Since traditional English teaching method, which merely focuses on language teaching but ignores communicative competence, severely impedes the development of students' oral ability. It is high time that English teachers took measures to find a workable and valuable teaching method which can improve students' speaking proficiency effectively. Learning community theory provides a broad space for this, for it regards learning as a process which takes place in a community where the learners are sharing their experience towards knowledge building in an interactive and cooperative way.
Learning community, a theory that has gained popularity in the USA and many European countries over the past twenty years, has made a tremendous influence upon each aspect of education. There is no universal definition of it, but there is a general consensus that learning community develops through the cooperative efforts of the group members within the environment that al - lows all the members to achieve shared goals. Learning is not merely based on individual's efforts, but mainly on the collective ex- periences of learning community.
《推销员之死》（Death of a Salesman,1949）是美国著名剧作家阿瑟.米勒（Arthur Miller,1915~2005）的代表作品,也是美国戏剧史上最具影响的剧本之一。米勒通过表现主义、象征主义、意识流等文学创作手法,结合灯光、音乐等舞台手段,将过去与现在、虚幻与现实有机结合,凸显了一个家庭成员之间的矛盾冲突及其在社会生活中所面临的现实问题,作品触及了美国民众的价值观以及现代人的生存困境。
