农村初中英语口语训练模式研究

农村初中英语口语训练模式研究AbstractIntegrating the development of the modern society, The New English Curriculum Criteria’s requirements for secondary English teaching and the author’s personal experience of education practice, the thesis emphasizes the importance of oral drilling. And it objectively analyzes the situation of oral teaching and drilling models in junior high schools of rural areas. After discussing the existing problems, the thesis also shows some practical oral drilling models: imitation, repetition, murmuring, on-site translation method, discussion and explanation, and interview. Finally, the thesis offers some strategies to improve oral teaching there.Key words: rural areas; junior high school; oral language; drilling models摘要本文结合当今社会的发展，英语新课标对中学英语教学的要求和作者切身的教育实习体会，指出了英语口语训练的重要性，并对农村初中英语口语教学的现状和模式进行了分析。

在对存在的问题进行讨论后，本文同时展示了一些针对性的可行的口语训练模式：模仿法、复述法、自语法、现场翻译法、讨论解说法、人物采访法。

本文最后提出了一些改善农村初中英语口语教学的策略。

关键词：农村；初中；英语口语；训练模式Contents1. Introduction (1)1.1The Motives of the Study (1)1.2 Literature Review (1)1.3 Existing Problems (2)2. Analysis of Oral Drilling Models in Junior High Schools of RuralAreas (2)2.1The Situation of Oral Language Teaching in Rural Junior HighSchools (2)2.2 Importance of Oral Drilling (4)2.3 Some Models for Oral Drilling (5)3. Strategies of Improving Oral Language in Junior High Schools of Rural Areas (7)3.1 The Improvements to the Situation (7)3.2 The Goal of the Research (9)3.3 The Practice of the Research (9)4. Conclusion (11)References1. Introduction1.1 The Motives of the ResearchNowadays, information-based social life and economic globalization make English be more and more important. As one of the most important information carrier, English becomes a most widely used language in all fields of mankind’s life. Learning and using English to launch an oral conversation becomes an evident need of the society. So it is one of the requirements in education for all-round development to enhance oral teaching and it is also the trend of foreign language teaching reform.Furthermore, a new broad reform of basic education curriculum raises oral teaching to a more important position than ever. However, in our country, a huge gap in oral teaching of junior high school exists between urban and rural areas. National English Curriculum for Nine-Year Compulsory Education specially emphasizes that English te aching should cultivate the students’ ability of comprehensively language using and English teachers should strengthen oral teaching. However, spoken English is a comparatively weaker field in secondary teaching in rural areas.Therefore, the thesis discusses the current situation of oral teaching in rural junior high schools and puts forward some solutions and the models of oral drilling there.1.2 Literature ReviewLanguage is defined as “a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication”( Liu Runqing and Wen Xu, 2006:8). Now that the language isvocal, its common form can be found in oral language among persons’ communication. Besides, oral language “is the skill that the students will be judged upon most in real-life situation” (Wang Qiang, 2006:156). It is such an important part of everyday communication and most often the first impression of a person is based on his/her ability to speak fluently and comprehensibly. So, being teachers, they have the responsibility to teach students to speak in English both in the real world and in the testing room. Gillian Brown & George Yule did the research on oral language teaching and noted that “in the aspect of teaching the oral language the teacher can deliberately select the level of train them to t hat level of ability” (2000:50). Wang Qiang indicated that since the students will probably not have enough opportunity to practice speaking in English outside the classroom, it is our responsibility as teachers to give them as many opportunities in the classroom as possible (2006).1.3 Existing ProblemsAt present, of all languages in the world, English is the most widely used one. However, there are still many problems which can be found in junior high schools of rural areas, such as the lack of a certain language environments; English teachers’ poor spoken ability; some psychological barriers for students’ speaking; the inefficiency of big-class teaching and so on. Many researchers have laid emphasis on the advantages and disadvantages of oral drilling in junior high schools of rural areas. So this thesis also will analyze the situation there in detail and give some practical suggestions.2.Analysis of Oral Drilling Models in Junior High Schools of RuralAreas2.1 The Situation of Oral Teaching in Rural Junior High SchoolsAs a language, English is a kind of social communication tool and its main characteristic is communicable. Thus one of the goals of English teaching is to make students communicate with others in English. While for most of its history, English teaching has been concerned with the study of grammar and vocabulary, which makes the students be the tool of taking examinations. So there are following five problems existing in oral teaching and drilling in junior high schools of rural areas:Firstly, the English teaching lacks of the necessary language environment. The Chinese students learn English in a single-language environment. Except limited number hours per week, the students have little chance to get in touch with English. Such environment has seriously hindered the students’ speaking capacity development.Secondly, the teachers’ oral language is poor. A large number of English teachers in junior high schools of rural areas show poor pronunciation and inaccurate intonation. And they can not teach their students in fluent English, which unfavorably cultivate students’ speaking ability.Thirdly, the size of class is very large. The size of classes in vast majority of our secondary schools, which usually contain 50-60 students or so, is too large to organize effective oral training activities. It is difficult for students to open their mouths and practice their oral language. Therefore their oral ability is too difficult to be improved.Furthermore, the students there have few opportunities to listen to English. Oral ability must be built on the basis of much practice. B ecause of the teachers’ low levels of oral language, lack of electrical equipment and teaching materials, and the students are given few opportunities to listen to English; the st udents’ oral drilling is directly affected.Finally, the psychological barrier affects their speaking. Because they have not enough solid basic skills, the students are prone to be afraid of hardship, resulting in the formation of psychological barriers and fear that their speaking is not good and being ridiculed. The more fear they have, the less they would say, and the less they can say, which leads to a vicious recycle. For a long time, the efficiency of oral language teaching is not satisfactory. Through ten years English learning in secondary schools, universities, the majority of university graduates still do not have a valid foreign language communication skills, and can not adapt to China's economic and social development needs, which runs counter to the new curriculum reform.2.2 Importance of Oral DrillingGillian Brown & George Yule also emphasized in their research that “the intention (of the oral language teaching) is that the students should be able to ‘express himself’ in the target language, t o cope with basic interactive skills like exchanging greetings and thanks and apologies, and to express his ‘needs’—request information, services etc”(2000). Oral English is so commonly used that it should be practiced frequently by students in the class. Spoken English ability is not only an indispensable component in English teaching, butalso an important objective of English learning. Traditional English teaching methods trained many students to have a comparatively better competence of reading and finishing the exercises in the textbooks, while their ability of listening and speaking are comparatively unsatisfactory. "Dumb English" is used to describe these students. Therefore, oral teaching has been placed in a more prominent position in classrooms of China. It is always not easy for Chinese people to learn English very well, let alone the students in junior high schools of rural areas, whose oral ability is limited by many disadvantage conditions. With the formation of the new socialism countryside, the communication among countries have also been increased, thus it seems so essential to strengthen the rural students’ oral drilling.2.3 Some Models for Oral Drilling2.3.1 ImitationThis means that students can practice their oral language following the record, broadcast or movies of original voice. Students repeatedly read following them to imitate the voice and the tone, and the fluency of students’ oral English will be improved and the sense to the language will be cultivated. Never be shy when imitating, they must be not bashful, articulate and focus on grasping the voice, tone and speed. Also they must understand them carefully and should have perseverance. For example, the teacher can clip the part of the sinking in Titanic, and repeatedly play Luc y and Jackie’s last dialogue, and then let the students imitate and perform. This will at once arouse the enthusiasm of the students’ learning and the teaching of oral English also will get twice the result with half ofthe effort.2.3.2 RepetitionAsking students to repeat the article or English film clips in English is also a good way for oral teaching in high schools. But the material must be carefully selected, and the content should be specific and vivid, with clear plot, and moderate vocabulary. To enable students to adapt to this teaching method, at the beginning the teacher can ask students to repeat texts. With certain foundation, the material can be recording clips, video, logo and slogan. The teacher can select fragments in Forrest Gump, and then let the students repeat the story of the hero, which will enable them to practice their speaking, and they can also learn from the hero who has a positive and progressive attitude towards life in spite of his low IQ.2.3.3 MurmuringStudents are required to design scene, themes and drill their oral language by themselves after class. Students can speak English in their own words without any scruple. After a period of drilling, students will find themselves can express something fluently, and the timid shy performance will gradually disappear and they will be full of self-confidence.2.3.4 On-Site Translation MethodAt first hearing, this approach seems too difficult for a junior high school student to practice. The students can translate the material in the hearts while listening according to their own basic level, without affecting other people. This method has the advantage that the content is non-predictability, also can enhance the students’ ability to respond to oral language. It also can enrich the students’vocabulary and expand their knowledge.2.3.5 Discussion and ExplanationFor the articles involving in science, geography and environmental aspects in the textbook, teachers can inspire students to discuss and explain. For example, the teacher can instruct students to comment upon western eating habits and analyze the pros and cons, discuss the importance of diet on health. This can not only expand the students’ knowledge, but achieve the goal of helping the students keep good eating habit.2.3.6 InterviewThere are many articles involving celebrities in junior textbooks. For such subject, teachers can organize the students to practice speaking in pairs: one acts as journalists, another acts as a celebrity. In this way, students can enhance their interest in oral drills, and deepen their knowledge and memory to learn to describe characters.3.Strategies to Improving Oral Teaching in Junior High Schools ofRural Areas3.1 The Improvements to the SituationIn this chapter, some strategies are discussed to improve the teaching method. The improvements can be achieved in the following six ways.In the first place, the teachers should enlighten and guide students to open their mouths, and then develop their good habit to speak English. As a kind of language, the aim of English learning is to use it in real life. In general English teaching, more attention should be paid to the contact and communicationbetween teachers and students. When students have difficulties in expressing themselves, the teacher should give them an encouraging word or a sentence, and this would enhance the confidence of the students. When students actively involve in speaking and well finish it, the teacher should give them praise in time, such as "Good" or "Excellent". Such praise may give them a sense of satisfaction and a sense of honor, which inspire them to take part in activities. The teachers need not overemphasize the accuracy of the students’ language and the degree of their familiarity to the language and must adhere to the “sma ll step and creativeteaching so that every student is willing to speak(胡大航2008)”.In the second place, the teachers can establish flexible and diverse forms of oral teaching and learning activities. Activities in the class should be flexible. In addition to the dialogue, role-play, interview and discussion in team, the teacher can also guide students to perform Talk Show, films dubbing, interview others, debate competition and other forms of activities. Students can improve their speaking in a relaxed atmosphere in person.Moreover, the teachers must update concept and create a real and effective extracurricular activities. In order to improve the students’ oral skills, it is necessary to organize teams with 5 to 6 members to set up a “English Corner”. Teachers may regularly hold the second classroom activities, such as story-telling, playing games.Besides, the teachers should insist in teaching method only using English. It is very helpful to use English to teach English. It is conducive to set a goodexample to speak English and stimulate students to open their mouths and to improve student to master the skill of speaking.In addition, the students’ cultural barriers should be eliminated. There exists the discrepancy between English and Chinese objectively. So, successful oral language teaching can help the students to eliminate cultural barriers in certain degree. When teaching, teachers not only help the students master basic skills, but also make them understand the special language environment and cultural notion in English-speaking countries. Students can expand their horizon of knowledge as well.Finally, if the condition is permitted, the multimedia should be used to broaden the students’ per spective and to create oral language scene. It is easier for students to drill their oral language through colorful appearance of multimedia. It can set real scene of speaking for students and then students may feel that they have something to express.3.2The Goal of the ResearchWhat I intend to focus on in this paper is to analyze the situation and problems of oral language teaching and drilling in junior high schools of rural areas in detail, and to give some practical improvements and drilling models for that, for I find it difficult to enable the students there to communicate freely and make them express their ideas clearly. I hope that the students can realize their strong wish of speaking English well, and the English teachers there can organize all kin ds of drillings to improve the situation of “Dumb English”.3.3The Practice of the ResearchDuring the period of my education practice, I practice some of oral drilling models when teaching oral language. Here I will show one of the examples of only oral teaching.Textbook: Go For it!series by David Nunan, Book 1, People’s Education Press.The source of content: Unit 1 My name’s Gina, 1a,p1Topic: Making new friends.Language goal: Introduction yourself; greet people.Structure: What’s your name?My name is ….I’m …. Nice to meet you!Procedure:At the end of the class, I found that most of the students could ask for the others’ names in English more or less. Also the whole class was full of students’ English speaking without any sleepy student. With the teacher’s encouragement, most of them opened their mouths and spoken English more naturally and freely. 4ConclusionEvery teacher should know the reality that students in junior highschools of rural areas are a little weaker in English learning than those in cities. The way to change the situation is to reform the traditional English teaching models, to improve the teaching level, and to enhance the efficiency of oral English teaching. In order to achieve the goal, it is not enough to know the theory. It is necessary for the teachers to put the theory into practice and organize all kinds of oral drilling exercise. Practice is the only way to learn a language. In my essay, I have attempted to show the necessity and possibility of practice many kinds of oral drillings. These oral drilling models can provide for students the opportunities to practice their oral English. When practicing oral language following these models, each student has the chance to speak and express his/her own ideas. In addition, I have also explored some strategies which make oral language teaching more effective. The teachers can set about improving the students’ oral ability in following strategies: enlightening and guiding students to open their months, developing their good habit to speak English, updating teaching concept and designing effective and flexible oral language teaching and learning activities to give the students a real language environment, insisting in teaching method only using English, eliminating cultural barriers, using multimedia to assist the oral teaching.Some limitations of the present study should be mentioned. Due to the limited knowledge of the researcher and limited time as well, the study only and mainly focuses on the survey of two classes in one school.If the study can be conducted in more classes and more schools, somemore valuable findings and improvements could have been found.ReferencesBrown, G. & G. Yule. 2000. Teaching the Oral language [M]. 北京：人民教育出版社。