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1、Research of Oral Communication in English Classroom in China Abstract: This research aims at investigating the current situation of oral communication in English classroom in China. The research shows that students now have more opportunities to have access to oral English in the classroom. Moreover
2、 they have realized the importance of improving their oral communicative competence and are willing to participate in oral communicative activities. Nevertheless, more measures need to be taken so that oral communicative activities can be more effective in improving students oral communicative compe
3、tence.Key words: English classroom; oral communication摘要：这份调查报告旨在调查国内的英语课口语交流现状。调查结果显示在课堂上，学生可以有更多的机会接触英语口语，并且他们已经意识到提高口语交流能力的重要性，愿意进行口语交流活动。然而，如果要想促进口语交流活动更有效地提高学生的口语交流能力，须采取一些措施。关键字：英语课堂；口语交流1 IntroductionWith all the more frequent communication between people from different countries, it is neces
4、sary to learn foreign languages. Different teaching and learning methods have been put forward in the last century so as to facilitate foreign language learning. In China, foreign language learning, mainly English, has become more and more popular since the Chinese government implemented the policy
5、of “Reform and Opening-up” in the end of the 1970s. However, the whole result of English teaching and learning is not satisfactory in some ways. Chinese students are good at the knowledge of grammar, but weak at its practical usage, especially bad at oral communication. It cannot satisfy the actual
6、social and economic requirements, for Chinese people have had more and more opportunities of communicating with foreigners. As a result, the Chinese State Education Commission has promulgated a series of syllabuses to improve English teaching. Students oral communicative competence has been required
7、 to give due emphasis. My research is aimed at investigating the actual situation of oral communication in the English classroom in China and students attitude towards it.2 Research of Oral Communication in China2.1 Research backgroundAfter the Cultural Revolution, English education was emphasised a
8、gain. It was listed as one of the three basic subjects in middle schools. Especially after the Chinese government carried out the policy of Reform and Opening-up, more and more students have realized the importance of learning English and studied English very hard. However, many Chinese students are
9、 weak at oral communication because the grammar translation method has been a dominant one in English teaching for a long time and is still being adopted today in many classrooms in China.The grammar translation method emphasises written language, ignoring oral language. The result is that many stud
10、ents are good at the knowledge of grammar. However, they are weak at the use of the language, especially bad at understanding and speaking the oral language (Jin & Cortazzi 1998: 104; Butte 2003; Liu 2003). The Chinese Ministry of Education has realised the problem and taken various measures to solv
11、e it. English entrance exams for senior middle school and the Matriculation English Test began to include the exam of listening comprehension all over China in the 1990s. In some areas, speaking has also been tested in entrance exams for high schools and for university. These kinds of exams are very
12、 important to Chinese students. The exams have been regarded as command canons (指挥棒) to guide students learning direction for a long time. In addition to the influence of English educational policies, practical demands are in need of improving students communicative competence in recent years. Chine
13、se people have more chances to make direct contact with foreigners. At present, China is in the WTO, which means that the Chinese people will have more opportunities to make direct communication with foreigners. All these changes require the Chinese people to improve communicative competence, especi
14、ally the ability of oral communication. All the factors mentioned above provide the potentiality of changing the teaching method. However, the communicative approach was not readily accepted by teachers in the early 1990s (Xiao 2002). Many teachers tried to adopt the new approach, but found the teac
15、hing result was not satisfied. They became frustrated and still returned to the grammar-oriented method. The State Education Commission took four measures to promote more teachers to adopt the communicative approach (Xiao 2002). More than ten years have passed since the State Education Commission pr
16、omulgated the first new syllabus for junior middle schools in 1989 to advocate the change to the communicative approach. How is the situation now? Is there any evident change of the teaching method in English classroom in China? Has students oral communication been given due emphasis in the English
17、classroom in China? What is students attitude to the communicative approach? Do they want to have more chances to improve their oral communication? All these questions fascinate me and propel me to do the research. 2.2 Research methodologyMy research method is through the questionnaire. The subjects
18、 of my questionnaire are Chinese students who are fresher in Nanjing College of Information Technology. I send out 93 questionnaire and collected 91 returned ones. I want to know their opinions and attitudes towards oral communicative activities because I think that the communicative approach is lea
19、rner-centred and that a student is one of the main factors that decides the success or failure of the approach. I still want to know their previous learning experiences in high school. These students come from different places in China, so a general picture of their experiences is an epitome of Engl
20、ish classroom in China. This questionnaire is divided into five sections. The first section is about students general opinions about the importance of grammar, listening, speaking, reading and writing. The second one is about the general situation of English classroom in China and students attitude
21、towards it. The third part is about oral communicative activities in the classroom and students attitude to the activities. The fourth part is about oral communication outside the classroom. The last one is about students opinions towards oral communicative competence. Through the investigation, I f
22、irst want to know whether students still think that knowledge of grammar is a very important part of language learning. Have they begun to pay much more attention to their listening and speaking? Second, I want to investigate whether English has become a main medium of communication between a teache
23、r and students in the English classroom in China. What is students attitude towards it? Third, I want to know whether a teacher has tried to provide students with more extra opportunities to participate in oral communication in the classroom besides normal questions and answers between a teacher and
24、 students. Do students like to take part in these activities? Fourth, I want to investigate whether students have had extra chances to participate in oral communication outside the classroom and whether they have taken part in it. Last, I want to know their opinions towards oral communicative compet
25、ence because I think that if they regard it as important, it can be a positive factor to guide them to accept communicative activities. 2.3 Research Results2.3.1 Attitude towards grammar, listening, speaking, reading and writingThe table 1 shows that Chinese students begin to pay less attention to g
26、rammar. Only 40.66% students think that grammar is important or very important. By contrast, over sixty percent students believe that the four skills are important or very important. Among the four skills, the percentages regarding speaking and listening as important or very important are much highe
27、r than those of reading and writing. It indicates that Chinese students pay more attention to the practical usage of grammar knowledge. Especially they pay much more attention to speaking and listening.2.3.2 Natural classroom communication 2.3.2.1 General situation of actual classroom Students have
28、opportunities to listen to or to speak English in the classroom in China though these are still not very satisfactory. Teachers often or quite often speak English in the classroom. Moreover, 71.43% subjects report that their teachers explain grammar mainly in Chinese. If grammar explanation is too m
29、uch in the classroom, it will naturally decrease students opportunities of listening to English spoken by their teachers. Furthermore, only 13.19% students think that they have enough chance to speak English in English classroom in China. It might indicate that though English is used in the classroo
30、m, teachers talks still occupy a large proportion of the whole classroom activities.2.3.2.2 Students attitudes towards the general situation The majority of Chinese students want to have more opportunities to listen to or to speak English. 90.11% students hope that their teachers can speak English a
31、s much as possible. In order to have more opportunities to listen to English, 61.54% subjects even prefer their teachers to explain grammar in English. Moreover, 68.13% students extremely want to have more opportunities to speak English in the classroom. Compared with the actual classroom in China,
32、it shows that the actual situation still cannot satisfy students expectation. The majority of Chinese students still prefer their teachers to correct their oral mistakes. It might be influenced by the traditional grammar-translation teaching method. However, it is unrealistic and unnecessary to corr
33、ect students every oral mistake. Even though they prefer the correction of oral mistakes, it might be better for teachers to take note of the mistakes and to summarize them later.2.3.3 Oral communicative activities in the classroom2.3.3.1 Actual situationSome Chinese students have enough chances to
34、take part in oral communication. Teachers gradually adopt the method of oral report. 71.43% students think that their teachers require them to give an oral report. Over half of students report that they have opportunities to participate in the whole classroom discussion. Pair work and group work hav
35、e been more widely adopted than oral reports and the whole classroom discussion. 79.12% subjects believe that they have enough pair work and group work. 2.3.3.2 Students attitudes towards oral communicative activitiesMany students hold a positive attitude towards oral communication. Their expectatio
36、n of oral communication is higher than the actual situation of oral communication in the classroom. 87.91% students like oral reports and the majority of them believe that it can improve their oral English. 84.62% of them are in support of the whole classroom discussion. Moreover, most students like
37、 pair work and group work and they especially prefer to participate in pair work. However, some of them confess that they speak Chinese during the pair work or group work. It is a serious problem. In China, every class has fifty or even more students. If they speak Chinese, they cannot be supervised
38、 by teachers. In this way, it is neither effective in improving their listening and speaking abilities, nor good to develop their communicative strategies.2.3.4 Oral communication outside the classroomChinese students do not have enough opportunities to participate in oral communication outside the
39、classroom. Most of them cannot have chance to talk with native speakers directly. An English Corner is a good place for them to practise their oral English outside the classroom, which can either be organized by their schools or universities, or be formed voluntarily in the society. The English Corn
40、er outside campus is especially an ideal place for authentic oral communication because most participants are strangers to each other and want to know each other through communication. It is a pity that only 41 students have access to it. It is more pitiful that half of the 47 students report that t
41、hey seldom go to the English Corner.2.3.5 Students opinions towards oral communicative competenceExcept for 2 students, the majority of them believe that it is important to know how to talk appropriately with different people in different situations. Some of them talk about the reasons of its import
42、ance. Some of them mention the more need of fluent and suitable communication with foreigners because of Chinese economic development and Chinas entry into the WTO. They also think that oral communication can be conducive to the whole language learning and can enhance their interest in learning Engl
43、ish. Some others point out that the ultimate aim of learning English is to use it suitably in different situations.2.4 DiscussionFirst, Chinese students do not think that grammar occupies a dominant position now. Speaking and listening have been given emphasis in recent years. Speaking ability is es
44、pecially emphasized. Second, teachers speak much more English and students have certain opportunities to speak English in the classroom. However, many students want to have more chances to speak English in the classroom. From the research, it shows that it cannot live up to their expectation in this
45、 regard. On the other hand, the majority of students want their teachers to correct their oral mistakes, which reflects the deep influence of the grammar-translation method.Third, oral communicative activities have gradually been used in the classroom in China. Strictly speaking, oral report is not
46、a real communication because only one student provides information, which seldom leads to any further discussion except for comments from teachers. However, the beforehand preparation can decrease students anxiety about public speaking in English and can improve their confidence in speaking English.
47、 Moreover, as many students are in favour of it, the meaningful report can enhance their interest of collecting good and up-to-date information to prepare for their oral report or of listening to others report. Consequently, it should be a good way to improve students speaking and listening. The who
48、le class discussion is used in some classrooms. The whole classroom discussion is easy for teachers to control the whole situation. However, some students might not volunteer to participate in it because of their anxiety of making mistakes. It is especially the case for shy students. Consequently, s
49、ome teachers might be embarrassed to find that it is difficult to continue the discussion because of too little participation of students. It is quite common in the classroom in China. Moreover, even though some students are active in discussion, it cannot provide enough time for most students to take part in it because the majority of classrooms in China have fifty or more students. As a result, it c