An Empirical Research Of Micro Mobile Collaborative Learning In College English Vocabulary Teaching

The exponential development in mobile devices and network information technologies have transformed the way people communicate,socialize and learn.Meanwhile more formal and informal learning opportunities are leveraged.Due to the restrictions of class time and interactive activities in traditional college English classes,vocabulary cannot be learned efficiently and becomes an obstacle to English advancement.College English Curriculum Requirements points that the new teaching modality should be built on modern information technologies so that English teaching and learning will be,to a certain extent,free from the constraints of time and place and be more individualized and autonomous.Firstly,the research elaborates the origin,concept and characteristics of micro mobile learning,and then innovates a new learning modality to perfect the current mobile learning,that is,the Micro Mobile Collaborative Learning.The innovative exploration is based on the abundant theoretical support including constructive theory,blended learning theory,multiple intelligence theory and related theoretical perspectives from cognitive psychology.More importantly,the corresponding empirical research regarding this learning modality applied in college vocabulary teaching is conducted to explore the potentialities of the learning modality in vocabulary acquisition outside the classroom.In order to identify the efficacy and feasibility of the new vocabulary learning modality and learners' perspectives to the new modality,the empirical research was conducted in sophomores of College of Material Science and Engineering and College of Science in Yanshan University.The participants were divided into two groups that include the control group who learned new words in regular paper-based independent learning after class and the experimental group who conducted the micro mobile collaborative vocabulary learning outside classroom.The instruments used in the research were a background questionnaire,three pretests and three corresponding posttests in three-month research,perspective questionnaire,and interview.All the results and data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively later.The research verified that there was significant difference in vocabulary test achievements between the two groups in three different research periods.The participants in new learning modality performed better in vocabulary recognition and recall tests than the counterparts of the traditional learning group.In addition,the majority of participants possessed positive viewpoints and comments on the new learning modality.Meanwhile,the thesis explored the changes in the roles and work situations of students and instructor in micro mobile collaborative vocabulary learning.Finally,some problems and limitations to be addressed were put forward and potential related researches were presented.