On Conquering Psychological Obstacles of Oral English Study in Higher Vocational Colleges

郭辉

【Abstract】This paper aims to find better ways to conquer psychological obstacles in oral English learning for vocational college English learners.The approaches are based on the important fact that psychological obstacles have impeded the language learning seriously.This paper describes the status quo of oral English study in vocational colleges，presents the problems existing among college learners，and analyzes them to find subjective and objective reasons.Finally，the analysis of the survey results will help to conquer psychological obstacles of spoken English learning.

【Key words】psychological obstacles； oral English； vocational college； approach

Ⅰ.Introduction

As we all know，English is a language which is used most widely in the whole world，in such fields as politics，economy and culture.Thus an increasing number of people learn it nowadays，and people in China are no exception，especially after Chinas entry into WTO.However，the English language proficiency，especially oral English proficiency，for most Chinese learners is not so optimistic.In the process of learning spoken English，due to the impact of their own psychological factors，"dumb" English signs are everywhere.Thus for English teachers，how to help students overcome psychological barriers and improve speaking ability is an important mission the process of teaching.

Ⅱ.Status Quo of Students Oral English Study in Higher Vocational Colleges

Most vocational colleges dont pay sufficient attention to cultivation of vocational college Students' ability to speak English，due to the examination-oriented education，forcing many students to take the sea tactical attend to learn and improve spoken English.In addition，the source of students in vocational colleges is complex，through the survey and mutual exchange of students and teachers from several vocational colleges，English foundation of vocational colleges students is weak，which gives students who want to express in English causes difficulties，on the other hand，due to shyness，and being afraid of making a fool，many students refused to open mouth.Thus its an important issue to help students conquer psychological obstacles and speak English boldly in teaching.

Ⅲ.Reasons for the Formation of Psychological Obstacles

1.Subjective reasons

（1）Anxiety and Fear of Opening Mouth.Anxiety and fear of opening mouth are the main problems of students in oral English class，for which it is urgent to overcome.They fear of ridicule，and often worry about their language skills lagging behind others，lack in confidence and fear of communicating with others，do not take the initiative to answer questions.However，in spoken English learning，making mistakes are inevitable.

（2）Personality Development.Personality is the internal factors affecting students learning English.Person's temperament in behavior can be divided into four types，including choleric，sanguine，phlegmatic and melancholic，the first two types have extraversion，and the latter two types have introversion.Extraversion student are active，quick thinking，strong desire，enthusiastic performance in the classroom； and introversion students are quiet，lack of confidence，passive performance.Under normal circumstances，introversion students are reluctant to open mouth，so they can not get adequate exercise speaking ability； extraversion students are active，but there are some students will immediately retreat due to emotional barriers when coming across classmates ridicule and mistakes.Now vocational students are generally dependent，self-centered，and ill-disciplined，so require teachers to mobilize in the process of oral English study to better learn spoken English.

（3）Unreasonable Self-evaluation.There are two different situations of self-evaluation.One is of low self-evaluation； the other is of high self-evaluation.Once the anxiety exists，it may lead to these two kinds of unreasonable self-evaluation.The former reflects that some students always think that other students are better at language than they are.Thus they fear to open mouth and are afraid of being embarrassed in the class.On the other hand，the latter reflects that some students do not evaluate themselves correctly.They evaluate their oral English with over- optimism and therefore they may set unpractical aims of English study.Once they fail to achieve them，they feel frustrated greatly.If one sets impossible goals for himself，he can only be disappointed in his slow progress.Both are unreasonable self-evaluation； they may lead to psychological obstacles.

2.Objective Reasons

（1）Cultural Conflicts.During the process of oral English teaching and learning，culture conflict is inevitable.Teachers and students differ in mode of thinking，value orientation，and norms of behaviors，etc.Although these differences are subtle，they can not be neglected.If not taken seriously，it is easy to form the bottleneck.

（2）Study Environment.The English language environment in vocational college is not good enough for oral English study.First，the sources of native English materials are limited in library.Second，the atmosphere of speaking English is not strong.Freshmen，most of whom still do not possess sufficient oral English competence，prefer to communicate in Chinese，just because it is easier to express and understand.In fact，the native speakers pay more attention to the content of speech but not the form when communicating with Chinese.

（3）Mannered Oral Teaching Methods.Presently，a few teachers in China still adopt traditional teaching methods in their teaching.In the traditional teaching methods，the teacher is usually the controller of the class and keeps the learners in the passive position.In addition，some teachers in the teaching process failed to grasp the students' oral expression correctly，giving difficult oral scheduled tasks，leading to student unwilling and afraid to speak English.Spoken English teachers should help students to establish and maintain confidence.

Ⅳ.Methods for Conquering Psychological Obstacles

1.From Teachers Prospective

（1）Encouragement.The uppermost task for teachers in oral English class is to help and encourage students to take part in the communicative activities so as to make sure that the learners can practice oral English.However，the biggest problem is that teachers even do not know much about students characters，so it is hard to encourage different students in different ways.Moreover，teachers should know how to correct the mistakes in students speech and what kind of mistakes should be corrected.There are many different personalities and individualities among various students.If teachers have a better understanding of students，they can give more chances to students and encourage students to show their strong points，which will be of great help to improve students oral English.

（2）Variety of Teaching Methods.A lifeless classroom atmosphere formed by traditional methods can not arouse students interests to open mouth，but a variety of interesting communicative activities can do.Putting the traditional teaching methods aside，teacher can guide his/her class by walking around the classroom，making students feel he/she is one of them.Of course，various interesting communicative activities are helpful and effective in improving students oral English，such as（a）Greetings before class，which is a good way to arouse students passion.（b）Discussions，which can promote students to use English freely.（c）Conversation between two students.In this way，students do not have the same pressure，because the listener is not the teacher but his/her classmate.（d）Role-play and debate，which can inspire students interest in speaking and listening English.Those activities can not only improve the level of learners oral English competence，but make them braver to speak in public.Teachers should do their utmost to inspire students interest of learning oral English by adopting those various interesting communicative activities.Once students have the interest，they will be willing to open their mouths and participate in those activities.Then，the initial anxiety of psychological obstacles will be eliminated gradually.

2.From Students Prospective

（1）Taking part in Extracurricular Activities.In addition to the activities carried out in the classroom，extracurricular have similar activities to improve speaking ability.Such as looking for a partner，find a partner means of spoken English in extracurricular fixed friends to practice speaking.They can prepare in advance some of the topics to talk，partner not only to listen to and understand each other what to say，it should be noted other errors and to correct，this exercise more，English skills will also increase； actively participate in the English corner，English corner is a good platform for the students to practice speaking.With increasing frequency，as well as participate in an increase in training opportunities，students also learn organizational structure of language in order to more accurately express，and gradually develop their sense of language.These extracurricular communication activities to reduce the embarrassment between students； effectively alleviate the pressure，more importantly，increase the students interested in a relaxed，comfortable atmosphere to remove barriers to give oral exercise.

（2）Hard Work to Learn.Learning a language is a lifelong experience.During this long process，one will get to know a new language，a new culture，a new way of thinking，feeling and acting.No one can tell you “how to learn a foreign language without hard work.” Learning is a relatively permanent activity and is the result of reinforced practice.In fact，oral English learning，consisting of the ability of narrating，dialoguing，conversing，discussing and debating，requires one to express oneself and communicate with others in English.It needs more practice and hard work to improve the oral English.Only when students improve their level of English competence through hard work，can they conquer psychological obstacles step by step.At that time，speakers may ease their anxiety when they are speaking English.

Ⅴ.Conclusion

In this paper，through the analyzing the current situation of higher vocational students oral English study to identify reasons for psychological obstacles，and from the perspective of teachers and students to find the way to overcome the psychological barriers.This complex and delicate process of overcoming it requires not only hard work of teachers and students，both sides need to be a good fit to achieve better results.I believe as long as English educators to improve methods with in-depth study，to eliminate the psychological barriers of students to improve their proficiency in spoken English.

References：

[1]David W.Carroll.F.L.T & R.P，Psychology of Language[M].汤姆森学习出版社.2000.

[2]H.D.Brown.Principles of Language Learning and Teaching[M].教学与研究出版社.2001.

[3]H.H.Stern.Issues and Options in Language Teaching[M].上海外语教育出版社.1993.

[4]Rod Ellis.The Study of Second Language Acquisition[M].上海外语教育出版社.1994.

[5]桂诗春.新编心理语言学[M].上海外语教育出版社.2000.

[6]吴友富.外语与文化研究[M].上海外语教育出版社.2002.

[7]祯福.英语初级口语[M].外语教学与研究出版社.1993.