Oral English Proficiency Development: A Study Based On The Visual-Audio-oral Courses

The aim of college English teaching is to develop students'ability to use English in a well-rounded way, but the teaching of oral proficiency has been a problem for many years. Scholars in a large number have done researches about students'oral proficiency (Pica et al 1989; De Bot 1992; Swain & Lapkin 1998; Izumi 2003; Wang 2001; Liu 2002; Xu 2004; Tan & Xie 2008; Gu 2009; Guo & Qi 2009). However, on the one hand, these researches are not specific enough; and on the other hand, most of them belong to the theoretical research, which couldn't meet the needs of language teaching in practice. Although students have realized the importance of oral proficiency development, traditional college English teaching couldn't provide authentic materials for them, which is against the rules of language acquisition. This study tends to bring vision into listening and speaking classes, use the visual-audio-oral courses to facilitate the circulation of "input-ntake-utput",offer students authentic materials and communication content and involve them into colorful classroom activities to improve their oral proficiency.In order to explore the relationship between the visual-audio-oral courses and students'oral proficiency, an empirical study is designed to carry out the visual-audio-oral courses in 2 experimental classes, and carry out traditional courses in 2 comparative classes for comparison. Moreover, the development of oral proficiency among students at different language proficiency levels and effective activities used in the visual-audio-oral courses are paid attention to. The study lasts for 7 months, and statistics come from questionnaires, pre-tests and post-tests of students'oral English proficiency, classroom observations and interviews.The data analysis of 257 questionnaires shows that students are eager to take the visual-audio-oral courses to improve their oral proficiency in a new way. The data analysis of 120 participants in oral proficiency tests shows that after taking the visual-audio-oral courses, students'oral proficiency is improved significantly, especially in the aspects of discourse management and interactive communication. In addition, students whose language proficiency is at the lower level improve more than students whose language proficiency is at the higher level. The classroom activities of Best Image, Film Presentation, Celebrity Interview and Role Play are welcomed mostly by students and also of great effectiveness. The results of classroom observations and interviews show that most students gain confidence in their oral English and become more interested in English. Nevertheless, there are also few students who couldn't adapt to the visual-audio-oral courses.Based on the above results, this study contributes to language teaching of non-English major students the following implications:(i) Authentic video materials should be used in EFL teaching, (ii) Opportunities must be given to students to speak English out to facilitate output, and (iii) Teachers should involve every student in the classroom, especially those whose language proficiency is at the lower level. Thus, this study hopes to arouse colleges'attention to students" oral proficiency, and shed light on the visual-audio-oral courses and college English teaching reform.