论文总字数：33811字

摘 要

随着全球技术和经济的发展，世界交流的增加使英语成为使用最广泛的语言。英语学习在中国引起了越来越多的关注。但在英语教学中，学生的口语交际能力一直不尽如人意，因此有必要提高初中英语口语教学水平。在21世纪初我国新课程改革的背景下，交际教学法受到了专家和英语教师的高度重视。本文首先介绍了交际教学法的优缺点，然后介绍了初中英语口语教学的现状，并提出了在英语口语教学中的一些应用。最后，本文对交际教学法的应用提出了几点建议，以便更有效地开展英语口语教学。

关键词：交际教学法；口语教学；交际能力

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………1

2.1 The definition of CLT (Communicative Language Teaching)…………....1

2.2 The theoretical basis of CLT…………………………………………….2

2.3 Research on CLT……………………………… ……………………...…3

2.4 Principle of CLT…………………………………………………………4

1. Advantages and Disadvantages of CLT……... …………………………...4

3.1 Motivating learners and improving their comprehensive qualities……….4

3.2 Developing students’ discourse ability …………………….……………..5

3.3 Not conducive to the systematic learning of grammar……………5

1. Current Situation of Oral English Teaching in Junior Middle School….6

4.1 Problems occurred in oral English teaching in junior middle school…….6

4.2 The feasibility of CLT applied in oral English teaching in junior middle school……………………………………………………………………..7

5. The Applications of CTL in Oral English Teaching ……………………....8

5.1 Role-play ………………………………………….……………………...8

5.2 Exchanging information ………………………………………………….9

5.3 Presenting pictures for discussion ………………………………………10

6. Some Suggestions for Applying CLT ……………………………………..10

6.1 Connected with students’ real life ……………………………...……….11

6.2 Using group work reasonably …………………………………………..11

6.3 Forgiving students for their mistakes …………………………………..12

6.4 Paying attention to students’ differences ……………………………...12

7. Conclusion ………………………………………………………...……….12

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...14

1. Introduction

With the process of globalization, the communications among countries have made English the universal language of the world. In order to adapt to the development of the world, English has gradually been an essential part of the curriculum in Chinese primary and middle schools. In recent years, Communicative Language Teaching has been popularized in China. However, due to various reasons, the application of Communicative Language Teaching method in oral English teaching in junior middle school isn’t ideal. The researches on communicative teaching approach are beneficial to its more reasonable application in teaching practice. We can devise unique communicative teaching activities to improve students" oral English and promote their all-round development. This thesis consists of five parts. The first part introduces CLT, such as its definition, theoretical basises and principles. The second part analyzes two advantages and one disadvantage of CLT. The third talks about the current pictures of oral English teaching in junior middle school and points out the feasibility of applying CLT in oral English teaching. The forth part lists some applications of CLT. The last part offers some advice to the application of Communicative Language Teaching so as to help improve nowadays oral English teaching practice.

2. Literature Review

2.1 The definition of CLT

Communicative Language Teaching, derived from functional method, mainly focuses on students. It is designed to make students learn to use language felicitously and cultivate their practical communicative competence, rather than learn grammar rules or just scattered words. It holds that students’ needs should be taken notice of during learning. CLT also stresses giving student opportunities to use authentic language.

There are two versions of the communicative teaching approach: weak version and strong version. The weak version views the teaching of language forms as the main meanings of helping learners to develop communicative competence whereas the strong version sees experiences of using language as the necessary condition for learning a language. The former one thinks that students should first acquire language as a structural system and then learn how to use it in real communication. The latter offers students the experience to see how to use language in communication.

2.2 Theoretical basis of CLT

Every teaching method is based on its own linguistic theory and psychological theory (especially the theory of language learning). The former can let us know what to teach, and the latter tell us how to teach. Communicative teaching approach is also not an exception. It relies on Hymes’s and Halliday’s theory of linguistics and Rogers’s theory of psychology.

Hymes first proposed the theory of communicative competence in his article On Communicative Competence. In his opinion, linguistics should concentrate on people"s communicative activities and social and cultural life. He showed clearly that Chomsky"s linguistic competence was incomplete. It was just a kind of grammatical competence (Hymes 101). So Hymes points out that communicative competence consists of both linguistic competence and language use. Language use mainly consists of the ability to clearly distinguish grammatical phenomena in sentences and use language in appropriate language environment. That is to say, communicative competence enables native speakers to talk in the right way in a particular situation. He emphasized that communicative competence is an overall category, and linguistic competence is included.

Halliday believes that language is a system of expressing speakers themselves, not a system of building structure. And he also pointed out that Chomsky"s transformational-generative grammar is too narrow to be widely used in language teaching practice. So he built up systemic-functional linguistics. This theory holds that language is essentially a social behavior and a tool to perform social functions. The systemic-functional linguistics classifies the functions of language into three metafunctions: the ideational function, the interpersonal function, and the textual function (Halliday 179). The ideational function is to organize the speaker or writer’s experience of the world, including his attitude, evaluation and so on. The interpersonal function is to indicate, establish, or maintain social relationships between people. The textual function is to organize written or spoken texts in such a manner that they are coherent with themselves and suit the particular situation in which they are used (Dai 11). In this theory, the basic unit of language is not only its grammar and structural feature but also the communicative meaning and functional meaning embodied in discourse.

The communicative teaching method takes Rogers"s humanism learning theory as its guiding ideology. Humanism learning theory lays stress on self-learning and focuses on children’s development of personality. Rogers believes that the purpose of teaching is to promote the individualization of student (Liuamp;Zhang 32). This view sees the learner as a being, first and foremost emotional, then physical and cognitive (Rogersamp;Richards 152). Based on this point of view, the communicative teaching method proposes that the teaching process should be student-centered, pay attention to the main role of students, and encourage students to actively participate in the teaching activities. Students learn the real, practical and meaningful language through the “learning with language” activity, and eventually achieve the “learn to use language” purpose.

2.3 Research on CLT

The research on the communicative teaching approach in China is dated back to the 1960s. Some applied linguists were aware of that the focus of teaching should be on cultivating students" language use, instead of just mastering grammar and vocabulary. At home, after CLT introduced in the 1980s, the research on communicative teaching method tends to pay attention to its application in foreign language teaching. Li Xiaoju is one of the leading researchers who introduced the theoretical system of CLT into China. The idea -- "knowing" and "understanding" serve "being able"-- put forward by her makes the communicative teaching approach more clearly applied in English classes in China (Yan 33). He Guangkeng, in his English teaching method tutorial: theory and practice, also introduced that the real communication activities should have three characteristics: information gap, selectivity and message feedback (He 77). He thinks that conversations without these features are more likely to be exercises in sentence patterns than real communication. In this way, students are able to actively learn and creatively use the language.

Throughout the views of scholars, the communicative teaching approach mainly emphasizes that communication is both a means and an end, and pays more attention to the content and expression of language. Most scholars focus on the final language communicative competence of learners, and the emphasis is largely on language functionality.

2.4 Principles of CLT

Though people have different understandings about CLT, these three principles suggested by Richards and Rodgers have been agreed with (Wang 20):

Communication principle: Activities that involve real communication promote learning.

Task principle: Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful task promote learning.

Meaningfulness principle: Language meaningful to learners supports the learning process.

3. Advantage and Disadvantage of CLT

3.1 Motivating learners and improving their overall qualities

Communicative teaching method aims at cultivating students" communicative competence, and the teaching process centers on communicative competence, which is exactly in line with the original intention of learners to learn language. Communicative teaching method emphasizes that teaching should start from students" actual language level and be combined with students" personality characteristics and their interests, etc. In this way, it can stimulate students" thirst for knowledge, mobilize their enthusiasm and initiative in learning, elicit students" intrinsic learning motivation and promote students" development. In addition, through various communicative activities such as group work and simulation debate, learners can cultivate their cooperative spirit, humanistic spirit and the ability to discover, analyze and solve problems. Communicative teaching method can not only improve students" linguistic competence but also help them form scientific conception of the world and outlook on life and improve their personal quality.

3.2 Developing students" discourse ability

The communicative language teaching provides students a great deal of real situations of using language, introduces real and natural practical activities into the classroom, and asks students to think actively and use language knowledge to perform different language tasks such as group work, role play, etc. All these activities require the comprehensive utilization of the four English abilities. The traditional teacher-centered classroom structure limits not only the number of activities students participating in, but also the quality of activities. Nevertheless in CLT, communicating in the natural situation allows students to participate in various creative language application activities. Students are no longer limited to using isolated sentences, but able to make coherent expressions. Therefore, communicative teaching method develops learners" discourse ability, enabling learners to learn how to communicate in real situations, how to start and end dialogues, and how to deal with failures and changes in communication. In a word, in CLT students learn how to make communication unimpeded.

3.3 Not conducive to the systematic learning of grammar

CLT negates the grammar teaching based on structuralism. Hymes believes that language learning should concentrate on the specific communicative competence instead of grammatical knowledge. However, successful language communication can’t be achieved without the correctness of language expression. Language knowledge is the foundation and crucial part of communicative competence acquisition. Long-term theoretical practice has proved that grammar knowledge cannot be replaced by communicative competence. The psycholinguistic experiments show that the acquisition and comprehension of grammatical items in children"s native language or adult’s second language acquisition are carried out in a certain order. But the grammar teaching in CLT often focuses on how to make students use these language forms correctly and appropriately in the specific context to perform specific communicative functions. The systematic grammar learning is to some extent negatively affected by the communicative teaching approach, sometimes giving people a sense of disorder.

4. Current Situation of Oral English Teaching in Junior Middle School

In China, traditional teaching modes have confined English teaching activities for quite some time. Many teachers are skilled in reproducing knowledge points related to textbooks and effectively controlling and organizing classroom activities. However, in most classes, teachers neglect cultivating students" oral English. Oral English teaching is relatively weak. It turns out that with years of hard teaching by teachers and years of hard learning by students, students have a solid grasp of English vocabulary and grammar. But many students feel at a loss in the classroom of foreign teachers after they enter the ideal university with high marks, and even feel that their mastery of English is of no use after they set foot in the society. This means that the students" writing ability and speaking ability is out of line.

4.1 Problems occurred in oral English teaching in junior middle schools

First is the ignorance of spoken English. Under the influence of examination-oriented education, many students mistakenly believe that the purpose of learning English is to pass examinations and advance to a higher level of education. Although oral test has been gradually introduced into the senior middle school entrance examination, due to the complexity and subjectivity of oral evaluation itself, the results of oral test have little impact on students" entrance to school. Some students even consider that oral English test is almost a "go-by". Such a situation can easily lead students to deem that they are wasting time if they make great effort to train oral English. In fact, many teachers hold this attitude. Even if some teachers realize the importance of oral English, it is difficult to carry out oral English teaching activities well under the pressure of entering school. Therefore, both teachers and students have neglected oral training. In practical teaching, the focus of teaching remains on the point of explaining language, and a large number of oral activities arranged in textbooks are not implemented. The result is dumb English.

Second are psychological barriers of students. In Chinese environment, many students strongly dread speaking English. They are anxious and nervous when speaking English. Due to the lack of training, many students are accustomed to using Chinese to organize discourse, and then rely on translation method to express the meaning in English. This habit of speaking English will affect students" logical thinking and fluent expression. When they open their mouths, they are so afraid that they think too much about grammar rules and language accuracy. In the long run, students are afraid to speak. If they do not want to open your mouth, their spoken English level will not be improved, which will easily contribute to a vicious circle.

Third are the limitations of objective conditions. Most of the students learn English in the Chinese environment. Apart from English classes offered by schools, they have fewer opportunities to be exposed to English, which hinders the development of students" listening ability and speaking ability. In the limited classroom, the atmosphere of using English is also lacking. Nowadays, in most part of the country, it is impossible to achieve "small class teaching". Excessive class size is extremely harmful to English teaching. In classroom teaching, due to the large number of students and uneven English proficiency, it is difficult for teachers to organize effective oral training activities, and students have fewer opportunities to open their mouths and improve their English proficiency. Teachers" oral proficiency is also one factor restricting oral English teaching. Of course, there are some teachers who have got good oral training. But after they take part in the work, besides teaching, they have less chance to contact English themselves, and their oral English level is easy to deteriorate. In addition, oral English teaching needs some original materials and audio-visual teaching materials. In undeveloped areas of China, due to economic constraints, schools are unable to introduce the necessary hardware facilities, which also hinder the improvement of students" oral English.

4.2 The feasibility of CLT applied in oral English teaching in junior middle school

In recent years, both the new English syllabus and the new teaching materials have highlighted the cultivation of students" communicative competence. The National English Curriculum makes the junior middle school English teaching objectives clear: "cultivate students" English comprehensive application ability, especially listening and speaking skills, make them efficiently exchange information with both spoken and written English in the future study and social activities, that is develop the students" ability of communication." This is also in line with the core theories and ideas of CLT.

In China"s middle school classes, teachers generally focus on teaching vocabulary, grammar and reading, with relatively little investment in oral English. Students are used to "indoctrination" teaching. It forms a passive situation in which teachers take the lead and students only listen and do not speak. However, CLT emphasizes student-centered teaching activities to cultivate students" communicative competence. This feature breaks the traditional teaching mode and fully mobilizes student’s initiative and enthusiasm, so that everyone can take part in it. In the end, with communicative activities, students realize how to communicate effecticely and achieve the overall development. CLT has become the trend of modern classroom teaching.

1. Applications of CLT in Oral English Teaching

A good relationship in class helps to make the class humanized and build the environment that can support the students and teachers’ efforts. Some communicative activities, developing these positive relationships among students and teachers, that can be carried out in oral English teaching in junior middle school are as follows:

5.1 Role-play

Role-play is an activity that brings situations from real life into the classroom. When we do role-play, we ask student to imagine. They may imagine a role, which means they imagine to be totally another person (e.g. a farmer), and a situation, which means they pretend to be doing something disparate (e.g. planning a holiday). With a role, students can improvise. The situation is fixed, but students will come up with precise words to say as the communication proceeds. The situations we create for role-play should be connected with students’ experience to the greatest extent. On the whole, the more familiar students are with roles and situations, the easier a role-play activity will be. Suitable roles for school classes would be: 1) people familiar to students from daily life, e.g. parents, teachers, shopkeepers, police, and so on. 2) characters from the textbook, books or television. Suitable situations would be those that students usually experience or participate in daily life, e.g. shopping, taking public vehicles, asking directions.

Role-play can also be derived from a conversation or passage from the textbook. The language students have practiced in many exercises will be used in a creative and meaningful way. There are two ways of organizing role-play activities. First, we could ask one pair of excellent students to make up a conversation in front of the class, and then divide all the students into pairs to present similar conversations. Second, we could give students enough time to practice their role-play respectively in pairs first, and then ask one or two pairs to perform.

Role-play activities are not merely for the first-class students, but for others. In the role-play activities, teachers should ensure that everyone has the role, and all have a discourse, so that every student’s English ability can have a different increase in each role-play activity. For English teaching in junior middle school, role-play has many useful functions. Firstly, role-play creates such a relaxing learning atmosphere that students are brave enough to open their mouth in it. Secondly, students work with their partners so that they are all fully prepared for role-play. What’s more, role-play activity offers students opportunities to use language creatively and which in turn makes them beyond the text book. Last but not least, the role-play teaches students how to cooperate with others and share their own thinking which can even help to lead to social and academic success for all students.

To sum up, role-play imparts various language skills to students and encourages them to be bold in innovation. On the other words, we can say role-play is one of the most effective teaching activities in English classroom, especially in junior middle school oral English teaching.

5.2 Exchanging information

Many communicative teaching activities take form of pair work. In order to create communication, the two members of every pair get completely different information. The activity can then work in various ways. The most common activities is that one student gets a string of information and the other student has to ask several questions to obtain them. And the exchanging information activity that can extremely motivate students is that students tell each other about their own daily life, hobbies and so on. When pupils actively discuss about themselves, an “information gap” naturally appears. Because the things every student is going to say will not be identical. Adopting activities like these in class, the advantage is followed. These activities provide intensive and interesting language practice. Though the activities are quite got command of and in simple language, students are actually involved in real communication.

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