Activity Theory as a Framework for Designing the Model of College English Listening

Activity theory signifies that activities are at the centre of human behaviour and it has been used to study cognitive process in many fields. Nowadays, college English listening learning is time-consuming but less effective in China, so enhancing the performance of listening instruction is a very hot topic. Theoretically, activity theory is able to provide a proper framework for analyzing motive, designing tasks, contributing rules and tools in English listening in English as foreign language environment. Therefore, it is necessary and significant to unify the activity theory to design a novel model of listening comprehension and to analyze the college English listening from a different perspective. According to the theoretical analysis, activity theory is a useful framework to design the model of college English listening and to provide learner-centered education.


Introduction
English listening is hard work and it deserves more analysis and learning.At the same time, in English as foreign language environment, college English listening (college students' English listening proficiency) has been paid so much attention, because it is a complicated process, in which students must discriminate sounds, understand vocabulary and structure, interpret stress and intonation, grasp speakers' meaning.In China, listening, which is time-consuming but less effective, has been the weak link in college English instruction.Therefore, constructing an efficient listening model for college English instruction is currently one of the vital research subjects to boost English listening comprehension.
Activity theory, which is an intricate framework that aims to analyze activity systems in human beings and to focus on the interaction between human activity and its relevant environment context, has been used to study cognitive process in various fields, such as computer-based learning (Zurita et al., 2007), personal learning environment (Blina et al, 2008), group working analysis in education (Choi & Kang, 2009), learning objects (Hansson, 2012), etc.So, in this study, the activity theory and college listening will be unified to analyze listening motive, tasks, rules, tools and outcomes in order to design a novel mode of listening comprehension and to analyze the college English listening from a new perspective in China.

Literature Review
Activity theory belongs to a concept of psychology which mainly claims that "activity" is the logical starting point and central area of the subject, so activity theory can be used to study and explain the occurrence and development of human behaviours.Originally, activity theory can trace its roots from the classical German philosophy of Kant and Hegel and Marxist dialectical materialism.In recent years, it develops and grows rapidly in the field of pedagogical psychology (Mosvold et al., 2011).Therefore, to some extent, activity theory is not a simple methodology but a theoretical framework and an interdisciplinary pattern for analyzing different forms of human behaviours in a socio-cultural and socio-historical lens.

Activity Theory
Activity theory is developed by Russian psychologists Vygotsky (1978) and Leontiev (1979).They claim: "Consciousness is constructed through subject's interactions with the world and is an attribute of the relationship between subject and object."Activity theory emphasizes that human behaviours and social changes should be strategies depending on different teaching content.Gradually, students will gain autonomous learning ability and can actively practise listening without any external intervention.So in a complete listening mode, the subject's motive is an indispensable part.

The Object of Listening Activity
The object of activity can be anything, so long as it can be transformed by the subject of activity; therefore, the object is acted on by the subject; moreover, the process that the object transforms into the outcome usually represents the purpose or intention of the subject (Effie, 2012).Activity theory claims that learning and doing are not separable and that they are initiated by the intention.So in the activity of college English listening, the object belongs to students' listening proficiency or language skill and the outcome should be the mutual understanding of communicating parts.
In language learning, communication is the ultimate goal.Besides, the successful and efficient communication signifies that both parts of communication are able to cope with the changes of context, field and style.Therefore, because of the demands of object, the dynamic context and various authentic corpora can be input successfully in the listening model.

The Community, Division of Labor and Rules of Listening Activity
As mentioned before, any activity is contextually bound, so activity system is able to be depicted in the community in which it operates.The community can be individual or teams.The division of labor exists in the community and it will be distributed depending on the changes of participants in the activity.Meanwhile, rules of activity are always utilized to negotiate or mediate the relationship between the subject and the object.So rules are implicit or explicit regulations, criteria and customs that describe how community functions, and that limit the interaction between action and system.
In college English listening instruction, the community of activity refers to teachers and students; moreover, the rules usually act as the cooperation among them or as the communication among students themselves.With the changes of teaching content, the divisions of teachers and students vary.For example, in the communication among students, learners are speakers and teachers usually belong to hearers, but in the cooperation among teachers and students, learners are hearers or acceptors and teachers become guides.Therefore, in the process of listening mode construction, the complex relationship among community, division of labor and rules in instructional system should be carefully considered as well.

Tools of Listening Activity
Tools of activity theory are the methods that the subject acts on the object, so the nature of tools can be understood only in the context of activity.Tools can be anything used in the transformation process such as signals, language, computers, modes or heuristics etc. and tools are always altered by the ways which they have been utilized.
In the Chinese traditional listening instruction, passing the CET4 (College English Test 4) is the main teaching goal; therefore, teaching materials and exams are regarded as the most important tools.But with the changes of instructional methodology, the ultimate goal of listening instruction has turned into the mutual understanding so that tools should include learners' personal background, learning and listening materials, multimedia facilities and reasonable evaluating system, etc.Furthermore, the establishment of evaluating system should be emphasized because only a fair, rational and effective evaluating system is able to measure the operative condition of the whole listening activity.

The Designing Model of English Listening
According to the analysis of activity theory, a college English listening model has devised in English as foreign language environment.As a practical model, it must possess a kind of generality and inclusiveness (Zhang, 2013).Besides, this model should also be opened and it owns some distinct variables which have certain generative abilities.The theoretical model is shown in Figure 3.

First
, experience in applying for this activity-based listening model is needed for further validation. addition