An Experimental Study On Content-based Instruction In Nursing English Teaching Of Higher Vocational Colleges

As the deepening of teaching reform, teaching foreign language is focused on using the language as a real tool to communicate. Content-Based Instruction(CBI) has this character and has developed the linguistic ability quickly in the new educational background. CBI is a method which integrates the learning content with the teaching of second language and is accepted as one of the most representative contributions to contemporary second/foreign language pedagogy. CBI has been applied in a variety of teaching models all over the world with the solid theoretical foundation, but very few researches on experimental studies on CBI in the EFL context, especially the nursing English teaching in Chinese colleges.The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of CBI on the learning motivation and English proficiency of the Chinese EFL learners in the higher vocational college English context. In this research, all subjects who major in nursing are sophomores in Shijiazhuang Medical College. Before the experiment, they have taken the English courses in the first academic year and all have passed the PRETCO(Practical English Test for College) Level A. 160 learners are selected and divided into the experimental group(N=82, in CBI context) and the control group(N=78, in the regular English context). These subjects are chosen to be of similarity age and experiences of learning English.This study was carried out in the medical college during half of the academic year---from February to July in 2015, which contained the quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative research utilizes the questionnaire and test to investigate the learning motivation and English proficiency of the learners in different teaching patterns, while the qualitative research is the interview of certain learners. At the beginning of this study, the subjects in the experimental group and the control group were asked to attend a pretest in English motivation and English proficiency. The result in the pretest showed that there was no significant difference between these two groups. At the end of this experimental research, the subjects in the two groups were required to participate in a post-test which was similar to the pretest and the interview, and then the statistical analyses were shown to explore the influence of CBI on the English motivation and proficiency of the learners.The results of this study are as follows:1. The learners in the CBI teaching context own a stronger learning motivation thanthose in the regular class in English study. To be brief, the desire to learn English in theexperimental group is much stronger than those in the control group, but the motivationalintensity between these two groups has no statistic difference at the end of this study.2. The English proficiency of these two groups both develop at the end of thisexperimental study. However, a faster rate is shown in the groups of language learners inthe CBI context, especially in the ability of listening and reading.In conclusion, CBI makes a positive influence on enhancing the English learning motivation and English proficiency of the EFL learners. CBI emphasizes on the learning content and suitable language and these two aspects should be kept a good balance in future research.