A study of communicative approach in the perspective of teaching ontology

This paper approaches the Communicative Approach （CA） from ontological perspective by making structural and functional analyses with consideration of influential variables in the communicative language teaching. In terms of entitative dimension, the basic components of the CA are communicative subjects, context and situation, content, and mode. From the functional perspective, the CA helps to improve the learners＇ ability to communicate in the target language, the dual construction of the learners and the target culture, and the mutual development of the teacher and the learners.

Encouraging Active Viewing, Rather Than Passive Watching in the Audio-visual English Class

The present article deals with the effective use of film clips in the classroom to encourage active viewing. It argues that viewing material and activities should meet the needs and interest of learners and lead towards a product that can benefit their language-learning capabilities. The selection of right film clips and the designing of appropriate tasks are discussed in detail.

On Developing Listening Competence of Non-English Majors

The skill of listening with comprehension plays a vital part in English teaching and learning. The continual reform of college English teaching and learning methods is in great demand to improve students＇ competence of listening. In the one-year survey and studies of the non-English majors＇ listening competence in Shandong University of Finance, the author designed a questionnaire on listening comprehension, made an analysis and clarified the methods of developing listening skills as well as the ways of creating the English environment, in the hope that it could be of some help to the teaching of English listening in SUF.

Exploration of campus-network-based listening and speaking

Computer-assisted language leaming is a trend in the language teaching field of the 21st century and it is also advocated by the latest college English curriculum requirements. To test this model, we＇ve conducted an experiment on a campus-network-based listening and speaking course with 869 students from the NAAU since the 2005-2006 academic years. It has been proved that the new model enjoys great advantages over the conventional teacher-and-recorder teaching, though it is not thoroughly free from limitations or problems. On the one hand, this new model may provide students with authentic language sample, richer materials, interactive platform, friendly context, ect; on the other hand, factors such as costly hardware and software, non-stopping changes, lack of talents and inadequate funds are all preventing it from playing its role to full extent. Thus counter measures should be taken as soon as possible to break the bottleneck restricting the model from further development.

Learners＇ Cognitive Styles and Foreign Language Teaching

Individual learners possess distinctive cognitive styles which have a great effect on foreign language learning. The present paper intends to study the relationship between foreign language learning proficiency and cognitive styles from the perspectives of psychology, psycholinguistics, and second language acquisition. Through the analysis, the author has arrived at a conclusion that learners with different cognitive styles adopt quite different strategies in learning a foreign language. The best-matched methods fitting for different cognitive styles may help learners improve their learning proficiency. Therefore, in order to improve teaching proficiency, foreign language teachers should keep a match between learners＇ cognitive styles and teaching methodologies.

What Do Those Impressive English Lessons Look Like？

This research aims to explore the characteristics of Chinese students＇ unforgettable English lessons from the qumatitative and qualitative aspects. The research bases on 43 students＇ recalling of their impressive English lessons, and it finds out that four aspects contributing to impressive English lessons which provide insightful ideas for effective English education in China.

On improving students＇ communicative competence by group interaction

In foreign language teaching, the communicative approach has been a dominant method for decades. However, some misconceptions of the communicative approach affect the results of group interaction teaching. This article tries to explore some existing problems as well as some relevant solution in the application of group activities in colleges with the aid of observation, questionnaire and interview.

Analysis of the PBL Model in the Application of Surgical Experiment Teaching

objective： to analyze the application value of the PBL in the surgical experimental teaching mode. Methods： choose between September 2013 and September 2013 128 clinical professional students, average by using the lottery will be divided into control group and the team, every 64 students for 1 set, in surgical experimental teaching as a research courses, the teaching methods for the traditional teaching method in the control group, while the team gives PBL teaching mode, the teaching effect of the final will be two groups of students are analyzed and compared. Results： through different teaching methods for teaching, compared with control group, the group at the student＇s test scores, and the ability to significantly higher, the difference of both P 〈 0.05, there is statistically significant. Conclusion： using PBL teaching mode in the surgical experimental teaching effect is remarkable, can promote the students＇ comprehensive ability and is worth popularizing application.

Improvement of EFL Learners＇ Speaking and Writing through Reflective Scenario-based Learning

Chinese students＇ poor communicative ability in oral and written English is one of the main concerns in English teaching and learning in China. In the new syllabus of college English, the priority has shifted from reading to speaking. This paper intends to explore an effective method to improve students＇ speaking and writing ability. In the light of the advantages of Scenario-based Learning, two reflective SBL models are introduced.

Differential effects of teaching approaches on Chinese EFL learners of different writing abilities

To the issue on the superiority and inferiority of the ＂product approach＂ and the ＂process approach＂ writing teaching, an empirical study research of I00 non-English major students has been accomplished to testify the relationship between these different approaches and the different writing levels. The results are the ＂product approach＂ is more helpful to the learners with lower writing level; whereas, the ＂process approach＂ is more effective to ones with higher level. Furthermore, the teaching approach itself cannot affirm the superiority and inferiority, and it would not be at work unless is applied for corresponding learners.

Effects of visuals on simulated CET-3 listening test

In real-time situation, listeners rely on linguistic knowledge as well as contextual information to process acoustic signals, while presently in China, most listening comprehension tests do not include visuals （visuals bearing content or contextual information） to facilitate the listening. The present paper chooses several simulated CET-3 listening comprehension as the experimental materials and tries to investigate the effects of different types of visuals, such as pictures, diagrams, and photos of the speakers＇ part, with items on the CET-3 listening tests.

Grammar Teaching as Product or as Process？

The teaching of grammar has received increasing attention in recent language teaching and learning literature. The major argument lies in teaching grammar as product or as process. Teaching grammar as product focuses on giving learners a clear and explicit framework about the language; while teaching grammar as a process emphasizes the use of language by the learner. This paper gives a brief introduction of teaching grammar as product and as process and points out that language teachers can choose the more appropriate approach of them in the specific context.

Research Methods of Computer-assisted Second Language Acquisition

In this paper, the author presents an overview of the history and trends of the Research Methods in Second Language Acquisition in recent years; and then, combining the present situation in China, indicates that the approach of Action Research will be the future trend in research on Computer Assisted Second Language Acquisition （CASLA）. To explain the author＇s viewpoint, this paper firstly sets out to describe the author＇s understanding of the Research Methods in Second Language Acquisition （SLA）, and then the comprehension of Action Research in CASLA.

（Re）Constructing Pedagogical Knowledge in English as a Foreign Language Teacher Education Courses

English language teaching in the post-method condition demands the preparation of critical professionals capable of developing their teaching practice to enhance their pupils＇ language learning process. These professionals should also be able to recognize their prior knowledge as a potential tool to teach and to act autonomously in different educational contexts. Therefore, pre-service teacher education courses need to provide favorable conditions for teacher candidates to engage in reflective practice in order to foster continuous professional development. The main goal of this paper is to discuss the complexity of the pedagogical knowledge （re）construction process in an English as a foreign language （EFL） teacher education course, attempting to understand prospective teachers＇ pedagogical actions and strategies used to cope with classroom problems in their teaching practice. For this reason, some examples of this dynamic process, obtained by class recordings and reflective sessions with future teachers were examined. Results indicated that through self-assessment and reflection, stimulated by these sessions, student-teachers were able to recognize problems in their teaching procedures, as well as analyze their teaching practice and （re）construct their pedagogical knowledge, favoring their students＇ language learning process and their own teaching approach.

Exploration on college students＇ reluctance to participate in group discussion in EFL listening and speaking classes

Motivation has long been argued and studied both at home and abroad; however most researches stressed the linear, casual relationship between motivation and students achievement through interaction of group discussion. This paper tended to explore the factors that influenced students＇ motivation to participate in group discussion in EFL listening and speaking class. A questionnaire was designed and adopted to figure out the factors By analyzing the data, this paper would provide some suggestions to the research problem.

The role of self-accounting and financial capability in consumer credit decisions

The role of financial capability in the consumers＇ financial behaviour has been widely analyzed by the literature. The same happened for the relationship between debt and financial capability. The consensus about the benefits of an increase in the levels of financial literacy collides with a diversity of opinions on what the best solutions to increase financial capability. While methods based on traditional teaching may not be an effective solutions and they could not provide results in the short term, solutions oriented to support consumers in important financial decisions （requests for funding, choice of retirement solutions, etc.） may show greater effectiveness. Studies in literature have shown the tendency of subjects with high levels of financial capability to adopt a long term view and to upgrade their daily financial behaviour with attitudes and practices related to self-finance （budget, financial check-up, saving for goals, etc.） The paper focuses on the relationship between financial capability and self-accounting practices, interpreting the latter as evidence of conduct financially aware. After a review of the literature designed to emphasize the role of self-accounting in the context of personal finance, a financial check-up based tool is proposed, pointing out how the financial accounts＇ schemes and logics （regular budget, estimates and forecasts checking targets） may find useful application in the context of personal finance.

Guidance of Constructivist Theory for English Teaching

The traditional English teaching methods are mainly based on teachers＇ words and students＇ listening type. Neither the quality of teaching can be guaranteed, nor are students＇ thinking ability and innovation developed. To change this situation, many educators have done a lot of research and exploration from both theoretical and practical aspects, of which constructivist theory is one of main results. Constructivist theory emphasizes that leaming is a process of knowledge acquisition. Knowledge can not only get from teachers, but also requires learners to learn from others＇ help in some particular context, with the necessary leaming materials, and through a way of meaning construction. Besides, it has important reference and inspiration effects on discipline study and conducting educational research.

Communicative Ability and Cross-cultural Competence in China＇s English Teaching

Traditional grammar-translation ：method in China＇s English teaching has long been putting emphasis on the teaching of linguistic knowledge. It is no doubt that it has got many achievements. However, it has produced many bad byproducts as well. For instance, it may produce some students who are good in grammatical achievements but lacking in responding to the actual situation. Therefore linguistic knowledge is not the whole field that English teaching should touch upon. Inducing from two instances, this article presents the importance of communicative ability and cross-cultural competence in China＇s English teaching, together with proper solutions.

From communicative competence to communicative language teaching

This paper tried to demonstrate the developmental history of the concept ＂communicative competence＂ from three representative models, i.e. Hymes, Canale and Swain, and Bachman in order to find out the interrelationship between communicative competence and actual communication. This discussion highlights three components---organizational competence, pragmatic competence and strategic competence in Bachman＇s. Only when we have knowledge of language and the capacity to execute the competence, could we apply the communicative pedagogical applications properly into the Communicate Language Teaching （CLT） to achieve these competences.