An Application of Communicative Learning Teaching in Oral English Classroom

胡波 严思杰

【Abstract】Oral activity is a tool that associates the class materials. It was adopted around the 70s based on the necessities of the Communicative Learning Teaching （CLT） system， and aimed to teach English for communication. It helps students to practice and review the language skills （especially oral skills） theyve learned in class and helps teachers to manage class hours， motivate students， and evaluate teaching result.

【Key Words】 CLT； Oral English Teaching； English Activities

Effective oral classroom activities can be applied to reduce the two major barriers existed in the CLT system： students weakness in communicative oral ability coursed by their limited exposure to the target language and their fear of speaking English with others. They are supported by accurate activity planning based on class achievement and material support； proper application based on student groups （the age of students， their proficiency level， and the learning goals and their interests） （Arnold et al.， 1997， p.54）， timely evaluation on grammar， vocabulary， listening， voice and non-verbal communication， and fluency in oral practices. During oral activity planning， Vygotskys concept of the “Zone of Proximal Development” should also be considered for better effort. The above research results give instructions to activity planning， applying and evaluating for ESL teachers.

An Application in Oral English Classroom：

For the past academic year， the author applied some of my research result into my current teaching plans， and it showed a visibly improvement on students English oral ability. The students are college students （both English and Non-English majors） from age 18 - 20. Classroom sizes vary from 15 to about 100 students. Therefore， a great variety of oral activity methods and skills need to be applied in different types of classes. The basic problems the author have personally experienced in my classes are： large-sized classrooms and students motivation to open-up in oral activities.

For large classes， the author tried to use group-work and pair-work tasks to ensure most students in class have chances to practice on oral English through a learner-learner interaction. For example， the author usually assigns groups or have students work in pairs at the beginning of the class session. Instead of regular student-centered oral activities applied in smaller sized classrooms， the author chooses to encourage students to frequently discuss class contents in pairs or in small groups. Here is an example： in an intensive reading class， students are required to seat in pairs at the first day of the class. They are asked to discuss the reading materials following some discussion question after reading each piece of the article. The course syllabus also contains group projects for homework so students will have to discuss about the reading content after classes. These strategies maximized the amount of time students contributes to oral English practices.

Existing Problems and Possible Solutions：

The first problem here is that， in large-sized classes， it is still very hard to evaluate students learning progresses. To solve this problem， the author tried to observe students pair-works and group-works and talked to some of the students periodically， in order to keep tracking on their progresses.

Another problem is that the most of Chinese students tend to use those so-called “advanced words” or “high-level words” they memorized from their vocabulary lists （there are vocabulary lists published for English qualification exams such as CET-4 and CET-6， and most of Chinese college students are required to past at least CET-4 to achieve their Bachelor Degrees）. That makes their oral English sounds a little awkward. A personal example given by Knapp （2011）， an experienced foreign English teacher in China， that one of his students use the sentence “We have arrived” when helping him as a tourist guide. Knapp （2011） wrote： “Maybe that doesnt sound very funny to you， but to a native English speaker it really sounds strange. It sounds more like the announcement on the train than a real person” （p.31）.

There are still problems remaining， such as the evaluation of students oral abilities in large-sized classes and the study of motivating students to expose in English environment actively after class hours. In these cases，it still takes further research and requires examinations on Communicative Learning Teaching method in oral English classroom.

【參考文献】

[1]Arnold， W.， et al. （1997）. The best of ESL： Practical - strategy guide for ESL. Flint， MI： MAEPIP.

[2]Knapp， M. （2011）. Speak like a native： easy steps to becoming a fluent English speaker. Beijing： China Machine Press.

[3]Vygotsky， L.S.， & Cole， M. （Ed.）. （1978）.Mind in society： The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press： Cambridge， MA.