affection. Learning English needs a language environment. Without it, people have to spend a lot more time on memorizing. For many of the learners, even they have tried hard, they still achieve very little. At this moment, teachers must put up context according to the lessons and lead them to practice oral English. Besides, teachers make full use of teaching equipment, such as, computer, film and slide show, to provide the context with audiovisual teaching materials. Context is used in different senses. In a marrow sense, it refers to the linguistic context, and in a board sense, it includes the physical situation as well, this is called extra-linguistic context, which embraces the people, time, place and even the whole cultural background. So when Chinese students speak English, they must pay a attention to avoid the Cinglish, such as, “build into”, it doesn’t mean “by putting parts, materials, etc. together (with what is made as a direct object)”, but with a meaning of “make something from a film and permanent part of something larger”. So teachers must train students to think of language in English and stimulate their interest.
If we want to improve Middle School students’ oral English, we should do some special training.
III Characteristics of oral English
Pronunciation is the base and key of oral English. The wrong pronunciation will
bring the barrier in communication. Chinese people want to master the correct pronunciation requires a process of “painstakingly desire”. And students will become more confident to communicate with each other with perfect pronunciation, it also make other people enjoy your pronunciation during the talk. 1. Pronunciation organ
The articulatory apparatus of a human being are contained in three important areas or cavities: the pharyngeal cavity-the throat, the oral cavity-the mouth, and
the nasal cavity-the nose. The air steam coming from the lungs may be modified in these cavities in variety of ways. It may also be modified in the larynx before it reaches any of the cavities. Such modification results from some kind of interference with the movement of air steam. This modification can be achieved by completely interrupting the air steam or by partial interference in one way or another.
2. The pronunciation of IPA(international phonetic alphabet) and classification of vowels and consonants.
The basic difference between a vowel and a consonant is that in the pronunciation of the former the air that comes from the lungs meats with no obstruction of any kind in the throat,
the nose, or the mouth, while in that of the latter it is obstructed in one way of another. 3. The regulation of alphabet pronunciation
Some principles are existed in alphabet pronunciation, such as “a” can be pronounced: [ei] basis [a:] after [e] any [?] bag [I] arrange 4. Syllable and word stress
“Import” have two syllables, if we put the word stress on the first syllable, ‘import, it is a noun. And if we put the word stress on the second syllable, im’port, it is a verb. 5. Intonation
When pitch, stress and sound length are tied to the sentence rather than the word in isolation. Intonation plays an important role in the conveyance of meaning in almost every language, especially in a language like English. English has four basics types of intonation, known as the four tones: the falling tone, the rising tone, the fall-rise tone and the rise-fall tone. In oral English, we speak the same sentence in different intonations can express different meanings. For example, the sentence “I can’t eat anything”, when we say in the falling tone, is equal in meaning to “I can’t eat anything”, but if the word anything in the fall-rise tone, the sentence implies that there are particular Things that I can eat.
Sentence pattern is the important link to establish the context in the thought. The requirement of mastering the sentence pattern is for us to deposit, and also use them as accasion demands. Some sentence patterns are specially to express the regularize scene and they can have different affection:
a. Would you please wake me up tomorrow morning? b. Can you help me, please? c. I wander if you can help me. d. Could you spare me a few minutes?
These sentences are all models of asking help, but they are in different ways with different affection. Reciting is a basic method to master the sentence pattern. Students in the Middle School must recite many good articles and useful sentences. The second method is speaking impromptu. Teachers could give some topics and ask students to talk something about them, but the topics must be wide-ranging and agree with the students’ interest in order that students could talk much about them instead of one or two sentences. This method is also a good one to put up with fearing speaking.
Vocabulary plays an important role in practicing oral English. Students must
grasp lots of vocabulary and extent their vocabulary whenever it necessary. Generally speaking, nearly 5000words are enough to communicate. Oral English is different from writing, many simple words are used frequently, such as, go, make, do. These words are very active and they can usually express the meaning briefly and vivid.
When teachers have an English lesson in class, how do they make full use of time to improve the students’ oral English? If there are special oral English lessons in the Middle School, they could take the following lesson for example.
A typical example oral English lesson(for 45 minute-class periods0
This is an oral English course example, which is based on parallel strands of different speaking activities running throughout the term and providing continuity, coherence and a sense of progression. Each of the strands focuses on the continuous development of specific sub-skills proficiency and gives students exposure to different modes of oral communication. Here are the main strands for the course:
IV Use of oral English in communication
1. Oral Presentations:
Each student presents a 3-minute talk at the students’ desk on a given topic. Evaluation by the classmates and written feedback by the teacher is provided in order to allow students to assess their ability and make futher progress. 2. Talking Warm-Up:
Usually an enjoyable pair word communication activity to get all the students involved in talking and establish a good class atmosphere. The Oral Presentations and the Talking Warm-up take up the first 40’ minutes lot. Since time is not completely predictable with students giving their first talk, you found it easier to start off with the Oral Presentations rather than with the
talking Warm-up so that you can shorten or stretch the warm-up according to the situation. 3. Focus on Speaking Strategies:
This part of the lesson follows the units in the students' book. Students prepare the model dialogues and useful phrases in advance so that there is enough time to carry out the communication tasks in class. 4. A Song To Make You Talk:
The song serves as the basis for small group discussions in which students share their response to the song and discuss its theme following the questions on the handout. There are always more questions than students can discuss in class as a stimulus for out-of-class practice.
5. Retelling Personal Stories:
Students need time to think of a good story from their life, therefore it is best if the activity is introduced just before the break so that the students can think of a story during that time and be ready to start the activity in the second half of the lesson. Demonstrate by telling the class an interesting story from your own life.
This may be the only time during the semester when you will have every student's undivided attention! Instruct the students to think of an interesting story from their life during the break. But remind them not to tell anybody yet! Write some ideas on the blackboard to help them: ? a funny thing that happened when you were young ? a lucky escape
? an embarrassing moment ? your best day ever ? a romantic evening ? an adventure while traveling
Let the students tell their story to their partner. As will soon become clear, this is really only a practice run.
Instruct the students to write their name and a title for their story on the slip of paper which you give them. Explain the rules of the activity (perhaps get two students to stand up and go through the motions as a demonstration). Work in pairs, tell each other the story, and then swap the piece of paper. Then when you form a new pair with another student, you will repeat the procedure, telling the story on the slip of paper which you now hold. Check: ? What do you do after telling the story? (swap cards)
? After you find a new partner, do you tell them the story about yourself, or the story on the sheet of paper in your hand? (the sheet in your hand) 6. Out-of-class Talking Opportunities:
At the end of each Oral English lesson, four practice topics are provided which serve a double purpose: All students discuss them after class at English Corners. This course break the routine of repetitive lesson pattern, special events are scheduled during the term, such as the sketch performance m the middle of the term, the Christmas lesson and a Class Speech Competition. Since students tend to perceive repetition as boring and often expect their teacher to spark off fireworks of surprises every single lesson, It is important to make the course
design transparent to students and point out the benefits of continuous skills development over the term.
But there is few single oral English lessons in the Middle School, so teachers must put more oral English practice in a lesson.
1. Asking students to read the useful expressions, dialogues, or the whole test in class in order that students can master more vocabulary and sentence patterns.
2. Say something about student regular life. Teacher can give some useful words or sentences to help student talk about as many as possible.
3. Text retelling. Students must use their own words to retell the long text learned last class and teachers give an example in class first ,which students are imitated.
4. Sentences making. When teachers teach some new language points, they can explain the grammar with an example, and ask students to make new sentences themselves followed by the example. This method is also a good one to learn new words or phrases.
5. Debate or argument. Students can argue the topic which concerned with the lessons. For example, guessing is an interesting games to practice the modal verb: A: What do you think it may be? B: I think it may be an apple.
C: It cannot be an apple, I think it must be a banana.
D: How can it be a banana? A banana is long, but it looks round. It must be an orange. E: It can't be an orange. Anyone with eyes can see it is a .......
Consequently, students can practice their oral English unconsciously in some games.
Each person uses language to their ideas and communicates with others, so oral English is play the major role in communication. With the development of science and technology, social requirement is the greatest power to reform the English teaching. Students should develop the ability of oral English to meet the company's demands that is the requirement of communication and ability. In the Middle School, both teachers and students must eliminate the idea of neglecting oral English and teacher should help students to conquer the psychology of fearing speaking. They also try their best to build up the language environment for the students practicing oral English. We must take it seriously because the improving oral English is the key of quality education.
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