论文

On Rural Middle School Oral English TeachingStrategiesLIU Xiao-fangAbstract: With the swift growth of social economy and quickly advanced technology, people’s requirements about education enhance accordingly. Among the demands of quality-oriented education, it states like this, teachers should cultivate students to be persons who are developed in an all-around way. However, when people take a broad view on today’s English teaching, the majority of teachers are still absorbed in the old-fashioned teaching methods, which put a lot of emphasizes on grammar and translation. This phenomenon is especially widespread in oral English teaching in most rural areas. In the following passage, it discusses the problems that are found in oral English teaching of middle school in rural areas and generalizes the strategies that are suitable for middle schools’ oral English teaching in the rural areas.Key words: oral English teaching; teaching strategies; rural areasⅠ.IntroductionCompared with the past, today’s English teaching has been improved constantly and has made great progress generally which is witnessed by all of the people. However, when it comes to remote mountainous areas education, the ideas occurring to people’s mind are out-dated and falling behind. Rural education, especially oral English teaching, still exists a great deal of problems.A. The characteristics of rural studentsBecause of the hardship of rural students’ lives, they can only chat and play with friends when they are at school only where they can get together. They have gotten no other time to make other friends. As time goes on, it is very possible for them to develop an introverted and isolated personality. They are willingless to communicate with people; therefore, it is not possible for them to be voluntary to make a statement in class. Besides, most of them are leftover children whose parents are forced go far away from home to earn money to support them, so they are provided with weak and contemptuous heart. It is easier for them to be struck and to be persons with twisted minds. Then they are very shy and dare not to speak before the class members.B. The current situation of rural teachersIt is no need to say that our country is trying her best to assist rural education to be much better, but it can not prevent the phenomenon that the majority of teachers who are outstanding swarm into the developed cities where they can benefit much. It is no doubt that teachers in rural areas are feeble and if the situation can be worse, there are even not professional English teachers. One teacher maybe get engaged in multi-subject such as teaching English ,Chinese and maybe music at the same time, sotheir specialized knowledge is not well-knit. Especially in pronunciation, they have a long way to go. Weak pronunciation will mislead students smoothly. The tardy development in rural areas gives teachers a delusion which lets them underestimate their competition with others. They muddle through their work in professional study and research.C. The teaching environment in rural areasAt this science and technology highly developed era, a lot of cities have possessed multi-media classrooms by which teachers can present the wonderful lessons to their students intuitively and vividly. In addition, the urban residential students still can go some advanced educational organization centers to make up for their deficiencies and consolidate knowledge which they have learned or they are not well-mastered. Compared with cities, rural teaching environment is less satisfactory. They have cherished such a dream all the time that they can give their lessons visually.In general, rural education is fallen behind. In order to narrow the gap, to gain better teaching effects and to foster more and more comprehensive talents, it is necessary to improve their hardware facilities, but it is more important for both teachers and students to try their best to improve themselves. Teachers should be selfless dedication to come up with methods that can make students’mouth open. Besides, students should also overcome difficulties which they run into during their study. But how can students avoid “mute English”and speak fluent English is the most crucial questions. Following passage will give some resolutions for both teachers and students.Ⅱ. The way to improve students’ oral EnglishA. The suggestion to teachers1. Well-designed teaching plan and present a wonderful and interesting lessonFor both experienced and fresh teachers, writing a teaching plan is an essential and indispensable process, only when teachers put themselves in students’ position, can they take the problems into consideration which will appear in class and give the solutions as quickly as they can. When they are writing the teaching plan, they can design some interesting class activities to add vibrant atmosphere to class, at the same time, to develop students’ habit of speaking. For example, when the teachers give the class about learning 26 letters, teachers can apply the activities called “look for your friends”to check what level students have achieved and to exercise their ability of speaking. Before the class, teachers should make the cards according to the numbers of students in their class. When taking the class, teachers hand out these cards to students in a wrong order. After having a look at the letter, the students should hold their card over their head in order that their neighbors can find them easily. As soon as they find their friends, they stand in a line according to the letter order in 5 students a group. When the teachers check the answers, let them read the letter out which is in their own hand, then read it out together with their group members. If the teachers design their every class very carefully in advance, as time goes on, students can not only be interested in English class, but also develop the habit of speaking. So, it is obvious that a well-designed teaching plan plays a main and pivotal role in teachingoral English.2. Arrange both the written and practical tasksAn old saying goes, “o ne minute on the stage, require ten years of hardworking.”It is thus clear that the study after class is very significant. When the teachers give the homework, they should catch some points. Homework is not efficient as much as possible. Everything should be matched in an appropriate way. After one day’s learning, teachers should arrange the tasks for students in time to consolidate and uplift. Written tasks are right suitable for grammar exercises. It also can be prepared and lay foundation to oral English exercises. Therefore, tasks after class should combine written and oral forms. For instance, after finishing the section A of unit1 of grade8 named “Where did you go on vacation?”, teachers can make students copy the phrases in 1a firstly and use the topic “Where did you go on vacation?”to raise questions and answer them. In addition, teachers should also arrange one student of them to give a daily report next class. After she or he finishes her or his report, teachers can raise questions for other students, and students answer her questions according to the report. Other students also will get the oral tasks, too. The remain students should find their partners respectively, and make up their own dialogues according to the prompt of 2d in sectionA of unit1 of grade8. When we have lessons next class, they should perform their dialogue to others before the blackboard. In this way, not only can students consolidate their grammar, but also strengthen their practice of oral English.3. Create language situationTeachers should construct the English class into a stage on which students can express themselves as possible as they want to. They can imitate the authentic situation, changing the boring and abstract contents into a melodious and enjoyable environment. They can learn and use English in a real language environment. In the process of using language, they can understand and master English easily, arousing their interest in oral English and inspiring them to open their minds. When the teachers set up the situation, they should take all students in class into consideration, doing their utmost to let every student open their mouth and taking part in class actively. In the past, teachers always use a single way to practice students’oral English. Only raise one question and check the answer only by choosing several students. Other students seem to be the outlier. This single way deprives their only chance of speaking in class. As time passes, a portion of students who are often ignored by their teachers will lose their desire of expressing themselves gradually. And some day, teachers ask them to answer question raised in the class. They just give their answer “silence”to their teachers. In class, faculties can divide students into several groups in order that they can have a group discussion easily. In this way, everyone in class can have a chance to speak and reinforce their oral English.4. Respect and learn from students, communicate with students frequentlyOne can not communicate with strangers by his own volition. Teachers should change their traditional roles and create harmonious learning atmosphere. Because most of them are stay-at-home children, they are provided with weak and contemptuous heart. It is easier for them to be struck and to be persons with twistedmind. So they need more gentle love from teachers compared with other students whose parents are at home to accompany with them. When teachers care about students of her own accord, students will put down their worries about their teachers’blame and eliminate the gap between teachers and students. So they can overcome their shyness. Even if they know that they will make mistakes, they dare to put up their hands and answer any kind of questions bravely. Then it is not difficult for them to pay attention to this class and to participate in all the activities designed by teachers and questions involving in the class. Therefore, communicating with students frequently is a reasonable and practicable way for teachers to assist students to improve their oral English.5. Construct reasonable oral English goal, lower requirements appropriatelyIt will take years of hard work for non-native speakers to speak fluent English. So teachers should make a reasonable goal which match for their oral English development regularity for the students who enter into middle school just now. If the requirements and goals are beyond students’ability, it will hit their confidence and interest easily. However, an appropriate goal and demand will let students add their confidence and interest and do their best to improve their oral English. When they just enter junior high school, they are weak in all aspects of English. Then teachers can let students read the conversation according to the dialogue on the book and perform them with their partners. They will produce certain language intuition which is good to their speaking by reading and acting dialogues and conversations continuously, eventually putting the way for the study of next process. When they step into second grade of junior high school, they have mastered grammar and sentence patterns in some degree. They are provided with language sense. At this very moment, teachers can increase the degree of difficulty slightly. Give students the tasks where they should organize and make up their own conversations by themselves with the help of the knowledge that they have learned before. If they persevere in the habit and exercise all the time, they can make very great progress in their oral English.B. The suggestions to students1. Open their mouth to show EnglishIn traditional English teaching, students are used to listening to what their English teachers are talking. What they like is what the teacher asks them to do, but they do not want to open their mouth to speak it. As for this weakness, there are some points that the teachers bring in traditional English teaching. However, in modern English teaching, students should try their best to show their ideas no matter how poor or how well their oral English expression ability is. What is more, in their daily life, most of students are afraid of making mistakes or losing faces when they open their mouth to speak English. As people all know that English is an international language, like our mother language –Chinese. When they were very young, they could not speak it well. Let alone to communicate with others, but step by step. If students always try their best to use their mouth to practice it, as time goes by, they can speak it fluently and can use it to show what they want to express. So in modern English teaching, it is very important for them to open their mouth to use it. Only in this way can they improve their oral English ability. Remember that the more you open your mouth, thebetter your English will be. This is a real truth in learning English.2. Try their best to listenMaybe many people will think listening ability has no matter with students’oral ability. This is a wrong thought, because listening ability and speaking ability have a very close relationship. As people all know, when students learn English, they can not master how to read it if they do not know how to write it ,but if the students are equipped with listening ability, they can understand it well by practicing more, then they are able to follow the tapes to speak it. What is more, this way can help them to improve their pronunciation. Like this, they can get more by listening, day by day, they will know how to use what they have learned to make them understand in any other places. On the contrary, if the students can not listen to others well, how can they understand what they mean, and how can they communicate with other people smoothly and unhindered. When it comes to speaking, it is wrong to separate the listening from speaking. What is more, students must practice listening if they want to improve their speaking ability. If every student can combine the listening with speaking, they are bound to master the oral English and can speak English sweetly and beautifully.3. Try their best to recite more English passagesIn China, there is an old saying “if you want to speak more, you must recite more”. This is indeed right. Why students should recite as many as possible if they want to use English? Everyone knows the language usage depends on how much they remember by their heart. People can use the same logical mind to analysis this point. When children were very young they were not able to show their ideas well, but their mother and father teach them step by step, asking them to repeat and remember many words, then they would like to use those words to make more short speeches. Day by day, they were able to speak more fluently than ever. So they can easily find out that if they want to express their point but they have no any word or any material in his mind. How can they pour their thoughts? Not to mention to speak it in English well. As students, it is very important for them to remember as many English passages as possible if they want to improve their speaking English.4. Making their own English environmentOral English ability will be further developed by practicing in our daily life. So when the students start to study English, they should know the importance of “practice makes perfect” Indeed, the more you use it, the better your English will be. But in traditional teaching, students always complain that they are lack of the English environment and they have learned the “deaf English”. They always put forward this idea that they will not be able to speak English like those people who live in real English environment. This is a wrong opinion. In China, there are many famous teachers they have never been to the real English country. But they can speak it just like native speaker. Because they can make an English environment by themselves for them. Such as the professional teacher “Li yang “and “Yu min Hong”, they have never been to any other countries before they can show their ideas well in English. So making an English environment by themselves is very important for every student in improving their oral expression ability. When they are in class, they can use Englishto talk with their classmates. When they are eating, they can talk with each other in English. Besides, they can describe something or subjects in English when they are free.5. Conquer the shynessIn China, most students are afraid of opening their mouths, but this point also depends on their weakness –shyness. Because Chinese students have little chances to practice English. They are afraid of making mistakes when they speak it, they will feel so down that they can not speak it. This phenomenon is caused by shyness. Shyness can be get rid of by practicing more. Students can conquer their weakness by putting them into in public. When they are in public, there are so many people around them. If they can speak more in public they will have confidence so that they can show their ideas more fluently. What is more, if they can conquer their shyness, they can build up their confidence. There are many matters with confidence, especially for students. There are more chances for them to speak English well if they feel well, even if they encounter many troubles in learning English.Ⅲ. ConclusionIn general, what rural students do bad in oral English has been a serious question that every rural teacher will be faced with, but teachers should create situation to make students to bring their subjective initiative into playing under the unsatisfied condition of the poor rural areas, cultivating students’ interest about English. Besides, teachers’concern about students’life and mind is a better and efficient way to add students’ confidence and clear up students’ nervousness. Combining the grammar with oral English, let students consolidate them in both written and oral forms. Changing the passive way into active one, students can find the regularity and master the language in the process of their own exploration and using the language. These ways can avoid the traditional teaching styles which are centered on the teachers. So teachers can train students’ability of taking the examination, as well as cultivating students’ oral English. No matter how difficult for teachers to foster their students to be a person who is good at listening, writing, reading and writing, they should do whatever they can. Only both teachers and students try their best to overcome barriers in oral English and change these old and out-dated ideas that are deeply rooted in people’s minds, can the level of oral English be improved.References陈莲. 2013．提高农村初中生英语口语水平浅探[ J].广西教育.第2期.陈丛耘. 2010. 口语交际与人际沟通[M ]. 重庆大学出版社.钱赛彬. 2013. 关于农村初中英语教学的方法与对策研究[J]. 第3期.邵升琴. 2010. 谈农村初中英语口语教学[J].科技信息.第16期.徐伟. 2008. 中学英语口语教学之我见[J]. 中华学术研究.沈芳. 2011. 英语教学中提高口语能力的方法和途径[J]. 新课程研究. 第5期. 王爱玉. 2013. 浅谈培养农村中学生的英语口语能力[ J]. 中国农村教育.第9期.曾幼芬. 2004. 《中学外语教与学》，中国人民大学书报资料中心，第 5 期. 朱瑾. 2011. 和谐英语课堂的建构[J].科教文汇(上旬刊); 第9期.张庆宗. 2010. 外语学与教的心理学原理[M]. 外语教学与研究出版社.。