1. Introduction
1.1 The background of the study
1.1.1 The present situation of oral English teaching in middle schools
For a long time, China's oral English teaching is still pent up by the traditional teaching methods which pay much attention on grammar and translation. Many teachers can skillfully recreate knowledge related to the teaching material and effectively organize and control class activities. However, the teachers lack strategies and methods of oral English teaching. In many occasions, the teachers neglect the cultivation of the students’ oral English communicative competence and they pay little attention to oral English teaching.
As a result, although the students have a solid grasp of English vocabulary and grammar, they can hardly express their ideas in English in daily life. After the students are admitted to the colleges they have dreamed of, they are at a loss in the class of the foreign English teachers. Furthermore, after they enter into the society, they find they can’t do anything with English they have mastered. It is so called “high grades, low ability”. What the students have learned is “dumb English”. This means that the students' English levels of writing and speaking are out of touch.
1.1.2 The problems of oral English teaching in middle schools
There are some reasons and factors as to the reasons why the students get the title “high grades, low ability”.
Firstly, oral English teaching is restricted by objective conditions. Most of the middle school students learn English in the environment of Chinese language. They communicate with each other in Chinese not English. Apart from in several English classes they have during one week, the
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students have little opportunity to get in contact with English. Even in English classes, some teachers and students do not speak English. What the students have learned about listening and speaking is limited. This language environment seriously affects the development of the students listening and speaking competence. At present, in most areas in China, “small-class teaching” has not been achieved. However, it needs a lot of practice to improve students’ listening and speaking competence. Each student should have enough opportunity to practice the listening and speaking ability. In most classes of the middle schools in China, there are fifty to sixty students and the English levels are irregular. It is difficult to organize effective oral training practice for teachers and the students have little time to practice speaking. So the oral English competence is difficult to improve. On the other hand, oral English teaching needs the help of the original material and multi-media equipment. Nevertheless, because of economic constraints, middle schools in under developed areas can not afford the necessary hardware facility which also hinders the students' oral English ability.
Secondly, both the teachers and students neglect oral English. Under the consequence of exam-oriented education, lots of students have a wrong idea that the purpose of learning English is to pass the exams and enter colleges. Although, oral English test has been introduced into entrance examination for secondary school and college entrance examination, the results have little influence on students’ entrance to a higher school. Some students even think that oral test is just a kind of form. It easily makes middle school students think that it’s a waste of time to practice oral English skills. In fact, there are many teachers also have that idea. Even though some teachers recognize the importance of oral English, it’s difficult to conduct oral English teaching activities under the pressure of entrance to higher schools. Both teachers and students neglect oral
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English training. In actual teaching process, the emphasis focus on grammar and vocabulary and oral English activities in teaching material can’t come into force. Hence, many students can’t speak English fluently.
Thirdly, teachers’ concept about English teaching is obsolete and their own oral English is not very good. English is a global language and it’s served for communication. English teaching material is gradually updating, but some teachers still observe the traditional teaching methodology. They teach vocabulary immediately through dictation and translation not through listening and speaking. The students can pass the traditional examination easily while their speaking ability is restricted. Teachers’ own quality is another important factor to influence the students’ communicative competence. Some English teachers can’t organize the class in English. They explain English in Chinese and only pay attention to passing on knowledge. Other teachers just read the books and can’t communicate with the students smoothly in English. Teachers play a significant role in oral English teaching.
Thirdly, the students’ English levels are different and they have mental obstacle. Some students are silent in daily life and the English knowledge they master is limited. They can hardly speak out a complete sentence in English even when they are given plenty of time. The students can easily have mental obstacle and they are afraid of speaking wrongly and being laughed at and criticized. They hardly speak English on their own. Only a small part of students like to express themselves in English, but they can’t change the atmosphere of class. As time passes, it will block most students’ enthusiasm of speaking English and the students will prefer to write English. That’s why a strange phenomenon exists in China that although students have learned English from middle schools to colleges, they don’t have effective communicative ability. This kind of
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students can not adapt to the development of the society.
1.2 The purpose and significance of the study
Since China entered into the World Trade Organization, English has become a worldwide language and people use English to communicate with each other. So it’s crucial for teachers to improve students’ oral English competence. In situational teaching approach, teachers set up some authentic situations guiding into the teaching or make students imitate some situations. Students are active when they are in concrete and interesting situations, which makes the students positive and dynamic and they will learn English by heart. Situational teaching approach is a suitable teaching method to increase students’ interest because it deals with the characteristics of middle school students.
The study aims to prove that it is useful to apply situational teaching approach to oral English teaching in middle schools. In this thesis, it will discuss how to apply situational teaching approach into oral English teaching and what to pay attention to in teaching practice. So teachers can teach oral English more easily and improve the students’ speaking ability in future. Situational teaching approach is helpful to promote students’ oral English. It also improves English teaching reform, changes the traditional teaching methods and places students in a central place. The students are the center of the class and it is beneficial to students’ lifelong development and accord with the requirement of new curriculum reforms to English teachers.
1.3 The layout of the thesis
The thesis is composed of five chapters. Chapter 1 is an introduction. Chapter 2 is the review of oral English teaching. The definitions of spoken language and oral English teaching are given. The researches on oral
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English teaching at home and abroad are also discussed. Chapter 3 presents the definition and characteristics of situational teaching approach and some researches on situational teaching approach at home and abroad. Chapter 4 is the important part of the thesis. It focuses on the implementation of situational teaching approach in oral English teaching in middle schools. It includes the theoretical foundation of creating situations, which is composed of Noam Chomsky’s language acquisition device and Krashen’s hypothesis of second language acquisition, constructivism learning theory and schema theory, the principles and the measures of creating situations and some issues teachers need to pay attention to in the implementation of situational teaching approach in oral English teaching in middle schools. Chapter 5 is a conclusive one. It involves the effects and the importance of the implementation of situational teaching approach in oral English teaching in middle schools.
2. Review of oral English teaching
2.1 Spoken language and oral English teaching 2.1.1 Definition and features of spoken language
Spoken language is the most frequently used communication tool for humans. Every day people communicate with each other and exchange ideas through spoken language. At first humans understand the world through spoken language, too. It is the indispensable part in humans’ history.
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情景教学法在中学英语口语教学上的应用_毕业论文
