On Eclectic Approach In English Teaching In Vocational Colleges In The Perspective Of Learning Beliefs

The studies on eclectic approach started in the beginning of the 20th century abroad and around more than 2000 years ago in China.It has aroused great attention and arguments among applied linguists and English educators.Richards,J,Platt,J and Platt,H(1998)defined eclectic approach as "a term sometimes used for the practice of using features of Several different methods in language teaching";Fan Changrong (1999)believed that it is an approach with a general principle,which is selecting teaching methods according to different time,occasions,and learners.Eclectic approach is a foreign language teaching approach where the advantages of all the approaches or methods are applied in accordance with different situations.Along with the arguments on "competence" and "communicative competence" put forward by Chomsky and Hymes respectively,all foreign teaching approaches can be classified into form-oriented and function-oriented approaches.Form-oriented teaching approaches focus on form and highlight the development of learners' competence, which is represented by grammar-translation method;on the contrary, function-oriented teaching approaches,represented by communicative approach, focus on function,and their teaching goal is to develop learners' communicative competence.Whereas eclectic approach focuses on application of both form and function.The purpose of eclectic approach is to assure that learners can develop their communicative competence by means of strengthening their language knowledge,and vice versa,their language knowledge can be acquired easily for the improvement of their communicative competence.Since the 1970s,great changes have taken place in studies on foreign language teaching.Studies have gradually transferred from teaching approaches to language learner's learning factors as well as their effect on foreign language teaching and learning.Foreign language learner's learning beliefs have drawn great attention. Horwitz,Weden,Wen Oiufang and others have studied deeply in this field.Learning beliefs,which is the learners' views on English teaching and learning,determine learner's positive or negative attitude towards various foreign language teaching approaches.Whereas the central point of eclectic approach is its applying principle. Therefore,it is significant theoretically and practically to conclude the general principles of eclectic approach in the perspective of learning beliefs,and additionally modify learner's learning beliefs so that the effect of eclectic approach can be achieved better.English teaching in vocational college is different from that in others because it emphasizes the application of English knowledge to students' future profession.Thus it is quite necessary for English teaching in vocational colleges to develop both students' competence and communicative competence equally,and it is eclectic approach that could make great contribution to this purpose.It proves effective not only to apply eclectic approach in the perspective of learning beliefs,but also to reform vocational college English teaching.This thesis surveys vocational college students' learning beliefs,motivation, attitude towards foreign language teaching approaches and their correlations by means of questionnaires.134 students of Shandong Agricultural Administrators College majoring in secretary,guidance,applied Japanese and applied Korean,who had been learning English for around one year,participated in this survey.This survey is concerned with three questionnaires:learning beliefs and motivations questionnaire, which is from the questionnaire designed by Wen and BALLI designed by Horwitz; foreign language teaching approach attitude questionnaire from that of Chen Wencun. All the three questionnaires are adapted a bit according to this survey actuality.This survey intends to answer three questions regarding eclectic approach and learning beliefs,which are(1)What learning beliefs do the vocational college students hold? (2)What is the current vocational college students' attitude towards form and function-oriented foreign language teaching approaches?(3)What is the correlation between their learning beliefs,motivation and attitude? For the truth and convenience of this survey,all the questionnaires were translated into Chinese and the survey data were handled by SPSS software.The findings of this survey can be concluded as the follows:1.Vocational college students' form-focused and function-focused learning beliefs are much stronger than using-mother-tongue learning beliefs;students' function-focused learning beliefs are stronger than form-focused learning beliefs,but no significant differences are found between them.2.Students hold positive attitude towards both form-oriented and function-oriented foreign teaching approaches;students show more preference to function-oriented ones,but no significant differences are found,either.3.Among the three classifications of learning beliefs,both students' form-focused and function-focused learning beliefs correlate with their attitude towards function-oriented foreign language teaching approaches significantly;none of the three learning beliefs are found to be significantly correlated with attitude towards function-oriented foreign language teaching approaches;extrinsic and intrinsic motivation correlates significantly with form-focused learning beliefs,but neither of them were found to be correlated significantly with function-focused and using-mother-tongue learning beliefs;both of the two sorts of motivation correlate significantly with attitude towards function-oriented but insignificantly with attitude towards form-oriented foreign teaching approaches.This survey result is significant for studies on eclectic approach and learning beliefs.At first,both students' learning beliefs and motivation show great influence on their attitude towards foreign language teaching approaches,and so it proves reasonable for Horwitz to define motivation as one of the components of learning beliefs;secondly,students commonly show preference to those teaching approaches that can succeed in keeping both form and function;thirdly,the insignificant correlation of all the three sorts of learning beliefs with form-oriented foreign language teaching approaches suggests that students have absolutely accepted form-oriented foreign language teaching approaches;on the contrary,the significant correlation of all the three sorts of learning beliefs with function-oriented foreign language teaching approaches presents that modification of learning beliefs is surely beneficial for the application of eclectic approach.In accordance with the survey result,this study concludes the general principles of eclectic approach.On one hand,eclectic approach must keep both form and function equally;on the other hand,function-oriented approaches ought to be applied on the basis of form-oriented foreign language teaching approaches.Besides,this thesis sheds light on how to apply eclectic approach in the perspective of learning beliefs.It is sincerely hoped that this thesis will make some positive implications for English teaching and learning in vocational colleges so that English teaching in vocational colleges could benefit from this study to some extent.