EFL Learners' Desire for the Accuracy of Oral English and Its Correlation with the Accuracy of Their Oral English Performance

摘要

This study probes into EFL learners' desire for the accuracy of oral English andits correlation with the accuracy of their oral English performancE. The experimentwas conducted on 60 Chinese EFL learners. The data of the students' desire for theaccuracy of oral English were collected through a questionnaire, and their oralEnglish proficiency and accuracy were measured in an oral English test. The majorfindings are as follows: 1) on average EFL learners' desire for the accuracy of oralEnglish is not significantly high, with a mean score of 2.87; and they have higherdesires for simple aspects of accuracy than for advanced aspects of accuracy; 2) EFLlearners' desire for the accuracy of oral English and the accuracy of their oral Englishperformance are positively correlated, with a coefficient of 0.479 (p=.000<0.01); andthe strength of correlation between the students' desires for the simple aspects ofaccuracy and the accuracy of their performance in these aspects is greater than that ofthe advanced aspects of accuracy; 3) EFL learners' desire for the accuracy of oralEnglish and their oral English proficiency also have a moderate positive correlation,its coefficient being 0.336(p=.009<0.01); and the lower students' English proficiencyis the stronger the correlation becomes; 4) the male EFL learners' desire for theaccuracy of oral English and that of the female EFL learners display different patterns:the male students displayed the pattern of