计算机辅助教学论文Computer-assistedEnglishTeaching

Computer-assisted English Teaching Basedon BehaviorismAbstract: the traditional English teaching focuses on the dominance of teachers. With the development and application of computers, CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) has been widely used in the modern English teaching as a new teaching method. This paper proceeds with the theoretical research and analyzes the theory of Behaviorism and its influences on and limitations to CALL.Key Words: Behaviorism, CALL, Teaching method1.IntroductionThe 20th century is not only an age of information but also an age of knowledge economy. With the prevalence and the rapid development of information technology, computer-assisted English teaching has been influencing all the aspects of English teaching and has become a newtrend of English-teaching development. It pays more attention to guiding the students to study language with the help of computers. The combination of teaching content, teaching process and the assistance of computers can contribute to the best learning effect. Behaviorism has laid the foundation for computer-assisted English teaching.2.CALL---Computer-Assisted Language LearningCALL (Computer-assisted Language Learning) refers to the use of a computer in a language teaching and learning program. The research CALL began in the 1960’s in America. According to New Oxford English Dictionary, the word “assist” refers to help someone typically by doing a share of the work. When used in foreign language teaching, “assist”refers that the teachers use computers to improve teaching methods and the teaching effect. CALL is the combination of computers and modern educational theory. As a brand-new teaching method, CALL has been widely applied and achieved a lot in the English teaching at every level of schools. CALL is more often practiced in the teaching or learning of a second or foreign language. According to Richards, et al. (1998), it may take the form of:a. activities which parallel learning through other mediabut which use the facilities of the computer (e.g. usingthe computer to present a reading text);b. activities which are extensions or adaptations ofprint-based or classroom-based activities (e.g.computer programs that teach writing skills by helpingthe student develop a topic and thesis statement andby checking a composition for vocabulary, grammar,and topic development);c. activities which are unique to CALL.3. Phrases of CALL DevelopmentThere are mainly 4 phrases in the course of CALL development.3.1 Phrase Ⅰ(Behavioristic CALL)The Behavioristic CALL was conceived in the 1950s and implemented in the 1960s and 1970s. Programs during this period can be referred to as “drill and practice”. The principles behind this computer as tutor model could be briefly put as follows:a. Repeated exposure to the same material is beneficialor even essential learning.b. A computer is ideal for carrying out repeated drills.c. A computer can present material on an individualized basis, allowing learners to proceed at their own pace and freeing up class time for other activities.In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Behavioristic CALL was undermined by two important factors. First, behavioristic approaches to language learning had been rejected. Secondly, the introduction of the microcomputer allowed a whole new range of possibilities.3.2 Phrase Ⅱ(Communicative CALL)The Communicative CALL is marked by the fact that small computers appeared and the programs could be stored on tapes or floppy disks and the whole system was portable.Pedagogically, this phrase was based on the communicative approach to teaching which became prominent in the 1970s and 80s. Several types of CALL programs were developed.First, a variety of programs represent an extension of the computer as tutor model. The second CALL model is the computer as stimulus model. The third model of computers involves the computer as tool or the computer as workhorse approach. But by the end of the 1980s, the CALL was failingto exist.3.3 Phrase Ⅲ(Integrative CALL)The learning featured by the Integrative CALL was not so much supplied by the language of the text itself as by the cognitive problem solving techniques and interaction between students in the group.This was made possible by the important technological development of multimedia computer and internet. What makes multimedia more powerful is that it also entails hypermedia.Computer-mediated communication allows users to share not only brief messages, but also lengthy (formatted or unformatted) documents --- thus facilitating collaborative writing --- and also graphics, sounds and video.3.4 Phrase IV (Intelligent CALL)As new technology becomes a household necessity, language teaching using such means will doubtless become more widespread. Some work has taken place on integrating CALL with the more orthodox ideas of learning, leading to ICALL (Internet CALL).4. Behaviorism TheoryBehaviorism Theory is also called Stimulus-Response Theory which is one of the main learning theories. The founder of Stimulus-Response Theory is John B. Watson (1878-1958). Behaviorism holds that human’s mind results from the interaction of the outer environment, which is “stimulus-response”. The joint between stimulus and response is “reinforcement”. Behaviorism Learning Theory regards “reinforcement”as the core of teaching procedure. It holds that only “reinforcement”can lead to the best learning environment and enhance students’learning motivation.According to Behaviorism Learning Theory, teaching content should be decomposed into a series of small teaching units and should be learned with the help of teaching units. Only in this way can the frequency of reinforcement be increased to the largest extent and can the negative response caused by mistakes be decreased to the smallest extent. The courseware which is designed on the basis of Skinner’s condition-response experiment and the principle of stimulus (question) --- response (answer) --- enforcement (confirmation) makes a difference in optimizing class teaching.Behaviorism is the school of psychology that defines psychology as the study of observable behavior and studies relationships between stimuli (S) and responses (R). The first phase of CALL, conceived in the 1950s and implemented in the 1960s and 1970s, was based on the dominant behaviorist theories of learning and teaching of the time, which emphasizes the spoken rather than the written form and presents the learner a carefully graded series of habit -forming modes of learning. Programs of this phase entail repetitive language drills and can be referred to as “drill and practice”.Drill and practice courseware is based on the model of computer as tutor. In other words, the computer serves as a tutoring device that issues instructional material to students. Behavioristic CALL essentially provides practice for grammar and vocabulary acquisition. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, behavioristic CALL lost its popularity for two main reasons, namely, changes in approaches to language teaching and the invention of the microcomputer.There are also some principles in teaching procedure and they are important in CALL courseware design:a.Shot-step principle. It refers to divide the learningcontent into small units and sequence themaccording to their logic and form proceduraltexts and courseware. Students study from theeasy to the difficult gradually.b.Active-response principle. According to Skinner,traditional teaching focuses on teachers’rolein imparting knowledge and students’passiverole. Students have few chances to respondteachers’questions. In order to change thepassive learning, the courseware should bedesigned according to the study content ofevery unit to stimulate students to respondactive.c.Immediate-enforcement principle. Whenstudents respond to teachers, teachers shouldimmediately make students know whether theyare right. The courseware should give immediateenforce to students so as to enhance theirperformance..d.Self-paced principle. In the traditional teaching,the pace of learning is identical, which greatlylimits the free development of students.Computer-assist teaching is centered onstudents so that they can set their own learningpace according to their own situation. Properpaces and enforcement give students furtherlearning power.e.Low-error-rate principle. The texts should bearranged from the easy to the difficult and fromthe unknown to the known so that students canhave more right response and enhance learningefficiency.5. The Application of Behavioristic CALLAccording to Warschauer (1996), in the phase of Behavioristic CALL from the 1960’s to the 1970’s, computers are regarded are an inexhaustible machine instructor who repeatedly provides language exercise and response for students so that students can study again and again according to their own pace of study. According to the principle of “stimulus---response---enforcement”, CALL is used in English teaching in the following aspects:a. CALL can provide diversified external stimulus andenlighten students’English thinking ability, which isbeneficial for them to acquire and keep theirknowledge. Multimedia technology provides combined environment. It shows visible and audible information with lively and various forms. This multi-level expressions and diversified sensory stimuli are effective to English study. In this environment, language learners can have active psychological experience and they can immediately transform it into the desire of knowledge. In this way, they can acquire much more information than what is acquired in class, which is more beneficial to keep and transform their knowledge.b. The courseware through multimedia technology is vivid, lively and more suitable to arouse students’interest in English learning. In traditional teaching, teachers use pictures, stick figures and other methods to create situations for language study. However, all these methods have their limitation and they can not change freely and lack vividness and reality. However, computers have many information function including audio, picture, text and animation which perfectly combine sound, pictures and texts. This kind of combination provides vivid environment for languagestudy. For example, a teacher is going to teaching English words. In English, there are different words for different cars: van (a small or medium-sized road vehicle with one row of seats at the front and a space for carrying goods behind), Sedan (a car with seats for four or more people, a fixed roof, and a boot that is separate from the part of the car that you sit in), sports car, station wagon (a car with a long body, a door at the rear, and space behind the back seats), coupe (a car with a fixed roof, a sloping back, two doors, and seats for four people), police car and so on. Only t eachers’ explanation and description can not help students to distinguish those words. But more pictures, videos and audios can make it much easier to distinguish and remember. In the courseware, the element of aesthetics should be inserted in, such as colorful and vivid animation. The exquisite pictures and beautiful music and other elements can present students the colorful world and help them to be fully interested in English study.c. CALL can help students to set their own pace of learning. CALL is centered on the language learnersso that learners can set their pace of study accordingto their own situation. Proper pace of study can lowerthe rate of error and improve the efficiency oflearning.d. CALL can provide a network evaluation. (2007)The first is self-evaluation. Self-evaluation refers thatstudentsevaluate their works and study process after finishing their learning. Intheir self-evaluation, in one way, they can modify their learningoutcomes: in another, they can learn from other on the Internet. Studentswill actively look insight into their own study outcomes and process suchas English expressions and language learning methods so that they cangreatly improve their English.The second is the mutual evaluation among students.Students canevaluate the outcomes of other students and give the evaluation to otherson the Internet. Different students have different understanding andmaster of knowledge, therefore in the process of evaluation they canimprove their study ability and creative ability.The third is the evaluation of teachers. If the teacherscanimmediately give responses to the students in class, it will be morebeneficial for students’ English learning. Though the Internet, teacherscan look through students’ assignment rapidly and find their advantagesand disadvantages and then give immediate evaluation to the studentsthrough screen or the Internet.6. The Limitation of Behavioristic CALLBehavioristic CALL has a great influence in the history of education.It plays an important role in remedy the lack of enforcement and responsein teaching and the ignorance of the personal characteristics of students.At the same time, it has some shortcomings: this kind of teaching is kindof inflexible and is not good for improving students’ ability of independent thinking and of solving problems independently.What’smore, it divides study content into small units, which makes students easyto feel bored and is not good for them to understand things as a whole.Therefore, when teachers use the behavioristic CALL,they shouldconsider both its advantages and disadvantages and use it properly toimprove teaching efficiency.ReferenceAyersman, D.J. &Minden, A. Individual Differences, Computers,and Instruction.Computers in Human Behavior. 1995.Fox J.D. Computer-assisted Vocabulary Learning. ELT. 1984.Warschauer M&D. 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