On Application Of Explicit Interactive Task Approach To Vocational College English Teaching

In recent years, teaching foreign language in an explicit way or in an implicit way is quite controversial. All those disputes can be concluded as the disputes on the interface between explicit and implicit knowledge on a large scale. There are three different kinds of opinions on the interface between explicit and implicit knowledge: the non-interface position, the strong-interface position and the weak-interface position. The non-interface position claims that there is no connection between explicit knowledge and implicit kind, which is mainly represented by Krashen's Input Hypothesis. Contrary to this opinion, some researches represented by Dekeyser maintain that explicit knowledge can be converted into implicit knowledge, by means of practice. Based on the analysis of the two parties' opinions, Rod Ellis puts forward the Weak-interface Position. He states that the implicit and explicit knowledge are two separately coexisting knowledge systems. Explicit knowledge can become implicit if the instruction is properly timed. Based on the research concerning Ellis's Weak-interface Position and the present foreign language grammar teaching in China, Chinese scholars Dai Weidong& Ren Qingmei put forward the explicit interactive task (EIT) approach, which refers to the instructional strategies employed to raise learners' conscious awareness of form or structure of the target language while improving communicative competence.Researches mentioned above are mainly concerned with grammar learning and teaching. However, there has been little research on the explicit and implicit knowledge in oral English teaching at vocational colleges. Based on the research concerning the explicit and implicit knowledge, the present college English teaching in Chinese environments and the characteristics of vocational college students in China, the author aims to test the feasibility and efficiency of the EIT approach in improving the HVTE (Higher Vocational Technical Education) students' oral English proficiency, and to check what attitudes the HVTE students hold toward speaking English under the guidance of EIT approach.The author observed four first-year classes of non-English majors from a vocational college in Hunan province, two of them as the experiment group, the other two as the control group. The experiment lasted four months. It was carried out to check what effect the EIT approach had on the HVTE students' oral proficiency in the aspects of accuracy, complexity and fluency; what attitudes the vocational students held toward the EIT approach. The results has found that the EIT approach can better cultivate vocational students' oral English proficiency in the aspects of fluency and accuracy, while the effectiveness in developing the complexity of the students' oral production is not significant; the EIT approach can better cause the HVTE students to form a positive attitude toward speaking English. Apart from providing enough information for the improvement of the HVTE students' oral English proficiency, the results can also have wider implications for both EFL teachers and learners to have effective practice in an EIT approach classroom.