Analysis on the Factors Affecting English Listening Ability of High School Students

【Abstract】 Listening is one of the most difficult skills to acquire. In language learning， listening is an important means to get information. Listening ability directly affects students’ absorption of language， mastery of basic language skills and the ability to communicate with English. Only by hearing correctly， can they read smoothly and fluently. Therefore， high school students should improve their listening ability. Students’ listening ability closely relates to the methods and proficiency in listening. Because of lacking of English environment and basic language skills， most high school students are not proficient in English listening. Therefore， this paper focuses on high school students’ listening ability. It analyzes the factors that affect high school students’ English listening from different aspects and it also comes up with countermeasures to improve students’ listening ability.

【Keywords】 English listening ability affecting factors solutions

1. Improficient language knowledge

1.1 Lack of vocabulary knowledge

Broadly speaking， all the words in a language together constitute its vocabulary. In his work Marxism and Problems of Linguistics， Stalin points out that vocabulary is the building material of a language. (Zhang 3) Vocabulary also plays an important role in English listening; it is the basis of all knowledge in English. Each listening comprehension dialogue， discourse， is formed by sentences， while the sentence is the basic unit of words and phrases. During the listening process， we could hear， and imitate the voice and intonation of the speakers as we know the meaning of the words the speakers say. While without certain vocabulary， we can not link the symbols of words and their representatives together. We will not be able to know the meaning of the words and sentences， let alone understand the contents of the listening material. Therefore， high school students should acquire a certain amount of vocabulary knowledge.

1.2 Lack of culture Background

Language and culture， intrinsically dependent on each other， have evolved together through the history. (Dai He 127) In the process of learning a second language， we should be familiar with the social system， folk culture， way of thinking， and values of the countries. If students lack of culture background， they can’t make a deep understanding of certain contexts. For example， in an article about the introduction of American telephone network， there is a sentence goes like this “It provides 800 telephone services”. In America， when people dial long-distance calls free of charge， they should add the numbers 800. If the students do not know this， they will put the right meaning “this net provides 800 telephone services which aims at free long-distance calls” into “this net provide 800 telephone services”. We can also find such typical examples in other listening materials such as many western festivals， like Thanksgiving， Halloween， or famous people like physician Isaac Newton， football player David Beckham and so on. Hence， in order to improve their listening ability， the students should acquaint themselves with cross-cultural communication knowledge of English-spoken countries.

2. Inappropriate Listening Habits

2.1 Combining listening with other skills

Listening is not an isolated skill. Most of the time in real life listening occurs together with speaking and it also occurs with writing， e.g. taking notes while listening to a lecture. Therefore listening can be practiced with note taking， questioning， and role playing， retelling， interviewing， discussing and writing. So it is important to develop listening skills together with other skills. For many high school students， when they hear long conversations， they can’t exactly remember everything. So， in order to catch the contents， they may write down the key words and important details of the passage when they are listening. In everyday communication， speech plays a greater role than writing in terms of the amount of information conveyed. What’s more， speech is always the way in which every native speaker acquires his mother tongue， and writing is learned and taught later when he goes to school. (Dai He 4) Listening is input and speaking is output. Listening is the premise of speaking. In a certain sense， speaking is the translation of listening. During the process of listening， most students do not form the habit of listening by using their hands， ears， brains and minds together， hence， they often are busy with a great number of information they hear， catch one and miss another. To combine listening with other skills is particular necessary for high school students.

3. Conclusion

Listening is an important aspect of communication. As a part of basic language skills， listening ability directly affects students’ access to outside information. Among the four skills， listening， speaking， reading and writing， language learners often find that listening is the most difficult skills to acquire. It’s extremely important for high school students to improve their listening abilities. There are many factors that affect high school students’ English listening， as indicated above， such as internal factors like psychological barrier， nonproficient language knowledge， inappropriate listening habits， and so on. To improve listening ability， high school students should remove psychological barrier， consciously enrich and expand language knowledge， develop good listening habits， apply appropriate listening countermeasures and arrange reasonable training.

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