In English listening and speaking teaching, teachers should not only cultivate students’ listening and speaking ability, but also combine the moral education with the cultivation of English communication ability. Based on the relevant documents issued by the Ministry of Education and the author’s teaching experience, this paper conducts a questionnaire survey on the teaching effect of the English listening and speaking course. The results show that students are highly satisfied with the moral goals, teaching methods, teaching effects and teaching evaluation of English listening and speaking course, and some suggestions for further improvement are also put forward by the author.
Language is the carrier of thinking and culture. English, as the most widely used language in the world, is no exception. Therefore, English is not only a tool for communication, but also has certain humanistic attributes. In cross-cultural communication, there are many communication problems caused by different cultural backgrounds. University students, especially freshmen, are not mature enough mentally. In this era of information explosion, it is particularly important to develop the right way of thinking. Therefore, in the process of English listening and speaking teaching, teachers should not only teach language rules, but also give appropriate guidance, so that students can develop good moral quality and positive life attitude, which is of great benefit to their future work and life.
Because of the popularity of the Internet, university students are greatly impacted by various information. As young people whose thoughts are not fully mature, teachers have the responsibility to guide them in moral aspects, and the importance of moral education is self-evident.
About how to improve the integration of moral education into English listening and speaking teaching, it is closely related to the in-depth exploration of teaching content and moral themes, the creation of situations to arouse resonance, cultivation of students’ critical thinking ability and independent thinking ability. Teachers should also continue to improve their own moral ability, and learn to organically combine teaching content with moral themes to achieve a silent penetration effect. Of course, the innovation of teaching methods in the classroom can also improve the teaching effect. Through the efforts of teachers and students, it is hoped that students can improve their moral cultivation, develop correct perspectives, and maintain a healthy mental state while studying.
With the further implementation and deepening of the relevant spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a lot of scholars have done some research about moral education.
Yu (2017) introduced the concrete practice of Shanghai in taking the lead in practicing moral education and building a full-staff, full-course moral education system at the macro level. The practical exploration and experience of moral education in Shanghai is of great significance to the reform and innovation of ideological and political work in colleges and universities.
Gao and Zong (2017) discussed the ideas and ideas for exploring the reform of moral education in colleges and universities, and the framework and roadmap for building a college ideology and politics curriculum system that integrates ideological and political theory courses, comprehensive literacy courses, and professional courses. It can be seen that college classroom teaching, no matter it is knowledge education, skill education, thinking or method education, contains values which can not be separated from the control and guidance of values, but also need to cultivate and shape established values.
Jiao and Huang (2017) emphasized the need to enhance the education consciousness of all teaching staff and the tole that teachers should play in the construction of moral education.
In terms of moral education related to English teaching, Lu (2019) and Song (2019) analyzed the necessity and feasibility of moral education in college English from the perspectives of teachers, students and classrooms through logical reasoning and philosophical speculation, and emphasized the urgency of the times when college English courses and ideological and political courses should be in the same direction.
Xia and He (2019) emphasized that the teaching of moral education in college English is of great significance for cultivating morality and cultivating people, especially for enhancing cultural self-confidence. They should guide young students to learn Western culture with a critical perspective and cultivate their confidence in national culture. Huang (2019) , Xiao and Huang (2020) and Xu (2021) pointed out that moral education is a profound revolution in the moral work of colleges and universities in the new era, and the comprehensive implementation of moral education is an important measure in the ideological and political work of colleges and universities in the new era. They also gives some suggestions on the moral construction of English majors. These studies discussed and summarized the innovative measures and valuable experience of moral education from different perspectives, but they mostly made theoretical discussion and conception at the macro level, and rarely touched on the exploration and practice of moral education. Therefore, this study explores and practices the moral education development in listening and speaking teaching for English majors.
In order to understand students’ attitude towards moral education in English listening and speaking courses comprehensively and timely, and the impact of moral education on students, the author conducted a questionnaire survey among freshmen English majors in a university in Hebei Province. The survey was conducted in June 2022.
Students from English department taught by the writer took part in this survey, including twenty six female students and three male students. Their ages range from 18 to 20 years old. In terms of knowledge and skills, through the English learning in middle school, these students have already possessed a certain ability of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating, and have a certain English foundation, but their English listening and speaking ability needs to be improved. In terms of psychological characteristics, most students have strong interests in English learning, but they can not express their ideas freely in English. In terms of expression, they are affected by their mother tongue in expression to some degree. In class activities, students participate in group discussions actively, and are willing to express themselves, and do not mind making mistakes in oral expression.
The author conducted online questionnaire survey on the platform of Xuexitong. Students can log in and fill out questionnaires voluntarily and anonymously. The questionnaire mainly consists of multiple choice questions and focuses on four dimensions: moral goals, teaching methods, teaching effects and teaching evaluation of English listening and speaking class, as shown in
| Four dimensions | Items |
|---|---|
| Moral Goals | 1. Generally speaking, I think this course is very useful, and what I have learned in this course will be of great help to my future study, work and life. |
| 4. Generally speaking, I think the course has set certain standards for our study, and I need to work hard to meet the requirements. | |
| 5. By studying this course, I have understood and mastered the relevant knowledge of the course, and learned how to conduct independent learning after class. | |
| 6. Through this course, I learned how to start from scratch and gradually accumulate knowledge bit by bit. | |
| Teaching Methods | 3. I think the course is well organized and well taught by the teacher. |
| 7. I think the teachers are knowledgeable,, patient with us and give clear and organized explanations. | |
| 8. The reference learning resources provided by the teacher and the learning resources (including the teaching materials recommended by the teacher, network resources, etc.) that guide us to think independently are helpful to my study. | |
| Teaching Effect | 2. I think the teaching of this course has aroused my interest and aroused my enthusiasm for learning, and I am willing to make efforts in learning. |
| Teaching Evaluation | 9. In my opinion, the assessment items included in the grade assessment method of this course, such as daily exercises, class presentations, etc., can guide me to study well and encourage me to pay attention to gradual accumulation throughout the semester. |
| 10. After the class presentation, the teacher gave me timely and valuable feedback on my learning, which can effectively help me understand my shortcomings. |
After the survey, a total of 29 valid questionnaires were received with a recovery rate of 100%.
Wen (2021) pointed out that teachers should analyze what they teach deeply. Moral elements are usually embedded in the teaching materials, and may also be implicit in the practice. The key strategy of moral education is to be imperceptible. The results are shown in
According to the survey, 93% of the students think that the course is very useful in general, and what they learn in the course will be of great help to their future study, work and life; 97% of the students think that the course has stimulated their interest in learning and aroused their enthusiasm in learning, and they are willing to make efforts in learning; 97% of the students believed that the course was well organized and taught by the teachers; 93% of the students believe that the course has set certain standards for their own learning, and they have to work hard to achieve their goals; 90% of the students believe that through the study of the course, they have understood and mastered the relevant knowledge of the course, and understood how to study after class; 93% of students said that through the course, they learned how to start from scratch and gradually accumulate knowledge bit by bit; 97% of the students believe that the assessment items included in the grade assessment method of the course, such as
| Questions | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 | 93% 97% 93% 93% 90% 93% 97% 97% 97% 97% |
daily exercises, classroom presentations, etc., can guide students’ learning well and encourage students to pay attention to gradual accumulation throughout the semester; 97% of the students think the teachers are knowledgeable, patient and give clear and organized explanations and the reference learning resources provided by the teachers are helpful; 97% of students believe that teachers give timely and valuable feedback on their learning after class presentations, and this feedback can effectively help students understand their shortcomings.
First of all, in terms of moral goals, moral training should be introduced into listening and speaking teaching for English majors. Teachers should combine the cultivation of students’ humanistic quality, cultural awareness and the education of socialist core values with the cultivation of their practical application ability of English listening and speaking, and realize the organic unity of instrumental and humanistic nature. The survey results show that through the arrangement and organization of the curriculum content, students’ interest in learning is improved, and they have a clear learning goal and make up their mind to achieve the goal, which cultivates students’ positive quality.
Secondly, in terms of teaching methods, according to the characteristics of English listening and speaking class and the characteristics of freshmen, teachers should focus on cultivating students’ patriotic feelings, humanistic care, self-esteem and self-confidence, character formation and other qualities by adopting certain teaching methods such as classroom oral presentation, group activities, quick answer, mutual evaluation to improve students’ group cooperation ability.
Thirdly, in terms of teaching effect, it not only inspires students’ interest in learning, but also deepens and improves some moral contents such as patriotic education, Chinese and Western traditional festivals, environmental protection, diligence and frugality, fairness and justice, mutual help, responsibility and mental health on the basis of teaching materials It enables students to experience and summarize in the real situation, and imperceptibly cultivate the moral quality of students in the process of practicing English listening and speaking.
Fourth, in terms of teaching evaluation, teachers evaluate students in different ways such as Ted speech imitation, homework completion on the teaching platform, classroom presentation, students’ self-evaluation and mutual evaluation among classmates, etc. As advocated by Wen (2021) , the diversification of evaluation subjects is also an important way to reflect moral education, by which students can correctly evaluate themselves and peers, learn self-reflection, cultivate cooperative learning ability and learning attitude.
English education should not only be confined to the imparting of English language knowledge, but also to the moral education of students. Because of the popularity of the Internet, students are greatly impacted by various information. College students, especially freshmen, are not fully mature mentally, teachers have the responsibility to guide them in ideological aspects. According to the survey, some useful suggestions on how to integrate moral education into English listening and speaking are put forward. Teachers should create scenario to arouse students’ resonance, critical thinking ability and independent thinking ability. At the same time, higher requirements are put forward for teachers. Teachers should continue to improve their own moral awareness, and learn to organically combine teaching contents with moral themes to educate students implicitly. At the same time, teachers should adopt innovative methods in classroom teaching and evaluation to improve the teaching effect. With the efforts of both teachers and students, it is hoped that while acquiring knowledge, students can improve their moral cultivation, establish correct values and maintain a healthy mental state, so that they can face the difficulties and challenges they will encounter in the future confidently. Due to the characteristics of English majors, the number of female students is obviously more than that of male students. The results of this survey have certain limitations, and it can be carried out in a wider scope in the future.
The paper is under the project of Research on the Realization Path of Moral Education in English Listening and Speaking Teaching (Project No. 2201157) which is sponsored by Baoding Municipal Institute of Education and Teaching.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
Huo, C. Q., & Li, H. P. (2023). A Study on the Teaching Effect of English Listening and Speaking under the Background of Moral Education. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 13, 656-662. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojml.2023.135039