怎樣將英語聽力課堂中的“測”轉變為“教”

朱穎

摘 要：本文首先指出了傳統的語法翻譯教學法實質上是在測聽力而不是教聽力，并指出了這種課教學方法的缺點，然后作者通過結合聽力教學的相關理論提出了可行的解決方案。

關鍵詞：英語聽力教學；測；教；教學法

How to Do Real “Teaching” in Stead of “Testing” in English Listening Class

Ying ZHU

Abstract： This article first points out that in most English listening class， teachers are using grammar translation approach to “test” instead of “teach” listening. And then， based on the foregoing analysis， this article analyzes the nature of listening comprehension and makes an attempt to eliminate barriers in English listening teaching by recommended several teaching approaches.

Keywords： English listening teaching testing teaching teaching approach

Since the beginning of English teaching in modern China in 1980s， the grammar translation approach has been dominating the English teaching in classroom. In a listening class， most of the teachers make a description of the grammar and vocabulary of the target language， and then go directly to listen to a tape. There is little communication and interaction between teachers and students or students and students. The relationship between teachers and students is teacher–as–dominant while student–as–submissive. In such kind of listening class， comprehension exercises are taken by the learners， and feedback is given in the form of the correct answers， in this way， teachers are not teaching listening but testing listening.

Why we call it test rather than teach？ The reason is correct responses are outcomes or products of listening， it cannot represent listening itself. Vandergrift indicates （2004） when a listener supplies a correct answer， there is no indication as to how that answer has been arrived at：Has meaning been constructed by correct identifying all the words in a particular piece of text， or by identifying one word and making an inspired guess？

Testing the listening comprehension over and over again pays no attention to what may have gone wrong in the process of listening， and it does little to address learners shortcoming or to improve the effectiveness of their listening. Hence， when learners confront with the similar texts in the future， they will use the same， unsuccessful techniques over and over again. Therefore， problematic and foundational issue should be paid attention to， it is： how does teaching of listening differ from testing of listening？ Anderson and Lynch （1988） identify ‘the difficulty is that the classroom approaches that most teachers think of as tools for teaching listening comprehension in fact amount to a form of continuous testing.

Rather than merely telling them their answers are wrong， and the right answers are A， B， C， teachers， as instructors of listening classes， should address students shortcomings， diagnose the causes of failures， and tell the students how to avoid similar failures in the future. Sheerin （1987） points out ‘we need instead to consider very carefully the nature of the discourse in order to try to ascertain what difficulties it presents， and what sort of information or training the learner might need in order to understand similar discourse types in the future.

Appendix A is an interesting and helpful sample about how to shift the exercise from testing to teaching. Those two exercises appeared in different decades and they are comparable for the sake of they are both based on recordings of librarians explaining their work. ‘One of the differences between the exercises is that Exercise A leads the learners only to the answer of that particular question. Exercise B， on the other hand， encourages the students to adopt an appropriate strategy. The simple instruction ‘list five things… require the application of what the listeners already know， to help them understand what they are about to hear. ‘Anderson and Lynch （1988）

Now we have made it clear that we should teach instead of test， however， we then have to solve another problem： by what kind of approaches could we achieve this target？ One effective method is to employ creative approaches and activities for listening teaching.

Communicative approach

According to Flowerdew （2005）， the communicative approach is based on the premise that what we do in the classroom should have some real-life communicative value.

The communicative approach demands for implications of communication to language teaching， and real-life listening is integrated into this approach in terms of listening teaching.

With communicative approach mistakes are tolerated as long as they do not interfere with the communication， and once these activities have started， there is little or no teacher intervention. The activities for communicative approach should be communicatively useful， such as filling in a form or answering a telephone. The activity in appendix B is cited from Flowerdew （2005） which illustrates the communicative approach.

The learner-strategy approach

Flowerdew （2005） demonstrates： ‘a strategy-based approach to teaching listening takes as its focus the concept of learner independence. The strategy-based approach places the emphasis on learners finding out which listening strategies are effective for them and in which situations.

Rost （2001） recommends five commonly recognized ‘successful strategies：

1. Predicting： predicting information or ideas prior to listening.

2. Inferencing： Making inferences from incomplete information based on prior knowledge.

3. Monitoring： Monitoring ones own listening processes and relative success while listening.

4. Clarifying： Attempting to clarify areas of conclusion and responding to what one has understood.

5. Responding： Providing a personal， relevant response to the information or ideas presented.

6. Evaluating：Checking how well one has understood， and whether an initial problem posed has been solved.

The integrated approach

Because of the significant development of research about listening， as well as the easy reach of various exercises， teachers nowadays rarely use one approach to teaching listening.

Teachers should adopt different approach according to different goals. As stated by

Flowerdew （2005） the approach is also integrated in that a variety of listening approaches are used： ‘a discrete-item- based approach when listening for the sounds of words； a grammar-based approach when completing cloze sentences or paragraphs； a task-based approach when all the exercises build on one another around a similar topic； and a strategy-based approach when asking students to think about how they listen and how they listen and to generate hints on how to listen.

Appendix B

Question for testing and question for teaching

Exercise A

（Underwood （1997） cited in Anderson and Lynch （1988））

Exercise B

（Underwood and Barr （1980） cited in Anderson and Lynch （1988）

Appendix A

A sample activity can illustrate the application of communicative approach

Read this situation：

You and some friends want to go out for dinner together. Listen to each other give restaurant reviews and make some notes about each restaurant. Then discuss with your friends which restaurant you think you would all like to go to. Listen for information like price， location， and quality of food and service.

REFERENCES

Anderson， A， and Lynch， T （1988） Listening. Oxford： Oxford University Press.

Flowerdew， J. （2005） Second language listening： theory and practice. Unit State of America： University of Cambridge Press.

Rost， M. （2001） Teaching and Researching Listening. Harlow： Longman.

Sheerin， S. （1987） ‘Listening Comprehension： Teaching or Testing？ ELT Journal ， 41：2， 126- 131.

Vandergrift， L. （2004）. ‘Listening to Learn or Learning to Listen？ Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 24， 3-25.