A Study Of Impacts Of The CAS Courses On English Majors’ Autonomous Learning Ability

With the increasing exchanges between China and the outside world,the emergence of China as an important economy in the world has increased the demand for talents proficient in foreign languages with a good understanding of the countries and regions in the world.However,very few universities offer the courses of countries and areas studies(CAS)to English majors at the undergraduate level systematically to educate the talents in need.A university in Northeast China has made an exploration in changing the phenomenon.In this study,four groups of students were examined who were English majors with the orientations of CAS,Education,Literature,and Translation.Questionnaires were administered to the four groups of students.Students and teachers responsible for the courses were selected for semi-structured interviews.Based on the five dimensions of autonomous learning ability(ALA),the impacts of CAS courses on English majors’ ALA were explored.The study yielded the following findings.Quantitative analysis indicated that there was no significant difference in the impacts of CAS courses and the other three non-CAS courses on students’ ALA.There was no significant change in the four groups’ ALA before and after the course,but four groups’ ALA improved slightly.The following problems were identified in the qualitative analysis.Firstly,in group cooperation there were unclear division of work,students’ low consciousness of participating in group learning,and limited help provided by team members.Secondly,as to teaching approaches,students could not fully understand the project-based learning approach.Thirdly,as for the division of labor,the roles of teachers and students are not diversified in the teaching process.Fourthly,as to subjects of teaching activities,students had the problems of weak academic competence,insufficient CAS knowledge,limited tools and reading materials,and teachers’ lack of teaching experience in CAS instruction.Corresponding coping strategies were raised.It is hoped that the findings can be enlightening to the improvement of CAS instruction.