Since the promulgation of College English Curriculum Requirements (Trial), improving college students' comprehensive English application ability, especially listening and speaking ability, has become the focus of college English teaching. As an independent course, oral English has entered the basic course system of college English for several years. From the initial stage of teaching exploration to the relatively mature stage, the author found some common problems in the teaching process and tried some different teaching methods, trying to turn oral English teaching into a course of "teachers love teaching and students love learning".

Teachers who enter the oral class for the first time often find it difficult to effectively control the oral teaching of a class. The reason for this is the following：

First of all, students' language ability is uneven. Some students try to apply what they have learned to pronunciation standards and words; Some students have standard pronunciation, but their vocabulary is very poor; Some students can only say "yes", "no" and "sorry". Some students talked a lot, but didn't understand a word. According to the survey of students' oral English, only 6% students use new words or phrases they have learned as much as possible, 66. 1% students occasionally use new words or phrases they have learned, and 27.9% students seldom use new words or phrases.

The reason is the lack of basic language skills.

Secondly, students' performance ability is different. Some students have a strong desire to express themselves, and they keep raising their hands to speak in class, but they don't scream, fearing that they won't be discouraged; Some students don't talk at all, and no matter how you guide them, they won't cooperate. This situation belongs to students' personality. Nothing more than poor language skills, fear of losing face, timidity, stage fright, lack of confidence and so on.

Third, the classroom atmosphere is dull. As far as students are concerned, there may be a lack of students who can drive the classroom atmosphere through positive performance; As far as teachers are concerned, too serious or rigid class content will lead to this situation. As a result, students are slow or slow to respond to teachers' questions, and teachers can't wait to end this class early when they see students' inaction. In such a class, it seems that everyone is here to complete the task, and their enthusiasm is basically zero.

Finally, the teaching method is improper. Some teachers are still used to using the traditional teaching method of intensive reading to teach oral English, that is, teachers tell students. This kind of class may be sought after by some students, because students in China have been accustomed to this "spoon-feeding" passive way of accepting knowledge from primary school to middle school. However, this kind of classroom can not meet the requirements of training students' oral English, let alone improving students' oral expression ability. Some teachers use the method of "herding sheep" to teach, that is, give students a question and let them discuss it by themselves, and the discussion is over without making any evaluation.

The first two problems are common. To solve this problem, many attempts are needed, such as graded teaching according to ability. However, oral graded teaching needs a lot of preparation and leadership support. Moreover, even if targeted measures such as graded teaching are taken, teachers as classroom managers still need to find appropriate teaching methods to solve various problems that may be encountered from their own perspective. According to my own exploration over the years since the reform, the author has gradually adapted to and liked the whole process of oral English teaching. Here are some of my feelings:

First, interest comes first

It is difficult to succeed without interest in doing anything. Even if you can complete the task, you can't compare with the quality of your opponent who succeeded by interest. The same is true of learning English. Just like "Happy Football" advocated by Milu, we should advocate "Happy English". There is no denying that everyone has different interests, and you can't make all students interested in English. But as teachers, we can stimulate students' enthusiasm through classroom activities, and as oral English teachers, we have unique conditions in this respect. In other words, we don't have to stick to the rules of textbooks to teach, but we can widely use various social topics, that is, topics related to students' vital interests to stimulate students' interest. For example, we are going to explain the weather in this unit, which seems to be a simple and boring topic. If we use multimedia to make pictures and sounds into courseware, it will certainly greatly enhance students' interest. We did a survey on the role of multimedia in English teaching, and 59% of the students chose B (with pictures and pictures, vivid and colorful, stimulating learning interest and activating classroom atmosphere); 33% students choose A (saving time and informative); 8% students think C (no obvious influence). It can be seen that multimedia plays an active role in college English teaching, which is also in line with the application of multimedia teaching advocated by constructivism theory. In addition to using multimedia to input some knowledge about this topic to students, students can also give full play to their subjective initiative and discuss some topics close to life on this topic. Simple as: talk about your favorite weather and its reasons; In-depth questions, such as: how climate warming affects our lives and other fashion topics. These topics can stimulate students' interest through various classroom activities.

Second, task-based teaching

Everyone is lazy, especially in study. If you only rely on interest, you can't achieve the purpose of learning. At this time, students need to be assigned certain tasks, and students can master the oral learning of related topics through the completion of tasks. The core idea of task-based language teaching is to simulate all kinds of activities people engage in in using language in social and school life, and to combine language teaching with learners' language application in their daily life in the future.

Task-based oral English teaching emphasizes providing students with opportunities for language practice and cooperative learning. Teachers set the task framework, and the task itself is designed, organized and implemented by students themselves. Only through tasks can students know what they need to master through this period of study, and task-based teaching method can let students find their own shortcomings, thus generating a greater sense of motivation and a clearer learning goal. Task-based teaching method can not only cultivate students' language expression ability, but also activate students' thinking and cultivate students' innovative ability, and students' team spirit will also be exercised. In the completion of the task, students don't have to stick to the textbook content, but can create their own works within the scope of the theme. For example, they can write dialogues and create sketches in hypothetical scenes. Through such activities, students' self-confidence will be greatly enhanced and their imagination will be developed.

Of course, this teaching method also has some shortcomings. For example, this teaching method is only suitable for small class teaching, and tasks often occupy more than half of the classroom time, which makes the time for students to concentrate on learning languages compressed. The real beneficiaries of task-based teaching method in the teaching process are mostly students with good language proficiency and high self-discipline. How to make every student participate in it and make progress requires some other teaching methods, such as scientific evaluation system, to greatly restrict and promote the effective completion of the task.

Third, students should be the mainstay, supplemented by teachers.

Rich classroom teaching activities will be a magic weapon to enliven the classroom atmosphere. Constructivism theory holds that knowledge is not acquired by teachers, but by learners in a certain situation, that is, social and cultural background, with the help of others (including teachers and learning partners), using necessary learning materials and through the way of meaning construction. Constructivism advocates learner-centered learning under the guidance of teachers, that is to say, it not only emphasizes the cognitive subject role of learners, but also does not ignore the guiding role of teachers. Teachers are helpers and promoters of meaning construction, rather than imparting and inculcating knowledge. Students are the main body of information processing, and they are the active constructors of meaning, rather than passive recipients and objects instilled by external stimuli. Under this theoretical framework, oral English class is no longer a classroom where teachers impart knowledge and students receive knowledge, but a brand-new classroom with students as the center and full of passion and joy. Students can actively explore, discover and construct the meaning of knowledge through preparation after class and presentation in class. Students become the main body of learning, which does not mean that teachers completely let go in this process, but that teachers should give students scientific guidance. There is an old saying in China that "it is better to teach people to fish than to teach them to fish", which is the truth. Task-based classroom teaching is a class with students' statements as the main body. The setting of the task framework should conform to the theoretical requirements of the "zone of proximal development" and give students some room for improvement and development. To avoid class noise, students are just repeating what they have learned and even repeating the original mistakes.

Fourth, innovate the evaluation system

The traditional evaluation mode is summative evaluation, that is, one-time grading of final exams. Such an evaluation model is likely to make students' oral English stagnate and always maintain the level when they enter school. The process of learning English should be gradual. Traditional summative assessment alone cannot effectively stimulate students' enthusiasm for completing tasks. Only the evaluation after each task is completed can play a role as an inherent teaching method. This kind of evaluation is a process evaluation or formative evaluation, and can also be popularly understood as peacetime performance. The author believes that in oral English teaching, students' ordinary grades in one semester play a much more important role than final grade evaluation. A student may not have the final exam, but he must not have his usual performance. The record of usual grades can also have an advantage, that is, you can see the progress of a student. In other words, testing is not the ultimate goal, but a means to help and guide students to learn English well; Testing should be people-oriented, reflecting students' ability to use language and the characteristics of language as a tool for human communication. We have made a special study on the introduction of formative assessment into oral English teaching, and found that ordinary grades have improved students' learning enthusiasm and consciousness. Although the fixed record of ordinary grades is restrictive, it can greatly improve students' attendance and classroom participation. The performance of students' study at ordinary times is directly linked to their final grades. While paying attention to students' participation in classroom activities, they can reduce their anxiety about the final exam. Moreover, students also believe that the combination of process evaluation and summative evaluation makes the grades more objective and fair.