Topic > The Importance of Speaking - 1943

In the Chinese EFL teaching environment, special attention has been paid to speaking for many years. Both teachers and students consider speaking to be the most important but difficult English skill to learn and acquire. There are two coding activities in our learning process: writing and speaking. Compared to writing, speaking appears to be much more difficult for language learners. For example, people usually don't have time to organize their language, and once the conversation process begins, they don't have time to go back and correct mistakes from time to time. English is a foreign language for Chinese people and we don't use it in our daily life, so conversation class is very important and valuable for students to practice their oral skills and improve speaking proficiency. Traditional conversation class is usually conducted by foreign teachers and the aim is to help students have more chances to speak with native speakers. Activities in such classes are more conversation or discussion based. We believe in such a relaxing language environment, students tend to reduce their anxiety and speak more in English. However, problems still exist in such teaching styles. Conversation skills and strategies are taught less in this process, and students are more familiar with informal conversations rather than different conversation genres. In a word, students' oral proficiency cannot be fully exercised. Hymes (1971) believes that language learners' oral and communicative competence is equal to his ability to use the target language effectively in actual communication. And this ability includes “both knowledge of the language and specific skills in using the language” (Goh & Burns, 2012). To achieve this, two traditional... half of paper......nt.Part 5 Concluding Remarks I have not taught spoken English in my teaching experience, because in most Chinese EFL areas, the language teachers are native speakers . However, in my study period, I learned to speak for more than 10 years. I appreciate the humor and teaching skills of foreign teachers. However, most traditional oral lessons follow a similar format, that is, topic selection, group discussion, class presentation, and teacher feedback. Such lessons are always conversation-based and there is not enough speaking skills in particular genres. As a result, many Chinese EFL students can chat with foreigners, but cannot give oral form on special occasions. EPS aims to teach speaking more formally and comprehensively. Together with the traditional oral lesson, students can further develop their oral skills in several areas.