Toward A Constructivist Approach To Organizing Secondary Vocational School EFL Classroom Activities

With the continuous development of secondary vocational school(SVS)EFL teaching,the practice of organizing EFL classroom activities in China's SVSs has also made considerable progress.Nonetheless,there still exist such problems as insufficient and inappropriate interaction,looseness and disjointedness in organization,and low efficiency of classroom instruction.Meanwhile,with the rapid growth of present-day SVS EFL teaching research,the study of SVS EFL classroom management has made remarkable achievements.However,studies conducted so far still suffer from such problems as lack of a systemic guideline and comprehensive theoretical basis,overreliance on positivist designs based on quantitative analysis and negligence of rationalist methods based on deductive reasoning.Oriented to the above problems in SVS EFL classroom management and relevant research,in the light of dialectical systemic thinking salient in systems sciences and fit for guiding management practice and studies,on the basis of constructivist and relevant views,theories,methods and procedures of learning and teaching,and through an integrated methodology combining rational methods based on deductive reasoning and empirical measures based on quantitative analysis,the present study formulates and verifies a constructivist approach to,or strategy system for,organizing SVS EFL classroom activities.The strategy system as designed in the study consists of a systemic meta-strategy and a set of constructivist strategies on the levels of view,theory,method,and procedure.The systemic meta-strategy requires the teacher to view and manipulate the constructivist strategies in their totalities,their environments,themselves,and their processes according to the principles of dialectical interconnectedness,openness,integrity,and dynamicity.The constructivist strategies on the level of view require the teacher to view SVS EFL classroom activities as processes of EFL knowledge and ability construction through the communication among students or between students and teachers.The constructivist strategies on the level of theories require the teacher to understand the components and structure of SVS EFL classroom by regarding learning as knowledge construction,learners as centers of classroom activities,teaching as learning environment building,and teachers as subjects of classroom management.The constructivist strategies on the method level require the teacher to adopt methods and techniques of instruction involving scaffolding,anchoring,and random access.The constructivist strategies on the procedural level require the teacher to include in classroom organization such steps as establishing a mechanism of management,setting up goals of instruction,creating a conducive environment,utilizing information resources,implementing autonomous and cooperative learning,assessing learning outcomes,and assigning effective exercises.The strategy system as verified in the study can be used to effectively improve the process and result of SVS EFL classroom management both by increasing learning motivation and interaction and by enhancing learning efficiency and outcomes.This study is hopefully significant both practically and academically.Practically,the result of this study may help to solve such problems in the SVS EFL classroom as inadequate interaction,disjointedness in organization,and low efficiency in learning and teaching.Academically,its methodology may help to solve such problems in the study of SVS EFL classroom organization as lack of a systemic guideline and integrated theoretical basis,overreliance on positivist quantitative analysis and negligence of deductive rationalist methods.