The Communicative Competence in Spoken English英语专业毕业论文.doc

The Communicative Competence in Spoken English一、 课题(论文)提纲 0.引言1.交流能力的定义2.提高英语交流能力的重要性3.影响它的因素 3.1 不同文化3.2 人的个性3.3环境4.提高的方法4.1注重语言文化4.2克服心理上的因素和多练习4.3营造英语环境5.结论二、内容摘要作为一种国际化语言，英语在世界上扮演了一个很重要的角色。英语在联合国中是一种很普遍和运用频繁的语言。它在国际航空、航海及体育锻炼是一种不可缺少的交流工具。它在国际贸易中也是一个很重要的媒介。除此之外，它在科学上也是一种国际化语言。然而，许多中国人在用英语和外国人交流有很大困难。所以我需要提高口语的交流能力。这篇文章主要讲述了三个问题：为什么我们需要提高口交流能力、影响它的因素以及提高它的方法。三、 参考文献1Claier Kramsch << Language and culture>> Oxford University Press, New York 1988;2鲍志坤,也论外语教学中的文化导入。外语界，1997年第一期;3杜诗春,心理语言学.上海外语出版社，1985;4邓炎昌，刘润清.语言与文化.外语教学与研究出版社，1988;5陈光磊；语言教学中的文化导入J;语言教学与研究；1992年03期;6金启军；语言与社会J;东北大学学报（社会科学版）；1999年04期.The Communicative Competence in Spoken English Abstract: As an international language, English plays a very important role in the world. English is one of the languages which are generally and frequently used in the United Nations. It is an indispensable communication tool for the international airlines、 voyage and physical exercises area. It is also an important medium in international trade. Besides, it is an international language in the sciences. However, many Chinese people have difficulty in communicating with foreigners in English. So we need to improve communicative competence in spoken English. This article mainly talks about three issues: why we need to improve spoken English, communicate competence、the factors that influence it and the methods to improve it.Key Words: language; English; communicative competence; spoken English0. Introduction As we all know that language is used to communicate with each other and thats what really counts. People need communication in daily life. Besides, how to improve communicative competence has always been a focus of study over the past decades. When people with different cultural backgrounds communicate with each other, misunderstandings as well as conflicts will appear. The world is surrounded by objects. Communication activities satisfy practical needmaterial transformation or message communication as well as the process suitable for social rules. Communication is the prerequisite for the smooth and successful relationship among human beings and it promotes human beings development. This article attempts to focus on how to improve spoken English communicative competence. As English is becoming more and more important, it is essential to know how to improve spoken English communicative competence. 1. Definition of communicative competence.Communicative competence was put forward in the book <<About Communicative Competence>> by famous American Socialist Dell Hymens in 1971. It refers to the knowledge and ability involved in putting language to communicative use. Dell Hymens thought languages an important means for social communication“must have its usage rules, otherwise, grammar will lose its meaning.” If a man gets communicative competence, he not only gets knowledge about languages rules, but also has the ability to properly use language in social settings. Communicative competence has something to do with the ability of communication with people.2. The importance of improving communicative competence in spoken English There is no doubt that English is the worlds most widely used languages. People regard as a language in one of three ways: as a native language, as a second language, or as a foreign language. English is spoken as a native language by over three hundred million people in the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and some Caribbean countries. As a second language, English is often necessary for official business, education, information and other activities in many countries. It is said that English has become the language of international trade and transport. Most airplane pilots traveling from one country to another communicate in English. All ships sailing on the oceans call for help by radio using English. It has been said that 60 percent of the worlds radio broadcasts and 70 percent of the worlds mail uses English. In the international sports community and in the international science community English is the most commonly used and the most widely used. Nowadays most Chinese students are studying English; however, only few students can communicate with foreigners in English. Since China has entered the WTO and held Olympic Games, English must be widely used in foreign trade. In the year of 2010, the World Exposition will be held; therefore a large number of people will come to China. Moreover, what is language for some people in fact seems to be a topic for practicing grammar rules and learning a set of wordsthe longer the words the better. Thats a little misguided; Language is for the exchange of ideas and for communication. Therefore, we need to improve communicative competence in spoken English.3. Factors to communicative competence in spoken English 3.1Cultural differences Different countries have different cultures. As one of the most important communication tools language is used under certain cultural backgrounds and subjected to culture. That is to say, you should speak the right words in the right place and at the right time. Therefore we need to know something about cultural knowledge and customs. In usual communicative occasions, for instance, when foreigners are praised or given thanks, their common reaction is very happy and they will speak out their true feelings. When foreigners hear such praise, for instance, “ You are good at swimming.”they will usually say: “Thank you very much.” On the other hand, Chinese culture regards modesty as a virtue, so when Chinese are praised, they feel happy in the heart too, but they dont tell their true feelings. For example, when a foreign friend says:“You swim very well indeed.”, according to our custom, we usually answer“Oh, no. I swim very badly. ”Such reaction is considered to be hypocritical by British and American people, so they dont want to communicate with you, obviously it makes communicative purpose cant come true. Another example is that Chinese people like to say:“吃饭了没有啊？”“您去什么地方啊？”when they say hello to their friends. Such words translated to English become “ Have you eaten yet?” “Where are you going？”. For those from English-speaking countries who only say “Hello”、“Hi”to their friends when they meet, the former sentence may let him or her feel that you want to treat him or her dinner, but you just say it and then go away, he or she will believe that himself or herself is tricked, then he or her may break off all relations with you. Obviously the latter sentence invades others privacy, even though they give you an answer reluctantly, they will whisper in their heart that they dont want to talk to you any longer. Thus in turn may influence your success to communication.3.2 Peoples quality and personalityAffection has an impact in peoples leaning and activity process. Obviously, communication, a mans social attitude towards others, affairs, the purpose of communication、personal quality and personality are very important to put communication into practice and to succeed. On the one hand, it is well known that talking is the most used communicative activity for human beings. During the talk, we often come across someone who likes to play excessive attention to wording and to tell others what is right and what is wrong from their point of view, they may even like to become a winner in the argument. It is these people that always affect the communicative atmosphere. Because their communicative purpose makes others produce annoying feelings during the talk, therefore it influences the success of communication. On the other hand, a persons quality and personality also affect communicative competence. The scholar A. Heber has done a research for the relation between the factor and foreign language learning. He found that people gradually establish a self-protect-self-respect screen during the process of knowing themselves. (Self-respect relates to communicative competence). Because a person who has strong self-respect could resist the threat of self-participation during the communicative process and the protective screen is comparatively lower, therefore it is good for them to communicate with others; on the contrary, a person whose self-respect is not so strong often establish a high psychological screen to protect the awareness of self-protection. And it is the psychological screen that inhibits the common communication with others. Take learning spoken English and phonetic symbols for example, for beginners, they will face such problems as not being able to speak English fluently and read phonetic symbol accurately, therefore people will laugh at them. This will threaten language itself directly. At that moment, those who have strong self-respect will have the courage to face threatening language towards them and become brave, and as a result they will improve expressive competence and pronunciation in spoken English. In contrast, those whose self-respect is not so strong, never speak out in order to avoid threatening language towards them. So they will never achieve any progress.3.3 Environment We all know that a trying to improve communicative competence is a social process. Namely, it has deep connection with his or her social activities and environment. For instance, in some countries like India, Singapore and some African countries which regard English as its official language, English is considered as an important factor for attending school and applying for a job. Some schools even use English for teaching language. In order to adapt to the environment, learners are decided to master English. Nowadays the world is becoming a global village, so the international environment requires us to master English, especially improve our communicative competence in spoken English. When talking about the importance of the environment, our countrys famous translator and writer, Ye JUNJIAN says:“Because of the environment, his English will have some taste of Chinese English in his listening、speaking、reading and writing.”4. Methods to improve communicative competence in spoken English.4.1 Pay attention to the language cultureFirst of all, Id like to tell a story. Once, an American was visiting the home of a Chinese. As the visitor saw the hosts wife, he said:“Your wife is very beautiful.” The host smiled and said :“Where? Where? ”which caused the Americans surprise, but still he answered:“Eyes, hair, nose”an answer that the host found a bit puzzling. The surprise was caused by difference in culture. “Where？ Where？” means“哪里！哪里！” in Chinese is a kind of humble saying. But the American understand it as “which parts of the body are beautiful？”Therefore, the reason for both sides misunderstanding was different in customs and habits. Each was expressing and understanding what the other said according to his or her own culture. Different countries have different culture while culture influences languages. So if you dont know its culture, it will cause misunderstanding and embarrassment. Thus it inhibits communication between each other. From this story, we can see that if we want to communicate with foreigners freely, we should learn and understand foreign cultures and acquire cross-culture communication ability. And this is really very important. Claire Kramsch clearly pointed out“language helps people express their views towards cultural reality and it is the carrier of culture.” In his book <<Language and culture>>,American famous litterateur, Edward Sapir said“There is something behind language, and it cant exist without culture.” In view of this, I think we must study foreign culture and custom if we want to improve our communicative competence and have less difficulty in communicating with foreigners.Besides this, we need to cultivate the ability of thinking in English. Because when speaking to foreigners, we always thinking of the Chinglish. For example, when asking teachers to get in the lift or classroom , most students say:“You go first, or go first, please.”  according to Chinese expressive habits. However, standard English expression is :“After you.” And students always make such mistakes, like “I very much like you”. The correct expression is “I like you very much. So we should speak authentic English if we want to let foreigners understand exactly what do we mean. But how? First, listen to authentic English. While listening we should store things we listened and could be understood in our mind in English. Second, express in English directly. Through a series of active thinking activities to understand and output information. During this process, your spoken English will improve greatly.4.2 Conquer psychological factors and practice more It is a common thing that people are afraid of making mistakes. When they found they said wrong sentences or words, they feel it is a very embarrassing thing and will not say anything. And introverted people dont like to express their views in public; usually they keep their view in mind. However, as a language learner, we should be ready to make mistakes and love to make mistakes and learn from the mistakes. But for a person to never make mistakes is impossible. As the saying goes“Failure is the mother of success.”, so we shouldnt be afraid of failure. And as we know, if we want to communicate with someone, we must speak it out, even though we say something wrong, others may know what we want to express, so we need to conquer our psychological fears in order to express our thoughts clearly. We may know Demosthenes story. He was a very famous Greek orator, but he was born with a terrible stutter that made him shy and introverted. His father left him a vast estate, but according to Greek law he had to establish his right to ownership in public debate before he could claim his inheritance. His speech impediment and his shyness rendered him helpless in the debate and he lost his estate. Then, he went to work and by sheer, dogged effort, scaled oratorical heights never before reached by mortal man, He reportedly eliminated his speech impediment by putting pebbles in his mouth and practiced speaking aloud next to the roaring ocean. History neglected to record the name of the man who took his inheritance, but school children around the world have learned the story of Demosthenes for centuries. From this story, we can learn that if we keep on doing something, we will achieve success, let alone improving spoken English competence communicative competence.The way to learn a language is to practice speaking as often as possible. As proverb says, “Practice makes perfect”. Besides, a great man once said it is necessary to drill as much as possible and the more you apply it in real situations, the more natur