Factors of Influencing Middle School Students’ Listening Comprehension and Its Countermeasures

汪春

Chapter 1： Introduction

Listening， not only a means of knowing a foreign language but also a basic skill for people to communicate with someone else. An American linguist investigates that the actual situation of language application lies in Listening （45%）， speaking （30%）， reading （18%）， and writing （7%） （Gao 12）. However， for most of people， listening comprehension is always considered to be one of the most difficult parts of foreign acquisition by most Chinese students and one of the difficulties which hinder us from developing various skills， such as speaking， reading， and writing. Mainly， there are two different types of factors affecting listening comprehension. One is linguistic obstacles that include native language barriers， the phonetic knowledge， the vocabulary and the grammar， the speed of speaking. the other one is non-linguistic obstacles which include background knowledge， listening habits， the psychological problems and memory factors.

Thus， the purpose of this paper is to analyze the problems that hinder students in their listening comprehension. And this paper offers some listening strategies which may help them to solve the problems， thus improving their listening comprehension.

Chapter 2： Linguistic Obstacles in the Students Listening Comprehension

For the problem， the teacher should know the exact troubles that students may encounter in the process of listening comprehension. There are main factors involved affecting their understanding in the process of listening. First， we will talk about the linguistic obstacles.

1. Poor Phonetic Knowledge

“Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonetic medium of language； it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the worlds languages” （Dai 33）. Phonetics plays an important role in listening comprehension. Ones phonetic knowledge， more or less， influences ones ability to understand the listening materials. “

（1）Incomplete Plosive

“Loss of plosive is also an important factor affecting listening comprehension. Usually， a complete plosive occurs when two stop sounds are adjacent in a word or in a phrase and in incomplete plosive occurs when a stop sound precedes one of the fricative sounds” （Zhang 96）.Loss of plosive is a basic and common phonetic phenomenon in English language.” If students know such phonetic knowledge， they could understand the listening materials correctly.

（2） Word Stress and Sentence Stress

Word stress is considered to be another essential factor which affects English listening. If the beginners do not know the stress patterns， it must be more difficult for them to understand the listening materials. There are some words in English language which differ from the location of stress， which is the location of stress distinguishes meaning. The part of speech of a word from a noun to a verb can be changed by the shift of stress with its spelling remaining unchanged.

2.Vocabulary

Many students believe that vocabulary is a main problem that hampers their improvement of listening comprehension. “Vocabulary is the major component of language： people always compare vocabulary to building materials. Vocabulary is the basic component for one to learn a language. Many students are poor in the vocabulary because they are lack of the basic amount of the listening vocabulary. Students often encounter some unexpected problem s in the process of listening to tapes or talks. Some students can not distinguish all the words correctly.

3. Grammar

A solid understanding of the grammar can be considered to be an essential part for the English learners to improve listening. A good command of various tense， voices， sentence pattern， is a key point in enhancing the listening .So if students can not grasp the knowledge of grammar， they will not understand the listening materials.

Chapter 3 ：Non-linguistic Obstacles in the Process of Listening Comprehension

Non-linguistic obstacles refer to the obstacles which influence listening comprehension and have nothing to do with the linguistics， such as the background knowledge， listening habits， psychological problems， memory factors.

1.Background Knowledge

The main differences between the East and the West will affect the students listening comprehension to a certain degree. “There are two problems in terms of background knowledge in the process of listening comprehension” （Yuan 44）.

（1） The Lack of Basic Knowledge of Western Culture and Customs

According to Yuan， most students are not familiar with the local customs and cultural differences of the English speaking countries due to their poor knowledge .In listening ，the problems caused by the poor knowledge of cultural background are very prominent. So they often feel puzzled after listening to a material even though they hear clearly the individual words in the passage.

（2）The Lack of Distinctions between Chinese and English in Some Expressions

Cultural background should be included in language learning. That is to say when students learn a language， they can not free themselves from the influence of their own culture.

2. Listening Habits

In the process of studying English， students are likely to develop their own study habits. Certainly， correct studying habits are beneficial to their studies. On the contrary， incorrect study habits will mislead them. It is clear that the main aim of listening is to know the general ideal of a listening material. But bad habits in the progress of listening comprehension hinder some students from catching the most valuable message. It seems that if they meet some unknown words， they will probably fail to catch the main idea！ Thus， they will not understand the meaning of the rest of the content.

3.Psychological Factors

“Listening comprehension is limited by the time， and anxiety can easily come into being” （Jia 39）. Psychological factors is considered to be one affecting students listening comprehension. Psychological obstacle refers to the over-intensive listening or under-intensive listening. In the case of under-intensive listening， some students desire to success in a test is very strong and they worry about the speed of the listening materials， thus they dont work well in the process of listening.

Chapter 4： Countermeasures to Improve Listening

1. Pay Attention to Spoken English

Many students seldom contact with the spoken English before， thus， they are likely to be insensitive to the features of spoken English， such as stress， assimilation elision and so on. Teachers should lead the students to the information words. Information words refer to the clear words which are pronounced clearly in a sentence. And stressed information words have a pitch change. If students acquire the skills， they will solve some problems by themselves. Besides， students should practice more and more in their daily study.

2.Enlarge Vocabulary and Strengthen Grammar

Vocabulary is the basic part of a language. A certain amount of vocabulary is indispensable for a language learner. So the students must have enough vocabulary for their listening comprehension because enough vocabulary directly affects ones listening comprehension. Therefore， students not only focus on teachers explanation of grammar in class but also consult as many grammar books as possible to accumulate their vocabulary in order to enhance their listening comprehension.

3.Teach Students to Grasp Listening Skills and Develop Good Habits

Teachers should remind students to read the requirements before listening in order to catch some information ahead. That is to say， they learn to skim the exercises to seize any possible hints about the passage and remember them in a short time. Then， taking notes is another important listening skill for students but a very difficult skill to master. Teachers should train students to take in a witty way.

Chapter 5： Conclusion

Listening plays an important role in students language learning and is considered to be one of the five skills in English studies and the most basic and most crucial skill. It is the foundation of English studies. However， there are many problems hampering the students comprehension， but if students could conquer the problems they meet in the course of listening and sometimes confused by what they heard， gradually， they will be able to master it.

Many students cannot conquer the problems they meet in the course of listening， and sometimes confused by what they hear. In this paper， the author have offered analysis on those problems and listed out some useful solutions. To make great progress in the middle school students listening， students should take more practice themselves.

（作者單位：安徽省旌德中学英语教研组）