SomesolutionsinimprovingEnglishoralskillforcollegestudents.pdf

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1、共17 页第1 页装订线Some solutions in improving English oral skill for college students Introduction As the development of society and the changes of the age, the “global village ”is becoming smaller and smaller and oral English is becoming more and more important and enjoys great popularity . Oral English

2、communicative competence has become a hot topic in educational reform. Furthermore, mastering oral English skill develops into a compulsory course for contemporary people. It is largely due to the demand of the society. Since the implement of the opening and up policy, the exchange increases not onl

3、y between races and regions but also between the people from all walks, and colors, and different cultures in the five continents. Thus, it is the requirement of modern communicative notion to learn communication and cross-cultural communication, meanwhile, the supreme importance in cross-cultural c

4、ommunication is oral English communication. To some extent, good mastering of oral English communicative competence is a necessity for college students in job hunting. No matter in the employment of the English teachers, office stuffs or company managers, oral English communicative competence goes p

5、riority. For this reason, the improvement of college students oral English skills is extremely urgent, while concerning the improvement of college students oral English skill, we often hear the stock sentences, like “dont be shy, open your mouth, ” “dontbe afraid of making mistakes.”ect. except that

6、 ,is there any effective route ? The answer is yes. If English learners want to improve their oral English skill, they should pay attention to the following aspects. First, knowing the existing problem. Besides paying attention to the standard pronunciation and intonation, the invoking of motivation

7、 is also very important. Second, enlarging vocabulary and putting yourself in the context of situation. Third, using communicative strategies. We should not ignore the direct and effective role of body language in the communication. In connection with the fact that oral English is the weak point for

8、 most Chinese English learners, cultural background should be given special emphasis. Although oral English communication seems to be an independent skill, it is concerned with every aspect of language ability. Therefore, in order to have a good grasp of a brilliant spoken English, you should not on

9、ly have correct and effective channels of practicing oral language but also pay out plenty of energy and sweat. This thesis has elaborated the methods of raising th e ability of the college students oral English skill from six points and hopes to exert some influence on the improvement of college st

10、udents oral 共17 页第2 页装订线English skill . I. Present situations of college students oral skill College students in our country have experienced their English learning from elementary school to middle school. Practice has proved that they have known 2000 words at least and generally, they have had a fi

11、rm English basis, therefore, they would not have any great difficulties in communicating with others in English. However, through a lot of researches, it reveals that in our country there are still many college students of colleges and universities who cannot express themselves very well. (Li, 2004:

12、107) Some conspicuous problems as follows.1.1 Inexact pronunciation and intonation There exists a phenomenon that some college students cannot pronounce English exactly and most of them cannot use the standard intonation to express themselves. Take the word “ houses ”for example, many practices have

13、 proved that most college students wrongly pronounce hauziz into hausiz, obviously the latter is wrong. With inexact pronunciation, unexpected embarrassment can be caused. An oversea student who cant tell n from l and wanted to borrow a knife from the landlady and said “I want your life”. It s not d

14、ifficult to imagine the pale face of the old lady and how astonished she was! Apart from inexact pronunciation, inexact intonation also exists. Intonation exerts great impact on expressing the speakers feeling and is mainly reflected in the stress of sentences and tone. Thus, the difference of inton

15、ation invokes extremely distinctive meaning. The rising tone at the end of an utterance is often used for asking yes-no questions and politeness or surprise, whereas the falling tone sometimes leads to rudeness and abruptness. For example, “ she is a baby doctor” . In this sentence, if “ baby” is st

16、ressed, it just expresses the literary meaning. If both “ baby” and “ doctor” are stressed, it indicates that she is an inexperiencent doctor. The common expressions such as “ Good morning” “ Good afernoon ” “Goodbye” in daily life is in falling tone for greeting and rising tone for farewells. 1.2 N

17、arrow knowledge scope 共17 页第3 页装订线It is easy to understand that if one has a narrow English knowledge scope, then he or she maybe has a limited knowledge horizon in expressing their ideas, which would indirectly affect the communication content, the fluency and accuracy of expression. On the one han

18、d, if one wants to express his or her opinions but he or she maybe does not know how to use the proper English expression, this may hamper the mutual understanding; on the other hand, if one s knowledge scope is so limited, then what he or she expressed in communication is monotonous and uninteresti

19、ng to some extent. Therefore, it is important to broaden one s horizon, especially in English knowledge. 1.3 Ineffective expressing ability A survey carried out in a college reveals that college students language output is slow when they express themselves in conversation and a lot of words used in

20、a wrong way and utterances expressed in an inappropriate situation. (Li, 2004:107) Thus, from the above accounts, it is necessary to think that what the real reason is for college students oral skill under the current situation. 共17 页第4 页装订线II.Factors influencing college students oral English skill

21、Certainly, there are many reasons influencing college students oral ability, the following two are the main factors worth discussing. 2.1 Internal factors From philosophical perspective, the internal factor is things foundation, which is the source and dynamic when things are in the process of devel

22、opment, which regulates the main trend of things development. So the internal factor is the main one in doing things, by the same token, this would be the main reason in learning English. 2.1.1Lack of motivation Psychologists argue that lacking motivation or not having a clear goal is the main facto

23、r baffling students oral skill. Most students do not take English oral skill seriously and just believe that it is good enough to pass the exam. Under this decadent perspective, students cannot have the aspiration to exert themselves in oral expression and communication. Just as some psychologists s

24、ee that if one lacks the learning motivation, any academic research cannot occur. Then lacking the motivation of improving oral skill, the competence of oral expression also cannot be improved. (Ai, 2002:93) 2.1.2Psychological barriers in oral communication It is inevitable that when students speaki

25、ng English some of them may feel nervous at the beginning. However, it is pessimistic that because students are afraid of making mistakes and thus speaking less and less English, even dare not speak one word in class, obviously, this way is not good enough to improve oral skill. “ Practice makes per

26、fect ” . 2.1.3The impact of one s mother tongue 共17 页第5 页装订线To Chinese college students, English is the second language, there is great difference between English and Chinese, such as in pronunciation, sentence pattern, culture background, taboo and so on. Certainly, those differences cannot be elim

27、inated easily. Thus, in expressing English, college students have to notice these problems and try to avoid making mistakes as hard as possible. 2.2 External factors There exists many external factors which influence students oral skill, the following two are typical in English oral teaching. 2.2.1E

28、xam-oriented education model At present, many foreign language educators, experts and scholars have imposed a lot of practical comments and suggestions about reforming college English s education model. However, the exam-oriented education modal is still existing which has a strong influence in acad

29、emic degree and scores. And a few universities and colleges take the pass rate of CET as the unique measurement, mistaking students taking the CET exam as the weight-bearing point. It s self-evident that some universities and colleges don t take the enthusiasm of practicing English oral skill seriou

30、sly. On the contrary, some universities and colleges force students to do many exercises in “ paper ” materials, attach importance to the writing ability and hardly encourage students to improve their English oral skill. This behavior is a typical reflection of the exam-oriented education, which run

31、s counter to nowadays English teaching. (Li, 2003:100) 2.2.2Limited communication environment For Chinese college students, the acquisition of English is formed in the environment of taking the Chinese as their mother tongue, they have little chance using English to communicate in their daily life i

32、n general. It seems that the English oral class is the only place where students can open their mouths to speak English and in most cases, the English conversation is organized in a nominal form between teachers and students or students and students. Obviously the communication environment is limite

33、d and rigid, so it is inevitable some students may be lacking of courage: afraid of making a mistake or afraid of being laugh at. It is thus clear that, the communication environment is limited and rigid for college students to develop their oral skill. 共17 页第6 页装订线“ There is at least 30-40 students

34、 in an English class due to the College Expansion, so it is difficult to improve students oral skill in this circumstance ” . (Ai, 2002:94) Nevertheless, it is emergent to change the situation and improve students English oral skill, practically this is a hot question worth discussing. III.Methods o

35、f improving college students English oral skill In English teaching, many methods have been carried out to improve college studentsoral skill, while the effective ways maybe the following six ones, certainly with the teaching development, some better methods will be applied in the future. 3.1 Cultiv

36、ating students interests in expressions Many practices show that students interests are the main element in learning knowledge. So the same as speaking English, only let students discover their interests in speaking English, English teaching and oral training would have a new look. In details, teach

37、ers can use classroom activities, such as group conversation, story-telling, performance-playing, to create chances for students to practice their English oral skill and let them have a feeling of success and gradually students would form the habit of speaking English. So, it needs the joint effort

38、of the teacher and the student in improving students oral skill. 3.1.1 Raising their self-confidence “ In the period of traditional English teaching, teachers usually pay attention to the main points of the texts and the form of English knowledge, however, neglecting students listening and speaking.

39、 As a result, this leads students shadow in their psychology ”. (Li, 2004:107) Therefore, what teachers should do is to apply various teaching resources, stimulating students interests of speaking English, creating conditions to let them take part in different oral activities. Meanwhile, teachers sh

40、ould make positive comments as many as possible when students speaking English, this may attain the effort of indirect criticism and 共17 页第7 页装订线suggestion so as to safeguard students pride. Besides, students should adjust their motion and learning strategy to form a positive attitude in improving t

41、heir English oral skill, finally erecting the self-confidence of speaking English. 3.1.2 Correcting errors in specific situations “ English teachers should know that making mistakes in the process of learning foreign language is a natural phenomenon, so teachers most important task is to help and en

42、courage students opening their mouths to speak English to achieve the greatest amount of practical exercises ” .(Li, 2001:91) In practice, teachers do introduce amount of English information in class so as to increase the listening and speaking activities for students. And in the process of activiti

43、es, teachers often pay much attention to what students said, even every word and sentence, this way is good for students to some extent. However, once finding any errors in pronunciation, intonation and grammar, they will correct the errors immediately, evidently this action is not good enough, it c

44、an break not only students logical thinking, but destroy the integrated degree of expression. If things like this occurred many times, students would be afraid of speaking English so much and gradually they would lose confidence in expressing their ideas in the future. Errors should be dealt in its

45、specific situation. When students express their ideas freely, the errors should not be listed one by one, especially in the process of speaking, because at that moment to exchange ideas is the most important purpose. In fact, the big error in speaking English is that students seldom speaking English

46、 and daring not to speak English. Li Gang argues that students can correct their errors with the development of their language competence. (Li, 2001:91) 3.1.3 Creating student- centered class In teaching, teachers should recognize students personal discrepancy and carry out different teaching method

47、s according to students personality, namely, “ do with a definite purpose ” . For example, the requirement to the extrovert student who is active and has a quick response should be strict and let them to speak rightly, exactly; on the contrary, the introvert student response slowly, teachers should

48、encourage them and cultivate their good habits of speaking English. “Whether the oral class is successful or not, the key point is that teachers should know who is the center in class”. (Li, 2001:91) Undoubtedly, students is the real center and the teaching departure in class, teachers 共17 页第8 页装订线c

49、an organize classroom activities, determining the teaching task, answering question and so on. Like the director, the play can only be performed by actors, so the class only be performed by students. 3.2 Learning “ listening ” before “ speaking ”Since students have had interests in speaking English,

50、 then what is the efficient way for them to have a good oral skill? To listen English! Many facts have proved that through listening students can contact much English language and after a period s listening, they would have a willing to speak and express their ideas in English. This is the effort of