2。2。3 Application of the Instant Messaging Tools in the Teaching of Spoken English in Primary School 6

III Methodology 7

3。1 Research Questions 7

3。2 Subjects 7

3。3 Instruments 7

3。4 Research Procedure of the Experiment 8

3。5 Data Collection 8

IV Data analysis 9

4。1 The Analysis of the Questionnaire 9

4。1。1 The Analysis of the Current Situation about Spoken English Learning 9

4。1。2 The Analysis of the Students’ Spoken English Learning Interest 10

4。1。3 The Analysis of the Current Situation the Teaching of Spoken English and Its Effect 10

4。1。4 The Analysis of the Students and Parents’ Feedback towards these New Tools 10

4。2 The Analysis of the Experiment 11

4。3 The Analysis of the Interviews 14

V Discussion of the Impact of the Application of the Multimodal Theory on Students’ Spoken English Improving 15

VI Conclusion 16

6。1 Major Findings 16

6。2 Pedagogical Implications 16

6。3 Limitations 17

6。4 Suggestions for the Further Study 18

References 19

Appendix 20

 I Introduction

1。1 Background

Generally speaking, students in China start their English learning from the third grade in primary school。 According to the Curriculum Objective of Primary English in Nine Years’ Compulsory Education (2011), cultivating students’ abilities to make full use of English on the basis of their listening ability, speaking ability, reading ability, writing ability, attitudes, learning strategies and the development of cultural awareness is vital to students。 However, it is universally acknowledged that among listening, speaking, reading and writing, Chinese students particularly do a poor job in speaking。 As an international language, English has been popularized all over the world and fluent spoken English is bound to bring children more opportunities in such competitive environment。 Traditionally, spoken language is always assessed against a highly literate norm rather than the ability to convey the information (Brown Gillian＆Yule George, 2004)。 And students are always evaluated by doing the examination, the spoken English part are not included in the most of the test papers。 (Yang, 2010) Therefore, how to improve students’ spoken English becomes a really urgent task for primary education。 来自优W尔Y论W文C网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520,18766

For the sake of solving this problem and improving students’ spoken English, a popular teaching theory has been largely applied into English Teaching Classroom these years。 Multimodal Theory, which is based on systematic functional linguistics and came forth in 1990s, has drawn lots of scholars’ attention。 The burgeoning theory is developing so fast that many theoretical achievements have been carried out。 

With the advent of science and technology, plenty of educational multimedia equipment has been used in the English teaching, especially in the teaching of spoken English in primary school and English language institutions。 At present, teaching aids are not limited in a blackboard and a chalk。 Flash cards, videos, sounds and PPT Screen have been fully put into use of the English language teaching。 The various tools attract students’ attention to English learning and stimulate their interest towards English learning。 These years, instant messaging tools, such as Wechat and QQ, have been noticed by teachers in several schools and language training institutions。 Tools like Wechat facilitate the convenient and immediate communication between parents and teachers (Chen, 2016), while through voice calls, teachers can communicate with students directly without the limitation of time and space。 But are these new tools exactly good for spoken English improving? Based on Multimodal Theory, this research will carry out an investigation on the role of the new communicative tools in the teaching of spoken English in primary school。