On The Application Of Research-Oriented Learning In English Teaching

The English Curriculum Standards lays emphasis on the change of students' learning style and their involvement, thinking independently and cooperation with others. As one of key components in the curriculum of comprehensive-practice activity in senior middle schools, Research-Oriented Learning (ROL) has been regarded as a required subject. It covers 15 points in the new senior high syllabus issued by Ministry of Education in 2003. ROL becomes quite popular now, but lacks practical and available experience. This paper aims to provide professional teachers with a practical way.ROL is an activity where students acquire knowledge, use knowledge and solve problems through subject research chosen from nature, society and life under the direction of the teachers. It has some profound theory basis, including Bruner's "cognition-discovery", Maslow's theory of motivation, Rogers' self-actualization and humanistic psychology, and such features as openness, inquiry and practice, etc. ROL can be divided into two types—topic research and activity design on one hand and into three types—cooperative group researches, individual research and combination of individual research with the whole class on the other hand. Study shows that ROL is beneficial to cultivate students' creative thinking and personality; it helps them study and probe initiatively and freely, improve their subject consciousness, arouse their enthusiasm, and build up a friendly teacher-student relationship. In ROL, teachers are required to play roles like creator-innovator, leader-manager, cultivator-mentor and facilitator-counselor, and pay much attention to topic choosing, group size, grouping time, group leader, task assignment, students' feedback, interaction skills, and process monitoring.This research is not definitive and absolute, but is only a paradigm. The author tries to encourage professional teachers to adapt these methods and procedures to best suit their specific needs. The author believes that this paper will aid in-and-pre-service teachers to understand ROL and to implement it in English language teaching.