The Influence of Curriculum of English Major on Oral Communicative Competence: A Case Study of Zhejiang University of Science and Technology

Abstract

With China’s integration into the global economy, there is a growing demand of college English major students qualified for oral communicative proficiency. Speaking is the most direct and efficient way of communication. Therefore, oral communicative competence is the top priority for cultivating English major students. However, at present, most of the English major students are facing a hard dilemma that their overall English oral communicative ability is weak, their output ability is incompetent and their accuracy is not acceptable. Moreover, the oral English teaching in large-scale classes for English major is far from satisfactory. Utilizing curriculum settings in an effective way to help English major students increase the fluency of the language output. Oral English classroom plays an important role in guiding students. The survey found that the majority of students believe that current oral curriculum settings has some problems and does not work well. What pedagogical goals should be achieved and what kinds of lessons should be presented in the English major oral classrooms also provoked our thinking. To alleviate students’ oral anxiety, refining the curriculum with an emphasis on oral instruction, clarifying the goals of such teaching, and enhancing assessment techniques might be effective measures to improve students’ oral competence.