影響中國學(xué)生口語流利程度的因素

1、【標(biāo)題】影響中國學(xué)生口語流利程度的因素 【作者】楊云霞 【關(guān)鍵詞】英語教學(xué)；口語教學(xué)；口語流利程度 【指導(dǎo)老師】白 敏 【專業(yè)】英語 【正文】I. IntroductionOral English is an important course for students in China. However, for a long time there has been a controversy about the factors affecting Chinese students oral fluency. English as one of the major skills is diff

2、icult for learners to speak fluently and appropriately.In the 1970s, language researchers and teachers began to realize the problem of the traditional language classroom where learners received systematic instruction in the grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of the language. It was found that man

3、y students who had received several years of formal English teaching frequently remain deficient in the ability to actually use the language, and to understand its use, in normal communication, whether in the spoken or the written mode. Learners do not exactly speak English fluent as their native la

4、nguage. In order to develop English speaking skills, focus should be placed on fluency without neglecting the elements of phonology, grammar, and discourse in the spoken output.Definitions of fluency. Fluency is often understood as the ability to carry on a conversation and produce long utterances.

5、However, fluency does not necessarily apply only to long utterances. According to Hartmann and Stork, “A person is said to be a fluent speaker of a language when he can use its structures accurately at the same time concentrating on content rather than form, using the units and patterns automat

6、ically at normal conversational speed when they are needed.”  Fillmore proposed that fluency includes the abilities to:1.  Fill time with talk i.e., to talk without awkward pauses for a relative long time2. Talk in coherent, reasoned, and “semantically dense” sentences Fillm

7、ore emphasis3.  Have appropriate things to say in a wide range of contexts4.  Be creative and imaginative in using the language.  Notice that Fillmores notion of fluency is limited to oral productive language. Richards, Platt, and Weber  define fluency as follows: “the

8、features which give speech the qualities of being natural and normal, including native-like use of pausing, rhythm, intonation, stress, rate of speaking, and use of interjections and interruptions.” They further point out that, in second and foreign language learning, fluency is used to characterize

9、 a persons level of communication proficiency, including the following abilities to:1. produce written and/or spoken language with ease 2. speak with a good but not necessarily perfect command of intonation, vocabulary, and grammar 3. communicate ideas effectively 4. produce continuou

10、s speech without causing comprehension difficulties or a breakdown of communication.The above definitions provide a fairly good starting point because they include different perspectives on fluency and describe much of what fluency is. Indeed, this paper stands with Brumfit  who felt that fluen

11、cy meant, “to be regarded as natural language use.” And fluency may account for many factors. Factors that Chinese students believe to affect their oral fluency will be explored in this paper. Traditionally, accuracy has been emphasized, nowadays fluency is as important as accuracy which i

12、s affected by some factors, such as big grammar, different cultures etc. The factors are the main part of this paper, and in the following passages it will discuss these factors in detail.II. Factors Affecting Chinese Students Oral FluencyA. The Factors of Big Grammar: Pronunciation, Grammar, and Vo

13、cabulary effectEnglish students study should indeed include traditional pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary, here pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary which in the paper being called the Big Grammar which limit our students linguistic options and affect our students oral fluency. 1. The As

14、pects of PronunciationFirstly, please consider pronunciation. Traditionally, teachers and learners focus on phonemes - that is, the smallest units of distinctive sound. However today this paper just talks something about suprasegmentals and reduced forms, they are crucial generalizations about

15、the pronunciation of real spoken English.1.1 SuprasegmentalsPhoneme is the smallest units of distinctive sound, but suprasegmentals are aspects of pronunciation beyond the level of individual phonemes. Typically, suprasegmentals include two or more phonemes. Stress, intonation, and voice quality the

16、se aspects of pronunciation often labeled the suprasegmentals of English. These suprasegmentals are crucial for expressing someone accurately, and for being understood by others.For instance, let us consider the fact that an utterance like “You are looking very nice tonight” can be said in a bo

17、red manner, sarcastically, suggestively, sincerely, sexily, and probably many other ways depending on how to use stress, intonation, and voice quality. In other words, the same pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary can mean a variety of things depending on stress, intonation, and voice quality 

18、;- the suprasegmentals. Understanding and expressing accuracy is precondition of fluency, so suprasegmentals are important to fluency as accuracy which being considered one of the factors affect oral fluency.1.2 Reduced FormsReduced forms were defined in Brown and Hilbert (1989) as “native

19、 speakers connected speech replete with its contracted forms, elision, liaison, and reduction.” Many people think of reduced forms as signs of lazy, slovenly, or careless English, but that view is naive and incorrect. Indeed, there are abundant evidences that reduced forms are used in all kinds of E

20、nglish, even the most careful and formal. However, why is it that teachers do not teach these reduced forms? Instead many teachers seem to prefer to teach the written language and assume that students will automatically be able to understand and use the spoken language. But spoken English is very di

21、fferent from written English. Why then are such teachers amazed when their students cannot even understand natural spoken language like “whenduyawannagonnagedoudahere?” When do you want to get out of here?, much less produce it. Most of our Chinese students are facing this kind of problem.

22、 Every time, learners have a sentence want to say, they always think about the written form which they have studied and consider the grammars, fixed phrases. Because they do not know the reduced forms, students must pay attention to the pronunciation of every single word. So much they considered how

23、 they can be fluency? 2. Grammar of Spoken DiscourseTraditionally, grammar is an essential part of English. Teachers spend much time in teaching students grammar. In the paper, grammar also an aspect may limit students oral fluency. Students are often required to use complete sentences when the

24、y speak. While requiring complete sentences may be useful in teaching formal writing, it is not appropriate for teaching speaking. That is why we use the utterances rather than sentences in describing spoken discourse. The fact of the matter (unrecognized by many) is that spoken discourse does

25、not require complete sentences. Indeed, the persistent use of complete sentences will sound strange. There are following an example of conversation between a native speaker (NS), who uses short utterances, and a non-native speaker (NNS), who uses complete sentences just as he was taught:NS

26、:   Howzit goin? NNS:  I am doing very well, thank you.NS:   Your family?  NNS:  They are doing very well, too, thank you.NS:   Whereya going?NNS:  I am walking to the supermarket. Would you like to come with me?You can see he can be unders

27、tood, while it would be much more natural and fluent for the rules of conversational grammar and pronunciation to be applied instead of the rules of the written language, as follows: NS:   Howzit goin? NNS:  Fine, thanks.NS:   Your family?NNS:  Theyre good, to

28、o. NS:   Whereya goin?NNS:  The supermarket. Ya wanna come along?Notice that the second conversation uses the grammar of spoken English, which does not impose the use of complete sentences, but rather uses utterances. Also note that several of these utterances appear to be units

29、of language (e.g., “Howzit goin?” and “Fine, thanks.”), which would probably be better taught as that rather than as sentences assembled on the basis of grammar rules. Finally, notice that the pronunciation in the second example is reduced and much more appropriate, and let your Engli

30、sh sounds fluent.3. VocabularyTill now, this paper has discussed pronunciation and grammar which affect our students oral fluency, and here vocabulary may also limiting oral fluency. One word, often has more than one meaning and it has its own class, is it an adjective or adverb; is it a noun or ver

31、b? During studying, students often just learn one meaning for each word, although they know for a fact that words have many meanings. And, the fact is that they always avoid idioms. Truly fluent speakers must have command of the vocabulary and idioms of English. Also, why is it that students never s

32、tudy informal vocabulary like “vulgar” expressions? These types of vocabulary are part of English, and for students to speak fluently, they should use relaxed and informal language styles in conversation, so they must have a command of the vocabulary and idioms, at least can receive.Above all,

33、the paper mentions some effects of big grammar that from pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. When students study or use English, their blind sides such as reduced form, multi-meaning of words and so on are some factors affect their oral fluency. And in the following parts, it will give some other

34、 factors that influence oral fluency and natural use.B. Motivation Hindering Oral FluencyMotivation refers to individuals desires and thoughts. It is a commonsense view that peoples actions governed by certain needs and interests. However, these can not be directly observed, they have to be inferred

35、 from what people actually do. Therefore, the study of motivation in English learning has been based on the study of the attitudes, interest, desire, knowledge, etc. . It is a specific aspect that in English learning, here especially for oral fluency hindering.In the fields of psycho-linguistic

36、s and applied linguistics have suggested that motivation can be chiefly divided into the following three types in learning English. First is global motivation, which consists of a general orientation towards the goal of learning English; second is situation motivation, which varies according to the

37、situation in which learning takes place; and third is task motivation, which is the motivation for performing particular learning tasks. Some psycho-linguists have also identified other varieties of motivation, such as integrative motivation, which refers to language learning for personal growth and

38、 culture enrichment, and instrumental motivation, where language learning is related to more immediate or practical goals. Research has shown that these types of motivation are closely related to success in English learning. These different varieties are not mutually exclusive, and they may be relat

39、ed to extrinsic motivation, English oral fluency rarely involves only one type of motivation. As fluency in English learning required a great deal of motivation, this paper describes one of the influential items on oral fluency is interest motivation that is to be thought of an original motivation i

40、n oral fluency and acquisition.1. InterestRod Ellis mentions that the most intrinsic motivation for learning is the learners spontaneous interest.Here were some questionnaires on how to improve students oral fluency and English communication ability. The questionnaires were written in Chinese. The q

41、uestion papers were distributed to over tow hundred college students, of advanced, medium, and lower levels, in first year classes in Grade00 and Grade01, in different major, and at different colleges. They were asked to identify the factors affecting their oral fluency. The results are listed in ta

42、ble 1. Clearly the most important factor is interest. Its direct effect is rated at about 49%, and its indirect effect is about 13%, giving a total effect of 62%. This shows that learners who are more interested in English will spend much more time and energy to expose themselves to overseas culture

43、, customs and traditions from all sorts of sources.Table 1. Questionnaire of motivation factors on oral fluencyFactors Direct effect Indirect effect Complete effectGoal- orientation 20 0     20Study interest     49      13     62Effect

44、iveness     21      4     25Affection     1      2     3A motivation arising from interest will motivate a student to achieve greater oral English fluency. Da Shan(大山) said, “I study Chinese just

45、 for interest, really Its so much easier to learn so something if you enjoy it.”2. Language Effectiveness, Study ValueLanguage Effectiveness is that students degree of anticipating getting high level in English learning, the significant part of self-confidence, which also works on oral fluency.Study

46、 value refers to the rate of the results of learning to period of time expended in study. How to understand this? For instance, if a student who spends more time in learning and oral practice fails to make good progress, he or she may lose confidence as a result of their poor study value. It is hard

47、 to gain a high study value in the situation of classroom learning. Students easily become frustrated when the effectiveness they want or expect to achieve in their learning use is mot realized. All of these will affect students oral practice and finally oral fluency.When a student has a strong moti

48、vation, he or she will have a position and self-confidence, which can enhance study value.3. AnxietyIt is inevitable that English learners will encounter anxiety, there are always some who feel embarrassed to speak in class at all, who are afraid of being laughed at. However, anxiety is not always a

49、 negative factor. Bailey analyses competitiveness between language learners, and compare with each other can either weaken or enhance English acquisition: there may be a weak or a strong anxiety. Where students have a strong desire to imitate the performance of better students in their class, to cat

50、ch up to and overtake their English ability, anxiety about their current comparatively poor performance becomes facilitating-it is a variety of motivation.4. Goal-orientationGoal-orientation can direct students attention and effort towards a certain target. Longer term goals for language use should

51、affect the shorter term goals of teaching/study plans, and the types of language task used for practice. Goal-orientation is closely related to motivation.In general, students who set specified future goals are already good at English learning and speaking. Present goals do not constitute a sufficie

52、nt challenge for them, so they need to set more challenging goals for the future to keep motivating themselves. However, for undergraduates in most universities, their learning purposes are very short-term. Once they achieve these limited goals, they are unconcerned about continuing to practice Engl

53、ish.Finally, motivation has a complex nature which is a necessary factor that affects our oral fluency.C. The Effect of Culture in Fluent Oral EnglishAssume that all English learners in China may agree language instruction must involve some degree of learning about the culture of the native speakers

54、 of English. However, it is next to impossible to deal with English education without taking culture into courses. Because the goal of most English learning is communication, culture is inevitably involved in the curriculum. In China, English learners are facing this problemculture gap which is cons

55、idered the main factor that affects English study. Especially in communication culture is an important aspect which influences oral fluency. Learners find it difficult to comprehend certain linguistic features that seem apparent to native speakers.Many cultural characteristics of English affect spok

56、en English learning. From a pragmatic perspective, English is a form of social action because linguistic communication occurs in the context of structured interpersonal exchange, and meaning is thus socially regulated. In other words, “shared values and beliefs create the traditions and social

57、structures that bind a community together and are expressed in their language” . Thus, to speak English, one must know how English is used in a social context. It is well known that English has its own rules of usage as our native language Chinese to when, how, and to what degree a speaker may

58、impose a given verbal behavior on his/her conversational partner. Due to the influence or interference of English speakers own cultural standards, it is hard for our Chinese speakers to choose the forms appropriate to certain situations.For instance, in Chinese culture, paying a compliment to someon

59、e obligates that person to give a negative answer such as “No. It is not so good,” and so on in order to show “modesty,” whereas in North American culture such a response might be both inappropriate and embarrassing. In addition, oral communication, as mentioned above, involves a very powe

60、rful nonverbal communication system, which sometimes contradicts the messages provided through the verbal listening channel. Due to a lack of familiarity with the nonverbal communication system of the target language, English learners usually do not know how to pick up nonverbal cues. As a result, ignorance of the nonverbal message often leads to misunderstanding. The following example is a case in point. One day, when a Chinese student heard, “Lets get together for lunch sometime,” he immediately responded to fix a specific date without noticing the native spea