A Study On The Effect Of WeChat-based Blended Instruction On Minority Preparatory Students' English Learning Self-efficacy

The development and application of network technology in digital age build a new platform for English learning which has been extended to online internet from traditional classroom teaching. Then the blended instruction is created which combines the advantages of class teaching and online learning. It makes use of teachers' guiding and monitoring role in traditional class, and fully reflects students' initiative and creativity in online learning. This learning model is consistent with the requirement of quality-oriented education that changes teacher-centered to student-centered. Besides, with the popularity of smart phone and the coverage of wireless network, WeChat is widely used which affects people's learning and communicating style. It is the software that can send voices, messages, videos, pictures and texts quickly. By March 2015, WeChat monthly active users have reached over 500 million and most of them are young people. We can say that WeChat has been a life style for them. Meanwhile, WeChat, for the powerful functions of convenience, efficiency as well as free time and space, can compensate the shortage of traditional learning method.During the English teaching, the author found that minority preparatory students had English learning disabilities. They were short of confidence and were easy to be anxious and nervous in class. In other words, their English learning self-efficacy was low with little expectation. Consequently, the author tried to set up WeChat-based blended instruction, with the aim of finding out whether this new learning model could affect minority preparatory students' English learning self-efficacy and their English achievements.49 minority preparatory students of Grade 2014 in Northwest Normal University were selected as the subjects for this study. The author first investigated the WeChat use situation to ensure the feasibility of the experiment, and then conducted 15 weeks We Chat-based blended instruction. After the study, the author examined their English learning self-efficacy and achievements through the questionnaire and test paper. The data were collected and analyzed with the aid of SPSS. The analyzing results are showed as follows:1. Northwest minority preparatory students' English foundation was weak. They tended to be anxious and nervous. Their English learning self-efficacy was low.2. After the WeChat-based blended instruction, minority preparatory students' English learning self-efficacy was improved obviously. The four dimensions of self-efficacy: sense of ability(the ability to complete tasks), sense of effort(the effort to reach targets), sense of frustration(the ability to face setbacks) and sense of challenge(the ability to overcome difficulties) were all improved significantly.3. According to the pre-test and post-test of CET-3, it could be concluded that minority preparatory students' English achievements were improved. And the correlation between English learning self-efficacy and English achievements was positively significant, which indicated students' self-efficacy has positive effect on their achievements.The study showed that WeChat-based blended instruction has practical significance to minority preparatory students' English education. But how to improve minority preparatory students' English instruction and English learning self-efficacy with different cultural backgrounds, learning styles and English levels, still needs further thinking and exploration.