My ideas On Junior English Listening Teaching

向孝娥

【摘要】語言的功能是和其他的人交流，聽力作為四種基本語言能力中的一種，在和人交流時顯得尤為重要，它是語言交際的基礎。所以在英語聽力基礎階段教學中，既要務必傳授聽力技巧和策略，又不可忽視聽力訓練的持久性。在中國，初中學生的英語聽力普遍比較差，這主要是因為在老師和學生方面都存在一些問題。這篇論文主要討論了影響學生聽力的主要因素和解決這些問題的方法和策略，為學生提高英語聽力水平提出了自己的建議和措施。

【關鍵詞】影響學生聽力的因素 聽力教學策略

【Abstract】As we all know， the function of a language is to communicate with each other. Listening， which is one of the four basic abilities， is playing the most important role in communication. So in junior English listening teaching， not only we should focus more on techniques and strategies of listening， but also more on practicing. Most Chinese middle school students are very poor in English listening resulting from some aspect. So this paper main discuss the factors hindering the improvement of students English listening and suggest some points of teaching methods and strategies in listening class.

【Key words】factors influencing students listening； teaching methods

【中圖分類號】G633.41 【文獻標識碼】A 【文章編號】2095-3089（2016）23-0008-04

1. Introduction

As we all know， listening， speaking， reading， and writing are four basic skills in language teaching and learning， and listening is essential for developing other skills， which is not only an important skill in communication but also an important way to acquire knowledge and information. What is more， with the development of modern English teaching， more and more educators have pointed out the practical use of English is the purpose of English listening. A good listening is the precondition of learning English well and communicating well.“It is one of the important ways in English language communication. According to Rivers study indications， listening occupies 45% of the whole social interactions. From this， we can see that a good listening can help to improve students ability of language understanding. And some statistics show that nearly 50% students regard listening comprehension as the most difficult part among all kinds of examinations.”[1]（2）But many learners are afraid of listening， looking on it as more difficult than any other skills and neglecting the improving of listening ability. Improving listening ability is a long time work， as we know， an important means of language.

But in our traditional English listening teaching class， what most teachers do in class is merely to play the recorder and check answers to listening exercises. Most students could not understand what they are listening to and feel the listening class is so boring. As we all know， English plays an important part in our modern world， a good listening is a precondition of learning English well. So it is very important to find the factors that hindered the improvement of students listening ability and take some measures to solve the problems. This paper mainly discuss the problems in junior English listening teaching and suggest some measures.

2. The factors resulting in problems of listening in junior English class.

Listening is one of the significant skills in English language communication. But many students regard listening comprehension as the most difficult one among all kinds of examinations. Where are their barriers and what caused the problems？

2.1 The teacher aspect

2.1.1 Paying no attention to listening

Because of the poor condition， especially in the countryside， some schools in China have few equipments to train students listening， teachers teach English still with a mouth， a chalk and a blackboard. On the other hand， some teachers， they themselves have problem in listening. Some even can hardly speak English fluently. They pay no attention to listening， which cause the students poor listening.

2.1.2 Lacking training skills

Some teachers have already known the importance of English listening， and they try to do a lot to improve students listening， but no effect. This is just because they are lack of right training skills. For example， some teachers are angry with students mistakes in English class， and they correct the mistakes all the time. Day by day， students lose their interest in English learning or complain about the teacher， some even afraid of listening. In fact， it is unnecessary for teachers to correct students mistakes continually.

2.2 The learner aspect

Listening comprehension is the summation of hearing and understanding. If you have a better level of English knowledge， you may be capable of understanding very well in listening to the materials， and may have an excellent response to any questions asked by the speakers on the tapes.

2.2.1 Barriers on Phonetics and Phonology

It is clear that “Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonetic medium of language， and Phonology studies how speech sounds system in a language form pattern.”[2]（22）English， as a new language for Chinese students， usually appears some problems exactly on Phonetics and Phonology， such as the mistakes on pronunciation， intonation， and all kinds of skills like word stress， sentence stress， motion of sound， assimilation， sound-linking and incomplete explosion. Therefore some basic knowledge about English Phonetics and Phonology will directly influence students listening comprehension. So designing activities must be aimed at leting students discriminate the different pronunciation. The key point is guiding students to find the difference themselves. For example， most Chinese students find the discrimination of some sounds is a problem in listening comprehension， especially， some vowels. E.g.， they can hardly distinguish the words like “sit—sea” and “bed—bad”. In a sentence like “He saw a thief steal into the palace”， steal /sti：l/ is very important in understanding the sentence， but some students just recognize it as still/stil/.

2.2.2 Barriers on tempo

Tempo means the speed of speaking. It can be controlled by an actor who is good at tongue twisters. Some people enjoy more variation in tempo than others， but everyone has a norm which in characteristic of his usual conversational style. Some people tends to use a rapid tempo in everyday speech in English， but Chinese students usually dont have such a tempo in listening. Although sometimes they can speak very fast， they may not catch up with the materials on normal tempo while theyre listening to a tape， especially to a longer conversation or a passage， thats their problems. Because they only used to listen to teachers who always read under the average speed in daily life， or used to speak conversations slowly with their partners while practicing oral English， thats why Chinese students can not suit the need of normal speed of listening materials or native speakers. Teachers can help students to form a good sensation. Students can train the tempo through reading， because there are many skills on it. English teachers should make efforts to teach students how to learn some knowledge about sentence stress， rhythm， sound and intonation. During in the class， or at the beginning of the class， teacher can design a game or completion about reading. The student who is the winner can give him/her a present. Through insisting on doing so， students sensation can be improved.

2.2.3 Barriers on lexicology and grammar

During the process of listening comprehension， listeners should not only do the exercises of sound recognition， but also learn more vocabulary. If a new word appeared while theyre listening， theyll find it difficult for them to understand the whole meaning， even some students stop to listen and think about over and over the new word they met before while the material are going on. So does the grammar. Grammar can help us to catch the implication of the vocal sounds， and understand them well， and it is also the essential condition of a whole passage comprehension. It gives us a basis for judging when the action happens， who is the operator or supporter？ What is the factual evidence？ Whether it is the subjunctive mood？ If you dont have a solid foundation on grammar itll directly influence your achieving good results while you are listening.

2.2.4 Barriers on listening habits

The main purpose of listening is to understand the general idea of the materials. During the listening process， they should try to catch the major content， whichs the key point. But many Chinese students have some bad habits while listening. For example， they always try their best to get the meaning of each words， each sentences. Once they meet a new word or a difficulty sentence， they will stop to think. It is doubtless they cant catch up with the speed any more. Still some students cant directly understand materials in English， but with the help of Chinese， experienced the process of a heart translation. These bad habits are the main factors influencing their listening comprehension. In fact， it is unnecessary to know every word， every sentence， only should catch the main idea and grasp the major point， thats enough. If you concentrate to think， you cant catch up with the materials， and also thats why you have no time to attend to the main content， let alone seize the implication of it.

Therefore， it is necessary for the teacher to point out the bad habits and then help the students form good habits. Here are some bad listening habits on listening， which are paraphrased below.

（1）A poor listener will turn off his or her ears as soon as he or she decides a listening task is going to be dull.

（2）A poor listener listens to only facts and ignores the ideas， the general picture.

（3）A poor listener will fix his or her eyes on the teacher or blackboard， then relax， or Do some thing else， expecting to get the information out of the tape scripts later.

（4）A poor listener will use very little distraction—footsteps， a door opening or closing， a cough， a dropped book—as an excuse to stop listening to the recording or the teacher.[3]（1-2）

2.2.5 Barriers on cultural background

Language is a kind of cultural expression. It is necessary for students to know some background about the English-speaking countries， such as the history， culture， customs and habits， even life styles. Many students lack knowledge about that， so they are always making mistakes about them. For example， if teachers give two pieces of passage for Chinese students to listen， one passage is about Spring Festival， the other is about Thanksgiving Day. You will find the students can understand the former much better， because Spring Festival is the traditional festival in China， everybody knows it very well， thats helpful for their understanding， however the latter about the Thanksgiving Day， students know little about it， it is not easy for them to understand， even very difficult for them to answer some questions about it. Listeners should base on their background knowledge about the topic.

3. Designing effective classroom activities can solve the problems

3.1 Pre-listening activities

3.1.1 Students in pre-listening activities

Research points out that listening activity in general should consist of a pre-listening phase， which should make the context for listening explicit， clarify the purposes listening， and establish goals， procedures and roles for listening. So a pre-listening activity can involve listeners in the following ways：

（1）By posing the tasks before the students listen to the topic， they are given a purpose for listening， which forces them to focus on selected information.

（2）The listener brings an orientation to a listening event. By opening up the topic， it arouses certain expectations and mentally prepares the students for the topic， it may also activate latest knowledge of vocabulary associated with the topic.

（3）Activating learners scripts and tuning in their prior knowledge about the topic helps to relate their background knowledge to the topic to be heard， thus enhancing the comprehension and interpretation of the received message.

（4）By brainstorming what they know about the topic before listening， learners will be able to compare what they know with what they are going to hear， and listen selectively.[4]（10）

3.1.2 Teacher in pre-listening activities

Before having the class， teachers must choose and analysis the materials. “Teacher need to listen the tape all the way through. That way， they will be prepared for any problems， noises， accents etc. That way they can judge whether students will be able to cope with the tape and the tasks that go with it.”[5]（100） By doing so， the teacher will know the length of the materials， the difficult points and the focus of the materials， so the teacher can decide in advance how to go on with the teaching in class. Of course， it is a demand for teachers if all other courses. But some teachers do believe that they can teach listening course without any preparation so long as they have the tapes and reference books. So some researchers would like to emphasize the importance of preparations for a class： it is the basic need and also a basic insurance of an effective listening teaching. And the role of analyst， which means that teachers should analyze the functional patterns of the language used in the listening materials that students are to hear. The functions of a language can be simply divided into two patterns： the communication of emotion and the conveying of information. Communication of emotion means that the purpose of using a language is mainly for the establishment of harmonious relationship among the participants of social interaction. （admin）

3.1.3 The activities of pre-listening

3.1.3.1 Prediction.

Research on speech processing and interpretation suggests that the listeners ability to make intelligent guesses about what will come next plays a crucial role in their understanding of speech， and prediction is regarded by many researchers as on of the most powerful factors in comprehension. Therefore， a good listener is a good predictor. “By helping our students become better predictors， we are helping them become better listeners.”[6]（86）

Prediction also involves asking questions and answering them. According to Fisher and Terry active comprehension is process of generating questions while reading and searching for answers to them. Questioning helps to establish the purpose and causes the listener to interact with the speech， confirming or rejecting expectations.

“Penny Ur summarizes five types of cues that listeners depend on for making predictions about continuation of an utterance：

（1）The stock formula of the language， such as clichés， idioms， quotations and proverbs.

（2）Stress on a particular word in the first part of an utterance is often explained or clarified by a comment in the second.

（3）The logical relationship between the first part of an utterance and the second is often signaled by a conjunction.

（4）There is construction where the speaker proclaims in advance the kind of thing he is going to say.

（5）Rhetorical questions or bold， brief statements， particularly in the negative， are often followed by answers or amplification in the form of reasons， examples or explanations.”[7]（11）

3.1.3.2 Setting the scene

Another type of pre-listening activity is to set the scene for the students， for example： picture， video， TV etc. Listening to passages in the classroom can be more difficult than listening in real life， because of the lack of context. So the teacher can help provide the background information to activate learners schema or illustrate the picture to help students to understand the main idea， so they will be better prepared to understand what they hear.

3.1.3.3 Listening for the gist

This type of the pre-listening activity is listening for the gist. It is very important to give students practice in this area， because in real life， they can not listen to the materials several times. Therefore， it will be impossible for them to catch all the information， so they need to be fit with some ambiguity in listening and realize that they can still learn even when they do not understand every word. Listening for the gist is familiar with skimming a passage in reading. The key point lays in let students some questions that focus on the main idea or the tone or the mood of the passage. Find whether students can answer the questions even though they can not understand each word or phrase in the passage.

3.1.3.4 Listening for specific information

There are situations in real life where they listen only for some specific details and ignore the rest of the entire message. For example， when they listen to the weather report on TV， they are only interested in the temperature in the city where they live or where we plan to go on the holiday， or when they are sitting in a train station or an air port， they do not listen to the details of all the announcements. It is important to expose our students to a variety of type of listening texts for a variety of purpose so that they will develop a variety of listening strategies to use for different situations.

3.2 While-listening activity

This stage is the most difficult for the teacher to control， because this is where a student should pay attention and get the information actively. However， if the teacher can provide a reason， goal， or task for the learner， this should encourage and help students to focus their attention.

In daily class， students must use all aspects of personal listening ability. At the beginning of this article， we have discussed the problems on students listening ability.

According to these problems， we must train the comprehensive listening ability in daily time.

Following are some special training

3.2.1 Listen and tick

A large part of what makes a listening task easy or difficult is what the teacher asks the students to do with the materials. If what students all need to do just is tick as they hear them， the task will be much easier. What you need to tick， you can hear them clearly. Because it is quite easy， ticking is very fit for the students who are in grade 7. It can encourage them to listen to the dialogue or passage carefully.

3.2.2 Listen and act

These activities relate to a method of teaching called Total Physical Response， which concentrates on learning language by listening and responding physical to commands or directions. Here is an example：

“Beginning TPR

Procedure：

（1）Have two students positioned to two chairs.

Commands supporting vocabulary：

stand up fast slowly

sit down table chair

walk head stomach

stop door blackboard

turn around

touch

（2）Pick two other students and add more vocabulary that are in the classroom—such as book， pencil， paper， desk， floor， teacher—and add to the commands put， place， scratch.

（3）Use the following type of commands repeatedly in random order， rotating pairs of students from time to time， until you can see that all the students clearly understand what these commands and actions mean.

For example：

Put the pencil on the book.

Scratch your head.

Scratch your stomach.

Put the paper in the box.

Put your hand on your head.

Place the box on the teachers head.

Scratch your head and stomach. ”[8]（11）

3.2.3 Listen and draw

This is similar to acting out physically， but in this type， the students are drawing picture， diagrams on paper. “This type of activity works very well as an information gap activity between pairs of students.”[9]（90） For example： one student draws a simple picture and then tells his/her partner how to draw it in English.Neither partner can look at each others drawing during the task. After they have completed the task， they can compare their pictures to see how similar they are.

“Introduce the word draw. This opens up a rich network of things you can ask your students to do. Start very simply with the familiar items that the students have already internalized through TPR.

For example：

Draw a table.

Draw a chair.

Draw a hand.

Draw a box.

Draw a hand on a door.

Draw a window and a hand and book.”[10]（11）

3.3 post-listening activity

Post-listening， teachers can determine how well the students have understood what they listened to， but it is important to design the tasks well. “One important point to keep in mind is whether we are testing the students listening comprehension or their memory. In fact， in real life， listener can remember the gist of the conversation， but cannot remember exactly what words were said. It is more natural to select and interpret what we hear rather than repeat everything we have heard.”[11]（187） .Here are some types of post-listening activity： multiple choice questions， answering questions， note-taking， gap-filling and dictogloss.

“It is important to remember when designing activities not to demand that students remember more details the native-speaker would in a real life， because we do not want our students to get into the habit of thinking that they need to understand and remember.”[12]（ 117）

4.Conclusion

In short， when we train students listening， we should have a good grasp of listening teaching characteristics on junior English， design training problems according to students actual situation and change training problems in time if the situation change. In this way， students listening ability can be improved gradually. In the training process， we should pay attention to the flowing points： （1）English teaching is an organic system， we should make listening， speaking， reading and writing together to form a interdependent teaching system in order to improve students language ability.

（2）The improvement of listening ability is a gradual process. If a junior English teacher can have a good grasp of these characteristics， the students listening can be improved greatly.

Bibliography：

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[2]戴煒凍 A New Concise Course on Linguistics for Students of English [Z].上海： 上海外語教育出版社，2002.

[3]Liu Yangchun. How to increase students listening comprehension [J].開封教育學院學報，1996.10.

[4]Zhao Jianqun. Introducing an interactive component into listening instruction[J].曲靖師專學報，1993.3.

[5]Jeremy Harmer. How to teach English [M].北京：外語教學與研究出版社，2000.8.

[6]王薔.A course in English language teaching [Z].上海：高等教育出版社，2002.5.

[7]同2.

[8]同 1.

[9]同8.

[10]同1.

[11]朱純.外語教育心理學 [Z].上海：上海外語教育出版，1998.3.

[12]王篤勤.英語教學策略論 [Z].北京：外語教學與研究出版社，2000.8.