappropriate traditional teaching model could not fit in with the characters and the way of thinking of art majors; secondly, the solution to the above problem is the constructivism-based English teaching model.At the same time, some implications are proposed based on the above findings: firstly, the key to the implementation of constructivism-based English teaching model is the comprehensive quality improvement of art students of higher vocational colleges and professional development of teachers; secondly, the development of constructivism-based English teaching model to art majors of higher vocational colleges is a long-term process which needs continuous improvement. Although there are some limitations in the study, the findings of the present study undoubtedly make contributions not only to the following teaching model development with the final purpose of improving students’ practical ability of English but also to the practices of English teaching and learning in the future.