An Empirical Study of Blended Teaching Model in University English Teaching

Abstract

It has been seven years since Education Ministry issued College English Curriculum Trail Requirements. It is of manifest necessity to conduct a survey about the effective application under blended teaching model in common university. This paper adopts consecutive three years' empirical study of blended teaching model and analyzes the data from both English teachers' and students' viewpoint. Then it discovers some problems and proposes corresponding suggestions with the purpose to facilitate the improvement of the English teaching in universities. Introduction With the deeper development of the education reform In 2004 the Education Ministry issued College English Curriculum Requirements (For Trial Implementation) and pointed out "The new model should be built on modern information technology , particularly network technology, so that English language teaching will be, to a certain extent, free from the constraints of time or place and geared towards students' individualized and autonomous learning." In this requirement, it showed that new teaching model required college English teachers to combine regular teaching with multimedia teaching. In addition, they should link students' self-learning with their guide. Furthermore they must pay more attention to not only what they taught but also how they taught. Under this model the students can improve their English level in listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. The topic of this thesis is chosen. But whether the hardware of colleges and students' skills to use the internet and learning styles are appropriate to carry out blended learning remains unanswered. If all these conditions are good, how do teachers efficiently carry out their blended teaching? What kinds of roles do teachers play? This paper is based on blended teaching model and analyze datum through questionnaire. Then it tries to find some problems and give some suggestions in order that college English teaching in China is going smoothly. Research Design Although blended teaching is a new pattern, it has aroused the attention at home and abroad, because it is in accordance with the current learning paradigm shift (from teacher-centered to student-centered change). Some foreign researchers have done researches in the field of higher education and enterprise training. In China it was Kekang He (2004a, 2004b) who firstly proposed it in Journal of China Educational Technology. Since then the colleges and universities have changed a lot in English teaching. It is necessary to survey the present situation of the application under blended teaching model in common college and university. The concrete questions of the survey are as follows: What is the attitude of common college English teachers and students towards blended teaching? How is blended teaching model applied? How is the overall effect of teaching under blended teaching? Teachers participating in this study (in July, 2010) are 30 comprehensive English teachers who come from Shenyang Aerospace University and teach freshman and sophomore. The age of them is from 28 to 55. Their titles of a technical post are composed of 1 professor, 11 vice professors and 18 lecturers. The results of the 30 questionnaires are effective. Besides, there was the feedback of 1221, 1342, 1538 questionnaire in year 2008, 2009, and 2010 from freshmen in Shen-yang Aerospace University. This paper analyzes the empirical data from both English teachers and students' standing point. Empirical Analysis of English Teachers' Feedback Teachers' Attitudes to Blended Teaching Model When the teachers were asked to answer their attitude to blended teaching model, 70% of them are positive (approved greatly and 26.66% approved). They all agreed that bended teaching model were good for the students. It could helpful for students to develop their ability in learning English. Teachers' Ability to Use Computer and Internet It is necessary to survey English teachers' ability to use computer and internet in modern ages. Survey showed 86.66% of English teachers used computers to process words; 100% received and sent E-mail; 96.66% sought English materials on the internet; but only16.66% used computers to chat with friends and 20% to edit courseware. It showed that the teachers had ability to use the computer to do some simple things. But they didn't spend much time in editing S. Y. JIANG, D. L LI and improving the courseware. Teaching Methods and Effect of Teaching When it comes to the teaching methods that the teachers of intensive reading adopt and the effect that the students get, the surveys' result showed the teaching methods that the teachers took were not diversified. Text explanation and task-based teaching were the most popular methods (100% and 80%). Group-discussion was another popular one (76.66%). Vocabulary explanation was still taken (63.33%). But percentage of using computer (only 63.33%) to finish teaching was lower than it had been expected. Only 10% of the teachers use project based teaching. As a result self-study ability of students is not improved fully. The teachers and the students do not make full use of computer. The effect of teaching is not satisfied. Empirical Analysis of Students' Questionnaire Data Resource of Students' Feedback With the purpose to explore the effect of blended teaching model from students' viewpoint, we conducted the survey by using questionnaire among the freshmen during consecutive three years' time at every end of semester after they experienced the blended teaching model for at least half a year time, and collected effective feedback of 1221, 1342, 1538 questionnaire in year 2008, 2009, and 2010. Students are asked to complete the about 10 minutes' survey independently at the semes-ter's last class, and submit the result through paper or online. The freshmen are from different cities in mainland of China and some of them are exchange students from Korea, Arab, and India, etc.