如何提高学生的英语口语能力

2. 口语交流过程中的一些障碍。

3. 提高口语能力的基本方法。

本文从初中英语教师的观点，并且从理论和实际结合中得出结论。

关键词：口语;交流;能力;中学;英语教学

Abstract

With the opening-up of China, English teaching has been getting more and more attention, especially since Beijing won the bid to hold the 2008 Olympic Games. People are enthusiastic about learning English .As a result, English teaching and reform are coming to a turning point, which predicts a bright future in English education in China.

Now, a 9-year voluntary education program is put forward in China. A Standard English course is being used to replace the former teaching outline. The new standard adopts the international system according to which English language education is divided into 9 levels. This has changed the old style of teaching, which attaches importance to grammar and vocabulary. Adopting the new standard helps to develop the students’ ability to use English in their daily life, by focusing on arousing their interest, and encouraging their participation. The new method will place less stress on “reading and writing”, in favor of “listening” and “speaking”. So now, speaking is getting more and more important in middle school English teaching.

This paper discuss how to improve students’ speaking ability and expound the theme through three aspects as follows:

⒈The importance of speaking.

⒉Some barriers in the process of speaking communication.

⒊Essential methods for improving students’ speaking ability. The issue will be discussed from the perspective of a teacher of English in junior middle school and a possible conclusion will be reached with the help of some theoretical and practical support. Key words: speaking、communication、ability、middle school、English teaching.

一、 Introduction

English is a popular language --especially in the new century. As is known to us all, it is the most widely used language in the developing world and it‟s getting more and more important nowadays. Recent estimates suggest that more than 400 million people speak it as their first language, with more than 1800 million people speaking it as second language. It is an official language in a large number of countries and is widely used in air traffic control and academic gatherings. ①#p#分页标题#e#

Nowadays, with the opening-up of China, English teaching has been getting more and more attention, especially since Beijing won the bid to hold the 2008 Olympic Games. People are enthusiastic about learning English. Most of our students begin to learn English from Grade 3 in primary schools. However, classroom teaching has long been the only way to learn English in China, and the method has usually involved cramming grammar-translation knowledge into learning a language. But this approach of teaching and learning English is evidentially passive, because it goes against the principle of English teaching, which requires that listening and speaking take the lead in English teaching, and on the basis of these two skills, reading and writing will be cultivated. So speaking as one of the four language skills has played a very important role in English teaching in middle schools. What‟s more, with the reformation of new process of teaching, it requires that the students will have the expressing ability to receive and pass information in English in real occasions. But many students often can speak well in class or in relaxed occasions, and when they are put in a real condition, they can‟t. Why does it appear? Well, it is affected by many elements One of the elements is their English speaking ability.. So it demands the English teachers in junior schools to develop the student's speaking ability. So also it is necessary for the teachers to help the students develop the ability of speaking.

二、The importance of speaking

(一) The importance of speaking existing in the language of human beings

“Language is vocal ,this means that speech is the primary medium of language. While writing is secondary. Firstly, for any language speech existed long before the writing system came into being. Even today languages which have lonely a spoken form outnumber language which have a well-developed writing system. Secondly, normal children always learn to speak first. They begin to read and write only when they have reached the school age. Thirdly, speech is more important than writing for people‟s daily life. A person who can't read and write is only an „illiterate‟. However, a person who can't speak is normally regarded as„disabled‟.②

So speech is very important in the development of human beings.

(二) The position of speaking in the four language skills

Of the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, &writing), listening takes the first step. However, communication is a two-way activity. When you can understand what is said to you, because of some reasons, you can't speak out what you mean, then the communication can‟t be continued. So this communication will become a fall. During the learning of a language, listening and reading are a process of understanding and absorption, speaking and writing are a process of expression and use. Understanding and absorption are foundation while expression and use are improvement. That is, the former is a process of input; the latter is a process of output. Without the latter, the development of the language practical ability to understand and absorption will be meaningless. It is impossible to master the English and to form the ability to use English comprehensively only relying on the input of language. The expression of spoken and written should also be used to check and improve the language absorption and the thinking ability. While the language input is increased, the favorable practical activities of output will also be done constantly on the basis of understanding. And the final aim of language teaching is to develop the students‟ ability to communicate in the form of spoken and written. Thereby, the listening ability must rely on the speaking in a way. Moreover, it is proved that if the speaking is trained best, it will be helpful for students‟ confidence to learn English.#p#分页标题#e#

(三) The importance of speaking existing in the teaching syllabus

The aims of teaching syllabus stipulates that “ English teaching in middle schools are mainly to train students to have a definite foundation of listening and speaking so as to attain the aim to communicate comprehensively with others in English.”③

It requires the teachers of English to organize their 45-minute class in English to create a living and lively English environment of English learning. Thus the students‟ listening and

三、Some barriers in the process speaking communication.

(一)Phonetic barrier

“The articulator apparatus of a human being are contained in three important areas or cavities: the pharyngeal cavity-the throat, the oral cavity-the mouth, and the nasal cavity-the nose. The air stream coming from the lungs may be modified in these cavities in a variety of ways. It may also be modified in the larynx before it reaches any of the cavities.”③

Because of the point ,the learners should be required to know every part of pronunciation of human‟s body and can pronounce the pure English .However, for most students in the process of their learning, they are greatly influenced by their teachers, especially teachers‟ phonetics. But at present in many areas, especially in the rural areas, schools are short of specialized English teachers. Some other teachers who are not familiar with the sound linking, plosive, stress, etc. are asked to teach English. Maybe they are competent in teaching English grammar and language points, but it is surely difficult for them to speak fluent and pure English. And also some schools can‟t afford modern machines, so the students can't imitate the pure English, So their speaking ability can‟t be trained favorably, when they communicate with others, they often find their pronunciations are different from others ‟.

So they can't understand what is said to them. Therefore, their listening ability will be influenced and the confidence of communication also be influenced.

(二) Grammar barrier

Although we emphasize again and again that the aim of our language teaching is to communicate, we still should have some knowledge of English grammar. In English, there is a change of tense. And the order, which the action happens, can be presented by the change of verbs, which many students often ignore these points when they communicate with others. As a result, some unnecessary mistakes will happen. For example, a student wants to express this meaning “I have been to Beijing.” Not knowing the difference between “have been to ”and “have gone to”, so he says, “I have gone to Beijing.” If he knows their difference, he will not make this mistake. (三)Mental barrier

An American psychologist has had an experiment among three thousand people like this: what do you worry about most? There are all kinds of answers, such as death, dump, loss of relatives, diseases, etc. But to our surprised, about forty percent of people think that what people worry about and frighten most is to speak before people. From this experiment, we know that some uncomfortable feeling will happen in mother tongue to communicate. And the uncomfortable feeling will be more serious in the second language. Most students will have some mental barrier or psychological barrier during the speaking training or the speaking communication, and we often find that the students will amplify well in warm-up in class. However, in real occasion, they will only have a look at the other people without any word even if they meet the same situation as that in class. Maybe they also want to speak to other freely. Just because of lack of the confidence, they can‟t speak well, and they would rather watch other‟s communication. In their opinions, they should speak English purely and fluently and there are no grammatical mistakes even to wonderful stage when people communicate. Then the communication will be continued pridely, or others maybe laugh at them. In English class, this aspect is often appeared. Some students worry about their pronunciation and intonation, so they will only say “I‟m sorry” as the answers to the teachers‟ questions. All these will influence the improvement of speaking ability. Their speaking ability increasingly becomes worse under the lack of training so long time. Of course, the above mentioned is not the only factors to obstruct the improvement of speaking ability. And there are some other factors to influence the speaking ability.#p#分页标题#e#

四、Essential methods for improving students‟ speaking ability.

(一) Create a good language surrounding to arouse the students‟ enthusiasm for English learning.

1、 A“real”environment of English learning is of great help. The traditional grammar-translation teaching method played a definite role in middle school teaching over the past decades, but this method of learning English through Chinese translation in class has not entirely catered for the new situation of learning a foreign language. We should bring the students to a full realization of the fact that learning English always through Chinese translation certainly does not help them improve their skills of using English. But we haven‟t a good language surrounding to speak English all the time, which has always big problem for our Chinese English learners. And we know that teaching in class is the basic form of English teaching. Firstly, the English in his class should be on the basis of the students‟ understanding easily. Don‟t let the students have the room to express in Chinese. And the teachers should help them learn to think in English and encourage them to answer the questions in Eng lish. To the beginners of learning English, they often don‟t dare to answer the teachers‟ questions in English because of some reasons. So the teachers should encourage them with patience and let them give up the shy minds. And the teachers should conduct their lessons in English as much as possible, so as to force the students to get used to listening speaking and thinking in English. Before a new lesson, teachers can create some situations for the students to respond to them and then to paraphrase a few sentences or to retell a story etc. On the other hand, for their answers, the teachers should give them proper estimate and let them have a successful feeling of getting knowledge. Then they will be glad to speak it more and more. Thus the students feel in a real environment of English like those native learners. Actually in such a lively atmosphere, the students have been motivated to convey their ideas in English. Of course, it is quite clear that the students ‟ ability of speaking must be well and effectively trained. In my classroom, there are many piece of paper with “English corners” on the wall. Before class, I often let them see some English film in order to feel western conditions and customs and attract their interest for English learning.

2、Some measures for arousing students‟ interest

a、Three-minutes speech before class .At the beginning of a class, students are often asked to come to the blackboard to give the others a duty report.

b、Give more chances to the students to do pairs work ,making up their own dialogue.

c、Make full use of audio-visual aids to create situations .

d、Carry out some activities, such as: Speaking/reading competition, Chinese forbidden, English corner, etc.

e、Play games .E.g. Pass the message, make more sentences as quickly as possible.#p#分页标题#e#

f、Modify Li Yang‟s crazily speaking English .

(二) Help the students lay a solid base of English phonetics.

If there is something wrong with a student 's pronunciation, then, obviously, he can't understand what's on in the communication. And increasingly it will influence the student's confidence of communication. So teacher of English should help students lay a solid base of English phonetics, which includes accurate pronunciation, good intonation, sound linking, plosive and strong and weak forms .It is proved that students with good pronunciation and intonation have obvious advantages in speaking just as a writer's opinions can be obtained by reading between the lines, a speaker ‟s intention can be revealed from the intonation and tunes he uses. For example, the students of one of my classes aren‟t often vigorous when I ask them to read after me, they often read slowly. Then I read loudly, and then the students read louder, too. What‟s more, it is also proved that good pronunciation and tunes not only help himself develop the confidence of English learning, but also help others surrounding him try to improve their speaking ability. As the youth have a strong presented expect and most of them hope that they can have fluent and pure English then become the focus and the admiring people to the public, which make them have a better confidence in their life.

(三) Give more chances to the students to develop their speaking ability as well as the other three skills (listening, reading and writing)

In class, the students should be given more time to speak and they can't be regarded just as audiences, which will not have a good teaching effect and the student's speaking ability also can't be trained .The teachers should let the students take part in the class. In JFFC textbooks, there are many interesting dialogues and stories. So the teachers should let the students act the dialogue out or make another dialogue with their own words as possible as they can. And there‟re many riddles and chants in the textbooks. So the teachers can take the formation of competition to let the students imitate and follow the tape and see who is the winner. Next, the teachers can also arrange for the students to retell the stories, which they are more interested in. And the students also estimate their favorite ball players.

五、 Conclusion.

It is quite clear that speaking is very important to both the teachers of English in middle schools and their students. As a teacher of English, we should flexibly carry out the five-step teaching approach to improve the quality of 45-minute class, get a way to explore new and effective teaching methods and to take an active part in English teaching innovation. At the same time, as students of English, they should be aware of the importance of cultivating their speaking ability in their daily studies. In conclusion, like building a house, learning English takes some time, so don't be impatient. Remember, Rome was not built in a day.#p#分页标题#e#

With the help of the teachers, as long as students command a good knowledge of English grammar, and do more oral and listening practice, the speaking ability of students is surely to be greatly improved.

Notes:

① Kean Qiu:“The English language,”The World of English,Sep,1996,P28

② Language And Culture,P4

③ Teaching syllabus for Middle School,P2

④ Teaching syllabus for Middle Schoo,P9

⑤ Modern Linguistics,P17

⑥ Yuan Boping,Foreign language Teaching And Research,July,2003,P261

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