An Investigation On Speaking Block And Its Sources In Oral Output Of Non-English Major Students

Reviewing the students’ English learning situation in China, it is easy for us tonote that students tend to be weaker in “speaking” capacity among the four basiclanguage skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Many students, who havealready passed various English examinations, show their inability in communicatingwith others in English, and even don’t have the courage to speak English. Moreattention is attracted in written skills than oral skills. Therefore, speaking blockbecomes a common phenomenon in English learning. For example, students are afraidof speaking English in class; they have to think for a while before they speak English;they incline to keep silent in class; it is difficult for them to express their feelings inEnglish, etc. Research on oral output can be embodied in cognitive or affectiveperspectives. This study aims at investigating the influence of affective factors on oraloutput from the affective aspects.In language output, considerable research shows that the affective factors areplaying a significant role, among which are anxiety, attitude, motivation andself-esteem. The positive affective factors such as high self-esteem, self-confidence,motivation could create a more beneficial learning environment and atmosphere,whereas negative factors as anxiety and nervousness will have unfavorable impact onlearners’ language output.Based on affect in language learning, this study aims at investigating speakingblock and its sources in oral output of non-English major students, and the correlationbetween the degree of speaking block and students’ English achievement.174non-English major sophomores from a university in Jiangxi province are thesubjects of this research. A questionnaire for collecting quantitative data is adopted.The questionnaire data is analyzed by SPSS17.0. Interview for interpreting students’speaking block status and the influence of affective factors is conducted. After theFrequency statistics, Factor Analysis and Pearson Correlation Coefficient analysis, the results of this study can be summarized as follows:Most of the students encounter the phenomenon of speaking block. Thefrequency and percentage indicates that59.2%of the subjects do encounter thephenomenon of speaking block. For instance, they prefer keeping silent in the class allthe time; they can not speak English correctly and smoothly; they tend to be moredependent on Chinese translation and they are afraid of speaking English. Theaffective factors mentioned above can account for speaking block. Seven factorsextracted from the28statements are divided into five subscales. They are Blocking,Anxiety&Self-esteem, Attitude, Complexity and Motivation subscale. The difficultyof oral tasks and lacking of English speaking environment may influence the oraloutput, which result in speaking block. What’s more, Pearson Correlation Coefficientis-.331**,which means there is a negative correlation between the degree of speakingblock and the students’ CET4grades.The implications of this study are proposed for students and language teaching.Students have to realize the influence of affective factors on the speaking practice.How to modulate the impact of anxiety, apprehension, and self-esteem is veryimportant for their future learning. In terms of the investigation into speaking block inlanguage output, the teachers should make full use of the positive effect of affectivevariables, activate students’ initiative in speaking, and then help the studentsovercome the barriers of speaking block.