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1. Introduction 1.1 Research Background
copyright paper51.com paper51.comThe developing of oral communicative competence is not a new researchfield. Many people have done research on this topic in different degrees andhave written many articles related to the theories. For example, Harmer’s Howto Teach English; William Littlewood’s Communicative LanguageTeaching, Yang Mei’s thesis for Master’s degree OnDeveloping Communicative Competence in English Teaching. All ofthese authors have mentioned this http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 1.2 Research Purpose
paper51.com paper51.comAs we know, “Language isthe most important communication tool of human beings ”, said Lenin. English,as a widely used international language, has already become one of the mostimportant languages in the world. Language is a system of arbitrary vocalsymbols used for human communication. One of the aims of teaching English inmiddle school is to develop the ability of communicating in English. With thedevelopment of economy and society in our country, all of the fields now arebeen opened to the outside world at a very quick speed. Especially, since ourcountry entered the WTO, people have paid more and more attention to Englishlearning, as in the modern society most of our co-operations with othercountries are accomplished in English. So, improving senior middle schoolstudents’ oral communicative competence is good for developing our country’s constructionand economy. paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comcopyright paper51.com “Communicativecompetence was first coined by Dell Hymes in 1972 in order to extend the ideaof linguistic competence which Chomsky popularized to include not onlyknowledge of the rules which enable a speaker to distinguish grammatical forms,ungrammatical sentences in the language, but also the rules that determineappropriate use of the language in living situations.” (杨梅, 2004:3)
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内容来自www.paper51.com Chinese people need to absorb more and more advancedtechnology from the developed world. It is really hard to imagine what willhappen if learners do not master the speaking skills of the English language.In the past, speaking was not thought to be as important as the other languageskills in teaching. Usually, reading and writing are always put at the firstplace. As a result, teachers trained many “deaf persons” and “ dumb persons ”.In fact, from a long-term point of view, speaking is more useful thanlistening, reading and writing in communication. The new teaching programme ofSEFC says:“ listening and speaking is one of the important aims of teaching English.Teachers should pay more attention to listening practice and improving theskills of speaking.” http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Speaking is not only one way of providing variety inteaching procedures, it also helps students remember what they have learned andunderstand what to say in different situations. The more chances teachers giveto students to speak; the more they will be full of confidence. And as aresult, they will also be more and more interested in English.
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内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com2. Definition 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com 2.1 Oral English 内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Oral English is also called spoken English. Teachersshould organize their classroom conversation by speaking instead of writingdown something. It is a very important way to communicate with others face toface. People who know a language are referred to as a “speaker” of thatlanguage. If students want to communicate with others, they must open theirmouth and talk. Through speaking, they can express themselves freely. Forsenior middle school students, they have many difficulties in speaking. Theycan make dialogues use simple sentences, but they dare not open their mouth tospeak, as they are afraid of making mistakes. Therefore, teachers shouldencourage students to open their mouth as much as possible and tell them thatno one can avoid making mistakes. From mistakes, they can improve themselves,just as the saying says, “Failure is the mother of success” and teachers tellstudents that from hard speaking to fluent speaking is a developing process. copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com2.2 Communication
内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com“Communication means shareor exchange information or ideas with others”(李北达, 2002:292). “Speaking isa language activity of using language to express our minds.”(胡春洞，1990:148)
内容来自www.paper51.com paper51.com There are many ways of communications,such as telephone lines, writing, computers and oral communication; and allof these are accomplished by languages. Students learn spoken English so as tohaving oral communication with others, so if they want to understand each otherbetter they must master the following rules: fluency, accuracy andappropriateness. These rules should be in the proper order of this: fluency-accuracy-appropriateness. That is to say, students have to pay more attention topracticing their oral communication ability instead of only laying emphasis onthe grammatical correctness. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com2.3 Competence and Ability
paper51.com http://www.paper51.comGenerally speaking, communicative competence can beunderstood from two aspects. In a narrow sense, communicative competenceemphasizes the social communicative competence. As defined by Hymes,communicative competence consists of four sectors: 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com
paper51.com “(1) the ability to judge whether something isformally possible, i.e. Whether something is grammatical; (2) the ability tojudge whether something is feasible, i.e. whether something is psychologicallyacceptable; (3) the ability to judge whether something is appropriate, i.e.whether something is suitable in a certain social context; (4) the ability tojudge whether something is done, i.e. how often something occurs” (杨梅, 2004:15)
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内容来自www.paper51.com In a broad sense,communicative competence refers to the ability to use the grammatical rules ofa language. It is the ability of various aspects including: the ability to usethe language correctly, the ability to pass and get information and the abilityto succeed in socio-cultural communication, etc. It also includes both verbaland, non-verbal communication and involves language, rhetorical, socio-culturaland psychological factors. It lays emphasis on both spoken language and writtenlanguage. To improve a student’s communicative competence is to improve hiscomprehensive language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. paper51.com copyright paper51.comIn a word, communicativecompetence refers to the ability to use the language to communicate in specificsituations and understand the language from a social perspective. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com“Ability is the capacityto do something” (李北达, 2002:2). Communicationinvolves ability as well. Teachers should try their best to encourage studentsto do speaking tasks. copyright paper51.com paper51.compaper51.com “Speaking task where students are trying to use alland any language they know provides feedback for both teachers and students. Teacherscan see how well their class is doing and what language problems they arehaving; students can also see how easy they find a particular kind of speakingand what they need to do to improve. Speaking activities can give them enormousconfidence and satisfaction, and with sensitive teachers guidance can encouragethem into further study.”(J. Harmer, 2000:87-88)
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com “Communicative activity provides opportunities forpositive personal relationships to develop among learners and between learnersand teachers. These relationships can help to ‘humanize’ the classroom and tocreate an environment that supports the individual in his efforts to learn.” (WilliamLittlewood, 2000:18)
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Teachers can give studentssome questions after class and check the answers in the next period. From thefeedback process teachers can understand the ability of students’ oralcommunicative competence.
内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 3. The Importance of Oral English 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Oneof the most important aims for senior middle students to learn oral English isto communicative with others. In their daily life they need to talk withothers. All of these communications are useful for developing theircommunicative competence.
paper51.com copyright paper51.com 3.1 Interpersonal relations
内容来自www.paper51.com paper51.com Interpersonal relations contain manyparts. Here the author will only take greeting, introduction, and farewell asexamples. Greeting, when learners meet friends outside they need to greet eachother. But they should pay attention to some rules at the same time. If theymeet an acquaintance， usually they use some simple expressions, such as “How are you?” “Niceto meet you/see you again”; if they meet a stranger, they often use “How do youdo” instead. In a word, only when students master these rules can theycommunicate freely and deeply. In order to understand this better, let usexamine the following sentences, e.g.
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com I’d like to introduce you to…
paper51.com paper51.com Let me introduce…to you.
内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.comAllow me to introduce you to… copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.comI’d like you to meet… http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com These regular usages areused to introduce somebody while the following sentences are used to introduceoneself. http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com May I introduce myself? Myname is…
paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Please allow me tointroduce myself. I’m…/my name is… 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.comHow do you do? My name is… paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comNow students know greetingsand introductions, but when they finish their talking, what should they say toeach other? Of course, they cannot leave without a word. So they must knowsomething about farewells. When they leave they can say something like this: http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.comI am afraid I must be leaving now.
copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com I think it is time for us to leavenow. copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com Hope to see you again.
paper51.com paper51.com In a word, interpersonal relationsare a very important part of communicating. Senior middle school studentsshould try their best to speak English in and outside class as much aspossible. They should not be afraid of making mistakes. paper51.com copyright paper51.com3.2 Daily Activities
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.comDaily activities, such as invitationand responses, making appointments, shopping, having meals and seeing the doctor,all require communicating. Below the author will introduce how to use Englishto express themselves by these activities.
paper51.com copyright paper51.com Firstly,the author would like to introduce what students should say when they make, acceptor refuse an invitation. Let students see the following sentences: http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com(1) Make an invitation
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com I wonder if you would liketo…?
paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Shall we go for…?
paper51.com http://www.paper51.com May I ask you for…? 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comI should be delighted ifyou could…(formal) copyright paper51.com paper51.com How/ what about doing…? (Informal)
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com (2) Accept an invitation
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Thanks for your invitation. I wouldlove to…
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com That would be great/wonderful! copyright paper51.com paper51.com That sounds good. Thank you. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com That’s very kind of you.Thank you. paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Ok, that all right.
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com (3) Refuse an invitation
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com Of course, learners cannotdirectly refuse someone with only the word “no”, for to say that is not polite.They should use a polite way, like the following sentences:
paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com That’s very kind of you, but I am afraid …
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com I would love to, but I amafraid … copyright paper51.com paper51.comThanks for asking me, but Icannot. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comI wish I could, but…
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com Thank you for yourinvitation, but … 内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.comSecondly, the author wouldlike to introduce something about making an appointment. Here making anappointment refers to fixing a place or time before. When someone goes to see adoctor, calls on somebody, and invite someone he should have an appointmentwith him beforehand. As everyone has his own private time, if learners do notmake an appointment before an event, he may not be free then. Students canimprove their oral English from dialogues. For example, when they call on their foreign teachers, they can begintheir dialogue like this.（尚新, 刘春梅, 2000:111-112）
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com A: Good morning, Mr.Smith. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comB: Oh, it’s Xiao li. Gladto see you in my house. copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comA: Glad to meet you. Oh, professorSmith, I wonder if you could spare me a few minutes talking about how toimprove my oral English? http://www.paper51.com paper51.com B: Certainly I can. If you want toimprove your oral English, there is only one way, you must speak English at anytime you can.
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com A: Yes, I know. But in what way? paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com B: For example, you can speak Englishin class and talk with your classmates or discuss something with your teacher.
paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com A: I see. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com B: You can also listen to radio orwatch TV. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com A: Ok, I’ll practice it from tonighton. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.comB: I’m sure you will speak very wellsomeday.
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comA: I hope so. I am sorry. I must gonow. Thank you very much. paper51.com http://www.paper51.com B: Not at all. Thank you for yourcoming. http://www.paper51.com paper51.comFrom above, students can easilyunderstand that oral English is very important both in their study and in life.
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paper51.com 4. Methodsof Improving Oral Communicative Ability 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comThe below methods theauthor will introduce are based on students’ language practice from dialogue,discussion, observation to improve students’ language communicative competence.These three methods have unity of opposites.
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http://www.paper51.com “Goodspeaking activities can and should be highly motivating. If all the studentsare participating fully--and if the teacher has set up the activity properlyand can give sympathetic and useful feedback-- they will get tremendoussatisfaction from it. Many speaking tasks (oral-playing, discussion,problem-solving etc) are intrinsically enjoyable in themselves.” (J. Harmer,2000:88) copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.comhttp://www.paper51.com Of course, there are manyways to improve students’ oral English. Teachers should try their best todevelop students’ oral communicative competence. But to help studentsimprove their oral English is not an easy job. It is difficult to enablestudents to communicate freely and make them express their ideas clearly. Ittakes time and patience. As many students seem to have little confidence inusing English in and outside the classroom. They often worry about makingmistakes in their speaking and feel that it might be better not to speak Englishat all. So in this paper the author will introduce three methods to helpstudents open their mouth.
copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 4.1 Dialogue 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comGenerally speaking,students first can make some simple dialogues, and then gradually makedifficult ones. For the simple dialogues, teachers can practice asking andanswering between students and the teacher or have students do it in pairs, butthey should pay attention that students must be asked to provide real informationand cannot rely on the sentences which appear in the text only. “ In the bookClass Communication Johnson and Morrow point out:‘ the way ofhelping to change the teaching process to the communication process is to makethe information gap.” (Yu Hong-bin, 2003:283) 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comTake Part Two “Speaking”in News media in Unit 2 in SEFC student’s Book 2A（刘道义，2005）as example. In this part,there are many information and useful expressions given in the text. Accordingto these hints, students can make many dialogues in pairs or groups. Working inpairs or groups can provide an additional source of talk, such as: 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comA: What do you think ofchoosing food prices are going up for our topic? paper51.com paper51.com B: I do not think weshould choose this one. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.comA: What is your opinion?
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com B: Maybe it is better tochoose two men robbed a bank in Shanghai.
http://www.paper51.com paper51.com A: Perhaps food prices areeasy to talk about. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.comB: Maybe. But I think therobbery is more interesting.
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com A: I agree with you. Let’sbegin our dialogue.
paper51.com http://www.paper51.comB: …… 内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.comLike this above, in a verycheerful and relaxed atmosphere, they can express what they want to say withoutpressure. Gradually, their oral communicative competence will improve. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com 4.2 Discussion copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comThis method refers togiving students a certain topic and letting them work in pairs or groups todiscuss. Usually, most of them forget everything that they have just learnedsoon after they leave the class and they can hardly speak English outside ofclass. Discussion is a profitable way to resolve this problem. Before studentshave the discussion, teachers must prepare related materials.
paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com “Getting students to have a free discussion gives thema chance to rehearse having discussions outsideclassroom. Having them taking part in a role-play at an airport check-in deskallows them to rehearse such a real-life event in the safety of the classroom.This is not the same as practice in which more detailed study take place;instead it is a way for students to ‘get the feel’ of what communicating in theforeign language really feels like.” (J. Harmer, 2000:87)
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com paper51.com In order to conduct a conversation,teachers should present for the class several certain situations, such asinterpersonal relations and daily activities. Different groups should discusseach situation, and then teachers can ask one person in each group to tell thewhole class their answer. Practice can be continued without boredom, and byreading the dialogue many times in and out of class. They will learn thecontent by heart in a cheerful and relaxed atmosphere and have great curiosityto learn English and it will give them a chance to use what they have learned.Gradually, this will let them feel that English is not difficult and they wantto challenge themselves to talk with foreigners. Thus their oral communicativecompetence has been improved. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 4.3 Observation http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comEvery day students seedifferent things, but they hardly pay attention to distinguishing their differences.Only when teachers ask them to write a composion or an article do they observethings that they see every day. In fact observation is also a useful way ofdeveloping speaking English.
copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Pictures are extremelyuseful for a variety of communication activities, especially where they have agame-like feeling, such as describing and drawing activities where one studentdescribes a picture and other students in the class have to draw the samepicture without looking at the original. Teachers can also divide a class into severalgroups and give each group a different picture that shows a separate part of astory. Once the members of the group have studied their pictures, teachers takethem away. By sharing the information they see in their pictures, they have towork out what story the pictures together are telling.
copyright paper51.com paper51.comTeachers sometimes use picturesfor creative writing. They might tell students to make up a story using atleast three of the objects in front of them. They can tell them to have aconversation. 内容来自www.paper51.com Using this method theteacher should try to make students speak English as much as possible andshould not blame students when they make mistakes. On the contrary, teachers shouldencourage them to speak loudly in class and work in groups. Teachers should paymuch attention to the organization of class activities during their preparationfor their lessons. They should also be aware of their roles in the class. Toreach the goal of helping students acquire communicative competence, teachers aresupposed to have a better understanding of the nature of what they areteaching. They must make sure that the class should be student-centered, notteacher or book-centered. paper51.com copyright paper51.com In a word, the abovemethods should not be separated, as there are many similarities among them. Allthe methods should be used in class to improve students’ oral communicativecompetence.
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 5.Conclusion
paper51.com copyright paper51.com In a word, language is oneof the most important ways to express learners’ thoughts to people. It isimportant to achieve their goals. Teachers should try their best to developstudents’ oral communicative competence. They should pay much attention to theorganization of class activities during their preparation for their lessons andshould be also aware of their roles in class. This is not an easy thing, as differentstudents have different attitudes toward study. Oral communicative competenceis related to his interest, knowledge, and not all the methods are suitable foreach person and in different cases teachers should adopt different ways toimprove students’ spoken English.
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paper51.com References
paper51.com http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com Harmer, J. . How to Teach English. Beijing: Foreign LanguageTeaching and Research Press, 2000 paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comLittlewood, William. Communicative LanguageTeaching. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000 http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comYu, Hongbin. Methodsof Improving Speaking Skills of JEFC Students. Journal of Huzhou Teachers College. Vol.25 Jun., 2003 内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com胡春洞. 英语教学法[M]. 北京:高等教育出版社, 1990
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 李北达. Oxford Advanced Learner’s English- Chinese Dictionary[Z]. 北京:商务印书馆出版, 2002 copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 刘道义. Senior English for China Student’s Book 2A[M]. 北京；人民教育出版, 2002 http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com尚新, 刘春梅. 英语口语技巧百问百练[M]. 北京:中国书籍出版社, 2000 paper51.com http://www.paper51.com杨梅. 试论英语教学中口语交际能力的培养[M]. 长春: 吉林大学,2004
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