2. Summary of the Preliminary Research

This part of my study was conducted during May5, 1999~May 14, 1999.

2.1 Problem
The problem I have in my teaching is that most of my students do not like doing the oral practice I assign them to do after class.

2.2 Problem analysis
In my teaching, the problem identified was really a serious problem. My preliminary research confirmed that there were three main reasons that accounted for students' reluctance to do the oral assignments out of class.

Firstly, some students did not feel interested in practising oral English alone after class. They thought they could not communicate without partners. Secondly, some students had some difficulties in doing oral practice, so they hoped that they could do it after class under more concrete direction of the teacher. Thirdly, most students felt overloaded because of a heavier homework assignments.

The Problem had been troubling me for a long time and now I was determined to find a solution to the problem. In my study, I used four methods of analysis.

2.2.1 Analytic method
Through careful analysis, I was led to a series of questions: For instance, I found a majority of my students do not like doing this assignment, and I wanted to know why it should be the case, and whether they thought it important and necessary to practise oral English or not? If they thought it important and necessary, the problem was actually caused by myself, not by my students. Probably the oral work I assigned my students to do was poorly organized.

2.2.2 Cause analysis
In this situation, I asked myself a series of questions and tried to provide some answers to them.

Why did most of my students not do oral practice I assigned them to do after class? In order to know more about this issue, I designed a cause exploration procedure like this.

Questions	Answers
Is it because they do not like oral English?	Maybe.
Is it because the oral tasks are poorly designed?	Maybe.
Is it because they are not motivated?	Possibly yes.
Is it because my instructions are not clear?	Maybe.
Is it because they do not like to practice oral tasks alone?	Maybe.
Is it because they have lots of other things to do?	Yes.
Is it because they do not think oral tasks are important and necessary?	Maybe.
Is it because they have some difficulties unsolved by themselves?	Yes.

2.2.3 Questionnaire survey
I made a pilot investigation in this respect to know more about the situation. For this purpose, I designed a research procedure like the follows. One day, I gave them two oral tasks-Recite Lesson 86 and form groups voluntarily to make a new dialogue. The title was "Asking A Way". The next day, I got the following feedback:

Only seven students recited the lesson. Only one group of three students made a new dialogue. The rest did not do the oral tasks.

Then I asked them two questions. One was why some students had done the oral tasks. The students' responses:

¡¡¡¡First, those who had made new dialogue said they enjoyed speaking English and they also liked to practise oral English with partners. ¡¡¡¡Second, those who had recited the lesson said they had recited it because the lesson was very long and there were many new patterns in this lesson. If they did not review them in time , they would forget some of them.

The other question was why most students hadn't done the oral tasks. The students' reasons:

¡¡¡FFirst, most of them thought written homework was much more important than oral tasks were. ¡¡¡¡Second, they thought a huge amount of written homework given by the teachers of different subjects must be handed in the next day. And all the teachers would check it carefully, while the English teacher might spend a little time checking the oral task, so they had to finish written homework first and sometimes they had no time to do the oral tasks. ¡¡¡¡Third, they felt it very difficult to recite such long lessons. ¡¡¡¡Fourth, they felt tired of practising dialogues without partners, while they could not find partners.

Since most of my students did not do the oral practice I asked them to do after class, I designed a questionnaire (See Appendix A) to find out why it should be so. I intended to get more detailed, more exact opinions from all the students through the questionnaire. And I tried to make it as scientific and effective as possible. At first I asked four students who were of different English levels to try out the questionnaire. Then I modified some of the items. After that I gave one of my questionnaire to my students and gave them fifteen minutes to finish it. All of them, thirty-seven students , returned their questionnaires which were left anonymous.

When all these data came in, I made some statistical evaluation. The results showed that over 70% of the students thought regularly practising oral English after school could improve their English speaking and that about 63% of them thought oral practice was very necessary for their future. Therefore I thought the students were clear about the importance and necessity of oral practice. But they might run up against difficulties that they could not overcome, so they lost their confidence and interest.

2.2.4 Brainstorming activation
When I was engaged in the problem analysis, I consulted my thesis supervisor Miss Liu Jin and often talked to my classmates about all the problems I met. They gave me a lot of advice and help so that I pondered the problem more deeply and carefully.

After a lengthy problem analysis, I determined to launch a project to overcome this problem.

2.3 Project objective
My research objective is to enhance my students' interest in doing oral practice after class.

2.4 Project hypothesis
It is hypothesized that learners' interest in oral practice after class is increased by better organization.

2.5 Possible solutions
With these reasons in mind, I have correspondingly provided some possible solutions which are as follows.

2.5.1 Help my students to make up nine groups.

2.5.2 Give them some priming materials, necessary background information and useful linguistic forms. I also provide topics that are close to real-life and closely relate to my purpose of practising spoken English to expand their view.

2.5.3 Give them chances to act out their own dialogues or plays before the class.

2.5.4 Check their performance regularly.

2.5.5 Give them less written homework when they need to do oral practice after class.