The Communicative Teaching Of Spoken English In Vocational Institutes In China

Since 1980 when the Chinese government introduced the open-door policy, and especially since China's entry to the WTO, English, being the international language of communication, consequently has gained its special position in education, science and technology, as well as many other fields in China. Being able to communicate directly with foreigners by means of English becomes increasingly important for the Chinese students.In order to satisfy this increasingly urgent need, the English among Chinese vocational institute students has been remarkably improved, their communicative ability in spoken English is very low in comparison with their ability to listen, read and write. Many students believe that their speaking skills need to be improved most. This reveals the fact that the teaching of spoken English in most vocational institutes in china is not effective enough to meet the communicative needs of the students.This dissertation will look at the existing problems in the teaching of spoken English in the light of the findings of linguists and applied linguists and the observations the author has made during eight year's teaching experience in Changchun Vocational Institute of Technology. Through the discussion of the existing problems and review of the literature on the teaching of spoken English, solutions are suggested, which have been proved to be efficient by comparing the exam results of the students in the experimental class with those of the other classes. The solutions have been proved to be both sound in theory and applicable in practice.In part I, the theory of teaching spoken English is reviewed in order to lay a broad and solid theoretical foundation for the solutions to the problems revealed in part II. The properties of speaking are examined; the efficient foreign speaker of English are defined in respect to the four aspect of competence in real life communication; and the communicative approach together with the characteristics of communicative teaching of spoken English will also be discussed.In part II, the current state of oral English teaching in Chinese vocational institutes of technology will be reviewed. The history of English language teaching in China will be introduced so as to give a general background to the issues with which this dissertation is concerned. Based on this background, the existing problems will be revealed and discussed.In part III, based on the above two chapters, the use of appropriate speaking activities and the integrated teaching of spoken English are discussed. At the same time, the roles of the teacher in the newly suggested teaching framework are also analyzed. The author will present sample teaching materials and activities, with the purpose of exemplifying the types, range...