A Study Of Teaching Model Reform On Comprehensive English

With the integration of social sciences and natural sciences, the21stcentury calls for thewell-qualified English major talents. English Major Teaching Syllabus of Higher Learningissued by the Ministry of Education（2000）stresses the five essential requirements on theEnglish major students of the21stcentury: solid lingual competence, broad range of knowledge,rich professional knowledge, high capability and all-round quality. Comprehensive English,featuring integrated lingual skills of the English major in the first two years, functions as one ofthe core courses of English major curriculum of higher learning. Cultivation of high-qualifiedEnglish talents requires the transformation of English teaching concept, enhancement ofteaching quality as well as the implementation of highly-effective teaching models.The concept and theory of teaching model came into being in the1950s. Over decades ofthe development of English teaching at home, various teaching models have been employed,among which the traditional “Grammar-Translation” teaching model has been most widelyadopted. Due to the restrictions of the traditional “Grammar-Translation” teaching model,currently the Comprehensive English course could hardly see the great enhancement of theoverall English language quality and practical competence of the English major students.Therefore, it is crucial to reform the traditional teaching model employed in ComprehensiveEnglish to cultivate the high-qualified English talents.John Dewey (1859-1952), a famous American philosopher, educator and a leadingrepresentative of American Progressive education movement, proposes the essence of educationideas—education is life; education is growth; education is experience. He believes that the dutyof school is to promote students’ thinking intelligence. He also upholds “learning by doing” andthe “students-centered” teaching model. His masterpiece Democracy and Education mainlyreflects his major Pragmatic education ideas. Moreover, his Pragmatic education philosophyleaves a far-reaching impact on the world education as well as the reforms of Chinese moderneducation.Based on the essential theories of John Dewey’s pragmatic ideas, this study proposes andexplores and the “3-Dimentional”(3-D) teaching model in Comprehensive English course and seeks to develop the English basic skills, innovative thinking intelligence and overall practicalcompetence of English major students in the newly-established colleges.This research adopts the tests on students’ English basic skills proficiency and speakingproficiency respectively as well as the interview as the major instruments. It analyzes thestatistics in the SPSS of the tests via of Independent-sample test and Paired-sample test. Theresults show that in spite of some problems in the implementation of the3-D teaching model inComprehensive English class, the3-D English teaching model has a positive impact on theenhancement of students’ overall competence. Besides, it should be noted that the advantage oftraditional teaching model cannot be overlooked.The3-D teaching model has gained favorable recognition among the students from thenewly-established college in the local area. Despite the limitations, this study seeks to offerrealistic suggestions to the departments and colleges concerned for further English teachinginnovation and reform in the long run.