A Study Of Factors Affecting Students' Oral English Proficiency In Chinese College English Teaching Setting

English as a worldwide language plays a more and more important role in the world communication, and high oral English proficiency is required with the development of the society. But in the EFT/EFL practice in China, oral English teaching is a weak point, which is probably the most vulnerable for criticism. Many students'oral English ability remains far less desirable and most of them still cannot communicate effectively in English, although they have relatively good command of grammar, even some of them have passed College English Test Band 4 (CET-4) or Band 6 (CET-6). Therefore, it is very important to know how to offer effective and efficient training to improve students'oral English proficiency in college English teaching setting. There must be some factors that have affected students'oral English proficiency.The study explored the factors which may facilitate or debilitate students'oral English proficiency in college English teaching setting. Research methodology applied includes classroom observation, questionnaire and interview.200 freshmen from 5 different majors of Nanjing University of Finance and Economics as well as 5 English teachers participated in the investigation. Classroom observation lasted for a whole semester to get the general description of teachers'administration, students'performance, and the proportion of oral activities in class. The questionnaire covers the factors such as environment and opportunity for oral English practice, teaching syllabus, teaching methods, teaching materials, culture, personality, attitude and motivation, anxiety and self-esteem, and the time students spent on oral English practice. 200 students filled in the questionnaires. The recovery rate of the questionnaire was 100%. The interviews recorded the viewpoints of 5 English teachers and 10 students on oral English teaching and learning.The qualitative and quantitative analysis was made according to the data collected. The results show that environment and opportunity for oral English practice tends to be the most influential factor affecting students'oral English proficiency in College English teaching setting. Due to the poor class administration for oral English practice, as well as lack of environment and sufficient practice after class, students'oral English proficiency is far from the requirements. In addition, some other factors might affect students'oral English proficiency at different levels.Finally, the author points out that it is necessary to create an ideal environment for oral English teaching and learning. The proportion of oral English teaching should be enlarged in the overall college English teaching. College English teachers should encourage students to participate in classroom oral activities, try to lower their anxiety and heighten their self-confidence, and provide more opportunities for them to practice oral English in and after class in order to help them improve their oral English proficiency.