Abstract—As the information age commenced in the late 20th century, computer assisted language learning (CALL) systems have been developed to provide foreign language teaching with a more advanced medium. With CALL growing worldwide, English language teaching (ELT) in China starts to meet the challenge. Analyzing the impact brought to ELT in China by the development of modern science and technology, the study tries to explore how students and teachers view their CALL learning/teaching experience and find out what kind of roles language teachers should play in the teaching process. The subjects are mainly from Northwestern Polytechnic University. Data for the study were collected over a four-month period, consisting of quantitative information obtained from questionnaire surveys of network use among learners and teachers and qualitative information gathered from a series of interviews with teachers and others concerned. With the combination of theoretical and empirical studies, the paper reveals no avoidance of the changes of English language teachers’ roles and puts forward ways to educate and help teachers to realize these necessary changes.

Index Terms—Computer assisted language learning, English language teaching, higher education, teachers’ role.

Wang Jianli is with Northwestern Polytechnic University, China

Cite: Wang Jianli, "Teachers’ Changing Role in Computer Assisted Language Learning in Higher Education in China," International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 223-226, 2012.