Abstract：Little achievement has been made in spoken English teaching in middle schools in the areas inhabited by Miao people. The learners in these areas， having studied English for so many years， still fail to communicate in English effectively. The current study begins with the presentation of the remaining problems of spoken English teaching in these areas， on which analysis is made. The reasons for the remaining problems lie in the differences in phonological and grammatical systems， improper teaching methods， lack of qualified teachers， lack of language circumstance， lack of necessary materials and equipment， and traditional exam-oriented concept. Finally it proposes countermeasures such as presentation of differences between phonological and grammatical systems， full use of the similarities between English and the Miao language， choice of suitable materials， proper stimulation， teachers’ self-improvement ， and creation of language environment.

Keywords：areas inhabited by Miao people； spoken English teaching；analysis on the current situation；countermeasure

Thanks to the popularization of English teaching in the countryside and in the regions inhabited by Miao people， the learners in these areas have enjoyed opportunities to study English. However， little achievement has been made in English teaching，especially in spoken English teaching， in these areas. The learners still fail to communicate in English， let alone speaking English accurately or fluently. Yet， seldom do teachers try to work out effective measurers to it， instead； they keep on teaching grammar， vocabulary， reading， and the so-called techniques in taking exam.

I The remaining problems of spoken English teaching in the areas inhabited by Miao people

1.Students’ problems

The English learners of Miao nationality， having been studying English for so many years， still fail to communicate in English effectively. There are still so many problems existed. To begin with， the great difficulties in pronunciation hinders them from making themselves properly understood. Errors varies in their pronunciation of English consonants and vowels. It is often the case that they mispronounce English words room /ru：m/ and rule/ru：l/ for /zu：m/ and /zu：l/ respectively （Wang，1999）； . Secondly， the poor English listening comprehension prevents them from understanding their speakers correctly. They， now and then， are even puzzled by the greetings， the simple orders and commands given by the teachers in English in class. In addition， they cannot express their ideas in English precisely. Errors and mistakes range from sentence structures， grammar， to vocabulary. Most often than not， they are inclined to place English attributes in front of Noun， the phrase table on the book （桌子上的書） is just one of the cases. They are still confused by tense， agreement， and voice in English， which result in the improper sentences such as I go to school yesterday； Xiao Zhang speak English very well； Learn English is very difficult， etc. With such difficulties and problems， scarcely do they volunteer to answer questions in English in class， nor dare they speak English in public or in class. When forced to speak English， they are extremely nervous in the course of communication， stampling， trembling or avoiding eye-contact of their speakers.

2.Teacher’s problems

Very few English teachers the middle schools in the areas inhabited by Miao people have good command on English pronunciation， speak English fluently， or express their ideas correctly. The lack of good example cannot provide the students with proper guidance， or convince them to work hard to improve their spoken English. Never has spoken English designed as a compulsory course in these middle， giving a very good ground for the teachers to skip the spoken English in their teaching， which accounts for the constant priority given to grammar， reading comprehension， and writing， etc. Even when necessity requires the teachers to lead the students to read new words and expressions， the teachers are not competent in doing their jobs， worse， their mispronunciation does little better than misleading their students. Taking this into consideration， they try not to speak English in front of the students as possible.

II Analysis on the problems of spoken English teaching in the areas inhabited by Miao people

In this part， analysis is made on the problems presented above.

1. Differences in phonological and grammatical systems

The Miao language and English belong to different language family with different phonology. English belongs to Indo-European Family while the Miao language to Sino-Tibetan Family. It is the differences between English and the Miao language that contribute to great difficulty in studying English pronunciation for the learners of Miao nationality. Starting from the difference in vowels between the two languages， the vowels of English language are classified into long （tense） vowels and short （lax） vowels， while those of the Miao language are not. The sound quality and the shap of the lips when pronouncing the vowels of the two languages are quite different（Wang， 1999）. Greater divergence lies in consonants between the two languages， English has 24 while the Miao language has 32 （Wang， 1999）. The differences in the consonants of the two languages can be summarized in four aspects： ① Similarity in the place of articulation： both English and the Miao language have bilabial， labio-dental， alveolar， velar， uvular， and glottal. ②Difference in place of articulation： English possesses lamino-dental， post-alveolar， palatal， palatal-alveolar， while apical-dental， alveolar-palatal， and uvular are unique to the Miao language. ③ Similarity in the manner of articulation： Both English and the Miao language have plosive， affricate， nasal， lateral， and fricative. ④Difference in the manner of articulation： Approximant is unique to English consonants while lateral fricative is to the Miao language （Shi， 2006 Zhang， 1998）. As for the syllable structure， the difference between English and the Miao language is the same as that between English and Chinese. There is only one syllable in the Miao language： C+ V； V. However， there are more than two syllables in English， and consonant clusters are allowed. The difference between the syllable structure of the two languages.The difference between the syllable structure of the two languages properly accounts for the mispronunciation of struggle /stragl/.

When it comes to the difference in grammar， there are changes in number， person， and case in English， but not in the Miao language. Tense and voice are extremely complex in the former， while in the latter， there are only “gid denx”， “hxot nongd” “yangx” and “nongs” to represent past， present， perfect and future respectively. Besides， the sentence structure of the two languages are quite different， which can be seen from the following two sentences （Wang， 1999） .

（1）Hangd ib wat bongt （2） It’s very dirty there

那里 臟 非常 它 很 臟 那里

2. Improper teaching methods

The misconception usually goes that spoken English is very easy to teach. It has been taken for granted that so long as the teacher comes up a topic for the students to discuss， any careful preparation for the new lesson is unnecessary. Often two totally different attitudes are taken towards students’ errors or mistakes， one is that errors and mistakes must be corrected immediately if any of them is discovered because they are considered tolerable， the other is that they can be naturally eliminated in the near future due to the old saying of practice makes perfect. So the teachers either correct the students’ errors and mistakes too much or just turn a deaf ear to them. In fact， neither of the two practice really helps， the former distresses the students and the latter indulges them. There are still some others put stress on fluency while neglect accuracy.

That the accessory facilities such as record player， video discs player have not been fully made use of has been proved as another improper teaching method. Most teachers， though equipped with those facilities， seldom trouble themselves to employ them in class， depriving the students of the access to learning the standard pronunciation. In some middle schools which are even advantageously favored by multi-midiea classrooms， the teachers， haven’t been properly trained， still find it difficult to operate the machines， which does not guarantee the lesson goes smoothly.

3. Lack of qualified teachers

The unwillingness of graduates of English majors from normal college or universities to work in the areas inhabited by the Miao people contributes to lack of qualified English teachers in these areas. In most middle schools there are very few English teachers， some of whom did not major in English， and it is not unusual for a teacher to teach English as well as other subjects in the same school. Neither do they enjoy opportunity to communicate with native English speakers， nor have been properly trained. Most of them have been designated to switch to teach English from other subjects， and some them have been English teachers after the graduated from their middle schools. They do not learn to think in English， or teach in English， or actively introduce advanced teaching method. On the other hand， they pay little attention on cultural background teaching which plays a very important role in effective communication. Misled by the traditional teaching concept， they awkwardly define the teaching model as “stimulus——response，” or “teaching reading——teaching rules——teaching grammar， emphasizing on doing excises for examination.

They are still some English teachers speak Chinglish. In the case that they teacher wants to ask some one to give him something， they speak to the students ： “give me”， rather than， “give it to me”.

4. Lack of language circumstance

It is has been suggested by Oral， a language expert， that the key to succeed in language studying is to dip the students into the language circumstance（Zhou， 2008）. Misfornately， the students from the areas inhabited by Miao people， except the several English lessons each week， never have access to English， or have opportunity to practice listening and speaking after class. Even in class， 50 -60 students crowded in a class make it very difficult for every student to share the opportunity to practice their spoken English. Thus， most students are afraid of being asked to speak English for fear that they should be mocked by others for the mistakes， which is harmful to the improvement of their spoken English. The more they are afraid of being asked to speak， the more they are unwilling to speak， and the worse they speak， it develops until the situation becomes extremely unfavorable for them.

5. Lack of necessary materials and equipment

At present， most of the middle school in the areas inhabited by the Miao people are porverty-stricken areas. Being short in fund， there are no multi-media classrooms， electronic teaching classrooms in most schools， and there are still some have no access to tape-recorder or computers. There are no what so called spoken English materials for the students in the schools except the textbooks. In the school libraries， book shops， such materials are not available in spite of the students’ strong desire to learn. Most students in these areas are from low-income families， which cannot satisfy their needs for necessary tools such as personal computers， tape-recorders， MP3 players， or other spoken English materials. There are， however， a small number of families with income enough to pay their children for better education， and there are parents willing to do so， only to find no English training schools in which their children can be properly educated so as to improve their spoken English. Even if there are such training schools， the teachers are not capable enough， for the teachers employed are primarily from the middle schools in these areas.

III Countermeasures of the problems of spoken English teaching in the areas inhabited by Miao people

1.Presentation of differences between phonological and grammatical systems

Since it is the differences between English and the Miao language that contribute to great difficulty in studying English for the learners of Miao nationality， it will do great help if teachers can present differences between phonological and grammatical systems of the two languages. Of the difficulties in studying English， pronunciation is the greatest obstacle， and consonantal pronunciation is more difficult than vowel pronunciation for these learners. The differences in consonants between the two languages should be analyzed in detail. In English grammar teaching， teachers might as well display the differences between the two languages. Taking sentence order for an example， in English， auxiliary verb is placed in front of a sentence to form a simple question： “Do you like apples？”， in the Miao language， however， a question mark will do the same job： “Mongx dos hvib zend pingf gox？” Cultural differences deserve attention. In the Miao language， to express appreciation， the phrase “ Bod hfut mongx （謝謝你！） is employed， which is responded by “Ax niang gheix xid.” （沒什么）； “ Ax bod hfut” （不用謝）， or “Bod hfut gheix xid.”（謝什么） （Dong， 1995）. It is not uncommon that the English learners of Miao nationality respond appreciation with phrase “no thank” （不用謝）， or “thank what？ （謝什么）.

2.Full use of the similarities between English and the Miao language

Differences between English and the Miao language do create difficulties for the learners of Miao nationality， there are， however， similarities， the full use of which will be proved to be positive for teaching and learning. Difficult as the English consonants are， it is a fact that English plosives and the plosives of the Miao language are identical both in manner of articulation and place of articulation， the knowledge of which will somewhat relieve the difficulties for both the learners and the teachers. Comparison can be applied to vowels too. English vowels / i： / / u：/ /ei/ /u / / au/ and /a：/ can be compared with those of the Miao language such as i， u， ei， e， ao， and a， etc in light of the similarities they two languages share.

Homophones and homographs are existed between the two languages， of which can be taken good advantage to enlarge students’ vocabulary.

Sometimes， English and the Miao language share similarity in sentence order， which is very helpful for the English learners in these areas to learn English. It can be well demonstrated by the following phrases and sentences.

Bod fut mongx bongt wat Thank you very much

感謝你 非常 感謝你 非常

Wil zais gangt hxangt nenx I run faster than he

我 跑 快 比 他 我跑 快 比 他

hut vut something good

東西 好 東西 好

Dail naix nongx gad id the person who is eating

人 在 吃 飯 的 人 在吃飯的

3. Choice of suitable materials

Proper choice of materials is of prime importance for spoken English teaching. As it was discussed in Part 2.5， there are no what so called spoken English books for the students in the schools except the textbooks. The materials， primarily taken from textbooks， are either too difficult for students to practice or too boring to arouse the students’ interest. Still it is not the worst， the problem lies in lack of the reading for the chosen materials. To choose the material， some rules should be followed. First of all， the current English ability of the students must be taken into full consideration. Only when a teacher really understands his students can he prepare the material suitable for them. And the materials without reading should be eliminated. Then preference should be given to interesting and the well complied materials， in which each lesson being developed step by step and new words being listed. It will be very wonderful， if possible， to collect idiomatic expressions from English movies or radios. For the teachers good at singing， English songs can be best choice.

4. Proper stimulation

It has been analyzed in Part two that the differences between English and the Miao language， lack of teachers’ example， improper teaching methods cause students from the areas inhabited by Miao people depressed so much that they are afraid of speaking English lest they should make mistakes or errors. It is high time that teachers encouraged them to open their mouth. Students should be informed of the necessity and importance of spoken English before encouraging their participation in speaking activities such as daily report， role-play， story retelling， group practice. Meanwhile it is the teachers’ responsibility to relax their students in case that they are nervous. Then it is a bigger challenge to correct students’ mistakes and errors， for which are hardly avoidable. To make the job easier， teachers should firstly bear in mind the distinction between mistakes and errors. Even if students mater grammar rules， in their talk， improper sentence like “ I have a very good time with my friends last Sunday.” is often heard. In such a case， it is a mistake， rather than an error， that the student has made. Teachers should not interrupt him before he finishes his speech. Is is advisable for the teacher to echo his sentence “ Oh， you had a very good time with your friends last Sunday.” In the case of error， the feasible practice is to have a summary， which can noted out in class without announcing the name of the student who has made it.

5. Teachers’ self-improvement

In view of the import role teachers play， as well as lack of qualified English teacher in middle schools in the areas inhabited by the Miao people， teachers’ self-improvement becomes a must. Presently， it is very popular for the teachers from the middle schools in the countryside or the areas inhabited by the Miao people to have a further study， but few of them really attempt to learn something to enrich their knowledge， but to get a diploma. To improve their pronunciation， they should listen to English radios or native English speakers， and practice reading in the morning. Beside， that should read extensively. The most important is that they should have a good sense of responsibility and make good preparation before every lesson.

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（作者單位：貴州省雷山縣第一中學(xué)）