A Case Study of Oral English Teaching for College EFL Learners in China: Problem

Abstract. Oral English teaching is not only an integral part of college English language teaching but also a crucial factor related to whether the language teaching goals can be achieved or not. This research has investigated the current situations and existing problems concerning oral English teaching on the basis of a case study of the authentic oral English classroom teaching at a city college in China. The findings and solutions may provide some implications for oral English language teaching at the college level in China.

Keywords: local college, English majors, teaching reform, exploration and practice

1 Introduction

With the rapid development of economy in China and globalization in various aspects, our communication with foreign countries is increasingly enhanced. As a result, China is now more in need of high quality English-speaking personnel than ever. Improving the quality of oral English teaching becomes one of the most urgent tasks. Therefore, classroom management and organization as well as task design become important in oral English teaching.

Oral English teaching is not only an integral part of college English language teaching but also a crucial factor related to whether the language teaching goals can be achieved or not. However, oral English teaching and learning is far from satisfactory. Because of factors such as teacher quality, educational tradition, and learning policies, students can hardly read aloud fluently the authentic English materials, including books, periodicals and magazines, not to mention speaking freely. Their speaking ability is even much poorer despite years of English learning. They can’t communicate efficiently in English.

In the process of teaching spoken English at college, it is often found that many students frequently feel embarrassed when they communicate with teachers and classmates. They do not feel like participating in the spoken language training very much. Moreover, some students, although they have very high enthusiasm, they actually do not know how to express themselves in English or when they express, many mistakes occur .

In order to solve the above problems and meet the needs of English learners, in recent years the spoken English teaching is receiving more and more attention from the government. The importance of spoken English ability is increasingly highlighted. In 2007, the Ministry of Education in China issued College English Course Requirements (Course Requirements in short) saying that “the goal of the college English teaching in our country is to train the students’ ability of comprehensive use of English, especially the listening and speaking proficiency.”

The warming-up activities took 20 minutes, during which the teacher spent 10 minutes in explaining the wedding-related vocabulary and classic version of wedding oath. In this part, the teacher explained the words and phrases by himself and some students listened carefully to the explanation and take notes at the same time, and some students just listen.

Then the teacher organized a role play of a typical western wedding, which last for 10 minutes. Students were asked to perform a typical western wedding. Because they were assigned the task in the previous class, relevant materials and information were asked to collect before the class. Two groups of students volunteered to participate in this activity. The first group consisted of five students, three male students and two female students. They hold a wedding party, which last five minutes. Two students spoke most of the lines. The third students spoke very little. The other group was almost the same with one or two were very active. In the whole performance, there were some obvious pronunciation and grammatical mistakes the teacher didn’t correct timely. The vocabulary the teacher just explained was seldom employed in whole process of the role-play.

In the in-class activities, which last about 25 minutes, individual work and video clip watching were organized by the teacher. In the individual work, students were required to compare the differences between a typical western wedding and a traditional Chinese wedding and the teacher first gave students some references.

Students were divided into 6 groups to discuss the differences and then one representative was singled out to present their views to the whole class. Afterwards the students watched a piece of video clip for twice. While watching, students were required to prepare for comments on the contents. No volunteers answered the question. Then the teacher called on a few students to give comments. It seemed that only a few students could comprehend what was happening in the clip, meanwhile, most of them could not follow the hero and heroine’s fast speaking speed. This activity last for 15 minutes.

The final step of the lesson was teacher’s giving assignments, which cost 5 minutes. Students were asked to preview the next unit by preparing for a group presentation. The main content should closely relate to the topic covered in the next unit.

To sum up, Liu Yi spent 20 minutes in warming-up activities. He explained the wedding related words, phrases and sentences. Some students listened to his explanation and take notes. In the in-class activity, the students were given five minutes to prepare and ten minutes to present their views. There were 41 students in the class. Six students had the chance to express their views. In addition, the video clip was difficult for students to understand. From students’ response, it was not qualified and appropriate teaching materials for the students at present language level, although the content was closely relevant to the central topic of this unit. Therefore, Liu Yi had to explain it sentence by sentence, and students had little time to answer the question.

In the after class interview, students told the researcher that the teacher’s explanation of words were useful, but they always forgot to use them in the later activities. The role-play was prepared before class, the lines of each actor were prewritten and memorized, and they didn’t want to change it in the performance spontaneously, for fear that they might make some mistakes, even though they knew a better expression after the teachers’ explanation. The two students who spoke more in the role-play in the first group told the researchers that they always have to assume responsibilities of presenting their group, for the other student felt ashamed and worried to make mistakes. In addition, the video clip was too difficult for them. Li Yi was also not satisfied with teaching effects of his class. He hoped the students can be more actively involved in the classroom activities.

2.2 Case Two

The second participant, Ma Jing, was 32 years old. With a master’s degree and eight years’ teaching experiences, she was teaching as a lecturer. She was teaching listening and speaking lesson only to one class. The lesson recorded in the following was given in the tenth week. There were 60 physics majors in the class, 39 male students and 21 female students. Twelve of them passed the CET-4.

The teaching content was about money.

In the warming-up activity, which last 25 minutes, the teacher led in the topic by questioning and describing pictures. First, the teacher asked students to answer the following two questions: (1) How much money do you usually spend in a month? (2)What is your overall plan for the money? Four students were invited to answer the questions. Student were vey interested in these questions and they were willing to answer them. In addition, their voluntary answers were very witty and interesting and the classroom atmosphere became more relaxing. Then the students were required to describe pictures and guess the answer to some other questions. Two students were invited to answer the questions. Then, the teacher led in the next activity―learning some phrases and expressions about the target topic and their usage in different situations.

The in-class activities part, which last about 20 minutes, started with the teacher’s explanation of some relevant sentences about money. After the teacher’s explanation, the students were given another task to fulfill―work out the currencies and symbols of different countries. This task was difficult and dull for them because the lack of relevant knowledge. At last, it became the teacher’s explanation and most students became bored.

After that, the teacher organized a presentation―ask students to pick out phrases or expressions to describe their own financial state in different stages such as at present, or in their 40s in the future. And then the teacher invited 4 students to answer and checked if they had used the correct phrases and reasons for choosing them if necessary.

At last, the teacher gave students the assignments, which took four minutes. First, students were required to preview the next unit. And centering the topic in the next unit, the whole class was grouped into two to prepare for a debate.

To sum up, in the lead-in part, students were active for the interesting topic. They answered most questions together. The class atmosphere was relaxing, but was soon damaged by the next activity. Students were not familiar with this topic, even though the teacher introduced some of them, few students could memorize and relate to their own life.

In the interview, the students said they learned a lot from the description task. Since they were required to use the given words and phrases, they had to communicate with each other by using some unfamiliar words. The teacher helped them correct some mistakes, and they remember most of the new vocabulary. The teacher also was not contented on her currency choosing task.

2.3 Case Three

With a doctoral degree and associate professor academic title, the third participant, Zhang Si, had been teaching college English for 19 years. She was in charge of two classes’ listening and speaking lesson. The researcher had been to Zhang Si’s class for three times. This lesson given in the seventh week was chosen to be recorded. There were 43 students majored in Chinese in her class, 18 male students and 25 female students. Eleven of them have passed the CET-4.

The teaching content was about family.

In the warming-up activities, which last for 15 minutes, students were asked to list out English words denoting a family member and other expressions related to family. In this period, four students were involved in and they gave some simple words such as father, mother, sister, etc. Afterwards the teacher supplemented some additional relevant vocabulary, such as extended family, nuclear family, etc.

In the in-class activities, which last thirty minutes, students were asked to draw their own family trees and three of them were invited to explain it to the whole class. Students had a high enthusiasm in this part. They were eager to know other’s family inform and also share with their peer students their own.

Later students were asked to listen to the tape and decided whether the statements were true or false. There were six statements, of which two were relatively difficult for the students to comprehend, although the teacher played the tape for three times, which last for 15 minutes.

Finally, the teacher gave one assignment for students to do after class―preparing for a debate. The teacher made it clear that some useful tips and vocabulary would be sent by email to facilitate students’ preparation.

To sum up, in the warming up activities students gave very simple words and it showed student’s vocabulary needs to be enlarged, and their fear to make mistakes, so they just chose the simple words for safety. Moreover, only four students had the opportunity to give the words. In the interview, student said the teacher always sent a lot of information by emails, which was very helpful. They also expressed their expectation to get more chances to practice English in class, and hoped the teacher could give them more guidance of how to improve their oral English. The teacher told the researcher that she would like to motivate students’ autonomous learning after class by sending them some supplementary materials. And she was encouraged by the students’ active response to prepare more quality materials for their after-class practice.

2.4 Case Four

The forth participant was Jing He, who has been teaching for 16 years with a master degree and was an associate professor as well. She was in charge of three classes’ listening and speaking lesson. The lesson given in the ninth week was chosen for detailed description after the researcher’s three visits to her class. There were 45 students majored in mathematics in the class, 28 male students and 17 female students. Nine of them have passed the CET-4.

The teaching content was about technology.

The warming-up activities, which last for 15 minutes, started with students oral presentation of the latest technological inventions. Students made the preparation before class and three students volunteered to do it. Then the teacher let the students watch a piece of video clip and answered the four questions related to the technological development. The video clip was easy for students to understand and they got the correct answer immediately.

The in-class activities took about 30 minutes and students first were asked to fill in the blanks, which last for ten minutes. Students expressed their disapproval of this activity. Students were not familiar with the knowledge of the technology development; however, the teacher just waited for their answers, in this way a lot time was wasted.

Later the teacher organized a pair work, and students were supposed to ask and answer questions about the new technology they knew in pairs. Most students tried to communicate with their partners but many technological terms were new to them, which blocked their effective communication. Under this situation, the teacher offered some related words and phrases for students to reference.

Then the teacher introduced a survey about the most important innovations conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It aroused students’ interests immediately and students listened to it carefully. However, the teacher used a lot of Chinese, which influenced the teaching effects.

Finally, the teacher spent three minutes in the assignment, which was a preparation for a debate task.

To sum up, the topic difficulty affected every part of the teaching effects, although the teacher and students were trying hard to fulfill the teaching goal. The technical words were difficult for students to internalize and practice. The teacher organized some activities before showing the new words and phrases, which made the students difficult to fulfill the task. Moreover, students were not interested in this topic. In classroom teaching, the teacher spent 10 minutes in explaining the vocabulary and 10 minutes in watching the video. In addition, the teacher used too much Chinese in the class, and in the interview, students also expressed their hope that the teacher could use more English in the class and choose more interesting topics. The teacher also revealed her low-efficacy in teaching this kind of classes during the interview with the researcher.

2.5 Case Five

As a retiring professor with a master degree, the fifth participant, Gao Ping, had been teaching college English for 31 years. She was teaching one class’ listening and speaking lesson. This lesson was given in the forth week. There were 46 students majored in chemistry in the class, 24 male students and 22 female students. Fifteen of them have passed the CET-4.

The teaching content was about environmental pollution.

The warming-up activities, which last for 20 minutes, included students’ presentation and video clip appreciation. First students were divided into four groups. Every group took turns to do presentation prepared by the whole group collaboratively.

Then the teacher let the students watch a movie clip and asked questions about environmental pollution. The movie clip was very attractive, students were interested in it and therefore, they answered questions quite actively. But their vocabulary was not large enough, and most of them didn’t know how to express their meaning. So the teacher offered and explained the related words and expressions

In the in-class activity, the teacher organized a group discussion on the pollutions they have experienced. Students were divided into new groups again. Each group chose one picture to describe and talked about the concerning pollution with the help of word bank provided by the teacher. One representative in each group reported to the whole class after 10 minutes’ discussion.

In the discussion, the teacher checked each group and gave some advice and also encouraged all the students to participate. In addition, one student in each group was chosen to record the group members’ mistakes, and finally the teacher chose some mistakes to clarify to the whole class.

At last the teacher spent 5 minutes in explaining the assignments. Students were required to prepare for the topic concerning current affairs. Besides they are asked to collect as many words as they can, which would possibly be applied to write news and news report concerning the same topic.

To sum up, the presentation organized by the teacher was a success. In each group, students helped each other, shared knowledge and learned a lot collaboratively. Moreover, in the group discussion, students’ mistakes were addressed and corrected. In the interview, students also pointed out that many fossilized mistakes were corrected under the help of the teacher and their group members in this way. However, they were not satisfied with the repeated activities of group discussion. The students expected various activities will be held in oral English classroom teaching. The teacher shared with the researcher that her rich teaching experience enable her to have a good management of all kinds of classroom activities which made a success of her class.

3 Problems and Implications

According to the classroom observation, the following problems can be concluded in the present teaching model

First, the teaching time is limited. Oral English teaching is usually combined with reading, listening, and writing courses, therefore, the time given to spoken English teaching part is very limited, students can seldom obtain after-class tutor and help in oral English learning.

Second, some teaching content of oral English is outdated and is not connected with students’ real life and their future career very well, which leads to students’ lower interest in being involved in in-class oral English communication and poor motivation to improve their oral English proficiency;

Third, the traditional English teaching model is still popular among the college oral English teachers. During the process of oral English classroom teaching, teachers usually utilize the traditional teaching manners named “PPP model” (presentation-practice -production). In the colleges, the English teachers pay too much attention to the teaching of grammar, vocabulary, translation and explanation of oral English expressions. In contrast, students have few opportunities to practice their oral English and their language output is extremely insufficient;

Forth, the teachers don’t tap into teaching materials and utilize them perfectly. The teacher is the organizer of the class, and he is supposed to use the textbook flexibly. It is necessary to choose the topic suitable for different levels of students and provide them supplementary knowledge.

Fifth, effective classroom activities are needed. Most teachers began to recognize the importance of students’ oral English proficiency, and most of them hold some English classroom activities, whose purpose is to arouse the oral English expression awareness of students. However, these classroom activities organized by teachers usually become meaningless for some reasons, such as too many students in a class, limited English language proficiency of the teachers, and the teaching procedure and their purpose hasn’t been achieved at all. To worsen the situation, these activities are very tedious and short of diversity, although some of the students gain a little benefit from this kind of activities, the number is very limited. Most of them are just lookers-on.

In view of existing issues of spoken English teaching in our country at present, it is believed that the improvement of the following aspects should be paid attention to. Based on the constructivist theory and input/output hypotheses, the following solutions are proposed: More lessons should be given to oral English teaching and the size of class should be cut down in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of oral English teaching; The task design should take into consideration learners’ interests, personal needs and professional requirements so as to enhance their learning motivations; There should be a paradigmatic shift in teaching approach from input-oriented to output-oriented. The interactive language teaching method lays great emphasis on teacher-student interaction as well as student-student interaction.

To conclude, this thesis has investigated the current situations and existing problems concerning oral English teaching on the basis of a case study of the authentic oral English classroom teaching at a city college in China. The findings and solutions may provide some implications for oral English language teaching at the college level in China. The author calls upon teachers, courses designers, and institutions that all researchers and practitioners should work together to improve oral English teaching, which is an integral part of EFL teaching in the context of China.

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