CALL in Intensive Reading of College English

May 2005, Volume 2, No.5 (Serial No.17) Sino-US English Teaching, ISSN1539-8072,USA


CALL in Intensive Reading of College English
Daqing Wang* Chunliang Zhang** Northeastern University


Abstract: Nowadays many universities in China are facing the same problems in College English teaching: large classes, students of different levels, limited periods, and lack of teachers, etc. CALL can help to solve these problems. This paper takes Northeastern University’s method to illustrate the ways CALL can be used in college intensive reading as well as its theoretical basis, procedures, its advantages and disadvantages, and finally offers some suggestions.
Key words: CALL procedure advantages disadvantages

I. Introduction
Now there is a much larger college enrolment, and China’s College English teaching is facing many problems. Large classes make it difficult for the students to learn English in class. What is more, students’English levels are quite different and this makes it difficult for the teachers to meet the needs of students. The third problem is the large teaching in limited class hours. Teachers have to deal with new words, grammar, reading, listening and so on. So, in class teachers have to be the main speaker, taking up nearly all the time to give the lecture, while students become passive listeners. There are few chances to develop students’ speaking ability.
As a result, the Intensive Reading of College English usually takes up a lot of time, but gets unsatisfactory teaching results. Students realize its importance very well, for it has many credits and if they fail the Band 4 examination, they won’t get their degree. They want to learn but the dull teaching methods cannot arouse their interest. The teachers also complain about it. They can see the students’ disappointment and needs, and try their best to improve their teaching methods to make their teaching attractive. But facing the problems of so much teaching content, large classes, students of quite different levels and limited time, they cannot satisfy all students. Furthermore, the requirements of modern teaching also challenge the traditional one. Therefore, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is the best way to solve the problems mentioned above. It can also bring more benefits for both students and teachers.

II. Theoretical Bases
According to the theory of Constructivism, knowledge is not taught but learnt by the learner himself through constructing new knowledge on the basis of old knowledge, under a certain setting, with the help of others, such as teachers or study partners, utilizing certain study resources. So the student should be the center of teaching and “student-centered methodology” should be used. That is to say, the student is the center of teaching and teacher works as organizer, facilitator and motivator, utilizing setting, cooperation and dialogue to motivate the students’

III. The Procedure of CALL in Intensive Reading
In Northeastern University, there are only about 40 teachers responsible for teaching nearly 5000 students. So the teachers have to give ten class hours a week, each with a large class of more than 45 students. CALL is used in Intensive Reading classes to carry out some teaching reforms.
First, teachers change classroom teaching only into computer-room self-study and classroom teaching, with two hours in the computer room and four hours in the classroom. Students have to spend two hours in computer room study. They use computer to preview the text, including reading the text, learning new words and expressions, becoming familiar with cultural backgrounds, understanding the text, practicing reading the text, learning grammar and doing exercises with the help of computers and multimedia software.
Second, teachers incorporate new material into teaching, not only the textbook, but also multimedia software. They choose New Horizon College English and its multimedia software. During the computer room study hour, students do their self-study. In class, teachers organize students to discuss the difficult points of the textbook and practice their oral and written English by doing some interesting activities.
If we use traditional teaching methods, in six hours, we can deal with only a small part of the teaching content. It is hard to finish all the teaching tasks, let alone practicing spoken English. But with CALL, we can do it better.
Teaching Procedures
1) Before class, students are required to preview the text by watching the multimedia presentation by themselves. So, before class, students can learn the text, using a multimedia computer and text-based multimedia software.
2) In class, teachers can help students produce output through various teaching activities, such as discussion, pair work, group work, role-play, debate, and presentation; in order to help them grasp the knowledge and use the knowledge they have learnt.
3) After class, teachers should arrange more assignments for students to research on the Intensive Reading class. For example, students can do some research work in order to write a paper about the writer or comment. It will also expand and cultivate students’ ability to express their ideas and glean more materials for future work. It will develop the ability of transferring knowledge into practical skills.
From this, we can see that in the class of CALL the students prepare the lessons very well with the help of text-based multimedia software, so in class teachers can be organizers and the students can grasp the knowledge through practice; they have more chances to practice their spoken English.

IV. Advantages of CALL
CALL can provide students with a chance to learn by themselves. With the help of CALL, students can control their study and can adjust their study speed, focus and pace. With the things they are uncertain of, they can spend more time on it to bridge the information gap, but with the things they are certain of, they can skip them. So CALL can help to get rid of boredom, make students access the knowledge they want to learn, actively analyze and understand what they have learnt.
CALL can make study interesting, changing the situation of having to learn into that of willing to learn. CALL combines sounds, pictures, texts together and it offers a vivid, direct study environment. It has different kinds of forms, exercises, and activities.
It can arouse students’ interest. It can facilitate study and make it more efficient. Well-designed software can provide students with a lot of useful information, such as word study, useful expressions, language structures, sentences explanations, cultural
background, organization of the text, Chinese translation of the text and exercises. Just click the mouse and
students can get this information easily and efficiently, saving a lot of time otherwise used in consulting
dictionaries and reference books.
The most important thing is that it can help students learn better and teachers teach better with self-study before class. With good preparation, teachers need not spend a lot of time on words and phrases learning, background information introduction and exercise checking. Teachers can do more important things in class: to design some activities to see whether students have really grasped the knowledge they should learn, to explain difficult parts, to practice spoken English by giving them some topics to discuss or by doing other things, such as debate and role-play. In this way, students can really grasp and use the language, because the final goal of language teaching is to use it freely.

V. Disadvantages of CALL
CALL also has some disadvantages.
Long hours of watching software is harmful to the eyes, and it is easy for students to become tired after long periods of watching and sitting.
In the face of so much information, some students may feel lost and don’t know what to choose, and may waste some time at first.
CALL lacks the warm atmosphere of classroom teaching. Students have to look at the computer and they have no chances to communicate with teachers and other students face to face. So when they have some special questions, they cannot get a satisfactory answer at once.
Some students can’t control themselves very well. They may indulge in playing computer gamesor chatting with others online or do some other things while they are supposed to be studying.

VI. Suggestions
Students should receive some basic training on how to use a computer first and this will save a lot of time and trouble.
Teachers should give some introductions and suggestions on how to use software and give them some advice on what they should do when they do self-study via computer.
Teachers should take some measures to monitor student’s attendance at self-study on the computer and be sure they don’t do some other things on the computer such as playing computer games or chatting on line.
Students shouldn’t spend too much time on the computer each time because it would be harmful to their eyes and it would also be less efficient.

VII. Conclusion
While students are watching multimedia software, they learn the new words and expressions, read the text, try to understand it and review grammar. They get ample input and develop their reading and listening abilities. In classroom teaching, teachers especially help to improve their speaking and writing abilities apart from reading and listening abilities through teaching activities. Teachers can also help students solve the problems they have while watching multimedia software.
According to the teaching in Northeastern University, CALL reduces the classroom teaching time and students can learn better. At the same time, students feel the multimedia teaching software is interesting and helpful in their self-study. CALL provides our college English teachers a new way of teaching in Intensive Reading of college English. We need to have more experiences in CALL, which is practical and helpful under new college English teaching situation.

References:
Brett, p. Integrating Multimedia into the Business English Curriculum: A Case Study. English for Special Purposes. 2000.
Jigang Cai. Research of the Feasibility of Teaching Intensive Reading via Multimedia System. Foreign Language World. 2000.
Jiwan Liu. Current Situations in Foreign Language Teaching and Multimedia Technology. Foreign Language and Foreign
Language Teaching. 1999.
Mingdong Liu. Computer Assisted Instruction and Its Application in English Learning. Teaching English in China. 1998.
Xiaozhen Wu. Teacher’s Role in CALL. Papers on 21st Century College English Teaching. Fudan University Press. 2001.
(Edited by: Zhimin Jiang, Hua Zhou, Yanhong Zuo)