Using dialogues to improve spoken English among elemantary school
By Peter Yu
I.
Abstract
Speaking competence is considered as the most difficult output ability for an
ESL learner to master, especially for elementary school students in China. Because
of lack of English exposure, and the exam oriented background, many Chinese
students don’t know how to write in English for communication. After studying
ESL in UCI and observing the local English class in middle school, the author adopts
some methods in
Speaking class to motivate students to write. This paper tries to offers valuable
suggestions for Chinese English teacher when considering affective variables in
Chinese context. Speaking Motivation is said to be intrinsic and extrinsic, especially
intrinsic motivation plays an increasingly important role in students writing in class or
after class. With the hope of this awareness, it will help Chinese English teacher to
decide better language learning tasks, and help elementary school students achieve
better performances’ in speaking.
1. Definition of speaking motivation
Speaking motivation is one's activation or energizing to give more effort to
speaking activity. It focuses on one’s appraisal of the relationship between speaking
activity and writing outcome. Like reading motivation .Writing motivation is said to
be intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic writing motivation comes from within. It includes
one's desire to make archive (documentation), to express emotions (emotional
expression), to satisfy creation urge (creativity) and to develop mastery over writing
(achievement). Extrinsic writing motivation is for satisfying others. It includes one's
desire to write to be loved (affiliation), to be recognized by others (recognition) and to
avoid punishment. Writing activity includes memory retrieval, goal setting, planning,
problem solving and evaluation. According to the above analyzing, teachers should
avoid extraneous reinforcement for writing. Do not do anything so that students can
relate that his writing performance is related to the outcome of praise, recognition and
love of others. Rather develop his mind set so that student can relate the writing
outcome with his level of changes in writing competency, in expressing emotions,
making documents and in creative productions.
2. Motivation to speaking occurs at three levels:
1.Specific level – focusing on the processes between goal setting and writing
sentences;
2.Intermediate level – focusing on the processes between goal setting and writing
scenes;
3.General level – focusing on overall structure of a piece of writing;
At present spoken English is used in a high rate in our daily life it also plays a
very important role in communication with foreigners. However most teachers in
China are normally focused on teaching via the traditional teacher-centered methods
in which instructions are almost entirely under the control of the teaching staff. This
kind of forced-feeding method of teaching plays an unfavorable role in English
1
teaching especially the improvement of the students’ spoken English.
Actuality of Current spoken English Teaching in Elementary School for a long
time English teaching in China has been over emphasizing scores but neglecting
proficiency especially the cultivation of spoken English. Excellent students are always
measured by getting high marks in exams. Teaching is always carried out around the
exams application of English is always neglected.
As for the teaching mode teachers have been adopting “instillation” and
neglecting “application”. The classroom has been “teacher-centered” students have to
take inpassively and using spoken English through the whole class is a rare
phenomenon.Recent years China has carries out a series of reform on elementary
English teaching and spoken English teaching is concerned widely. In addition the
new teachingmaterials also lay emphasis on spoken English and teachers to some
degree stressthe training of language application.
But there is little progress in spoken English andthe present condition is still
unsatisfactory.A New Changes:from Teacher-centered to Learner-centered
Learner-centeredness LC is a rebellion of the teacher-centered approach andteacher
authority which has a long history in educational career. Throughout this history the
student as an inquirer and self-directed learner rather than a passive recipient of
knowledge has been stressed. The word has been a robust word in the field of
education for a long time and it can be dated back to 2000 years ago. In the late 20 to
30 years the “learner-centeredness” has occurred with increasing frequencyin books
and articles on language teaching Tudor 1996. In recent years such anotion has also
been promoted in educational in many developing countries.
Stressing the affective domain. Stress personal experiences and
reactions.Teachers should encourage the students to talk about the problems they
areexperiencing in language learning and share the learning methods with other
students.Stressing the relations within-class and out-of-class learning. As we
knowgood relationships among people can make things better so good relationship
between teachers and the students is a necessary part of the class. In apparently
straight forward tasks that require speakers to talk about experiences they have
undergone e.g. talking about films they have seen or describing how to play a
gamethey have to abstract from that total experience some portion which can be
detachedand presented meaningfully on its own Brown et al. 1984:41. The
teacher-student interaction will do benefit to both teachers and students especially
students’oral English.
Encouraging the students to involving themselves in class decision-makingand to
meet individual needs and interests. Giving the students more opportunities to discuss
during the class whichcreative a favorite environment to practice their oral English.
Learner-centered approach not only will promote the students’ learningconsisting of
the oral English already ability but also could deal with therelationship between
teachers and students well. In fact the use of “learner” instead of“student” is revealing.
“while the term ‘student’ implies youthfulness and a lack ofstatus and power the term
‘learner’ de-emphasizes social status but stresses theself-made individual since people
learn things throughout their lives not only inclassrooms and not only from teachers”.
2
Emphasizes factual learning.Emphasizes intrinsic motivation. Emphasizes overt
control.Pupils participate in decision-making.Pupils work cooperatively. Depends
much on external rewardsThere is little testing used. decision-making is firmly in the
teacher’sEmphasizes that all children are equal hands. Pupils work in competition
withand teacher respects each individual. each other.Teacher as guide to children’s
educational Regular testing is used.experiences. Favor only the able children and
believe in strict streaming. Teacher as distributor of knowledge. Based on Bell1981
and Bennett1976 However in order to make the class operate well the teachers should
organizethe students to contribute the overall design of course content and the
selection oflearning processes.
We should pay some special attention. Chapter II Literature Review In a long
period English teaching in China has stressed the “instillation” of language but
neglected the application of language especially the development of the spoken
language ability. We should pay attention to the application of the spokenEnglish
rather than the communication. Journal o f Lvliang Education Institute Vo l.26 No. 3
Most teachers in China are normally via the traditional teacher-centered approach.
Most of the time speaking English in the class by teachers use more often than the
students themselves in spite of this we should also pay attention to the full use of
English in the lesson.
Unfortunately the fact is that teachers are afraid of not understanding by their
pupils they usually use Chinese more often than English in class. This phenomenon
appears in different areas it will not only have great influence on the learning ability
of the students of different places but also produce a deep gap between middle
students and the primary school students. Stevick 1994 once said: “It is vital
important to place ‘learning principle’ before ‘teaching principle’.”
How to make the students learn more efficiently and improve their spoken
English is a formidable task. Teachers should use spoken English carefully and
effectively in class let the English class be a “student-centered” class and carry out the
idea “Based on the development of students”. Although conventional approach is
dominated by teacher the pupil-centered approach is dominated by teacher in modern
teaching.
In apparently straightforward tasks that require speakers to talk about
experiences they have undergone e.g. talking about films they have seen or describing
how to play a game they have to abstract from that total experience some portion
which can be detached and presented meaningfully on its own Brown et al. 1984:41.
The teacher-student interaction will do benefit to both teachers and students especially
students’ oral English. From a long-term point of view we should point out that the
implementation of primary school English course policy is bound to affect the
elementary school English teaching as Butler said quotIf high school English teaching
is still followed the traditional teaching model in the English language teaching in
primary and junior high school Convergence the students will encounter great
difficulties”
The cultivation of a fully English speaking environment forstudents
Native-English-speaking children naturally acquire competence in all the uses
3
ofspoken English. Actually only in the immersion program and English as the
languageof other courses the advantage of English learning in primary school will
appearobviously. Yet Chinese students don’t have the opportunity to practicetheir
English in a full English speaking environment.
Through the cases he analyzed the implementation effects of primary
schoolEnglish curriculum policy. Various factors influenced the effects of
policyimplementation and he mainly discussed the following aspects: 1 Curriculum
policies 2 Assigned English classes 3 Qualified teachers 4 Conditions of schools 5
Conditions of students’ families. Chapter IV Data Presentation and Discussion We can
see from the table that different English speaking environment betweendifferent
schools have different influence on students’ English skills especially theirspoken
English. For instance in A school every week three to six grade with threeEnglish
lessons 35 minutes A day.
English teachers are professionally trained themultimedia classroom English
logo etc have certain English teaching environment.Besides many parents have the
ability to guide their kids’ English study. But D schooldoesn’t open English lesson at
all. Two other schools’ teaching conditions are betweenA school and D school.
Obviously the environment of school A much are better thanother schools students in
that school’ oral English also better than that of otherschools.
Thus providing with students a good environment is a useful way to improvetheir
spoken English. However he hadn’t involved in the influence of specific processof
English teaching on implementation effects. In fact teachers and students’
specificteaching activity in class is more important factors.4.1 Ways to Provide
Students’ a Full English Speaking Environment It is generally believed that teachers
play an important role in spoken English teaching at elementary school. At this
moment the students’ psychology physiology intelligence and mind are not mature
and their cognitive ability and ability ofconstructive knowledge are not strong and
they can’t study independently Mo Lei2005 so the teachers’ teaching methodology is
very important.
At present, spoken English is used in a high rate in our daily life; it also plays a
very important role in communication with foreigners. However, most teachers in
China are normally focused on teaching via the traditional teacher-centered methods,
in which instructions are almost entirely under the control of the teaching staff. This
kind of forced-feeding method of teaching plays an unfavorable role in English
teaching, especially the improvement of the students’ oral English.
As a Chinese teacher of English, it’s quite necessary to ponder over some
elementary questions such as what? What kind of personalities do the learners have?
What are the basic principles of spoken English teaching? What are the tendencies of
spoken English teaching? What necessaries should a qualified English teacher have?
How? How to teach spoken English more effectively?
With the development of the society and the globalization of the world the
countries become closely related with each other in terms of economy politics as
wellas culture. As a universal language English plays an increasingly important role
invarious aspects of the society. As a result the age calls for the kind of talent who
4
canmaster English. By saying master we mean that people should use the language
tocommunicate freely with native speakers.
Generally speaking the common feature of these teachingapproaches and methods
lies in emphasizing the communicative ability of the learners.It is thus clear that oral
English teaching should be stressed on. Factors that influence oral English. External
Factors The first factor concerns lack of environment. It is clear that foreign language
isgreatly different from second language. “Second language is often learned
withenvironmental support but without any formal teaching or teacher’s help
howeverlearning a foreign language requires more formal teaching and other
measurescompensating for the environmental support.”
One cannot study a language without using it. Combining theory with practice and
combininglanguage form with function are of great importance. Except the few
English classesevery week the students have slim chance of exposure to English. So
they can notreview the listening and speaking practices after class. This kind of
unfavorablecondition seriously hinders the development of students’ oral English
ability. The second factor involves the general low language proficiency of the
teachers.At present the middle school teachers’ oral English proficiency are
comparatively low.Generally speaking there are two reasons: on the one hand the
overall level of English education is backward.
On the other hand the deep-rooted examination-oriented education gives priority
to the grammar neglecting oral English especially in high schools. Since theentrance
examination to college does no assessment on the students’ oral English thesole goal
becomes the score. Both the teachers and the students’ ignore the status oforal English
in the real life. The teachers being incorrect in pronunciation andintonation how can
we expect the students to speak English fluently The third factor has something to do
with the number of students in a classroom.As we all know that there are generally at
least 40 students in a class. Some class caneven exceed 100.
It is clear that many practices have to be done repeatedly in a class.However not
everyone has a chance to speak English in such a big class. As a matterof fact the
number of students should be minimized in order to give every studentadequate time
to practice during the class. If there are fewer students just like Americathey will have
more chance to speak in the class. Internal factors It refers to the psychological barrier
of the students in learning English. There aremainly six kinds: First the sense of
inferiority.As far as I am concerned students become more and more sensible to their
own selfrespect.
They just keep silent to protect themselves from losing faces. Many studentshave
not contacted with English before going to middle school. It is doomed for themto
meet a number of mistakes since English is a new subject for them. Though
somestudents have learned English in primary school or even kindergarten they
onlylearned the surface of it. With the increasing of difficulty some students will find
ithard to remember so many new words sentence patterns and grammatical rules.
As aresult they give themselves up as hopeless let alone open their mouth and
speakEnglish. Second the sense of shyness. Some students are introverted by nature.
They areafraid of speaking English before so many people and some people will even
5
get redfaces. Some extroverted students with comparatively fluent English are also
afraid oflosing face before their classmates.
There is an anecdote: a famous university professor drew a circle on the
blackboard and asked the university students what itwas. They refused to answer this
sort of “stupid question”. Apparently they believethat this easy question is not
worthwhile for university students to answer. But in theirdeep hearts they are afraid to
make mistakes: it will lose their faces. When asking thesame question to the primary
students the professor received many answers many ofwhich are original ones.
That is to say functional words play a more important role in English compared
with Chinese. English is anobjective language because it requires functional words
such as “if” “and” “until”to mark the relationship among the elements in the sentences.
While in Chinese thereare not so many functional words. The readers of Chinese
should often try to figureout the relationship among the elements of the sentences by
themselves. Consequentlythe middle school students often learn English in Chinese
thinking mode.
For instance many students often say “I go to shopping the day before yesterday”
instead of “I went to shopping the day before yesterday” because there are no formal
changes interms of tense. They sometimes say “Our class has 46students” instead of
“There are 46 students in our class” etc. Fourth the sense of weariness. The studying
of a language is a tough and wearyprocess.
Students are easily bored without appropriate teaching method. They arerequired
to recite a large number of new words sentence patterns and grammaticalrules because
they are in the primary stage of English. This kind of rote learning willcertainly lead
to short-term retention. The exercises concerning oral English are oftenmonotonous
and mechanical. Thus interest is lost. Boredom develops gradually.
Fifth the sense of skimping ones works. Oral English are not paid enoughattention
since they have few chance of using English in real life and there no suchrequirement
in the examination. It is of little use to practice oral English because thereis slim
chance for them to go abroad. So they neglect the teachers’ explaining
andpronunciation carefully in class. Let alone after class. Sixth the sense of following
the populace.
The one which plays a positive role is termed as positive transference and the one
which playsa negative role is referred to as negative reference. According to Chomsky
“Childrenare born with the knowledge of the basic grammatical relations and
categories andthis knowledge is universal. The categories and relations exist in all
human languagesand all human infants are born with knowledge of them.”
To put it in another way the studentsare equipped to learn a language. Though a
Chinese child can learn English easily ifhe is born in America he will also confront
difficulties in learning a foreign language.Since English and Chinese are different in
various aspects they will certainlyinfluence each other in the process of learning. The
negative transference mainlymanifest in the following aspects: In terms of
pronunciation: though there are some similarities between English andChinese there
are more differences between them.
For example most Chinese students can not pronounce the word “think” and
6
“that” correctly because there are noequivalent pronunciations in Chinese. What’s
more the students’ original mode ofpronunciation greatly influences that of English
since there are many dialects in China.Though they are the same in terms of spelling
they have different pronunciations oftheir own. For instance the students in Shandong
feel it hard to distinguish r froml while the students from southern provinces face
difficulty in distinct l m andn.
The principles and methods of teaching oral English are suggested in the
following paragraphs in accordance with the existing difficulties. Solving the problem
of lacking necessary environment. If there is no authentic environment and fewer
classes for the students to practisethe success of oral English class will depend on the
knowledge of the role teacher andstudents respectively. 5 The teachers are the
organizers of class and directors or guideof the students while the students are the
central focus of the class all the time.
The teachers can organize an English corner in theschool to encourage students
speak. Some specific tasks can also be assigned to thestudents such as making a shop
list before going to a supermarket. It aims atstimulate the students’ interest of English
and develop their habit of using English inreal life. English can be learned at all times
and all places. Singing English songs helpthe students to remember new words
enhance listening and form correct instinctivefeel for the language.
References:
(1)
Oxford, R., (1990), "Language Learning Strategies", Boston,
Massachusetts.
(2)
McNiff, J., (1993), "Teaching as Learning", Routledge, London.
(3) McNiff, J., with Whitehead, J., (2002), "Action Research: Principles and Practice"
(4)
Routledge, London and New York.
(5)
Wallace, J., (1998), "Action Research for Language Teacher", Cambridge,
England.
(6)
McNiff, J., Lomax, P., Whitehead, J., (1996), "You and Your Action
Research Project", Hyde Publications, Dorset, U.K..
(7)
Wang Qiang, (2000), "A Course in English Language Teaching", Beijing.
(8)
Laidlaw, M., (2002), "A Handbook of Communicative Methodology",
Guyuan Teachers College.
(9)
Whitehead, J., (1989), "How can I improve my practice?"
(10)
Zou Weicheng, (1999), "Integrated Skills of English", Beijing.
7