Helping College Students Build up Confidence in Listening

刘鹃

【Abstract】Listening is the basis of communication，so fostering students listening ability is very important.Though improving students listening is very difficult，to help them build up their confidence in listening is an effective way.

【Key words】listening ability； build up confidence； effective

1.Helping Students Get Rid of Fear

If the students cannot comprehend the listening material well，they will be afraid of it.If they are able to understand listening material，they will think about what is about and what it will be about in the following part.This is called effective prediction.If they can predict effectively，they will not be afraid of it.To achieve this aim，the key point is to instruct the students to concentrate on listening instead of daydreaming.There are three methods for the teacher to overcome the students daydreaming.

1.1 Method one

The teacher let the students listen to a talk for a few minutes and asks them to write down the information that is related to the talk and what they think about on a piece of paper.After listening，they report to the teacher how their thoughts were distracted.（Based on Davis and Rivolucri，1990）.

1.2 Method two

It is just like a note taking exercise.During listening，for the first time，the students write down as short a sentence as possible while keeping as much important information as possible； for the second time，the students listen to the same material again while the teacher turns up or down the volume at different places showing emphasis.（Based on Alan，1978） In this way，the students have no time to distract.

1.3 Method three

The teacher gives a sentence to the students and tells them to add information to the given sentence.Of course，these sentences should be meaningful and coherent.This work can be organized as a competition.During the competition，the students should concentrate on listening to what others are saying，comprehending their meaning and completing the sentences.Then the contents of these sentences will be richer and richer.This is a competition of listening comprehension and a practice of the quickness of students reaction.In such interesting and well-organized activities，students will concentrate on listening activities and they will not be afraid of listening any more.

2.Helping Students Build up Confidence

Some students have studied hard on listening in College School，but they had little progress，which discourage them a lot.In fact，these students are able to improve their listening by skill training.It is no usage just saying，“Believe yourself，your listening will be improved.” Instead，the teacher must take effective measures to build up their confidence gradually.

2.1 The task prepared by the teacher should be success-oriented

This will motivate the students learning motivation.Because if the students succeed in finishing a listening exercise，they will be more willing to listen to other listening items.Listening exercises are meant to train the students listening skills but not just to give them tests； and the best-selected exercises are the ones that they are organized with the aim that the students will finish these exercises successfully.

2.2 The task itself should be relatively easy and the language should not be too difficult

Once the students understand the language，they will be able to carry out the activity without difficulty.If the task is too hard，time-consuming or complex，then the actual listening comes to take up a relatively small part of the listening time，which will soon make the students feel boring.Therefore，the teachers should design relatively easy tasks，from which the students will get the experience of success，and then they will get confidence gradually in their listening ability.

2.3 In listening class，the teacher should always give，and try to get，as much feedback as possible

Throughout the course，the teacher should bridge the gap between input and students' response and between the teacher's feedback and students' reaction to keep the activities effective.It is important for the teacher to give students immediate feedback on their performance.This immediate feedback not only provides error correction but also gives students encouragement.It will help students build up confidence in their listening.Students feedback will help the teacher judge how the class is going on and how he/she should guide the students during listening.

3.Conclusion

In summary，improving listening ability is hard work but very important.It is the basis of speaking，reading and writing.It is a long way to improve students listening ability for both teachers and students.It needs our consistent studying and learning.

References：

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[3]Brown， G.and G.Yule.Teaching the Spoken Language[M].Cambridge： Cambridge University Press， 1983.

[4]王蔷.英语教学法教程[M].北京：高等教育出版社，2000.7.