HowtoImproveOralEnglishExpression

馬昭

Abstract：Obstacles in oral English expressions seem to discourage students from practicing， so it is regarded as one of the major problems in oral English teaching. The paper aims to analyze why students have to struggle for appropriate utterances and to what extent group-work speech， the method combined task-based language teaching with cooperative language teaching， could help students solve this problem.

Keywords：Oral English； Expression； Group-work； Speech； Task-based Language Teaching； Cooperative Language Teaching； Classroom

中圖分類號：G718 文獻標識碼： C 文章編號：1672-1578（2015）03-0242-02

1 Introduction

In the course of five-years teaching oral English in New Oriental School， the writer notices one major barrier to students practices that they always fail to properly express what they are trying to say. Students who are sitting in classrooms attempt to pass TOEFL or IELTS in the future and most of them are between 17 to 22 years-old. Those students are supposed to have been studying English for at least 7years at schools. Unfortunately， their competence presented in oral English is much lower than expected， that is to say， most of them can be classified as Intermediate English learners， among whom many are even at pre-intermediate level （Skehen，1998）. As a result， the challenge confronted by the teacher is to help them make progress on expression in oral English classroom.

2 Mistakes Made in Oral English Expression

Since our mother language is supposed to play an important role in acquiring and learning second language

（Granger，1998）， it is inevitable for our students to make many mistakes in expression. A couple of examples took place in classes are listed as follows：

Example 1： A student describe an upset event in this way： “my father is bad， because he makes me to go to training school， which makes me not happy…” two problems should be noticed here， one was that it was not proper to define his father as a bad man due to his requirement； while the other problem was the word “make”， which inappropriately appeared twice in his sentence.

Example 2： Another student complained about his friend， “it was his fault， because he pulled my leg and then i lost the game…”The student failed to comprehend the true meaning of this collocation “pull ones leg”. As an English slang， “pull ones leg” works in the same way as “kidding” from semantic perspective. Moreover， in terms of the students context， “hold ones back” better fits in his sentence.

3 Reasons lead to mistakes in oral English Expression

First，students are prone to pay little attention to collection of lexical phrases. Nattinger and Decarrico refer to “lexical phrases” as “form/function composites， lexico-grammatical units that occupy a position somewhere between the traditional poles of lexicon and syntax”（Nattinger & DeCarrico， 1992） . Without collections of lexical phrases， they tend to make full use of those simplest words that have taken roots in their minds since primary school study. Therefore， it is reasonable for the student in Example 1 to grumble at his father as “bad” man， instead of “I am mad at my father because…”， to express his dismay. Second， mistakes can also be ascribed to being out of practice. So that when students are practicing， they are inclined to come up with a Chinese sentence in their minds first and then translate it into English word by word— literal translation. The renowned translator Peter Newmark suggested that literal translation stayed loyal to the content of original language but also tallied with its grammar and sentence structure （ Newmark， 1987）. However， students at intermediate level have gone too far， they get used to word-to-word translation， which always lead to English Chinese expressions. Thus， the student in Example 1 picked up the word “make” to complain that his father forced him to take training classes and it drove him crazy.

Lastly， cultural differences between Chinese and American cultures hinder students in generating appropriate utterances. Especially slangs， meanings they possessed are far different from our awareness， because students are not familiar with American culture and language convention. Patridge pointed out the attribute of slangs that they were considered as colloquial collocations and their developments were rapid （Patridge， 1970）. 4 Group-work Speech to deal with mistakes in expressions

Students studying oral English in this classroom are determined to take TOEFL or IELTS， so task-based methods are considered as primary options for teachers. Thomas and Reinders defined task-based language teaching as a method focused on the construction， sequencing， and evaluation of particular goal-related action complexes that learners carry out either by themselves or jointly（Thomas & Reinders， 2010）. Therefore， students can get involved in the authentic， practical and functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Also， the number of students in this classroom is around 25 and most of them are young adults. Due to such characteristics， a task of cooperative learning is supposed to be an appropriate approach to address the issue. In the light of Cohens theory， CL was expected to arouse students interests in studying ， provide them opportunities to draw references from each other and release their pressure （Cohen， 1998） . As a result， group-work speech is designed to be implemented in classes

4.1 Speech Procedures and Principles

The whole task is given based on the procedures proposed by Willis： pre-task， task cycle and Language focus （Willis，1998）

Pre-task： The teacher would inform students with the topic of the speech and relevant requirements. And the topic assigned to students should help them prepare for oral test in TOEFL or IELTS， which serves the function of task-based language teaching： combine the task with real life contexts （Williams & Burden， 1997）. And then the teacher introduces students several lexical phrases related to this topic and demonstrates how to use them. Since Krashen emphasized the significance role of language input played in helping students obtain a large amount of lexical phrases and finally improve their speaking ability （Krashen， 1991）

Task Cycle： During students preparation in small groups， they are allowed to consult dictionaries to look for lexical phrases that make sure the accuracy of their report. Through brainstorm， students are engaged in exchanging ideas to help their representatives. With a common study goal， it stimulated students to dedicate to group discussions. And brainstorm was able to expand their horizon and then students could come up with different perspectives on the topic（Ellis， 1994）. Also， in this course， the teacher transforms the role from a controller to an advisor， because this identity would more likely to help students grasp， comprehend and practice oral English during their interactions （Nunan， 1989）. Then representatives from each group give speeches one by one.

The final part should be Language Focus， when the teacher will analyze each students utterance， pointing out and correcting mistakes happened in expressions. With teachers assessments students can modify their mistaken expressions and form a new habit of producing appropriate utterances （Scrivener， 2011）

5 Conclusion

To sum up， there has been no flawless method invented in oral English teaching so far. Teachers should further explore other creative teaching approaches to improve students speaking ability.

References：

[1]Brown，H.D. Teaching by Principles： An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy[J]. Prentice Hall Regents， 1990.

[2]Cohen.A.D. Strategies in learning and using a second language [M].Addison Longman limited， 1998.

[3]Ellis，R. The Study of Second Language Acquisition [M]. Oxford： Oxford University Press，1994.

[4]Harmer， Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman ELT ， 2007.