The Application of POA Rationale in College English Course

【Abstract】College English， as a compulsory and fundamental part in the graduate study curriculum， aims to cultivate college students integrated English language competence， especially listening and speaking. For this very reason， POA （production-oriented approach） recently emerges as a popular teaching method in China. It not only focuses on producing process， but also on products students achieved. Therefore， this paper tends to discuss the rationale of POA and its practical application in college English course.

【Key words】POA （production-oriented approach）; rationale; college English course

【作者簡介】高晴晴（1991.08-），女，漢族，安徽阜陽人，嘉興學院南湖學院，講師，研究方向：英語教學法、跨文化交際。

1. Introduction

Nowadays， college students account for a large part among English learners as an irreplaceable group of promoting potential economic prosperity. Therefore， it is still a demanding and urgent task for educators to innovate the college English course. For many years， compared with the English major courses， less significance is attached to the construction of college English and there exists several prominent drawbacks in this area. Firstly， despite some curriculum reforms， focusing on form plays a dominant role in the classroom which leads to excellent grammar and word memorisation but deficient communication ability. As a result， graduate students who have passed CET4 or CET6 still fail to communicate effectively in an authentic context to finish the meaning exchange. Secondly， due to some complex economic and political factors， a majority of schools still adopt traditional and boring ways to teach English such as note-taking， rote memorization and grammar translation which definitely hinder students creativity. Inevitably， the phenomenon of big classes which usually include sixty to seventy people causes lower learning efficiency. Lastly， textbook-centred model cant target at efficient input to satisfy the increasing demands of contemporary students interests.

Based on the problems， POA appears a good option for teachers. Hence， this paper will briefly discuss the rationale of POA with example designs from textbook New Horizon College English （Third Edition） to demonstrate how this approach works in classroom settings. From the perspective of educators， it can deepen their understanding towards POA and help them enhance the practical teaching ability.

2. An overview of the theoretical framework of POA

A variety of teaching approaches have emerged in specific historical period considering the nature of language， learner needs as well as language learning theories. The emergence of production-oriented approach （POA） is not accidental as it has some similarities with the communicative language teaching （CLT） and task-based language teaching （TBLT） with the teaching focus on knowing how to use language meaningfully and properly in a specific context by using a good handle of language structures. The concept of POA was firstly put forward by Professor Wen Qiufang （Wen， 2015）. There are three aspects in the theoretical basis of POA： teaching principles， teaching hypotheses， and teaching procedures （Wen， 2015）.

To begin with， the first teaching principle is learning-centred which advocates the fulfilment of teaching objectives and the happening of effective learning. The second is learning-using integrated principle that emphasises on the combination of input and output. In other words， learning by doing. And whole-person education principle is the last one to focus on an all-round development， for example， the critical thinking. As for teaching hypotheses， output-driven hypothesis， input-enabled hypothesis， selective learning hypothesis and assessment-enhanced hypothesis are under this category. Finally， the most innovative part lies in the sequence of teaching procedures. It features three stages， namely， motivating， enabling and assessing， which convert the traditional input-output into output-input-output.

3. The application of POA in college English course

This part aims to analyse how POA is applied in the college English course and the rationale behind it. With the guidance of POA， each unit in the textbook should have a final production task upon which a series of organised learning activities can be implemented. In the following， the three teaching stages will be discussed respectively.

3.1 Motivating

The first stage is motivating with the purpose of producing learning thirst. Motivation is “some kind of internal drive which pushes someone to do things in order to achieve something” （Harmer， 2007， p.98）. For a production task， its successful completion is largely dependent on students desire to participate. If they feel highly motivated to engage themselves in the meaning exchange， language learning will be happened automatically （Allwright， 1979）. On the teachers part， despite the fact that students initial motivation may go through a declined trend， they can recreate students learning enthusiasm by carefully designing the lesson procedures （Rogers， 1996）.

In this part， POA has three steps to stimulate students learning thirst. The most important beginning is the presentation of an authentic task which may relate to their daily life or future work. For students， the final production task should present a challenge to their cognition. Then， with the possession of current language knowledge， students attempt to finish the task the first time. In this process， students realise their language deficiency， thus， producing the desire to learn the target language. After that， the teacher specifies the learning objectives and requirements of the production task that make students clear the contents theyre going to learn. Take Unit1， Book1 of New Horizon College English （Third Edition） as an example. This unit tells a speech made by a university president to the freshmen. Based on this topic， the related production task can be designed as working in groups to shoot a micro video to introduce their own college life to parents. Teachers should pinpoint specific details about the video such as time allocation， contents， shoot setting， video quality， and delivery manners.

3.2 Enabling

The second stage comes to enabling which incorporates a series of planned learning activities. Among the massive information provided in the textbook， selective learning plays a crucial role. Firstly， the material studied by students should be carefully selected which may contain the production-matched vocabulary， grammar points and discourse structure. Secondly， under the teachers guidance， students apply these new knowledges and strive to finish the task the second time. The production form and submitting time may vary based on the task types.

For instance， in order to shot the video in Unit 1， teachers can refer to the following teaching procedures： warming up activities， text understanding， language focus and review. In the warming up part， students are given opportunities to describe some landmarks of their own campus from which some key words are brainstormed， for example， school motto， facilities， teaching staff. When it moves to text understanding and language focus， the passage can be used as a carrier to learn some language structures. Meanwhile， related new words can be selected to lay emphasis on like routine， attain， comprehensive， explore， passion etc. As the last part， students can do some language drills in the review to consolidate and summarise the target language they need.

3.3 Assessing

The last stage is assessing. With an agreement of various criteria， a combination of peer evaluation and teacher comments are proposed. And marks of the production task can be used as part of the formative assessment for the college English course. The assessment of the final product should consider several aspects. For one thing， it is the fulfilment of the task requirement. For the above production task， speaking is chosen as the fundamental device to maximum students real communication because speaking tasks offer multiple chances for real-life rehearsal as well as feedbacks for language experiences （Harmer， 2007）. Hence， checking whether students can fluently and accurately use language to introduce their college life is the key point. For another thing， the overall performance of a group gives another indicator. As the basic interaction unit， it is revealed that group work has many advantages in a speaking task： equal and increased opportunity to speak， greater learning independence， the cultivation of collaborative spirit， and lessened pressure of making mistakes in the public （Harmer， 2007）. For instance， though the process of shooting a video is not presented， the final product may show the speaking time of each member， eye contact， language mistakes they have made， and the clipping effects. Those are of great significance to assess how cooperative they are.

4. Conclusion

In summary， from the perspective of teachers， the adoption of POA can innovate their traditional teaching methods， classroom management， and stimulate students inner thirst for learning. And a good grasp of POA rationale guarantees the smooth implementation of specific teaching procedures. Then， from the perspective of learners， these production-oriented tasks not only enhanced their comprehensive language proficiency， but also considered the multiple intelligence （Gardner， 1983） which means that different people are equipped with special strengths for learning， for instance， faster efficiency through visualisation or written works. Finally， this paper still has space for improvement as POA teaching principles and hypotheses are only generally discussed.

References：

[1]Gardner， H. Frames of mind： The theory of multiple intelligences [J]. Basic Books， 1983.

[2]Harmer， J. The practice of English language teaching （4th ed.）[J]. Harlow： Longman， 2007.