A Study On The Alleviating Function Of Interactive Teaching Model To Senior High School Students' English Speaking Anxiety In The Impoverished Areas Of Ethnic Minorities

In China,English teaching in primary and secondary schools mainly focuses on vocabulary and grammar,while ignores students' speaking and listening abilities.Therefore,most students can only read and write English,while their abilities to listen and speak are very weak,which was named “Dumb English”,especially in the impoverished areas of ethnic minorities.Located in the southwest of Gansu Province,Jishishan Baoan Dongxiang Sala Autonomous County has bad natural conditions,infertile land,undeveloped transportation,these factors have seriously hindered the economic development of Jishishan County,even made Jishishan County into a nationally designated poor county.There are lots of students of Baoan,Dongxiang and Sala minorities who have their own ethnical language in primary and secondary schools.For them,the ethnical language is their first language,while Chinese and English are second and third language respectively.Consequently,it is more difficult for them to learn English than for other students.They also have serious English speaking anxiety,and the English speaking ability of them is very weak.Based on the Social Interaction Theory and the Affective Filtering Hypothesis,this thesis explores the effectiveness of Interactive Teaching Model in alleviating the English speaking anxiety of senior high school students in the impoverished area of ethnic minorities.This thesis is written with the purpose of finding the answer of the following three research questions:(1)What is the degree of English speaking anxiety of senior high school students in the impoverished areas of ethnic minorities? Are there any differences in English speaking anxiety between Han and ethnic minority students?(2)Can Interactive Teaching Model alleviate the English speaking anxiety of senior high school students in the impoverished areas of ethnic minorities?(3)Can Interactive Teaching Model improve the oral English performance of senior high school students in the impoverished areas of ethnic minorities?The author chose 85 students in Grade 1 from two classes of Jishi Middle School in Jishishan County of Gansu Province as the research subjects.One class is the experimental class,in which the Interactive Teaching Model was applied,while the other class is the control class,in which the Pre-While-Post model was used.Before the experiment,English Class Speaking Anxiety Scale was used to test the students' degree of English speaking anxiety.At the same time,an Englishoral proficiency test was used to test the students' English speaking level.After the experiment,English Class Speaking Anxiety Scale was reused to test the changes in students' English speaking anxiety.At the same time,the changes in their oral levels were detected again.Then,20 students from experimental and control classes were interviewed.All data collected before and after the experiment were analyzed in detail using SPSS21.0.The results show that: 1)Senior high school students in the impoverished areas of ethnic minorities have very serious anxiety about spoken English,most of the students are in a moderate or higher level of anxiety in English speaking,while few of them are in low or no anxiety.From the perspective of nationality difference,minority students' English speaking anxiety is more serious than Han students.2)Interactive Teaching Model can effectively alleviate the English speaking anxiety of senior high school students in the impoverished areas of ethnic minorities;3)Interactive Teaching Model can improve the oral English performance of senior high school students in the impoverished areas of ethnic minorities.