| The sustainable development of economy and more involvement in international affairs leadto a growing demand for professional talents with an international perspective, making Englishan indispensable tool in external exchange. And in the past30years, College English teaching, inresponse to the changes of time and society, has been through a series of teaching reforms.Compared with key universities, ordinary universities, as important places for talents-cultivation,lag behind in social recognition, hardware facilities and teachers, and studies based on ordinaryuniversities are relatively rare. Thus, what are the results of development and reforms of CollegeEnglish teaching in ordinary universities? This thesis conducts a series of empirical studies in thehope of figuring out the status quo and existing problems of English learning at ordinaryuniversity level as well as providing meaningful reference for future reforms and development ofCollege English education.The thesis takes four typical ordinary universities (Shandong Jiaotong University, ShandongJianzhu University, Weifang Medical University and Taishan University) in Shandong provinceas examples, and selects three teachers and181non-English majors randomly as the researchsubjects. On the basis of interview and questionnaire, the author analyzes the collected data toachieve the following objectives:(1) to get fist-hand information about the status quo of CollegeEnglish learning in ordinary universities.(2) to figure out the learning effectiveness of studentsfrom ordinary universities after two years’ study on College English.(3) to verify whether thecurrent situation of College English learning manage to meet the requirements of the keyconcepts and fundamental missions of higher education or to what extent it meets therequirements.To achieve the research goals, the thesis is divided into six chapters. The first four chaptersare concerned with introduction, literature review, theoretical framework and research design andmethodology; chapter5deals with results and discussion while chapter6presents major findingsand implications for College English teaching and learning in ordinary universities.On the basis of empirical studies, the major findings are as follows: Firstly, students’learning behavioral engagement in English is insufficient at ordinary university level. Less than36%can listen attentively and take notes in English class and only about6%often answer questions in class. Besides, the learning engagement after class of non-English majors inordinary universities is obvious inadequate as well. In general, the performance of femalestudents is relatively better than that of male students when it comes to listening and note-takingwhile the performance of male students is significantly better than that of female students whenit comes to answering questions in class. And from the perspective of the four English abilities,namely grammar, writing, listening and reading, students tend to spend more time and efforts onlistening practice which may be explained by the vivid and interesting form of audio. Grammarseems to be the one which be given least time and efforts after English class. In addition, statusquos of English learning behavioral engagement vary form university to university. Secondly,non-English majors in ordinary universities hold a positive attitude towards English study.According to the results of the questionnaire, the following reasons may be offered to explain thepositive attitude towards College English study in ordinary universities: nearly seventy percentof students are interested in the culture of English-speaking nations; listening and speakingability is the most valued English skill with85.64%of students’support, followed by capabilitiesof reading comprehension, translation and writing; the vast majority of students believe that theirEnglish learning achievements are connected to their own efforts, and they should be responsiblefor their performance; most students hold the opinion that one can get good grades by persistentlearning. Besides, some extrinsic learning motivations, including the need of getting a good jobor passing exams, play a role in helping students to set up the positive attitude towards Englishlearning. But at the same time, such extrinsic motivations are vulnerable to external interference.Once the external stimuli changes or disappears, students’ learning attitude will be affected,producing negative emotions. Thirdly, mechanical memorizing is still the most frequently usedmethods in English study for non-English majors in ordinary universities, but most students canmake use of information technologies to facilitate their study. What should be pointed out is thatteachers fail to put enough attention into the teaching of learning methods, which may lead to theresults that students mainly improve their learning methods by summarizing experiences andlessons in exercises and some students even at a complete loss. Fourthly, generally speaking,students are affirmative towards the teaching methods and textbooks in use. But “repeating whatthe book says” in teaching practice usually causes dissatisfaction among students. The morediverse and flexible the teaching methods are, the more satisfied the students will be. And “practicality” and “interestingness” are the most valued characteristics among students. As to theuse of teaching materials, students hope that teachers can add more extracurricular knowledgebesides those in textbooks and combine textbooks and multimedia, providing more vividlearning materials mixed with text, pictures and sounds. From the perspective of College Englishteachers, too large population in one class leads to a challenge for almost all College Englishteachers, which may result in the fact that traditional teaching methods still have a big share incurrent teaching practice. But with the help of multimedia, teachers are trying their best toprovide more flexible forms of knowledge and employ task-based methods to enhance students’participation in class. As to the teaching materials in use, teachers feel that most are proper indifficulty but fail to be updated and interesting in contents. Some teachers suggest more diverseteaching materials for different majors in the phrase of College English study. Fifthly, althoughthere are a small proportion of students disapprove of the setting up of English curriculum inChinese universities, the majority of students think it is necessary to start College English courseand expect reforms on exam forms, teaching means teaching methods and teaching materials.Sixthly, the views on non-English majors at ordinary universities towards CET-exams arerelatively negative. Achieving degree certificates and getting a better job are the top reasons fornon-English majors at ordinary universities to take CET-4or CET-6exam. Lots of students useother courses’ time to prepare CET exams. Despite most students deny that CET exams hinderthe study of professional knowledge, they also deny CET certificates’ function as a way ofillustrating one’s English competence. However, teachers seems to affirm CET-exams’ functionof testing College English learning and teaching effectiveness. But teachers also hope thatCET-exams could reform constantly to better adapt to social needs. Some teachers suggest morechances than twice in a year to release students’ pressure in passing CET-exams. Seventhly, aftertwo years’ College English study, most non-English majors in ordinary universities can fulfill acertain goal of academic achievements and accumulate some related knowledge and skills. Butthese achievements are confined to a relatively small proportion of students, thus measuresshould be taken to expand the depth and breadth of its influence. Besides, students show a lowsatisfaction to their English study and the majority of students are losing their interest. Inaddition, college teachers are worried about the fact that basic knowledge and test-taking skillstake up an important part in English learning while the cultivation of students’ comprehensive abilities in using English is neglected to some degree. They highlight the mission to arousestudents’interest in English study and develop their comprehensive abilities in using English.Due to the limited time, the sample of this study has a relatively small size. Thus, studieswith the support of a larger sample size and combined with “Big data” online should be seen inthe future for further discussion. |
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