A study on the college oral English teaching

Abstract：Based on the problems met in the teaching practice， this article attempts to make a study on how to improve students' oral English ability through the analysis of those factors influencing the improvement of oral English ability of college students as well as the corresponding solutions.

Key words：College students； Oral English teaching； Solutions

【摘要】本文試圖通過在實際教學中遇到的問題，從影響學生英語口語能力提高的原因以及相應的解決方法兩方面，對如何提高學生的英語口語能力進行了研究。

【關鍵詞】大學生；英語口語教學；解決方法

The acceleration of economic globalization enables the further exchange of politics， economy and culture worldwide and college students are getting more opportunities to communicate in English. Therefore， there is higher requirement for their oral English ability. For those college students faced with big pressure of employment， owning higher level of oral English will be no doubt an important factor for them to apply for a job. This article will analyze the problems in their oral English ability improvement and give the corresponding solutions.

1. Problems to influence the students' oral English ability

1.1 The influence of dialect

From different provinces， many students are having problems in speaking standard Mandarin with strong local accents. Accordingly， their oral English also has local characteristics. This phenomenon is partly resulted from the English education accepted in their primary and secondary schools. A large part of English teachers ignore the cultivation of the ability to speak English. Therefore， students， although own solid grammar knowledge， are not able to communicate with foreigners. When speaking English， their phonograms， sentences and paragraphs are all influenced by dialects.

1.2 The influence of mother language

When communicating in English， many students will experience the following thinking process： hearing English - translating it into Chinese - answering in Chinese - translating it into English. Obviously， such thinking process tends to be affected by mother language. English spoken in such way will never be authentic， but so called “Chinglish”（Jiang， 1995）. Even with large vocabulary， they have difficulty in the oral English expression.

1.3 The influence of lack of confidence

Although students have been aware of the importance of oral English and know the most effective way to improve their spoken English is to open their mouth and speak it bravely， there are still many students are shy to speak due to the lack of confidence. In fact， these students are very eager to have the opportunity to exercise， however， because of the poor foundation and strong local accent， considerable number of students always keep silence in English class for the fear that their pronunciation is not standard or the expression is not accurate. This is also a key reason leading to poor oral English proficiency.

2. Solutions to improve students oral English ability

2.1 Correcting students' pronunciation

It is vital to make students know the importance of correct pronunciation by stressing that standard pronunciation is the basic embodiment of a person's oral English quality. Mutual supervision and help is advised for them to improve oral English. At the same time， teachers should also help students summarize their wrong pronunciations in the class， so that they will pay enough attention. Teachers can arrange activities for students to imitate some of the original English materials that they are interested in and require them to perform in the class. Through imitation， wrong pronunciation can be corrected and the English intonation will be spoken in an authentic way（Wong， 2008）.

2.2 Cultivating students ability of English thinking

Firstly， students are asked to master more phrases. To guide students， teachers can arrange small games related to phrase memorizing in the class， which can not only activate classroom atmosphere， but also improve students' enthusiasm for memorizing phrases （Zeng， 2004）. Secondly， teachers should guide students to read more English reading materials and watch more English films to accumulate the useful sentences in them consciously. These sentences can be written in a small notebook and be used in their daily life from time to time. Thus， over time students can express the meaning in accordance with the English mode.

2.3 Teaching students in accordance with their characteristics

As a teacher， one should try to understand each student's level and needs for everyone to play their ability. In the course of practice， questions should be arranged in accordance with the level of students（Zhang， 2012）. When students are no longer shy to speak and dare to express their views in English， teachers should put forward their individual errors. For every bit of progress achieved by different students， teachers should give timely encouragement to stimulate their confidence.

3. Conclusion

In conclusion， in improving students oral English ability， teaching methods of teachers play an extremely important role. Only mastering certain teaching skills and correct strategies can teachers help their students improve the ability of oral English expression. Therefore， teachers should closely combine the learning means and its ultimate purpose of communication together， which requires teachers to adopt programs in the classroom to help students communicate with each other as well as emphasizing the initiative and interaction of students. Only in this way are teachers able to improve students ability to speak oral English.

【References】

[1] Zhang， F.S. On the Teaching Students in Accordance of Their Aptitude[M]. Journal of Hebei Software Institute， 2012（01）： 79.

[2] Zeng， L. Vocabulary Learning and Memorizing Methods in English Learning[M]. Foreign Language Teaching & Research in Basic Education， 2004（03）：45.

[3] Jiang， Y. Chinglish and China English[M]. English Today， 1995，11（1）：51-56.

[4]Wong， M. Can Consciousness-Raising and Imitation Improve Pronunciation？[M]. International Journal of Learning， 2008，15（6）：43-48.

【作者簡介】

謝曉，畢業于安徽大學外國語學院，單位：安徽涉外經濟學院基礎部，主要研究方向：外國語言、應用語言學。