论文总字数：29869字

摘 要

随着经济全球化发展，国际交流日益频繁，英语成为不同国家之间人们互相沟通的桥梁。因此人们对现代初中学校英语教学有了更高的期待。近年来，初中英语教学的总体水平有了显著提高，但不可否认，英语教学中的口语教学依旧存在问题。虽然现代初中英语教学开始更多关注学生交际能力的培养，但由于缺乏系统的培养目标，专门课程教材，语言环境条件，导致初中英语口语教学的落后现状，使其成为英语真正发挥交际功能的瓶颈。基于上述分析，作者试着给出一些有效具体的提高学生交际能力的方法。

关键词：交际能力；初中英语教学；培养策略

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………2

2.1 Definition of communicative competence………………………………...2

2.2 Studies of communicative competence………………………………....3

1. Necessity of Developing Students’ Communicative Competence……...4

3.1 The current situation of Junior students’ communicative competence…….4

3.2 Factors affecting junior students’ communicative competence……........5

1. Cultivation of Communicative Competence in English…………….6

4.1 Improving teaching methods …………………………………………6

4.2 Enriching training activities.....……………………………....7

4.3 Optimizing oral training environment........…………………………...11

5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..12

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...13

1. Introduction

With the acceleration of globalization and development of the information age, communicative competence gets increasingly important. In the process of opening to the outside world, the purpose for learning English changes. The frequent contact with other countries requires high quality communication talents. However, for many years, a traditional teaching methodology and the teacher-centered English teaching mode were being carried out in China’s English teaching. Under such an education system, students are just seen to be the negative receivers of English knowledge, waiting to be told what to do, having no willingness and opportunity to tell their feelings and thoughts. As a result, the communicative competence is absolutely ignored and dumb English has become commonplace in junior school. In order to avoid the frustration of a none-communicative conversation class and to meet the needs of contemporary social and economic development, a corresponding change should be made in terms of teaching contents, course design, teaching strategy and so on .

English, as a communicative tool, is most widely used. Hence, the goal of English teaching is to improve students’ communicative skills and to enable students to use English effectively in real communication. Successful communication requires not just a high level of linguistic competence, but also a corresponding level of communicative competence. However, in many junior schools, on one hand, students hardly have awareness of communicative competence, and they are not willing to communicate in English and feel reluctant to express their thoughts and perspectives towards certain issues in English class. On the other hand, they lack communicative competence. For example, some students can only produce some very simple utterances in English and often commit pragmatic errors in communication. Teachers’ instruction concentrates much on the linguistic skills such as vocabulary and grammar, while the development of communicative competence is totally ignored. This kind of teaching fails to meet the needs of contemporary social development and cross-cultural communication. Thus, it is urgent time to form a correct recognition of the current situation of junior students’ communicative competence.

Through the discussion on the notion of communicative competence, this paper first analyses the factors that influence junior school students’ communicative competence and then puts forward some effective solutions to cultivate the communicative competence. Creating a harmonious and meaningful class atmosphere, enriching training activities and optimizing oral training environment are equally important for the proficiency of the communicative competence. The author hopes that due attention can be attached so that communicative competence can be improved.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Definition of communicative competence

Communicative competence, as a concept, was first put forward by Hymes. In his view,“ communicative competence” refers to the ability not only to apply the grammatical rules of a language in order to form grammatically correct sentences but also to know when and where to use these sentences to whom. ( Cao 454 )

Canale points out that communicative competence is the underlying system of knowledge and skill required for communication.

As to Savignon, the development of learners’ communicative competence is defined as“ expression, interpretation and negotiation of meaning involving interaction between two or more persons or between one person and a written or oral text ”.

Communicative competence is the knowledge that students have of the rules that conduct classroom communicative activity, and their successful understanding and application of the rules when communicating in the classrooms. Thus, communicative competence is necessary for students to participate in classroom activities. Communicative competence can only be achieved through students’ participation in activities and then the class teaching must provide opportunities for students to be exposed to language and process it in a significantly practical setting.

This definition indicates that a learning environment should be the one which will provide opportunities for the negotiation of meaning rather than for a production of grammatically correct sentences in a language.

2.2 Studies of communicative competence

With reference to communicative competence, Hymes’ emphasis on the importance of text, Halliday’s functional account of the language use, and Widdowson’s view of the relationship between linguistic system and communicative values in text and discourse greatly deepen our understanding of communicative competence.

Most contributors to the communicative competence and the Communicative Approach share the view that language is used for communication and we should pay more attention to the meaning than to the structure. Candlin believes that communicative language learning is “ a highly socialized activity where learners are engaged in a negotiative process...” (Cao, 456 ) Besides, according to Karshen, language learning comes about through using target language communicatively（learners’ needs considered), rather than through practicing language skills. ( Cao 457 ) Their analysis on the theory of language learning indicates the characteristics of successful language acquisition and plays an important role in my following analysis of what real aim of English learning should be in China.

Compared with the studies in western countries, researches in China are not popular as those abroad because the domestic researches are later than abroad. But now, more and more scholars are interested in communicative competence. Communicative competence and communicative language teaching have in recent years become fashionable terms and covered a variety of developments in English teaching.

Based on Constructive and ZPD theory and three popular SLA theories, researches are made on the cultivation of communicative competence with different teaching methods by constructing experiments on junior school students.

In Zhang Xiangli’s thesis On Fosering Junior Middle School Students’ English Oral Communicative Competence through Scaffolding Instruction in 2008, and in Liu Shuying’s, In Scaffolding Young Learners in Language Learning (2013), the learning is viewed as a socio-cultural phenomenon, which means a significant reappraisal of approaches to teaching English as a foreign language, and they aim to provide with a very rich set of suggestions for classroom implementation of communicative activities. In their works, the latest design of communicative activities will be quoted.

In Zhou Jie’s thesis Tasked-Based Language Teaching and the Cultivation of Junior School Students’ Oral English Ability in 2009, she has testified the hypothesis: Task-Based language teaching can improve junior school students’ communicative competence from the result of the application of this theory on students’ English learning.

Generally speaking, all these researches contribute a lot to the formation of my thesis whether abroad or at home. Although there are many studies of cultivation of communicative competence, there are few researches analyzing the cultivation of junior students’ communicative competence and proposing constructive methods by taking both the task-based language teaching method and scaffolding theory into consideration.

3. Necessity of Developing Students’ Communicative Competence

3.1 The current situation of junior students’ communicative competence

English has reached its height in recent years for two major reasons. The first reason is certainly the significance and necessity of English in communication and work because of the frequent international interaction. The rapid development of economy has attracted some world-famous companies to set up their branches in China, undoubtedly, the English is indispensable to those who want to get a job from the company. Under such background, the English teaching in middle school is attached with more importance. The second reason is that English occupies a high percentage in Chinese traditional college entrance examination. English has been being a key factor of success in the examination and seems to have been demanded increasingly. Due to the pressure of entrance examination, much effort is invested to English both by teachers and students, some students even attach more importance to English than to other subjects.

However, the situation of junior school students’ communicative competence is still not favorable. On the whole, the junior school education has made remarkable progress in cultivating students’ communicative competence. Constant innovation is procured in teaching methods and the students’ communicative ability is gradually improved. However, the dumb English has become commonplace in junior school in spite of several years’ English learning. Generally speaking, although the new curriculum reformation is growing vigorously, the traditional English teaching methods are still applied in junior school. Teachers choose to put much attention to language points and focus less on communicative abilities because that teachers’ work is judged by students’ achievements in certain standard examination. They arrange a large amount of exercises and tests about grammar and vocabulary, which leaves students less time to speak English in class let alone to communicate with teachers or students. What’s worse, students hold the belief that it’s useless to foster communicative skills because they may not have chances to go abroad or to communicate with foreigners. Gradually, the dumb English is formed. Consequently, for the strong desire of high marks, teachers and students just concentrate their energy on language points which are required in tests.

3.2 Factors affecting junior students’ communicative competence

There are major two factors affecting junior students’ communicative competence. On one hand, the communicative competence doesn’t receive its due attention from teachers. Some teachers just show their interests to linguistic competence because they think it is the linguistic competence that guarantees the high scores in the exam, while they totally ignore the necessity of communicative competence, others wrongly suppose that once the linguistic competence is acquired, the communicative competence will follow in a natural way. Thus, in the classroom teaching, teachers don’t spare their efforts in selecting an effective method to improve students’ communicative competence.

The development of students’ communicative competence is largely determined by the teacher. Accordingly, the teacher needs to wisely organize the class to arouse their interests, to carefully design activities for students to put the knowledge into practice, and to constructively create a class atmosphere to make them fully immersed in English environment.

On the other hand, there are some problems in class teaching. In junior school, each class is often 45 minutes long and each classroom almost holds 50 students, which mean the teacher can communicate with each student no more than 1 minute because of the special and specific class arrangement. Undoubtedly, nothing can be done in 1 minute. The goal of learning English is to communicate. The best way for learners to grasp the usage of language is to speak as much as possible and put what they have learned into use especially in class time. Owing to the big mode of class in China, teachers find no way in taking every student into consideration, so students have no access to communicative competence. Through several years’ English learning, students in junior school have possessed a certain number of vocabulary and the basic grammar, which are seen to endow them with the ability of simple communication, unluckily, the results are from satisfactory. They only grasp the knowledge of grammar, but have no ability to communicate. They only learn the contents of textbook, but know nothing about the history and culture of UK and USA.

4. Cultivation of Communicative Competence in English

4.1 Improving teaching methods

Students are not born with communicative competence. Their communicating ability is achieved gradually through their own hard work and with the help of teachers’ coaching and providing a rich environment where meaningful activities take place. So teachers should try their best to design some appropriate activities to develop students’ communication skills. If the English class can involve students in authentic learning experiences and creates context for free use of language, the activity is meaningful and the communicative purpose is achieved.

4.1.1 Stressing student-centered classroom

As the saying goes: practice makes perfect. Communicative competence can only be achieved through a great deal of practice, so it is the teachers’ responsibility to create a proper environment for students to practice English in class. However, the present situation is that teachers are the real masers of classroom activity, and teachers talk too much of the time, thus taking away valuable practice time from the students. In a communicative classroom, the teaching is student-centered. The teacher is a manager of classroom activities, in this role, one of her major responsibilities is to establish situations likely to promote communication. At necessary times, the teacher is a “co-communicator” to interact with students in a natural way. Thus the student-centered classroom is more effective in promoting communication than the traditional teacher-dominated classroom. In addition, a free and non-threatening atmosphere plays a vital role in classroom. The junior students are active in learning and curious for exploration, but they are very afraid of making mistakes and losing face in public. If they are provided with a more friendly and relaxed atmosphere, students will be less nervous and anxious, as a result of which, they will be self-motivated and seize the opportunity to show themselves. In this way, communicating can be a lot fun and communicative competence can be enhanced greatly.

4.1.2 Integrating teaching with context

Context is a key notion in communicative English teaching. As is known to us, the textbook is designed and provided to regulate the contents and to point out the direction to the teachers. Nevertheless, without wise and careful implementation, the textbook makes no sense. Thus in teaching English, the potential value of the textbook needs to be fulfilled by the teachers. The teachers are expected to have a correct and all-round recognition and understanding of the contents and values of the textbook. Furthermore, they can flexibly make adaptation to particular circumstances in the process of implementation.

Teachers are supposed to create situations to bring out the communicative value of linguistics as they appear in context rather than simply teach separate language points. It should be acknowledged, if the language points are taught by being provided with a contextual setting, learners will have the experience of the language they are learning as use, use potential will be recognized, communicative competence will be developed. Most importantly, a situation, where students are likely to encounter in real life, set up by teachers, is not to help them develop perfectly grammatical structures, but to help create contextual meaning. And context is dynamic. Just as Thomas says,“ meaning is in interaction.” The students should seek meaning in context, both textual and situational.

4.2 Enriching training activities

As is known to us, learning to speak in a second or foreign language will be facilitated when learners are taking an active part in communicating. Thus, great attention should be paid by teachers to designing in-class activities that will activate students’ motivation and make them become the active participants. With reference to junior school students, they have a strong sense of competition and desire for performance. And they like to use the the language materials that they have just learned to carry out dialogue, narration and performance. Therefore, to launch a variety of classroom activities well fits the characteristics of junior school students. What are the principles of design and application of communicative activities? What kinds of activities should be designed in communicative classrooms? And those problems should be taken into consideration.

4.2.1 Principles of activities

1. Maximum foreign talk

During the class, teachers are not supposed to occupy a central position, instead that teachers should encourage students to express their thoughts bravely and actively and offer their instruction to clear the barriers for students.

1. Even participation

The activity should be designed in a way that everyone have something to say rather than some students dominate the discussion but others have no chance to talk about their ideas. While designing tasks, the teacher should take all levels of learners into consideration. As a result of which, the whole class will be engaged in communicative activities. Furthermore, the teacher can walk around to guarantee equal opportunities for students when they are on discussion.

1. High motivation

Motivation is what makes students want to express themselves in English class, to become real participants in the activities that teachers plan for them, which is vital in successful language learning. Teachers can activate students’ motivation by the type of activities that they design in class. If the activity is interesting, closely related to students’ daily life and has a clear and achievable objective, they will be willing and eager to speak and exchange their ideas with others. Great care should be taken to make sure the activity is in accordance with students" levels of ability. If the task is too easy, students’ motivation may wane and fail in their attempt to foster their communicative competence.

1. Right language level

In a successful communicating activity, the language is at the proper level. The task must be designed in a way that students can successfully complete with the language they have learned. If the students don’t possess enough vocabulary and related knowledge, the task will become frustrating and the students will choose to use their native language.

4.2.2 Warm-up activity

Circle time is one of the most effective classroom strategies for developing the communicative skills and it is used to get students warmed up. It is a simple strategy to ease students’ nervousness and build their confidence in communicating activities that are aimed to raise their awareness of different issues. It is a strategy that has gained great popularity and been widely adopted. It is easy to organize and operate. It is best to begin with getting students used to talking in a circle before moving to a more formal class time. Students can begin with sharing their interesting experiences in daily life and having a discussion about some difficult tasks. Sitting in a circle gives everyone equal status and even the shy students are willing to talk and dare to express themselves.

A more formal activity could begin with a “warm- up” game such as “Granny"s Basket” where each student passes a basket round and add an imaginary item to the basket, then, they may begin like this:

I have a basket (child 1)

What have you in your basket? ( the rest of the class )

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