苏华南
Huanan Su
苏丹依德理斯教育大学，霹雳州，马来西亚
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Perak, Malaysia
Abstract: The several decades have seen a series of educational revolution in the domain of higher education. Thus, the PAD class has emerged and developed along with the high voice of education reform and teaching reform in the domain of education in recent years in China, breaking through the traditional classroom teaching mode, acting as a knowledge transferring medium and becoming an innovative teaching mode in college students’ English learning and in college teachers’ English teaching.
Key words: theoretical analyses; the PAD class; English learning; Chinese college students
I.Application of the PAD Class in English Learning amongst Chinese College Students
The application of the PAD class in China originates from two aspects in general, including the one that refers to Chinese college students’ English learning habits and problems and the other one that includes the pretty low efficiency of English education phenomenon. Fortunately, the phenomenon of low efficiency of English teaching in Chinese colleges and universities has aroused widespread concern in academic circles of English education. In order to break through the disadvantages of the traditional classroom teaching mode with strong indoctrination, the PAD class (Zhang, 2018), as a new teaching mode proposed by Prof. Zhang of Fudan University, China, thus solves such a problem efficiently. Research scholars have begun to explore college English education from various levels. The research focus of them mainly focuses on how English teachers in colleges and universities can make innovation in the existing English teaching mode in today’s continuous development of network information technology and how to effectively use scientific technology to combine traditional classroom teaching mode with network information technology.
II.Theoretical Analyses of the PAD Class in English Learning amongst Chinese College Students
Concerning about the application of the PAD class teaching mode in college students’ English learning in China, the current paper is enlightened mainly by the following theories: the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the theory of interactionism.
(I.)Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) deriving from the theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975), aiming to predict human behaviors, adds “perceived behavioral control” as a third independent predictor of learner intention. Perceived behavioral control originates from Bandura (1986)’s self-efficacy theory. Self-efficacy belief refers to people’s judgment of their ability to perform a specific task (Bandura, 1986). Bandura proposes that self-efficacy stems from four principal sources of information, namely the Mastery Experience (ME), the Vicarious Experience (VE), the Social Persuasion (SP), and the Physiological States (PS).
Previous researches have shown that people’s confidence in their capability to engage in a behavior influences their performance of that behavior. According to Ajzen, perceived behavioral control is people’s belief of their ability to perform a behavior that may impact the behavioral performance.
In the current study, for example, if students expect that learning English through using the PAD class teaching mode is easy and effective, then they will intend to use this teaching mode more consciously so as to increase their interests and gain more confidence, this behavioral reaction to this situation will help them achieve better performances in their study, namely the college English argumentative writing achievements.
(II.)The theory of Interactionism
The theory of interactionism emphasizes the theoretical premise of human subjectivity and the empirical research orientation of individual interactions. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, development of second language acquisition (SLA) had begun to be concerned about the increasing attention on communication through interaction and social practice. Many SLA researchers and educators were moving away from the cognitive perspective to a more interactive and more sociocultural perspective. They began to believe that negotiation during interaction spurred language acquisition, and output was equally important as the input (Blumer, 1969). Vygotsky had ever proposed that each individual had a “zone of proximal development (ZPD)”, which referred to the difference between what a learner could perform with help or guidance and what a learner could not perform. He believed that learning took place through social interaction. Later on, an application of interactionism theory for language learning began to be used.
Specifically, in Chinese college English learning class based on the PAD class teaching mode, college students are required to participate in the group discussion once a week and complete two periods of cooperative learning and critical thinking through interactions with group members and teachers. Actually, college students can communicate and share information quite freely and flexibly, this is mainly due to their independent and autonomous leaning during the stagger time between the first and the second class, in which they use accessible technologies like social media, social network and computer software, etc. to absorb any information and knowledge and to provide authentic output in the third session.
The above theoretical considerations into which this paper turns helps to understand such an investigation of the relationships and interactions among the application of the PAD class teaching mode into college students’ autonomous learning of their overall English proficiencies and achievements.
References:
[1]Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. California: University of California Press.
[2]Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An Introduction to Theory and Research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
[3]Zhang, X. (2018). The PAD class: The New Wisdom of Chinese Education in the Classroom. Beijing: Science Press.
作者简介：
苏华南（1987—），男，汉族，广东省揭阳人；讲师；硕士；研究方向：英语教学法。
About the Author:
Huanan Su, male, born in 1987, is a university lecturer in China; he is also a doctoral student in the Faculty of Languages and Communication at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia. Su is from Jieyang city of Guangdong province. As a university lecturer, his interest is Teaching of English as a Second/Foreign Language (TESL/TEFL).