On the Cultivation of Pupils’ Oral English Communicative Competence under the Background of New Media Technology Education ()
1. Introduction
The four basic requirements for Teaching English are cultivating students’ abilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing. The teaching of English in compulsory education in China has been officially implemented from the third grade of primary school in order to better integrate with the contemporary international standards. In some more economically developed areas, the relevant training of English courses has even been started in the first and second grades. However, facing the current exam-oriented education situation in our country, there comes out a current problem that the primary school English curriculum pays more attention to the written test results rather than the cultivation of students’ oral English ability. Under the background of informatization trend, the development of science and technology makes new media technology more and more advanced. The addition of new media technology is undoubtedly a remedy for this problem out of the traditional teaching methods. The development of new media technology for primary school students provides quite favorable conditions for the cultivation of their oral English ability, which are expected to improve the interest of primary school students in learning spoken English, and will largely improve their Oral English ability. China is in the stage of international exchanges so learning English is not only to learn to see, but to learn to listen and speak, so that we can better meet international standards and promote China’s influence in the world more comprehensively. Primary school students are vigorous and malleable talents in the new era. We must seize the right opportunity to provide them with high-quality and appropriate foreign language education supplemented by the efficient new information media technology which is unique in the new era.
There are many pieces of research on the application of multimedia technology in teaching, but the research on the application of multimedia technology in oral English teaching in primary schools is relatively new. This research presents the unique advantages of new media in the field of teaching, analyses the present situation of oral English teaching in primary schools and looks for the intersection of the two according to which the paper figures out the ways to cultivate pupils’ oral English ability in the context of new media technology education.
2. Literature Review
Nowadays, the research on pupils’ oral English communicative competence mainly focuses on oral expression ability. For example, Wang Yuanyuan’s article Primary School Students’ Oral English Expression Ability Training [1] emphasized the strategies to improve pupils’ oral English expressions in class and The Cultivation of Students’ Oral Expression Ability in English Teaching [2] written by Ye Fei pointed out the influencing factors in training students’ oral English expression ability.
Some scholars aimed atpupils’ oral communication ability training. For example, both Ma Denfeng’s research Primary School English Oral Communication Ability under the New Curriculum Standard [3] and Jiao Yang’s article The Exploration of Pupils’ Oral English Communication Ability Training [4] explored the pupils’ oral English communication ability training ways.
Some research points out the importance of pupils’ oral English training. In Cao Hongmei’s article A Study on the Evaluation of Oral English in the Lower Grades of Primary Schools [5] , she accurately argues that oral English training in the lower grades is an important part of the students in their English learning process. At the same time, she also points out in this article that we should improve the oral English evaluation system for low grades of students constantly, which is related to the enthusiasm of primary school students in learning spoken English, and can also help lay a solid foundation for them to learn English well.
Relatively more researches point out the possibility and necessity of the application of advanced technology in the cultivation of students’ oral English communicative competence which revels the possibility of the connection of advanced media and the cultivation of students’ oral English ability. For example, in the article Research on the Cultivation of English Speaking Learning Strategies for Primary School Students Based on the Internet [6] , Han Qiuhui, Qi Cong, and Liu Yanmei point out that the Internet provides unparalleled convenience for the cultivation of English speaking strategies for primary school students, and teachers must make good use of the current high-quality network conditions to formulate targeted plans for students so as to gradually cultivate students’ proper oral English learning habits and make adequate preparations for their future learning. In the article A Brief Analysis of Strategies for Cultivating Primary School Students’ Oral English Expression Ability [7] , Wang Ruijuan believes that English, as an international language communication tool, can be mastered accurately and skillfully only through interpersonal communication. Teachers can use modern teaching methods to further improve the atmosphere of oral communication in English classrooms. The vivid image of multimedia video and the accuracy of language have a significant impact on the development of students’ oral expression skills. Also based on the reality of education which is fully in line with the practicality of teaching which focuses on promoting the modernization of education, it is particularly important to use effective and convenient teaching methods flexibly, which is demonstrated in the educational experience article written by ordinary educators Gao Hongna and Wang Xichen in the article The Application of Modern Teaching Methods in Teaching [8] . Tao Jinying has deeply discussed the integration mode of information technology and oral English teaching in primary schools in his article Research on the Integration Mode and Strategy of Information Technology and Oral English Teaching in Primary Schools [9] , and he also carefully analyzes the integration strategy of information technology and oral English teaching in primary schools. Finally, it is concluded that it is important to strengthen the integration between information technology and oral English teaching in primary schools under the new curriculum standards. In the article Research on Improving the Oral English Communication Ability of Primary School Students under Intelligent Terminals [10] , Xu Qiuyue found three feasible strategies to improve the oral English communication ability of primary school students. The combination of intelligent terminal and English teaching is conducive to optimize the oral English atmosphere and improve the quality and efficiency of oral English teaching. In the article Strategies for Improving Oral English Ability of Primary School Students [11] , the author Fan Xuewei also proposed to make full use of multimedia technology as a strategy to improve English speaking ability of students in primary schools.
However, few researches focus on pupils’ oral English communicative competence cultivation under the background of new media technology education. And this article is going to explore that from this aspect.
3. New Media and Its Unique Advantages in the Field of Teaching
3.1. The Concept of New Media
Compared with the traditional media, new media is a new form of media developed after traditional media which generally includes newspapers, radio, and television; it provides information through the Internet, wireless communication network, satellite channels and terminals like computers, mobile phones and digital televisions in the use of digital technology, network technology and mobile technology.
3.2. The Characteristics of New Media
Interactivity and immediacy, mass and sharing ability, multimedia and hypertext, personalization and socialization, these are all the characteristics of new media. In other words, new media spreads information at an extremely fast speed with a wide range of contents. Users can make comments independently or discuss with each other in groups and share relevant information in various documents according to their own personalized needs through new media technology. Compared with traditional media, it integrates text, pictures, sounds, animations, etc., which greatly improves the amount of information that can be exchanged, as well as the breadth and depth of information. In the field of spoken English learning, students, their parents, and school teachers can take advantage of these characteristics of the new media for the development of students and train students’ oral communication skills of high quality.
3.3. Unique Advantages of New Media in the Field of Teaching
First of all, it can focus on students and meet their individual needs. Different students in a class have different learning ability and learning status. The class-based education method adopted by the school only focuses on the average level of the class, overemphasizes collective teaching, and ignores individual guidance. In most cases it is impossible to take into account the specific learning situation of each student. New media, on the other hand, can be tailored to meet the needs of students’ learning and development better than the class-based education.
Secondly, new media technologies can make the teaching environment more diversified, enabling students to learn anytime, anywhere throughout their life, rather than just being confined to the classroom. Meanwhile, it also saves time; students can make better use of their fragmented free time and immerse themselves in the oral English environment.
Still, in the context of new media information technology education, the teaching method of the new classroom can stimulate students’ interest in learning better. Although the traditional teaching method is acceptable to senior students with strong self-control, for primary school students, it is inevitable that it will cause negative influence such as inattention. Compared with old teaching aids such as newspapers and broadcasts, new media technology tends to attract the attention of primary school students more with its remarkable multimedia and hypertext characteristics.
Furthermore, new media technology in its various forms can stimulate pupils’ interest in English learning. Primary school students often have poor awareness and ability to learn independently, but this stage of students’ curiosity is stronger, so teachers should be fully aware of this when teaching English courses. The new media technology can be divided into visual, auditory and other multiple, sensory types which bring a comprehensive learning experience to students so that the classroom teaching form is more abundant, and teachers can explain English words and expressions for students through animation, sound and pictures combined. In this way, it creates a better English learning environment for students, which can effectively alleviate the tension generated by students in the process of classroom English Learning. At the same time, teachers can use new media technology to show students some interesting and living things which are close to their life, and closely integrate them with classroom teaching knowledge, which is more conducive to stimulating primary school students’ interest in English learning.
Finally, under the background of the new media era, teachers can actively use Internet information technology and new media expression means to enrich teaching resources, which can effectively improve the teaching efficiency of primary school English courses and provide students with more intuitive, vivid, and rich teaching materials. For example, when the teacher interprets a word, he can construct the corresponding classroom situation, use rich Internet resources, and show students pictures, text information, video materials, etc, which are related to the word so that students can understand the different meanings of the word from multiple angles and the meaning expressed in a specific context.
4. The Cultivation of Pupils’ Oral English Ability in the Context of New Media Technology Education
4.1. The Present Situation of Oral English Teaching in Primary Schools
4.1.1. Misunderstanding of the Nature of English Teaching
English is one of the most widely used languages in the world today. The English curriculum of compulsory education stage in China starts from the third grade of primary schooling and it is connected with the middle and high level of curriculum in order to integrate with the world better and faster. However, under the background of exam-oriented education, a relatively unsound mode of English teaching has formed. In English classes in the domestic primary and secondary schools, the teaching is biased towards the student’s English written ability, and there is a tendency to ignore or regard oral English ability as unimportant. Most parents care about the written results presented to them by the school rather than their children’s oral English ability. One of the most important things to note is that primary school students who receive relevant English education have not got comprehensive physical or mental development. At this stage, most of them obey the arrangements of schools and parents, and most schools and parents have the misunderstanding of the nature of English teaching. Such a situation needs to be changed urgently, and we need to adjust the focus to the cultivation of primary school students’ oral ability.
4.1.2. Lacking an Advanced English Teaching Mode
Education is restricted by the social development and the development of productive forces restricts the development and reform of teaching methods and teaching organizations. First of all, the teaching method is relatively simple in traditional English classes, mostly using PPT, recording, shadow reading, etc. But the number of people is large, it is impossible to focus on correcting students’ mistakes one by one. Secondly, most of the English teachers are Chinese and the average ordinary primary school English teacher’ education background is generally a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree. Students rarely have the opportunity to contact foreign teachers and be exposed to a pure native English learning environment.
4.1.3. Ignoring the Characteristics of Elementary School Students in Classroom Learning
First, the majority of primary school students will be relatively less focused in English classes than in other courses. Although they are excited in the foreign-language learning environment at the very beginning, when they come across difficulties in understanding, most of them will choose to give up listening to lectures and begin to lose confidence and interest in oral English expression. In primary schools, there is only one English class each week in which there is only 45 minutes for the students to learn English. Secondly, pupils rely too much on the classroom teaching and their ability of self-study after class is relatively weak or even none. There’s a large number of students in the class but there’s such a short time to practice, the teacher can only go down to the students during their oral practice period to check whether they need help, and after that select only a few students to make the presentation. In that case, students are required to speak English when they are guided by the teacher but when they are not guided by a teacher, they tend to lose self-control and start to use Chinese or directly communicate with their partners in Chinese. Finally, primary school students generally have a strong curiosity, which is an advantage for teaching. However, if teachers do not make a proper use of this feature, students may make irrelevant remarks, and the class theme will be deviant, thus teachers will find it difficult to maintain classroom disciplines.
4.1.4. Lacking a Stable and Long-Term Language Environment
In a non-English speaking country, students are in lack of a sound language learning environment. First of all, most schools in China generally focus on Chinese. In the daily life, most students talk with Chinese people, and their families and surroundings are subtly promoting the use of Chinese. In their academic lives, pupils use little or no English either. In addition, ordinary primary schools do not offer a separate oral English course. A normal English class contains all the time for oral English practice, vocabulary and syntax training and others. In total, most students have only a little time to practice spoken English in a 45-minute school class.
4.2. The Way to Cultivate Pupils’ Oral English Ability in the Context of New Media Technology Education
4.2.1. The Role of Teachers
In the context of new media technology education, teachers should be separated from the role of guiding students’ learning completely and transformed into mentors successfully. Teachers should guide students to speak spontaneously, correctly, rather than imparting knowledge in books blindly. In the class, teachers can apply new media technology to assist oral English teaching, and use new media to design and produce classroom links such as exercises, quick answers, and mini games so that students’ autonomy and self-consciousness in learning can be fully improved under the guidance of teachers. At the same time, the English classroom must adopt a full English teaching model to replace the full Chinese teaching or mixed Chinese and English teaching in which teachers can use simple English words plus body language supplemented by the application of new media technology to explain what students do not understand. After class, students can be guided to break away from the shackles of the traditional class and take a free, relaxed, and more diverse way to exercise their speaking skills. For example, teachers can use new media technology to carry out free talk with themes in the form of online classes, so that students in primary school can diversify their own thinking as much as possible so as to use English oral dialogues more and better to express their ideas and opinions, thus achieve the goal of cultivating and exercising their oral ability and get the effect of one-plus-one being greater than two.
4.2.2. Students’ Proficiency Level
Each student’s learning level is different. In the context of the popularization of new media technology education, teachers can more accurately teach students according to their aptitude. Teachers and parents start from students’ actual situation and personality characteristics, using new media technology to customize the learning content that adapts to the learning level of students, and carry out differentiated teaching activities in a targeted manner, so that the learning content is more suitable for the development of each student. It saves and uses resources rationally, making students get all-round harmonious development. For children, primary school is exactly the embryonic stage of personality education so we must seize the critical period for targeted education to achieve the best level of learning for students. At this time, the concept of teaching scaffolding proposed by Bruner et al. can also be applied. In a learning situation, the teacher gradually removes the scaffold when the student gradually becomes more capable, so that the student can complete the task independently. The key is to make sure that the stent is always in its recent development zone and it adjusts as the student’s levels develop. This shows that the new media technology we use should adapt to the changing cognitive development level of children and the differences in individual learning levels.
4.2.3. Learning Tool
In the development of new media technology education, we have more and more learning tools to choose from. For teachers and parents, the choice of a more comprehensive and mature learning tool is best for primary school students with relatively poor oral English output. These learning tools are generally presented as the most popular English speaking exercise software at home and abroad at the current stage of social education development: 51talk, Fun Fun English, Children’s Fun Dubbing, Longman Welcome to English, kids A-Z and so on. Each piece of software has its own special uses. Compared with the attraction of other video games to children, such pieces of software have activities such as clock in, receiving “money”, doing tasks and so on, which also enhance learning interest, making learning no longer boring, but start to be more attractive like other electronic games. What is even better is that they can supervise children’s learning. In addition, teachers and parents can also choose to make their primary school students follow foreign original audio picture books to grasp the curiosity of children and at the same time exercise their oral pronunciation. These various learning tools also ensure the diversified development of oral English learning forms.
4.2.4. Learning Content
Under the support of new media technology, the range of learning content available for reference and selection is getting larger and larger, and the speed of searching and finding the corresponding learning content is getting faster and faster. Teachers and parents must choose learning content suitable for students’ own learning. First, we must adopt the principle of gradual progress, from shallow to deep, from easy to difficult, from simple to complex. Haste makes waste. If the teaching is carried out step by step, the foundation of the students is laid well, the ability is improved, and the efficiency and speed of learning will naturally increase. Secondly, it is best to choose to use content that can arouse children’s curiosity, and is not limited to textbook content, including content that starts from depth and breadth, integrates Chinese and Western cultures, considering the characteristics of the times in the development of students’ understanding, reduces cultural communication barriers, and then removes the drawbacks of Chinese English, to cultivate English thinking, and create a relaxed oral communication atmosphere.
4.2.5. Learning Evaluation
While skillfully using new media technology to cultivate the spoken English level of primary school students, we must not forget to give students a certain learning evaluation in time to guide students to reflect on the learning process and learn from learning itself. Learning evaluation should be based on purposeful and targeted evaluation between teachers and students, supplemented by evaluations of a slightly communicative nature between students and students, parents and students, combining the systematic coherence and flexible diversity of the evaluation system, so that the evaluation in the technical media and the evaluation of real people are combined. Of the evaluation methods, the innovative evaluation method is more recommended. For example, various exquisite prizes can be prepared in the process of teaching for students to meet their sense of achievement. The right use of motivational language should be recommended, and it varies from person to person, and motivational language should be placed in front of critical education. We should be good at capturing students’ small progress, timely seize opportunities to affirm their proper behaviors, amplify the praise of them and patiently care for those students with oral defects. Under such evaluation system, students can more objectively see the shortcomings of their own learning from all directions, so they can improve their learning methods and enhance their English speaking abilities.
4.2.6. Considerations for the Application of New Media Technologies
First of all, teachers and students need to have a clear specific goal of using information media, and avoid superfluous uses and operations. For example, doing reading requires students’ not using multimedia display. What’s more, a set of electronic equipment not only contain several learning software, but also has many multifarious entertainment software, which is a huge temptation for primary school students. How to set goals, how to discipline yourself, and how to study effectively are the primary concerns for students. Secondly, the real life experience of primary school students is limited, so the theme of extension tools selected under new media technology should be concerned about students’ lives. In this case, students can combine life and study, so that they have a more intuitive and profound understanding of the learning content. To a certain extent, it can also improve students’ interest in learning. Finally, the application of new media technology is recommended to be used in accordance with the content of textbooks or key learning contents, and should not rely too much on or rely all on new media technology.
5. Conclusions
With the help of new media technology, the methods of teaching are becoming more and more diversified. We must learn to use new media education technology rationally under the guidance of the primary school spoken English syllabus, according to its unique advantages in the field of teaching, combined with the characteristics of our domestic primary school students in spoken English learning to achieve its biggest effect in the teaching of spoken English for primary school students.
However, there still exist some shortcomings of this research, such as, the evaluation of the cultivation of pupils’ oral communicative competence under the background of new media technology education is not further extended and the research is based on former research but doesn’t involve any experimental cases, which may cause discussion about its practicability and reliability. However, this also leaves it open for further study.