Teaching Design Of College Spoken English From Performance Assessment Perspective

With the rapid development of science and technology in this era, which results in the economic globalization, the importance of communicating in English is more and more recognized. Macroscopically, the spoken English can act not only as a vehicle for different ideas and views, but also as a medium for mutual understanding and respect; microscopically, spoken English can contribute to the build-up of individual’s vocabulary and the development of English thinking habits. However, the college students’ spoken English appears to be generally low, and the same is even true for students excellent in English reading or writing. In 2007, the Ministry of Education issued “College English Curriculum Requirements”(“Requirements” referred to hereafter) to meet the needs of the time. It sets specific requirements for different levels of spoken English. It is thus imperative for us to reanalyze and rebuild the college spoken English teaching design corresponding to the “Requirements”.Firstly, the current teaching situation of college spoken English is elicited by means of questionnaires and the disadvantages of the current pedagogical design of college spoken English teaching are summarized. Then, based on our analysis of “Requirements”,we find that the performance assessment theory is practicable and has many advantages in spoken English teaching. Lastly, we apply the performance assessment theory in the design of the objectives, contents, procedures and appraisals in our teaching processes.After considering the current situation of the practices and results of spoken English teaching, we apply the performance assessment theory into the different sessions of the spoken English courses. It is aimed to provide a better way for the conduction of spoken English lessons with a relaxed atmosphere and constant feedback, and as a consequence, to improve the quality of college spoken English teaching.In China which is a non-English-native country, we can apply the advanced pedagogical theories from the West to our college spoken English teaching while attention is paid to the particular culture and the situations of the students and the country as a whole.