Toward A Blended-Learning-Based Systemic Approach To EFL Teaching In The Secondary Vocational School

In the recent years,with the general development of online learning and classroom teaching,EFL teaching in secondary vocational schools in China has also made remarkable progress,incorporating online learning and classroom instruction into a blended mode of teaching.So far,however,secondary vocational school EFL teaching has not been systemic enough to generate a systemic approach based on blended learning.Meanwhile,with the overall evolution of online learning and classroom teaching research,China‘s secondary vocational school EFL teaching research has also made steady progress,paying increasingly more attention to the combination of classroom instruction and online learning.So far,however,studies of EFL teaching in secondary vocational schools still lack sufficient systemicity to allow for the formulation of a systemic approach based on blended learning.Oriented to the problem of insufficient systemicity in the practice and study of EFL teaching in secondary vocational schools,therefore,this study devises and verifies a systemic approach to secondary vocational school EFL teaching based on blended learning,in the light of dialectical systemic thinking(essential for systemic organization),on the basis of the constructivist as well as behaviorist views,theories,methods and procedures of learning,with current blended-learning theories and methods as resources,with 158 first year students majoring in accounting from two classes in a secondary vocational school as subjects,with English proficiency tests and affective state questionnaires as instruments,and through a combination of theoretical and empirical,deductive and inductive,qualitative and quantitative research methods and procedures.Through the theoretical study,a systemic approach is formulated,consisting of four interdependent levels: On the levels of view and theory,the approach holds that blended-learning-based secondary vocational school EFL teaching is an EFL teaching activity in secondary vocational schools complementarily composed of online learning(conducive to students‘ autonomous learning and teacher-student interaction)and classroom teaching(suitable for teacher instruction and student-student interaction),determined or conditioned by various internal and environmental components and factors.On the levels of method and procedure,the approach demands that blended-learning-based secondary vocational school EFL teaching should be carried out to maximize its efficiency via the methods of total manipulation,environment consideration,internal organization,and process management,and through the procedure of online students‘ autonomous learning(previewing lesson with online resources),classroom teacher‘s instruction(learning lesson from teacher),classroom students‘ collaborative learning(practicing lesson among students),and online teacher-student communication(reviewing lesson through assignments and feedbacks).Results of the empirical study reveal that the proposed approach may significantly increase the students‘ learning motivation and outcomes.Hopefully,this study may help to solve the problem of insufficient systemicity in the contemporary practice and study of secondary vocational school EFL teaching involving blended learning,enhancing EFL teaching efficiency through the proposed approach and increasing the systemicity of teaching research with its combination of theoretical and empirical methods.Therefore,it may have a considerable practical and theoretical significance for secondary vocational school EFL teaching.