Action Research Into How To Resolve Students' Difficulties In Speaking English In The Teaching Of Automobile English At A Vocational School

This study was conducted to explore how an English teacher resolved the difficulties of vocational school students in speaking English in the teaching of Automobile English at a vocational school.The theoretical bases of the study are input hypothesis,output hypothesis and constructivism learning theory.Its significance consists of three aspects:providing English teachers with an alternative for resolving the difficulties of vocational school students in speaking English;helping English teachers foster their students' interest in speaking English by research in action,research on action and research for action;and helping promote their professional development.The research questions to be addressed in the study were:1.How does the English teacher foster her students' interest in speaking English in the teaching of Automobile English at a vocational school?2.How does the English teacher get her students to speak English in the teaching of Automobile English at a vocational school?The subjects were 30 second-year students in a secondary vocational school in Nanjing.Before the action research,the teacher found that almost all her students had difficulties in speaking English.The instruments in the research were teaching journal,classroom observation and interview.There were two cycles in the action research.The first cycle was made up of problem identification,plan making,plan implementation,assessments and reflections.The second cycle consists of problem re-identification,plan re-making,plan re-implementation,re-assessments and re-reflections.The author combined formative assessment and summative assessment to test their English speaking.The data was collected by listening to their recorded retelling,watching their recorded role-play and viewing their duty report.The data was analyzed by calculating mean and percentage,categorization and comparison.The study has the following two major findings:First,the students' interest in speaking English was fostered to some degree,which could be shown in their performances in class.One reason was that the automobile-related situations that teacher created,from a virtual one by multimedia to a real one by going to the automobile training base.What was worth mentioning was a real situation where the real car bodies,automobile parts and automobile maintenance equipment were employed and where the work-place tasks were designed,such as vehicle type recommendation,price negotiation,automobile failure consultation,maintenance reservation and reply for customers' complaints,etc.The other was the interesting activities that the teacher conducted,like learning vehicle terms through English songs,learning vehicle performances through film clips of automobile advertisements and identifying automobile signs.Second,the students showed a little ability to speak English.Quantitatively,their scores went up by 2.2 points(the total score was 20 points)and qualitatively,most of them made gradual progress in the two cycles of action research,from "having nothing to say" to "having something to say".This could be attributed to three factors.One was the combination of formative assessment and summative assessment,with a focus on the former.Another was the alternate use of different forms like listening to speak,watching to speak,playing to speak,reading to speak,writing to speak and reciting to speak in order to develop their ability to speak as well as to avoid the monotony and boredom.The other was the role play with job-related roles such as automobile technician,apprentice,receptionist,customer,observer and so on,which made the class real,situational and natural.There are three limitations in this study.Firstly,this study is tentative in nature,whether it can be extended to other specialized English classes needs further research.Secondly,the teacher's classroom observation and teaching journal cannot guarantee 100%objectivity and the important details might be forgotten in her observation.Thirdly,as an interdisciplinary subject,Automotive English should be guided by the future employment of students.Teachers need to know more about the requirements of the employers and try to meet the needs of the students'professional development.