An Analysis on the Obstacles to Listening Comprehension 英语专业毕业论文.doc

an analysis on the obstacles to listening comprehensionoutline. introduction. the obstacles to listening comprehensiona. pronunciation and intonationb. vocabularyc. grammard. speede. comprehension of the whole passagef. background knowledge and way of thinkingg. psychological factors1. motivation2. attitude3. fake listening4. over-concentration. solutions to the problemsa. having an active psychology and cultivating a good habit of listeningb. grasping the rules of pronunciation and intonationc. studying vocabulary comprehensively1. overall understanding of the words in the pronunciation, form, class, meaning and usage2. studying vocabulary combined with listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating3. mastering some necessary knowledge of word-formation4. concerning pragmatics5. distinguishing the differences between synonyms6. training the ability of predictiond. enlarging knowledge and widening the way of thinkinge. making some simple “memorandum”-shorthand.1. using numbers2. using abbreviation3. using symbols4. using signs created by yourself. conclusionabstractthis paper probes into the factors which influence our listening comprehension, analyzing such elements as pronunciation and intonation, vocabulary, grammar, speed, comprehension of the whole passage, backgroud knowledge and way of thinking, and psychological factor which are thought to be the obstacles preventing listening comprehension from being improved. this paper proposes the effective skills of how to improve listening comprehension, such as having an active psychology and cultivating a good habit, grasping the rules of pronunciation and intonation, studying vocabulary comprehensively, enlarging the knowledge and widening the way of thinking, and making some simple shorthand. syntax, semantic, discoursekey words: listening comprehension; cognitive psychological activity; pragmatics摘 要本文探讨了影响听力理解的一些因素，认为语音语调、讲话者的语速、词汇、句子结构（方面）、篇幅及语篇理解、知识面和思维方式、心理因素等是影响听力理解提高的主要障碍，并有针对性地提出了提高听力理解的有效途径，如：树立正确的听音心态，培养良好的听音习惯；掌握基本的语音规则；全面学习词汇；扩大知识面和拓宽思维方式；做简单的速记等。关键词：听力理解； 认知心理活动； 语用学acknowledgementsi would like to express my gratitude to all those who help me during the writing of this thesis. a special acknowledgement should be shown to my tutor, who gives me kind encouragement and useful instructions all through my writing. i am particular indebted to all my college teachers, from whose lectures i benefit greatly in these four years. finally i extend my thanks to my classmates who supplies me with the reference materials of great value.i. introduction the purpose of college english is to cultivate and improve students language communicative ability in comprehensively. the famous linguists canale and swain (1980) put forward the “mode of communicative language competence”, which believes that listening, speaking and writing are the communicative media, and listening is a receptive ability, and later a productive, according to bachman. listening is a very important means of communication. the statistics made by the american professor 保尔兰金shows that “listening” occupies 45% in daily life, “speaking” 30%, “reading” 16%, and “writing” only 9%. “listening is the first step of learning foreign language well. it not only helps learners improve the ability of speaking, reading, and writing, but also is good for widening their vision and enlarging their knowledge.” for an english learner, listening ability is one of the most difficultly-mastered abilities. it is a complex cognitive psychological activity, involving various skills. listeners should make a full use of present knowledge to memorize, analyze, judge, understand and give back what he has heard. in the process of listening, the received signals are dynamic and phonic, with a characteristic of transience. if not caught in time, the information is missed and lost. due to low level of listening comprehension, a lot of learners make little progress in studying english. on my four years english study in college, i summarize some obstacles to listening comprehension, and put forward some suggestions.obstacles to listening comprehensionin the study of listening comprehension, i find some main factors which prevent language learners from improving their listening ability.a. pronunciation and intonationin senior school, english learners pay more attention to reading and grammar, with the central task of examination. as a result, many freshmen get a little knowledge of pronunciation and intonation, such as assimilation, liaison, plosive, the falling tone, the rising tone and the fall-rise tone. at the same time, having so little exercises, they are not familiar with the listening materials. for example: (1) /izi t n bizi rud/ (is it on a busy road?) (2) /a: tiz l laifiz t/ (art is long, life is short.) (3)/ gu(d) bigini meiks guden di/ (a good beginning makes a good ending.) why cant the listeners catch the words? thats because they cant use some rules of pronunciation and intonation. besides, the phonetic teaching of primary and junior schools in our country takes international phonetic alphabet or british phonetic. in contrast, the listening materials of college english contain both british and american phonetic. so some students feel strange the speakers pronunciation and intonation. these factors prevent the listerners from improving their listening comprehension.whats more, incorrect or inaccurate pronunciation and stress of the listeners also influences listening comprehension. since the students pronunciation is inaccurate, the simple ordinary words are strange for them even are misheard. for example: “she is thirty-two.” they may hear as “she is dirty, too.” another example:(1)wrong pronunciation: true false climber klaim klaimbheight hait heitfasten fa:sn fa:stnwrist rist wistlamb lm lmb(2) inaccurate stress；desert dest 沙漠（n.） di z:t 丢弃（v.）; 功罪（n.）content k ntnt 内容；含量（n.） kntent 满足的（a.）；竞争（v.）insult inslt 侮辱(n.) ins lt 侮辱(v.)conduct k ndkt 行为(n.) knd kt 指挥(v.)present preznt 礼物(n.) priznt 献 (v.)b. the speed of speakersgenerally speaking, the speed of listening materials in text books is not very quick, but many students still think it is too fast. they say: “we often cant catch the first sentence, while the following contents have already passed. for a long time, the situation cant be improved and we are not interested in it and have to give up.”c. the vocabularyit is well-known that vocabulary is the foundation of language. on one hand, without vocabulary, it is impossible to achieve verbal communication; on the other hand, language study cant go through lacking a certain mountain of vocabulary. while listening, sometimes only two or three key words may severely prevent them from understanding. just as a famous british linguist once said, “without grammar little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” generally speaking, vocabulary in the listening materials of college english is moderate. however, in practice, we often feel that many words, expressions and phrases which we have learned cant be understood. we cant catch the meaning of the words without teachers slow-down reading or writing on the blackboard. that is to say, not every word which should be comprehended after seeing can be caught during listening. it is a real demonstration of chinese students learning english: their reading comprehension ability is more fantastic than their listening comprehension ability. at the same time, it shows that these two kinds of abilities are not equal completely. for example:(1) woman: how did tom do on his physics exam?man: he passed with flying colors.(2) a: how about your business these days?b: it seems to be in smooth waters.question: what does b mean by “in smooth waters”?in these two examples, “with flying colors” and “in smooth waters” are all idioms. you cant understand them literally, but their meanings make up the comprehension of the whole sentences. “with flying colors” means “with great and obvious success”, “in smooth waters” means “making even and easy progress”. if you dont know their meaning, you cant choose the correct answer.d. grammarsome students are puzzled over the tense, modality, inverted sentence, formal subject and non-predicate verb during listening, which they can easily know at sight. according to the analysis, we find that the difficultly-understood sentence structures are just those which students scarcely meet or which are greatly different from chinese ones. for example: “it is often difficult these days to find someone to come and fix television set, or your washing machine, or any other household appliance if it breaks.” most of them dont understand this sentence although having listened to the tape twice. the fundamental reason is that we are unfamiliar with its structure: the subject of this sentence, the pronoun “it” is unreal, while the real one is the infinitive to structure which is long and put at the end of the sentence. however, the meaning can be quickly grasped if the sentence is written out. in addition, idioms, useful phrases and expressions, polysemy are all difficult points for most of the chinese students.e. comprehension of the whole passagein our study, we often find that when the listening materials are too long or involve in too many matters, we can only understand the front part but neglect the last part or mix up the whole materials. it must be a hard nut for many students to understand the complicated relations among people and matters. under these circumstances, mistakes can not certainly be avoided. gradually, the students enthusiasm and confidence in listening will fall down. sometimes, the dialogues or the passages are not too long or hard, but we still make mistakes. why? because we pay more attention to the words, phrases and expressions while listening, but ignore the relationships between them, and the implied meanings behind them. for instance:w (woman): why dont you get a decent job for a change?m (man): but i like my job. w: look, digging gardens is not a job for a university graduate. m: but the moneys not bad and theres plenty of fresh air.w: if i were you, id go on to take a new course, teaching, accountancy, m: accountancy? anything but that. its so boring. w: come on, you really must think of the future. why dont you just write a few application forms? m: ill tell you what. id like to be a doctor. w: well, you should think very seriously about that. it means a lot of study, and then working all sorts of hours. m: yes, maybe. but the idea appeals to me. w: well, then, you ought to get more information about it as soon as possible.the question: what can you infer from the dialogue? (key: b)(a) the woman is career advisor.(b) the woman hasnt persuaded the man.(c) the woman wants the man to be a doctor.(d) the man is quite stubborn.frankly speaking, the dialogue is neither long nor difficult, but only a few of students choose the right answer. the reason is as above: too much concern on the words, phrases and sentences, and ignorance of the relations between sentences and the hint of the whole passage. therefore, we should take the whole passage into consideration while listening.f. background knowledge and way of thinkingany language comes from social life and reflects social life. english is not an exception. it unavoidably involves social knowledge or problems of every aspect-politics, culture, economy, history, current situation and affairs, customs and people, new development and new discovery, etc. obviously, if the listeners background knowledge is limited, certainly the effect of listening comprehension is not achieved.g. psychological factorsapart from the several mental factors above, psychological factors are also important for the effect of listening comprehension. i think the following factors should be pointed out.1. motivation. devotion is the key psychological factor, because motivation on listening can not only stimulate relative physiological function, but also can reduce the difference between the speed of listening and speaking, and increase the attention and memory span in the processing of new information.2. attitude. listeners attitude towards the speakers not only indicates listening psychology, but also expresses relations between listeners and speakers. the listeners attitude influences their mood, so it affects the attention and memory span, especially when the listeners viewpoint is opposite to the speakers. at the same time, if the listeners feel unwonted about the speakers pronunciation and intonation, style, and so on , they will be repulsive on the contents of the speakers. consequently the effect of listening comprehension will not be improved.3. fake listening. it means bugout or slope away in daily life. when listeners are not interested in the listening materials, or hold prejudice on the speakers viewpoint, or the listening time is too long, their concentration is distracted definitely.4. over-concentration. it means paying more attention to the listening process itself consciously. just as “over-concentration on the process of writing and speaking will affect the ordinary expression”, over-concentration on the process itself causes psychological imbalance and affects the natural exertion of physiological function. thats why many students feel “more concentration, less achievements” during listening exercises.iiisolutions to the problemsahaving an active psychology and cultivating a good habit of listeningit embodies good self-cultivation and qualities that the students are engrossed in the class or listen attentively to others in conversations. then the listening class requires more attention. apparently, in the listening exercises, students are always passive and forced to listen and listen. the speed is out of control, the materials are not chosen freely, the contents are unknown. moreover, the students are nervous and the time is limited. in this case, its no time to question, even to think. the whole process is lacking in initiative, studying independently and developing creativity seems more impossible. however, the real case is not like this. cognitive and linguistic psychology shows that the purpose of listening exercises is to cultivate the students ability of listening comprehension, to improve their listening skills. it is well-known that whenever and wherever, “listening” owns the characteristics of being uncontrollable, unlasting, unrepeatable, so “listening” is not to receive passively but to create actively. maintaining composure and confidence is very important. therefore, we should transform the psychology from listening traditionally passively even negatively into actively and consciously. of course, listening comprehension is a rather complex process of cognitive psychology and linguistic psychology involving memorizing, thinking, processing and creating. any way of exercises or study which is mechanical and trivial is not helpful to grasp knowledge and skills, especially to stimulate their interest. for example, we often see this phenomenon in practice: on one hand, those whose foundation is poor often have to give up listening; on the other hand, those who are well in listening feel dull or boring about the repeated materials.b grasping the rules of pronunciation and intonationin listening exercises, we cant comprehend some words, sentences and passages which are familiar to us. the reason is that we are not accustomed to the intonation. therefore, we should not only pay attention to the pronunciation of the words, but also to the pronunciation of the useful phrases concerning the words, especially to their pronunciations in kinds of sentences. thats because the pronunciation of a word and its expressions is not the same completely in different types of sentence. for example: do you often read and write those languages? no. in fact, i seldom read and write these languages. she hasnt finished her work.has she finished her work?could you remember the past?ill never forget the past. in the above examples, the differences exist in the underlined words intonation and stress because of the different sentence structures.as a result, we should pay more attention to these differences. at the same time, we should first follow the tape in the process of studying intensive reading course, then read out and recite. remember the old saying “no pains, no gains.” after lasting training, youll make great progress in pronunciation and intonation.c. studying vocabulary comprehensivelyvocabulary, especially some new words, is always the great barrier in listening comprehension. usually, one or two key words will prevent the understanding of the whole dialogue or the passage. therefore, we should take some measures as follow:1. an overall understanding of the words in pronunciation,spelling, class, meaning and usagethe form of the words contains both the pronunciation and spelling. besides, we should know which class a word belongs to, that is to say, its nature. for example: “after” is a preposition, conjunction, also an adverb; “box” is both a noun and a verb.2. studying vocabulary combined with listening, speaking, reading, writing and translatingthis method can be divided into two aspects: first, we study vocabulary during the process of comprehensive ability training