A Study of Factors Affecting the Oral English Proficiency of English Majors

Abstract

This is an empirical study of the factors which affect English majors’ oral proficiency. The research methodologies include: questionnaire, classroom observation and interviews. Based on theoretical and practical analysis, the author tried to investigate factors which affected English majors’ oral proficiency. 100 sophomores from English major of a college as well as 5 English teachers participated in the investigation. The questionnaire covered the variable factors, such as teaching setting, teaching methods, teaching materials, attitudes and motivation, anxiety and self-esteem etc., aiming to find what influenced language learners’ oral proficiency. The interviews offered the detailed information concerning both teachers’ and students’ viewpoints on oral English teaching and learning. And the data obtained from the questionnaire as well as the perceptions and suggestions from the students and teachers were analyzed with the Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS Statistical Package, Version 13.0). The author used the descriptive statistics, basically mean and standard deviation, to describe the correlation between factors and language learners’ oral proficiency. By using the bivariate correlate, the author made a survey of whether the factors affecting the students’ oral proficiency were significantly different at a 0.05 probability level. By having a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaire, the author found that teaching and learning environment and students’ motivation wielded the most significant influence upon learners’ oral proficiency, and some other factors were also affecting their spoken English at different degrees.