Title: A case study on the factors affecting Chinese adult students' English acquisition in a blended learning environment

Authors: Chunlin Yao

Addresses: School of Foreign Languages, North China University of Science and Technology, Xinhuaxidao No. 46, Tangshan, China

Abstract: Blended learning is a popular trend in college English acquisition for Chinese adult education. In order to study the influence of a blended learning environment to English acquisition and the factors affecting Chinese adult students' English acquisition, 100 of them who study in the School of Continuing Education of North China University of Science and Technology are selected as the research subjects, and the research instruments of questionnaire and interview are used to collect data. The study results show that the blended learning environment in some way can help learners overcome anxieties and cultivate autonomous learning abilities. In addition, those with better academic performances in English acquisition have low levels of anxieties and strong autonomous learning abilities. They use more learning strategies and they are willing to seek academic help. However, those with worse academic performance in English acquisition have high degrees of anxiety and are reluctant to ask others for help when they encounter problems or difficulties, and they do not know how to choose their individual learning strategies and are weak at self-learning abilities.

Keywords: academic help-seeking behaviour; autonomous learning ability; blended learning; Chinese adult students; English acquisition; learning anxiety; learning strategy; China; case study; language learning; continuing education; self-learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEELL.2017.080993

International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning, 2017 Vol.27 No.1/2, pp.22 - 44

Received: 01 Dec 2015
Accepted: 31 Mar 2016
Published online: 14 Dec 2016 *

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