A Study Of The Activity Design In College Spoken English Class:Based On Input And Output Hypotheses

According to College English Curriculum Requirements, the teaching goal of college English is to cultivate students’comprehensive competence, especially listening and speaking ability. Students could use English to communicate effectively in learning, work and social contact, enhance self-study ability and improve overall cultural literacy as well. The class activity design may improve students’ spoken English competence and the enhancement of communicative competence depends on spoken English competence. The activity design in class could arouse students’interest in learning spoken English, enhance motivation in spoken English class activities and improve speaking ability. The activities should conform to students’English level and develop different forms according to different teaching tasks. As for the phenomenon, the writer is inclined to improve students’ spoken English ability by effective class activity design. They could not improve the spoken English ability, so the various kinds of class activities are designed in spoken English class in this term. The input and output are combined in class activities. Based on the Krashen’s Input Hypothesis and Swain’s Output Hypothesis, the experiment research is conducted by designing class activities which emphasize the comprehensible input and language output. This research is aimed to solve the following questions:1) What is the college students’general attitude towards spoken English class?2) Could the spoken English class activities guided by the input and output theories stimulate students’ enthusiasm in learning spoken English?3) Could the spoken English class activities designed by the researcher improve the students’spoken English competence?The participants of the research are 92 non-English major students from Beifang University of Nationality.47 students are from experimental class and the remaining 45 students are from control class. Level 2 of Public English Test System (PETS) spoken English examinations are used to measure the college students’spoken English proficiency. The research uses both quantitative method and qualitative method. The testing tools contain the questionnaire, the tests, and the interview. The teaching experiment lasts for one semester. At the beginning of the semester, the questionnaire is distributed to students in the experimental class to investigate the students’general attitude towards spoken English learning. Students in the two classes have the pretest before the experiment to assess the students’ proficiency in spoken English. In the course of the experiment, the same textbook is used in these two classes. The major difference between the two classes is that the varied class activities of spoken English are carried through in the experimental class, for example, group or pair discussion, dialogue making, story retelling, role-play are well-organized in the experimental class. These activities are improved and revised. Furthermore, the students in this class are also encouraged to speak English, read latest English newspapers, and watch English movies after class. Nonetheless, the teacher in control class teaches students by listening to the material, checking the answers and explaining the key points. The students learn spoken English with a few class activities. The first mid-test is conducted in the two classes after five weeks while the second mid-test is set after another five weeks. The mid-tests are designed to collect information of students’ gradual change in detail. The students have the posttest at the end of the semester, and the quantitative method is used to analyze the results. The same questionnaire is delivered to students in the experimental class and some of them have group interview, using the qualitative method to resolve the results.On the basis of the results, it could be concluded that class activities designed with Input and Output Hypotheses is effective and feasible in spoken English class. It is concluded that most students enhance the spoken English proficiency and the various class activities indeed arouse the students’ interest in learning spoken English tremendously.