A Case Study On Influences Of Retelling Practice With Teachers' Intervention On Oral English Abilities Of Senior High School Learners With Learning Difficulties

Developing learners' oral English abilities has been an important target of English curriculum reform.According to the requirement of the new English curriculum standards,every senior high school students should master methods to enhance their oral English abilities.To develop each senior high school learner's oral English abilities,researchers believe that implementing retelling practices is more effective than oral mechanical drills.However,few relevant researches focus on senior high school learners with learning difficulties.Senior high school learners with learning difficulties are different from other learners.It is very necessary to explore their dynamic development process of oral English abilities from comprehensive and meticulous perspectives,but previous researches have paid less attention on this topic.Based on the mediation theory and scaffolding theory,the retelling practice with teachers' intervention is discussed in the present research,aiming at senior high school learners with learning difficulties.There are two questions explored in the present research:(1)For senior high school learners with learning difficulties,what influences does the retelling practice with teachers' intervention have on their development of oral English abilities?(2)For senior high school learners with learning difficulties,what features does the developing process of oral English abilities have during the retelling practice with teachers' intervention?According to Babansky's discussion about typical characteristics of learners with learning difficulties,two senior high school learners with learning difficulties,including a male and a female,are chosen as the research participants,and are dynamically tracked for one semester.This case study contains three stages: first of all,the two participants are assessed in both static and dynamic ways to find out learning problems and difficulties in their Zone of Proximal Development.Then,the 12-weeks retelling practice with teachers' intervention is carried out.The “intervention” is operated by Graduated Prompts.Finally,the two participants are assessed after the practices,and there is a face-to-face in-depth interview.By analyzing the data in this research,major findings are summarized as follows:firstly,for senior high school learners with learning difficulties,the retelling practice with teachers' intervention contributes to improving their oral English abilities,including language abilities and learning abilities.Secondly,for senior high school learners with learning difficulties,the development of their oral English abilities is a slowly rising but tortuous process,and usually it is more difficult for them to achieve breakthroughs.So teachers' long-term and patient instructions are essential for them.Thirdly,different learners with learning difficulties have different learning methods though they all have typical characteristics,which indicates that it is crucial to diagnose different learners' Zone of Proximal Development,as well as offer suitable practice materials and interventions.Fourthly,the learners' oral English language abilities improve with the improving of their learning abilities in the practice process,which suggests that teachers should consider how to enhance learners' language abilities from the perspective of enhancing their learning abilities.Hence,the results suggest that for senior high school learners with learning difficulties,the retelling practice with teachers' intervention would be an effective method to develop their oral English abilities.By analyzing their dynamic development process of oral English abilities,this research gives oral English teaching methods that are special for learners with learning difficulties,thus the present research has a certain value for further relevant researches.