teaching model and means based on constructivism for collegiate bilingual courses

10
- 82 - www.erfrontier.org Education Research Frontier September 2013, Volume 3, Issue 3, PP.82-91 Teaching Model and Means Based on Constructivism for Collegiate Bilingual Courses Haiyan Liu 1# , Gang Xu 1 , Zongjing Liang 1 , Shangyuan Yang 2 1. Computer Science and Information Engineering College, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, 541004, P. R. China 2. College of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, 266071, P. R. China #Email: [email protected] Abstract A composite teaching model based on principles of constructivism for bilingual courses is put forward and the effectiveness of the model that has been used in practice for years is investigated. A survey is then performed and the results for bilingual teaching efficiency are analyzed, showing that the cooperation studies including group discussion and doing experiment and presentation in group, Web resource and Lab practice are evaluated as important and significant elements in the model. The analysis also indicates that the proposed model and relevant teaching means well satisfy the needs of bilingual teaching and learning in our practice. Keywords: Bilingual Teaching Model; Teaching Means; Cooperate Study; Lab Resource 1 INTRODUCTION In the past decade, Chinese economy has developed quickly. More and more foreign companies have set up factories and branches in China and Chinese companies have crossed the border to do business in foreign countries. Thus, training and educating college students with knowledge of their majors as well as good English capability have become an urgent demand in the labor market. Encouraged by the said demand, bilingual teaching of some important technical courses in universities are commonly seen in China nowadays. This paper proposes a bilingual teaching model based on constructivism and practice for collegiate bilingual courses and further analyzes the learners’ perception on the application of the proposed model, probes solutions to a better teaching efficiency and tries to offer useful reference for bilingual teaching in colleges in non-English spoken countries. To better present the research result, the present paper is organized as following: Section 1 introduces the background of relevant researches; Section 2 describes the teaching model containing elements of constructivism and the sampling of survey; Section 3 presents the numerical results and relevant analysis, and Section 4 gives the conclusions obtained in this paper. 1.1 Relevant Studies Many researchers have focused their studies on teaching and learning models, communication barriers, learning environment and so on in order to improve the quality of bilingual teaching and learning efficiency. For example, Jane Jackson [1] analyzed the perceptions about the value of case-based bilingual teaching regarding teaching problems they experienced using cases in Hong Kong; in addition, Okhee Lee, Sandera H. Frado [2] and Ryuko Kubota [3] found that an teacher-student interaction suggests that culturally congruent communication patterns, class and race are important in promoting student participation and engagement; and Xiaoping Liang, Bernard A. Mohan [4] noticed in her study that the ultimate goals claimed for cooperative learning may involve dilemmas between L1 maintenance and L2 development, between the use of L1 and L2 in academic discourse, and between the use of the L1 and L2 for the learning of content; Jane Jackson [5] provided result from a survey and interviews which suggested the direction for an ESP business communications course and highlighted the need for culture and context-specific preparation for case leaders and students; Lei Yalin, Sun Peng, Xu Fang [6] , Ge Hongjuan [7] and Chen Zhiguo, Jiang

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Education Research Frontier September 2013, Volume 3, Issue 3, PP.82-91

Teaching Model and Means Based on

Constructivism for Collegiate Bilingual Courses Haiyan Liu 1#, Gang Xu 1, Zongjing Liang 1, Shangyuan Yang 2

1. Computer Science and Information Engineering College, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, 541004, P. R. China

2. College of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, 266071, P. R. China

#Email: [email protected]

Abstract

A composite teaching model based on principles of constructivism for bilingual courses is put forward and the effectiveness of the

model that has been used in practice for years is investigated. A survey is then performed and the results for bilingual teaching

efficiency are analyzed, showing that the cooperation studies including group discussion and doing experiment and presentation in

group, Web resource and Lab practice are evaluated as important and significant elements in the model. The analysis also indicates

that the proposed model and relevant teaching means well satisfy the needs of bilingual teaching and learning in our practice.

Keywords: Bilingual Teaching Model; Teaching Means; Cooperate Study; Lab Resource

1 INTRODUCTION

In the past decade, Chinese economy has developed quickly. More and more foreign companies have set up factories

and branches in China and Chinese companies have crossed the border to do business in foreign countries. Thus,

training and educating college students with knowledge of their majors as well as good English capability have

become an urgent demand in the labor market. Encouraged by the said demand, bilingual teaching of some important

technical courses in universities are commonly seen in China nowadays.

This paper proposes a bilingual teaching model based on constructivism and practice for collegiate bilingual courses

and further analyzes the learners’ perception on the application of the proposed model, probes solutions to a better

teaching efficiency and tries to offer useful reference for bilingual teaching in colleges in non-English spoken

countries.

To better present the research result, the present paper is organized as following: Section 1 introduces the

background of relevant researches; Section 2 describes the teaching model containing elements of constructivism

and the sampling of survey; Section 3 presents the numerical results and relevant analysis, and Section 4 gives the

conclusions obtained in this paper.

1.1 Relevant Studies

Many researchers have focused their studies on teaching and learning models, communication barriers, learning

environment and so on in order to improve the quality of bilingual teaching and learning efficiency. For example,

Jane Jackson[1] analyzed the perceptions about the value of case-based bilingual teaching regarding teaching

problems they experienced using cases in Hong Kong; in addition, Okhee Lee, Sandera H. Frado[2] and Ryuko

Kubota[3] found that an teacher-student interaction suggests that culturally congruent communication patterns, class

and race are important in promoting student participation and engagement; and Xiaoping Liang, Bernard A. Mohan[4]

noticed in her study that the ultimate goals claimed for cooperative learning may involve dilemmas between L1

maintenance and L2 development, between the use of L1 and L2 in academic discourse, and between the use of the

L1 and L2 for the learning of content; Jane Jackson[5] provided result from a survey and interviews which suggested

the direction for an ESP business communications course and highlighted the need for culture and context-specific

preparation for case leaders and students; Lei Yalin, Sun Peng, Xu Fang[6], Ge Hongjuan[7] and Chen Zhiguo, Jiang

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Ling[8] introduced teaching models and problems they encountered in bilingual teaching in college level courses. Yi

Yang and Li Yan[9] proposed a reform idea about personalized design in some aspects of bilingual teaching such as

teaching, learning, evaluation and assessment and described various design points in the process. Judith Purkarthofer

and Jan Mossakowski[10] focused on how particular dual-medium models are applied in Slovene-German schools in

Carinthia, Austria. They examined not only how these schools provide for a balanced bilingual teaching and learning

environment, but also how they dealt with their students’ multilingual realities and supported their identification with

bi- and multilingualism. Z.M. Zhou, W. J. Huang, T. Zhou, H. Xia, C. Y. Peng[11] proved that it is practical and

fruitful to conduct bilingual teaching based on excellent original English teaching materials, multimedia methods,

scientific organization and modularization teaching. Wang Yun, Xu Zhenying, Dai Yachun, Zhang Kai, Jiang

Yinfang, Ren Naifei[12] proposed a novel bilingual teaching mode which is combined with the Top-Down and

Down-Top methods. The conclusion is that bilingual teaching “Student-centered and Teacher-Guided” can be

developed with inspired teaching environment. These studies have provided us with useful ideals on some important

aspects regarding bilingual education either on learning or teaching. However, the present research has its own

unique features which fit for the application in colleges in non-English spoken countries and are different from the

studies mentioned above.

FIG. 1 COMPOSITE TEACHING MODEL

2 MATERIAL AND METHOD

2.1 Principles of Constructivism Applied in the Research

Constructivism suggests that learning is a process of self-constructing knowledge by the learner, which is an active

self-learning process (VanTassel-Baska Joyce[13]). The learner selects and processes the information received based

on his or her own experience and knowledge, and gains the significant knowledge through the interaction of old

experience and knowledge with the new ones. In this process, the conflict between the old and new knowledge and

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experience leads to the restructuring of the learner’s cognitive structure (Brandon AF, All AC[14]).

Constructivism emphasizes student-centered teaching approach, in which teachers play the role of organizer,

instructor, helper and promoter (Liu Fang, LI Kang, Xu Feng[15]). Teachers work to maximize student enthusiasm

and help them to effectively construct significant knowledge in learning with the aid of situational teaching,

cooperative learning and multimedia and so on (Yuxing Yu[16]). A series of questions on the topic should be

designed and further applied in the teaching process to support the learning activities. The real, complicated and

challenging situation and environment for learning will promote learners to probe, think and solve learning problems.

Thus, careful design of the key elements such as situational teaching, questions and cooperative learning among

learners are significant for a better knowledge construction outcome in teaching programs (Chen Dong[17]).

2.2 Teaching Model

It is commonly seen that there is an obvious difference in English skill among the bilingual learning participants in a

non-English spoken country. Therefore, it is significant to set up a teaching model and design the relevant teaching

elements that can maximize learners’ potentials through the aid of learning environment, learning partners and

mutual learning activities for the purpose of the guarantee that the majority of the learners can reach the goal of

learning. Based on practice, a composite teaching model is put forward in this paper, as shown in FIG. 1, which

emphasizes the application of multiple teaching means based on constructivism principles. The model focuses on the

importance of the learners’ needs, learning resources and the role of teachers as organizer, instructor, assistant and

manager during the teaching process, and gives the learners full play in mutual learning activities through

cooperation among themselves.

The model consists of three major components which are the English improvement program, teaching process and

teaching environment. In the model, the English improvement program, Web and Lab resources are the

environmental components built around the teaching system to act as learning assistance through the teaching

process. Principles of constructivism are applied in the stages of the teaching system from teaching to evaluation. As

for the 1st component, the English level of students is different and scattered due to their school backgrounds as

mentioned above. The ones who come from schools in cities have better English knowledge than those who come

from schools of small towns and countryside. Therefore, it is important to elimilate the difference and enhance their

English level before they start the bilingual courses of the major. The solution to this problem is to start English

improvement program among students during their first year in college to help them to learn terms that the bilingual

courses used and enhance their English grammar capability, thus reducing the difficulty they might encounter during

the teaching and learning processes. English improvement program goes through the whole bilingual course as more

and more vocabularies are introduced during the learning process.

The 2nd component, teaching system, involves several elements which are presented with teaching, discussion,

presentation, homework and evaluation. The principles of constructivism are applied in the elements such as

teaching, discussion and presentation. This part of the process emphasizes learner oriented approach. Learners can

take the advantage of mutual learning under the questions predesigned for digest and meaning construction through

self thinking and discussion among students and teacher/students to improve learning efficiency. Going through

these steps, student will acquire the knowledge needed. At the end, Learners are required to present their learning

result to exchange their understanding with other learners and examine achievement openly. Homework assignment,

as a supplement, ensures that the students review and understand the key concepts and knowledge of the course.

Through the whole teaching system, students play the role of active learners who select and process the information

received based on their own experience and knowledge, and gain the significant knowledge through the interaction

of their old experience and knowledge with the new ones. Thus, the conflict between the old and new knowledge and

experience leads to the restructuring of the learner’s cognitive structure.

The 3rd component relates to different resources that support the teaching and learning process. Web resources offer

student and teachers the materials related to the course and a forum through which students and teachers can post

their questions and opinions, thus creating cooperation learning atmosphere among learners. To enhance the effect of

constructivism on the learning process, our bilingual teaching program uses Lab resources as an important bilingual

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leaning aid, which offers students different software such as enterprise resource planning, electronic commerce

platform and programming software for practice. These resources allow students to better digest and understand the

knowledge step by step through the carefully and strictly designed software.

2.3 Teaching Means

Besides the application of the model, some featured teaching means have been applied including learning in pairs

and personalization in the teaching practice. Learning in pairs requires students to make learning pairs in which one

of the students should have better English skills. Through this type of team learning, students with poor English

skills can get help anytime from his teammate and be easier to achieve the learning goals, and the other one can also

benefit from the cooperation by playing the role of a helper or a leader. Personalization focuses on around 10% of

the students who have good English skills and knowledge to learn more during the learning process. Teachers will

assign them more reading and writing homework to maximize their learning potentials. They are also purposely and

individually assigned to learning groups to play the role of leaders in the cooperate study to obtain a better overall

learning efficiency.

TABLE 1 RESULT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING APPROACHES

Item Question category Question and answer Result

1 Language used in

the course

(1)Preferred percentage of English used in classroom teaching Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A less than 30%

B 30-50%

C 50-80%

D 100%

Total

21

36

23

1

81

25.9

44.5

28.4

1.2

100

25.9

70.4

98.8

100.0

(2) Preferred language used in classroom discussion Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Use English according to requirement

B Use English as much as I can

C Always use English

D Use Chinese only

Total

27

21

6

27

81

33.4

25.9

7.4

33.3

100.0

33.3

59.3

66.7

100.0

2 Answering questions

in classroom

(1) Want more classroom questioning? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Yes

B No

C Doesn’t matter

Total

34

39

8

81

42.0

48.1

9.9

100.0

42.0

90.1

100.0

(2) The reason for less classroom questioning Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Afraid that cant give the answer in English

B Afraid that cant give the answer either in Chinese or English

C Others

Total

43

26

12

81

53.1

32.1

14.8

100.0

53.1

85.2

100.0

3 Learning effort

needed

Do you have to spend more time in bilingual learning courses than

that in Chinese courses? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Yes

B No

Total

46

35

81

56.8

43.2

100.0

56.8

100.0

4 Classroom

discussion

Is there a need to increase classroom discussion time? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Yes

B No

C Doesn’t matter

Total

46

17

18

81

56.8

21.0

22.2

100.0

56.8

77.8

100.0

5 Textbook

Is the textbook appropriate? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Yes

B No

C not sure

Total

31

22

28

81

38.2

27.2

34.6

100.0

38.2

65.4

100.0

6 Teaching approach

In what approach you can learn more knowledge? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Scenario simulation

B Group discussion

C Teaching

D Doing more exercise in classroom

Total

48

15

11

7

81

59.3

18.5

13.6

8.6

100.0

59.3

77.8

91.4

100.0

7 Learning approach (1) What will you do when you encounter learning difficulty? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

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TABLE 1 RESULT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING APPROACHES(CONT.)

A Find solution through reading or from Internet

B Discuss with group members

C Find help from teacher

D No idea

Total

18

41

20

2

81

22.2

50.6

24.7

2.5

100.0

22.2

72.8

97.5

100.0

(2) Which way can make you learn more knowledge? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Do more homework after class period

B More guidance from the teacher

C Mutual learning with classmates

D Others

Total

26

23

30

2

81

32.1

28.4

37.0

2.5

100.0

32.1

60.5

97.5

100.0

8 Mid-term evaluation

(1) Is the mid-term evaluation helpful to the knowledge acquiring? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Yes

B No

Total

43

38

81

53.1

46.9

100.0

53.1

100.0

(2) The best way of mid-term evaluation Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Group Presentation in English

B Individual presentation in English

C Test

D Others

Total

50

14

12

5

81

61.7

17.3

14.8

6.2

100.0

61.7

79.0

93.8

100.0

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

According to the model and method described above, it is obvious that the model and specially designed teaching

means work together create a cooperative learning environment with rich resources as learning aid for learners. In

order to better understand the outcome of the application of the proposed teaching model and assistant means, some

important questions have been investigated. The statistical results are shown in TABLE 1 and 2 respectively. The

questions investigated are able to show the typical perception of students after taking part in the bilingual teaching

project, which can further help us to optimize the teaching model and means, and also enlighten bilingual educators

working in similar situation in other countries to understand student behavior in a careful designed bilingual teaching

system. The following analysis concentrates on two major issues based on the model which are the teaching and

learning approaches and the usefulness of Lab practice as an element in teaching environment in helping students to

master the knowledge.

3.1 Survey and Sampling

In order to get a clear understanding on the result of the application of the proposed teaching model and relative

means, a survey was carried out. The sample set for the survey consists of 81 students coming from those enrolled

from 2008 to 2010 in the Information System major in Guangxi Normal University of China. Among them, there are

38 male and 43 female students who make up 46.9% and 53.1% of the sample respectively. Questionnaire was

distributed to these students, and then, the answers to the questions were processed with SPSS 16.0 to calculate their

frequency and percentage for the analysis of specific questions after the teaching model and teaching means have

been applied in the learning process. The survey mainly focuses on the learners’ response on the questions related to

teaching and learning problems and the helpfulness of the Lab practice to the knowledge acquisition.

3.2 Analysis of Teaching and Learning Approaches

As shown in TABLE 1, some useful implications can be obtained from the survey.

1) English level is always the major challenge for the learners in the learning process. The results shown in question

categories 1~3 indicate that English level is the major obstacle for learners to acquire the course knowledge. From

category 1, it is obvious that there are 26% of the learners having difficulty in listening comprehension when the

percentage of English used in teaching is over 30% and 30% of the learners use Chinese only in classroom

discussions. However, 30~80% of English used in teaching is well accepted by most of the students. Thus, it is

reasonable to believe that 50 or up percentage of English used in teaching in the classroom can be set as the

minimum usage of English as teaching language and using English in discussions can be used as a basic demand for

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the bilingual courses.

The result also gives us the enlightenment that special attention has to be paid to the other 30% of the learners who

have difficulty in learning because of the language level. Teachers need to fully use the advantage offered in the

teaching model, design more questions with logical relationship to lead these learners digesting the knowledge, post

more reference materials in mother language in the course Web pages to help the understanding of this group of

learners and adjust the explanation approach for key principles and concepts during the teaching process. The results

imply that the model used in practice can well deal with the issues indicated in question categories 1~3.

2) Classroom discussion, a key element in constructivism, is a learning approach preferred by most of the learners as

shown in category 4 and 7. In practice, we generally give students a 25 minutes in a 120 minutes teaching time to

discuss the knowledge just learned in the classroom. The discussion is held in the form of groups which consist of

3~4 students each with mixed English levels. The students who have better English and course related knowledge

are asked to play the role of leaders in the groups. Through this approach, a cooperation study among students is

formed and it helps the students who have difficulty in learning due to the weakness of language or related

knowledge to understand the knowledge taught as much as possible. The survey results show that more than half of

the students agree to increase group discussion time. It is obvious that increasing the current discussion time may

need to be considered, but it should be determined by the teacher according to the difficulty of the knowledge and

the content o be taught in the classroom. Another implication is that good discussion guidance from the teacher may

increase the learning efficiency of the groups in the preset discussion time period. This result also proves that the

group discussion element set in the model is an important way to help learners to gain the knowledge. It was also

found that application of discussion in class and Lab practice in the teaching process enable students to get help from

group members and digest the knowledge by going through the learning stages themselves set in the software one by

one, where the important idea and concepts taught in the classroom are combined. Therefore, teachers can use the

group cooperation and hands-on practice to improve the language shortage of this group of learners.

3) Scenario simulation can improve learner’s participation and interest. It is an element in teaching process proposed

by constructivism. Category 6 shows that there are almost 60% of the students who feel that they can learn more

through scenario simulation teaching approach. It was noticed that the learners show higher participation interest

when they are learning in an environment close to the reality, which certainly makes them feel that they are learning

the knowledge used in the real world and useful in their future career. Scenario simulation teaching is a method that

has to be planed and designed carefully ahead of the start of the course and need to utilize more resources during the

process. We generally arrange scenario simulation teaching, for important knowledge in some chapters in the

teaching element of the model, such as real electronic payment process in a B2C exchange and combine the teaching

with group discussion and presentation. From the survey result, it is noticed that most of the 30% students who have

lower English level prefer this method and it also reveals that more scenario simulation should be designed and

applied in the bilingual courses under the condition of teaching time and resource availability.

4) Self-reading and Internet resources plus mutual learning and homework are the useful ways that help learners to

reach the learning goal. This result is related to the ways that students use to make up shortage in learning from their

won side under the learning environment provided by the model. Three out of the four ways are the elements

covered by the model. Self-reading is an activity that must be carried out by learner himself through out the learning

process. Thus, a hint can be obtained from the result that rich Web resource and reading materials for bilingual

courses should be provided to learners and mutual learning among students who should be encouraged and even

prearranged as an assignment to meet the needs of the learners.

5) Answers on Mid-term evaluation show that the test method of presentation in English is preferred by learners.

This result indicates that almost half of the students do not like the mid-term test while presentation approach would

be preferred by most of the students if a mid-term test is not avoided. The survey result implies that half of the

students think that mid-term test may put more learning burden on them and consume their more learning time. It

also suggests that most students believe that presentation in English gives them more ease feelings and more space of

showing their achievement, while traditional test method only forces them to spend a lot of time to memorize

definitions, concept and principles like a robot. However, it also implies that English oral capability makes more

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students chose group presentation as their preferred test form by which they can get better scores through the group

presenter with better English skills. It is believed that mid-term test is necessary for checking the learning

performance of the students but the test method may bring different result. Therefore, to make sure that every student

in a group has a contribution in their group performance and the knowledge learned is checked for every learner, the

method of group presentation in which each member plays a role plus a paper test regarding key knowledge may be

a better approach for the mid-term test.

TABLE 2 RESULT OF LAB PRACTICE INFLUENCE

Item Question and answer Result

1

Is the Lab practice helpful to your study? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Very helpful

B Not very helpful

C Not sure

D Others

Total

60

15

5

1

81

74.1

18.5

6.2

1.2

100.0

74.1

92.6

98.8

100.0

2

Do you think the Lab hours need to be increased? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Yes, for learning more knowledge

B No, this brings more learning burden

C No, I don’t like Lab course

D I don’t care

Total

53

18

2

8

81

65.4

22.2

2.5

9.9

100.0

65.4

87.6

90.1

100.0

3

Are the software and experiment suitable? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Yes

B No

C Not sure

Total

45

12

24

81

55.6

14.8

29.6

100.0

55.6

70.4

100.0

4

Preferred form for doing Lab practice Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Individual

B Group

C I don’t care

Total

17

52

12

81

21.0

64.2

14.8

100.0

21.0

85.2

100.0

5

Does Lab practice improve hands-on capability and knowledge learning? Frequency Percent Cumulative Percent

A Yes

B No

C Yes, but not much

D Others

Total

55

7

18

1

81

67.9

8.6

22.3

1.2

100.0

67.9

76.5

98.8

100.0

The analysis of the survey result shows that the bilingual teaching model based on constructivism we have been used

has its own advantages for bilingual teaching in universities located in a non-English spoken area. The results show

that the elements making up the model are reasonably designed and offer their contribution to effective teaching

result of bilingual courses respectively. But problems exist and may arise in different forms during the teaching

process. The application of the model requires teachers to adjust the elements’ weight for a better outcome during the

whole teaching process according to the course and its content. The survey results also show that group discussion,

scenario simulation and mutual learning are the important elements for good result and need to be carefully planed

and designed for each bilingual course based on its features.

3.3 Analysis of Lab Practice Influence

Lab practice assignment, one of the most important parts in each bilingual course in our project, belongs to the

situation teaching described in constructivism. In order to reveal and prove its value and understand the practice

form preferred by learners in bilingual teaching process, questions in TABLE 2 are investigated. The statistical

results well indicate the importance of Lab practice.

1) Lab practice really helps most learners to understand the knowledge and achieve the learning goal. As shown in

Item 1~3 and 5, more than 70% of the students give the Lab practice positive opinion on achieving their learning

goals. Students say that the logical steps they have to finish one by one in operating the software make them get to

learn and understand the details of the business process described in the textbook. They also can make up the

shortage in understanding the content taught by teachers in English in the classroom through self research in the Lab

and discussion with classmates. This result strengthens our confidence in the helpfulness of Lab practice in bilingual

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teaching. It proves the importance of hands-on learning as an assistant mean in bilingual teaching for technical

courses, especially for students who are not English speakers.

2) Doing experiment in group form is in favoured by more than half of the learners. Item 4 indicates that over 50%

of the students prefer doing experiment in group form which offers group members the chance of mutual help and

learning. Many students say that the software such as ERP software is quite complicated and so many functions are

new to them. Generally, they have to spend time to probe the manipulating method and relationship among the

modules at the beginning. Thus, group work provides them the possibility of assigning tasks among members first

and then teaching and learning mutually. In this way, they can enhance the efficiency of learning and save time for

those they feel harder. Their answer is consistent with that we have observed in practice. This result proves that

experiment in group form used till now is a meaningful approach, and it can be used in colleges, in the similar

environment for bilingual courses.

As described above, Lab practice is very helpful not only for the students who have difficulty in classroom learning

and those who have good English capability. They can take the advantage offered by software to understand the

details of the concepts taught by teachers in English. Going through the whole process provided by the software,

students can also build up a whole picture of the knowledge in their minds. The results show that Lab practice is a

very important arrangement for student learning through self probing and practicing the details of the elements of the

knowledge with advanced software, especially for bilingual technical courses which generally requires well

understanding of the technical details. Besides, students can enhance their learning efficiency by cooperation study

with group members through experiment.

4 CONCLUSION

Based on constructivism, some important elements in bilingual teaching we experienced in practice are combined

into the proposed model. The model does not only focus on the teaching elements but also the learning environment.

Web resource and Lab practice are closely integrated with teaching process to offer students better learning

conditions together in the purpose of improving teaching and learning outcome.

The analysis shows that English level is always the obstacle to be overcome by some of the students in the whole

learning process, which is normal in a non-English spoken place. However, this obstacle can be somewhat overcome

by introducing different assistant elements into the teaching and learning environment.

The survey results indicate that the elements included in the model present good functionality in the bilingual

teaching process, but some adjustment and attention should be constantly made to get better result. Cooperation

study including group discussion and doing experiment and presentation in group form is evaluated as an interesting

and efficient learning method by most of the learners; Web resource is frequently used by students especially those

who are poor in English skill when they encounter difficulty in the learning process; scenario simulation applied in

the teaching process can enhance students interest and participation passion and Lab practice can provide learners an

advanced way of learning details and logical relationship behind in principles or concepts, thus helping them master

the knowledge better. Lab practice is also an efficient way for students who have difficulty in understanding the

content taught in English in the classroom, and thus achieving their learning goal.

Based on the data and analysis, it can be clearly seen that the application of principles of constructivism in the

bilingual teaching system can effectively improve the learning efficiency of learners and the proposed model and

relevant teaching means well satisfy the needs of bilingual teaching and learning in our practice. Thus, it is believed

that the model and approaches proposed in this paper could be meaningful reference for bilingual educators in

colleges in non-English spoken countries; however, as well as that new problems may arise in any stage in the

teaching process. They may provide us chances to identify new elements, find better solutions and optimize the

proposed model further.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work is supported by The Project of National Model Course of Bilingual Teaching (The Education Department

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of China) and “Ba Gui Scholarship” Foundation.

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AUTHORS

1Haiyan Liu, born in Beijing, China on the

14th of March, 1954, MBA degree obtained

in Northpark University, Chicago, USA.

He works in the fields of Bilingual

Teaching and application of Cellular

Automata. He currently serves as the head

of Information System Department of

College of Computer Science and Information Technology of

Guangxi Normal University. He is also the head of the research

team of National Bilingual Model Course Electronic Commerce.

Recently published articles: 1) Evacuation Model with Multiple

Exits and the Influence of Fire and Smoke Based On Cellular

Automata, International Journal of Digital Content Technology

and its Applications, 2012, Vol. 6, No. 17,EI indexed; 2)

Simulation of evacuation from a floor of lecture building with

obstacle in corridor based on Cellular Automata, International

Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications,

2013,Vol.7No.4,EI indexed; 3) Simulation of Impact of

Classroom Layout on Evacuation Efficiency Based on Cellular

Automata, Applied Mechanics and Materials, 2013,Vol.263-266,

EI indexed. earned. The author’s major field of study should be

lower-cased.

2Gang Xu, born in Guangxi, China on the 15th of May, 1987,

currently he is studying in a master degree program in the major

of Computer Software and Theory in Guangxi Normal

University.

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3Zhongjing Liang, born in Guangxi, China on the 12 of

September, 1967, PhD of Geological Information Systems,

currently he works as a teacher in the Information System

Department of College of Computer Science and Information

Technology of Guangxi Normal University.

4Shangyuan Yang, born in Guilin, Guangxi on October, 1979,

master degree of education of Chinese, currently he works as a

teacher in Qing Dao University.