An Investigation Of Multimedia-based Classrooms For English Majors

Along with the advent of the information age, the rapid development of science and technology has accelerated the updates of knowledge in the field of education. The traditional teaching methods (TTM) have become unable to meet the modern teaching needs. As a combination of modern educational theory and technology, the multimedia-based teaching has been widely used in classrooms in colleges and universities. But how multimedia work and perform in classrooms for English majors is far from in-depth discussion. This research aims to investigate the use of multimedia for English majors (EM) in the multimedia-based classrooms (MBC) and to explore the strategies to improve teaching and learning efficiency.The present thesis aims to answer the following three questions:1. What are the theoretical and practical competences of teachers of the English major (TEM) for multimedia-based English teaching (MBET)?2. How do TEM and EM evaluate the efficiency of multimedia-based English teaching (EMBET)?3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of MBET?In order to solve these three research questions, questionnaires for teachers and students were respectively designed based on the previous relative studies and the guidance of constructivism and multiple intelligence theory, and an investigation through questionnaires was conducted in three universities in Wuhan.The questionnaire for teacher participants (TP) is composed of four parts: teachers'theoretical framework for MBET; teachers'attitudes towards multimedia-based teaching; teachers'teaching methods and activities in MBC; teachers'competence in multimedia technology. The questionnaire for student participants (SP) contains four parts: students'attitudes towards MBET, students'evaluation of teachers'teaching methods and activities, students'assessment of teachers'competence of multimedia application; and students'view on the strengths of MBC. In addition, the voluntary teachers and students among the participants are interviewed after the questionnaires.The results of the investigation show that: 1) TEM'knowledge of theoretical bases is insufficient, and not all of them can apply the theories to practice, though some teachers have acquainted themselves with the related theories; 2) As for competence in multimedia technology, most TEM have mastered the basic skills of manipulating multimedia technology, but they are still unable to make full use of advanced programs; 3) Both TEM and EM hold a very positive attitude towards MBET, but due to the lack of proper theory guidance and technology support, EMBET is far from satisfaction; 4) Compared with traditional teaching methods (TTM), both teachers and students admit that MBET has an absolute superiority, but its weaknesses should arouse our attention. Based on these findings, some improvement strategies of EMBET are proposed: strengthening teacher development; encouraging cooperative learning; creating a learner-centered classroom; and integrating MBET with TTM.