The Research On Cognitive Characteristics Of Art College Students’ English Learning In Classroom Environment

The research on classroom learning environment has become one of the most important educational research fields in recent three decades. Students’ cognition of classroom learning is closely relevant to their learning achievements. In spite of the fact that attention has been paid to the research on college students’ cognition of English learning, few studies on the art college students’ cognitive characteristics of classroom English learning environment have been done till now. They are the special group in colleges and universities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the cognitive characteristics of the art college students’ English learning in classroom environment, analyze the existing problems and propose some suggestions for creating an enjoyable, harmonious and effective English classroom learning environment for art college students.Questionnaire, class observation and interview are applied to explore the art college students’ cognitive characteristics of English learning in classroom environment from the dimensions, such as teacher, course, interaction, learner and resources. The research focuses on three questions: the overall cognitive characteristics of art college students’ English learning in classroom environment; the cognitive differences in English learning between the male and the female art college students in classroom environment; the cognitive differences in English learning between high-achievement and low-achievement art college students in classroom environment. 124 art college freshmen and 8 of them(4 male and 4 female), who major in Education of Music and Education of Fine Arts in Hebei Normal University for Nationalities, are selected as the questionnaire, class observation and interview subjects randomly and respectively. To ensure the research reliability, the whole research process is conducted by an organizer arranged by the author. The data collected are analyzed by SPSS V17.0, which includes reliability, descriptive statistics and Independent-sample T-test analysis.The results from the data analyses indicates that:(1) The art college students have relatively high and positive cognition of their English learning in classroom environment the whole, especially in terms of the importance of English teacher and course learning. But, interaction and self-performance are perceived as two less satisfactory factors.(2) There are no obvious cognitive differences in English learning between male and female art college students. But, to some extent, female students have more positive cognition of the dimensions of teacher, course, learner and resources than male students.(3) The high-achievement students have more positive cognition of English learning than low-achievement students in all five dimensions.(4) Most students expect more classroom interactions and low-achievement students expect to be paid more attention in English classroom learning environment.On the basis of the research results above, to increase art college students’ cognition of English learning in classroom environment, teachers need to adopt new teaching strategies, enhance their personal charm,enthusiasm and creativity, create dynamic and enjoyable classroom atmosphere, encourage students to get involved in classroom activities. Student-teacher interaction can be realized by means of activity participation, oral presentation and different assignments. Teachers also need to pay more attention to low-achievement students. At last, gender difference, the variety of the teaching and learning resources, students’ self-efficacy should arouse teachers’ attention as well.The limitations of the present study and suggestions for further research are proposed at the end of the paper.