A Comparative Study On The Silence Phenomenon During Oral English Class Of English Major Taught By Chinese/Foreign Teachers In Universities In Xi’an

As English learners,we all know speaki ng English is an im portant process in English study.However,in the oral Engl ish class of Chinese co lleges,especially among the English m ajors,silence can be easily found in the classr oom.The silence has some negative impacts on English learning,because it will lead to a dull classroom atmosphere and hinder English major students from improving their learning efficiency.So it is of great significance to explore d eeply into students negative silence in th e classroom and help teachers and student s teach and learn English language m ore effectively.This research aim s to get a general knowledge of how college teachers and students understand the negative silence,to explore the causes of students’ negative silence in oral English classes,and then to propose some possible solutions to this issue.According to these aims,the author poses three research questions to be answered: Q1.How do students and teachers und erstand the silence in oral English class? Q2.What are the influencing factors which cause the silence in class? Q3.What methods can be used to break the classroom silence?This research is carried out am ong English majors of 6 universities in Xi’an in a period of 10 weeks.More th an 300 students and their oral English teachers from 12 classes were chosen to be participants of this research.F our research m ethods are applied in the study: classroom observation,questionnaire survey,audio recording and interview to collect Qualitative and quantitative data.By disposing and analyzing the data co llected from the research,the author discovered that three factors which cause the classroom silence in oral English lessons: the students,such as their views towards the authority of Chinese and foreign teachers;the teachers,such as how they react when f acing with students’ silence,and the local English education system,like the exa m-oriented education m ethod.The author finally provides some practical solutions which require the joint ef forts of students,teachers,Universities and local ed ucational department,such as Chinese teachers could change their teaching method,students should cultivate a strong self-confidence,and the universities should pay abundant attention to the practicability of oral English.