A Study On Current Situation Of Spoken English Teaching In Rural Junior Middle Schools In Wuming County

English is an important language in the world and a vital tool for international communication. In order to improve our country's international competitiveness and national people's quality as well as their international communication ability, the Ministry of Education promulgated the Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards (2011 Edition) (hereinafter referred to as Standards (2011)). The Standards (2011) both sets up related requirements of spoken English learning for primary and secondary school students and provides some teaching suggestions for English teachers. However, for a long time, students in rural areas in China are reported to be poor in their spoken English and weak in communicative competence. Meanwhile, most teachers in rural areas are blamed for their ignorance of oral English teaching, out-dated teaching methods and improper evaluation system. However, what is the real situation in rural junior middle schools now? The present study makes an investigation into English teachers'spoken English teaching in rural junior middle schools in Wuming County.In this study, one questionnaire and an interview are used as the research instruments, and the subjects are 48 English teachers from six junior middle schools of Wuming County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. There are seven dimensions of the study:teachers' teaching concept, classroom teaching situation, homework assignment and extracurricular teaching situation, teaching material, teachers'evaluation of students, teaching environment and teachers'professional quality. The two research questions addressed in the present study are:(1) What is the overall situation of spoken English teaching in rural junior middle schools in Wuming? Does the spoken English teaching accord with related requirements in Standards(2011)? (2) What are the factors contributing to the current situation?Through the study, the author has come up with the following findings:(1) Teachers have correct teaching concepts; (2) They can assess students objectively. The findings indicate that in terms of teaching concept and teachers' evaluation of students, the requirements in Standards(2011) are well met. (3) In classroom teaching, teachers devoted most of the time on grammar; while a small portion of the time is given to English speaking practice, even then the students are not active; (4) The homework that teachers assign is monotonous, which is not conducive to the students' oral communicative competence; (5) The teaching materials do not focus on the students' spoken English learning; (6) Nearly all the teachers are not satisfied with their schools' teaching environment; (7) Teachers professional quality is relatively poor.Based on the above findings, some suggestions are put forward for teachers and schools. For teachers, they should arrange the teaching content reasonably, guide students to master effective learning strategies, expand the channels for students to learn spoken English and pay attention to their own professional development. For schools, suggestions are that more diversified spoken English extracurricular activities should be organized and the schools should provide various professional training opportunities for teachers.