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[Abstract] This paper discusses some factors that restrict the non-English major students’oral proficiency. On the base of it, strategies are raised on how to improve non-English majors’oral English.
[Key Words] non-English major oral proficiency restrict strategy
1. Introduction
As we all know, the teaching and practice of the oral English are always weakness in Chinese English teaching,at the same time, it is a new requirement for college students in both syllabus and the needs of the community. It is difficult for the English learners of China to learn the comprehensive, systematic and authentic English because of the passive learning and the unsatisfactory oral environment. According to the research, most of the universities open College English Course to the non-English major students only for freshman and sophomore, and the oral English courses for the non-English major students are fewer.
Oral proficiency is put in higher level in the new English syllabus. It is a higher goal for the teaching of the oral English to the non-English major students. On the other hand, the sociability of the oral proficiency is increasingly evident. In recent years, college students face a grim employment situation, so they pay more attention to English and computer, fluent and authentic English is their goal. For the college students, study, employment and business in their future can not go without oral English. With the continuous expansion of reform and opening up, and the acceleration of the process of internationalization, China has become stronger and stronger. We constantly contact with other countries, especially, China has been one of the members of the WTO, daily oral communication has become increasingly popular, a lot of excellent English speakers are needed to participate in international economic and technical communication. These people mainly come from universities. Therefore, raising the spoken-English level of the undergraduates is imperative. So it is a necessary and urgent task for the non-English major students to master the basic oral English during their college lives.
2.The Factors That Affect and Restrict the Improvement of the College Non-English Majors’Oral English
The factors that affect and restrict the improvement of the college non-English major students’ oral proficiency are as follow:
2.1 For Non-English majors, the purpose of learning English is only for passing the final exam. they just pay attention to the intensive reading class, concentrate on reading or writing and ignore listening and speaking. They are not interested in improving the oral proficiency. And another renson is, CET4 and CET6 are still linked with students’ graduation and the assessment of professional title. It causes most of the students just to pay attention to the written examination for pursuing a high mark. And the teacher just simply tries to carry out a large number of pre-examination and spoon-feeding education. These are inconsistent with the ways to improve the students’ oral proficiency.
2.2 The phenomenon of having English class in a large classroom for non-English majors is not surprising nowadays in the uiversities because of the college expansion, One class,two class even three class get togther, the number of student could range from 40 to 50 people, maybe 60 to 80 or even more than one hundreds, which is difficult for the teacher to organize the oral teaching.
2.3 Limited English teaching time is also an important factor that affects the students’oral proficiency. In general, in the two years of English studing, students need to complete English course, Intensive Reading, from Book one to Book four. For the majority of the college, there are only four periods per week for English teaching, so it is hard for the students to spend time on their oral English.
3.The Strategies to Improve the Non-English majors’ Oral English
3.1 Full usage of Intensive Reading class for oral teaching
In the implementation of English teaching for non-English majors, Intensive Reading occupies a large proportion. How to make oral teaching embodied in the intensive reading class has become a serious problem for English teachers. As we know, English teacher is a bridge between students verbal output and text messages. The teacher should take the English as the teaching language in English class and speak English as possible as he can throughtout the whole class,which can create a language environment durge students to express their own ideas in English. So it is a high requirement for the teacher’s tone, speech rate, voice, organization of language. The teacher’s teaching language is a tool for classroom management, the process of questioning, discussing and solving is a thinking exchange between the teacher and students,students and students. This is a reflection of the oral communication ability. The English teacher should raise some thought-provoking issues so that the students can have fun during the process of searching for the answers, which can improve their oral communication skill.
3.2 Student-centered to encourage them to speak English
In traditional teaching theory,teacher is the centre of foreign language classroom and the source of information in class, the students are just passive receivers. In fact, English lessons are practice lessons,it is not meaningful to take it as a pure knowledge cramming for teaching. It is important for the students to participate in the Intensive Reading class. Certian measures should be done to encourage students to open their mouths.
The first is duty report. The teacher can ask the students some questions,or can give them some topics about the next lesson to talk about before the new lesson. At the beginning of the new lesson,the teacher gives the student who is on duty 2 or 3 minutes to have a speech. The other students do not just passively take part in the speech, they can raise some questions after the speech. For example,before the beginning of the lesson “Why I teach?”, teacher can ask students the question like this: If you still have a chance, would you like to be a teacher or a doctor or nurse?And why?In fact, the students make the assessment of two profession while they make the choice. And they know the characters, the hardships and fun of the work. It is a good method for the introduction of the new lesson. And it can greatly stimulate the desire of students to speak English.
The second is textbook performance. Teacher can encourage the students to have a full play of their imagination and creativity, students can bring the textbook plays performance to the platform or even the stage. Some lessons, like “You go your way,I go mine”, “The dinner party”, “The luncheon” , “The window” etc, are very good textbook plays. This method can greatly stimulate students’ interest in oral expression. Also, it is essential that the teacher’s encouragement or even reward should be given to students after the textbook performance.
The third is group discussion. This method is suitable for larger number of class. The students can be divided into several groups for oral practice, which provides students more opportunities for free talk. Teachers can provide some topics that related to the text just like“Pollution”, “ Part time job”,“Smoking”etc. Teacher should note some details on the blackboard when he implements the panel discussion. First, there should be clear division of labor in the group, for example, time control, record and the final stage statement. Then, the teacher should join in the groups during the discussion, and help students to solve problems arising from the discussion.
4. Conclusion
With China’s becoming more and more intergrated with the outside world, the teaching of the English language has gained great popularity. It is urgent to improve the college students’especially the non-English major students’oral proficiency. At present, the non-English major students’ oral proficiency is not satisfactory, the main reason is that we just focus on written examination and ignore the oral expression pratice. Oral training is a process of accumulation and improcement, teachers should get a better understanding on students’oral proficiency and psychological characteristics so that they can cultivate students’ interests, and create a good language environment for students.
References:
[1] He, A. & Xu. M. 2003. A study of small word in Chinese college students’ spoken English. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 6: 448-452.
[2] Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. 1995. Grammar and the Spoken Language. Applied Linguistics, 16, 2: 141-158.
[3] 程采蘭.依托《新编大学英语》提高非英语专业大学生的口语交际能力. [J] 外语与外语教学,2002,(4).
[4] 杨庆萍. 现状与对策:大学英语口试引发的思考. [J] 外语与外语教学,2001,(5).
[5] 陈晓霞.论提高非英语专业大学生口语水平的途径【J】.湖北经济学院报(人文社会科学版).2009.2.
作者简介:
周明霞(1978—),女(壮),广西上思人,河池学院外语系讲师,主要研究方向为英美文学与大学英语教学。
[Key Words] non-English major oral proficiency restrict strategy
1. Introduction
As we all know, the teaching and practice of the oral English are always weakness in Chinese English teaching,at the same time, it is a new requirement for college students in both syllabus and the needs of the community. It is difficult for the English learners of China to learn the comprehensive, systematic and authentic English because of the passive learning and the unsatisfactory oral environment. According to the research, most of the universities open College English Course to the non-English major students only for freshman and sophomore, and the oral English courses for the non-English major students are fewer.
Oral proficiency is put in higher level in the new English syllabus. It is a higher goal for the teaching of the oral English to the non-English major students. On the other hand, the sociability of the oral proficiency is increasingly evident. In recent years, college students face a grim employment situation, so they pay more attention to English and computer, fluent and authentic English is their goal. For the college students, study, employment and business in their future can not go without oral English. With the continuous expansion of reform and opening up, and the acceleration of the process of internationalization, China has become stronger and stronger. We constantly contact with other countries, especially, China has been one of the members of the WTO, daily oral communication has become increasingly popular, a lot of excellent English speakers are needed to participate in international economic and technical communication. These people mainly come from universities. Therefore, raising the spoken-English level of the undergraduates is imperative. So it is a necessary and urgent task for the non-English major students to master the basic oral English during their college lives.
2.The Factors That Affect and Restrict the Improvement of the College Non-English Majors’Oral English
The factors that affect and restrict the improvement of the college non-English major students’ oral proficiency are as follow:
2.1 For Non-English majors, the purpose of learning English is only for passing the final exam. they just pay attention to the intensive reading class, concentrate on reading or writing and ignore listening and speaking. They are not interested in improving the oral proficiency. And another renson is, CET4 and CET6 are still linked with students’ graduation and the assessment of professional title. It causes most of the students just to pay attention to the written examination for pursuing a high mark. And the teacher just simply tries to carry out a large number of pre-examination and spoon-feeding education. These are inconsistent with the ways to improve the students’ oral proficiency.
2.2 The phenomenon of having English class in a large classroom for non-English majors is not surprising nowadays in the uiversities because of the college expansion, One class,two class even three class get togther, the number of student could range from 40 to 50 people, maybe 60 to 80 or even more than one hundreds, which is difficult for the teacher to organize the oral teaching.
2.3 Limited English teaching time is also an important factor that affects the students’oral proficiency. In general, in the two years of English studing, students need to complete English course, Intensive Reading, from Book one to Book four. For the majority of the college, there are only four periods per week for English teaching, so it is hard for the students to spend time on their oral English.
3.The Strategies to Improve the Non-English majors’ Oral English
3.1 Full usage of Intensive Reading class for oral teaching
In the implementation of English teaching for non-English majors, Intensive Reading occupies a large proportion. How to make oral teaching embodied in the intensive reading class has become a serious problem for English teachers. As we know, English teacher is a bridge between students verbal output and text messages. The teacher should take the English as the teaching language in English class and speak English as possible as he can throughtout the whole class,which can create a language environment durge students to express their own ideas in English. So it is a high requirement for the teacher’s tone, speech rate, voice, organization of language. The teacher’s teaching language is a tool for classroom management, the process of questioning, discussing and solving is a thinking exchange between the teacher and students,students and students. This is a reflection of the oral communication ability. The English teacher should raise some thought-provoking issues so that the students can have fun during the process of searching for the answers, which can improve their oral communication skill.
3.2 Student-centered to encourage them to speak English
In traditional teaching theory,teacher is the centre of foreign language classroom and the source of information in class, the students are just passive receivers. In fact, English lessons are practice lessons,it is not meaningful to take it as a pure knowledge cramming for teaching. It is important for the students to participate in the Intensive Reading class. Certian measures should be done to encourage students to open their mouths.
The first is duty report. The teacher can ask the students some questions,or can give them some topics about the next lesson to talk about before the new lesson. At the beginning of the new lesson,the teacher gives the student who is on duty 2 or 3 minutes to have a speech. The other students do not just passively take part in the speech, they can raise some questions after the speech. For example,before the beginning of the lesson “Why I teach?”, teacher can ask students the question like this: If you still have a chance, would you like to be a teacher or a doctor or nurse?And why?In fact, the students make the assessment of two profession while they make the choice. And they know the characters, the hardships and fun of the work. It is a good method for the introduction of the new lesson. And it can greatly stimulate the desire of students to speak English.
The second is textbook performance. Teacher can encourage the students to have a full play of their imagination and creativity, students can bring the textbook plays performance to the platform or even the stage. Some lessons, like “You go your way,I go mine”, “The dinner party”, “The luncheon” , “The window” etc, are very good textbook plays. This method can greatly stimulate students’ interest in oral expression. Also, it is essential that the teacher’s encouragement or even reward should be given to students after the textbook performance.
The third is group discussion. This method is suitable for larger number of class. The students can be divided into several groups for oral practice, which provides students more opportunities for free talk. Teachers can provide some topics that related to the text just like“Pollution”, “ Part time job”,“Smoking”etc. Teacher should note some details on the blackboard when he implements the panel discussion. First, there should be clear division of labor in the group, for example, time control, record and the final stage statement. Then, the teacher should join in the groups during the discussion, and help students to solve problems arising from the discussion.
4. Conclusion
With China’s becoming more and more intergrated with the outside world, the teaching of the English language has gained great popularity. It is urgent to improve the college students’especially the non-English major students’oral proficiency. At present, the non-English major students’ oral proficiency is not satisfactory, the main reason is that we just focus on written examination and ignore the oral expression pratice. Oral training is a process of accumulation and improcement, teachers should get a better understanding on students’oral proficiency and psychological characteristics so that they can cultivate students’ interests, and create a good language environment for students.
References:
[1] He, A. & Xu. M. 2003. A study of small word in Chinese college students’ spoken English. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 6: 448-452.
[2] Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. 1995. Grammar and the Spoken Language. Applied Linguistics, 16, 2: 141-158.
[3] 程采蘭.依托《新编大学英语》提高非英语专业大学生的口语交际能力. [J] 外语与外语教学,2002,(4).
[4] 杨庆萍. 现状与对策:大学英语口试引发的思考. [J] 外语与外语教学,2001,(5).
[5] 陈晓霞.论提高非英语专业大学生口语水平的途径【J】.湖北经济学院报(人文社会科学版).2009.2.
作者简介:
周明霞(1978—),女(壮),广西上思人,河池学院外语系讲师,主要研究方向为英美文学与大学英语教学。