Influence of Minority College Students’ Oral Disorders on English

Education and Its Solutions

Gu Min

School of Foreign Languages, Leshan Normal University, Leshan, Sichuan, 614000, China

Keywords: Minority Regions, Disorder, English Education, Teaching Strategies.

Abstract: Cultivation of integrated English language competence of Students is the goal of current college English

teaching. In particular, the importance of oral communicative competence has become increasingly evident

in English teaching. However, teaching level of English listening and speaking still needs improvement due

to limited faculty, traditional teaching philosophy and guidance methods, as well as influence of special

language, cultural background and various problems of minority college students. The work analyzes the

oral disorders of college students from minority areas on English education and its solutions, improving

spoken language of college students in minority regions.

1 INTRODUCTION

English educators should improve oral application

level of minority college students in teaching

process. Students should have fluent oral

communication skills to adapt to needs of social

development. However, obstacles exist in current

college English teaching in minority regions.

Therefore, the primary task of educators is to

propose rational and effective methods as well as

guiding ideology based on English learning

difficulties in minority regions. Meanwhile, teaching

efficiency of college English should be improved in

minority regions. Current situation of spoken

English of college minority students was analyzed

with its influence on English education. Then,

practical recommendations and specific teaching

methods were proposed to improve education

quality and spoken English of minority college

students.

2 FACTORS OF ORAL

DISORDERS IN COLLEGE

STUDENTS OF MINORITY

REGIONS

Minority college students have more significant

disorders in spoken English learning than those of

the Han nationality. Reasons mainly includes

following aspects:

2.1 Environmental Influence of

Minority Regions

Frequent speaking is the basis for improvement of

English learning ability. Most of Chinese minority

regions are located in remote and poor areas, with

relatively backward economic and cultural

development. Living in a closed environment,

people use native national language as common

language for communication. Minority college

students trained in this environment are shy and

afraid of speaking English, or worried to make

mistakes. Desired effects cannot be easily achieved

only through simple classroom training without

daily communication in life environment.

Meanwhile, students cannot learn completely

accurate and fluent speaking English even in

relatively regular college English classes.

2.2 Interference of Local Dialects in

Minority Regions

There are various nationalities in minority regions

with many kinds of national language. Minority

college students are interfered by many dialects. In

addition to use of native language in early ages, they

have to study Chinese. Therefore, their English

learning will be interfered by native language and

Chinese. The reaction time in English learning will

be extended, with more difficulties in accurately

reading English words even after times of practice.

Their oral communication is mixed with strong local

259

Min G.

Inﬂuence of Minority College Studentsâ

Z Oral Disorders on English Education and Its Solutions.

DOI: 10.5220/0006023702590262

In Proceedings of the Information Science and Management Engineering III (ISME 2015), pages 259-262

ISBN: 978-989-758-163-2

259

dialect. In addition, constituent structure of native

language is greatly different from that of English,

leading to huge obstacle for improvement of

minority college students.

2.3 Influence of Backward Teaching

Methods

Equipment of college English teaching have been

improved in minority regions to some extent.

However, limited by the level of economic and

cultural development, college English teaching has

not made full use of advanced teaching methods,

such as electronic teaching, multimedia teaching,

and computer Internet teaching. Therefore, the

overall college English teaching is still very

backward, which is not conducive to steady

improvement of college English teaching quality in

minority regions.

3 ORAL DISORDERS OF

COLLEGE STUDENTS IN

MINORITY REGIONS ON

ENGLISH EDUCATION AND

ITS SOLUTIONS

The top priority of English teaching staff is to

cultivate talents with spoken language proficiency.

However, oral disorders of college students will

directly affect the teaching of English in minority

regions.

3.1 Interference of Native Language of

Minority College Students on

English Teaching

Before learning English, minority college students

have been familiar with their native language.

Frequent use of native language makes negative

effects on English learning, which is called negative

migration. In initial stage of English learning, the

negative migration is particularly significant for

minority college students. They usually use the

thinking modes of native language to learn a new

language, affecting correctness of oral expression.

As ideographic language, pronunciation system of

native language is significantly different from that of

phonetic English language. Therefore, it is necessary

to conduct contrastive analysis between

pronunciation system of native language and English

in oral teaching, especially during early stage of

learning basic skills. Contrastive analysis on

pronunciation system is an effective way to avoid

interference of native languages, thus nurturing good

habits of English learning.

3.2 Optimizing English Learning

Environment to Stimulate Spoken

English Classroom Combined with

Extra-curricular Learning

Traditional teaching mode should be reformed to

create optimized classroom learning environment

and atmosphere. The ultimate goal of English

teaching is to develop oral communication skills.

However, different understanding and practice exist

on methods achieving the goal. Some educators

believe that it is enough to explain English lessons in

detail with thorough analysis, accurate translation as

well as question answering; minority college

students can have good knowledge of English, with

the ability of English communication.

In fact, oral

communication ability should be applied in different

locales with creation. In English teaching for

minority college students, educators need to help

them transform English knowledge into oral

communication ability in communicative

environment; English grammar should be put into

practical use. Therefore, teaching methods with

textbook are directly related with teaching effects for

minority college students. Educators cannot lead

English classes all by themselves. English classroom

is like a troupe composed of educators, minority

students, English textbooks and teaching activities.

In current environment of China, most learners are

still in a non-English learning environment,

especially for minority college students. Thus,

English classroom is an important place for oral

practice. Optimization of classroom teaching

environment is the key to improving spoken English

level of minority college students.

3.3 Cultivating Thinking Habit of

English for Minority College

Students

Minority college students should cultivate English

thinking habit, which is an effective channel to

enhance the ability of expressing themselves in

English. If without training of English thinking

ability, minority students basically convert English

into their own native language. When

communicating with others, their ideas will

subconsciously be transformed into idiomatic

expressions of native language, then expressed into

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English.

English communication will be interfered

by native language, leading to

incorrect expression

as well as disorders and failures in oral exchange.

Therefore, educators should guide them to store the

hearing and understanding contents of English in the

mind, avoiding intermediate conversion; the

interference caused by native language should be

overcome, promoting students to develop thinking

habit of English expression. The understanding and

expressions of ideas, as well as absorption and

emission of information should be conducted

through relevant active and direct brain activities for

minority students. In the direct process of thinking

and expression, minority college students will obtain

accurate and standard oral communication skills.

3.4 Training English-speaking Habit of

Minority College Students

Foreign language learning is the process changing

from own native language to foreign language.

English teaching is committed to development of

oral communicative competence for minority college

students. Good habits of oral communication should

be cultivated, realizing clear expression and meaning

with expressive words. At the foundation stage of

English expression, minority college students often

have following habits: using native language to

replace English while encountering difficulties;

using pet phrase in English expression. These habits

seriously affect accuracy and fluency of oral

expression. Therefore, educators should pay

attention to good habits of oral expression for

minority college students. Recommendations are

provided as follows:

Firstly, minority college students should be

required to use English expression in daily

communication, when their English knowledge and

language skills reach a certain level. Teachers can

slow down the progress if students find it difficult.

Meanwhile, educators should require students to ask

questions in English or use other English words,

even when students have difficulties expressing their

wishes in English. Secondly, educators should

cultivate English-speaking habit of minority college

students in initial stage of oral expression. If they

always come out with

fragmentary sentences or

repeated words, educators should remind them of

correction rather than ignoring the mistakes. Thirdly,

minority college students should listen to more tapes

with pure pronunciation. Some tongue twisters and

rhythm poetries can be used to enhance tongue

flexibility, pronunciation accuracy and fluency of

English speaking. Finally, minority college students

should practice English speaking in a fixed period of

each day. Beautiful and simple English essays can

be adopted for exercises, or students can talk to

themselves in English.

3.5 Training Pronunciation and

Intonation of Minority College

Students

Even if minority college students have rich

knowledge of English and strong ability of taking

examination, they are difficult to master pure and

standard spoken English due to poor language

foundation. In order to learn pure and standard

spoken English, cultivation of pronunciation and

intonation should be conducted at initial stage of

spoken English learning. It is difficult for students to

correct pronunciation once they have been

accustomed to non-standard pronunciation.

Therefore, educators should emphasize

pronunciation and intonation at basic stage of

English learning, including words pronunciation,

sentence stress, as well as strength and rhythm of

reading.

3.6 Cultural Factors

English learning is a process of acculturation. All

languages cannot be divorced from culture nor from

inherited social practices and beliefs. Cultural

linguists believe that language is an important

element of culture, as well as the carrier reflecting

culture of a nation. Therefore, cultural background

knowledge of language should also be considered in

English learning. The language cannot be well

mastered without knowledge of its culture;

appropriateness of language will disappear with

communication errors. Therefore, teachers should

emphasize relevant cultural knowledge in language

teaching.

3.7 Language Environment

Studies of linguisticians have shown that

development of language skills is affected by

language environment, which is indispensable

condition to language learning of humans. English

learning will be more effective with convenient

language environment for minority college students.

Due to limited conditions, minority college students

should make full use of simulating environment in

English learning. Therefore, educators should

provide students with simulating environment for

language learning. First of all, educators should give

Influence of Minority College Students’ Oral Disorders on English Education and Its Solutions

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Inﬂuence of Minority College Studentsâ

Z Oral Disorders on English Education and Its Solutions

261

lessons in English to provide students with

opportunities for practice in the classroom. Then,

certain extracurricular oral homework should be

arranged for students, regularly organizing

extracurricular activities for exchange of spoken

English. Finally, classroom and campus should be

fully used for design of simulating language

environment.

4 CONCLUSIONS

With development of the times, requirements for

oral English communicative competence will be

increased for minority college students. Therefore,

educators should conduct teaching reform with

strategies based on market requirements, current

situation and cause analysis. Classroom reform of

spoken English for minority college students should

be equipped with communicative, task-based,

practical, informative and interesting characteristics.

With the core of minority college students, various

teaching methods should be flexibly used based on

native language and cultural background. Relatively

real learning scenarios and interaction opportunities

should be created for minority college students.

Through continuous innovation of teaching methods

with students' continuous efforts, English

communication skills of minority college students

and English education will be improved under better

learning environment.

REFERENCES

Ma Xueling, 2010(4): 23-26. Constraints and

countermeasures of spoken english teaching for

minority college students. Journal of Gansu Normal

Colleges.

Su Miya, 2009(3): 175-176. Restrictive factors and

countermeasures of college spoken English teaching.

Journal of Inner Mongolia University for

Nationalities.

Yu Jing, 2012(4): 120-122. Current situation and

countermeasures of college English teaching in

minority regions. Journal of ABA Teachers College.

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