The Rationale of How to Improve Students’Spoken English

I have loads of problems. "How can I improve my oral English？" is one of the hardest one that I have been asked most by my students. That is to say， some of my students don′t like speaking work， but most do. My short answer is：" There are no short cuts in language learning. What you need is more practice and a little patience."

For our traditional teaching， teachers were the main characters and the students were complete audiences. Somebody described the teacher as "with a piece of chalk and one mouth， talks from the beginning to the end ". The students were in passive position and looked like machines. Day by day， they lost their interests in English learning. With the transformation of English teaching， a lot of new patterns of English teaching appear in the classroom. Of all these patterns， in my opinion， speaking work in classroom teaching is a good way.

At present， there are too many students in one class in our school. The number of students is really large. As a result， it may cause a lot of problems to classroom teaching， some students do not like to speak or read. They also dislike answering their teacher′s questions. Gradually， they lose their interests in English learning. At last， they cannot catch up with others. So some teachers complain that their students are very stupid and they are not worth teaching. In fact， this view is wrong. For settling this problem， I think， speaking work in classroom teaching is an effective method.

As we know， students play an important part in classroom teaching. It is necessary for the students to involve into classroom activities. By the way， students′ activities must be based on their interest. So as English teachers， we should make a perfect plan of speaking work. To keep students involved， we have to make a positive working environment. Firstly， we give some questions and make sure all the students can solute the questions in the activities. Anyway teachers should attract students′attention closely. If some students lose interests， we need to try to help and encourage them. For example， give them simple questions such as beginning with"Yes or No？" "Is it right？" "Do you agree with me？" Then ask the students another question in response to his or her answer. After he/she answered， ask him/her still another question in response to the answer， and so on. At last the students will find their own problems. Secondly， the shapes of speaking work should be changed frequently. Different kinds may raise the students′ interest and speaking work will be lively and interesting.

Chinese wisdom says "The professional focuses on how it works while the layman focuses on how it looks". I went and sat in my colleagues′ classes to see how they organize speaking work. It is like looking at myself in a mirror. I find it difficult to improve students′ speaking ability. One reason for that is probably the shyness of the students， but the main reason is that they show no interest in it. Some of us often assign hard tasks to the students. And the students often have to do what they are not willing to. As a result， they learn some language items that have nothing to do with the reality. In my opinion， only when they realize that they can express themselves with the languages they are learning， can they have the strongest desire to learn it well. Students prefer to talk about their hometown， friends and future jobs. All those topics should be put into a teacher′s consideration. The students can practice their speaking after class or in class. When the students are performing， teachers shouldn′t interrupt them even when they are making mistakes in grammar or pronunciation. The only thing that teachers should do is to encourage and understand them. After they finish， teachers can teach them some useful sentence patterns to express their ideas. It is possible that the students will correct their own mistakes themselves through practicing. By performing stories， the students will get more chances to improve their speaking and thinking.

After the analysis I told the students that practice makes perfect. Firstly， try to imitate the native English and screen out non-native accents as much as possible. Students should pay carefully attention to not only pronunciation of every word， but also the intonation of every sentence， even the slightest turns in the language flow. Read aloud every morning for at least half an hour and listen to English news broadcasts or watch English programmers on TV as often as possible. Only when students keep doing like this can they make good progress in spoken English； Secondly， try to find a classmate to talk with about everything that one is interested in， and at the same time listen carefully and pay special attention to the words the partner chooses. It will be much better if students can find a native speaker to communicate with. Someone once remarked， "Reading makes a full man." So thorough and systematic reading of original words is equally important to a good speaker. Reading couldnot only help one build up vocabulary， but also enhances the sense of the language flow. At the same time， reading can also broad one′s knowledge， strengthen one′s logical thinking and make one respond quickly. But students should take care in the choice of the reading materials. Most of the materials must be on their level. We can， as a result of working hard， make progress， though a little. The fact that one keep trying but never succeed will discourage himself. It′s easily understood--in general， we like what we do well， and we dislike what we don′t do well. If we do something well， we can incline to do it again， and do it again we can improve still further. Teachers should tell their students： "There is nothing difficult in the world if you put your heart in it. Once you have make up your mind to learn English well and you have a lot of practice， you can. Just believe in yourself， then decide to overcome these problems from action."（责编 张亚欣）