The Application Of Micro-lectures In Secondary Vocational School English Teaching

With the rapid development of information technology and the Internet plus in the 21 st century, our social life has changed greatly. We have been entering into a completely new micro-era that influences everyone in many ways. Knowledge is being spread more quickly than ever before with striking force. More and more people are getting used to micro-learning in the new micro-era, therefore, Micro-lecture, as an informal moving learning resource, playing a good assistant for learners, has been emerged as the times require and been developing prosperously. In the process of curriculum reform, English as a compulsory course plays a more and more important role in secondary vocational school. The curriculum reform advocates to combine the information technology and English teaching effectively with a view to improving students’ interest in learning English and their self-learning and co-operative learning abilities. It concentrates on cultivating students’ overall language ability including listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities and helping students to gain the ability of using English. However, some problems existing in the present English teaching fail to achieve the goals.Micro-lecture, as a new teaching mode has been popular all over the world. It has been developing gradually in the English teaching in secondary vocational school recently. Micro-lecture and Flipped Classroom are being adopted in the author’s school. The thesis discusses these three questions—why Micro-lectures should be used and how to use Micro-lectures in secondary vocational school English teaching; the effectiveness of the application of Micro-lectures in secondary vocational school English teaching. Micro-lectures can better arouse students’ interest in English, enhance students’ self-learning, co-operative learning abilities, and improve the students’ marks in English. Micro-lecture enriches the teaching modes in secondary vocational school and improves the classroom teaching efficiency. The teachers can gain more theoretical knowledge through constantly studying and using Micro-lectures, and therefore, their professional ability can be promoted quickly.The thesis begins with a literature review of Micro-lectures at home and abroad, then introduces the definition and the characteristics of Micro-lectures. Micro-lecture bases on the Constructivism Theory, Mastery Learning Theory and Audiovisual Education Theory. Two classes, the experimental class and the controlled class participated in the experiment. By the literature review, the questionnaire, the classroom observation, the interview, the pre-test and post-test, the data are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The thesis describes the Micro-lecture experiment thoroughly and discusses the design principles, the teaching strategies and the steps of designing the Micro-lecture. Combined with the author’s and other teachers’ teaching practice, the thesis provides a teaching case of the Micro-lecture, and summarizes the matters that should be paid attention to during the design process. The research proves that the application of Micro-lectures in the English learning has been accepted by most students. It can arouse students’ interest in English, enhance students’ self-learning, co-operative learning abilities, and improve the students’ marks in English. In the end, the thesis presents the major findings of the study—the advantages and limitations of the application of Micro-lectures. Some constructive suggestions are provided for the further study of Micro-lectures. Hopefully, this thesis can make some contributions to the English teaching in secondary vocational school and to the English curriculum reform as well.