Strategies of Oral English Teaching in Senior Schools 高中英语口语教学策略研究.docx

Strategies of Oral English Teaching in Senior SchoolsIntroductionIn recent years it has been argued on both linguistics and psychological grounds that oral English should be the principal objective in English teaching. Most textbooks place more emphasis on Oral English in that they embody a methodology that is largely oral. The current problems that appear in the Oral English teaching in senior schools are the greatest obstacles which prevent students from learning English well. With the globalization of social life and economy, the process of opening up to the outside becomes quickly, to a certain extent, the requirements for the cultivation for Oral English are instant. A deeper understanding of the effects of communicative needs on non-native speaker discourse should make us more understanding of our students difficulties in practicing their oral English. It is generally accepted that oral English plays an important part in the English course, and even in the advanced education.In the past, English teaching laid great emphasis on the grammatical structures instead of Oral English teaching. This leads to some serious problems that most English learners in China have studied English for more than ten years, yet they cannot communicate with native English speakers naturally. They probably lack the language environment, and most of them have no opportunities to practice their English orally in class. Furthermore, teachers, some of whom cannot have very good oral English in some backward and remote areas of China, are not qualified. These certainly leave students the direct impact on the motivation of English learning. This thesis aims to introduce some ways to develop senior school teachers Oral English teaching. The author puts forward suggestions such as attempts of new teaching theories and strategies, professionalism of teachers Oral English, and cultivation of language environment which are beneficial both to teachers and students.This thesis introduces senior school students problems on the Oral English learning, teachers problems in their Oral English teaching and Administrators education policy, giving theoretical emphasis on the communication of the English language. It analyzes the causes of their problems in Oral English learning and teaching. The author presents some practical ways of teaching and learning to improve senior school students Oral English.1. Theoretical FrameworkIn this part, the author has put some theories to support this paper. They are linguistics theories, psychological theories and theories of Foreign Language Teaching Methodology.1.1 Linguistic TheoriesModern linguists have proposed various definitions of language, some of them are quoted below: “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols” (Richards, 2001; cited from Spair, 1921).Language is vocal because the primary medium is sound for all languages; no matter how well developed their writing systems. All evidence points to the fact that writing systems came into being much later than the spoken forms and that they are only attempts to capture sounds and meaning gin paper so that vocal productions of meaning can be kept for more people and for a longer time. The fact that children acquire spoken language before they can read or write also indicates that languageis primarily vocal (Li Manjue & Lin Rong, 2003, p.2).Previously, a domain-specific “language acquisition device” or LAD had been posited as the actual mechanism that underlies the ability to learn one's native tongue (Robins, 2002). This was mainly due to the failure to show the feasibility of domain general learning. Under current Principles and Parameters theory (Doff, 1991; cited from Chomsky, 1995; Haegeman, 1991), universal grammar (UG) is the set of properties that are common to all languages (principles) and the set of properties that can vary in certain finite ways between languages (parameters). Thus, in more recent thinking, UG itself is sufficient to determine the target grammar given language input. The devices for explaining language acquisition and for characterizing what is common to all human languages have been integrated. But, since the principles and parameters of UG are specific to language and are putatively part of the genetic endowment of humans, the hypothesis still amounts to saying that language is innate and that language learning involves mechanisms that are specific to the domain of language.Another important theory that supports my study is the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) which refers to the subconscious or conscious process by which a language other than mother tongue is learnt in a natural or a tutored setting. There are mainly two important theories that indicate the importance of oral English teaching or learning. They are advocated by Krashens monitor model. The Performance Analysis is an approach to the study of the learners total linguistics performance (Li Manjue & Lin Rong, 2003; cited from Krashen, 1980). The Discourse Analysis is the study of how sentences is spoken and written language forms larger meaningful units such as paragraphs, conversations, interviews. An analysis of spoken discourse is sometimes called conversational analysis (Li Manjue & Lin Rong, 2003; cited from Krashen, 1980). Now language teaching needs materials which derive from a description of discourse; materials which will affect the transfer from grammatical competence, knowledge of sentences, to what has been called communicative competence, knowledge of how sentences used in the performance of communicative acts of different kinds (Li Manjue & Lin Rong, 2003; cited from Widdowson, 1979).1.2 Psychological TheoriesConstructivism is a theory of how the learner constructs knowledge from experience, which is unique to each individual. Constructivism is greatly influenced by Piagetian epistemology, although many also give credit to Vygotsky. Duckworth (1987) defined constructivism succinctly “Meaning is not given to us in our encounters, but it is given by us, constructed by us, each in our own way, according to how our understanding is currently organized”. Psychologists and educators are embracing a new view of learning that rejects reductionist theories of the past. According to Resnick: “we are in the midst of a major convergence of psychological theories . . . today, cognitive scientists generally share the assumption that knowledge is constructed by learners” (George, 1999; cited from Resnick, 1987).Piaget's theory is fundamental to constructivism. It implies the process of building, creating, or making mental structures instead of merely absorbing or reproducing products. Piaget used schema in his writings, a term that has caused considerable confusion in the educational literature. An alternative is thematic knowledge, which may be related to but not equal to "schema" or mental structures of constructivism. An important qualification, in line with Piaget's theory, is that schemas are not program-like, long-term memory structures of modern information processing theory.  From a biofunctional viewpoint, the brain continually retains live representations or constructions under active (intentional) and dynamic (spontaneous) self-regulation (Asudeh, 1997; cited from Iran-Nejad, 1990).Although Piaget is widely regarded as the patriarch of constructivism, constructivists have embraced other theorists, especially the Russian psychologist, L.S. Vygotsky. His theory was made familiar to English speakers with translation of Thought and Language and Mind in Society. Vygotsky considered an individual's cognitive system to be a direct result of and inseparable from social life (Elaterin, 1998; cited from Vygotsky, 1987).Central to Vygotsky's theory is that the human species is distinguished from others by use of tools, deliberate teaching, and intentional learning.  Tools refer both to the variety of implements created by humans and psychological tools, such as language.  The mind has social origins and the cultural tools available to the individual influence the nature of the mind that is constructed (Elaterin, 1998; cited from Vygotsky, 1987).1.3 Theories of Foreign Language Teaching MethodologyForeign Language Teaching Methodology (FLTM) (Shu Baimei & Chen Youlin, 1990) is the backbone for the oral English teaching in senior schools. It is a science that studies the process and the patterns of foreign language teaching, aiming at revealing the nature and laws of foreign language teaching. The goal of it is to help the learner master the target language in the shortest time. By mastering the target language, we mean that the learner is able to have successful communication with others in the target language.Foreign Language Teaching Methodology is in consistent with the study on Oral English teaching strategies. The Direct Method insists that only the target language should be used in class and meanings should be communicated directly. The Oral Approach advocates that language is identified with speech. The Audio-lingual Method emphasizes the teaching of speaking before reading and writing. The Cognitive Approach insists the belief that language learning is a process which involves active mental processes. The Natural Approach is an approach to develop teaching principles which emphasizes natural communication rather than formal grammar study. The Communicative Approach emphasizes that the goal of language learning is communicative competence.As is often mentioned, the Teaching Syllabus (The Ministry of Education, 2000) stipulates that band one requires senior school students to retell main ideas based on the general meaning of the passages, and can do some introduction about family, friends, or class by using simple sentences and expressions. Band two describes that students can answer questions and discuss according to the text efficiently. It also requires students to do daily talk about society, culture, and science which related to the text in the textbooks. Moreover, The High School English Standards (The Ministry of Education, 2002) stipulates that Band six requires senior school students to do daily conversation and express their own opinions on the given topics. Students can describe personal experience and express themselves appropriately on some specific occasions. Band eight stresses that students can make a 3-minute speech based on simple topics by preparation in a short time and do some translations in daily life.2Analyses of Oral English Learning and TeachingHaving mentioned the theoretical framework that goes well with the study, the author would like to analyze the causes of the problem from three different perspectives. The oral English teaching in senior schools cannot get satisfactory effect. The students problems in oral English learning can be divided into four aspects. They are the lack of language environment, few opportunities to contact with English, lack of confidence and creativity and the impact of psychological obstacles. The teachers factors include three points, they are less proficiency in oral English teaching, poor teaching theories and strategies and traditional teaching modes. The administrators problems are the large class and current English test system. The problems which I have mentioned will be further analyzed in the following.2.1 Students Factors in Their Oral English Learning2.1.1 Lack of Language EnvironmentTraditionally, lack of language environment prevents students from learning English well. Students are regarded as the most important factor in oral English teaching. However, especially in China, the difficulties that students in oral English learning would probably have four points. The first one is definitely the lack of language environment. The students in china always learn English in a single-handed language environment that is highly influenced by Chinese (Hu Chundong, 1990,). There are few opportunities to speak English except for the several acquired English lessons. It is also difficult for students to review the speaking activities after class by themselves. As for the second language acquisition, English is not only the daily communicative language for students, or even for Chinese people. Most students cannot form the English thinking habit after several years of learning because of the limited language environment. Learning a language or skill, the most effective way is to practice it in the authentic situation with media. For us English learners, if students want to master a language including mastering all its skills. We must think something in it, express some in it. That is to say, when students are learning English, they must put themselves into an atmosphere of English.However, this problem is closely related with the current social background. It is easy to figure out that the first language acquisition is a natural process to move on for Chinese students since Chinese is our mother tongue which can be practiced in families with people around. Thus the proficiency of Chinese is much higher than English for Chinese students. The reason is, obviously, that the language environment is quite important for students to acquire the first or second language. Nevertheless, the current situation for senior school students who want to develop oral English competency is serious. It is investigated that students only can have four to six English lessons which are total about four to five hours every week. Naturally, there are about eighteen weeks every semester, so the total is around ninety hours the whole semester for every student to learn English in class. But in the 45-minute class, teachers almost dominate the class, leaving little time for students to speak English. After class, it is unusual to speak English between teachers and students, let alone to speak English at home with their parents or family members for most of them know nothing about English or even just little. So there comes with the problem how students can improve their oral English in such a language environment.2.1.2 Few Opportunities to Contact with EnglishFew opportunities to contact with English reduce the time to practice English for senior school students. The opportunities to listen to English are also very limited. Good English competency is fundamentally based on the practice of large amount of listening. Nevertheless, because of the poor quality of the teaching equipment and materials, or the less proficiency of teachers in oral English, the students always listen very little. These factors exert direct influence on the speaking activities.Limited amount of class time restrains students to contact more with English. For most senior school students, also they have four to five English l