Oral English in China

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.210806.107How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Oral ability, English learning, Chinese students

Abstract

Many Chinese students begin to learn English as a main subject in primary schools. They focus on the written English while ignore the oral part, because a long-term exploration of traditional teaching makes them believe that test paper score is the ultimate goal. Students have few opportunities to practice their oral English. The situation leads to stagnant, even receded, oral English skills. Therefore, it is a challenge that how to help students to develop their oral English. This paper aims to analyze this situation and put forward some suggestions. The findings reveal that three factors affect oral English: Mother-tongue Interference, Discouraged Atmosphere and Unsatisfying Teacher Qualification. For most Chinese learners, native language will influence their oral English unconsciously in terms of segmental and supra-segmental aspects. Discouraged Atmosphere including the neglect of education system, insufficient education fund and tense relationship between teachers and students are also urgent problems. Furthermore, the average teachers’ quality is low, especially in rural areas. For these situations, recommendations are provided in this paper. Firstly, it is important to create a real English environment for learners and it is an effective way to improve learners’ oral ability by encouraging them to practice oral expression and imitate native speakers’ tone. Secondly, schools should carry out pre-service training programs for teachers and teachers should look for high-quality educational resources online to improve their levels. Thirdly, the teaching system should be reformed, including putting the oral English in the formal examinations to stimulate learners’ learning motivation.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Xu Chang
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/08/09
TI  - Oral English in China
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 5th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 575
EP  - 579
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.210806.107
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.210806.107
ID  - Chang2021
ER  -