面授辅导
---传统课堂和网络课堂的最佳结合
Tutorials --- An Integration of Traditional and Online
Classrooms
Presented By Zhu
Meiping
School of International Business
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Abstract
Beijing Foreign Studies University (Beiwai/BFSU) has a fine tradition
in foreign language teaching and learning. Its noble aim of developing learners’
minds and characters, its high quality of language teaching and learning
materials, its devoted language teachers, its intensive language practice of
small classes (The Intensive Reading Approach), its pleasant style of
individual attention to learners all contribute to the formation and
development of its campus culture. Beiwaionline Institute of Education has been
carrying out and developing this fine tradition ever since it was founded two
years ago. Its tutorial classroom is an interesting and encouraging place for
its learners. Its tutors are creative, instructive, empathetic, patient,
helpful, and hardworking. The nice integration of Beiwai traditional classroom
and online tutorial classroom is a very effective practice for online language
education.
Key
Words
Tutorial, tutor, online
classroom, online learning, online education
Introduction
A simple, maybe a boring, question for language teachers and learners
would be: why do we learn a foreign language? I will rephrase the question to
make it more related to our seminar today: why do we study English? We have
been asked this question many times and we have asked students this question
many times as well. Have we given it much thought? I am afraid not. Of course
there are many different answers to this question. But I would like to argue
that all the answers would fall into three categories. We learn a foreign
language for three reasons: 1) a foreign language, in our case English, is a
window through which we can get to know a new world; 2) it is a way or an
approach that will help us to achieve success in career development; and 3) it
is a fulfillment of our lives in a way that our intellect is enriched and
wisdom sharpened by the knowledge of other civilizations or cultures. This
paper will share with you my thoughts and personal experiences working with
Beiwaionline as a tutor. I will cover the following topics: 1) aims of learning
a foreign language; 2) my understanding of online education and online
learning; 3) Beiwai’s traditional classroom and intensive reading approach; 4)
the importance of tutorials and tutors for online learning. The theme of this
paper is: the online learning tutorial on campus is an extension and elaboration
of the traditional classroom and a very important component of the online
language teaching and learning program.
1.
Aims of Learning a Foreign Language
1.1. English: A Window into a New World
In the first category mentioned above, a foreign language does help to
extend our lives to a new dimension in the sense that through learning a new
language, we learn more things about new cultures and other nations. As English
language learners, we all know that through learning English our horizons have
been very much broadened by the knowledge we have acquired about the English
speaking countries, especially Britain and the United States of America, and
their cultures. The more we learn, the happier we are and the more meaningful
is our life!
1.2. English: A Road to Success
The second category is more of an instrumental reason for learning a
foreign language. It is, therefore, the most popular reason for people to learn
a foreign language in present day China. Millions of people are learning
English with a strong desire to be more successful in their career development
and social life. As tutors, we know very well that most of our learners, let’s
make some concessions here, we say most, not all, study English for a degree
paper, a very important proof of their academic progress, with which they hope
to get a promotion or find a better job in the future. This does not mean that
they are wrong in doing so. No, English has already become a most powerful
means on our road to success in China today. We are being carried forward by
social tides and we can find no way to resist them. But with an instrumental
purpose for learning English, there has come a major worrisome problem: people
tend to hold twisted and unhealthy attitudes towards learning English. Some of
them try to seek short cuts in the hope of learning English faster, as they do
with having instant noodles. I couldn’t help laughing about a program entitled
“One day, one language”. Did this cheat try to cater to the public crazy mood
for learning English?
1.3. English: A Contribution to Humanity’s
Development
The third category is the highest hierarchy for learning a foreign
language. With English, we learn the best from other countries and people to
make up for what we lack in our culture to enrich our experiences and sharpen
our wisdom so that we can improve ourselves and make our nation a better and
more advanced one. On the other hand, we can contribute to other nations and
civilizations by introducing our best to them so that they will benefit from
our culture and civilization. This is the highest and noblest objective for
studying a foreign language.
To sum up, an eye-opener, a tool and a contribution will be the three
key words to cover the above discussion in answering the question “why do we
learn English”. Language teaching and learning, together with many other
things, can never be static and it is changing with the times. With the
development of IT industries and the application of its technologies, language
teaching and learning has witnessed a great change. We now can learn things online
over the Internet at home without having to go the school campus to acquire
education. This fast and drastic change has made many of us feel dumbfounded
without knowing what to do to meet the challenge in our teaching career. This
new thing “Online education” has come into our lives and we have to get to know
and manage it.
2.
Online Education
and Online Learning
2.1.
Education Versus Learning
People may have different ideas about the word “education”. Here are
the definitions from three authoritative English language dictionaries.
According to 1) Webster New World Dictionary(1968), education is “the process
of training and developing the knowledge, skill, mind, character, etc.,
especially by formal schooling”(p.444); 2) The Concise Oxford Dictionary Ninth Edition
(1995) defines it as “development of character or mental powers”(p.431); 3) Collins
Cobuild English Dictionary (2000) simply offers a definition like this
“education “involves teaching people various subjects, usually at a school or
college, or being taught”(p.529). What about learning? Here are the three
definitions from the same dictionaries. 1) Webster New World Dictionary defines
learning as “the acquiring of knowledge or skill”(p.804); 2) Concise
Oxford Dictionary Ninth Edition says that learning is “knowledge
acquired by study”(p.774); 3) Collins Cobuild English Dictionary offers
this definition: “Learning is the process of gaining knowledge through
studying”.
2.2.
Mind, Character and Knowledge
By studying the six definitions we can make two important points: 1)
education can be understood at two levels: A) the acquisition of practical
knowledge and B) the cultivation of mind and character; 2) education is
different from learning in the sense that education
is more of mind cultivation and character building while learning is more of practical skill
training. Through one year’s tutoring experiences with Beiwaionline, I would
argue that Beiwaionline has done both.
2.3.
Developing the Wholeness of Mind and Spirit
From the very beginning, Beiwaionline attaches a great importance to
developing learners’ minds and characters. Their motto is “Develop the Wholeness of a Person or develop a harmonious
personality through a language education”. This is a noble aim for offering
language education to the society as a whole. Here Beiwaionline is unique in
the way it takes the important concern of humanity studies into account, which
is a key component of Beiwai’s cultural tradition throughout its language
teaching and learning history. Through the years of teaching here, Beiwai
people have come to the realization that it is as necessary to make our
students into whole and harmonious personalities as to keep themselves clean,
healthy and financially solvent. We know that the wholeness of mind and spirit
is not inborn and instinctive, but can be attained through an education and we
are here working hard to help learners to obtain it.
2.4. Online Learning
By online learning, we mean, in its broadest sense, learners use
Internet or website as a means for learning some knowledge. In a more
restricted sense, it means learners register with a learning program on a
website over the Internet for a degree study. After they pay the tuition
(usually cheaper than the formal schooling), they are given a code to enter the
learning platform of the program and study the courses whenever they like
within a period of time required. Learners need some Internet skills to do the
online learning programs, such as computer operation knowledge, email skill,
net surfing, etc. The significance of online learning is that it knows no
limitation and boundary. Its scope is limitless.
3.
Beiwai Teaching Tradition and its Classroom
3.1. Fundamentals in Language Teaching
In their second year of study for the course English for Studying, online
learners have been assigned to write a composition on their ideal online
learning classroom. Despite some misunderstandings, the descriptions in learners’
assignments are varied and rich in imagination. Let me summarize the main ideas
of one unique composition by a learner called Hou Kuangyi (BA0207). He says
that he has a dream about an ideal online learning classroom. It should a free
space, which is a provider for our psychic (I think he means “spiritual”) world
with a mission to uphold the belief that all men are created equal. To him,
first, an ideal online learning classroom is living, caring, sharing, giving,
taking someone’s load, and will seek the best for others. Second, the style of
an ideal online learning classroom should be volunteering and interactive.
Third, it should be a friendship network. Finally, an ideal online learning
classroom “should provide us with a psychic life”, which means “it not only
gives us new thoughts, new concepts, new theories, but also helps us to
comprehend values of life, because to make discoveries is human nature and
freedom and happiness is what humans hunt.”
After reading his composition, I became lost in thought. Does what he
describes about online learning classroom match the philosophy of traditional
classroom? My argument is yes. In the first section of this paper, three aims
of language learning have been discussed. This learner’s imaginative thought
seems to follow the line of thoughts of the third aim, which is to cultivate
humanities in language learning. Of course, there are differences between an
online classroom and a traditional classroom as to the approach and structure
of the teaching and learning program, but the philosophical fundamentals remain
the same: whether it is online or on campus, learning is to cultivate abilities
and develop the human character.
3.2. Beiwai Traditional Classroom
Beijing Foreign Studies University (Beiwai/BFSU) has been carrying out
educational reforms all these years and the results are generally positive and
beneficial. In response to the external changes in the job market, it has taken
the needs of our students in respect to the changing talent market into serious
consideration and has developed some new programs, which are positively
accepted by both the students and the employers of various kinds. While doing
this, however, we have been forced to ask ourselves this question again and
again; in times of rapid change, to meet with the challenge, what is the core
competence of BSFU for our education for foreign language learners? What are
our strengths? And our weaknesses? As this paper is supposed to a short one, I
would like to devote it to the discussion of one key component of our core
competence, that is our Intensive Reading Approach in foreign language
teaching, a very popular language teaching method in China ever since the
liberation in 1949. In this paper it refers to the intensive English reading
approach.
3.3. Intensive Reading Approach
I think there are some misunderstandings about the Intensive Reaching
Approach being practiced in BFSU. Some people regard this approach as somewhat
like “grammar translation method”, which, they think, is out of date and not
feasible in the present day language teaching. I would like to argue that they
are wrong in thinking so, because even the grammar translation approach, though
no longer dominant, does have a role to play nowadays in a language teaching
classroom, not to speak of the intensive reading approach. For the sake of
space, this paper can not elaborate too much on it. I myself have been teaching
intensive reading courses for 25 years and I would say that the longer I work
with this approach, the more profound understanding I have for adopting this
approach in a foreign language teaching and learning environment in China. Of
course, as is known to everyone, nothing in this world is perfect and so is
with the intensive reading approach, which has gone through some changes with
the change of time.
Here in BFSU, in 1970s, the intensive reading approach was associated
with the audio-lingual philosophy of language teaching, which emphasizes
listening and speaking skills; in 1980s, it was associated with the communicative
teaching philosophy, which stresses the communicative language skills; and in
1990s, it was somewhat influenced by the comprehensive teaching philosophy while
in recent years it is associated more with the eclectic approach, which
advocates an integration of teaching five skills in one course. But whatever
changes there have been with it, the basics of the Beiwai intensive reading
approach haven’t changed much. This approach remains as strong as ever as seen
in the following points:
1)
The guiding principle:
foreign language teaching/learning is an intensive training process which will
last about 4 years to achieve the necessary proficiency to be able to work with
it (teaching goal);
2) Teacher’s
multiple roles: head-teacher, instructor, initiator, guide, motivator,
counselor, encourager, problem solver, helper, etc. (teacher quality)
3) Good quality teaching materials/textbooks (teaching quality)
4) Individual attention for students (Student benefits)
---
small classes (from 18 to 24 students, small growth in number
over the past 30 years in spite
of the trend that classes are
growing bigger and bigger)
(teaching style)
---7-8
teaching hours per week (time guarantee)
---One intensive reading
teacher for one class (personnel
guarantee)
In the following section we will discuss these basics in detail.
3.4.
Fundamentals of an Intensive Reading Approach
BFSU has a fine teaching tradition (Beiwai culture), which is fully
reflected in its teaching philosophy and its classrooms. The intensive reading
course has always been the core/essential course for language learning programs
in Beiwai ever since I came here in the early 1970s, for it is believed that it
can provide the most intensive and comprehensive training for language learners
to be a successful language user. Over the years, Beiwai’s intensive reading
classroom has been considered the most challenging place for both learners and
teachers. On the teacher’s part, the main reason, I would argue, is that in
this course and its classroom, the teachers are expected to be so good and
efficient in so many ways besides his/her very good command of English with its
five skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation. After
graduation and at the time when I was about to become a teacher here, I felt
very scared and worried that I could ever be a successful teacher. But with the
passage of time, I have come to understand the real values of the intensive
reading approach and its classroom.
First, I do believe that foreign language learning IS an intensive
training process if one wants to learn it with a serious purpose and to acquire
a good proficiency of the language being learned. Of course, they are many ways
and approaches to learning a foreign language, in our case to learning English,
but when you come to its high level of proficiency, the story will be different.
You just have to get down to real work in learning, whether you are happy or
not, whether it is a Crazy English approach or a New Concept English approach.
Here comes the role of intensive reading approach, which is a tough reading
course with the purpose of developing learners’ four language skills in an
integrated way. I hope it is not mistaken as only a reading course. It is not.
Second, intensive reading course teachers do have to meet the greatest
challenge in his/her classroom. Usually the students have the highest
expectations for the intensive reading course and its teachers. Their
importance could be illustrated in the following fact: if the intensive reading
teacher has a good command of English, a good breath of knowledge, an earnest
teaching attitude, a lively teaching style, and an understanding and
sympathetic personality, the students will tolerate some other courses with
less than adequate teaching quality, therefore the whole teaching program can
survive because they have this excellent intensive reading teacher and this
good quality learning classroom. The pressure of teaching an intensive reading
course and being a teacher in its classroom has always been huge, especially
when you teach the juniors and seniors. The lucky thing is that the intensive
reading approach has provided good professional training to us teachers and
produced a whole group of excellent professors at Beiwai generation after
generation. The argument is that we teachers here perform best under the greatest
pressure of the intensive reading approach!
Third, Beiwai has been making great efforts in producing good quality
textbooks for English language learners all over China. Of all the textbooks
that have been published, I am most familiar with the set of College
English textbooks, compiled by English professors and edited by
professors Hu Wenzhong and Yang Liming in the English Department of BFSU for the
intensive reading classroom. I would argue that in spite of the fact that there
is a new set of Contemporary College English, compiled by some of the same
professors here, which is meant to replace the old set, the former set of College
English has played a key role in the English teaching classroom not
only here, but also in the English classrooms of colleges and universities all
over China. I have been teaching from this series for a number of years and
have come to love some of the texts for real appreciation. The language of most
texts is of such very good quality that they are not only for appreciation but
also for digestion and internalization! Now the new set of Contemporary College English is
being taught in our classroom and I like the new set very much for the same
reason: it also provides excellent English texts for appreciation and digestion
and internalization.
Fourth, Beiwai’s small classes are unique to language teaching. I would
like to argue strongly for this teaching and learning style. Small classes mean
more attention for the learners in classroom, which is essential to practicing
language skills. Getting to know students individually and their learning
problems in particular are very important for both the teaching and the
learning processes in any classroom. It is an effective arrangement that Beiwai
has always had. Besides, it has one intensive reading teacher for one class,
which is to guarantee enough attention from the teacher to the needs of
students in and out of the classroom. The more you understand your students’ needs
and problems, the more efficiently you can handle your classroom, the better
teaching quality you will have in the classroom. I feel proud of this fact that
Beiwai’s language teaching classroom has been so far intellectually, not
commercially oriented.
3.5. The priority of listening and speaking
As part of the intensive reading approach, the emphasis on listening
and speaking is a unique feature. As an undergraduate, postgraduate and
teacher, I have been with Beiwai for nearly thirty years. I can say that I have
witnessed many changes here, some of which have taken place in the language
teaching classroom. I was taught English in the 1970s with the audio-lingual
method, in which we were told that listening and speaking should go before
reading and writing. So I remember clearly that in our first year classroom we
had no written materials at all before any class. We were given a tape and a
big class cassette-player and asked to listen to the learning material as many
times as we could. We were told to speak loudly after the tape to imitate the
pronunciation and intonation very well and then to understand what was on the
tape and remember the contents by heart. This was unique to us because we were
worker-peasant-solider students chosen to study English. Most of us were adult
beginners with no English background at all. It could be imagined how difficult
it was for us to learn English at that time! But somehow the audio-lingual
method worked well with us. Most of us turned out to speak and write fairly good
English. I argue that the emphasis of putting listening and speaking in the
priority position in language teaching process is very beneficial and should be
greatly encouraged.
4.
Beiwaionline Learning and its Classroom
4.1.
Online English Language Learning
Online English language learning is a new thing which has come into
being in response to the needs of the English language learners of the present
day open China. We are now globalizing and this trend (good or bad) is so
strong that nobody can stop it. English language learning has a very important
role to play in this current globalization. Here at BFSU, we have initiated the
programs of teaching English online, which is pioneering work in the field of
English language teaching and learning in China and we feel proud of it. This
is, however, a challenging piece of work in meeting the changing needs of the
present day Chinese learners of English in this fast changing world. We know we
are faced with a great challenge. We need to turn:
1)
the
conventional student into a self-disciplined, self-managed, and self-motivated
learner;
2) the conventional teacher into a real and virtual tutor
3) the conventional textbook into learning resources;
4) the traditional college campus into an online learning
support system;
5) the established exams into a learning process monitoring
method.
To sum up, our goals of online English language learning are:
1)
Transfer
learners’ knowledge to skills: online learners must learn by becoming fully
involved in and doing activities;
2)
Change the teacher-centered
language teaching approach into the learner-centered learning approach: online
learners should take initiative and adopt an autonomous approach to learning;
3)
Divert
learners’ attention from exam scores to continuous learning progress: online
learners are expected to monitor their learning progress which will ultimately
lead to high English proficiency.
Considering these fundamentals, we know that online English language
teaching and learning is by no means an easy endeavor. It’s a gigantic project
for us to be engaged in.
4.2. Online English Language Learners
Online English language learners are a special group of people with
special needs, which we are required to take into special consideration. Their
profile is something like this:
They have 1)
jobs;
2)
family obligations
3) pressures (from work/ time/
energy)
4) conventional beliefs (they
want to have a teacher, a textbook,
a classroom and high exam grades, etc.)
All our learners have jobs, whether full-time or part-time，and they have to work hard to support themselves and
earn their own tuition as well. Some of them are married with children and have
to support their families as well. They are busy working and have a lot of
company or organizational responsibilities to be carried out. They often go on
business trips, having no time to fulfill their study plans and/or attend
tutorials. Some often complain that after a day’s hard work in the office or on
field work trips, they are very tired and are short of the energy required to
do the study tasks. They hope that the teachers will push them in the classroom
and help them study the textbooks well so that they can pass the exams and survive
the program to earn the final degree paper. Their aim from online learning is
mainly to have a degree paper which will help them to obtain job promotions or
job shifts and further their career development.
To meet their special needs and satisfy their eager desires for
learning English well, we argue that we need first to cultivate their special
abilities for learning English skills online. These capabilities include:
1)
Learning
independently and collaboratively
2)
Having
self-discipline
3)
Having
self-management
4)
Solving the
conflicts between study and other commitments
5)
Monitoring
self-study progress
6)
Maintaining
perseverance
7)
Developing their
own learning styles and strategies
8)
Being able to
lead and control
Online learners learn English mostly online in their homes with a
tutorial on campus every two weeks. It is crucial that they should develop an
ability to study English independently. And also they have to learn how to
communicate with other online learning classmates and study together online for
better progress. Without regular classes which are compulsory and scheduled,
online learners enjoy a great freedom as to the time for and the place of their
own learning, but this flexibility demands self-discipline on the part of
online learners. Without enough self-discipline, they won’t do the work well enough
to survive the learning program. Then, even with great determination, some online learners
won’t succeed if they don’t manage their time and lives well. Since online
learning takes place mostly at home, not on campus, online learners have to
deal with conflicts not only between and study and work, but also between study
and their family obligations. We cannot imagine how an online learner can be
successful without firm support from his/her family members!
Online learning is a self-taught process and it is so important for the
learner to monitor his/her own learning progress. Through doing this, he/she
will be able to timely summarize his/her own learning experiences to get to
know his/her strengths and weaknesses in learning and orient his/her directions
for learning. Many times the learners have come across learning difficulties of
various kinds and they are sometimes overwhelmed and frustrated by them, so it
is very important to have perseverance in learning. Learning English is tough,
but they have to stick to it in order to be successful! How can they keep on?
They need to develop their own learning strategies and learning style in order
to create efficiency for better progress. In language learning, especially in online
learning, as in anything else, if the learner can control himself/herself,
surely he/she can create her/his direction not only in study and work but also
in all aspects of life!
In summary, the development of the abilities of online language
learners and the cultivation of their minds and spirits in terms of humanities studies,
together with training their English language skills, is to us the most
important goal. It is also a noble goal of education at every responsible
educational institution in the world, whether online or not. And this will
bring a life-long benefit to the learners, whether online or not.
4.3. Online Tutorial Classrooms
Beiwai Online teaching and learning has inherited the fine teaching
tradition of BFSU. My diligent colleagues in the Online Institute have been
doing pioneering work to move campus language teaching programs online to meet
the needs of the market economy in China. I have a lot of admiration for their
work. Since I am one of the writers of the core textbooks they are now using
for their BA online learners, I was invited to join them in the tutorial work
about two years ago. In the past year and a half, as a tutor, I have
accumulated some tutoring experiences, which I would very much like to share
with you. In the following section I will talk about my experience from two
points of view: 1) my tutorial classroom and 2) what I feel we need to have to
be a tutor in an online learning tutorial.
My one year and a half of tutorial experiences with online education
can be summarized as follows. To me, tutorials are meant to:
l
summarize and
highlight contents to be taught
l
crystallize
language and grammar points to be learned
l
organize
sufficient activities for learners to practice what they are learning
l
offer
guidance or advice on how to learn English more efficiently
l
provide
face-to-face communication not only between tutors and learners but also
between learners as so to deepen mutual understanding
l
give emotional
support to the learners so as to encourage learners to move on in times of
troubles and difficulties
l
tackle
learners’ practical learning problems and offer timely solutions.
Beiwai online learners have on-campus tutorials, each of which usually
lasts for 4 hours on weekends every two weeks. It is a bit too long and is also
a tiring process, but I know it is arranged to the advantage of the learners in
order to save them time and trouble. To my knowledge, most of the learners have
high expectations of Beiwaionline English language teaching programs, so they
attach a lot of importance to the on-campus tutorials. Some learners even bring
their children into the classroom because it so happens that at a certain
weekend they have nobody to help them to look after their kids and they hate to
miss the tutorial. Whenever this happens, my heart is touched and I feel greatly
motivated to do the tutorials well for these eager learners.
I would like to say that an online tutorial classroom is more
challenging than a traditional classroom. Let me present the reason why. The
online tutorial demands so much time and energy from us, because it is
a new thing and we are learning by doing. The online learning
approach is new to us; the online learning materials are new to us; and the
learners are new to us too! So, everything is new and we are “feeling the
stones to cross the big river” (I quote from our late national leader Deng
Xiaoping), and nobody knows for sure how we can do the online learning program
well. Practically speaking, before each tutorial, in order to offer the
learners proper guidance, we need to help them to become familiar with and to practice
the essential contents and language points of every unit in the textbook. In
order to do this well, a tutor has to read and study over 100 pages of learning
materials (two units) of activities, tasks and feedback as part of our
preparation work. In addition to this, he/she is supposed to study tutorial
plans and power points for the tutorial well too. Just look at this amount of
tutorial preparation work! It could be argued that nobody will do it without a spirit of devotion! Beiwaionline
tutors are a group of teachers as tutors, who have risen to meet the challenge
of the time and done the work well! So, it takes great courage and selfless devotion to be Beiwaionline tutors!
A tutorial classroom is really very different from a traditional
classroom. Our online learners should be trained intentionally and with
continuous efforts to be independent
learners, so, in tutorial sessions, we should remember that the learners
are always to be at the center all we do in the classroom. They should be
motivated by our constant renewed efforts and be fully engaged in activities
for sufficient practice in the classroom. To ensure every learner’s
participation in classroom activities, the tutor should walk around in the
classroom, instead of staying in the front, and join them in practice and
communication and offer advice to them from time to time. If you do this, you
are making efforts to be close to the learners and consequently, they feel
close to you, too. The result is that you have helped the learners break down
their psychological barriers to speaking English to an audience, because they
feel they know you well and they won’t feel embarrassed when speaking English
in class. So, our sincere understanding and encouragement are very important to
our online learners. Through participation, practice and peer comparison and
competition, they will gradually develop independent learning habits and styles
for use in all aspects of their lives.
In addition to what has been discussed above, the most important point
I would like to make is that the tutor should be constantly aware that our
online learners are eager to know how they can learn English efficiently. I am sure that we as tutors must have
had this case: a learner comes to you and says, “Teacher, I have been learning
English for 10 years, but my English is still very poor. How can I improve it?”
How shall we answer this most general and most challenging question? I suggest
that we should answer this question through various activities and tasks
professionally and scientifically designed for practice in a tutorial
classroom. Before asking the learners to do each activity, we are supposed to
make it clear to them what the activity is for and what sort of language skills
we hope they will acquire by doing the activity. In this way, gradually and
systematically, they will get to know how they can learn English well through
practicing hard. So, our conscientious and conscious efforts to guide our
learners to a better learning approach are essential to the success of the tutorial.
4.4.
Online Learning Tutors
As a tutor, I have experienced the “role change”. I would like to argue
that to be an
online tutor is much more challenging
than to be a traditional classroom teacher. The challenge can be reflected
in requirements for the tutor. With this change of role, we are required to
have:
l
Great
interest in online education and a devoted spirit
l
Some basic computer
knowledge and skills
l
Good
understanding of the online learning approach
l
Good
understanding of the online course design, including the textbooks, the
tutorial plans/power points, the classroom activities, other learning resources
etc.
l
Mastery of
course contents and language points to be taught
l
Good
understanding of the online learners
l
Patient
personality and empathic attitude towards the learners in classroom
The first thing I would like emphasize is that online tutors should be interested in online learning
programs, otherwise, they would suffer terribly from the large amount of work
to do if they have no interest in it at all! Then, only having an interest in
doing the work is still not enough, because the work is so challenging. So, an
online tutor needs to have a devoted
sprit toward the work, which is, to some extent, a thankless job with
insufficient financial reward (I beg pardon from our Online Institute managers
for saying so). Having said this, however, once when we have chosen to work
with the online programs, we must be clear about our responsibilities and do
the work well.
I feel that, as a tutor, the biggest challenge that has come to me is concept change, which means that I need
to change the teaching philosophy I have cherished for years and with which I
feel quite at home working in my traditional classroom, and that is the
teacher-centered and knowledge-centered approach. Over the years, though I
myself have been carrying out some classroom reforms in my intensive reading
approach, the progress is still ponderous. At this time the online learning
program really demands a major reform, a revolution, to a certain extent, in
language teaching! So, from the very beginning, things are difficult for me
because they are new and the change is not easy to create in people’s minds or
in the established way of doing things. But as times change, situations change
and the programs change, I guess I have to change too and, to a great extent, I
have changed. Only by changing our philosophical concepts about ways of
teaching, can we start to understand the new approach of online programs.
Besides some basic non-professional knowledge about the Internet,
websites and computer programs, the second challenge to us tutors is the thorough understanding of the teaching materials,
including the course approach, contents and language to be taught to learners.
We have to supervise the tutorials, which is a professional demand. I personally
feel this is indeed a gigantic task! Given my good command of English, I
sometimes felt miserable after a certain section of a tutorial, because I
thought I failed to carry out the tutorial plan well in the classroom and must
have let the learners down. Then I started to reflect on the tutorial and began
to see the problem. It’s my insufficient understanding of the approach and the
materials. Of course, as an experienced teacher, sometimes I may be “creative”
in the classroom, but I know the teaching obligations for that tutorial had not
been fulfilled that day. Through years of teaching, I have come to the real
understanding that only by knowing the teaching material in depth, can we
really know how to handle it, in other words, how to help the learners to
handle it, in an easier and more sufficient way. This lesson has been taught to
me in a profound way by doing the job of an online tutor.
We know that the image of a good traditional teacher should be kind but
strict, understanding but disciplining, and patient but forceful. We call this
metaphorically “The carrot and the stick”
approach, which, I would say, works very well in our traditional classroom. But
as a tutor，I would like to emphasize the tutors’ qualities of being patient and
sympathetic and encouraging for the online learners, who are adult learners
and have occupational, social and family obligations to fulfill. Sometimes they
come to the tutorial without doing any preparations for the tutorial at all,
for it is a matter of their being too busy with other commitments, not a result
of their being lazy. And these occasions test our patience, because this may
cause trouble in the performance of classroom tasks. In this case, how we
handle the case could be a matter of survival on the learner’s part in the
program. My usual way of handling this situation would be to arrange for them
to join in the teams with some learners of good English proficiency so that
they feel they are taken care of by the tutor and at the same time they learn
from their peers. Later on in my tutorial, when the learners have gotten to
know each other well, they know how to form pairs and teams themselves to have
sufficient practice. But if I find someone who is isolated somewhere in the
classroom, I would go immediately and make some necessary arrangements for
him/her to participate in the team work. In this way, we can guarantee that
every learner is getting involved and feeling encouraged as a result of our
understanding and sympathy.
4.5. Suggestions for Online Tutoring
The tutorial work is really tough and our tutors are really working
very hard. We as tutors need both psychological
and professional support from the Online Institute. Psychologically speaking, we hope that people in the Online
Institute would know tutors’ pressures and constantly encourage them with
spiritual and financial reinforcement. The tutors should be made to feel that
their hard work is very much appreciated and properly rewarded, so that they
will have a good feeling and a high morale for their tutorial work. In this
way, their motivation for and devotion to the online learning cause can be
sustained. Professionally speaking,
tutors need more training every year to update their knowledge and improve
their tutorial quality in terms of both online learning theories and English
language skills. As to these two aspects, Beiwaionline has been doing some nice
work already, but there is a lot more they can do and there is a lot of room
for improvement.
Conclusion
Learners who have chosen to register with Beiwaionline English learning
program are bound to have been attracted by something we have here. What is it
then? As I have discussed in the above paper, I think it is the trust they have
in us. They trust the good quality of our language education programs together
with Beiwai’s fine teaching tradition; they trust the good quality of a group
of devoted teachers, who are knowledgeable, kind, helpful, patient and empathic
and who are willing to change their role and have already changed it to the
advantage of both themselves and learners. Online language teaching and
learning programs have enriched Beiwai’s fine teaching traditions and its
culture. Online teaching and learning, as a new enterprise in China, is
developing so quickly that its influence has already been felt in our work and
in our lives! I believe it will have an even greater influence on all aspects
of our work and our lives in the future.
Reference
A Guide to Success 1 --- Orientation 《成功指南1
――导向》
Help Your to Advanced English Series
Published
by Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and
Research Press 2001
A Guide to Success 2 --- Learning Strategies 《成功指南2
――学习技巧》
Help Your to Advanced English Series
Published
by Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and
Research Press 2002
Webster New World Dictionary of the American Language
Second Edition
Published by The World Publishing Company 1970
The Concise Oxford Dictionary Ninth Edition
Published
by Oxford
University Press 1995
Collins Cobuild English Dictionary
Published by HarperCollins Publishers 2000