Strategies for Enhancing the Competence of Oral English

王紅梅

【Abstract】This paper addresses the issue of promoting effective Oral English of college students in China.It aims at judging the assessment of oral English learning methods and identify the difficulties of learning English oral expression concerned.It also provides strategies for enhancing college students level of Oral English.

【Key Words】Oral English； Competence； strategies； Communicative

Quite a lot of college students often learn English with inadequate methodologies and assessment procedures.In most cases，they memorize new words and grammatical rules to the detriment of communicative skills in English.The difference between English and Mandarin causes the language interference errors.This mainly leads staff to make mistakes repetitively.The research analyses the mistakes occurred in oral classes.And it also provides several solutions，such as peer-correction （correcting error with the help of classmates）.The students could feel less anxious if they are corrected by people of the same age.Some other strategies are like students are given feed back from teachers individually.This helps to analyse the various mistakes made by different students more effectively.All these strategies help to limit language interference errors in oral communication classes.

In spite of the English level of college students，obstacles can be met very often both in pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate learners.The learning of cultural background knowledge and pragmatic use of the target language is also needed.The problems Chinese students often meet in oral communication are firstly stated which are due to different language features and culture.Then the author provides some skills in oral English classes，such as word-guessing game and topic talking.Theses activities could enhance students verbal skills.The author also emphasises the importance of introducing cultural background knowledge and pragmatic use of the target language.They can help students to carry appropriate conversation in different situation without causing misunderstanding.Meanwhile，Students should be given more time to talk spontaneously and freely in given background.Thus they can exchange thoughts and ideas rather than practise the same drills.The author gives two activities for the practical session of interaction which are quite supportive.But these activities are not sufficient.More activities need to be carried out for the purpose of better interaction in oral English classes.

Some typical problems Chinese students meet in oral English learning are raised and the reasons are discussed after that.The study illustrates some useful strategies which make good use of successful methods native teachers adopt in oral English classes and they are adapted to be more suitable for teaching Chinese students.Overall this research has provided some insights into oral English teaching.And more information about the oral English teaching to non-English majors need be found out since there might exist difference between the oral English teaching among English-majors and non-English majors.

Although much work has been done about English speaking，lots of them are too general and lack in-depth research in oral English teaching at university in China.More studies need to be conducted to find out the weakness and deficiencies in oral English teaching in universities.More information needs to identify the difficulties of learning and teaching English oral expression at university in China.This research will assess the assessment of oral English teaching methods in universities and provide strategies for enhancing Chinese students communicative competence.

The lack of English environment also leads to the inconvenient learning process.Many do not have the chance to communicate with native speakers.As a result，Enterprise staff is unable to speak fluent English and this indeed becomes an obstacle in their English language acquisition.Furthermore，this might do harm during the future career negotiation.Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate the weakness and deficiencies in oral English learning and find out relevant solutions in order to improve college students proficiency in oral communication skills.As a result，a lot of practicing is definitely needed in the last process.Students could often communicate with each other in English during break； they can also hold a meeting in English only.Gradually，the atmosphere is formed to communicate in English.