On the Application of CLT in Teaching of Listening & Speaking in Rural Middle Schools of China

刘弘扬 赵晶

For a long time, students in China has been suffering from Grammar Translation method cannot satisfy today’s teaching requirement any more, especially in teaching of listening and speaking. Nowadays, more and more teachers, researchers and scholars begin to realize the importance of communicative competence.

Communicative Language Teaching approach, as an advanced teaching approach, suggests that English classes should be student-centered. It requires teachers to give more opportunity and spaces for the students to practice and communicate. It focuses not only on grammar knowledge, but also on students’ communicative competence.

Since 1970s, many teachers and researchers began to study in Communicative Language Teaching Approach from different aspects including the concept, philosophical basis, characteristics and practice of CLT.

However, there still remains a problem: the feasibility of applying CLT in rural areas of China. According to the sixth national census of population, the rural population accounts for 50.32% (6th National Census of Population). While the teaching condition in rural areas is completely different from that in urban areas and the application of CLT in rural areas is much more difficult.

In the experiment, two classes in the second year were selected as samples. Class A is the only class in second year of a middle school, which located in a small village in Northeast China. Class B is one of the classes of Changchun Foreign languages middle school, which located in the capital city of Jilin Province. In the experiment, students took two different English classes using traditional teaching method and CLT respectively and received a questionnaire. The data of the two classes collected through the experiment would be analyzed and compared with each other.

100 copies of questionnaire were delivered to sample group 1 (size 60) and sample group 2 (size 40). The questionnaire contained 14 questions, including both qualitative and quantitative questions.

Questions 1-3 aim to compare the current English learning situation of learners from the rural areas and cities including their starting points, motivation, living environments and available resources. As the result shows, students who live in the city began to learn English much earlier than those who live in the rural areas of China. According to the Critical Period Hypothesis, the optimum period for language acquisition falls within the first ten years of life, when the brain retains its plasticity (Penfield and Roberts, 1959). Therefore, the earlier a child began to learn English, the easier the learning would be. In this aspect, students who lived in the city had better learning condition than those who lived in the rural areas of China.

The different social attitudes between people who live in the city and those who live in the rural areas could be seen. Students who live in the city had more opportunities to take English lessons out of school because people who live in the city pay more attention on English education than those who live in the rural areas of China.

Questions 4-6 were about the students’ learning environments which influence the learning results dramatically. As shown in the research, students who lived in the city had much better learning environment than those who lived in the rural areas of China. More urban students possess their own rooms and multimedia devices which immensely develop their listening and speaking ability. Learning environment, to some extend, was very important for the application of CLT. Therefore, the application of CLT in the rural areas of China was much more difficult than applying CLT in the city.

Question 7 and 8 were about the available learning resources. According to the study, none in Group 1 read any types of reading materials. Students who lived in the city had much more learning resources than those who lived in the rural areas of China. They had more opportunities to get different types of English materials as input. According to Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, only when there is enough input, can a learner acquire a new language.(Krashen, 1981, 1985, 1993). For those who lived in the rural areas, it might be quite difficult for them to get other English learning resources. Their learning resources were limited. Therefore, it was more difficult to apply CLT in rural areas of China.

Question 9-14 were about CLT. All of the learners noticed the differences between the English classes using CLT and the classes using GTM. Most of the students who lived in the city preferred Communicative Language Teaching. 50% of them preferred Communicative language teaching, 30% preferred traditional method, and the rest 20% kept neural. They also gave several reasons: first, the atmosphere became much better. In the past, the atmosphere in the classroom was too serious. Second, instead of keeping listening to the teacher and taking notes for 40 minutes, they had more opportunities to discuss and express themselves.

While for students live in rural areas, only 8% of them were satisfied with CLT classes. There are mainly four reasons. First, grammar translation method paid more attention on vocabulary and grammar, which were the content of the examinations. Large amount of the students still believed that marks were the most important thing. Besides, some of the students found it difficult to communicate with each other in English at class because of their low level of English speaking. Also, some of the students were too shy to talk with their fellow students in English. They were afraid of making mistakes and being laughed. Last but not least, due to the exam-oriented educational system, students and parents in China paid more attention on examinations. Therefore, in order to adapt to the educational system in China, Communicative language teaching approach should be applied in combination with Grammar translation method.

Through the data analysis, it is easy to get the following 3 findings.

First of all, rural students’ listening and speaking levels were improved through the experiment, which proved that the application of Communicative Language Teaching had good effects on listening and speaking teaching in rural areas of China.

Besides, due to the falling-behind educational facilities and limited resources, the application of CLT might be much more difficult in rural areas of China. However, the obstacles can be overcome and the application of CLT is possible. In order to apply CLT in rural areas of China, teachers need to pay more efforts to overcome the obstacles.

Also, in order to adapt to the examination-oriented educational system and to satisfy most of the students and parents, Communicative Language Teaching should be applied in combination with Grammar Translation method. Because of the examination-oriented educational system, students had to focus on the exams. Compared with grammar translation method, CLT paid more attention on communicative competence, which was not required in the examinations.The combination of GTM and CLT will be more effective and helpful in English listening and speaking teaching in rural areas of China. We must teach students grammar rules as well as communicative competence. Knowledge of language is as important as the application of language.

To conclude, there is no doubt that Communicative Language Teaching could be and should be applied in English listening and speaking teaching in rural areas of China. However, to apply Communicative language approach in English listening and speaking teaching in rural areas, teachers in China still have a long way to go. To apply CLT appropriately, teachers must explore how to combine Communicative Language Teaching approach and Grammar Translation method appropriately. A lot of experiments should be made and a lot of obstacles remain to be overcome.

【作者簡介】刘弘扬，长春财经学院外国语学院。