Study Of The Effects Of Inquiry-Based Learning On Non-English Majors’ English Reading Scores And Self-Confidence

Inquiry-based learning was first put forward by Schwab in the 1960s,and it was introduced in China since 1983 by the American professor Lan Benda(Zhao 2017).And the College English Teaching Guide put forward,to further deepen college English teaching reform and promote the quality of education,in teaching methods,teachers could involve inquiry-based learning in college English class teaching,which could take the educational notion into full play that teachers were in a dominant place and students in a subjective position.In addition,for non-English majors,passing College English Test Band 4 test was a must for them to get the bachelor degree,even to find a decent job.And the part of reading comprehension took up 35%of the total score of the College English Test Band 4 test,which also supported that English reading was far too important.While,when it came to the status quo of inquiry-based learning,it was not very positive,as studies showed that students were not willing to express themselves and to participate in class teaching activities for lack of confidence.Thus,the researcher conducted a research on the effects of inquiry-based learning on non-English majors’English reading scores and their self-confidence,in the hope of providing more empirical data in study of inquiry-based learning in China.In this research,researcher utilized mixed methods,including experiment,tests,and semi-structured interview.The research subjects were 88 freshmen from Shaanxi Normal University,constituting the control class and the experimental class.In the control class,there were 43 students,majoring Physics,and in the experimental class 45 students,specializing in Geographical Science.And the experiment lasted from August to December 2018.During the experiment,in the experimental class,students were taught in inquiry-based learning method,while in the control class,the teacher still adopted the traditional approach.Before and after the experiment,all the students were asked to complete two reading tests and to fill out the Self-Confidence Scale for College Students.In addition,following with the experiment,the researcher selected 15 students from the experimental class and conducted the interview.In quantitative research part,researcher utilized independent sample T-test and paired sample T-test with SPSS 21.0.And in qualitative research part,researcher selected NVivo 10 to transcribe and analyze the data collected from the interview.At the end,researcher got the following research findings.Firstly,inquiry-based learning method promoted students’ English reading comprehension.According to the interview,students suggested that their improvement was the result of increase in the ability of exploration,reading comprehension and thinking for oneself.Secondly,inquiry-based learning method enhanced students’ self-confidence.In accordance with interview,it could be found that encouragement from teacher and classmates,sense of achievement,and self-improvement were responsible for their improvement in self-confidence in inquiry-based learning.Thirdly,as for the introduction of inquiry-based learning in college English reading teaching,students thought there were these problems:class hour arrangement,interests of the topics;monotonous form of activities,and teachers’ assistance.And students also put forward corresponding suggestions to solve these problems in the interview.