PAD Class Teaching in Undergraduate English Courses in the Era of Information Technology

We studied the teaching effect of Zhang’s Presentation - Assimilation – Discussion (or PAD) class mode in undergraduate English class. Taking undergraduates of Lanzhou University of Arts and Sciences in China as an example, we studied the teaching of undergraduate English using PAD in the information technology era. The new PAD mode has three well defined components: teacher presentation, student assimilation and discussion. Using experimental and control oral English classes, with similar input skill, after eight weeks, we found the English proficiency of both groups increased, but the PAD class was significantly better in scores for content and expression, With PAD style teaching, the experimental group improved their mean scores from 74.2 to 80.1 (median 74 to 81.5), whereas the traditional class only improved from 75.4 to 76.8 (median 74 to 79). A t-test confirmed that the results were significant.Assessments, based on questionnaires and interviews, also showed that PAD class teaching improved attitude and learning habits. After the experiment, interviews with some students in the experimental class further confirmed this. Thus the improved learning effect is worth applying in more classrooms to improve undergraduate English ability.