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The Investigation And Countermeasures On Language Adaptability In Bilingual Learning Of Undergraduates Major In Chemistry

Posted on:2017-03-09Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Q Q WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2297330488486095Subject:Chemistry curriculum and teaching theory
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Bilingual education has become a hot issue in higher education since early 21st century. Researches on bilingual teaching in colleges and universities are mostly concentrated on bilingual teaching situation, teaching modes, etc. Few researches concentrate on the students. The language of bilingual education is not only carrying subject knowledge, but also a medium of communication between teachers and students. Do students adapt to the bilingual learning process? This became the origin of the research topics. In this study, the undergraduate students of C university who went to a bilingual program are taken as the research object. The research methods include literature review, questionnaires, interviews, class-observation. Maybe the results could provide a new perspective for the study of bilingual teaching.Research questions of this study are as follows:a. what is the concept of the adaptability to bilingual learning? b. How about the progress of bilingual teaching at home and abroad? c. What is the adaptability situation of the students major in chemistry and what is the difference among the students from various backgrounds? d. What are the characteristics of bilingual teachers and the students? e. What are the problems in bilingual teaching? What kind of measures do we have?The study consists of seven parts. Part Ⅰ is an introduction, described the research background, significance, research questions, hypothesis, research design and research methods. Part. Ⅱ is the literature review, interprets the concepts of "bilingual teaching" "language" and some relative concepts. Part Ⅲ is about designing survey tools, and analyzes the reliability and validity of questionnaire; preparing interview outline; developing class-observation plan. Part Ⅳ is the core of this study, through questionnaires and student interviews, the situation of the adaptability in bilingual learning has been described. Part Ⅴ is class-observation; the real situation of bilingual teaching has been recorded and analyzed. Part Ⅵ is about the problems and the measures in the bilingual teaching and learning. Part Ⅶ is the summary, including conclusions and suggestions.Conclusions of this study are as follows:(1) Learning adaptability in bilingual teaching includes four dimensions, "language units" "language knowledge" "sound language" and "visible language". After correlation analysis, there is a significant correlation between these four dimensions.(2) In this study, the questionnaire has verified with good reliability and validity through internal consistency test and exploratory factor analysis.(3) Questionnaires analysis showed the learning adaptability of students major in chemistry overall general (5-point scale, the mean is 3.18). From the mean of each dimension, the highest score is the "language units"(mean 3.368), followed by "language knowledge" (mean 3.327), the lowest score is the " sound language" (mean 2.765), indicating that language units have been best adapted, and it is possible for students to acquire knowledge through bilingual learning. However, in sight of language skills, "reading" and "writing" capability is superior to "listening" and "speaking" capability.(4) Different backgrounds, such as professional category, grades, English level do have impact on learning adaptability, while gender has little impact on learning adaptability. From a professional category, non-normal students have better adaptability than normal students. For different grades, seniors and graduated students have the best adaptability. Juniors have the poorest adaptability due to the difficult courses. In addition, the higher English level students have, the better adaptability they have.(5) The class-observation of "Organic Chemistry" course shows that a combination of Chinese-English teaching mode are accepted by most students, since Chinese can effectively break the language barrier and help students master the knowledge. However, teachers still play the major role in bilingual teaching, and students don’t take good part in bilingual learning. Students can only answer simple questions in English, they can’t express complex process or describe complex phenomena. It is undeniable that in the current bilingual teaching process, the teachers transfer of knowledge rather than transfer of capability, such as "listening" "reading" "speaking" and "writing".(6) Some suggestions are given about the teaching objectives, curriculum arrangement, teaching objects, learning resources, and teacher’s construction. We hope to provide some meaningful perspective in bilingual teaching.In this study, the language bilingual teaching and learning has been noticed, and the adaptability of bilingual learning has been defined in four dimensions. They are "language units" "language knowledge" "sound language" and "visible language". Each dimension has been studied through questionnaires, interviews, etc. We hoping to provide a new direction for studies of language adaptability in bilingual learning of undergraduates major in chemistry.
Keywords/Search Tags:bilingual chemical course, learning language, adaptability
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