A Study of Non-English Majors’Errors in English Writing

Researchers in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) have long held the interest towards the teaching of college English writing. Their research topics, range from how to improve college students’ability to write with English as their second language, to how to correct their wrong expressions in their writing. This article mainly aims at exploring college students’ various writing errors and mistakes,trying to provide some hints for college students and teachers about English writing. Such studies are abundant.     

The English Teachers' Correction Strategies toward Students' Oral Errors in College

Based on the requirements of college English curriculum,college students should have natural and fluent pronunciation and intonation in their oral English.Students’ability to communicate successfully has become an ultimate goal for schools.Therefore,to make some requirements on English teachers’correction strategies toward students’oral errors in the procedure of teaching becomes necessary.Through researching,analyzing the listed examples and making an investigation,the author finds out that there are some problems in English teachers’attitudes and treatment toward college students’oral errors.The author hopes that her analyses and findings could help the teachers to conduct a more appropriate correction strategies which may be helpful for the teachers to manage their classrooms effectively,thus to eliminate the frustrating feelings of the students and to facilitate an efficient interaction between the teachers and the students.     

Art of Stimulating Interest in Oral English Teaching

English is a tool for communication.English teaching aims are to nurture the students’ability to use this language.This ability is mainly reflected by their spoken ability.So the training of spoken-English-Expression ability is obviously impor tant.This article discusses spoken English teaching methods from two aspects.The first aspect consists of the students’interest in speaking English out,making good use of the artistic methods to correct students’mistakes and comparing the culture between China and Western countries.The main point in this aspect is reflected on classroom-teaching,it contains using concrete objects to enrich teaching content;using body language to stimulate the students interest.The second aspect is to make the students have the positive attitude towards by establishing a harmonious teacher-student relationship.Spoken-English teaching is of value in the whole English teaching procedure.Through using this methods,the teachers can improve the ability of English expression arouse the students’enthusiasm,in the meanwhile,the teachers can transmit the knowledge to the students in a relaxed atmo sphere.Therefore,it is advantageous to improve students’English ability.     

Literature Review of Oral English Teaching

Under the present situations in China, more and more graduates with higher proficiency in oral English are required. However, the author learned that students in most universities are lack of this ability. It’s the urgent task for college English teachers to help students improve their oral English to the required level. The author of this paper will review the literature of foreign langue teaching in relation to oral English teaching in college, hence leading more English teachers to reflect on new and effective ways of oral English teaching.     

Action Research on Using Self-and Peer-assessment in Teaching of English Writing

The main purpose of this paper is to explore the perception of applying self-and peer-assessment in English writing,through an Action research process.The learning in the programme,the students have learnt translating Chinese into written English for first stage,and have learnt writing in English for second and third stage through self-and peer-assessment.The research result shows that the most students feel that the process of self-and peer-assessment are useful for improving their English writing skill and they feel that self-reflection and peer discussion around their English writing is helpful for promoting the development of self-and peer-assessment.Especially,key findings about four types of students are more important.Overall,based on student’s perception about using self-and peer-assessment,learning written in English is also an ongoing research,it can develop the ability of students’ ability to solve problems independently,and raise their language communicative competence gradually.     

Research on the Mistakes Made by College English Teachers in Pronunciation of /n/&/l/

As an old saying goes that“once you open mouth, you are decided”. Thus, there is no doubt about the fact that English pronunciation is of great importance, especially for English teachers whose pronunciation exerts far-reaching and direct influences on that of students. Some of College English teachers, however, have poor pronunciation; most of them cannot distinguish/n/ from /l/. Therefore, it is of huge practical value to commit to the research on the mistakes made by College English teachers in pronunciation of /n/ &/l/ and analyze the underlying causes in the hope of helping teachers to improve their poor pronunciation.     

Implications of Output Hypothesis on College English Writing

With the reform of college English course,the objectives,philosophy and models of Chinese EFL teaching have been deeply changed.So college students are required to have higher language proficiency;it is also a challenge for the English teachers in our country.The traditional teaching mode should be changed.College English teaching is not only to input knowledge to students,but also to foster their skills on the application of knowledge,and excavate their potential in order to promote their language proficiency.Writing,as one of the efficient ways to measure students’comprehensive English ability,has attracted more attention in the field of English researches,which,however,got little improvement so far.What we can see from the requirements is that college students and teachers should put more attention on their output instead of input alone.Therefore,this paper intends to apply Swain’s "Output Hypothesis" to the college English teaching of non-English major students in China,and make some teaching suggestions based on the three functions of the "Output Hypothesis".     

Needs Analysis of English Culture Background Introduction in Spoken English Classes

With globalization there is an increasing need for spoken English for Chinese college students. However, the situation of the teaching system of spoken English in most universities in China is not satisfactory. Influenced by the exam-oriented teaching system, great importance has been put on English grammar and the skills of reading and writing. As a result, students’enthusiasm in improving their spoken English is diminished. Actually, students need some knowledge about English culture background before they can communicate effectively. It is significant for teachers to find out the students’wants and lacks during their spoken English study. Besides, attentions should be paid to English culture background in spoken English classes by both teachers and students. This paper mainly aimed at finding out the needs of students for English culture background in spoken English classes based on the theory of needs analysis.     

Analysis on the Strategies for the Autonomous Development of English Teachers in High Schools

The professional development of English teachers in high schools is not only a hot focus of teachers’ education, but also an important turning point in the students’ English learning. English teachers are constantly improving their own personal quality and teaching effect under their autonomous development model and goal. It is necessary for English teachers in high schools to rethink and change their own teaching methods, transform the educational ideas, and make educational methods innovative. Meanwhile, they are required to continuously improve their own teaching practice ability. Thus, development and innovation can be unceasingly sought by them in the process of thinking, criticizing, and denying. In addition, the autonomous factors restricting the continuous professional development must be changed. In this paper, the strategies for the autonomous development of English teachers in high schools are discussed according to the requirements for the professional development so as to produce profound significance to the sustainable development of the teachers.     

Analysis on the Application of Experiential Learning in Junior Middle School English Teaching

With the implementation of the New Standards for English Curriculums and the reformation of the educational system,many teachers have begun to focus on students’learning process and experience.However,the phenomenon of students’passive learning also exists.Facing such situation,it is imperative to change students’learning ways.Experiential learning,as a new way of learning has been widely recognized as an effective approach in learning.Therefore,in order to change students’learning ways,improve their comprehensive English level and learning interest,it is important for teachers to apply the experiential learn ing in English teaching,thus,improving the current situation of junior middle school English teaching.     

A Discursive Psychology Approach to English Learning Experiences Narrative: What’s Behind the Failures?

This article takes a discursive psychology approach to the analysis of Non-English major students’ English learning experience narrative. The students took part in my survey are those just say goodbye to the high school and are freshmen in college now. The English learning experience narrative is in a form of diary. Through the students themselves’ own point of views in recounting their English learning experiences, I want to find the reality hidden behind their failures in learning English. And hope this can give the most teachers who work for public English education in colleges or even universities some inspiration about teaching.     

Classroom Observation on Developing Students’Competence in SEIB

China’s entry to WTO and China’s 2008 Olympic Games have widely opened the door to the outside world.Tal ents with business knowledge and excellent oral English are urgently needed.For students in English major,we give the course of Spoken English for International Business(SEIB) to improve their abilities in SEIB.The author aims to use the methods like classroom observation,interview,questionnaire survey to observe and compare two classes and two teachers to explore the rela tions between students’competence development and teachers’with different levels and teaching practice,and to gain some enlightenment on students’competence developing in SEIB from the study.     

Group Work in Spoken English Teaching in Vocational School

In English class,teachers are inclined to instruct linguistic knowledge,neglecting the training of students’ linguistic behavior.Especially under the whole-class teaching mode,the opportunities for students to practice spoken English are rather limited in the class.Based on the theory of Cooperative Learning,group work,which is a kind of teaching method,will effectively solve this problem.My research is to study the influence of this activity on the students’ English learning through questionnaire in vocational college and how to make this activity more effective.     

How to Motivate College English Students

College students in their early 20’s are energetic,focusing on things they are really into.Unfortunately,English is not one of their interests.This paper focus on how to make the students realize the importanceof English study and to create harmonious atmosphere for everyone to learn English more actively in a cooperative way.     

An Evaluation on Coursebook (Cambridge English for the Media):A Case Study

Coursebook is an essential part in English language teaching. Evaluating a coursebook is very helpful task for teachers’ development. This paper reviews three methods of evaluating coursebook, which are the impressionistic method, the checklist method, and the in-depth method. Then the author adopts the hybrid of these three methods mentioned to evaluate a coursebook - Cambridge English for the Media - used by some Chinese students in a one-year exchange programme in UK. Questionnaire and semi- structured interviews are carried out with the students to get their views about the coursebook. At the end, this paper compares teacher’s view with the learners’based on the data from the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The results of this study show that there are conflicts between the teacher’s views and the students’on the coursebook.     

Applying Politeness Strategies in Teacher Talk to Increase Students Participation

Based on Brown and Levinson’s face theory, this paper points out that Chinese students keep silent in the English class for the sake of their face wants. As facilitators of language learning, teachers need to learn some politeness strategies and employ various politeness strategies to maintain and enhance students’ face to spark their motivation to participate in the interactive activities so as to develop their language control.     

Nonverbal Communication in College English Teaching

This thesis mainly focuses on the significance of nonverbal communication in college English teaching. On the one hand English teachers should emphasize to cultivate the students’ nonverbal communication competence while training their verbal communication ability, on the other teachers should pay attention to the use of nonverbal communication to teach effectively in college English classroom. The author illustrates the topic from four aspects: body language, paralanguage, object language and environmental language. If teachers use them actively, our students will become full-scale in communication competence and teachers can make classes more interesting thus stimulate the students’ motivation and affection in English study.     

Evaluation of a Contemporary College English Listening Textbook for Second-year English Major Students at University Level

The role of textbooks,as one important channel between teachers and students,has always aroused scholars’interests,but what indeed are the roles of textbook for students and teachers? This paper aims to evaluate a listening textbook that is used by English major university students in China.Three research questions are proposed which are:(1) What are the students’per ceptions about the listening textbook? (2) What are the teachers’opinions about the listening textbook? (3) To what extent do students and teachers perceptions match? In order to answer these three research questions,questionnaires were designed for both students and teachers to obtain the data.This study is supported both qualitatively and quantitatively.The data of this research suggested that both students and teachers have found advantages of this listening textbook,which they may find helpful for their learning and teaching,but they are also not satisfied with some aspects of the textbook,which they think need further improvement.The students’and teachers’opinions to some extent have reached some agreement about the textbook,but students may not be so enthusiastic about the textbook,while the teachers may show much reliance on the text book.This study has its limitations,but it also provides some insights for teachers and textbook writers.     

Cultivating Students' Cultural Awareness in Foreign Language Teaching

Many foreign language teachers are often wondering why their students cannot avoid some mistakes in their writing assignment and oral presentations though the grammatical rules and phrases are quite familiar to them. On the other hand students also complain about the boredom of learning English."What is the use of learning English besides taking exams?"they often ask. In this paper the author is going to discuss language learning and teaching from the cultural perspective. By discussing the importance of culture teaching, the author intends to help both the teachers and the students to get out of their bewilderment. Some useful suggestions will be shared at the end of the paper, aiming to offer some practical and concrete guidance to both the students and my co-workers.     

How to Develop the Students’ Motivation

Motivation is one of the most important factors access to success.There are three types of students’ motivation in English learning.In order to get good result in the process of teaching,teachers try their best to develop students’ motivation.They have tried many ways,such as enhancing students’ interesting through playing games,introduce the culture of English speaking countries.It’s meaningful that teachers develop several kinds of motivation at the same time.All these important methods can be used in actually teaching to get a better result.