英语专业毕业论文1 .doc

On the Improvement of Spoken English Xu Liang Foreign Language College Class 7112623Xi'an Fanyi University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710105Abstracts: With the development of modern society, English has already been widely used by more and more people in various walks of life. It has been one of the most important languages in communication. The oral English ability is indispensable for the survival and development of the contemporary college students, and its also related to an enterprises success, and the prosperity of a country. This paper has analyzed the current situation in terms of oral English and proposed some solutions from six aspects, aiming at improving students spoken English.Key words: Interest; Linguistic foundation; Practice; A combination of speaking and listening; recitation浅谈英语口语的提高徐亮西安翻译学院外国语学院7112623班（陕西西安710105）摘要：伴随着现代社会的发展，英语已经广泛地运用到各行各业，并且已经成为一种重要的交流语言。口语能力对当代大学生的生存发展息息相关，同时对一个企业乃至一个民族的兴衰都有举足轻重的作用。本文分析了中国学生口语水平的现状，并从六个方面提出了一些切实有效的方法，旨在提高大家的口语水平。关键词：兴趣；语言基础；练习；口语听力相结合； 背诵IntroductionEnglish is playing an increasingly important role since China s entry into WTO, meanwhile, the Ministry of Education is making a sustainable effort to popularize English. However, after years' efforts, many English learners still can not express themselves freely, what they can say is no more than "HELLO"，"GOOD MORNING" or something like that. Pathetically, many college students who have passed CET-4 even CET-6 have taken a large percentage of them. It is urgently needed that we take some measures to improve our spoken English. English, as a kind of international languages, is widely used ranging from daily communication to cross-national business in the cross-cultural communication. However, it has been a nightmare for Chinese learners. After years efforts, they still can not express themselves or make themselves understood by others. Here are some factors involved in the course to the improvement of English.I. To develop an interest in English As an old saying goes, "Interest is the best teacher". Interest can help one easily achieve a great success in English learning.With interest, one can make the learning process much more effective and less tedious. So, to develop an interest inEnglish is urg -ently needed. Here are some advisable ways on the establishment of one s interest in English.1.Listening to English songs Many young learners have kept a habit of listening to music, which they think is an ideal way to relax and refresh themselves. So it is with English songs. By listening to English songs you will understand customs and culture in western countries which will help you get a better understanding of these countries. What is more important, by listening to the songs, you may correct some phonetic errors that may exist in your spoken English. For example, in a well-known song "Just One Last Dance", you may hear the lyrics "how I wish to come with you, how I wish to make it through", we can learn the correct pronunciation of "with" and "through", which are hard for us to pronounce. 2. Making English dialogues with your friends English is a kind of presentation of human beings in certain conditions, so to make up a situation conversation with others and act it out will be more effective compared with mechanical memorization. In a dialogue, you may act as a merchant, a salesman, a policeman, anyone you can be, which will relax you and enhance your expressing ability at the same time. 23. Creating a vivid atmosphere of English Owing to a lack of a vivid situation for English, many students dislike English, especially for some students from rural areas. You may create such an aura for yourself. You may read English newspaper, keeping diary in English, even decorating your room in European style, which provided you a vivid circumstance, greatly spurring your interest in English. II. To lay a good foundation in EnglishOral English can be generally judged from five aspects including; fluency, appropriate tone and pronunciation, maintenance of logical structure and order, correct grammar and words, among which ones pronunciation and tone are the key elements that affect many Chinese students in spoken English. Further more, pronunciation is a key factor to decide whether one can convey his message to others or understood by others. Hence, ones phonetics and intonation will directly influence ones success in English in terms of English, which is of significance for one to master. By correctly pronouncing which we can get our meaning across, exchanging our thoughts freely. China is a country with multi-nationalities and diverse cultures and dialects. People from different parts and regions are generally affected by their dialects and culture in their accents. For example, many students can not correctly pronounce "she", the word they utter sounds like "xi" (a sound in Chinese phonetic symbols), some can not pronounce some specific symbols. I will take an example to explain it. A couple came across a foreigner and had a chat, during which, the foreigner asked, "May I have your age, please?" The man said with smile in his face, "Sure! Im dirty, my wife is dirty, too!" I guess your reaction is the same with that of the foreigner. He thought: Dirty? Why? They are not dirty at all! Actually, what he intended to tell the foreigner is that he is thirty, his wife is thirty, too. However, owing to a phonetic mistake, he has not only made himself misunderstood but also a laughing stock. 3 Some advisable methods may help to get you out of the problem:Getting a phonetic symbols book and listening to the record of it, trying to make yourself proficient in each one in the aspects of pronouncing and listening.Reading some sentences or tongue twisters along with the record, which will make you further master the correct sound of these symbol，paving the way for a level up of oral English.Correcting some errors in our pronunciation is equally important. One can make progress by correcting his mistakes. You may read a sentence following the tape, then record your voice and make a comparison with the tape. By doing this, you can find your question and correct it.III. To do more practiceIt is well know to everyone that practice makes perfect. English is no exception. Most Chinese students, who spent much time on the written English, have overlooked the improvement of their spoken English, so it is never surprising if someone still lingers in the situation where they can hardly utter a complete sentence in spite of years endeavor. According to a survey, a fear to speak English is the overwhelming reason that results in the consequence. Many students are afraid of making mistakes and being laughed by their classmates and teachers for their poor pronunciation. Li Yang, the founder of Li Yang Crazy English, has long advocated the theory "dont be shy just try, I enjoy speaking poor English and losing face". He has pointed out that making mistakes is a inevitable process during ones learning process and is beneficial to ones development. Here are some steps for practiceReferring to dictionary for every unknown word and noting the phonetic symbols before you start to read some sentences or texts.Using the “three-most” method, namely "loudest, fastest, clearest", which is advocated by Li Yang. At the first beginning, you may try to speak every word clearly and loudly, then, try to accelerate the speed, at last, try to use the correct tone and adhere to the method. Sticking to it, you will see some evident changes taking place.1Talking to yourself in English as often as possible. This method is accessible and feasible. On your way to school, when you are in roller-skating spot, even early in the morning, you may speak in English, trying to describe something around you or you opinion on some latest issues, which will gradually upgrade your expressing abilities.2IV. To imitate some material that may helpImitation is inseparable from any language learning. Languages are universally recognized symbols, which has gradually emerged in the process of humans social activities. Thus, it should be learnt through imitation. Take kids learning for example, at the very beginning, they make every effort imitating their parents and everything around them, getting them familiar with the words their parents utter and the way they speak. Later on, through continuous endeavor, they become proficient in the language and establish a style for their own. Similarly, by seeing movies, spoken English could also be improved like this:Download a film with bilingual subtitles, then scan the film with eyes on Chinese subtitle, trying to grasp the outline of the movie. The second time, you should focus on the English subtitle, paying more attention to some new words and phrases and looking them up in a dictionary, speaking them out along with the movie, in which way, you can get familiarized with the sound and pronunciation of the new expressions, deepening your memory on them. The last step may be hard but effective: Try to mimic the movie sentence by sentence. After the end of each sentence, you may make a stop to mimic the words you hear adhering to the intonation and pronunciation. It is a relaxing way in which you can refresh yourself and gradually perfect your oral English both in accuracy and intonation. The more you imitate, the more naturally and authentically you will speak. 3V. To combine English listening and speaking To improve students spoken English, many universities and colleges have set up English corners, where students from different regions, under different cultural backgrounds may gather and chat with each other ,sharing their opinion on some hot issues or their own attitudes toward some events in terms of culture, society and fashion. So, for a long time, English corner has been considered as a proficient way to improve one's English in short term. Nevertheless, many questions gradually emerged: Many students come to the English corner without preparing anything and can hardly find a topic to talk about. So every time, when coming to English corner, with no exception, they just talk about some usual topics, lets say: What is your name? Where are you from, What is your major etc. Additionally, many students has long partially attached the importance to the fluency instead of the pronunciation and intonation, many of whom have barely listened to any English tapes, what English they are familiar with is their Chinese teachers' English, which usually is mixed with a strong accent. So how could it be possible to speak English that is both fluent and standard? The General Zhong Dao long, who started learning English at the age of 45 and became an interpreter one year later, suggests that we learn English through listening, especially for oral English. Only by a plentiful listening can we be able to speak naturally and authentically. He also takes his English-learning experience as an example. To learn English well, he spent at least three hours per day listening to English tapes and doing dictations, sometimes ,it may take him days to correct some spelling mistakes he met during his learning process. 1Theoretically speaking, listening and speaking are like the two side of a coin, they are closely related: by listening, one can get familiar with the target language he plans to speak, as well as the correct pronunciation and intonation, even the culture of the language-speaking country. While speaking is the other side of the coin, by speaking, one can put what he learnt through listening into practice and enhance his memory of the materials he learnt from tape, recreating a vivid situation to speak. however, many universities have overlook the point with separate classes called listening class and oral English class respectively, which lead to the consequence that many students can understand what others means but can not make themselves understood, triggering a great barrier in communication. 1 Besides, listening and reading articles on different topics and issues. The topics people usually talk about vary from personal affairs to social hot issues relevant to weather, environment, arts, family life and other issues. So it is essential for us to learn these topics and sentence patterns in the exchange of opinions. To achieve the goal, you may read some English magazines and newspaper. "21st Century" is an ideal choice for Chinese English learner, which covers almost every field of life, ranging from entertainment to sports events, providing us a plentiful expressions and terms involved in latest news. "China Daily", published by we Chinese people, is the best choice. It has been considered as a window for outside world to know the latest development of China, specifically depicting some latest domestic news, enabling us to keep pace with time and to upgrade our English expressing ability at the same time. VI. To recite To effectively make progress, one needs not only to read some sentences but also to recite some sentence patterns, particularly for the improvement of spoken English. English patterns that are simple are full of the traits of culture. For instance, If you dislike to see someone, you may say "she is the last one I want to see ".Literally, we guess it shows us the order, she is the last number of the people I will see. Actually, it means I hate seeing her. 4The improvement of spoken English calls for not only skills but also long-term practice, the techniques listed above may help you in some aspects, but the improvement itself mainly relies on yourself, your perseverance! Do remember: ROME WAS NOT BULDING IN ONE DAY!Reference: 1姜 伟.英语真相.北京:世界图书出版公司北京公司,2005 2杜子华.英语成功学.北京:新华出版社,2002 3周虹,李晓利.英语交际口语.北京:中国宇航出版社,2004 4郭新民.英语会话高手.北京:外文出版社,2005