On the Development of Students’ English Listening Ability.doc

on the development of students english listening ability abstract: language is an important tool with which people communicate with each other. people use languages to exchange thoughts, information so that they can understand each other well. and listening is the first important step in language communication. it is the key way for people to understand what they say. this paper, in view of the difficulties and barriers in students english listening, puts forward some suggestions for the english teachers to develop and improve their students listening ability in english teaching.key words: the aim of english teaching; the english listening teaching; difficulties and barriers in english listening; developing students listening ability 1. introductionthe english syllabus of full-time senior middle school clearly defines: one of the aims of junior english teaching is to develop students english communicative ability. it emphasizes listening, speaking, reading and writing. the four skills are closely dependent on each other. speaking ability relies on listening ability. all information can be put in by listening. from listening people can make languages into words and imitate to speak what they have heard. so people can develop their listening ability from speaking. nowadays, the media are widely used, and the listening skills have become more and more important. however, reading is emphasized too much in english teaching, while speaking and listening are neglected. as a result, the development of listening is always ignored by the english teachers. many students are good at writing, but they are afraid of listening and even they dont understand what the foreigners say. so the english teachers must pay more attention to students listening practice. it is the key way to improve their listening and strengthen the listening teaching methods. how can the english teachers overcome the difficulties and barriers of english listening and develop students listening ability?2. the difficulties and barriers in english listening 2.1 difficulties in language. there are some new words, new sentence patterns, new grammar, or connecting and weak reading, lost tone, stress shifting and so on in the listening material. and these changes add some difficulties to students understanding. (1) the students are not familiar with the basic language, so its difficult for them to understand. such as words, phrases, verbs past forms, ect. (2)the students dont master the linguistics well, so it causes some understanding barriers. for example: the pronunciation is not accurate, especially for similar words. such as: jeep-sheep; beatbit; countcant; herehair; muchmarch; quitequiet; kitchenchicken; mouthmouse.(3)the language speed varies and it causes some problems. when the listening material is quite easy for students, and the reading speed is quite slow, students will have not any difficulty in understanding the materials. yet, sometimes the listening materials are also easy for students, but many students feel it quite hard to understand. why?1) connecting reading. for example:the cats are in the street.the box is on the table.put some of it in the box and some of it in the bag. 2) lost tone. for example:mary asked john to write soon.shake your head if you dont want to go.3) stress. for example: theres a desk and a chair in it, too. put some of it in the box and some of it in the bag.the above phenomena appear in materials whose reading speed is quite fast and it makes students feel they are quite different from their linguistics and pronunciation. so they will make some mistakes when they meet with the new words or when the speed is quite fast. 2.2 difficulties in vocabulary and grammar. the influence of vocabulary is one of the important factors. vocabulary is the building materials of languages, so students must master enough vocabularies if they want to improve their listening ability. the famous english phonetician da wilkins once said: “without grammar, people cant express many things; but without vocabulary they can express nothing.” many students listening vocabularies can not reach half of their reading vocabularies. why? because students use more english vocabularies than the ones they hear. they dont pay more attention to the differences of sound. some students only know the single meaning of some vocabularies, and neglect the different implications of them. for the reason, even though they can hear some vocabularies clearly, students cant understand the real meaning of them. for example, “will you marry me?” here the speaker wants to say “can you host my wedding?” but some students understand in the way “will you get married with me?” in order to understand the listening materials exactly, students must grasp the pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and the differences between sentence patterns. without the firm basic grammar, students will not catch the fleeting information. for example, “you should have finished it yesterday.” this is a subjunctive mood sentence. it means “you should have finished it yesterday, but you didnt.” but some students dont understand it correctly.2.3 difficulties in content.language is a kind of spiritual wealth which is created by humans. its a part of culture. it is like a mirror and reflects a nations culture. with language, people know well about the customs and habits, styles of life, and so on. (1) the interference of the native languages spoils students reaction. when listening to a paragraph language, many students are used to translating each sentence into chinese. they cant make the language to form a scene or a picture in their minds, so it affects listening reaction and understanding. (2) cultural differences affect students understanding ability. although there are some similarities in english and chinese culture, there are also some great differences between them. because not knowing about the life habits, cultural features, inclinations, hobbies, chinese students always feel that there are not any new sentence patterns or words in the listening materials, but they dont really catch the meaning of the sentences. for example: in chinese “where are you going?” is used in the greeting, but there is not “greeting” function in english. on the other hand it is thought to interfere in peoples privacy. 2.4 difficulties in psychology. listening understanding is a set of complex activities. producing worried, nervous psychology is the greatest difficulty in listening training. some students say, as soon as the listening is played, they become worried and afraid, even feel that they have nothing in minds. thats the concrete show of the worried psychology. it directly affects the listening if students feel so nervous that they cant concentrate their attention on listening training. they are afraid that they cant follow the exam content and listening speed, so they are over worried. as a result, they seem to have nothing in mind. in the circumstance, there is not any continuity in the listening understanding and it leads to misunderstanding. 3. how can the english teachers develop students listening ability in english teaching?the english communication is based on the english listening by which people receive and understand oral information. so both students and teachers are concerned about the english listening. by analyzing students listening difficulties and barriers, the english teachers should seek for some ways to solve these problems, and improve students listening ability. 3.1 improve students pronunciation and strengthen students language knowledge. the english listening ability takes the overall english level as the foundation. at the beginning step, one of the reasons why students cant understand what they hear is that they cant differ from some english words clearly, or the differences between their pronunciation and the pronunciation in different sentences. so at the beginning of the listening training, teachers must introduce something about connecting reading, weak reading, lost tone and stress shifting, and pay more attention to the pronunciation and intonation, so that students can overcome the barriers in the english listening. falling tone at the end of the sentence is always a statement. rising tone at the end of the sentence is usually to ask questions, ask for something or feel uncertain about a statement. so dont neglect the importance of language or go against the law of language learning in the english listening, or students will not achieve good effect in the english learning. 3.2 enhance students vocabularies and strengthen students grammar knowledge.the english teachers should enhance the teaching of vocabulary, explore new ways to teach students vocabularies and make students interested in memorizing words. for example, ask students to learn some words by heart through sentences, which helps students to remember the meaning of the words and its morphological features and usage in a concrete language background. while teaching students vocabularies, teachers should let them fully realize that guessing the meaning of words is very important for them to understand the listening content. teachers should pay more attention to training students ability to guess the meaning of the words through the whole passage, grammar structure, word formation and language environment. keep training, students ability to apply vocabularies will be improved. at the same time, never neglect the grammar teaching in english teaching. its aim is to make students learn the basic language, to practice listening, reading, speaking, and writing. to speak english correctly, students must master the language law; express themselves in the way of english speaking countries. only in this way, can they make themselves understood, and reach the goal of communication.3.3 extend students knowledge of cultural background. teachers must teach students to use english to think and not to translate sentence by sentence into chinese, or it will affect their understanding. on the other hand, students must grasp some english and america history and the cultural background, something about english customs and life styles. because of lacking this knowledge, students often have some trouble understanding the listening. if students dont know about thanksgiving day, easter, foolish day and so on, then teachers should give some introductions to them. and teachers should encourage students to read more books about humanities, geography, history, biography and so on. it can help enrich their knowledge. for example, in the western countries, people are not allowed to ask something about marriage, child, job and salary. if students can overcome these cultural differences, they will improve their listening ability. 3.4 develop students interests in english listening and overcome students psychology barriers.einstein ever said, “interest is the best teacher”. as soon as teachers make students interested in listening, they can motivate their enthusiasm and initiative. listening must be the beginning step of english learning. practice listening and speaking together and students can improve the listening ability by speaking. at the beginning of the listening, teachers should explain to students in humorous and lively ways in class, using simple means, expressions and actions. teachers can also use the simple pictures to help students understand. sometimes it is necessary to combine the key content and write a few chinese words on the blackboard. it is helpful to develop students listening understanding in this way. with the students listening level improved, teachers can choose some lively