An Empirical Study On Flipped Classroom In College English Listening Supported By Cloud Class APP

Listening as one of the most important language macro-skills is considered as crucial to acquire a second language effectively.However,listening is probably the least explicit of the language skills,making it difficult to learn,which throw down great challenges to listening instruction.Given the rapid development of emerging digital technologies,multimedia,internet,digital curricular resources have been applied to listening courses.However,learning through computer nowadays in an online environment anytime anywhere is not yet widely popular and convenient,which may not contribute to seamless engagement between instructors and learners during and after class,especially the courses which treated computer-assisted language learning as extracurricular activities.Therefore,the outcome is not effective as expected.Fortunately,with the penetration of mobile technologies and mobile devices,mobile learning has become more widely popular viable option for many students.Furthermore,a growing body of research on the new method for flipped classroom instruction has demonstrated so many advantages.Mobile APP is currently one of the most popular applications which can provide a powerful support for flipped classroom in college English listening.Thus the integration of mobile learning and flipped classroom instruction in English listening course can bring new inspiration and stimulation to listening instructors,vigor and vitality to listening instruction.However,research on the integration of mobile learning and flipped classroom is still in initial stage.The empirical research on flipped classroom in college English listening supported by Cloud Class APP contains the following three stages:Firstly,the present study constructs the flipped classroom model in college English listening supported by Cloud Class APP,within the pedagogical model for second language listening proposed by Flowerdew and Miller(2005)at its heart,combined with the characteristics of mobile learning,under the direction of the sociocultural theory(SCT)in SLA,the cognitive theory of multimedia learning,situated learning and the transactional distance theory.Secondly,guided by the constructed flipped classroom model,the author carried out a teaching session on “listen this way 1” class.The results of this study demonstrate that the flipped classroom in college English listening supported by Cloud Class APP can effectively improve the students’ listening proficiency,foster students’ autonomy,activate students’ motivation and enhance interaction.Last but not the least,this thesis summarized advantages and limitations of the model,and provided suggestions on how to implement a flipped classroom in college English listening under mobile learning environment.