Application Of Context Theory To Postgraduates' Oral English Training

It is well-known that speaking competence is essential in testing a foreign language learner's overall linguistic and communicative competence. With the development of globalization, the study of oral English training has drawn extensive attention from linguists and foreign language teaching experts. However, the research on oral English training at postgraduates' level has received less attention. As one of the basic linguistic competences, "speaking" is very difficult to be improving for English learners due to the lack of the communicative environment. In college English teaching, most English teachers are still using the traditional teaching model, which is of little help in meeting the goal of communicating in English fluently and accurately. Hoping to change the situation of one-way communication or teacher-centered class, the author of the thesis tries to be creative in bringing out new ideas and methods for effective oral English training.The author applies the context theory to postgraduates' oral English training and comes to the conclusion that it is quite effective to improve non-English majors' competence in English speaking. First of all, the research in this paper takes postgraduates' oral English as the subject. The reason for doing this lies in the urgent need of oral proficiency for postgraduates, on such occasions as international academic conferences, job interviews, and so on. Two parallel classes, totally 60 postgraduates majored in Fire Control, are chosen from the Air Force Engineering University, as the subjects of this research. Based on their previous performances in various English tests, 30 students from Class A are chosen as Control Class (CC) and 30 students from Class B are treated as Experimental Class (EC). In the first week and the last week of the experiment, their oral English proficiency is tested. The data shows that students'oral proficiency is nearly at the same level in the first week, while there is a great difference in the last week—students from Class B do much better. The Questionnaire from the 135 students shows that they have realized their deficiency in their oral English and are eager to learn oral English well. The experiment proves that the procedure employed in the experimental class is accepted and welcomed. Secondly, the author proposes the context-based model in which students are immersed in English.Most importantly, the author conducts an empirical study to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the new model by using the statistics of the pre-and post-tests. Through the in-class training and the after-class exercises, the author tries to:stimulate postgraduates' interest in oral practice so that they are willing to speak English in daily life; create a relaxed and harmonious learning atmosphere to encourage students to speak freely and persistently. Through more than four-month experiment and data analysis, the author arrives at a satisfactory finding:the context-based training model is effective in improving the postgraduates' oral competence.And finally, the author hopes the empirical study could serve as a trigger of more researches on oral English training and call for effective platforms to be set up for students' English learning.The whole thesis falls into five chapters.Chapter one is a general introduction to the present study, covering the background of the research, significance and purpose of the study, methodology and the structure of the thesis.Chapter Two offers a review of the relevant literature and the theoretical framework both in China and abroad.Chapter Three is about the necessity of applying context theory to oral English training, and factors infusing speaking are also touched on as well.Chapter Four introduces the methodology employed in this thesis, including data collection, instrument, and analytical approach. The data for the study are the scores of the 60 postgraduates from the Air Force Engineering University. The quantitative and comparative analyses all ensure the efficiency and reliability of the context-based training model proposed in this study. Then the author makes a quantitative analysis of the results of the questionnaire and the oral proficiency tests.Chapter Five is the conclusion, which makes clear the major findings of the thesis.