A Study on the Effectiveness of Vocational English Instructional Design

Abstract. Instructional design in class generally includes the analysis of learners， the analysis of learning contents， the design of teaching objectives， the design of teaching strategies， the design of teaching process， instructional media design， class assessment and other aspects. The correct understanding and handling of every aspect are closely related to the effectiveness of instructional design. In the Instructional Design of Vocational English， the combination with the professional service and industry background and the practice of "integration" of teaching of theory and practice on the basis of school-enterprise cooperation should be paid attention to in the aspects of the design mentioned above， which can not only consolidate basic theoretical knowledge， but also highlight the applying skills training to improve students' comprehensive ability. This article is to explore， analyze the effectiveness of the Vocational English Teaching design from the aspects above.

Key words： Vocational English teaching； Instructional design； Effectiveness.

1. Preface

Instructional Design is a systematic process that is employed to develop education and training programs in a consistent and reliable fashion. In addition， Instructional Design models or theories may be thought of as frameworks for developing modules or lessons that increase and/or enhance the possibility of learning and encourage the engagement of learners so that they learn faster and gain deeper levels of understanding. [1] General class instructional design contains learners’ analysis， the analysis of learning content， the design of teaching objectives， the design of teaching strategies， the design of teaching process， the design of teaching of activities， in the design of teaching media and the design of teaching evaluation etc. This article， from the aspects of instructional design mentioned above， to expound the effectiveness of vocational English instructional design， combined with the actual needs of vocational English teaching.

2. The effectiveness of learners’ analysis

Before class， teachers should first analyze the learners systematically， including learners 'cognitive development characteristics， learners’ initial level， learners’ learning needs， learners' learning styles， learners’ multiple intelligences and so on. Modern instructional design emphasizes the necessity and importance of the analysis of learners before class to promote learners to learn in an effective way. I’m teaching two classes majoring in logistics. The learners from Class One have higher cognitive level， stronger learning motivation， but there is less active atmosphere in the class because most are "Meditation-type" learners； while the other class has a lower motivation to learn but learners there are mostly "impulse-type" learners and the class atmosphere is more lively. For the same teaching content but different learning styles， I take a different form of class organization. The former can be asked some hard problems that need to examine individual students to demonstrate ideas through oral or written form， while the latter can be asked some relatively simple issues but they need to be discussed so that students can demonstrate themselves through the form of verbal or performance. At the same time， the demand for practical ability in vocational English should be reflected in the instructional design of vocational English.

Since learners’ characteristics can be considered in many ways， it is impossible and there is no need to analyze all the characteristics of the learners. So， teachers should judge what kinds of characteristics of the learners should be considered or not， based on the requirements of the teaching tasks and then find out which ones are most important and select the appropriate methods to carry on the instructional design in order to achieve good class teaching effectiveness.

3. The effectiveness of the analysis of learning content

Teachers should be aware that the implementation of the course is not a "copy" process in which the course is developed by experts and passed to the teachers and then passed by teachers to students. On the contrary， the course should be constructed and generated in the interpretation with the learners through the understanding and explanation of the teachers， which is beneficial to converse the course knowledge into part of the learners' cognitive structure. So， teachers should analyze teaching and learning contents in detail， according to the learners’ characteristics， teaching goals and so on to make it more operational and achieve the desired teaching effectiveness. As for the college English teaching， post demand should be taken into account and the course content is to be determined on this account.

While teaching Unit 8 Employment and Job Service， from Applied English Integrated Course Ⅱ published by Foreign Languages Press， I found that the students were not interested in two articles （one is about the employment status of graduates in the UK； the other is about how to adapt to your new job） in the textbook. Perhaps because the materials are too far away from their real life and there is no intersection with the students' cognitive structure. In view of this situation， I chose another article on how to prepare for interviews， with different interview contents to different majors. In this way， the learners can naturally converse teaching materials into part of their cognitive structure. For those much too difficult materials or contents， which are hard for learners to learn， should be cut out or replaced by more suitable ones.

In short， teachers should try to change their roles to study and develop more suitable teaching and learning materials and contents and use them under the guidance of teaching theory and curriculum to make it more suitable for learners’ characteristics and then to converse the teaching course into learning course in order to make the instructional design produce better results.

4. The effectiveness of the design of teaching objectives

Teaching objectives （or learning objectives） should be a specific and clear statement of the behaviors of the learners through teaching. Teaching objectives also are known as behavioral targeting， which emphasizes the observability and scalability of educational outcomes. The accurate and reasonable teaching goals are also helpful to reach a certain teaching effectiveness. So， in the design of teaching objectives， the following aspects should be paid attention to.

（1） The actors of teaching objectives must be learners but not teachers. So it is not appropriate to describe teaching objectives as "training the capacity ..." and so on， because the actors of these actions are teachers， not students.

（2） Teaching objectives have to be described using the results of the teaching and learning activities rather than using the process of teaching activities. For example， “the listening ability of learners should be trained in the teaching process”. Obviously， this kind of description is not appropriate， for it can’t express the ultimate results of teaching activities and also make it hard to t evaluate the teaching effectiveness.

（3） The verbs to describe teaching objectives should be specific， but not abstract or empty. Such as “know， understand， grasp， enjoy …” the meanings of these words are too broad， making it difficult to evaluate teaching effectiveness. Try to use such words as "operate， say， list， compare， repeat， select， design" to describe the specific action.

（4） The classification theory of teaching objectives. Classifying teaching objectives can not only make trivial targets become orderly， but also prevent omissions and biases in the target analysis. At the same time， it can make teaching objectives hierarchical to meet different learning groups achieve more rational teaching effectiveness. [1] The teaching objectives of Higher Vocational English include quality targets in addition to knowledge and ability ones to develop humanities and professionalism of the students which can not only help them get the basic knowledge and skills， but also develop their moral sentiment， personality， team spirit， sense of responsibility， and so on. While teaching the unit of Employment and Job Service， I paid special attention to enable students to compare the differences of employment environment and employment background between Chinese students and British students， and they would recognize that English students not only had to withstand the same employment pressure as the Chinese students， but also to withstand huge student loans， which made them experience the hardships of their parents and trained their independent of consciousness.

The teaching objectives of Employment and Job Services mentioned above can be designed like this：

（1） Listing some important phrases in this unit and pointing out the features and precautions of Noun Clause

（2） Retelling the three main factors causing the difficulties of employment in Britain and comparing the difference with the employment difficulties in China.

（3） Discussing and designing your own resume.

Obviously， the teaching objectives above are simple， clear and easy to reach， which can help to achieve the effectiveness of instructional design.

5. The effectiveness of the design of teaching methods

and strategies

The choice and design of teaching methods and strategies in the teaching process should be targeted， that is to say， different teaching contents and objects should select and design different teaching methods or strategies. Some teaching methods and strategies， such as lecture methods， discussion methods， situational and communicative approaches， task-based teaching methods etc， are often used in Vocational English class teaching. These teaching methods and strategies should be suitable to learning contents and their learners. For example， lecture methods can be used to teach general theoretical knowledge， discussion methods and situational and communicative approaches can be suitable to explore the more difficult problems to achieve the purpose of understanding and solving problems through the mutual transmission of ideas in learners； task-based teaching methods are more suitable for the training of listening， reading and grammars， but need higher English language. Meanwhile， according to different needs of different professions or industries， different teaching methods and strategies are required. For example， while organizing vocational English teaching in such majors as automotive technology， mechanical manufacturing， bridge construction， we can choose project or task –based teaching methods and train the learners’ ability of “doing things” and “settling things” in their different posts； while in the major of tourism management， we can use the profile communicative approach， emphasizing the importance of listening and speaking and let learners repeat and imitate through playing audio and video again and again to achieve the expected teaching effectiveness.

6. The effectiveness of the design of teaching activities

Teaching activities are some kinds of interaction between teachers and students or students and students which are designed to achieve specific learning objectives. These teaching activities can be divided into the start of teaching， language learning， language practice and several other types. Teaching activities can be carried out in a different order according to teaching needs， and also can be used alternately. [2] Teaching activities are intended for teaching goals， so the most effective activities can be chosen purposefully for teaching objectives. For example， At the beginning of teaching， more activities can be designed to allow more students to have opportunities to participate through reviewing what has been learned before and leading in new language. During the step of language learning， it is flexible to design pair work or group work to make up dialogues or have some discussion， and after this process， a member of the group will ne chosen to do some presentation assisted by other members； during the step of language practice， the whole class can be divided into several groups to perform， interview， debate and so on， and everyone should be involved in this step.

In the design of teaching activities， some problems should be paid attention to

（1） The choice and design of teaching activities should depend on learners' actual level to maximize their motivation to learn；

（2） Class management factors should be considered. Certain activities can be completed individually， some activities in pairs and others in groups；

（3） Different levels of activities should be intended for different learners with different English levels to carry out the activities smoothly；

（4） Please fully realize the time required for the organization and preparation of the activities and ensure that students should have sufficient time to organize， and complete the activities while the feedback time can be shorter depending on the case；

（5） The more real the activities are designed， the better effectiveness will be. In this way， learners can do it naturally through learning. [3]

As for vocational English teaching， the closer to the professionals and work the students major teaching activities are designed， the more obvious teaching effectiveness there will be.

Also taking Employment and Job Services for example， at the beginning， I designed a question to let students discuss and answer， “What are you planning to do when graduating from colleges？” During the step of language learning， I let the students discuss and answer “Will you choose a hard， dirty， and disgraceful job if you can't find a better one？ And why or why not？” Finally， I designed some activities in which the students interviewed some students who had graduated to know about the employment situation， discuss and write down their own employment ideas which would be presented next class.

It can be seen that the teaching activities mentioned above are closely linked to the teaching process and students participate with high interest and the effectiveness is good.

7. The effectiveness of the design of teaching media

Teaching media is a kind of tool used for carrying and delivering teaching information and also an element of teaching systems. The more types of teaching media there are， the wider the channel of delivering teaching information will become. The role of teaching media is not only to transmit information， but also helpful to stimulate students’ interest， form a good personality and to promote students to understand and grasp knowledge and skills. [4] In order to achieve expected teaching effectiveness， an appropriate and effective teaching media should be selected.

While selecting and designing instructional media， we should pay attention to the following.

（1） The unity of teaching media and teaching objectives. Teaching objectives are the guiding ideology throughout the entire process of teaching and learning activities， which not only provide the content and manner of teaching activities， but also control the choice of media types and content.

（2） The unity of teaching media and teaching content. Different subject contents decide different teaching media； even in the same subject， different unit contents require different teaching media.

（3） The unity of teaching media and learners’ cognitive level. Learners of different ages have different cognitive levels， which needs different teaching media. Therefore， the choice of teaching media must take the characteristics of their age into account.

（4） The unity of teaching media and learners’ learning styles. Different learners have different learning styles， and some tend to be auditory learners， some are visual learners and others tactile learners. [5]

In short， different audience groups must be taken into account in the selection and use of teaching media rather than choosing and using a ready-made media blindly and randomly.

8. The effectiveness of teaching evaluation and assessment

Class evaluation and assessment include learning assessment and teaching evaluation. Learning evaluation mainly points to students’ learning attitude， learning behavior and learning effectiveness. Teaching evaluation mainly points to the organization， management， evaluation of class activities and some other factors related to this， is a kind of analysis of teaching effectiveness and teaching process and also an integral part of a whole teaching process， which plays an important role of promoting the quality of class teaching and development of teachers.[6]

In general， vocational English teaching evaluation can be divided into the following variety of evaluation according to evaluating forms， evaluating subjects and evaluating points of view.

9. Conclusion

In short， it is helpful to carry out teaching contents and achieve teaching effectiveness if the aspects of instructional design mentioned above are prepared well. So， in accordance with this instructional design， vocational English is no longer the headache and fear of its learners， but a bridge leading to future professionals.

References

1. He Kekang， Zheng Yongbo， Xie Youru. 2002. Instructional System Design. Beijing： Beijing Normal University Press.

2. Gong Yafu， Luo Shaoqian. 2006. Task-based language teaching. Beijing： People's Education Press.

3. Zhu Ping， Su Chenjie. 2007. The design and application of English teaching activities. Shanghai： East China Normal University Press.

4. Pi Liansheng. 2000. Instructional Design - the theory and technology of psychology. Beijing： Higher Education Press.

5. Lu Ziwen， Wang Duqian. 2006. New English teaching theory. Shanghai： East China Normal University Press.

6. Gagne， Briggs， Wager. 2001. Instructional Design. Shanghai： East China Normal University Press.

7. O’Mally， J.M.& Chamat，A.U. 1991. Learning Strategies in Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge： Cmbridge University Press.

8. Ellies. R. 2003. Tasked-based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford： Oxford University Press.