Abstract
With the economic globalization and the internationalization of higher education, a new demand for social development and a change of needs of disciplinary development were initiated which require the reposition of College English in China. This paper suggests that College English in China should change toward English for Specific Purpose which intends to cultivate learners’ professional or academic English communication skills. In Wenzhou University, ESP has been carried out since 2009. However, a survey for graduates showed a giant gap between ESP program requirements and students achievement. To improve the efficiency of ESP teaching, the research group, based on Knowles’ Andragogy Theory, starts to recast English for Environmental Science into a “SPOC+Tradition Education” format. The purpose of the experiment is to improve students’ performance and work-related abilities through active learning. The approach has two steps. The first step is to construct a SPOC platform and remaster the course with the help of transdisciplinary professors, industry experts, and information technology experts. The second step is to spread the new concept of SPOC for the on-site course learning among the lecturers, administrators and students as well as to undertake practical training for them. Altogether, 119 students of first-year bachelor majored in Environmental Science in Wenzhou University have taken part in this pilot study. The result of the questionnaire survey shows that the majority of the subjects is satisfied with the remastered course teaching, and believes that the new format of learning can inspire their learning interests, improve their learning strategy, and help them adapt to collaborative learning model.
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Xu, X., Gu, X. (2015). Recasting English for Environmental Science into a SPOC—A Pilot Study in Wenzhou University. In: Zhang, Q., Yang, H. (eds) Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium (PROMS) 2014 Conference Proceedings. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47490-7_21
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