浅析交际语与口语

浙江省中小学英语教师培训

学业论文

(2013暑期)

论文题目 浅析交际语与口语

作者姓名 曹玲彬（41） 指导老师 完稿时间 2013年7月14号 成 绩

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浅析交际语与口语

An Analysis of Communicative Language and Speaking

曹玲彬

Abstract

One very embarrassing situation Chinese students frequently encounter in an

English-speaking environment is that they seem unable to express themselves clearly though they always can understand others perfectly. It is known these days that a typical Chinese student does well in grammar or reading or as we say, input of information using English, but he or she performs rather poorly when it comes to output, speaking and writing, especially speaking. With so many efforts exerted in the reform of English, why is there still little substantial change till now? What is in their way to use English as a language of two-way communication? Hence this paper deals with the reasons why communicative language and speaking teaching is wandering about in the same place and the ways to solve it.

Key word: communicative language speaking reasons methods

Chapter I

The Nature of Communicative Language and Speaking

When it comes to a student majoring in English, most of us would think that

he or she could speak English very well and communicate with foreigners easily and naturally. However, few of us know the nature of communicative language and speaking.

1.1 The Definition of the Communicative Language

Communicative language is from the term of Communicative Language

Teaching (CLT). As we know the definition of the Communicative Language Teaching, we will probably understand what communicative language is.

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Communicative Language Teaching is to cover a variety of developments in

syllabus design and in the methodology of foreign language teaching. The goal of CLT is to develop students’ communicative competence which includes both the knowledge about the language and the knowledge about how to use the language appropriately in communicative situations. (Chen, 2005:15). 1.2 The Definition of Speaking

Speaking: talking to somebody about something, having a conversation with

somebody; using your voice to say something. (ADCANCED LEARNER’S English-Chinese Dictionary, 2000:1684).

Speaking is the skill which is an important part of everyday interaction and

most often the first impression of a person is based on his or her ability to speak fluently and comprehensibly. (Chen, 2005:9).

Chapter II

The Reasons of Influencing Communicative Language and Speaking Language is a tool for human communication; it is a hot topic not only to the

linguistics, but also the whole world now. Through communicating by language, human beings can benefit a lot, at the same time; it brings many problems which are mainly caused by learning of it, especially learning a foreign language. Here, this paper deals with the reasons of influencing communicative language and speaking. 2.1 Internal Reasons- Individual Differences

Since the acquisition of communicative ability is a matter of the individuals,

thus individual differences play a crucial role in determining the learners’ abilities. 2.1.1 Learning Aptitude

In terms of linguistic study, according to the mentalists, people are equipped

innately with language acquisition device; the learner’s ability can be activated and motivated by adequate input. Thus the learning aptitudes vary among the different individuals. As a result, the communicative activities of the learners are varied to a certain distance. 2.1.2 Motivation

Motivation, defined as the learner’s attitudes and effective state or learning

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drive, has a strong impact on his efforts in learning a second language. (Dai, 2007). Just as Dai said different motivation will have different results, such as the Instrumental Motivation and the Intrinsic Motivation. The Instrumental Motivation means that people learn a foreign language for external goals such as passing exams, financial rewards etc. while the Intrinsic Motivation means learners learn the second language for enjoyment or pleasure from learning. (Dai, 2007). 2.1.3 Learning Strategies

For the language learners, different strategies, or methods may result in

different consequences. For example, some students tend to communicate with others and get help from them, their learning strategies belong to the Affect／Social strategies.(Affect／Social strategies: dealing with the ways learners interact or communicate with other speakers, native or non-native.)Thus the different results here are reasonable. 2.1.4 Personality

Generally speaking, we can classify the personality into two groups: the

extrovert and introvert individuals. The difference existing in their personalities can attribute to different results. For the extrovert students, they are likely to communicate with the outside. During the process, their communicative abilities can be improved step by step. In contrast, the introvert people tend to be self-independent and lack o f necessary communicative abilities. 2.2 External Reasons 2.2.1 The Education System

Perhaps no other cultures in the world compare to the Chinese tradition of

honoring a teacher as an unchallengeable figure of authority. Ever since the beginning of the Feudalist society, the Chinese has long deemed a classroom where the one who lectures is a “father of life time ”. Even with the globalization trend reforming many ways in modern education, the high scores in the test as a common goal has helped a lot in maintaining this old tradition where “the learned one speaks”. 2.2.2 Teaching Methodologies

The ultimate goal of foreign language teaching is to enable the students to

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use the foreign language in work or life when necessary. (Chen, 2005:13). Thus teachers should teach the practical parts of language or the languages used in the real world. However, this is not always the case in the present day foreign language teaching practice. (Chen, 2005:13). A case in point, many Chinese students get high scores in TOEFL tests, however, when they arrived in a foreign land, they could not lead a normal life as a native speaker did. 2.2.3 Textbooks and Related Materials

Before the reforming of education, most of the textbooks and materials were

not related to students’ real life, though after reforming, these setbacks can also be found. The knowledge students acquire cannot be used in their daily life. 2.2.4 Environment

Degrading of language reaction

Non-native-like environment

Lack of practice No stimulus＆no partners

Recently, many educators and linguistics point out that the reason why

students cannot learn and use communicative language and speaking well is lack of native-like environment. Here is a vicious circle under such a circumstance. 2.2.5 The Critical Period Hypothesis

When it comes to language acquisition, the Critical Period Hypothesis is

famous which refers to the age playing an important role in learning the mother tone. In spite of the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) is a theory applied in children’s first language acquisition. It is also reasonable in second language acquisition. Students’ ability to develop normal behaviors and knowledge in environments in a certain

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period does not continue indefinitely and that students who have never learned language cannot return to normal if these deprivation go on for too long.

ChapterⅢ

Solutions to Communicative language and Speaking

3.1 The Reform of Education System and Teaching Models

It is clear that what we need is to advise the Education Department to reform

the education system and design a “student-centered” classroom, with the learner-centered classroom where the teacher should enlighten students in

understanding their real needs and goals, consolidate students’ other basic skills, such as listening, reading, writing etc, because all the skills are interrelated and interplayed. 3.2 Having an Intercultural Classroom

Communicative language teaching overlooked both the links between

language and culture and the necessity to understand communication between non-native speakers and native speakers as intercultural communication rather than communication in the target language. (Crozet＆Liddicoat,1999). As language and its culture are intricately interwoven. Culture is an integral part of the interaction between language and thought and language is the carrier of culture. (Wang lifei, 2000). Thus if teachers want to teach students well or the students want to learn language better, they must learn the target culture. 3.3 Carrying our a Variety of Speaking Activities

It is important to give the students a variety of speaking activities so that they

will be able to cope with different situations in reality. (Chen, 2005). In daily life, conversation happens spontaneously and varieties can inspire students’ motivation and curiosity. What’s more, as what we mentioned above, different students have different learning styles, designing a variety of activities can meet different needs. On the contrary, if the teachers conduct their lectures as always without injecting new blood. The less interesting lessons will result in degradation of students’ motivation. 3.4 Language Proficiency level of the students

When we design speaking tasks, one important consideration is the language

proficiency level of the student. (Chen, 2005:98). Just as Krashen’s Input Hypothesis

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goes: Learners advance their language learning gradually by receiving “comprehensible input”. He defined comprehensible input as “i+1”: i represent learners’ current state of knowledge, the next stage is i+1, providing comprehensible input which is a bit higher than the learners’ current level.

Conclusion

We live in an age of explosion in so-considered modern and popular concepts

and approaches for the teaching of language. However, we still can find some gap between the assumed purposes and real purposes for communicative language and speaking.

Undoubtedly, I believe we can solve the problems of communicative

language and speaking with concerted efforts.

References

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[3] Swain, M. Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development [A]. Grass, S. &Madden (eds.). Newbury House, 1985.

[4] 蔡基刚.当前大学英语教学面临的压力[J].外语教学与研究,2002(2). [5] 胡鉴明.交际法和中国英语教学[M].广东教育出版社,2002. [6] 邵永真.大学英语教学大纲修订说明[J].大学外语教学通讯,1998(3).

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