A Study On The Effect Of Increasing Language Input On Chinese College Students' Oral English Proficiency

This study answers a question which has been on my mind since I started my EFL teaching career. It concerns about the issue of why most of college students in China can not acquire the most valued competence of English language—speaking fluently, though they have been studying it for more than ten years. Since many language teachers and experts have introduced a variety of theories of SLA to develop student's communicative competence in Chinese context, I will attempt to conduct an experiment to find answers to this puzzle and find a more productive solution to Chinese students'lack of competence in communicative competence.The experimental study is based on the input hypothesis theory by Krashen (1982). A total of 161 students enrolled in freshman non-English majors in Jiangxi Normal University participated in this study. The instruments adopted were tests, questionnaires and interview. During the experiment, all the subjects took two oral English tests, completed two questionnaire and 10 of them were randomly selected as interviewees to help gain an in-depth understanding of the effects of input-enhancement on oral English proficiency. The whole teaching highlighted input enhancement in and outside of classroom. The purpose of this study is to improve students'oral English proficiency by providing larger amount of input. Also, I want to find out whether the students changed their attitude toward input throughout the experiment.The findings of this empirical study reveal that the input-enhancement method did involve a great deal of supportive features favorable for the development of language proficiency, especially in oral aspects. The accumulated vocabulary, sentence patterns, and listening practice reinforced students'language sense and promoted their fluency, accuracy and complexity in spontaneous speech. The results of questionnaires also suggested a tendency that most of the subjects from experimental group favored the role of input to develop an all-round competence in oral English proficiency.According to the research findings, recommendations were presented for both language learner and EFL instructor in China regarding the development of speaking proficiency. In order to help students in an EFL classroom to enlarge their knowledge and rehearse the in-life communication, the input-enhancement method should be implemented in oral English class. Firstly, teachers should provide authentic comprehensible input as much as they can in classroom and encourage student to involve in all the possible activities, such as exchanging information by using the structure verbally. Secondly, some well-selected extra-curriculum materials should be prepared for the students to meet their demand to receive more input. In quality, the materials should be authentic and related to current situation, or interest of the students. In quantity, the input materials should be sufficient but not overwhelming. Thirdly, teachers should design different activities to promote the two-way communication to create comprehensible input and maximize leaner's opportunities for second language acquisition.