Major Obstacles in English listening Comprehension for Chinese Senior High Students

【Abstract】Listening is an invisible mental process and an essential language skill， which plays a vital role in the language acquisition， especially in a second language （L2） acquisition.Chinese students had encountered different obstacles in English listening. In this article， some common obstacles were discussed and some related studies were reviewed in seeking for good strategies to overcome these obstacles.

【Key words】obstacles； English listening comprehension； senior high students

【作者簡介】朱武平，廣東省珠海市金海岸中學。

I. Introduction

Listening is a critical second or foreign language skill， and its development is of great concern to language teachers. Listening is a complex cognitive process of interpreting what the speaker says and wants to express.

II. Literature review

1. Definitions

Many researchers and linguists held different perspectives on the definitions of listening. As Michael Rost （2005） said， the definitions of listening typically draw upon one of four orientations of perspectives： 1.From the orientation of receptive， it is receiving what the speaker actually says； 2. In view of constructive， it is constructing and representing meanings； 3.Collaboratively， it is negotiating with the speaker and responding. 4. it is creating meaning through involvement， imagination and empathy in a trans-formative way.

2. Models of listening

Buck（2001）emphasizes the complexity of the listening process. Listeners must use a wide rang of knowledge sources to interpret incoming data. There are two models of listening processes（cited from He， 2009）： one is “the bottom-up model”， the other“the top-down model.

As for the bottom-up processes， a listener uses his knowledge of language and ability to process acoustic signals to make sense of the sounds that speech presents to him. The application of linguistic knowledge is usually termed bottom-up processing； hereby the sounds words， clauses and sentences of a passage are decoded in a fairly linear fashion to elicit meaning （Rost， 2002）.

The top-down processing refers to the use of the background knowledge， sometimes called ‘inside the head’ information， as opposed to the information that is available within the message itself.

III. Major Obstacles

English has its own phonetic system， such as assimilation， liaison， incomplete explosion， weak forms and elision， etc. Without a good knowledge of phonetics， students can’t recognize the words in the incoming speech.

Vocabulary is critical to people’s successful communication. Limited vocabulary can affect interpersonal communication. And good mastery of grammar enables listeners to understand a speech better.

Psychological obstacle is commonly found. Krashen Steven （2003） calls it as “affective filter”. Psychological barrier includes being easily distracted or nervous， and blank in mind， etc. Furthermore， language expresses cultural reality. Cross-cultural obstacle is also tough for Chinese students.

IV. Strategies for tackling obstacles

As Rost （1990） point out speech recognition involves knowledge of prototypical sounds and sensitization to the sound variations of these prototypes， so students should stride for good mastery of English phonetics. Misunderstanding of words in speech， whether through faulty identification of word boundaries or inadequate knowledge of word meanings， is major source of confusion. Good vocabulary can assist students in listening process.

Good command of grammatical rules can also help the students improve listening comprehension. Some practical strategies like inference， elaboration， note-taking， deduction， and repetition can also develop students’ sub-skills. （O’Malley & Chamot， 1990）

V. Conclusion

Frankly speaking， English listening teaching practice in our country is far from satisfaction， so it is urgent for students to understand the importance of listening. If teachers embed the explicit and implicit strategies into regular instruction， no wonder students can have a better listening.

References：

[1]Buck，G.，2001.Assessing Listening.Cambridge University Press， Cambridge.

[2]He，Guangkeng.2009.Foreign Language Learning&Teaching Courseware：teaching Listening Comprehension[cp].Guangzhou：South China Normal University.

[3]Krashen，S.2003.Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use.Portsmouth：Heinemann.