Study on Application of Flipped Class Teaching Model in College English Teaching

Abstract

With the soaring development of science and technology, the traditional educational idea and educational mode have been unable to meet the actual teaching demands. As an open teaching resource, the flipped class teaching model has overturned the traditional college English teaching model, helpful to train students’ interests in learning English and autonomous learning ability. This paper analyzes the characteristics of the flipped class teaching model and its necessity in the college English teaching and provides effective countermeasures for the problems in applying the flipped class teaching model to the college English teaching, in order to lay a solid foundation in improving the efficiency of college English teaching.

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Liu, G. (2017) Study on Application of Flipped Class Teaching Model in College English Teaching. Creative Education, 8, 170-176. doi: 10.4236/ce.2017.81014.

1. Introduction

The society has higher requirements for education because of the rapid development of social economy and the ceaseless improvement of science and technology. It is necessary to effectively apply the advanced industrial technology and teaching technique in the innovation education, in order to effectively promote the educational reform, continuously improve the actual education quality and gradually transform the traditional teaching model and build the quality education model (Huang, 2016) . With the development of economic globalization, English has become a key standard to judge whether the person is a talent. The society has increasingly high requirements for the talents’ English level. At present, although the proportion of English assessment in the college entrance examination reduces ceaselessly, the society doesn’t lower the requirements for talents’ English level. As a basic course of the higher education, the college English plays a distinctly important role in improving students’ English level and overall ability at the same time helps to broaden students’ horizon. Although universities pay attention to the English reform and innovation, the English teaching effect is not so ideal. Currently, the English teaching in universities still insists the traditional teaching model, which impeding the educational reform and innovation, resulting in poor teaching effects. As a new type classroom teaching model, the flipped class first appears in America and has received extensive recognition and attention. However, the flipped class in our country is still at the initial state and needs continuous exploration. This paper analyzes the characteristics of the flipped class teaching model, then describes its necessity in the college English teaching, and provides effective countermeasures for the problems in applying the flipped class teaching model to the college English teaching.

2. Characteristics of the Flipped Class Teaching Model

2.1. The Teaching Model Changes

In the traditional classroom teaching, teachers only teach in class and students review what they have learned. The flipped class teaching model changes the teaching model. Students review the knowledge in class and learn new knowledge after class. In the classroom learning, teachers can guide and encourage students to finish the class exercises and help them to find out the problems in the exercise and understand the knowledge points. Students can study independently through network learning platforms without the limitation of time and space after class. Teachers can supervise and urge students to timely record problems in learning the new courses and discuss it, to improve the effectiveness of classroom teaching (Ji, 2014) .

2.2. Students’ Status Changes

In the flipped class teaching, students study independently before class, choose the learning contents, learning time and learning strength as well as the learning style according to their own actual situations, which can effectively ease students’ learning stress, so that they can find more proper learning methods. Students can login the network platform through the account number. The effective interactions between teachers and students as well as students and students are encouraged to urge students to effectively grasp the English knowledge and train their sense of ownership.

2.3. The Teaching Time Changes

In the flipped class teaching, students have more time for autonomous learning practice. The time for teachers to teaching in class has been shortened gradually. In this way, students can allocate learning time according to their own actual situations. Effective communication between teachers and students as well as students and students will be promoted to help students to effectively grasp knowledge points and improve the teaching quality of college English.

3. Necessity of the Flipped Class Teaching Model in the College English Teaching

3.1. The Flipped Class Teaching Model Helps to Stimulate Students’ Interests in Learning English

In the traditional English teaching, teachers often remain as the principal part, in charge of the teaching progress and learning progress. The one-way teaching method has ignored students’ individual difference and demands. Students lose the interests in learning because of the boring classroom teaching atmosphere. In the flipped class teaching model, the status of students and teachers has greatly changed. Teachers need to respect students’ learning ability and individual difference, the dominant position and provide systematic and targeted instruction to help students to study independently and solve problems effectively. The effective communication between teachers and students as well as students and students can be carried out to stimulate students’ interests in learning English and improve their ability in applying English (Li, 2016) .

3.2. The Flipped Class Teaching Model Helps to Train Students’ Ability in Autonomous Learning

In the teaching process of college English, teachers have ignored students’ individual difference. In the traditional “duck-stuffing” type of teaching, teachers spend a lot of time and energy in teaching English texts. In fact, many students have prepared lessons before class and initially grasped and understood the contents. If teachers only give instructions on the text, students’ learning initiative will be influenced and they even will lose the autonomous learning ability. The flipped class teaching model enables students to use the network platform to learn English knowledge, so that it can shorten the teaching time, students can properly adjust the learning progress, effectively grasp the knowledge and timely record problems in learning and the effectiveness of classroom teaching of college English will be improved. The flipped class teaching model promotes students to study independently, stimulate students’ learning interest and trains their autonomous learning ability, contributing to students’ overall development.

4. Problems of Applying the Flipped Class Teaching Model in the College English Teaching

4.1. The Deep-Rooted Influence of the Traditional English Teaching Idea

The ideology will guide the concrete behaviors. Similarly, the educational idea will directly influence the teaching behaviors. Under the influence of the big educational environment, college English teachers still adhere to the traditional educational idea and ways. The one-way spoon-feeding teaching makes students in the passive position in the classroom learning. Students have the sense of restriction and compression in English learning, resulting in the poor teaching effects. Many teachers are indifferent to the flipped class teaching model in college English teaching, which directly influence their teaching behaviors. The comprehensive quality of college English teachers cannot meet the requirements of flipped class teaching, so their teaching tasks increase. In the independent study, students’ scope of knowledge expands and the thinking deepens, having very high requirements for teachers’ knowledge reserve. Teachers need to enrich theoretical knowledge and improve the overall quality continuously to effectively meet the demands of students’ individual difference. Therefore, teachers should spend a lot of time and energy in the teaching tasks. At present, the application of flipped class teaching model in the college English teaching is at an early stage with very narrow extension coverage. Besides, the deep-rooted influence of traditional English teaching idea makes students unable to accept the flipped class teaching model at short notice. It greatly influences the promotion and implementation of the flipped class teaching (Lu, 2014) .

4.2. The Modern Information Technology Cannot Meet the Requirements of Actual Teaching

The multi-media hardware equipment and software technology play an important role in the implementation of flipped class teaching model. Greatly different from the traditional college English teaching, the flipped class teaching mainly uses the network learning platform to promote students’ independent study. Students need to use the internet to acquire resources of English learning in the flipped class learning. Some students don’t have mobile devices like computer or iPad because of the regulations of school or the limitation of personal economic conditions. It is also a high consumption behavior to learn online in public places. The flipped class teaching cannot be carried out because students’ requirements in learning English cannot be met. Furthermore, the running speed of internet impedes the flipped class teaching because the quality of English teaching videos is not good (Peng, 2013) . The defects in software and hardware make the flipped class teaching model fail to meet the actual demands of teachers and students, unhelpful to train students’ autonomous learning ability. Therefore, it impedes the promotion of flipped class teaching model in college English teaching.

4.3. The Particularity of English Teaching Impedes the Promotion of Flipped Class Teaching Model

In the flipped class teaching, students need to download the learning videos and watch the teaching videos after class, preview the new knowledge and grasp the related contents, effectively understand the teaching contents. However, because the English teaching is a special language course, teachers need to effectively communicate with students to let them understand the English language. The flipped class teaching model makes it more difficult for students’ independent study. In western countries, the flipped class teaching model is mainly applied to the teaching of science and engineering courses, so that the knowledge points will be showed clearly on the videos. Compared with the science and engineering, the liberal arts need the bilateral interaction between teachers and students to achieve better teaching effects. As a language subject, English has contained the differentiated teaching of grammar, expression and regional culture, so great challenges exist in applying the flipped class teaching model in the college English teaching.

5. Countermeasures to Apply the Flipped Class Teaching to the College English Teaching

5.1. Design Micro Videos Scientifically

The flipped class teaching model helps students to learn English, but teachers should properly use it in actual teaching, choosing small videos, so as to achieve better teaching effects. According to the researches, students can only concentrate on the video for about ten minutes at most. English teachers should shorten the teaching video and control it within 15 minutes. Meanwhile, they should also ensure the integrity of the knowledge structure. It can be divided into several videos if there are more teaching contents. In the selection of knowledge points, the number of knowledge points in each video should not exceed three. The independence and explanation of the video should be taken into consideration to achieve the anticipated teaching effects. For example, in the college English teaching, This is how we never met is a classical micro video about love. Teachers can play the micro video to attract students’ attention in learning, arouse their learning initiative and promote students to learn language knowledge, like the inverted sentence and English vocabulary. The teaching effects will be better.

5.2. Change the Traditional Teaching Idea

To apply the flipped class teaching model to the college English teaching, college English teachers need to clearly knowledge the responsibilities on their shoulder, transform the traditional educational idea and respect students’ dominant position in the classroom learning. Moreover, college English teachers should set examples, build harmonious and equal relationship between teachers and students, play the role of guidance and supervision in the classroom teaching and encourage students to study independently, letting them realize the necessity of the flipped class teaching model in the college English teaching. Teachers should pay attention to students’ individual difference, fully exert their internal potential and special individuality and then effective promote the overall development of students. Furthermore, college English teachers should continuously improve the teaching ability and comprehensive quality as well as guide students to learn effectively. Meanwhile, teachers should have the consciousness of lifelong learning. Universities can train teachers regularly, so as to improve their comprehensive quality in the knowledge structure, professional literacy and teaching level, and then build the distinctive new model of flipped class teaching (Song, 2015) .

5.3. Properly Add Annotations

Teachers can add annotations or explain timely in college English teaching through videos, so that students can better grasp and understand the English knowledge, and their listening ability will be improved. When explaining the slang or difficult words and sentences, teachers can add annotations according to the actual situations of students to supplement for students’ preparation before class. Meanwhile, teachers need to remind students to record and supplement the knowledge points, so as to improve their autonomous learning ability. The annotations for knowledge points can make students better understand the English contents, helping to improve the English teaching efficiency. Besides, teachers should emphasize the key and difficult teaching points. For example, in teaching “As”, teachers can explain “as” with notes through concrete cases to promote students to grasp the knowledge points (Wang, 2015) .

6. Conclusion

The rapid development of information technology has promoted the application of flipped class teaching model in college English teaching. As an open teaching resource, the flipped class teaching model has overturned the traditional classroom teaching. Students can study independently through taking advantage of the teaching videos and teaching courseware after class. In the classroom teaching, teachers can realize the knowledge internalization through the effective interaction between teachers and students as well as students and students. The flipped class teaching model helps to train students’ consciousness of independent study and learning interests. The teachers need to set micro course resources at different levels in accordance with the teaching contents, build more sound information feedback system and information evaluation system, stimulate students’ learning enthusiasm and autonomous learning ability to improve the effectiveness of college English teaching. The flipped class has overturned the traditional deep-rooted teaching thoughts and greatly challenged the college English teaching. It requires college English teachers to clearly know the important responsibility of them in classroom teaching, explore and practice continuously and fully exert students’ subjective initiative in the classroom learning, promoting students’ overall development.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

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