Learning through participation: Partnership in undergraduate curriculum design and assessment in Chinese higher education

This paper reports the teaching practice of a new undergraduate curriculum design and assessment of English majors at Henan University of Economics and Law in 2013–2014 academic year. Underpinned by social constructivism, this new curriculum design highly evaluates students´ participation through additional activities, and considers it as a valuable experience for students to practice their learning skills, to work with peers and to solve practical problems. It also presents results of a questionnaire survey as well as interviews for both teachers and students, discusses some key considerations of additional activities in English teaching, and finally draws a conclusion that although the new curriculum design and assessment have a high recognition, they still need improvement as well.