Autonomous Learning and Face-to-Face Tutoring in Computer Assisted College

English in China

-- An Explorative Study in Beijing University of Clothing Technology

Yu Li Guo Pingjian Du Jingjing

The significance of the research

1. peer-reviewed journals (2003): 28 Foreign language world, Teaching English in China, Computer-assisted Foreign Language Education and

modern Education Technology 2. no researchers study the art students, so what we found

is important for the other universities which have art students, what’s more, the policy makers will benefit from the research and make the proper syllabuses for the art students according to their special characteristics

Research Questions

1) Dose the new teaching model really improve the students’ autonomous learning and competence in learning English?

2) What are students’ attitude towards and perceptions of the effectiveness of the new teaching model?

Problems in Teaching

• 1) Few chances to speak English in a big class; • 2) Teachers can’t meet students’ individual needs in class; • 3) Large teaching content takes up too much time in class

and make students become passive listeners.

• Conflicts:• Students --- improve their speaking abilities in class, • teachers ---- so many teaching tasks and limited time.

Experiment

participants:110 students from class YA1

2 teachers

Preparation:

1) Strategies on autonomous learning

2) utilization of web-based resources

• 3) Offering the learning resources:

• New Horizon College English Viewing, Listening & Speaking (FLTRP)

• 4) Offering opportunities to learn:

• allow students to get online to learn English in our laboratory on basis of their schedule. (Tues & Fri. afternoon)

5) Tutoring in a small class: face-to face communication in a small class is offered after two weeks’ online learning. During students’ presentation in a small class, teacher will give more instructions on promoting their spoken language.

Five principles for fostering autonomy in the classroom

• 1) being actively involved in the students’ learning;• 2) providing a range of learning options and resources;• 3) offering choices and decision making opportunities;• 4) supporting the learners;• 5) encouraging reflection. • Benson (2003)

Process of the experiment

• 1) Designing our own teaching syllabus on the basis of characteristics of art students,

• 2) Interpreting the process of the experiment and the conception of autonomous learning

• 3) Drawing up a promise agreement• 4) Establishing files to conduct the competence test in th

e pre and post experiment.• 5) Self-assessment of students’ English competence in li

stening and speaking

Average in listening(CET4)

• Participants in experiment (27)Non-participants (75)

• 46 41

method

• Interview

• questionnaire

positive attitudes toward the new model

• 1) more chances to speak English in a small class;

• 2) getting more useful instructions from teachers;

• 3) more flexible practice in listening and speaking;

• 4) learning authentic English via rich resources in the teaching software;

• 5) autonomous learning being improved by means of the new model.

The problems in the new model

• 1) Students hope to have more face-to-face tutoring • 2) Students lack self-learning without much constrains• 3) Students felt bored when they study in front of the

screen without any interactions; • 4) Students can not spend much time in learning English

online because of their major and much assignments.

problems in the experiment

• 1) no enough time to get online learning • 2) Some students still cannot adapt themselves to the

new teaching model• 3) The art students cannot finish the learning tasks

according to requirements because they are short of learning competence of self-control;

• 4) Management: the experiment was conducted on the basis of voluntary principle, so it is difficult for teachers to manage the teaching process

Suggestions

• 1) Offering more learning strategies on the Web-based class learning;

• 2) The new teaching model had better begin from the first year;

• 3) The teacher should be more strict with the students;

• 4) The teacher should deliver more idioms and useful expressions in spoken English.

Thank you for your attention