A Study Of English Pronunciation Instruction For Non-English Majors Based On Flipped Classroom Mode

As one of the three factors in language,pronunciation exerts a vital role in English learning.However,restricted by academic hour and credit,many universities in our country do not offer phonetic lessons for non-English majors,which leads to their deficiency of systematic pronunciation and intonation instruction.This current instructional situation fails to meet the demand for phonetic learning of our country,society,universities,and learners themselves.In 2012,MOOCs emerged in the world.And the year 2013 was called the first year of Chinese MOOCs.The advent of MOOCs provides non-English majors an opportunity to improve their pronunciation.However,only through learning MOOCs by themselves to improve their pronunciation is not enough.Teachers had better provide some guidance for students,and spare some time to carry out a flipped class for them to improve their pronunciation and intonation.Relying on English phonetic MOOCs,this constructivism-based and CF-supplemented flipped classroom instructional mode was carried out for 25 non-English major freshers in one university in Chongqing.Through an empirical study,the researcher explored the following two research questions:(1)Can the college English pronunciation instruction based on flipped classroom mode effectively enhance participants' pronunciation and intonation?2)What are the participants' views of this pronunciation instruction?This was a 12-week-long instructional experiment.Each week,the researcher spent about 15 minutes in the participants' integrated English course offering them pronunciation instruction.Before and after the experiment,the participants' pronunciation proficiency was tested and scored.By utilizing SPSS 19.0,their changes in test scores were analyzed.After the experiment,the participants were required to fill out a questionnaire,and 5 of them were interviewed.In this way,their views of the pronunciation instruction were investigated.In accordance with the data in pre-test and post-test,the instructor's observation,and results of questionnaires and the interview,the research proved that:(1)The English phonetic instruction based on flipped classroom mode improved participants' pronunciation and intonation.It enhanced students' segmental knowledge and suprasegmental knowledge.(2)The participants showed positive views towards this pronunciation instruction.In addition to improving the participants' pronunciation,the teaching mode fostered students' autonomous learning abilities,cooperative learning abilities and so on.The research was a trial for applying flipped classroom mode to non-English majors' English phonetic instruction.By studying the feasibility of this new teaching mode,the research promoted the development of non-English majors' pronunciation instruction.It provided a practical way to improve non-English majors' pronunciation and intonation,and offered some reference for promoting college students' English comprehensive abilities.