A Discussion About Spoken English Teaching英语毕业论文.doc

A Discussion About Spoken English TeachingBeing one of the four micro skills of English language, speaking plays an important role. Practically speaking, it can reflect ones English proficiency directly, which is bound up with job-hunting, social communication etc. On the other hand, together with speaking, it is productive skill, through which language learners produce output. According to Swains “Output Hypothesis” and Longs “Interactional Hypothesis”, language learners out put is significant in the process of second language acquisition (SLA). Thus, speaking can also facilitate language acquisition. Based on some theories, previous studies and the realities of spoken English teaching in China, this essay aims to discuss spoken English teaching from two aspects: what to teach and how to teach. 1. What to Teach1.1 Communicative CompetenceBefore the discussion about what to teach in spoken English class, there should be an insight into the levels of knowledge and skills involved in language use. Canal and Swain (1980) termed the knowledge and skills involved in language use as “Communicative Competence”, which they divided into three levels: grammatical, sociolinguistic and strategic. Keith Johnson renamed the first one as “systematic”. Systematic competence covers the knowledge and skills related to the way language works as a system. This competence includes knowledge and skills about pronunciation (phonetics and phonology), grammar (morphology and syntax) and words meanings (semantics). Even hand writing, spelling and punctuation are involved which are “mechanical skills”. Sociolinguistic competence can be further divided into “rules of use” and “rules of discourse”. The former one means how to use language appropriately in different contexts. The contexts here can refer to both different countries and some concrete situations (e.g. wedding &funeral; restaurants& shops). In different countries with different culture and customs, speakers should obey local “rules” to use the language. The same goes to different concrete situations. The latter function is to join language together, in other words, to achieve the coherence in a language. Strategic competence can be descried as "verbal and nun-verbal communication strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication". According to Keith Johnson, this is a very important type of competence for learner to develop, because speakers will inevitably encounter many breakdowns in communication when struggling to use the foreign language with their restricted linguistic resources.1.2 What to Teach in spoken English ClassBased on the framework of communicative competence, what should be taught in the class of spoken English? First of all, the knowledge and skills in the systematic competence should not be taught specially in the class of spoken English, because the function orientation of this class is different from the grammar class, reading class and vocabulary class. Spoken English class should focus on how to teacher students to speak English correctly, how to express themselves and to develop students communicative competence. Although English pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar are closely related to spoken English, they should not take large amount of time to be thought specially in spoken English class. Teachers can choose to correct students phonetic, lexical and grammatical errors when they emerge or teach them when necessary. Secondly, it is very necessary to teach knowledge and skills within sociolinguistic competence. When limited in the context of classrooms and the group of people who share the same culture and customs, students seldom need to express their certain demand and they seldom encounter embarrassment caused by culture difference. Imagine a context where a Chinese student who goes to America for the first time needs to go to see a doctor. How should he/she express his/her idea? Without qualified sociolinguistic competence, most students will fail. To develop students sociolinguistic competence, in spoken English class teachers on one hand should expose students to culture and social customs in English speaking countries, on the other hand, teachers should get students acquainted with how to express themselves in English in different situations, such as how to go shopping, how to deliver a speech, how to participate in job interview etc. Thirdly, knowledge and skills related to strategic competence can never be ignored in spoken English class. Due to students restricted language proficiency, the conversation is likely to break down if they know nothing about this competence. According to a research conducted by Gao Haihong (2000), Chinese students know little about strategic competence. They adopt strategy of reduction most, which means they prefer to deduce the further discussion about the topic or change another if they encounter communicative difficulties, which is unbeneficial to language acquisition. Thus, it is very necessary for teachers to teach students communicative strategies to remain or repair their conversation. For instance, students can use stalling strategy which provides them with more time to recollect their knowledge to bridge the information gap. 2. How to Teach By using “how to teach”, I do not intend to discuss which teaching method should be chosen in spoken English class, such as communicative language teaching(CLT), task based language teaching(TBLT). Wang Zuoliang used to say that some methods are useful to some people sometimes in some places; no method is helpful to all people all times at all places. Since each teaching method has its advantages and disadvantages, sensible middle view has been accepted by more and more teachers. I just want to discuss how to teach spoken English from several specific aspects.2.1 Output and Interaction in Spoken English ClassIn traditional English classrooms, English teachers take the dominant position by grasping classroom discourse. (Zhao Xiaohong, 1998) In spoken English class, however, teachers must abandon this kind of method. Krashen. (1983，1985) pointed out that comprehensible input is a necessary condition for second language acquisition(SLA). Swain (1985) put forwarded “Output Hypothesis”. She asserted that comprehensible input provides second language learners with vital condition, but it is not enough. Only through meaningful output can learners improve the accuracy of target language to native speakers level. She summarizes the functions of output in SLA as followings: 1) learners output must be accurate, consistent and appropriate during the procession of negotiation of meaning, which will improve learns grammar. This phenomenon is named “pushed language use” by her; 2) output offers learns lots of opportunities to test whether their hypothesis on target language is right or not; 3) output can force learners pay attention to the form of language which covers the meaning, whereas input can not. She stressed that only learners are forced can output be helpful to SLA. Long (1983), by posing “Interaction Hypothesis”, on one hand admitted the significance of language input, on the other hand, stressed the importance of negotiation of meaning. According to him, “two-way communication” is more helpful to SLA compared with “one-way communication” in that when one side has difficulty in understanding the other, he/ she is able to inform the other, which will stimulate the negotiation of meaning and interactional modification. Thus, the comprehensibility is improved. The negotiation of meaning can also allow learners to notice the differences between input and output, and result in the transfer from interlanguage to target language. Based on these theories, the conclusion can be drawn that if teachers still take the dominant position by grasping classroom discourse in Spoken English class, students can only get language input, which is not helpful to students English acquisition. Thus, students should take the dominant position in spoken English class, which means they must be given enough time to speak English ( produce output) and participate into interaction in spoken English class, though which students communicative competence can be improved a lot. Spoken English class should be students centered. Large amounts of interactions fits the character of CLT. The reason I do not use this term is that I also want integrate teaching task into spoken English teaching which is related to another English teaching method-TBLT2.2 Teaching TasksWhen mentioned tasks, TBLT should be mentioned. TBLT refers to an approach based on the use of tasks as the core of planning and instructing in language teaching. Nunan(1989) defined a task as a piece of classroom work which involves learning in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused on meaning rather than form. Mentioning teaching tasks does not mean that I agree that teachers should adopt TBLT in spoken English class, nor do I stress the form of tasks. What I what to emphasize is the function of carrying out teaching task. Since tasks are believed to be made up of four main components, namely a purpose, a context, a process and a product (Clark, Scarino & Brownell,1994), by carrying out teaching tasks, students can get certain skill improved or learn some knowledge which is discussed in first part. For example, fluency and accuracy are two inflections of good communicative competence. Christine C.M. Goh discussed how to improve fluency and accuracy by using tasks in the book Speaking in Language Classroom. Three types of speaking tasks for developing fluency were introduced in this book: information-gap tasks, problem solving tasks and social monologues. Spoken English teachers can design other tasks for students. For example debating task can be designed to develop students expressive and logical competence. Students can involve in stimulate social context to develop certain ability. By producing output and participating in classroom interaction, students communicative competence can be improved, while carrying out teaching tasks can make this process be goal oriented and not be aimless. Students can make visible or invisible progress through various tasks. Thus, both interaction and teaching tasks should be integrated into spoken English class. In other words, it should be a combination of CLT and TBLT, but neither should dominant the class.2.3 Teachers' Feedback Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) charactered the basic model of exchange between teachers and students as IRF. Firstly, teachers initiate (I) a conversation by asking a question, following is students response (R), finally comes the teachers feedback (F). In spoken English class, however, this type of discourse model should be broken because students will have fewer chances to produce output and their communication strategies will be limited if limited to this model which does not fit the character of real conversation. Teachers should make use of feedback to promote students English acquisition. 2.3.1 Corrective feedback (Negative Feedback)Corrective feedback is used to correct students' errors wich has direct relation with students' limited language competence. Errors should be distinguished from mistakes which is "a failure performance to a known system"( Brown, 2000 ). Students make mistakes like the misuse of "he "and "she" often. Teachers should no interrupt students to correct such mistakes since it will break down students' speech. Teachers should let mistakes pass and remind students to pay attention to such mistakes after students finish their speech. As for errors, like phonetic, grammatical and lexical errors, if they are not serious , it is better for teachers to correct them after students finish their speech, especially when students are involved in communication. If the errors are serious which will lead to misunderstanding, teachers should correct them directly. An important principle of error correction is that teachers should never damage students' self-esteem and confidence to speak English. 2.3.2 Evaluative feedback (Positive Feedback)In spoken English class, teachers positive feedback is important because it provides learners with affective support and fosters students motivation to continue learning. (Ellis, 2009) However, teachers' positive feedback should noy be too general and mechanic like "very good, welldone" in spoken English class. Teachers should evaluate students performance in detail, which will enhance students' confidence a lot. If necessary, teachers should point out where students should improve. 2.4 Group Work and Pair Work待添加的隐藏文字内容3One of the problems existing in Chinese spoken English class is that the size of class is too large. Thus students will have less chance to practice their language and get less attention from teachers. Group work and pair work are good methods to solve this problem. By participating in group work and pair work, students can also learn how to be a good listener and how to cooperate with others. However, teachers should not isolate them from the group work and pair work. They should cruise around the classroom and be ready to offer help. They can also join each group for a while, but not only as a participant not as a leader or inspector. 3. Conclusion In the classroom of spoken English, teachers should aim to improve students communicative competence which include systemic, sociolinguistic and strategic competence. Teachers should let students take dominant position by allowing students to speak and participate in interaction a lot, during which specific tasks should be carried out to achieve certain goals. Teachers should use positive and negative feedback approximately and organize group work and pair work when necessary. All in all, all the work should be centered on improving students' communicative competence. Reference1. Christine C. M. Goh, Speaking in Language Classroom, People's Education Press，20072. Jack C. Richards & Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，20084. Jeremy Harmer, How to teach English，Posts & Telecom Press，20115. Keith Johnson, An Introduction to Foreign Language Teaching and Learning, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 20026. 高海虹，交际策略能力研究报告_观念与运用，外语教学与研究，2000，第一期53-587. 王蔷，英语教学法教程，高等教育出版社（第二版），20068. 赵晓红,大学英语阅读课教师话语的调查与分析,外语界, 1998, 第2期, 17-22