Ways to Improve Students’Speaking Ability in English for Careers

English for Careers is a public course for non-English majors,whose objectives are to develop students’basic language skills for work-related activities:listening,reading,speaking,and writing.As far as the four skills are concerned,most students in higher vocational colleges have the very poor speaking ability.How to improve students’speaking ability is a hard and urgent task for English teachers.This article sets out to analyze the reasons for this problem in English for Careers.Then,based on the second language acquisition and current teaching theory,ways of improving students’speaking ability are suggested.

Dynamic Assessment of College EFL Learners’Speaking Proficiency:A Case Study

To investigate the impact of dynamic assessment(DA)on the development of speaking skills,a case study was conducted,recruiting a non-English major undergraduate.DA was constructed following the design combining sandwich and cake format with an interactionist approach.To collect data,a profile was designed in accordance with the China’s Standards of English Language Ability(CSE)to record the learner’s changes.A semi-structured interview was conducted to reveal his perspectives on DA.The generated profile with specific mediator-learner’s moves revealed the learner’s microgenetic development in both organizational knowledge and oral expression strategy ability.The thematic analysis of the interview demonstrated the learner’s positive experience with DA,while also unveiling the weak points of DA.Finally,the operational framework for applying interactionist DA in the oral classroom was discussed,and the complementary relationship between DA and traditional teaching and testing practices was highlighted.

The effects of anxiety and gender on students＇ speaking performance

In this study, the relationship between anxiety and the speaking performance of Iranian EFL （English as a Foreign Language） learners is investigated. The effects of gender and anxiety on the students＇ speaking performance are also examined. Through Oxford Placement Test, 43 students （10 male and 33 female students） of English in Shiraz University were selected out of 63 initial participants. In order to measure the students＇ anxiety level, the FLCAS （Foreign Language Class Anxiety Scale） was administered. The means of the students＇ scores on the two courses of Conversations 1 ＆ 2 taken in the first year were used to represent their speaking skill. The results of Pearson product-moment correlation revealed a moderate negative correlation between the anxiety and the speaking scores （r=-0.54）. The 2-way ANOVA （Analysis of Variance） analysis showed that the anxiety had a significant effect on the speaking grades, but the gender and the interaction of the gender and anxiety did not. This study suggests some pedagogical implications that EFL teachers and advisers could use it to help their students overcome the anxiety of speaking oerformance.

The Efficacy of Multimodal Input on ESL Learners’Listening and Speaking Abilities

Language input in foreign language classrooms is no longer restricted to one particular mode of transmission,but it can be achieved by use of different modes.Multimodality or the combination of various modes has been applied to stimulate foreign language learning.The present paper aims to verify the effectiveness of multimodal input in language learning.It demonstrates the experiment conducted in two freshman classes in a university.The two classes used the same textbook supported by audio CD containing the recorded material.The experiment class,however,additionally has some visuals in listening classes to strengthen the linguistic input.The research lasted for one semester and findings from the study show that multimodal input has significantly improved the listening and speaking abilities of the students and also has positive impacts on the learners’attitudes towards language study.

DEVELOPING LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS IN ELT CLASSROOM

Language communicative competence is the ultimate goal of College English Teaching, which has become unanimously accepted. Yet, college English language classroom teaching has long been a focus of concern of students' reading and writing skills, which surely weakens their other skills developing, especially listening and speaking skills. How to achieve effective language communication in ELT is a major issue. This paper analyzes the importance of listening and speaking ability in English study and communication, and their interaction as well, explores the approaches to improving listening and speaking competence in ELT classroom.