The Impact of MOOCs on College English Reform in Mainland China

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are internationally accepted as a popular online learning, its introduction into Mainland China provides an opportunity for College English education reform, which is on progress since 2007. This article attempts to draw a picture of College English teaching reform under the influence of MOOCs by adopting documentary research method through analyzing all the essays about College English teaching under the wave of MOOCs in CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) according to their research contents. The data collected shows that theoretically College English teaching could be reformed by taking the form of MOOCs in the courses of English for general purposes (EGP), English for general education (EGE), and English for specific purposes (ESP). It seems that during the reform teaching models and student-teacher relationship are altered by the MOOCs environment. Additionally, College English courses on several MOOCs platforms are analyzed, they further prove the practical College English courses done on MOOCs platforms. This paper seems to throw light on a general overview of College English teaching in Mainland China for English teachers and researchers and propose further improvement for college English teaching reform.