A Case Study Of English Learners’ Interes Among Vocational School Students

The writer has been teaching English for 29 years, during which in high school for 17 years and in vocational school for 12 years, who deeply feel that vocational school students are quite different from senior school students in many aspects:selected out from junior schools, senior school students are outstanding, confident and independent in thinking, who have solid English foundation and powerful self-learning ability, actively participate in classroom activities, learn English easily, try hard to find solutions while encountering problems. However, vocational students with weak English foundation, are lack of learning interest and initiative, sleepy in class or crazy in playing mobile phones, seriously copying others’homework. Therefore, it is the urgent task of secondary vocational schools in teaching innovations and also the main problem of this research how to stimulate learners’interest among vocational school students.Humanistic psychology emphasizes students’interest, need, experience. and individual differences, so that students can experience the fun of learning. Constructivism advocates to use information technology as a learning tool to maximize learning resources and experience to improve teaching effectiveness. In this research, theoretically based on constructivism and humanistic psychology, the method of literature research, questionnaire investigation and interview are used to study how the teaching strategies impact on learners’interest among vocational students. It is a case study and the sample school is some vocational school in Fujian Province. The experimental objects are 187 non-English major vocational students of 2012. The first questionnaire results show that the majority of vocational students behave as follows:lack of confidence; negative attitude or in completely passive state in learning English; unsatisfactory English result; hard to concentrate in class; inactively answer questions; unable to finish their homework on time; spending no more than 1.5 hours on English every day; failing in the senior high school entrance examination. According to the above results, the causes of learning difficulties of vocational students contain six aspects:students, teachers, school environments, social environments, family environments and teacher-student relationships. Teaching strategies which may arouse vocational students’interest have been drawn up and implemented. On this basis, a second questionnaire and interviews of 32 objects,9 vocational English teachers and 5 automobile teachers have been carried out to test the acceptance of teaching strategies and verify the following teaching strategies: Firstly, to experience success in learn English happily. Secondly, the multimodal and experiential teaching model is helpful. Thirdly, trying to communicate effectively and build harmonious teacher-student relationship. Fourthly, to manage to associate teaching activities with students’ life, major and future jobs. Fifthly, appropriate competitions and games are useful. Sixthly, to improve teachers’ evaluation methods and students’ learning methods.The results of questionnaires and interviews show that the six teaching strategies above are effective in stimulating learners’ interest among vocational students.