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Abstract：Modern College English teaching put emphasis on learner-centered teaching, but in practical teaching process, learned-centered teaching is still not realized. This article describes the necessities and advantages of the learner-centered College English teaching and how to construct the learner-centered College English teaching system.
Key words：learner-centered; college English; construction
I. Introduction
Current educational theory argues for a learner-centered rather than a teacher-centered approach (Hansen & Stephens, 2000). Learner-centered education shifts the focus from teachers to learners. In 2007, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China published the formal College English Curriculum Requirements. According to the requirements, the objective of College English is to develop students’ ability to use English in a well-rounded way, especially in listening and speaking, so that in their future studies and careers as well as social interactions they will be able to communicate effectively. At the same time, all the courses, whether computer-based or classroom-based, should be fully individual-oriented, colleges and universities should remold the existing unitary teacher-centered pattern of language teaching by introducing computer-and classroom-based teaching models. Therefore, many Chinese colleges and universities are engaged in the shift of their teaching model from teacher-centered to learner-centered. But in practical College English teaching, it is very hard for both college English teachers and students to change the model because of many factors working on it.
II. The necessities of the learner-centered College English teaching
1. The need of the new era
With the policy of reform and opening up of China, English communicative ability becomes more and more important to the development of the whole society. In order to meet the needs of the country and society for qualified personnel in the new era, Chinese College English teaching model has to deepen reform to improve teaching quality.
2. The need of the language nature
Hymes points out that language communicative competence should include expressive grammatical feature and acceptable meaning. The final target of language teaching should cultivate learners’ inter-cultural communicative competence. Thus, learner-centered teaching model is the essential method to realize the target，while the teacher-centered teaching , grammar-translation method, can achieve it.
3. The present situation of College English requires learner-centered teaching
The low spoken English proficiency of college and university students requires the teaching reform. The inappropriateness of defining the roles of College English teachers is the major cause. The misunderstanding of the roles makes classroom teaching mostly teacher-centered instead of learner-centered. According to the questionnaire to 2431 college students in a certain university, only 12% students recognize that their College English teaching is learner-centered. Therefore, it is essential to make teachers figure out the roles of College English teachers. The College English teachers should be the facilitators of students and the stimulators of students.
III. The pros of the learner-centered College English teaching
1. Learner-centered College English teaching informs learners of what they can expect to achieve from the College English curriculum, so they can organize their time and efforts, which communicates the College English curriculum goals in a meaningful way to learners.
2. Learner-centered College English teaching helps to determine the extent to which learning outcomes has been accomplished. According to the outcomes of learners, curriculum committees can re-determine and redesign the course content, delivery and assessment strategies.
3. Learner-centered College English teaching places emphasis on group work, learning communities, interaction between learners or learners and teacher, clearly defined learning outcomes. Individual classroom learning environments are complex interactions among a variety of elements, including teacher and student perceptions, instructional practices, learning needs, and larger system issues. All of these greatly increase the participation opportunities in learners’ language practice and the implication of the target language, which also strengthen the learners’ critical thinking ability and problem-solving skills
IV. Constructing the Learner-centered College English Teaching System in China
1. Shift teaching notion from teacher-centered to learner-centered
The teacher-centered College English teaching system views teachers as active knowledge giver in the traditional educational process and learners as passive receptacles of knowledge. While in learner-centered College English teaching system, teachers should be the organizers, guides, promoters of the classroom activities. Teachers should place less emphasis on what they know and more on what learners bring to the educational encounter.
2. Find the well-knit between the teaching model and the teaching materials.
In China, every college or university has unified or stipulated textbooks or teaching and learning materials. During the term, teacher and students have to complete the stipulated learning content. For most colleges and universities, the face-to-face class hours are limited to all the teaching materials. Therefore, as College English teachers, they have to find the most effective way to balance the teaching materials and the learner-centered teaching model.
3. Respect the learners’ individual features
In learner-centered College English teaching, the students have the difference in the aspects of knowledge, intelligence, affection, personality, and motivation. College English teachers have to respect the differences in order to increase accountability, find different ways to motivate different students, and encourage students’ individualized learning so as to meet the needs of their development in different specialties.
4. Construct learner-centered environment for College English teaching.
At last but not least, the new model should be built on modern information technology, particularly network technology, so that English language teaching and learning will be, to a certain extent, free from the constrains of time or place and geared towards students’ and attach particular importance to the central position of students and the leading role of teachers in the teaching and learning process. This model should incorporate into it the strengths of the current model and give play to the advantages of traditional classroom teaching while fully employing modern information technology. This needs special funds and specialists in information technology to build the language learning environment and facilities for College English learners.
Conclusion : It is a great change in College English teaching that conventional teacher-centered English teaching model shift to modern learner-centered College English teaching model and builds vast vistas for the development of the learners practical communicative competence in the future. Therefore, the emphasis should be put on the construction of the learner-centered College English teaching system.
Reference：
[1] Hansen EJ, Stephens JA. The ethics of learner-centered education: dynamics that impede the process. Change, Sept/Oct 2000;41–47.
[2] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. College English Curriculum Requirements［M］．Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing House, 2007
[3] Hymes , D. On Communicative Competence , In J . B. Pride and J . Holmes (eds) Socionlinguistics. Harmondsworth :penguin. 1972.
[4] McCombs, B.L.(1999).What role does perceptual psychology play in educational reform today? In H.J.Frieberg (Ed.), Perceiving, behaving, becoming: lessons learned (pp.148–157). Alexandri a, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
[5] Daniel, J. (1993). The challenge of mass education. Studies in Higher Education, 18, 197–203.
[6] Schneider, C. G. & Shoenberg, R. (1999). Habits hard to break: How persistent features of campus life frustrate curricular reform. Change, March/April, 30–35.
﹡北京信息科技大学教学改革项目《优化我校网络环境下大学英语自主学习平台的研究》资助 （编号：2010JG35）
作者简介：李伟宏（1973-），女，北京人，讲师，硕士，研究方向：语言学及应用语言学。
Key words：learner-centered; college English; construction
I. Introduction
Current educational theory argues for a learner-centered rather than a teacher-centered approach (Hansen & Stephens, 2000). Learner-centered education shifts the focus from teachers to learners. In 2007, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China published the formal College English Curriculum Requirements. According to the requirements, the objective of College English is to develop students’ ability to use English in a well-rounded way, especially in listening and speaking, so that in their future studies and careers as well as social interactions they will be able to communicate effectively. At the same time, all the courses, whether computer-based or classroom-based, should be fully individual-oriented, colleges and universities should remold the existing unitary teacher-centered pattern of language teaching by introducing computer-and classroom-based teaching models. Therefore, many Chinese colleges and universities are engaged in the shift of their teaching model from teacher-centered to learner-centered. But in practical College English teaching, it is very hard for both college English teachers and students to change the model because of many factors working on it.
II. The necessities of the learner-centered College English teaching
1. The need of the new era
With the policy of reform and opening up of China, English communicative ability becomes more and more important to the development of the whole society. In order to meet the needs of the country and society for qualified personnel in the new era, Chinese College English teaching model has to deepen reform to improve teaching quality.
2. The need of the language nature
Hymes points out that language communicative competence should include expressive grammatical feature and acceptable meaning. The final target of language teaching should cultivate learners’ inter-cultural communicative competence. Thus, learner-centered teaching model is the essential method to realize the target，while the teacher-centered teaching , grammar-translation method, can achieve it.
3. The present situation of College English requires learner-centered teaching
The low spoken English proficiency of college and university students requires the teaching reform. The inappropriateness of defining the roles of College English teachers is the major cause. The misunderstanding of the roles makes classroom teaching mostly teacher-centered instead of learner-centered. According to the questionnaire to 2431 college students in a certain university, only 12% students recognize that their College English teaching is learner-centered. Therefore, it is essential to make teachers figure out the roles of College English teachers. The College English teachers should be the facilitators of students and the stimulators of students.
III. The pros of the learner-centered College English teaching
1. Learner-centered College English teaching informs learners of what they can expect to achieve from the College English curriculum, so they can organize their time and efforts, which communicates the College English curriculum goals in a meaningful way to learners.
2. Learner-centered College English teaching helps to determine the extent to which learning outcomes has been accomplished. According to the outcomes of learners, curriculum committees can re-determine and redesign the course content, delivery and assessment strategies.
3. Learner-centered College English teaching places emphasis on group work, learning communities, interaction between learners or learners and teacher, clearly defined learning outcomes. Individual classroom learning environments are complex interactions among a variety of elements, including teacher and student perceptions, instructional practices, learning needs, and larger system issues. All of these greatly increase the participation opportunities in learners’ language practice and the implication of the target language, which also strengthen the learners’ critical thinking ability and problem-solving skills
IV. Constructing the Learner-centered College English Teaching System in China
1. Shift teaching notion from teacher-centered to learner-centered
The teacher-centered College English teaching system views teachers as active knowledge giver in the traditional educational process and learners as passive receptacles of knowledge. While in learner-centered College English teaching system, teachers should be the organizers, guides, promoters of the classroom activities. Teachers should place less emphasis on what they know and more on what learners bring to the educational encounter.
2. Find the well-knit between the teaching model and the teaching materials.
In China, every college or university has unified or stipulated textbooks or teaching and learning materials. During the term, teacher and students have to complete the stipulated learning content. For most colleges and universities, the face-to-face class hours are limited to all the teaching materials. Therefore, as College English teachers, they have to find the most effective way to balance the teaching materials and the learner-centered teaching model.
3. Respect the learners’ individual features
In learner-centered College English teaching, the students have the difference in the aspects of knowledge, intelligence, affection, personality, and motivation. College English teachers have to respect the differences in order to increase accountability, find different ways to motivate different students, and encourage students’ individualized learning so as to meet the needs of their development in different specialties.
4. Construct learner-centered environment for College English teaching.
At last but not least, the new model should be built on modern information technology, particularly network technology, so that English language teaching and learning will be, to a certain extent, free from the constrains of time or place and geared towards students’ and attach particular importance to the central position of students and the leading role of teachers in the teaching and learning process. This model should incorporate into it the strengths of the current model and give play to the advantages of traditional classroom teaching while fully employing modern information technology. This needs special funds and specialists in information technology to build the language learning environment and facilities for College English learners.
Conclusion : It is a great change in College English teaching that conventional teacher-centered English teaching model shift to modern learner-centered College English teaching model and builds vast vistas for the development of the learners practical communicative competence in the future. Therefore, the emphasis should be put on the construction of the learner-centered College English teaching system.
Reference：
[1] Hansen EJ, Stephens JA. The ethics of learner-centered education: dynamics that impede the process. Change, Sept/Oct 2000;41–47.
[2] Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. College English Curriculum Requirements［M］．Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing House, 2007
[3] Hymes , D. On Communicative Competence , In J . B. Pride and J . Holmes (eds) Socionlinguistics. Harmondsworth :penguin. 1972.
[4] McCombs, B.L.(1999).What role does perceptual psychology play in educational reform today? In H.J.Frieberg (Ed.), Perceiving, behaving, becoming: lessons learned (pp.148–157). Alexandri a, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
[5] Daniel, J. (1993). The challenge of mass education. Studies in Higher Education, 18, 197–203.
[6] Schneider, C. G. & Shoenberg, R. (1999). Habits hard to break: How persistent features of campus life frustrate curricular reform. Change, March/April, 30–35.
﹡北京信息科技大学教学改革项目《优化我校网络环境下大学英语自主学习平台的研究》资助 （编号：2010JG35）
作者简介：李伟宏（1973-），女，北京人，讲师，硕士，研究方向：语言学及应用语言学。