The Application of the POA in College English Teaching

Abstract

Since the 1980s, English language teaching for non-English majors has been an integral part of general education in higher educational institutes in China. It aims to develop students' ability to use English in a well-rounded way, enhance their ability to study independently and improve their general cultural awareness. To accomplish these goals, numerous researches have been done to decide what the most suitable teaching methodology is for Chinese students. The Production-Oriented Approach (POA), proposed by professor Wen Qiufang, advocates that all teaching activities in the classroom should be aimed at students' productive output, and students are expected to participate actively in genuine communicative activities. As a foreign language teaching theory with Chinese characteristics, the POA is currently widely used in foreign language teaching with remarkable teaching effects. However, as to the teaching procedure and how to apply this methodology to English teaching, teachers are often confused as there are different interpretations of the POA. This paper designed a 6-session teaching plan based on the theoretical framework of the POA. Through this 6-session teaching experiment, students were found to be more motivated and more eager to learn. They were equipped with enough input enabling materials for their final productive output. Teaching and learning were, therefore, more explicit and efficient. In the meantime, this kind of teaching is highly demanding for both teachers and students, whose joint efforts are required to bring out the better outcomes of college English teaching. With a clear description of the teaching procedure which includes three phases—motivating, enabling and assessing, this paper aims to shed some light on a possible new way of college English teaching in China.