A Study On Constructivism-based Oral English Teaching In Higher Vocational College

In recent years, constructivism, as a new ideology of International education reform, is increasingly applied to teaching practice. This study is empirical research in which the constructivist theory was applied to oral English teaching in Higher Vocational Colleges. The purpose of this research is to find out the impact on students’ oral English learning under the guidance of constructivism. Accordingly, the research provides new ideas for oral English teaching reform in Higher Vocational Colleges.Teaching plans were designed and conducted according to the constructivist theory. In this thesis, the author will testify the effectiveness of the constructivism-based oral English teaching through quantitative research and qualitative research. The subjects of the study were 91 English majors from two classes in Zhengzhou Tourism Vocational College. One class was the experimental class (using the constructivist teaching methods), and the other was the control class (using the traditional English teaching methods). In the study, oral English tests, questionnaires and interviews were appiled as the main research methods. Firstly, students in the experimental class were surveyed by using the pre-questionnaire to get the current situations of their verbal learning and their attitudes towards current oral English teaching. Meanwhile students of the two classes were given pre-test at the beginning of the study. After a semester of teaching and learning activities, a post-test was conducted among the two classes. The experimental data were collected and statistically analyzed by SPSS.Through the paired samples T-tests of the pre-test and post-test scores in both experimental class and control class, it was found out that the scores of the experimental class oral performance were significantly higher than that of the control class, which indicates that constructivism-based oral English teaching can effectively improve the students’speaking ability. Through the independent samples T-test, it’s found out that in the experimental classes, the students’　English speaking skills in accuracy&range, flexibility&appropriacy have been improved significantly compared with the control class, but in terms of size&discourse management, no significant difference was found between the two classes. The result indicates constructivism-based oral English teaching doesn’t play an important role in improving students’size&discourse management in oral English. The results of post-questionnaire and interview show that the constructivism-based oral English teaching can remarkably increase students’motivation to learn, improve students’ self-learning ability, and students’　ability of cooperative learning. It’s sincerely hoped that this study will play a role in promoting educational reform of oral English teaching in Higher Vocational Colleges.