English Elective Courses In Secondary Vocational Schools From The Perspective Of Educational Ecology

In November,2014,the curriculum reform plan for secondary vocational schools in Zhejiang Province was promulgated.It emphasizes the selectivity,flexibility and timeliness of the courses in secondary vocational schools.Subsequently,vocational schools in Shaoxing city responded positively by trying to implement the credit system and offering elective courses.In 2015,Shangyu Vocational Education Center in Shaoxing,where the author works,started to implement the credit system for elective courses.However,students did not show their enthusiasm for elective courses,and the teaching effect was not satisfactory.It is a problem on how to change the embarrassing situation of English teaching in secondary vocational schools so as to promote the development of teaching and learning.Educational ecology provides a new way of thinking for the study of foreign language teaching.It tries to transfer the innovation of the dichotomy of “teaching”and “learning” in traditional teaching,make the class return to nature and form healthy and rationalized classroom ecology.The distinctive characteristics of ecological education include individualization,harmony,development,win-win and sustainable development.The core of ecological classroom is to implement the idea of“student-oriented" and build an open,democratic,equal,harmonious and humane effective classroom teaching mode.From the perspective of educational ecology,the teachers can examine their secondary vocational English education.Based on the theory of educational ecology,this study reexamines the educationof English elective courses in secondary vocational schools.It analyzes the reasonable setting of English elective courses and the imbalance of English teaching in secondary vocational schools.Then the study probes into the underlying causes,and outlines the optimization of the teaching ecosystem of English elective courses in secondary vocational schools.This study conducted questionnaires,classroom observation and interviews to explore the teaching of English elective courses in the case school with the aim of answering the following questions: 1.What are the students' needs of English learning in secondary vocational school? 2.How do teachers develop English elective courses from the perspective of educational ecology? 3.How can the English elective courses meet the needs of secondary vocational students?It is found that under the guidance of educational ecology,teachers constantly adjust the relationship among ecological factors to achieve the best niche by creating an ecological environment for language learning.Following the principles of learning tolerance and moderation,the curriculum is diversified and interesting,which meets the students' learning needs and stimulates their interest in learning.English elective courses have entered a virtuous circle.