彭潇
【Abstract】Along with growing economic globalization tendency, English as a communication tool promotes the international trade and cultural exchange. Good command of English has the profound influence to the future development of the students. The modern language education theory takes the role of listening in language learning and language use very seriously. Listening teaching is not only a tape of language teaching but also a kind of skill training. Listening is the most important part among the four essential skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening is a basic way to get language information, and the basis of increasing other abilities. Many Chinese students think that listening test is the hardest part of all the exams. So how to improve listening teaching to promote students' English listening ability is the problem that each English teacher needs to solve. In this thesis, we firstly introduce the present situation of middle school English listening teaching, and point out the existing problems. Then we make an in-depth discussion of how to do a good job in listening teaching, and put forward some effective solving measures. The teachers all concern about how to improve learners English listening ability so that learners can get a high score. During the English teaching, how the teachers teach listening, arrange teaching activities properly, and how they master various skills of listening teaching are very important.
【Key words】English listening teaching; problems; measures
【摘要】随着经济全球化趋向日趋增强,英语作为一种通用的语言交流工具,促进了国际贸易往来和文化交流。学生掌握好英语对他们未来的发展有着长远的影响。当代英语教学理论特别注重“听”对于英语的学习和使用的影响。听力教学不仅仅是一种语言教学,而且还是一种技能的培养。听是听,说,读,四项基本技能中最重要的技能。它不仅仅是获得语言信息的基本方式,而且还是提高其他技能的基础。在很多中国学生看来,在所有测试中听力能力的测试是最难的。所以如何改善听力教学,以促进学生的英语听力能力提高是每个英语老师都需要解决的问题。在这篇论文中,我们首先描述了如今中学听力教学的状况,并指出其中存在的一些问题;紧接着针对听力教学的有效实施做了详细的讨论,并提出了一些解决措施。怎样提升学习者的英语听力水平,使他们能获得高分,成了老师们所共同关心的话题。老师开展听力教学的方式,设计安排教学活动的模式,以及掌握听力教学的各种技巧和方法,这些都与英语教学密切相关。
【关键词】英语听力教学 问题 措施
1. Introduction
The traditional English teaching mode pays attention to impart knowledge while ignoring the development of the ability. It pays attention to reading and writing but looks down to listing and speaking. So students English learning effect is not ideal. We necessitate thinking to find solutions to unravel the problems. New curriculum standard requires teachers to develop students interest in learning, to establish students confidence in learning, to pay attention to student-centered, and to teach students the way of learning. New curriculum standard supports the reform of middle school English Listening Teaching. English listening skill is a comprehensive skill including understanding ability, logical thinking competence, communicative competence, summarizing ability. A lot of students have listening troubles in middle school English Listening Teaching. There are some aspects that have an effect on learners' listening understanding. By analyzing these factors, we can find a suitable teaching strategy to arrive the standard of listening teaching. The English teachers in Middle school should seriously explore modes of listening teaching that orient students, improve learners' listening competence and increase the educating level.
2. The problems in current English listening teaching
Listening is important in students English learning. A child first listens for a long period of time before he can talk, so listening is extremely vital for studying a foreign language. Listening can promote students learn language. Listening has a vital position in the communication of English. Research shows that listening accounts for 45% of the whole social interactions. From this, we can observe that an excellent listening can contribute to improve students ability of language comprehension. And according to research data, nearly 50% students believe that the listening examination is the hardest one in all tapes of examinations. We have to accept that there is no short cut in our life, so as the English studying. It discovers that the original initiative to study listening is very vital, which is benefit for students to learn successfully. Now lets look at our middle schools.
2.1 Single listening teaching mode
For a long time, many teachers and students generally believe that listeners just passive accept the information while they are listening. In the listening class, the teacher explains the difficult words and keywords of listening materials to the students first, and then plays the materials. Students complete the task according to the contents they have heard. Then the teacher gives the right answers to learners. Finally basing on the performance of the task, the teacher plays the tape again for learners to make clear the listening content. Throughout the process, students like machines passively accept information in the listening material. This kind of teaching mode is the listening ability test rather than teaching. We must realize that listening comprehension is a mental work and a process of complex psychological activity. This teaching mode seriously influences the change of thinking and the development of thinking. Listening course is to cultivate students habits of thinking that think English as the first language rather than train students to a simple listening and translating machine. This kind of teaching pattern eventually leads to both teachers and students to produce languor of listening course even aversion.
2.2 Ignoring the real aim of listening teaching
Teachers often let students do the assignment while listening,
and then verify the answer to complete listening teaching. This kind of teaching focuses on the examination of hearing results but ignores the process of listening training and the understanding of effective input and output. This training method is easy to neglect the slower students, middle level students and below students.
3. Suggestions to listening teaching
3.1 Stimulate students interest
To attain good educating outcomes, it is necessary to try hard to create a fresh and pleasurable learning atmosphere. From the view of persons psychological characteristics, interest is the main part of curiosity and the most down-to-earth and lively factor in learning incentive. For that reason, when educating, teachers must import based on teaching objectives creatively, create a authentic and attractive learning situations and relaxed atmosphere, stimulate students curiosity, and give full play to their keenness and creativity to enable them to be actively involved in learning.
3.2 Attach importance to students reading aloud
Reading aloud is a necessary part of English listening teaching. Reading aloud means to read out loudly and clearly, rather than silent read already accustomed by individuals or low read. Only reading aloud can make ones memory of known words more solid, particularly for previously unfamiliar words. Reading aloud can gradually unit words sound, form and meaning in mind. It can also help students learn to think in English and prevail over the obstacles of psychological translation. Practice has demonstrated that one who is only familiar with reading silently, and the pursuit of translation word by word never has a strong listening ability.
3.3 Cultivate students sense of English
The focus of the school English listening teaching is to build up students sense of the phrase. When educating, teachers should put the development of the sense of language firstly, adhere to follow language practice, clarify 48 of the IPA thoroughly, let students learn about the characteristics of the IPA and requiring students to recite the vowels phonetic symbols and consonants phonetic symbols according to the law, and focus on the key and difficult points , represent and explain long and short vowels and the notes similar to consonants. Through expression and contrast, students can get a systematic understanding of these functions and laws of the International Phonetic Alphabet and rapidly master correct phonetic sound mark. In order to master the spelling capability and understand the integral structure of language in the communicative information, we strengthen the sense of English language by listening to the words.
3.4 Insisting to teach in English
Asking and answering questions in class should stick to use English. In the class, teachers should insist on asking questions in English and students should insist on answering in English. Group discussions and speaking in turn and other forms of English discussion can be ordered. Teachers can give a summary of the errors in pronunciation and grammar errors often committed by students and correct them in time, both to give confidence to students to have courage to make mistakes, and to teach students the way that make fewer mistakes. For some often used expressions and sentences, teachers should ask students to take hold of them in class as soon as possible, aiming to help students develop a good habit to think in English and practice their English reaction ability.
3.5 Emphasis on the penetration of cultural background knowledge
If students do not recognize the culture information of language, they will also face obstacles on the listening understanding. For that reason, teachers explanation of the national and cultural background knowledge of English-language countries is also quite indispensable. The access of the English-talking countries cultural context should include the essential contents which have had a thoughtful impact on their community, such as legends of ancient Greek and Roman; social customs, like Thanksgiving, Christmas; religion, like Christianity and the Bible; and social communication etiquette and so forth. additionally, as the existing listening resources have a extensive range of content, teachers should also stimulate students interest in learning new knowledge and help them improve their ability of listening comprehension through a certain degree of introduction of the related background knowledge involved in the material.
3.6 Choosing the appropriate teaching material
One of teachers most significant tasks is to choose the appropriate listening materials for students. If the teacher Selects interesting listening materials in right level of language, provides explicit direction and plans complementary activities, students could increase their listening level successfully. Extracurricular listening materials should be selected from the original English language publications published in recent years in a variety of topics. These topics ought to close to daily life and reflect the progress of society, such as the present status of teaching, science and technology development, environmental issues, social and cultural reality. Well-chosen listening materials will be used to draw students attention and meet their curiosity to solve problems around them from the perspective of another language in order to stimulate their interest in learning and enable students to enjoy listening, acquire knowledge, and lastly, further promote improvement in English skills by increasing listening level and forming a virtuous cycle of learning English.
3.7 Combing listening with speaking
Listening is strongly related to speaking. When teachers doing listening training, they must stick to the principle of integrating listening and speaking in order to not only retain students interest, but also reduce their sense of tiredness. Integrating listening and speaking is benefit to get better learning results. The teacher should help students to master the language materials through listening and stimulate their yearning to communicate. Then, through necessary questions to converse, the teacher reflects the effect of listening directly and further strengthens the listening result and oral practice of mastered language information. Methods, such as discussion, question and answer, repeating, imitation, writing and other forms can be used to reach the purpose of training.
3.8 Making full use of modern teaching technologies
The use of multimedia network has produced a new situation of listening training. The equipment in language laboratory is completely functional, which provides modern training ways to foreign language teaching. When training listening, students can practice listening through listening and recording, fast dictation, self-listening and self-noting, repeating after listening, dialogue between students, teachers monitoring and other means. These means broke the boundaries of relying on teachers manage to a tape recorder. The hardware technology of language laboratory brings listening training onto a new height. With audio and video devices such as computers, TV, slide projector, listening teaching integrates the text, images, sound and makes the abstract, boring content visual and dynamic in order to arouse students eagerness, stimulate their keenness of learning and improve the effect of classroom teaching. In the meantime, students can take complete benefit of the network on a great number of English-rich resources to learn the original English. Listening, speaking, reading, writing can be finished in the network, particularly in listening. Network has opened up an extraordinary world to English learners. You can find many English studying resources in the network like English show, play, interview, and so on. The key is to discover resources appropriate and attractive for students, and couple with helpful learning way so as to achieve the aims of finally improving the standard of English listening.
3.9 Organizing extra-curricular activities
In addition to classroom instruction, teacher should arrange some English extra-curricular activities as teaching aids for students to build circumstances of communicating in English. After school, teacher can lead and give confidence to students to talk with English, play English shows, sing English songs, organize English performances and participate in a variety of English speeches and competitive activities. By doing these, the teacher can cultivate students skills of reading, listening, speaking, writing, and translating, open up their eyes, increase fond of English, broaden and expand knowledge studying in the classroom, and turn “ask me to learn” into “I would like to learn,” “I can learn,” and “I will learn. At the same time, students can better understand others and have mutual improvement.
4. Conclusion
Listening is very significant to language. Reinforcing listening teaching can increase the amount of the incorporation of language material, increase knowledge, and increase the listening competence. Having the competence of understanding and responding is the key to effectively improve students communicative ability to inspire their interest in learning English. Teacher should plan the teaching content based on students actual stage. The content should not more than students capability. Teachers should treat listening as a skill and make listening teaching out of misunderstanding, and thus finally to improve students ability of listening comprehension. Furthermore, the improvement of listening can develop students oral, reading, writing capabilities and promote students English language proficiency so that students can become qualified talents of English that the community needs.
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