Factors that affect students’oral ability and their strategies

赵丽艳

Language is a tool that can be used to communicate with each other .English as a global language which is widely used all over the world. With the development of global economy， English has become an important communicative language; fluency in spoken English will become an essential key around the world. Although many of students are good at reading and writing， their oral ability is weak. Therefore， in this increasingly fierce competitive market， English speaking ability in English teaching has become an important part. But now English oral teaching is not in good situation，there are several problems as follows：

1.Factors coming from the teachers

At present， a large number of English teachers adopt traditional teaching methods in our country. In traditional teaching classroom， it only requires students to read， write， but seldom speak and listen. What’ more， teachers usually talk too much and spend much time reading and doing written exercises， thus students do not have many chances to practice and improve their English expressiveness. There is a common phenomenon that many teachers teach vocabulary and grammar in Chinese， as a result， students often translate Chinese into English.

In many schools， teachers’ teaching method in oral English is relatively dry. Some teachers cannot use textbook effectively and creatively， they cannot design new activities in oral English teaching， they do not want to deviate the tradition， so they cannot stimulate students’ interests in learning English. Due to teachers’ boring teaching， some students will be absent from classes， practice and communication. Teachers should change their traditional teaching concepts and adopt the modern teaching method， like student-centered， Communicative Approach can be used.

2.Factors from students

There is another main problem that affects students’ improvement of English oral . That is psychological barrier. Generally speaking， psychological barrier in oral English communication includes nervousness; anxiety; self-abasement; and lack of self-confidence. These are caused by being afraid of speaking English. Different learners may have different psychological barriers， and they should be noticed by teachers.

3. Factors coming from the teaching environment

The situational teaching in oral practice is helpful， which can develop the students’ ability of language communication. its form should also be varied as much as possible. Can be a slide show， TV， also can be using multimedia teaching.we can turn the classroom into a small stage， making students exercise and practice constantly， so that they achieve the goal of communicative English， at the same time，and they can practice oral english freely in entertainment environment， so that their interest in learning will be improved quickly.

Develop a variety of colorful activities， which can affect people’s thinking mode and human emotional responses. Therefore， the cultivation of the self-efficacy should be an important content of foreign language learning， but on pure classroom 45 minutes is difficult to receive a satisfactory effect and must be combined in outside class， complement each other， promote each other. We should actively open up the second classroom in English teaching， often design the following extracurricular activity， good results have been achieved. For example， lets the student listen to English programms， according to the text content editing the English short play， and teachers can also lead the students to take part in the English corner activity. And organize all kinds of festival English parties， at the same time， invite foreign teachers or other foreign friends to attend.

How to solve the problems above？

1.Arousing students’ interest

Interest is the best teacher. At first， we should stimulate students’ interests to improve students’ English oral effectively， and help them to set a clear goal in English learning.

2. Getting students form proper motivation

Proper motivation has a significant effect on oral English learning. One who has proper motivation will show great interest in English learning and realize the importance of learning English. Motivation contributes to keep high expectation in success and take positive actions. Even though high school students are faced with the pressure of various tests for promotion， educators should guide them to form proper motivation in English learning， and let them realize that oral English is very important part of English learning.

It helps to improve one’s quality， perfect oneself and plan to achieve the individual development. In terms of abroad sense， English oral relates to social responsibility， communication， and culture exchange and etc. Therefore learners should connect self-development， social responsibility， especially the development of society and human beings with English learning activities. People need to communicate with others in social life. Students who notice the relationship between learning and necessity， they will learn it actively and voluntarily.

3. Trainng teachers

The quality of English teachers plays an important role in oral English teaching and has direct effects on the efficiency and result of teaching.thus， improving the quality of teachers is the key to enhance teaching efficiency. English teachers should posses the innate quality of professional discipline， especially， quite good oral English teaching ability and professional knowledge of pronunciation. An excellent English teacher should be knowledgeable， what’ more， she or he can speak good American English or British English.

In order to improve the quality of English teachers， some teachers should be sent to receive advanced training， if it possible， some foreign teachers can also be invited to help the teachers with their oral English training.and they can learn a lot of good method of teaching English from them.For instance ， teachers in Anshan will participate in an activity which is held in Anshan normal univeristy where they will be given a lot of courses from forgein teachers，I think this is a good way .

4. Helping Students Overcome Their Psychological Barrier and removing anxiety of speaking English

In fact， many students are fond of English， but they cannot speak English bravely because of they are shy and afraid of making mistakes.Teachers should encourage students to speak English as much as possible and not pay attention to the grammar too much when they speak English. Sometimes they should put grammar aside. If students make mistakes about grammar in oral English， it doesn’t matter ，in oral English expression and practice， teachers should demand students not to think in Chinese，but in English. In a word， they should free them from interfere of thinking in Chinese way.

In conclusion，improving students’ English oral practice is an important teaching target as the above discussed. The factors affecting students’ English oral are various， the poor way of teaching; teachers’ quality; students’ psychological barrier; etc. In order to improve students’ interest in speaking， the article has put forward some strategies， such as arousing students’ English speaking practice; training teachers; helping students overcome their psychological barrier and so on. Chinese students usually show a good performance in written exam， but their communicative ability is poor， even they cannot speak simple sentences and express themselves appropriately in English. Further， most of them cannot communicate with English native speakers freely. In order to be a great person in future in society ，students should learn to improve themselves in many aspects， oral English is one of them.

鞍山市臺安县第三中学