Effect Of PBL On Non-English Majors' English Reading Scores And Autonomous Learning Ability

Due to the deepening of education reform,specific requirements are put forward about college students' English reading comprehension ability in the Ministry of Education's latest "College English Curriculum Requirements".Meanwhile,college English teaching should develop in the direction of individualization and autonomous learning,paying attention to the cultivation of students' abilities so as to mobilize students' subjective initiative.Moreover,as to non-English majored students,English reading not only accounts for a large proportion of final exams,CET-4 and CET-6,but also is a powerful tool to obtain information.However,there are many problems in current English reading instruction.On the one hand,many teachers are likely to adopt traditional teaching method.Thus,they just deliver knowledge simply ignoring students' autonomy.For another,many non-English majored students do not attach the importance to English reading so that they accept knowledge passively and do not play an active role in class.Therefore,the writer introduces problem-based learning teaching method which is based on constructive learning theory and humanism to English reading class in order to explore its effect on college students' English reading scores and autonomous learning ability.Triangulation is adopted in this study,including experiment,tests,scale and semi-structured interview.The research participants are from a university in Xi'an,where the writer worked as a part-time teacher.The 43 students in control class major in physics with the average age of 18.12,including 15 males and 28 females.There are 43 students in experimental class,including 6 males and 37 females,who major in business administration with the average age of 17.91.From September to December 2018,the experimental class students are instructed by problem-based learning teaching method while control class students are taught by traditional teaching method.Before and after the experiment,all 86 students finish the reading part of CET-4 of December 2017 and June 2018.In addition,all 86 students complete Autonomous English Learning Scale,which is designed by Lin Lilan.The recovery rate of tests and scales is 100%.After that,15 students in experimental class take part in the semi-structured interview.After data collection,the author utilizes independent samples t-test to examine significant differences by the help of SPSS 19.0.Then the interview data is analyzed by NVivo 10.After one-term's teaching experiment,the author obtains the following findings:The quantitative research results show:1.Compared with traditional teaching method,PBL teaching method improves experimental class students' English reading scores significantly,p=.049.Meanwhile,compared with pretest,experimental class students' English reading scores improve significantly in posttest,p=.010.2.Compared with traditional teaching method,PBL teaching method improves experimental class students' psychology of autonomous learning significantly,p=.037.Meanwhile,compared with pretest,PBL teaching method improves experimental class students'autonomous learning ability(p=.036),psychology of autonomous learning(p=.031)and autonomous learning behavior(p=.020)significantly in posttest.The qualitative research results indicate:1.Students express that their improvement of English reading scores are due to the enlargement of vocabulary,the improvement of reading speed,the enlargement of knowledge scope and the improvement of learning interest.2.Students hold the view that the improvement of psychology of autonomous learning and self-management learning ability as well as the increase of autonomous learning behavior contribute to boosting their autonomous learning ability.3.As to the problems occurred in the process of PBL teaching method,such as students' pressure,lack of emphasis and group distribution,the interviewed students offer some practical suggestions.For example,assign tasks according to students' English level,teacher intervenes in a proper time,strengthen students'self-control ability,assign tasks to individuals,take students' personality into consideration and form the group in the size of two or three students.