Studies On L2 Speaking In China: Retrospectand Prospect

Using the retrieval, the author has come to locate 31 papers on the area of L2 speaking published between 1995 and the July of 2006 in Foreign Language World, one of the most famous Chinese EFL journals and these articles are up to standard in terms of their depth and scope. Then a classification and an analysis are made of these papers from such angles as research perspective, research scope, research objects and research methodology with the finding that these papers mainly cover the following four aspects: 1) theory of L2 speaking; 2) empirical studies on L2 speaking; 3) L2 speaking instruction, and 4) L2 speaking testing. With the further development in depth of reform and opening-up and with more contacts with people from the English-speaking countries (including people who often communicate in English in non English-speaking countries), the question of how to arrange and strengthen the speaking training in college English teaching has long been the focus of attention. Researchers, in their articles published in the journal Foreign Language World, appeal to readers to attach greater importance to the ability of speaking in college English teaching and put forward many constructive suggestions. Scholars in China have conducted a series of large-scale feasibly theoretical and practical research on standardized oral tests for Chinese students and then established the effective testing and assessment system for CET Band 4, CET Band 6, TEM4 and TEM8 and widely applied the research findings to educational evaluation system in China. Scholars concerned have also made a lot of research on teaching practice to promote teaching methods of oral English and improving the quality of oral English teaching with the views demonstrating that communicative strategy teaching could enhance frequency of strategy use, improve strategic competence of oral English and promote the fluency in expression of oral English. These proposals actually imply the existing problems of obsolete teaching methods, tedious teaching materials, limited number of teaching staff, unfavorable teaching environment and weak pragmatic competence and capability of cross-culture communication on the part of students. An encouraging sign is many empirical data so far obtained in the thinking process of oral expression, the characteristics and underlying law of discourse and the influencing factors of spoken English expression. A summary of those research findings lead to the issues and directions for future L2 speaking research.