Abstract: By interviewing some English majors from Yangzhou University, we learn some of the difficulties in students’ oral performance, and design a questionnaire to find out the main factors affecting students’ performance. The participants are divided into two groups as the higher-proficiency students and the lower-proficiency students. The research shows that the two most important factors affecting oral performance are psychological factors (including nervousness, learners’ low self-assessment and lack of courage to take risks) and motivation (including instrumental motivation and integrative motivation). Environmental factors have little influence on the difference of the participants’ oral performance. At the end of the paper, some suggestions are put forward for improving oral English teaching.

Key words: major factors, psychological factors, motivation, oral performance

摘要：本文通过采访扬州大学英语系学生了解到其在英语口语表达中存在的一些问题，并根据存在的问题设计了一套调查问卷。目的在于探索并研究学生在口语表达过程中影响其表达差异的主要因素。实验将学生分为好差两组。研究表明学生在口语表达时，最主要的两个影响因素是心理因素和动机，环境因素对学生口语表达差异没有很大影响。其中，心理因素包括学习者在表达过程中的紧张，自我评价低和缺乏冒险的勇气。动机主要包括工具型动机和综合型动机。最后本文对口语教学方面提出了一些建议。

关键词：主要因素，心理因素，动机，口语表达