On improving students’ speaking ability
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 “ing” 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.
摘要：
随着改革开放深入，教学越来越引起人们的重视，尤其北京成功深奥。人们都热中于英语学习。所以英语教改进入一个转折点，面临着美好的未来。
现在，在九年制义务中，标准英语课程以取代以前的教学模式。根据英语语言教育分成九个等级，新课标采用了国际体制，改变了旧的方法。新的教学方式通过引起学生的兴趣，鼓励他们参与去培养学生日常生活中运用英语的能力。新的方法重在和口语，因此现在口语在中学英语教学中越来越重要。本文主要讨论如何提高学生的口语能力，从下面三个大的方面阐述：
1. 说的重要性。
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
1. 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
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. All the communications are established on the basis of speaking. To be able to have a good pronunciation and tone, that is, speaking well can give you confidence in communication. In daily life speaking is the best way which make the communication of information become more quickly, especially in the present society with such quick development of people ’s life pace .so it is necessary for the students to develop the ability of speaking. 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.
I have observed the students’ speaking English since I became a teacher. I find many students often can speak well in class or in a relaxed occasion. But when I invite some foreign teachers to talk to them, they become very good audiences. Some students would like to say something, but often the foreign teacher can’t understand what they say. Why? Because they have no good phonetics or correct grammars. Then why don’t some of them say anything? Their answers are that they are afraid to make mistakes. And also some of the students say that they have no enough vocabularies to express. They want to say something, but suddenly they can’t remember the words r they don’t know the available words. And on the other hand, by analyzed the students’ book, I find the speaking English is getting more and more, but both some teachers and students don’t find it yet. So they aren’t able to emphasize the speaking English during the teaching. Little by little, the students’ speaking ability can’t be improved effectively. So facing with the series of problems, I attempt my teaching method to teach the present two small classes, including sixty students. I hope they can make a larger progress from the vocabulary, mental, phonetics until next year when they will graduate.
2.The importance of speaking
2.1 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.
2.2 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. And often the spoken English is more than the written English in language using. Especially in modern society with so quickstep, undoubtly, speaking communication is the quickest way. Although in the modern Internet world, E-mail also give people more convenient, when they write and read the E-mail, they will spend more time than speaking directly. What’s more, writing can't express the writer ’s feelings, quickly and directly, and the reader can't understand the writer's feeling .For example, one person is angry now. And he wants to tell his friend his present feeling .So he writes to his friend who can't understand his feeling just by reading his letter or E-mail better. But if he can speak to his friend directly, then his friend can know his feeling by his tone or expression. And he can also know how much his anger is .So this is a quick and direct speaking effect. Meanwhile, reading and writing have no this effect. On the other hand, it is only our tongue that builds a communication bridge between the listener and the speaker. 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.
2.3 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.”③It 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 speaking will be spontaneously trained and be practiced.
2.4 The importance of speaking reflected in the textbook
Today, the newly compiled series of textbooks of teaching and learning, different from those old ones, which only emphasize on the grammar and translation, have been used widely in our country. Those outmoded teaching approaches will have to be abandoned to use the new concept of teaching English. As a result English teachers will have to improve themselves either subjectively or objectively so as to become a qualified teacher of English in middle schools. And in the new textbooks, which mostly emphasize on listening and speaking, according to different the stage of ages, it includes listening practice, speaking and chant, playing and acting, Audio-Vidal etc, and with the appropriate pictures to help them understand and encourage them to act it out .Let them learn English unconsciously and learn to use it freely. At the same time, the teachers also are required to organize their class with some simple spoken English, and with their gestures and expression in accordance with the necessary. And the teachers should create a real English situation to help the students understand and imitate better to improve the listening and speaking ability. On the one hand, the students should be also given more opportunities to speak English, and then their ability of speaking must be more concretely and effectively trained. On the other hand, students are required to speak English when asked to answer questions or convey their own opinions in the 45-minute class. After class, they can be required to retell the interesting story reflected in the textbook, or to make an interview with their classmates to express their own opinions to the story .So, surely, their speaking can be improved effectively.
2.5 New tests’ focus on speaking
At present, the teaching syllabus stipulates.“Examination and test should include written part, listening test and oral test as well.”④And now you can find listening test in our all kinds of tests. And many areas take the oral test as an important part to estimate the students’ comprehensive level. However, as early as ten years ago, you couldn't find the oral test in the final examination. Even you didn't hear of the word of “oral test”. Now, the writer find, in the final examination the students’ speaking ability is very different from those in ten years ago. Their intonations and tones and even expressions are much better. And it contributes to the daily training. So the voiceless English is increasingly developed.
What's more, now you often can find that there are many English-speaking competitions on TV and many areas also hold all kinds of speaking competitions. At the same time, there are more and more super English speakers presenting in the non-English countries.
Now, we’ve known the importance of speaking, we should try our best to better the students’ competence of speaking. However, during the process of speaking communication, there are some barriers of which we should be aware.
3.Some barriers in the process speaking communication.
3.1 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.”⑤Because 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.
Two year ago, I taught Grade Seven. At the beginning of the lessons, the pronunciations of many students from different rural are quite different. For example, “China [tſ]” they always pronounce [tr]. I spent almost three months in correcting them. With my emphasis on the phonetics, the students have been also especially focusing on it every time when they have their spoken lessons; they always imitate the pure English pronunciation from their foreign teachers.
3.2 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.
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. For example, the communicating people, (some good friends will be good communicating people), the communicating topics (some interesting topics will promote their communication well), the communicating surroundings (if it is possible, it will be the best surrounding to be put in the English-speaking countries) etc. Because there are so many factors obstructing the students’ speaking ability, some good ways to improve their speaking ability should be found during the process of English teaching and to help them overcome these obstructs. Then their speaking ability will be trained and improved favorably during the process of English learning.
4. Essential methods for improving students’ speaking ability.
4.1 Create a good language surrounding to arouse the students’ enthusiasm for English learning.
4.1.1 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 English. 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 ing 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.
4.1.2 The students ' high interest for English learning is needed.
As we all know, “the aims for English teaching is to train the students how to use the language, yet this kind of ability will more quickly be developed on condition that the students are greatly engaged in the English language and immersed in an atmosphere of using the language ”6In accordance with the theory, an English teacher is required to observe the communication principles to make the whole class full of communication. To some extent, the students ’attention and interest are aroused and in the meantime, the students’ speaking is effectively practiced. As a learner of English in the classroom, if he shows great interest in English learning, of course, he should listen to the teacher carefully, follow his teacher step by step, fix all his attention on what the teacher is saying and try his best to catch on. Then he is active to take part in activities; he is willing to communicate with others to show off. Little by little, his speaking ability will be definitely improved. On the contrary, the student who has no interest in learning English will be unwilling to listen to the teacher and communicate with others, then, gradually, he will be a “stranger” to English. Just as what Mr. Li Yang says that if you want to speak fluent and pure English, you must speak English loudly and crazily and change the muscle on Chinese face into that on western face .So in order to improve the students’ speaking ability, teachers should stimulate students’ enthusiasm for English learning .Let them speak it as much as they can happily.
4.1.3 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.
f、Modify Li Yang’s crazily speaking English .
4.2 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.
5.3 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. In a word, the teacher can take all kinds of activities to encourage them to speak. Meanwhile, the four skills should be regarded as a whole, which influence with each other and promote mutually. To speak more, they are demanded to listen more first. For example, let the students listen to the original tape and English songs and let them imitate pure English pronunciations constantly. When their pronunciation is pure increasingly, their speaking ability will be improved comprehensively. Then, the student should write more. Writing can help the students consolidate the knowledge and strengthen their ability of understanding and memories. Last, the students should read more. Reading can help to form a good sense of language and know the western conditions and customs, then widen their knowledge. Also, reading can help them know more vocabularies and more native English. After all, semantics is consisted of words. The more words they know, the wider and easier they communicate. For example, there are two classes having been trained for two years for reading. The speaking of the students in those two classes is obvious better than other students in our English corner. So accumulating the students’ vocabulary is very necessary.
4.4 Accumulate the students' vocabulary in order to speak well
During the speaking English, the communication often is interrupted by a word, which the students don't know. So the vocabulary is obviously important. So during the teaching English, besides letting the students remember the words they've learned. What more important is to teach the way which how to remember more words, After learning the rule of spelling and pronunciation, the students should be encouraged to read and remember the words in their own way and master the links between the words, and then improve the effect of remembering words. The teachers also should encourage the students that when they do some reading, they should guess the words' meaning according to the context. At the same time, it is also important to improve the ability to look up the words in the dictionary. If a student is rich in his vocabulary, then it must be helpful for his speaking ability. What’s more, a large vocabulary is quite good for students to summarize a text. So after teaching a text, students are often asked to retell it in their own words, for speaking communication largely depends on the quality of one's organization and summation. We can say that the words are the building materials of language. There will be no buildings if there are no materials. What’s more, the rich vocabulary also has an influence on the reading, translation, the writing and the listening. We can say that the rich vocabulary is the basis of speaking English well.
4.5 Enlarge the students' background knowledge.
Language is an important carriage of culture. There are close links between them, when you learn language, you must know some knowledge about culture, and then you can understand and express some meaning correctly. So the new syllabus presents a new demand that know the world correctly and strengthen the understanding to English countries' culture. According to it, the teacher should both grasp the textbook as usual and know the culture of English countries reflected in the textbook carefully during their English teaching. When the students can do it after the teachers, they can get the basic knowledge and communicating ability by the training of listening, speaking, reading and writing. For example, in our textbook, the sentence "Can you help me?” can be answered with "Yes, certainly, sure, surely and of course." But these answers have different meanings. The answer of yes is comparably impolite, while certainly is more polite. Sure or surely are often used in American English. And of course has the meaning of a little fool. So when you communicate with the elder people, you must pay more attention to use of course. From the above, we know that it's more important to use the proper language on different occasion, besides teaching the students the words and sentences. So it's necessary to know the background knowledge about culture of English countries. If the students know it more, then obstruct their speaking ability less. And it will promote the speaking communication then push the speaking ability further development.
Above all are only parts of the ways. Their own hard work and studying ways also can't be ignored.
5. 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. 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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