Improving Non-English Majors' Competence In Oral Communication Under Learner-centered Approach

College English teaching has witnessed great changes in the past two decades, but oral English teaching for the non-English majors still remains weak, which is partly due to the traditional concept of teaching, partly due to the practical conditions. When more and more people start to turn their eyes on the students' oral competence, educators must try to explore some effective ways to organize oral English classes for non-English majors. In the recent years, learner-centered approach has become one of the most popular approaches in foreign language teaching. "Learner-centeredness" has been developed from constructivism and humanism, which turn the attention from teaching to learning to cultivate the learners' potentiality in learning new things. When implementing learner-centered approach in oral English class, the teacher is no longer provider of knowledge, but a participant, organizer, guide and monitor. Meanwhile it doesn't mean the teacher's role is devalued.In fact, the teacher will face even more challenges since he/she has to deal with a lot of unexpected situations.The author of this essay probed into many influential factors in the implementation of learner-centered approach in oral English class and tried to explore solutions to the problems appearing in the teaching process. In practice, the students gradually accepted learner-centeredness through their own participation and cooperation, and realized learning "how to do" is more important than just knowing "what to do". This new approach helped most students change their learning habits and become more active in English learning. They have not only improved their oral English but also built up confidence in practicing their oral English.The essay is divided into five parts: the first part discusses the present condition of Chinese students in L2 oral classroom and the main problems; the second part introduces the philosophical background of learner-centered approach: constructivism and humanism, and analyzes the deficiencies of present oral English teaching based on the investigation concerning oral English teaching for non-English majors; the third part sets up a new teaching model under learner-centered approach. In this part the author discusses the model in detail from the perspective of students, teaching materials, demands on teachers in oral class and teaching method. At last, she gives a sample lesson to demonstrate how the model can be used. The fourth part is feedback on learner-centered oral English class. In the last part, the author comes to the conclusion that it is necessary and feasible to implement learner-centered approach in oral English class for non-English majors.