On the Problems of Senior High School Students Listening and Countermeasures

廖寶娟

【摘要】在英語教學中，聽力能力的提高對學生語言能力的全面發展至關重要。近年來，高中英語聽力教學一直是英語教學的重要環節，語言技能包括聽、說、讀、寫四種技能，以及這四種技能的綜合運用。其中聽力作為一種語言輸入，是學習英語的基礎。然而，高中英語聽力教學存在很多問題，影響了學生的聽力水平。本文通過對高中的英語聽力教學問題的分析，著重提出應對策略，希望能對教師的聽力教學提供一定的幫助。

【關鍵詞】英語聽力教學 問題 對策 建議

1. Introduction

The English Syllabus of Senior high School defines： one of the purposes of Senior high school English teaching is to develop students English communicative competence. It emphasizes the four skills of English are closely dependent on each other. Speaking ability relies on listening ability. Listening is the main ways for people to get the information. From listening people can make languages into sounds and imitate what they have just heard. So people can develop their listening ability from speaking. Nowadays， with the development of modern technology， the media are widely used. In the English teaching process， reading is emphasized too much， while speaking and listening are totally neglected. As a result， the development of listening is still ignored by the English teachers. Many students are good at writing， but they are not good at listening and even they dont understand what the listening material talk about. As to the current situation of Senior high school English listening teaching， the students should have strong will to improve their listening ability. Students listening ability closely relates to their learning methods and proficiency in language learning. Because of lacking of well English environment and solid language skills， most Senior high school students are not good at English listening. So the English teachers must pay more attention to students listening teaching. Through analysis and summaries of different kind of problems and causes related to the English listening in Senior high school， this paper provides some rational proposal and operational countermeasures to solve the problems and improve English listening teaching and learning in Senior high school.

2. Analysis of Senior High School students English Listening Problems

As we know， listening teaching plays crucial role in English teaching， but the present state of it is unsatisfying. It is necessary to figure out some problems existing in English language teaching， and then teachers can do some further studies and find out the solutions to the problems.

2.1 Lack of Reasonable Pedagogy

Listening skill plays a crucial role in English teaching and learning. But until the twenty century people had finally realize the importance of it. People have paid more attention to listening learning since then. In Chinese Senior high schools， listening teaching had been totally neglected in English teaching before listening became a testing item in National Entrance Examination for College. There were many problems in English teaching in China. The students cant understand what foreigners talk about or chat to them after studying English for over ten years. Though listening teaching is paid more attention to， the current situation of listening teaching in Senior high schools are not very well. In some sense， lack of reasonable pedagogy is one of the problems exist in Senior high school listening teaching.

2.2 Lack of Perfect Master of Listening Techniques and Methods

Although many people think language teachers must master the teaching theories very well in language teaching， in the realistic teaching， they have not many theories about listening teaching and their main source of teaching methods is their teaching experience. The teachers themselves can't make a good use of the most teaching materials. It is a fact that teachers' listening teaching is based on teaching principles. That they aren't studying the teaching materials by using listening theories makes their teaching boring. Teachers have no time choosing some relative listening materials for students and discover no abundant materials connected with the teaching materials. All the teachers always use listening methods that they take for grant as teachers but neglect the interest of the students. Playing tapes repeatedly always happens in the classroom teaching. In the English listening classes， there are few teachers give students enough chances to practice speaking， reading and writing. Teachers themselves seldom feel it satisfying to carry on classroom teaching.

Most of Teachers just play the tapes repeatedly for several times if students cannot do the textbook exercises. Students are required to listen to the materials in the tape， and then do the listening exercises in the textbooks. Listening exercises， which are similar to one another in different units， are always filling in the blanks or ticking off the correct answers. The reason is that teachers lack effective teaching methods， only simple， brief ways are used in listening teaching. Teachers themselves believe this kind of lesson methods is very limited. About listening teaching methods， all the teachers offered similar answers， that is， teachers' language teaching methods cannot meet all needs of students learning. The teachers' methods of teaching restrict listening skill development. The listening teachers only teach materials offered in the textbook. As can be seen， this kind of exercises is not suitable for listening teaching in every unit. Senior high School students are easy to frustrate， teachers can't ease the students' mood by similar listening exercises in every class. Most of listening teachers use the Chinese language to organize classroom teaching. They seldom make up an well environment that students speak and use English so as to cultivate students English language feeling. It can be concluded that listening teachers teaching methods are not effective is also one problem in Senior high school English lisening.

2.3 Lack of High Interest and Positive Attitude

The teaching methods of teachers aren't effective in listening class. Efficient teaching methods are seldom used. Only simple and fixed ones are repeatedly used in every listening class， which makes students lose interest in listening class gradually. It can be concluded that students don't think their teachers have some effective methods in English teaching.

As is known， listening is really important in second language teaching and the classroom instruction is one of the most important ways in which the students learn second language. Many classroom activities can be used to arouse the students' interest. However， most teachers use the teaching methods are those： listening to the tapes， answering the questions， checking the answers， which cannot raise students' interest and improve their listening abilities. Teachers teaching methods are still traditional ones， constantly play tapes in class， while students just check their answers after listening to exercises. In this way， both teachers and students are sparing time tiredly all through the listening teaching. Listening teachers should use more effective teaching methods to make students get interested in listening class.

2.4 Lack of Solid Knowledge Basis

In the listening material， there are always many new words， new sentence patterns， new grammar， lost tone and stress shifting ect. These aspects will add some difficulties to students understanding of the material. If students were not familiar with the basic language， its difficult for them to understand. Such as words， phrases， sentences， ect. Because the students did not master the linguistics well， it leads to some understanding barriers. For example： the pronunciation is not accurate， especially for similar words. Such as： jeep-sheep； count—cant； much—march. In order to understand the listening materials definitely， students should master the pronunciation， vocabulary， grammar， and the differences between sentence patterns. Without the solid basic grammar， students will feel very difficult to catch the fleeting information.

3. Countermeasures and Suggestions

Based on the above discussion， several countermeasures and suggestions on the reform in English listening teaching have been put forward by the author， which might provide some implications for Senior High English teachers.

3.1 To Cultivate Students Interest in English Listening

There is a saying “Interest is the best teacher”. As soon as teachers make students interested in listening， they can motivate their enthusiasm and initiative on English learning. At the beginning of the listening， teachers should explain the topics to students in humorous and lively ways in the class， using simple ways， expressions and gestures. Teachers can also use some pictures to help students get better understand. Sometimes it is also necessary to introduce the key content and write some Chinese words on the blackboard. It is really useful to develop students listening understanding in this way. With the students listening abilities improved， teachers can choose some hot topics and more interesting conversation stories to the students， which can make students more interested in English listening.

There are also some different psychology barriers during the listening process. Students always feel down or afraid of without catching the meaning of speaker. In fact the English listening isnt difficult if you believe in yourself. So teachers should encourage the students be confident， and also remind them that they need not pay more attention to every pronunciation， word， phrases， or every detail. Students should pay more attention to the content， not to the language； concentrate on the main idea， not on details. Keep relaxed and the students will successfully understand the listening material.

First， English teachers should try to make listening course not only a task but also an interesting thing （GaoYanmin， 2008）. For example， teachers can make listening materials more diversified and attractive with the help of modern teaching devices. Most of the students like the new and challenge things. Some resources like English movies， songs， videos， poems， BBC or VOA news can be used as the listening materials in class. Second， teachers as the instructors in class should try to let the students involve in the class to create an active and interactive atmosphere. “It is not always the most energetic teachers that create the most dynamic lessons.”（Paul， 2000） For example， teachers can organize the role-playing activity after watching a movie. It can not only make English listening interesting but also practice students' English communicative ability.

Through providing varied listening resource outside the class， this can increase the time and chance for students to exposure to English listening. Actually， the vast majority of students spend nearly no time on English listening learning after class. Therefore， it is necessary to develop students' listening learning autonomy after class. The ultimate goal of cultivating students' listening learning autonomy is to form their self-directed learning habit （Chen Yan， 2010）. A self-directed learning student knows exactly what his/her learning needs and learning objectives and so has the ability of selecting learning resources and forming effective strategies （Yu Hongmei， 2007）. For example， Students can choose listening materials according to their interest and levels of difficulties and they can make use of various kinds of visual materials downloaded from the Internet such as， news report， speeches， films， lectures and so on. The teachers can encourage students to listen to the broadcasting programs with the aid of autonomous learning plan. Besides， teachers can assign tasks on autonomy promotion plan including recording self-evaluation， self-management， self-monitory and self-assessment.

3.2 To Heighten the Guidance of Listening Techniques

English listening teaching is an interactive activity between students and teachers. They are two indispensable roles in the class， every student has his/her own methods to figure out the listening materials. As the guide of the class， the English teachers should have efficient methods to teach the students how to grasp listening skills.

Listening comprehension strategy is one of the factors affecting the promotion of students listening comprehension， while many students have very limited or even no listening strategies. The English teacher should help students to improve the ability of applying listening strategies when in listening， and the first step is constructing students' consciousness of listening comprehension strategy. Because learning methods and strategies have a direct effect on the results of learning， English teachers should take cultivating students' ability in self-evaluation through the teaching process. Besides， teachers should also train students' ability of using self-management strategies to monitor language learning （Wen Qiufang， 1995）.

Listening strategies， as the medium， are essential in turning listeners' language knowledge into listening competence （Cross， 2009）. In this sense， it is really necessary for students to cultivate the ability of applying proper listening comprehension strategies in listening. Wen Qiufang （1996） considers that “learning strategies is the general term of learning idea， learning methods and management methods.” Successful learners tend to use more proper strategies and use them more selectively， efficiently and flexibly， through accumulating varied listening techniques and methods by themselves， students could do listening task more effectively.

3.3 To Strengthen the Study of Basic Knowledge

The improvement of listening ability relies on the improvement of one's whole level of language proficiency including a good command of English phonetic knowledge， grammar， vocabulary and cultural background knowledge.

The English teachers should reinforce the teaching of pronunciation， vocabulary and grammar， create new ways to teach students vocabularies and make students interested in memorizing words. For example， teacher can use some interesting stories or explanations to help students to remember the meaning of the words and its morphological features and usage in different language background. At the same time， guessing the meaning of words is also very important for students to understand the listening content. Teachers should pay more attention to training students ability to guess the meaning of the words through the whole passage， grammar structure， word formation and language context. And also grammar teaching is really important， which aims to make students learn the basic language， to practice listening， reading， speaking， and writing. To listen English correctly， students must master the language law； express themselves in the way of English speaking countries. Only in this way， can they make themselves understood， and to achieve the purpose of communication.

It is a fact that background knowledge has a close relationship with listening comprehension. When in listening， we recall relevant knowledge in our long-term memory to assist our understanding of the speech. If there is no relevant knowledge in our brain， it will be difficult to comprehend the meaning. For example， there are lots of set expressions in English which are quite different or even opposite to Chinese. If the students did not learn them before， it will be difficult for them to understand the meaning.

In English listening teaching practice， the teacher should draw students' attention to cultural difference. Both the teacher and the students should have the awareness of cultural importance and necessity. There are some ways for English teachers to do to offer more cultural information about English speaking countries. For example， in class， teachers can play some English news videos or films which talk about English culture. Besides， teachers can also organize some activities to compare the different between Chinese culture and English culture and some games of culture appreciation can be played. Out of class， teachers can also assign students to read English newspapers and magazines to learn more about English customs and culture.

3.4 To Make Full Use of Teaching Aids

In poverty area， there are few chances to get in touch with native English speakers， but teachers can use publications， magazines， multimedia for our teaching tasks. Even we can use material objects， this is superiority as county students. Computers are widely used during our class， play classical English films， make PowerPoint.

Teachers can use some short stories， humors， classical films， English songs to arouse students' interests on listening. This is a useful and interesting way for teaching. Students can listen to CCTV9， VOA， and BBC news and so on， and also they can chat with English native speakers on Internet.

Teachers can also use role play， English corner， today news report， storytelling to train their speaking ability. Try to support a class full of English oral use English organizing teaching， and join in suitable gestures， that spoken English ambience will set up in class. In this way teachers can effectively promote students to master and use English in English surroundings. It is an effective way to overcome the situation lacking English communication circumstances in poverty country.

That means teachers can provide recorder， radio set， video compact discs， films， computers， and Internet in aid of English teaching.

4. Conclusion

Listening comprehension is an important language skill which is required to be developed in the English teaching of Senior high school. In this thesis the author analyzes some problems exist in English teaching in Senior high school and points out the related causes. Then， provides some countermeasures and suggestions to improve and develop the teaching of English listening in Senior high school.

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