Research on a Blended Teaching Mode of College English Translation Course Based on Rain Classroom and Task-based Approach

School of Foreign Language,Wuhan University of Technology,Wuhan,China Email:19030896@qq.com

[Abstract]For further stimulating students’learning interest,mobilizing their initiative,and promoting their comprehensive English competence,a new teaching model integrated by rain classroom and task-based approach has been put forward.Taking a basic translation course as teaching scene,explorations have been made to apply the teaching software of rain classroom into the implementation of task-based approach in various stages and study the effect of taskbased method in college English translation course.

[Keywords]rain classroom;task-based approach;translation course

Introduction

Higher education didactics is undergoing a process of deep analysis in a variety of educational contexts.The main issues being focused on are related to learning and its transferability,and tied to the need for stronger interaction between research and didactics(Brew,2003;Halliwell,2008)

The‘Internet Plus’era enables us to choose a variety of teaching and learning management systems with interactive classroom teaching as the core.Therefore,new digital technologies have been widely involved in higher education institutions as well as other sections of the education system all over the world(Park & Biddix,2008).In addition,Internet use has the potential to improve the quality of education(Ciglaric et al.,1998;Charp,2000;Laurillard,1992).Charp(2000)also stated that the Internet brought numerous positive changes to teachers and instructors.According to Dryli & Kinnaman(1996),the Internet enables students to find information as well as allowing them to think critically and creatively,to become collaborative and cooperative workers and to solve problems.Rain classroom(hereafter this app will be abbreviated as RC),as one of the alternative systems,focuses on the application of smartphones and provides rational teaching designs,can achieve ideal teaching and learning effects,which can be contributed to the training of foreign language talents.

The contemporary reformation for education advocates that teachers should optimize the teaching schedule to realize student-centered.In the last few decades,the field of task-based language teaching has received significant attention within language education and applied linguistics(Taguchi,2020).English Curriculum Standards clearly states that the task-based approach is appreciated for the curriculum.It required that teachers should abandon these teaching methods that merely impart language knowledge,and adopt task-based approach to the full.The task-based approach is in line with the trend of‘task era’,and its advantage has earned the affirmation from experts and scholars at home and abroad.It is an important language teaching model based on the research of bilingual language acquisition,and the latest research result of English education in the 1980s.Taking specific tasks as motivation,the learners can master and apply the language in the process of completing the tasks.In other words,everyone in class cooperates to accomplish tasks,so that bilingual learners can naturally acquire the knowledge and promote language learning.Task-based approach focuses on the exploration and application of knowledge systems,and provides platforms for learners’potential to apply and create languages.

In a classroom supported by task-based approach,teachers can split the teaching goal into small tasks.By having learners accomplish these tasks step by step,teachers will develop learners’ability to apply English.Internet also provides students asynchronous education where they can reach any kind of information anytime and anywhere(Nanza,2011).This method not only makes learners as the center but also emphasizes their participation and collaboration,which leads to the concept of‘learning by doing and doing by learning’.It presents both authentic language and high efficient work if RC is introduced into the tasks and throughout them.After all the tasks were finished,learners can turn the acquired knowledge and skills into the application of English in real-life,which exemplifies the appeal of task-based approach teaching model.Moreover,teachers should emphasize the preparation of relevant knowledge,skills and cultural backgrounds for the tasks,and extends them appropriately,to activate and optimize the class.

Methods

Participants

The participants of the study were 139 sophomore students of non-English majors who studied Basic course of E-C and C-E Translation at Wuhan University of Technology during the Semester of 2019-2020.In the study,there were 128 male students and 11 female students.All of them were at the age of 18 to 20.27 of them were from Wuhan,112 of them were from other provinces.The course was structured in classes of two hours,each occurring once a week,and lasted about 16 weeks.

Instrument

RC is an intelligent teaching tool launched by Tsinghua University in the context of mobile Internet and big data in April 2016.It aims to "incorporate leading-edge information technologies(i.e.,cloud computing,mobile Internet,data mining,etc.)into teaching scenarios’,and is committed to providing data-based and intelligent information support for all teaching processes

During the lecture,the teacher’s PowerPoint presentation is displayed in real-time on the learners’WeChat terminal,and the learners can click the‘Negative’button on the presentation page if they don’t understand.They can also ask questions or express views via the presentation pop-ups.The interaction between teachers and learners in class makes teachers have a real-time view of learners’questions and their learning status,which tremendously helps teachers learn about learners and schedule the course.

along with the face-to-face instruction,RC was used as the instrument.This app can be logged on via WeChat or scanning QR code.Embedded in PowerPoint,teachers needn’t to run much software.Instead of being a common online platform,RC can easily combine online and offline teaching together.In class,RC can offer prompts for reflecting students’understanding and interacting with students.

Procedure

In the practice of Basic course of E-C and C-E Translation in one semester,after explained the translation theory and key points,the author designed translation tasks based on the difficulties involved in the twelve core units,then asked students to accomplish the tasks in group work and gives group reports.Afterward,the students graded every group’s performance,which was included in the overall grade.The specific process can be split into three parts:preparation(Pre-class),implementation(In-class)and promotion(After-class).

Pre-class

The need of a path that can foster the development of professionalism requires knowledge to be activated by personal experiences and is related to one’s life.(Laura,2011)The main purpose of pre-class work is to arouse students’interest and give them an intuitive understanding of knowledge points in the current unit.It is feasible to prepare an interesting illustrative E-C translation sentence,which is related to the topic.Taking the unit‘Epexegesis’for instance,familiar game phrases such as‘Winner Winner,Chicken Dinner’can be pushed to the students via RC,to make them think ahead of time why the translation class would involve amplification.E-C translation is easier than C-E translation,so it is more suitable as a warm-up.Meanwhile,the translation tasks in class should be designed to alternate between E-C and C-E,and the length of the text should be selected to make the discussion not exceed 15 minutes.

In-class

The lessonbegins after the students scanned the classroom-generated QR code created by the teacher.During the lecture,the teacher explains the key knowledge points,after that some single-choice questions made in advance will be uploaded in the form of test paper and pushed to the student immediately.These questions can also be embedded in the PPT so that answers will be given at once.As soon as they submit their answers,statistics will be generated for teachers to get an accurate understanding of learners’progress.Single-choice questions can expose problems well.Some options’mistranslation reflects the misunderstanding of sentence structure,while some options reflect the problem in the translation of definite clause.Afterward,the comprehension problems of sentence structure can be solved in the first place,following the translation problems.In that way,lessons can be adjusted.If the feedback indicates that most learners have mastered the translation of definite clause,it is not necessary to repeat the knowledge points,and effective class time will be saved.In this process,students are able to take effect to learn proactively by following the instructions and interacting with others.The‘pop-up’function,which is being kept on during the class,is an appropriate way for learners to ask questions.Teachers can provide explanations timely for the questions pushed by pop-up.

In the task session,the whole class is divided into ten teams,with four learners in each team.The tasks consist of E-C translation and C-E translation and they can be alternated by the course.Each translation task is limited to 8-15 minutes according to the content.In this period,each team selects the best manuscript and makes presentations to talk about their thoughts,difficulties and choices.There are two purposes for this method:1)To cultivate learners’ability to continually figure out translation skills and learn from others.2)To make learners experience the process of translation teamwork and cultivate their teamwork spirit.

Teachers need to make comments and conduct in-depth analysis when all the presentations are finished,to demonstrate the professional translation process,difficulties and skills step by step.Finally,the referenced manuscript will be shown to the whole class.

After-class

By checking background data,teachers can view attendance and discussion participation,as well as learning status.The purpose of attendance data is to keep teachers abreast of learner dynamics and remind individual learners not to be late or leave early.Via the RC platform,teachers can push assignments and materials to students,who complete them and submit them online.The powerful statistics function will help teachers analyze the homework.The online pattern is very convenient to submit assignments and review statistics,which greatly improves teaching and learning efficiency.On the one hand,teachers can classify learners’status and counsel individual students based on the statistical data,on the other hand,they can also adjust teaching method and pace,to prepare the following contents and adapt the teaching assignments.In addition,the online quizzes are not limited by time and space,which helps increase learner participation and achieve better results.

Results

RC is well-adapted for college English translation course.The reasons are as follows:

Complete Internet access environment and adequate network support.Help learners develop a more solid learning style.Make them complete pre,in and post learning tasks within a defined timeframe.Have a high acceptance of diverse learning materials and tasks.

Most learners recognize the teaching model accessed from WeChat terminal.A significant increase has been witnessed in reading interest and literature appreciation,and learners’ratings of their own learning effectiveness are positively and significantly correlated with their approval of course model based on RC.

96.7%of the learners felt that the discussion had deepened their understanding of the knowledge points,as well as translation skills.95.2%of the learners said they were willing to participate in translation activities,indicating that they had recognized the importance of class discussion.Moreover,the class discussions gradually improved with the training.According to teachers’observation,learners were unorganized to express their ideas at the beginning of the semester.However,big progress could be obviously seen after the practice.At the end of the semester,learners were able to translate in an organized and structured manner,which demonstrated their improvement in analyzing and translating.

The task-based approach translation teaching model based on RC make teachers get rid of explanatory and didactic teaching model,and make learners from being passive to active by requiring them to use their hands and brains.Learners’interest and motivation are greatly enhanced.Moreover,the whole process can dynamically reflect students’differentiated learning status and provide teachers with communication lines for personalized responses,so that translation course can be accomplished efficiently.The model ensures adequate discussion in class and leads learners to consciously think about the value and meaning of E-C and C-E translation in the present day.The whole process is organized in an efficient time point and flow to guide learners,motivating and encouraging them to acquire,to think,to discuss,to actively exchange ideas,which to some extent achieves deep learning.It is beneficial to the improvement of humanistic literacy and the comparison between Chinese and Western languages and cultures.

Conclusion and Discussion

Task-based approach emphasizes the role of cooperation in facilitating English learning,and the process of learner’s teamwork is the process of language communication.The application of RC makes it possible to extend translation course out of the classroom.It also makes classroom teaching more relevant and realizes‘one book for different students’.With the help of this teaching method,the amount of information in translation course is expanded.In class,students can not only learn the relevant knowledge but also cultivate the ability of applying knowledge and self-learning by participating,analyzing and practicing.

For further improving the blended teaching method,the following suggestions are made according to the platform data and survey data:1)Learners should be emphasized the importance of expressing and sharing ideas,and the behavior will increase its percentage in course grades.2)The focus on output can encourage learners to value the accumulation of information.That is to say,information input is helpful to continually improve the quality of class discussion.3)Teachers should promptly answer the questions and give personalized instruction via RC online to keep learners’motivation.4)Tasks of pre,in and after class should be rigorously designed to fit the learning objectives,and strove to be higher-order and innovative.

Some of the elements present in the current research will be the starting point for future research in order to identify what characteristics can be generalized for the research on university translation course.