A Study On SPOC-based College English FAST Instructional Model In Flipped Classroom

In China,College English is a compulsory course for non-English major students and plays an important role of cultivating inter-disciplinary talent.With the deepening of research and practice on micro lectures,MOOC and flipped classroom,our country leads the world in the construction of MOOC.However,there still exists some problems of MOOC,i.e.high dropout rate and inconvenience of delicacy management.Therefore,in order to further improve the teaching quality of College English instruction,it becomes a major issue to be addressed to change the existing MOOC into SPOC or directly build SPOC,and then carry out SPOC-based College English instruction reform in a flipped classroom.Guided by the theory of Production Oriented Approach,this study constructed a FAST instructional model that applies to College English instruction in flipped classrooms in China by combining the current development and reform requirements of College English instruction.FAST instructional model integrates flipped classroom,activities,College English SPOC,task to improve students' ability in comprehensively using language.During the experience of FAST instruction,students were driven by tasks and actively sought for language input by self-paced learning of College English SPOC out of class.Then,students were required to participate some classroom activities organized by instructors to consolidate their learning.In this study,238 non-English major freshmen from a university in Chongqing were chosen by random sampling as the participants of a 12-week FAST instructional research.Pre-test and post-test were conducted to measure participants' language proficiency level before and after the research.A questionnaire and interviews were also conducted to learn about participants' engagement and perception of FAST instruction.The research findings are listed as follows.(1)FAST instructional model effectively improved participants' language proficiency.There were significant differences between pre-test and post-test,which reached the significant level on statistics.Further analysis revealed that participants' performance on listening,reading,vocabulary and grammar significantly improved and reached the significant level on statistics,but there was no significant difference on participants' writing performance in pre-test and post-test.(2)FAST instructional model improved participants engagement in learning College English.To be specifically,the results suggested higher engagement in online video learning,online assignment and tests,unit task,classroom activities,but lower engagement in online discussion.(3)Participants revealed a high recognition of FAST instruction.However,some students' learning belief was still not be changed completely,hoping that they could acquire language through lectures given by instructors.This study provides a solution of how to carry out SPOC-based College English instruction in a flipped classroom,and it's of certain suggestive significance to build and apply MOOC and SPOC in China.