The Application Of Multimodal English Teaching Based On Learning Styles In Vocational College English Teaching

With the development of times and the wide use of internet,our life and study have been changed in many different ways.Traditional teaching needs to be adjusted to keep the pace of the times.Multimodal teaching advocates teachers to stimulate students' multiple sensory organs by using multimodal combinations in multimedia teaching environment.Multimodal teaching aims to improve students' multimodal literacies by using modern education technology.Learning styles reveal students' characteristic preferences and relate with their academic performances.Domestic researches mostly focus on application of multimodal teaching while there are a few researches combining multimodality theory with learning style theory.This study intends to improve the effect of multimodal teaching based on learning styles in vocational college English teaching through an empirical way.The research participants were two parallel primary education classes and six English teachers from a vocational college in Anhui Province.Before the teaching experiment this study made a survey of vocational college students' learning styles and interviewed vocational college English teachers.During the sixteen-week teaching experiment,multimodal teaching was used in experimental class and traditional teaching was used in control class.After the teaching experiment,this study made a survey of students' attitudes toward multimodal teaching and traditional teaching.The multimodal teaching effect was tested by comparing pre-test scores and post-test scores of experimental class and control class.In the pre-test the average point of experimental class(70.13)is almost the same with that of control class(70.15).It means before teaching experiment these two classes have no significant difference in English proficiency.In the post-test,the average point of experimental class(78.39)is obviously higher than control class(71.25).The number of students above 80 points in experimental class(22)is remarkably higher than that in control class(9).It means after teaching experiment these two classes have significant difference in English proficiency.The comparison of tests and students' achievements certifies that multimodal teaching has improved vocational college students' English proficiency effectively.The results of learning styles questionnaires and teachers' interviews reveal that adopting multimodal teaching can meet the requirements of vocational college students and teachers.Analyzed the results of questionnaires about students' attitudes toward multimodal teaching and traditional teaching,this study finds that vocational college students prefer multimodal teaching to traditional teaching.Vocational college students like and accept multimodal teaching.Multimodal teaching has advantages over traditional teaching.It is more effective,emphasizing the participation of students and coordinating with students' multiple learning styles.Multimodal teaching has a profound effect on vocational college students.It can improve vocational college students' English proficiency and their multimodal literacies.It also can arouse vocational college students' learning interests and strengthen their learning confidence.This research also pints out some implications for teachers,students and administrators.Multimodal teaching requires teachers to have higher qualifications.Students should master learning methods which suit their learning styles.Administrators should give more support for multimodal teaching.