Taking Effective Strategies to Improve Audio-lingual Teaching

Taking Effective Strategies to Improve Audio-lingual Teaching

By Tang Runguang

After carrying out the reform and open policy to the outside world in China, there has appeared first concerned and widespread interest in learning foreign languages for communicative purposes. Chinas entry into the World Trade Organization and Beijings success in wining the bid to hold the 2008 Olympic Games indicate that our country has further contributed and integrated into the world. More and more people are acquiring the communicative functions of foreign languages. The atmosphere of learning foreign languages is rising to unprecedented height. There arises intense popular interest in learning foreign language. Especially English craze!English-majors now feel a sense of pressing study. They have a sense of competition because of the market demand for English talents. A sense of pressure can make one improved.A recent survey made among the Tourism and Culture College of Yunnan University shows that 93.8% of the students hope to develop their English communicative ability of listening and speaking.

Much process has been made in teaching and learning foreign languages. Much, but not enough. Many learners are acquiring good pronunciation and skills to speak freely by the Audio-lingual Method. The Audio-lingual Method or the Aural-oral Method of presentation has become commonplace. The Audio-lingual Method is good because it works and because it puts theory into practice. The Audio-lingual Method emphasizes oral-aural activity. It can motivate the students to communicate with each other and develop the students ability to listen and speak.

How to conduct an audio-lingual class? The work consists of two parts: training of listening comprehension and spoken language training.I. Listening Skills Training

A language is that of sounds first and in written form second. The phonetics is the outer form of a language. It can perform its function only as a language of sounds.

Listening is as important as speaking. Whether or not one has good spoken English, to a large extent, depends on listening. That is, if there is no listening ability, there will be no spoken English. Speaking cant go without listening. Sometimes listening is more important than speaking. If you can listen correctly, you will find it difficult to understand what is said to you. Out of the question, you cant begin to talk about expressing yourself. Therefore, it is very important to cultivate the students ability through a series of listening skills training. There are some general difficulties in listening: Difficulty in listening to pronunciation

Difficulty in distinguishing different sounds

The speed of listening cannot keep up with that of speaking

Many new words in listening

Differences in reading sentences with stresses, sound linking, rhythm and pauses. (It makes the students feel difficult in listing especially in speech current.)

Some words that have the same pronunciation, but different meanings. (These can be easily confused in the course of conversation to the Chinese.)

The pronunciation and speed required by the communicated situation is often fluent and fast. So often appears such a case that the learner understands the first half of the sentence and hasnt enough time to catch the second part.

Tips for improvement:

1. To train students to have good pronunciation skills.

The training of students pronunciation skills consists of strong and weak form of words, sound linking, sentence stress, rhythm, sense groups and intonations. It is very necessary for students to have a basic solid training above-mentioned, if they want to listen to English well and to speak it fluently.

2. To direct the students to imitate the pronunciation and intonations while listening to the tape-recording or listening to VOA and BBC.

As for the learner of English as a foreign language, everything begins with imitation. Imitation sometimes is dull and dry as dust, but it is very important and essential. Students can acquire the Standard English by imitation. Great emphasis should be laid on sound imitation and sound recognition trough listening. If you constantly insist on listening to VOA and BBC by imitation, you will gain the Standard English.

3. The process of successful listening should be conducted into three stages: pre-listening stage, while-listening stage and post-listening stage.

We can call the approach the three-phase classroom procedure. In the pre-listening stage the teacher should introduce some knowledge around the topic and the students get prepared for what the listening will be. In listening stage, the teacher should train students to listen for the major points, and train students to understand the main points. In post-listening stage, the teacher should encourage students to do work related to the listening content, for examples: questions related to the topic, retelling the major points, etc.

4. Listening materials should proceed from the easy to the difficult

If there are too many new words in listening, the students undoubtedly feel difficult to follow it. The listening materials should be preceded in an orderly way and to improve students listening ability step by step. Try to help the shoots grow by pulling them upwards, it will only lead to the opposite, and dampen the enthusiasm of the students.

When selecting listening materials, as a subject teacher, he or she should take the following principles into account:

The level of students comprehension

The difficulty degree of the materials

The content of the materials

Selecting suitable listening materials is a key problem. Language level is the first thing which the teacher should take into account. The listening language should not be beyond the level of students comprehension. As for length, the listening materials should be short. In terms of content, it should contain information which is familiar, interesting and thought-provoking so that the students feel they can gain something useful from it and really use their listening skills to the full.5. To train your students listening skills in the process of listening

When people listen, they listen with a purpose. Therefore, it is sometimes quite enough for them to grasp the main points. Its important for the teacher to direct his students not to worry about details and help them relieve themselves of the mental burden of trying to remember all while listening.

In order to improve the listeners ability, as a subject teacher, you should train your students listening skills in the process of listening:

Listening for Gist

Listening for Specific Information

Listening for Detailed Information

Inferring Note-taking6. To monitor the listening processIt is not easy or difficult for a teacher to listen to monitor the process of listening. Therefore, when teacher listening, a teacher needs to detect the problems that his students might encounter, to tackle his students languages problems.

Listening texts or situation are different from one another not only in different topics, but in different contexts, convey through different media, and uttered by different speakers. Listening contents can take place in different contexts ranging from formal to informal. Examples of the formal include a speech made by government official at a conference. Examples of the informal situations include such as attending a party, etc.

In terms of medium, listening texts can be delivered through television, radio, loudspeakers, etc. So the listener has to learn how call up the knowledge of different topics and learn to work out the meaning first. It is a problem for a teacher how to monitor the listening process and how to help your students become successful listeners.

II. Spoken Language Training:

Language is a means of communication. Language is first and foremost oral, spoken language. It can perform its function only as a language of sounds. So pronunciation and intonation are the spirit of spoken English. If ones pronunciation is poor, he or she will not probably express his meaning clearly and wont understand the meaning of other peoples speech easily. Without a good pronunciation, one cannot begin to have a conversation freely in English.

Students difficulties in spoken languages can be classified as follows:

Lack of opportunity to speak

Anxiety over making errors and losing face in front of others

Narrow scope of topics and repetition of low level

Limited vocabulary

Tips for improvement:

1. The teachers efforts should be directed at teaching his students the basic function and basic conversation techniques.

What should we teach our students in oral class? What are the basics that should he taught? What are the basic functions and conversation techniques commonly performed in our everyday communication? It is the first problem to be solved for a teacher, and it is also the first problem to be taught to our students.

A: Function

Give permission Make suggestions

Complain and apologize Give instructions

Make requests Ask for information

State intentions Express likes and dislikes

Ask for and offer help Ask for and give advice

B: Conversation Techniques

Start and end a conversation Bring other people in

Keeps conservation going Avoided silence Hesitate Check understanding

Draw the attention of others Show understanding

Interrupt others Ask for reception or clarification

Prevent interruption

2. The teachers oral lessen should be conducted into three stages known as the PPP model

The best way of teaching speaking the PPP model. What do the three Ps stand for? They stand for presentation, practice and production. The procedure of an oral lesson aiming at teaching new language items can be idealized into three stages known as the PPP models.

3. Topic-activityAn effective way of practicing oral work

Topic-based activity is an effective way of practicing oral work. Students have more opportunities to practice their oral work in this way. They can practice special subject or topic with their knowledge. They can practice from teachers control to free talk, from accuracy to fluency. Their conversation techniques practice and their target languages practice of the special subject can be aimed at (or can be target at.)

4. Group work An effective way of conducting an oral lesson

Advantages:

Group work creates a relaxed atmosphere of free learning and expressing. The students have less psychological pressure when speaking in English. Group work provides a psychologically positive affective climate. Language learning, to a large degree, is an emotional and psychological experience.

Group work is a process of discussing. By such a cooperative learning, students attitudes affect each other. Within group work, students receive peer encouragement and support; overcome some difficulties in their expressing.

Group work promotes students interaction in speaking. The students have a sense of comfort and security, not afraid of losing face. They freely present their knowledge, show off their abilities and skills.

Group work initiates students independence. Students feel that learning foreign languages is an enjoyment. Meaningful learning arouses students learning desire and interest.

The teachers role in a group work is to design learning activities and direct or encourage students active participating. 5. A seminar-discussion-based approach

What is a seminar-discussion-based approach? It involves dividing the class into groups and making each of these groups responsible for one topic or problem of the text. Each group must discuss thoroughly the topic, and then one member of each group will be responsible for presenting the topic or problem. This usually involves giving a summary of the text.

Intensive reading a high level of the audio-lingual teaching. Seminar, in some degree, is a high level of discussion, a process of high oral proficiency. It is an effective way towards teaching of the intensive reading.

Advantages:

It is student-centered and the classroom is very active. It leads to a better understanding of both in depth and in breadth.

Most of students prepare thoroughly for their presentation.

Students are highly motivated to do a good job.

Students cooperate extremely well with their fellows when this approach is used.

The role of the teacher is to clarify and highlight the main points.

6. The teachers efforts should be directed at enabling his students to use English in the classroom

In the classroom the teacher and the student must conduct their English class as far as possible in English; less in Chinese, if need be, in the mother tongue. We cannot rule out these possibilities, but we must have a language atmosphere to speak English. It doesnt mean using English to practice its grammar and vocabulary, but to communicate. In order to serve the purpose for use and communication, the teacher training program must be feasible. The good, successful teacher-training programs should be with some necessary mechanical skills and solid practice. The practice of basic training inside the classroom is the first step. This is because the mechanical skills and solid practice are close to those in real situations outside the classroom. This is because the practice of basic skills inside the classroom can be transferred in later daily life situations. In the classroom the teacher-training programs of spoken language should contain the followings: practice in making sentences, question-and-answer practice, practice in retelling the meaning of text, practice in making summary to the main ideas of the texts. Of course, all this must be on the basis of reading or reciting the text fluently.

Classroom teaching should be aimed at the students practice and application outside the classroom, at helping the students deal with day-to-day life in English. As the students English inside the classroom improves, they will be able to use English to deal with daily life situations.

7. The teachers efforts should be directed at enabling his students to speak English out of the classroom

The training of spoken language that we want to place on the classroom teaching is very limited. The large amount of training must be depended on practice outside the classroom. Traditional classroom teaching serves social practice and needs, and in turn the social practice improves the classroom teaching. All knowledge begins with practice. A good theory comes to light only after many repetitions of such a process: from practice to knowledge and then back to practice again. Just think about it, if a person just studies in a room doing nothing about speaking, can he improve his spoken language? A students mastery of a foreign language is not by how much he knows about it, but how well he can use it, how well he can speak in public. In class students learn to speak in English, and after class, English stops and Chinese starts. Thats no good. Whether they can speak in English well depends on practice. There is no panacea. Once the students put their English into use, it comes to communicate. This certainly increases their courage and interest of speaking English. Each effort to speak for the students as a useful progress and it builds up their will power to preserve in speaking. As long as they adhere to speaking English, they can find out they have already made improvement on what have been made. As time passes, the students can quite unconsciously apply their knowledge to meeting the demands of what they need to say.8. Maintaining daily exposure to English listening and speaking, making frequent visits to the words in common use.

The enhancement of ones oral work depends on many factors. The first factor is the amount of ones daily exposure to English listening and speaking. The general rule is that the more exposure a person has, the better his English will be. His exposure to English is an input to his learning. His use of English is a part of his life. The second factor is the amount of ones vocabulary. Words are blocks of language. English has an enormous spool of vocabulary. The students do not need to know them all but those that are relevant to their practical purpose. In particular they should make frequent visits to the words in common use.

A blind spot in audio-lingual teaching: some students are eager to gain their listening and speaking competence without a good mastery of vocabulary. English vocabulary not only directly influences the effect of reading, but also the effect of listening and speaking. Vocabulary input is a basis of English learning. If there is no a certain amount of vocabulary as a backup, spoken English will be like the water without a source.

Quick and accurate response to the question is not easy in communication and it is a long standing problem for many English majors. The key to develop ones skills of listening and speaking is to strengthen practical training. There is no other way out.

Acquiring the ability to communicate for ones English requires constant practice. The on-and-off working habit is harmful. If one falls away from day-to-day practice, he cannot speak fluent English. So improvement is based on practice. Success is decided by perseverance. All hard work will be rewarded in the end.

After the four-year university course, the English-major students are expected to be competent at English in four skillsit is not a realistic attitude. There is a gap between students language ability and the requirements of their jobs after graduation. The classroom or the school English plays an important bridge-role to the outside English.

III. Reform of the Traditional English Teaching1. Reform of the intensive reading teachingThe traditional teaching mode of the specialized course should be reformed. The teacher should take strategies to make students enjoy classroom teaching and learning activities. Especially the subjectthe Intensive Reading teaching should be considered as the first choice to cultivate students spoken competence. Intensive reading generally deals with authors, background information, language points, paraphrases, paragraph analysis, etc. You cant say this is important and that is not. We shall bear in mind that (or should be aware of that) the intensive (cram) teaching or breed instruction (force-fed instruction) is helpless, and its efficiency is also poor. In Intensive Reading should also give the first priority to improve students audio-lingual ability. Intensive Reading integrates five skills into one. It has a lot of ways to improve students listening and speaking competence. For example, retelling the text, questions-and- answers practice, summarizing the text content, etc.

Intensive English Reading is an advanced level of audio-lingual teaching. It is not childrens oral work. It is quite different from Li Yangs crash oral course.

2. College English reform

College English teaching should be reformed and improved and should upgrade the application competence, particularly the ability of listening and speaking.

CET-4 is one of the most influential national tests and it has attracted widespread attention and concern around the country. Some of its negative impact, e.g., excessive focus on the passing rate. The pass rate of CET-4 is often used to compare one students level with others and the level of one university with its peers. Thus a teacher whose class fails to secure a high passing rate suffer a great pressure, and even more students who cannot get the certificate of CET-4 or 6, are also deprived of future job opportunities. Teaching for test has become a practical effect across the country. Many experts questioned its practical effect. They pointed out that the test has misled teaching and learning and resulted in an excessive attention to the test, ignored the nature of a language, its function of communication, and in terms of the aim or objective of foreign language teaching is far-reaching. It is not a test to evaluate language proficiency, but a spreading of test-oriented education. In the past, priority was given to reading, and reading 40% is in its scoring system.

Now the traditional college English teaching has been improved. The new syllabus has given the priority to listening and speaking. The weighting of the new college English Band 4 shows the importance of listening: listening 35% in its scoring system. Nevertheless, it is not quite enough, far from the nature of teaching, a weakness is always a weakness, and we should strive to improve in these areas. The focal point of our teaching should shift from grammar-translation method into the audio-lingual method or into the communication approach.The classroom teaching should be considered as the first choice to cultivate students audio-lingual competence. The teacher and students could take full advantages of the classroom teaching. Listening and speaking-oriented teaching has to be emphasized. Teachers must spend a larger proportion of their instructional time on the audio-lingual teaching.

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