Ecological Optimization Principle of College English Teaching

Education Research Frontier December 2015, Volume 5, Issue 4, PP.90-94

Ecological Optimization Principle of College English Teaching Lina Liu School of Foreign Studies, Nantong University, Nantong 226001, China Email: howard@ntu.edu.cn

Abstract As an ecosystem, college English teaching must have the characteristics of its own, and each component should realize its stable development of mutual effect, mutual influence and mutual maintenance of the system based on certain principle. Ecology has the features of integrity, openness, and dynamic balance, and so does college English ecology. All these characteristics not only should the college English teaching system have, but also should become the principles when optimizing this system.

Keywords: College English Teaching; Integrity; Openness; Dynamic Balance

1 INTRODUCTION Rapid development of human society inevitably brings great influence on environment. At the early stage of industrial construction, people were entirely unaware of interdependent relations between human and nature. People only one-side emphasized the speed and scale of social development of human being, excessively made demand for the nature, arbitrarily squandered and wasted valuable resources, they also polluted human survival environment and ignored the role of natural law, eventually as time passes, people were confronted with serious problems such as resource exhaustion and air pollution, etc. And until then people started to realize the root of problems as these problems became increasingly serious. They took the role of natural laws for granted due to self-development, however, natural ecosystem has been damaged already. In order to achieve new balance of unbalanced ecosystem, people began to seek solutions and brought the problems of harmonious relations between human beings and natural into routine. Just as nature, people ignored the characteristics, rules and principles of nature due to lack of correct understanding of ecological system of college English teaching under information technology environment, which caused the conflict in respects of various ecological subjects(teachers and students) and environment within the system, additionally, a series of imbalance phenomenon appeared. In order to solve various problems appeared in ecological system of college English teaching and make the unbalanced system to achieve a new ecological balance, fundamental methods of ecology must be applied to coordinate the relationship among each ecological factor, so that to make it achieve compatibility and acquire dynamic, sound and healthy development as well as realizing the optimization of overall ecological system.

2 ECOLOGICAL OPTIMIZED MODEL OF COLLEGE ENGLISH TEACHING Currently, there are many imbalance phenomena in college English teaching, and various ecological factors (teacher, student, information technology and teaching element, etc.) fail to identify a due role that ecological niche exerts; in addition, problems of singularity, disjointing and deficiency also appear in ecological chain; the ecology imbalance of college English teaching is also induced because of failing to grasp ecological law accurately. On the basis of determination of root cause, and according to ecological niche, self-organization, group effect, limiting factor law of ecology, this paper puts forward the needs of paying attention to college English teaching ecology and optimization of teaching mode. As a microcosmic ecological system, college English teaching is composed of teacher, student, teaching element, information technology, college English teaching environment and other ecological factors. In college English teaching environment, teacher, teaching element and information technology together make up a three-dimensional triangle framework structure with student-centered. First of all, teacher plays a leading and critical - 90 www.erfrontier.org

role in teaching and learning of college English. Any aspect of changes made in terms of teaching idea, attitude and method of teachers may lead to this framework structure changing at different degree, moreover, it may cause the structure to incline to a direction. Therefore, only try to realize ecological development of the teacher, pay abundant attention to and exert critical role of the teacher, can the direction of college English teaching system optimization be ensured. It's also the reason why teacher should be at the top layer of this triangle framework. Secondly, all the factors and activities of college English are to obey and serve student development. Because each ecological factor may have more or less impact on students by all means, so the student should not only be in the center of the whole teaching ecology, but also in the center of various ecological factors. There's no ecological factor that has nothing to do with the students, therefore, "center" of this mode is the best ecological niche of the student. Furthermore, "teaching" of the teacher and "learning" of the student are all realized by various elements in the course of teaching.

Teaching elements include teaching objectives, model of teaching, teaching materials and other factors relating to teaching. Selection and use of it is subject to the combined action of both teacher and student, which directly affects the quality of teaching and matters the growth of "learning life" of the student. So teaching element should be one angle in this triangle framework of college English teaching optimized model, which is also an important part for maintaining the stability of this framework. At last, although information technology can be one of members in teaching elements, it's no longer the same as it used to be, which only plays a role of "assistance" as an organic component in college English teaching. And thus in this optimized mode, information technology does not attach to teaching elements, instead it plays a role as an individual ecological factor. If missing this ecological factor, threedimensional triangle framework cannot be built, which also goes against the optimization of college English teaching ecosystem. In general, in the optimized mode of college English teaching system, teacher, student, teaching element and information technology are indispensable, which must be organically combined to play their due functions and roles at their respective optimal ecological niche.

Generally speaking, building optimized mode of college English teaching system is to solve imbalance problems appeared in this system from the perspective of ecology, as well as exploring effective way of ecological development of English teaching, so as to facilitate college English teaching system to achieve ecological balance.

And it needs to determine one premise for practicing the optimized mode built by this study, which is to comply with optimization principle of this system. Because only under the guidance of certain principle can the direction of optimization be clarified and ensured, and feasible methods and steps be put forward. Therefore, this study will make further discussion about ecological optimization principle of college English teaching.

3 FOLLOWING THE PRINCIPLES OF INTEGRITY IN ECOSYSTEM According to ecological worldview, world is a living ecosystem with interrelated components inside it, and a complex network of relationships is established due to dynamic, non-linear and never-ending interactions between things, appearing as a whole organism that cannot be mechanically split (She Zhengrong, 1996: 51). "It is impossible to isolate one part from a whole organism or isolate different parts from each other", said Edgar Morin. As the most basic and distinctive feature of the ecosystem, integrity refers to the principle that different components of the ecosystem are inextricably linked, instead of being isolated from each other, so they interact with each other to form a well-organized whole organism with some certain functions. Moreover, it should be noted that functions of a whole organism are special functions that the whole organism gets owing to orderly combinations of different components, rather than a pure sum of functions of all components.

If the college English teaching system is seen from the perspective of integrity, it is a complex and unified whole formed due to interaction of teachers, students and other ecological subjects and multidimensional ecological factors with their surrounding environments. On one hand, different constituting parts have their own distinctive features and functions, playing respective roles at different spatial and temporal position of the entire education system. No part is superior to others, and no one can replace another one. Coordinated development of various constituting parts is a necessary condition for promoting the college English teaching system to function as a whole and achieving its development as a whole. On the other hand, in the college English teaching system, different ecological factors are interrelated with each other. Therefore, one ecological factor cannot develop without limit, but can be affected and restrained by other factors and its environment. Precisely owing to competition and coexistence of its ecological - 91 www.erfrontier.org

factors, this system continues to develop and pursue maximizing its own interests.

To be specific, the integrity of the college English teaching system is reflected by the following four aspects. Firstly, the ecological subject itself in the college English teaching system is an organic and systematic whole, reflecting the integrity of individual people. In this system, students are the most important ecological subject. Therefore, in the college English teaching, teachers should not only focus on the students' acquisition of language knowledge, but, more importantly, take students as an organic whole to highlight their development in emotion, values and other aspects and give students complete life education. Taking students as an organic whole is both a starting and ending point to achieve ecological college English teaching. Secondly, teachers and students are a unified whole in the ecological college English teaching system. Teachers and students have developed an ecological relationship on the basis of equal dialogues and mutual benefits, instead of the previous traditional teaching-learning relationship.

Teaching of teachers should take "learning" of students as a basis, so the application of teaching methods and selection of teaching language and means should be centered by students and accord with the laws of physical and mental development of students. Meanwhile, learning attitudes, behaviors and interests of students also affect teachers' emotions and performance in teaching. Therefore, the establishment of an ecological teacher-student relationship is a necessary condition for optimizing students and teachers as an organic whole, and achieving "harmonious coexistence" of students and teachers. Thirdly, different components of college English teaching activities should also follow the principle of integrity. Integrity of teaching objectives includes development of knowledge, skills, methods, emotions and other aspects, to promote the overall development of students. Integrity of teaching contents not only highlights the integration of the in-class with the after-class and knowledge in textbooks with practice, but also advocates the interdisciplinary knowledge integration, as well as interdisciplinary interactions.

Integrity of teaching evaluations requires teachers to take individual students as a whole organism to make comprehensive evaluations, instead of just evaluating their academic performance or focusing on performance in some certain aspects. Fourthly, the ecological subject and environment are an organic whole. In college English teaching, the spatial environment (the classroom size and desk and chair arrangement), cultural environment (dressing, customs and other aspects of students and teachers) and spiritual environment produce direct or indirect impacts on teaching and learning. Lastly, the college English teaching system itself is an organic whole. Each factor of teaching has its value. Success of the college English teaching depends on combined effects of various teaching factors, which reflects the integrated effectiveness of teaching.

4 FOLLOWING THE PRINCIPLE OF OPENNESS IN ECOSYSTEM In essence, the ecosystem is an open system, because each ecosystem must maintain its openness, in order to realize continuous material, energy and information exchanges, thus ensuring its survival and development and maintaining its vitality. As the famous British educator Whitehead said, "No life body can exist independently in this world. In fact, all life bodies have independence. A life body can never become perfect or settled, because it depends on its surroundings. The more independent a life body is, the weaker it would be. To ensure its far-sighted vision, a life body would need more practices." (Edgar Morin, 2002: 212-213). Thus it can be seen that no organism can be completely isolated from the external world, as each organism inevitably bears some relationships with the outside world. The ecosystem is no exception. No ecosystem can develop, without being affected by others. An ecosystem can never escape from joint effects of internal and external influencing factors, featured by openness.

Like other ecosystems, the college English teaching ecosystem is not closed or isolated. Its openness is reflected by the following aspects. Firstly, openness is reflected by its ecological subjects. Teachers and students, as subjects of the college English teaching ecosystem, are life bodies with some knowledge, living habits and thinking patterns. As they come from different family and social backgrounds, they show different characteristics. Therefore, in this sense, internal openness of the system actually refers to openness of personality traits and individual experience of each student and teacher. Personality traits and individual experience of the ecological subjects (teachers and students) would be reflected by teaching and learning activities. On one hand, continuous teacher-student and student-student communications and interactions not only promote knowledge dissemination and absorption, but also contribute to maintaining physical and mental health of teachers and students, because ecological subjects (teachers and students) can build emotional attachment through communications and interactions. On the other hand, both teachers and - 92 www.erfrontier.org

students have social properties, so knowledge construction of the ecological subjects would be inevitably subject to influence of social factors. In addition, knowledge dissemination is realized through communications between different ecological subjects. To some extent, teachers and students do not limit their attention only to textbooks, in teaching and learning. Secondly, openness of the college English teaching ecosystem is reflected by its environments.

First, its internal environment is open. An equal and harmonious internal teaching environment can help to achieve equal dialogues and communication among different ecological subjects. Second, the college English teaching system achieves information and energy exchanges with the external environment, through nature, social, culture and other factors. College English has extended its scope to society, nature, culture and other fields, to integrate students' knowledge world with life world. Third, the environment openness of the college English teaching ecosystem is also reflected by the fact that college English breaks the boundary of different disciplines and fields to interact with these disciplines and fields and absorb knowledge in them. Thirdly, various constitute parts of college English teaching should also follow the principle of openness. On one hand, openness of teaching objectives should be reflected by the abandonment of unified objectives and design of different teaching objectives for students at differing levels. In addition, besides knowledge, emotion, values and quality development should also be incorporated into teaching plans. On the other hand, teaching objectives should not be presupposed or fixed, but constantly adjusted according to the development and specific demands of teachers and students. Openness of teaching contents is mainly reflected by open teaching material sources. Textbooks should not be taken the only source of teaching contents. In particular, the rapid development of modern information technology not only greatly enriches college English teaching contents and patterns, but also makes both students and teachers into developers and creators of teaching materials.

Meanwhile, teaching modes should also follow the principle of openness. Teachers should not only enrich teaching modes, but also arrange various teaching activities in connection to social life, so as to improve students' ability to use English in real life.

5 FOLLOWING THE PRINCIPLE OF DYNAMIC BALANCE IN ECOSYSTEM The ecosystem balance refers to the fact that the structure and functions of an ecosystem are in a relatively stable state, within a certain time and conditions. When the balance of an ecosystem is broken due to external interference, the structure and functions of this ecosystem would lose balance, thus breaking the original ecological balance and causing ecological imbalance. However, interfered by the external world, an ecosystem can develop a more reasonable structure, function more efficiently and reach a new balanced and stable state, through self-regulation and human effects. Therefore, the ecosystem is always in a development circle from balance, imbalance and new balance.

Thus it can be seen that balance is relative, realized in a dynamic development process.

Like ecosystems in the nature world, the college English ecosystem also launches a dynamic development, through interacting with its external environment and various constitute parts. The college English ecosystem develops through a development cycle from balance, imbalance and new imbalance, reflecting development, decline and balance of various ecological factors, and transmission and circulation of materials, energy and information.

On one hand, dynamic balance of the college English teaching system should be reflected by the balance between teaching and its external environment. At present, under the new computer-based teaching model, students should create a favorable environment for college English teaching. In terms of hardware, schools should equip classrooms with required multimedia network equipment for college English teaching and ensure timely maintenance and updating of equipment, so as to eliminate time, place and equipment restrictions for students in self-directed learning, and provide favorable learning environment and conditions. In terms of software, it is quite essential to cultivate a correct concept of information among students and teachers, effectively improve teachers' ability of grasping and using information technology, and improve the teaching service system. A favorable teaching environment and adequate teaching resources are essential to eliminate external barriers for college English teaching. In addition, great information technologies and rich teaching resources can help to prevent the college English teaching system from becoming isolated and outdated, and promote effective circulations of materials, energy and information within the system, thus optimizing functions of the college English teaching. Conversely, with no favorable teaching environment, poor teaching equipment, and improper management, college English teaching would fail to satisfy demands of society and students and realize self-development, thus causing imbalance between teaching and - 93 www.erfrontier.org

environment. On the other hand, the internal balance of the college English teaching system should also be dynamic.

The dynamic internal balance is reflected by interactions between teaching ideas and teaching behaviors, teaching contents and actual demands, and teachers and students, as well as knowledge and emotional exchanges and collisions in teaching. It is impossible to launch teaching activities precisely according to teaching plans, because some unexpected things may occur in teaching. Along with the increase in the knowledge accumulation of students and changes in their knowledge systems, their learning demands, goals and directions would change constantly.

Therefore, teachers are required to constantly make adjustments to accord with changes in students, so as to ensure the stability and smooth development of College English teaching. Meanwhile, in the process of teaching and communications, conflicts would inevitably arise among different ecological subjects. Only through a process of working together to detecting and solving problems, can teachers and students achieve harmony and unification.

Through this process, teachers and students not only complete knowledge dissemination, but also experience mental and emotional development, and eventually achieve self-growth and harmonious co-existence.

6 CONCLUSION Ecology has the features of integrity, openness, and dynamic balance, and so does college English ecology. All these characteristics not only should the college English teaching system have, but also should become the principles when optimizing this system.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to extend sincere gratitude to Professor Xiaojiang Yan, who has provided not only invaluable advices but also her encouragement, without which I could not have finished this thesis in such a smooth way.

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AUTHORS Lina Liu was born in Nantong, Jiangsu province, in 1981. She achieved her Master of English Language and Literature, Nantong University, Nantong, China in 2013. Now she is a Lecturer at School of Foreign Studies, Nantong University, Nantong, China. The current research area is methodology of English teaching.

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