A Case Study of English Majors ’ Participation in Oral English Class in China

— English speaking competence is one of the most important targets of English language learning ， and to which great importance has been attached in teaching and learning. However, many Chinese students, even English majors of local universities have difficulties in speaking English fluently and appropriately. Classroom is a major setting for Chinese students to practice and improve their oral English so participation in class activities plays an important role in their competence and progress in oral English. This study aims to explore major problems that affect Chinese students ’ participation in oral English class. Based on an adopted and revised questionnaire and interview from previous researches, the study finds that anxiety, self-esteem and lack of courage are the major internal factors. Meanwhile, dull teaching materials and activities, as well as teachers ’ role are external factors that affect participation in oral English class. This article provides some empirical evidence for exploration into factors that hinder students ’ participation in an Chinese context.


I. INTRODUCTION
Student participation has been studied a lot by researchers all around the world (Hu & Kuh, 2002). Participation may refer to student and institutional level, academic and non-academic aspects of higher education experience.
Previous studies have already pointed out that student participation is one determinant to a student's academic success and the quality of education (Kahu & Nelson, 2017). The degree of participation with academic-oriented activities is one of the key standards to measure student participation level.When it comes to oral English, it is assumed that the more students get engaged in class activities, the more progress they will achieve. Since Hymes' concept of communicative competence was introduced to China thirty years ago, teachers and researchers have come to realize that the ultimate goal of language teaching is to help students improve their ability to communicate. So speaking occupies an important and IJELS-2022, 7 (

II. PROBLEMS IN ORAL ENGLISH CLASSROOM
The English teaching process itself is a communicative process, which means that teachers and students are engaged in all the possible activities of exchanging information. There are typical problems in oral communication such as inhibition, lack of motive, low participant and mother-tongue interference.

V. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Results show that both internal and external factor affect students engagement in oral English class. Internal factors that affect class engagement include learners' anxiety, low self-esteem and lack of courage, which place the key role in preventing them from taking an active part in activities in the oral class.

Anxiety
In the survey, the majority (71%)attribute their inactive participation to their being nervous in speaking in public.
Some students being interviewed have the some problem: "No matter what class we are having, we always feel nervous when speak in front of the class." And they just cannot control it; some say it occurs "when they make mistakes", "when they don't know what to say" or "they cannot follow the speaker".
From psychological perspective, their anxiety (Brown, 1994 have an opportunity to produce better and more complete language.

Teachers' error correction
66% of participants attribute their inactive participation to fear of being criticized by teacher when they make mistakes, 15% to that teachers often point out their errors in speaking, which reduces their confidence.Traditionally, it is taken for granted that it is the teacher's responsibility to correct student's errors. However, sometimes teacher's correction does not significantly decrease the number of students' errors but frustrate them. As language learners, it can be safely anticipated that they will produce a fair amount of language errors (Ismail & Samad, 2014), so teachers should be careful and skillful when they correct students' errors in speech. Previous studies show that motivation is very strongly related to achievement and involvement in language learning. Unless learners can be highly motivated, they will not take an active part in class activities. Furthermore, the more they are involved in the activity, the more sustained effort they will make to succeed in the activity. If (1) Not to be afraid of making mistakes and losing face in classroom participation, and do not skip a chance to speak English.

Dull teaching materials and activities
(2) To be well prepared before class so as to be more confident to take part in class activities.
(3) To understand that teachers' role as facilitators rather than authority who are always willing to assist. Thus, it is advised to grasp every chance to interact with instructors as well.
(4) To communicative more with teachers many a time to understand their requirement better and lessen the level of anxiety.
Meanwhile, it is an urgent task for teachers to analyze students' needs so as to overcome the obstacles of communication and improve their willingness of participation.

Limitations
This paper is more of a preliminary study with mixed method, in which the design of questionnaire and interview questions can be revised to be more comprehensive, and data can be analyzed with more depth.
Results of this research may not be applicable for some top universities where more competent language learners are enrolled.