An Empirical Study On The Effectiveness Of FL-PBL English Learning Model From Students' Perspective

In recent years,there has appeared a trend of researches and experiments on teaching methods or models such as MOOCs,micro-lectures,flipped classroom,and blended learning,which has attracted extensive attention from experts and practitioners of foreign language teaching.As a skill-oriented language curriculum,English course primarily emphasizes the communicative function of language and enhances communicative competence though the use of foreign language.Thus,the process of foreign language learning should be a process of continuous experiencing and continuous reflecting.The FL-PBL(Flipped Learning–Project based Learning)model utilizes the advantages of Internet information technologies to integrate the learning materials and learning tasks with the real applications in social and living environment,so that students can have more initiative in class.In addition to mastering basic English knowledge,there are more opportunities for students to use what they have learned and develop their abilities from every aspect.By way of experimental teaching with FL-PBL model and by means of literature analysis,classroom observation,questionnaires and interviews,this study tries to explore the following research questions from the perspective of students: 1)Does FL-PBL model play an important role in promoting English learning effectiveness? 2)What aspects of students' verbal ability and non-verbal abilities are improved under the FL-PBL model? 3)How does the FL-PBL model motivate students to learn English? 4)How do students adapt to the FL-PBL model? 5)Can FL-PBL learning fit into China's College English teaching?In this one-semester empirical research of foreign language teaching,441non-English-major freshmen who took a course called Advanced English Reading and Writing in a university of science and technology were selected as the experimental subjects.In terms of the textbook,the design and arrangement of content are based on project-based learning.The course adopts the teaching model of flipped learning that language input of traditional classroom is flipped into the out-of-class activities in the form of online learning,mainly with the video lectures to help enhance students' comprehension of learning contents.Language application and language output areflipped into in-class activities in the form of project completion.First of all,the researcher used a pre-questionnaire at the beginning of the course to get to know the basic information about students' English learning situation and their learning needs.Next,the researcher has observed classroom activities of different classes taught by different teachers to get the data and information about the teacher-student interaction,the development of activities and the implementation of teaching.At the end of the semester,the researchers used post-questionnaires to probe into the students' learning experiences and satisfaction with the FL-PBL model,and systematically analyzed the collected data by factor analysis and principal component analysis.Besides,the factors that affect the students' learning attitude are classified and summarized.In addition,at the end of the course,a face-to-face interview was arranged to interview 26 randomly selected students for a better understanding of the students' real thoughts and for a further proof of the authenticity and validity of classroom observations and questionnaire results.The results show that the students as a whole are satisfied with the FL-PBL model.After a semester of project-driven English flipped class,students reported that their non-verbal abilities such as collaboration,critical thinking,autonomous learning and public speaking have been improved to varying degrees.The data points out that FL-PBL can help students develop higher-order thinking ability,which is more in line with China's needs for comprehensive talents.The FL-PBL model has motivated the students to learn and given them more initiative in learning.They become “masters” of their learning and can “learn by doing” so that language input is transformed into language output through practical application.An inference is drawn thereby from experimental results that the FL-PBL model can serve as an instructional model to integrate instructional technology with English teaching.The teaching model,with relatively high operability and effectiveness,has a certain enlightening effect on the reform of College English teaching in China.