Abstract
To better meet the needs of economic restructuring and industrial development in China, educators in vocational colleges have to find new approaches to narrow the gaps between the updated requirements from the employers for business English majors and the vocational college education reality. Under this circumstance, a tentative study was carried out with the aids of multimedia to help the educators remove obstacles blocking achieving their educational aim, which is cultivating the graduates who are qualified for the social requirement. This study mainly discussed how effective the multimedia networks can help the business English majors in vocational colleges to enrich their work experience and enhance their practical English ability, computer skills, communication skills, and cooperation skills comprehensively. It aimed at exploring the ways of helping the business English majors in vocational colleges to gain work experience and improve their practical English skills, computer skills, communication skills, and cooperation skills with the aid of multimedia networks. An experimental teaching program was designed under the guidelines of a task-based teaching approach and constructive learning theory. The program includes four teaching models, which are in-class learning and field preparation, mock practice, in-field learning and field education, and learning reflection. All learning and field practices are delivered online facilitated by multimedia networks. One hundred and forty sophomores majoring in business English are selected as participants of the program. Data of students' confidence in all five monitored essential abilities are collected before and after the learning procedure through questionnaires, and students' feedbacks are collected through interviews. The statistical results show that multimedia networks can help students improve their overall competence, especially in gaining work experience and practical English skills. Moreover, adopting multimedia networks in teaching can provide more internship opportunities, enrich teaching scenarios, and prolong net teaching hours, which forms a preferred learning environment and provides better learning outcomes. It could also be used to assist communication and cooperation trainings.