OnCultivation of Students’ EnglishSpeaking Ability

On the Cultivation of Students’ English Speaking Ability

1．Introduction

1.1 The purpose of the research

English learning can usually be divided into listening, speaking, reading, writing

and translating. Listening, reading and writing are the basic skills that required in

most examinations. However, spoken English is quite often ignored. The final

purpose of learning a language is to communicate with others, thus the oral

expression is very crucial and is the essential skill of using a language. In the

school education, teachers and students are often thinking about how to pass

examinations and they are not aware of the importance of the spoken English.

Thus, through the research on Cultivation of Students’ English Speaking Ability,

our main purpose is to emphasize the importance of spoken English and then

improve students’ initiatives, confidence and strategies in leaning oral English.

1.2 Research questions

1. The present conditions of the English speaking ability of Chinese students

2. The reasons accounting for the conditions

3. Methods in how to teach spoken English

4. Methods in cultivating students’ interests in speaking English

2．Key words

Spoken English，Condition, Interest, Cultivation of Ability

3．Research design

3.1 Research subject

Students who are now studying in senior and junior high school

3.2 Research instrument: a questionnaire is presented.

Questionnaire

1. Do you like speaking in English?

A. very much B. a little C. not at all

2. How often do you communicate with other students in English?

A. often B. sometimes C. never

3. Do you have an oral English partner after class?

A. yes B. no C. once had

4. Do teachers lead you to practice speaking English in class?

A. often B. sometimes C. never

5. Which learning style do you like best in English speaking study?

A. self-learning B. leading-learning C. cooperative learning

6. Which language do your English teachers speak more often in class?

A. English B. Chinese C. almost the same

7. How do your teachers treat the English poor spoken students?

A. encourage B. criticize C. let it be

8. Is there an English corner every week?

A. once a week B. sometimes C. never

9. How often school organize spoken English contest?

A. once every year B. sometimes C. never

10. Are there any interesting activities during the English classes?

A. yes B. no C. seldom

11. How many hours do you spend in practicing speaking English in a week

except during classes?

A. less than one hour B. above one hour C. never

12. What is the greatest difficulty in speaking English according to your own

experience?

A. language background B. lacking interest C. no good methods

13. Do you think it’s important to learn spoken English well?

A. very important B. not so important C. not important

14. Do you have interests in English songs and movies?

A. a lot B. a little C. not at all

15. Do you want to improve your spoken English?

A. very much B. not recently C. never

16. Have you ever thought a sentence in English pattern?

A. yes B. no C. I don’t know

17. Do you remember some English idioms and proverbs in order to better

understand others’ talking?

A. often B. seldom C. never

18. What should teachers do to help you improve your oral English? (Give some

suggestions)

3.3 Research process

1. Give out 50 copies of questionnaire papers to five students that we are tutoring,

everyone gets 10 copies.

2. The five students then take the papers their classes, and ask their classmates to

complete the questionnaires.

3. We collect the copies back, then calculate and analyze the answers.

4．Data presentation and analysis

1. The Condition of Chinese Students’ Speaking Ability

Very few students like speaking in English, though above half of them like

English. Many of the students never have communicated with other ones in

English, nor do they have spoken English partners. There are no English corners,

no English speaking contests in their schools. Most of the students cannot express

their simple thoughts in English, because of their fear of making mistakes and

poor accents.

2. The Reasons Accounting for The Condition

Most students have problems with expressing their own thoughts because they

often do the translation job in their minds when they want to say something in

English. They think that is because of the thinking pattern which is deeply rooted

in Chinese culture and customs. Nearly all of students spend less than one hour

speaking English after class. Also they are not encouraged to practice speaking

English. And many students think it is not that important to speak English well

and they do not enough words and grammar rules to speak.

A. Chinese Culture Background Influence

In fact, students are surrounded by the Chinese spoken language atmosphere, even

in their English classes, their teachers have to use Chinese to make then

understood. And there is little chance for them to practice their oral English, so

they may feel shy to speak English publicly. Most of them are not very active, and

what they have learned are some simple English sentences just like “Hello, how

are you”.

B. Ignorance of the Significance of Oral English

Nowadays, there are great burdens on both the students and the teachers because

of the college entrance examination. They pay much attention to the teaching and

learning of the English vocabulary, grammar rules, reading comprehension and

writing, which are required in the examination. Spending much time on speaking

English is regarded as a waste of time.

C. Misconceptions of Learning Spoken English

A lot of Chinese students have wrong ideas about how to learn spoken English,

and these misconceptions can have considerable influence over their English

learning. Such as, “I need to have a large number of English vocabularies before

beginning to speak English.”, “My spoken English is so poor, if I speak, others

will laugh at me.”, “I haven’t learned enough grammar rules to practice speaking

English.” These are all wrong understanding of learning a language. The more you

speak, the more natural the language will become.

3. Methods in How to Teach Spoken English

Nearly all the students think that teachers should encourage students when they

make mistakes. They love a class that is active and full of energy and the teachers

should be humorous and enthusiastic. And many students want their teachers to come

up with some interesting ways to help them practice spoken English.

A. Being a Competent Teacher of New Teaching Concept and Good Management

Teachers should enrich their own knowledge and give the good impression to their

students. They should also grope some new ways to meliorate their teaching, which

will also do good to stimulate students’ desire for learning English. As an English

teacher, he should be open- minded to accept the good and useful western teaching

conception, and know much about cultures and customs of English- speaking

countries. Teachers should not only inculcate knowledge from books into students, but

also need to broaden the students’ eyesight. Also, teachers should have good

management. In class, a teacher should be strict and respectable, while he and the

students can be friends. Teachers should spend more time taking care of their students,

observing what students need and accept, and respecting their ideas and choices.

Good class environment can help students to speak actively and correctly. Teachers

should work hard to activate the atmosphere and create suitable environments to erase

the students’ tension. There are some suggestions as follows.

1). Let students speak English sitting in their seats, so that they will not feel uneasy.

2). Try to arrange the seats of classroom in a circle or in groups, with the students

facing each other, not in rows or lines.

3). Sometimes students can have their English lessons out of the classroom with such

activities as a barbecue, picnic and party.

4). Organize English corner at the school and let students talk freely with those who

are interested in learning English.

B. More Encouragement and Less Criticism to Students

It’s necessary and important that teachers should have another task to encourage

students to speak English more both in and out of class. During learning English,

students need teachers’ recognition and respect, which will give students more

confidence and motivation to do better. It is necessary for teachers to pay more

attention to the following.

1). Let students be firm in a gentle way and give them praise whenever they are

speaking a little English.

2). Be sincere and look for opportunities to let students speak English freely, and

never get them shy, frustrated and nervous.

3). Be a kind, sensitive, and approachable person to all the students, and never let a

single student out or put him on the spot.

4). Treat all the students with the same attitude, respect them, and consider their

opinions fully. Never embarrass any of them and laugh at them.

5). Allow students to have more freedom rather than expect them to conform to the

preconceived ideas about how they should behave. Let them have confidence, and

wait for them to follow you.

C. Some Practical Methods in Teaching

Practice makes perfect. Teachers should ask students to do more practice in the

students’ spoken English learning and there are some good ways such as English daily

report, English drama imitation, minor debates and role-play.

4. Methods in Cultivating Students’ Interests in Speaking English

Two thirds of the students investigated do not like speaking English, they lack confidence in

speaking English. However, many students like listening to English songs and they do often watch

English films. The problem lies in that students do not know how to learn speaking by listening to

songs and watching films. They do them just for entertainment and rest.

Learning from movies

Nowdays, it’s very convenient to approach English movies, students may be exposed to various

kinds of movies. However, most do not know how to this good resource to improve our speaking

while listening. First, students should the original films, don’t watch the translated ones with

Chinese characters on the screen. Most of the speech are native speaking and very beneficial for

your English when you remember them. Second, try to imitate the pronunciation of the actors or

actress and remember the useful sentences.

Learning from songs

It’s no doubt that there are many students love popular English songs which can relax their

nerves. There are many songs that are very beautiful and have good grammar

structures. You may follow below steps: first, look at the lyrics while listening to the

songs the first few times. Then, listen to the songs carefully without looking at the

lyrics. Be aware of some pronunciation of the words, you try to imitate them. That is

very helpful for your listening and speaking accuracy.

A. Learning from tapes and radios

Tapes and radios are also good materials for learning. You may record your voice

on the tape and then compare yours with the original one. You’ll get close to the

original accent if you often practice. Radio news offers you with knowledge that

you can communicate with others. VOA English provides perfect resources for

your listening and speaking. All needed is only a radio set.

5．Conclusions

5.1 Main findings

From what we have researched above, we know that the present situation in China

is far from satisfactory. There are several reasons. First, Chinese culture

background influenced thinking pattern of students who want to improve English

speaking ability. Second, students are ignorant of the significance of oral English.

Third, many students have misconceptions of learning spoken English. Teachers

play very important role in students’ development on speaking ability. They

should be a competent teacher of new teaching concept and good management.

Also they should encourage their students more and less criticize them even they

make some mistakes. At last, teachers may take some useful methods in class

activities. Students themselves should try to find interest in practicing speaking.

They can be exposed to English movies, songs, tapes and radio programs. These

are very beneficial ways to stimulate interest in speaking English and also other

aspects at the same tome.

5.2 Existing problems

1. It is the thinking pattern that is very difficult for Chinese students to change

when speaking English. Some good methods are still needed to be found to train

to change the stereotype.

2. We often find that Chinese students commit mistakes on pronouns, they mistake

“she” for “he” or “he” for “she” unconsciously. This is a problem hard to solve.

5.3 Suggestions for further research

We can collect the useful resources for students’ English learning, especially

speaking ability. Clarify the resources in different learning levels according to

students’ storage of knowledge and ability. We believe it is necessary and

beneficial to do some research on this.