中国大学生英语口语课堂沉默现象的实证性研究.doc

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1、 国内图书分类号：H319国际图书分类号：802.0文学硕士学位论文中国大学生英语口语课堂沉默现象的 实证性研究 硕 士 研 究 生 ： 导师 ： 申 请 学 位：文学硕士学 科 、 专 业 ：外国语言学及应用语言学所 在 单 位：外国语学院答 辩 日 期： 2010年6月25日授予学位单位：哈尔滨工业大学 Classified Index: H319U.D.C.: 802.0Graduation Thesis for the M. A. DegreeAn Empirical Analysis of Chinese College Students Silence in Oral Englis

2、h Classes Candidate: YIN JiaSupervisor: Prof. ZHOU ZhinanAcademic Degree Applied for: Master of ArtsSpecialty: Foreign Linguistics and Applied LinguisticsAffiliation: School of Foreign LanguagesDate of Oral Examination: June 25, 2010Degree Conferring Institution : Harbin Institute of Technology Harb

3、in Institute of Technology Graduation Thesis for the MA Degree哈尔滨工业大学硕士论文摘要近些年来，中国大学生在英语口语课堂保持沉默是一个普遍现象，而英语口语课堂沉默会导致学生英语口语水平发展的停滞甚至倒退。中西方学者对导致学生在外语课堂尤其是普通英语课堂保持沉默和被动学习的因素进行了大量理论与实证研究，但没有对中国学生英语口语课堂的沉默现象做专门的调查。是什么原因导致中国大学生在英语口语课堂保持沉默？而大学英语口语老师又能采取什么样的策略来提高学生课堂参与的力度？本论文从这两个问题出发，运用社会语言学、心理语言学、心理学、教育学理论

4、，结合科学的研究方法，围绕着这两个问题展开了实证性研究。本研究吸取了前人理论研究与实证调查中得到普遍认可的基本思想，通过对 18位大学本科生进行访谈及发放并回收的 96份有效问卷进行数据分析，力求从学生的角度来探索导致中国大学生在英语口语课堂上保持沉默的原因。另外，数据采集过程还使用了课堂观察和课堂录音的方法，来辅助研究，确保研究结果的可信度。研究发现：社会习俗与文化传统，学生的个人性格特点，语言流利程度，课堂环境与氛围和教师在授课过程中的提问策略在决定学生参与英语口语课堂活动的程度上都起着重要的作用，也可以说是导致学生在英语口语课堂保持沉默的主要原因。基于本次研究的发现，结合前人的研究基础，

5、本论文为大学英语口语教师提出了一些实际的、具体的策略和建议，如：营造课堂良好氛围、与学生建立良好的师生关系、丰富课堂内容、提高授课技巧等。这些教学建议能够有效提高中国大学生英语口语课堂的参与力度，减少大学生在英语口语课堂的沉默现象，从而改进英语口语教学。关键词：沉默，英语口语，原因，教学建议-I- Harbin Institute of Technology Graduation Thesis for the MA Degree哈尔滨工业大学硕士论文AbstractIn recent years, it has been a common phenomenon for Chinese coll

6、egeESL/EFL students to keep silent in oral English classes, which would definitelybring a negative effect to the development of Chinese students ability of spokenEnglish. Many researchers home and abroad have devoted comprehensive studiesto the reasons causing students silence and passivity in forei

7、gn language classesespecially in general English classes, but few attempts have been made tospecifically explore the factors causing Chinese college students silence in oralEnglish classes.What factors lead to students silence in oral English classes? Whattechniques or methods can be adopted by coll

8、ege oral English teachers to enhancestudents class participation? The present thesis, focusing its attention on these twoquestions, strives to explore the factors resulting in Chinese college studentssilence in oral English classes and to examine the importance of the factors byemploying the theorie

9、s of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, psychology andpedagogy and scientific research methods.Based on the previous theories and empirical studies, structured interviewswith 18 college students are carried out in order to examine their subjectiveexplanations for the factors influencing students c

10、lass participation. A 30-itemquestionnaire is designed and distributed to 96 students, in order to find out themost influential factors causing students silence in oral English classes. Classobservations and class recordings are also used in the process of data collection inorder to make sure the cr

11、edibility of the research results.It is discovered that a complex mix of Chinese traditions and cultures,students characters, language proficiency, classroom environment and teachers-II- Harbin Institute of Technology Graduation Thesis for the MA Degree哈尔滨工业大学硕士论文way of questioning in class play sig

12、nificant roles in determining the level ofstudents class participation, or rather, they are the causes resulting in studentssilence in oral English classes. In light of these findings, some implications andsuggestions in terms of oral English enhancement are proposed for college oralEnglish teachers

13、. These suggestions include establishing a harmonious classroomatmosphere, building a sound rapport with students, enriching the contents andactivities, and improving the teaching techniques.Keywords：Silence; Oral English; Causes; Pedagogic Implications-III- Harbin Institute of Technology Graduation

14、 Thesis for the MA Degree哈尔滨工业大学硕士论文Contents摘要.IAbstract. IIChapter1 Introduction . 11.1 Background Information. 11.2 Research Objectives and Significance . 2Chapter 2 Literature Review. 32.1 Definition of Silence. 32.2 Definition of Silence in Class. 42.3 Classification of Silence in Class . 52.4 R

15、esearch Review. 6Chapter 3 Methodology. 93.1 Subjects . 93.2 Instruments. 93.3 Data Collection and Transcription. 12Chapter 4 Results and Discussions . 164.1 Silence Caused by Chinese Culture and Tradition. 164.1.1 Results and Cases. 164.1.2 Analysis of Silence from Cultural Perspective. 194.1.3 Ped

16、agogical Implications . 214.2 Silence Caused by Personality and Gender. 234.2.1 Results and Cases . 234.2.2 Analysis of Silence from Personal Perspective. 254.2.3 Pedagogical Implications. 294.3 Silence Caused by Language proficiency . 304.3.1Results and Cases . 304.3.2 Analysis of Silence from the

17、Perspective of LanguageBarriers . 324.3.3 Pedagogical Implications. 344.4 Silence Caused by Environment. 364.4.1 Results and Cases . 364.4.2 Analysis of Silence from Environmental Perspective . 384.4.3 Pedagogical Implications. 404.5 Silence Caused by Teachers Questioning. 414.5.1 Results and Cases.

18、 414.5.2 Analysis of Silence from the Perspective of Questions andWait Time . 44-IV- Harbin Institute of Technology Graduation Thesis for the MA Degree哈尔滨工业大学硕士论文4.5.3 Pedagogical Implicatiosn . 46Chapter 5 Conclusion . 485.1 Major Findings. 485.2 Implications. 495.3 Limitations and Suggestions for

19、Further Study . 50References . 52AppendixInterview Questions . 57AppendixA Questionnaire of Students Silence in Oral English Classes. 58Acknowledgements . 62哈尔滨工业大学硕士学位论文原创性声明 . 63哈尔滨工业大学硕士学位论文使用授权书 . 63-V- Harbin Institute of Technology Graduation Thesis for the MA Degree哈尔滨工业大学硕士论文Chapter1 Introdu

20、ction 1.1 Background InformationFrom the beginning of twenty-first century, the reform of teaching and learningin college English class has been brought forward and become fashionable in theeducation. In the past, educationalists and teachers advocated that teachers speak onthe platform and students

21、 listen and take notes in the class, which is found to beinappropriate for college English teaching. The traditional teaching methods neglecthelping the students to perceive the ability of speaking English. Change isnecessarily needed in the English teaching method. Nowadays, colleges arrangemore an

22、d more oral English classes to train the ability to speak, while students arenot willing to open their mouth and speak, which is urgent to be solved. Manyeducationalists and teachers have done a lot of researches in this area, which are veryvaluable and helpful.Chinese students are found reluctant i

23、n class, especially in oral English classes.(Liu, 2000) In this research paper, many problems in oral English classes arepresented. College students are passive to participate in classroom activities: they arenot willing to answer the questions even though they know the answers to thequestions; they

24、 do not raise questions when they do not understand the teachers; theyusually do not make a sound in class but to listen to the teachers; they keep silent anddo not speak when the teachers give them time to discuss with their classmates. Mostof the students do not have the interest or the confidence

25、 in learning and participatingin the oral class, they keep silent in order to escape from oral English class, and theyprefer to listen and take notes by themselves. All of these are disadvantageous forlearning oral English. In a long run, backslides, or even zero learning will happen inspeaking abil

26、ity of Chinese college students. Therefore, silence in oral English classis a question which becomes more and more urgent to solve in the teaching and-1- Harbin Institute of Technology Graduation Thesis for the MA Degree哈尔滨工业大学硕士论文learning. In order to solve this problem, it is important to find the

27、 reasons behindsilence.This thesis is mainly designed to describe the passive performance in oralEnglish classes and to find the decisive reasons behind the performance of silence.1.2 Research Objectives and SignificanceWith all kinds of college students as research subjects, the objectives of thisr

28、esearch are to find out and analyze the causes of students silence in oral Englishclass and to propose some suggestions to ameliorate the situations to the teachers. Inthis way, teachers will get to know how to communicate with their students and helpthem to be willing to speak in class. Hopefully,

29、this will help the students to improvetheir English speaking proficiency.Another purpose of this research is to help the students to find their ideal job inthe long run. Nowadays, the purpose of many students to study in college is to gettheir ideal job easily. While most of the companies require ne

30、w staff to have a highEnglish level, they even have their interviews in English. Even though theinterviewees could get the meanings of the questions from the interviewers, when itcomes to their chance to share their ideas and views in order to show themselves, it isnecessary for them to express them

31、selves proficiently in order to impress theinterviewers. At this time, a high level of English speaking helps, while a low levelcumbers.College is a place to train students and help them to perceive abilities, whileEnglish ability is seen as one of the most important ability for college students, th

32、usstudents English ability improvements mean a lot to college education. Therefore itis urgent and necessary to conduct such kinds of research in this area.-2- Harbin Institute of Technology Graduation Thesis for the MA Degree哈尔滨工业大学硕士论文Chapter 2 Literature Review Silence, as an important phenomenon

33、 in communication, has received a growingattention in applied linguistics. The concept of silence is wide-ranging and plays animportant role with its multiple values and functions in human communication.Researchers have an increasing interest in the study of silence. They describedsilence as a compl

34、ex linguistic item whose function needs to be accounted for interms of various pragmatic and sociolinguistic frameworks - for example,ethnography of communication (SavilleTroike, 1985), Politeness Theory (Sifiano,1997), Relevance Theory (Jaworski, 1993), Discourse Analysis (Bilmes, 1994), etc.Silenc

35、e implies profound information rather than to be just the blank or pause in theprocess of communication, it is a challenging task to study.2.1 Definition of SilenceSilence is usually defined and accepted with the notion of absence of sound andas the ground against which talk is perceived. (Dauenhaue

36、r, 1980) According to theOxford English Dictionary, silence is referred to as: 1) abstaining from speech orutterance, sometimes with reference to a particular matter; 2) the state of conditionwhen nothing is audible; 3) omission of mention or notice. In general, it isconceptualized against the state

37、 of speaking and regarded as the absence of talk orcommunication. (Anna, 2006)In linguistics, silence includes all the nonverbal forms in general, while in anarrow sense, silence is a part of paralanguage. Different scholars have differentviews about silence from various scopes. Levinson (1983:269) once defines silenceas “the abse