商务环境中英语听力障碍突破浅谈How To Break Through Listening Barrier in Business.doc

商务环境中英语听力障碍突破浅谈How To Break Through Listening Barrier in Business Environment摘要商务环境中英语的应用日益重要。 笔者发现尽管大部分员工在大学毕业后都有着不错的英语基础，有一定的英语词汇量，但其在与外籍员工或上司之间的对话沟通中，常常发生每个单词都听懂了，但最终理解有了偏差的现象。 抱着提供员工在工作环境中提高英语听力的能力，帮助他们更准确地理解英语，本项目对两组共四名员工进行了分组分析实验。首先，笔者运用了分析法，原因分析法和集思广益法对学生的问题进行了剖析。调查发现导致问题的原因主要集中于以下三点：1）员工从学校毕业多年，对很多单词的全意记得不全面，很多只是只知其一，不知其二；2）员工在学校时基础不错，工作后忙于工作，本着英语够用就好的思想，对英语学习不够重视，没有花很多时间学习；3）员工听不明白的时候，碍于面子羞于表达或纠错，久而久之日益生疏。笔者借用难度适合的与商务有关的电影结合公司内部商业录音，为员工营造熟悉的商务环境，为其设计了为期四个星期的以多听多模拟促进商务英语听力的教学实践。 本项目的假设是员工在真实的商务环境中通过大量地练习、分析、角色扮演等手段达到提高商务英语的听力理解的准确性。教学过程中笔者将学生分为试验组（A组）和对比组（B组）分别用改良的和传统的方法进行四周的对比教学。试验组的两名员工岁数在3035之间，工作经验丰富，故其对与其工作相关的英语掌握熟练。 对比组的两名员工岁数在2225之间，大学毕业不久，英语表达非常自信但对工作英语需要提高。在对比组保持传统教学的同时，教学采取群体教学及小组活动相结合的模式，学生以小组为单位通过互动达到互相学习取长补短的效果，使学生们都能够积极参与到教学活动中来，并且通过不断的总结学习达到不断提高的目的。本项目通过项目后问卷结果得出以下结果：1） 试验组的员工对英语为母语的国家的员工的语言习惯比之前有了更深的理解；2）试验组的员工通过学习中遇到的问题开始明白自己在听力中真正的障碍在哪里，这激发了其学习的热情，从而有了自发学习的动力；3）试验组的员工在沟通共同中比以往有自信，敢于表达；4）对比组的学员通过学习掌握了大量的与其工作相关的语言使用习惯，如一些缩写简称或特定词汇等；5）对比组的学员融入商业环境更快更容易。本项目的成果将对企业中的英语教学，尤其是英语听力教学实践提供指导和借鉴。关键词： 商业英语教学；听力；分组对比AbstractApplication of English in business environment is increasingly important. I found that although most of the staff at the university after graduation have laid a good foundation in English and built a large vocabulary in English at university and their English vocabulary is quite good, but after graduation the phenomenon often happens thaeyt the staff always find that in the daily business communication, it is hard to for them to understand each words but not realize the holistic meaning of the native English speakers even though they can understand each wordin the daily business communication. In order to improve staffs their English listening ability, to help them more accurately understand Business English, the a project has been carriyed out by dividing two teams with 4 staff into two teams in two groups so that comparison can be made provide us with some insightsfor experiments. TFirst, the researcher used the analysis, cause analysis and brainstorming on the staff for the issues analysis. Survey found the problems focused on the following three points: 1) Staff graduateds from the school for many years ago, they do not fully remember the full meaning of many wordsmany words do not fully remember. They might only understand a layer of word meanings but not all of them. a part of the words meaning of the words but not sure of the further- layer meaning. 2) Staff haves good fundament in the school, so they wouldndidnt put enough emphasis on English learning. 3) Staff are shy to raise questions when they didcould not understand. 红色标注部分意思表达不够清晰明确，令人费解。另外，该段落前面中出现first， 是否暗示读者还有second, moreover之类？The researcher provided appropriate film and business-related internal commercial video for the staff to create a familiar business environment, to and designed a four-week simulation in order to promote the teaching of Business English listening practice. The assumption is that staff can achieve greater better business English listening comprehension accuracy in a real business environment by large numbersa great deal of exercises, analysis, role playing and other kinds of meanspractices.The researchergroup was divided into Target gGroup (A group) and Control Ggroup (B group) and used traditional methods of teaching around the contrast. (红色标注部分意思表达不够清晰明确，令人费解。)The members in the tTarget gGroup, employees ageds are between of 30- and 35. They, are experienced in their scope, so. T they are good at tackling their work related with English. TThe Control Ggroup is, aged between of 22- and 25,. They have just graduated from university for for a short while but they are, confident in usingbut their English Communication althoughexpression is confident but their work- related English still needs to be improved. In the Control gGroup, while maintaining the traditional teaching, the researcher would arrange activities to both groups so as to make students to learn from each other through the interactive effects of each other as one group, so that students can actively participate in teaching activities and o achieve continuous improvement purposes together.The project post-project survey (红色标注部分意思表达不够清晰明确，令人费解。) results showed the following points: 1) the Target group has a deeper understanding of the language habits of English speaking countries employees than before; 2) the Target group of employees comebeginning to understand their own obstacles in the real life through learning, which inspired his passion for learning. Now they have intrinsic motivation to learn; 3) The Target group have more confidence to express; 4) The Control Group gain a lot of work related English abbreviates and specific vocabulary. 5) The Control group mentioned they feel easier to fix into the business environment faster.The results of the project will provide guidance and reference to English training in enterprise, especially to the teaching of English listening practice.Keywords: Business English teaching; Listening; Group comparisonTable of ContentsPages1. Project Introduction 782. Project Problem Identification and Analysis8 2.1 Project problem8 2.2 Problem analysis98 2.3 Results of problem analysis993. Project Objective and Hypothesis9 3.1 Project objective9 3.2 Project hypothesis94. Project Rationale9 4.1 Research about how to effectively improve students listening ability9 4.2 Research about teaching strategy and methods of listening105. Project Design 10 5.1 Target Group and Control Group11 5.2 Teaching materials11 5.3 Movie/Company sharing design116. Project Implementation12 6.1 Week I Movie I: Charles and Chocolate Factory12 6.2 Week II Movie II: Message in a Bottle12 6.3 Week III Movie/Video III: Company video for new projects13 6.4 Week IV Movie III: Up in Air137. Results and Discussion143 7.1 Comparing the result of exercises in the two groups143 7.2 Result of post-questionnaire in the target group158. Conclusion16Bibliography17Appendix I. 187Appendix II. 198How TTo Break Through Listening Barrier in Business Environment1. IntroductionThe researcherI works for a training department in a Fortune 500 company. English communication is very very crucial in theour working environment. The researchers colleague raised the training demand that they could not understand the holistic meaning of English native speakers in the daily working environment even though they can understand the each words meaning. Hence the researcherI decided to teach my colleagues colleagues spoken English several months ago. Staff have laid good foundation of English and built a certain mount of vocabulary in the university, but they still are unable to catch up the native speakers authentic meaning in the communication. After collecting their feedback, the researcher found the main reasons would be, Staff graduated from school many years ago, they could not remember full meanings of some words. They might only know a layers of meaning but not all of the word.Staffs have a fundament of English so they dont put enough emphasis in continually studying English after daily work.When Staffs didnt understand native speaker very well, they were shy to raise their question immediately. Their confidence in English needs to be improved. Till now, after collecting problem analysis, the researcher came to believe staffs barrier is in listening in the business background. The projects objective is target to help staffs improve their oral English understanding for use of business.The project is hypothesized that staffs ability to comprehend the accurate meaning can be improved if they are given enough effective practices with real business background.The researcher provided appropriate films and business-related internal business videos to create a familiar business environment for staff and designed a four-week simulation in order to promote the teaching of Business English listening practice.In the project, 4 colleagues were invited who were divided to two groups, Target Group (A group) and Control Group (B group). The members in the Target Group, aged between 30 and 35, are very experienced in their scope. They are good at tackling their work related with English. The Control Group, aged between 22 and 25, whom have just graduated from university for a short while but they are confident in English Communication although their work-related English still needs to be improved. In the Control Group, while maintaining the traditional teaching, the researcher would arrange activities to both groups so as to make students to learn from each other through the interactive effects of each other as one group, so that students can actively participate in teaching activities and achieve continuous improvement purposes together.2. Problem Identification and AnalysisI found most of my colleagues have enough vocabulary for daily communication. However, when they listen to a long and complicated sentence from a native speaker in a meeting, they often lose the authentic meaning.The researcher would use a method of Cause Analysis to analyze the problem.This analysis is conducted from three aspects which contribute toincluding the cause, students English skill, students listening behavior and environment impact. 2.1 Students English Skilll VocabularyThe students have graduated from university for many years and most of them have good basis of English. They know most vocabulary but they dont know the in-depth meaning of the words. They might only remember one or two layers of word but they dont know what other meanings the word may imply. For example, students know Ivy is a kind of flower, but they dont know the word is may also refer toused as a famous college in USA l PhrasePhrases would be a bit more difficult for students to use in communication comparesd with single words. Students cant correctly catch up with the real meanings when two simple words come out from the speaker. This also often makes students feel lost in the communication with foreigners. For example, “put sth. off” means “postpone sth.”. While “put sb. off” means “cause to feel intense dislike or distaste ” They are quite different.l Culture Students are not familiar with the way foreigners express their idea. Sometimes this is out of misunderstanding. Different cultures cause different understanding of the same sentence. For example, once my student talked with a Japanese colleague on the phone. The Japanese would like to say you know what in the beginning of a sentence. My students felt very angry for the impoliteness, because he thought this short sentence in Chinese means 你知道什么. After hearing my explanation that this is a common tongue (口语) in the communication, he was no longer angry about it. 2.2 Studentss Listening BehaviorMy students are very intelligent in the daily work, but they lack confidence in English communication. Two situations often appear that shows their low confidence. One is no matter theyve understood it or not, they always pretend they do. The other one is that they used to break intointerrupt the speaker once they thought they have got the point. The fact is that the speaker has not expressed his/her holistic view.2.3 Multinational Environment Impact. There are many foreign staffs in our company. These foreign staffs are from worldwide, for instance, India, Japan, Thailand, South America, France, everywhere. Its not easy to get used to different accents from different countries. Students need to initiatively take chance to practice more in the multinational working environment. Results of Problem AnalysisAfter making the above analysis, the researcher came to know the cause of the the students problem lies in listening, which was probably due to the teachers ineffective design of listening activities. Based on the above analysis, the researcher was determined to design a project that can render more effective listening learning activities to solve the problem.3. Project Objective and Hypothesis3.1 The project objective is to develop staffs English listening skills so that they can communicate with foreign colleagues for business. 3.2 It is hypothesized that staffs ability to comprehend the accurate meaning can be improved if they are given more practices with real business background. This hypothesis can be proved by their figuring out more main points in the talks on their own.4. Project Rationale4.1 Research about how to effectively improve students listening ability Provide appropriate listening skills; Design effective listening tasks; Provide suitable listening materials; Design effective activities in the class;Improving listening is a complex process. To really understand what we hear, we must go through an active process of anticipating, interpreting and clarifying. Top-down and bottom-up approaches to listening are needed in order to listen quickly and accurately. Problems in listening could be the result of inadequate language proficiency, a lack of background knowledge or both.We should use particular listening skills according to particular situations and purposes. Major listening skills include, Listening for gist; Listening for specific information; Listening for detailed information; Inferring; Note-takes;A variety of materials is generally best for improving listening. Both of authentic and non-authentic material should be taken into account because both of language levels are valuable for students.(what is the point here?)4,2 Research about teaching strategy and methods of listening MaterialIn order to maximize the learning output, teacher needs to stimulate students interest. The appropriate materials should not be too easy or difficult to students. The material with plentiful information or mostly relevant to students work/life will successfully arouse students interest in practicing English. Based on this belief, the research introduces students movies, songs, company videos etc to students and organize them to share in the class. Conduct effective courseIn the ordinary listening material, speakers normally wont repeat words/sentence very often in a quick speed. Hence its important to coach students to have real ability to understand. The first step is to encourage students to catch up the gist. The material will be showed completely, requesting students to focus on understanding the general meaning. At this stage students are also coached to practice inferring skills. Before the second play of the tape, the researcher explains the background and picks up several key words for students. At this point, students will be required to note down key words and generate the meaning in summary. Encourage students to keep good practice habitsIn English listening, students should be equipped with appropriate listening skills. They can study to infer and conclude the discussion contents. Secondly, they should get good habits that they intend to understand the holistic meaning but not spend too much time on difficult words. Third, students should have good listening habits like note-taking. It would be very helpful if students note down the key messages such as time, venue, people and things alike. Its helpful for them to understand the holistic context and give correct response. Forth, students should have good ability for inferring. Inferring is a crucial skill to understand the real meaning behind the material or conversation.5. Project DesignDrawing on the discovery of the problem analysis and rationale quoted above, a project is designed to improve the students listening ability by catching up detailed information from conversation in their classroom learning.5.1. Target Group and Control GroupTwo groups of students will be needed for comparison, the Target Group, who will use the movie and news sharing, and the Control Group, who will be taught in some traditional ways. They will only be required to discuss material in the class. Two of them are above age of 30 who are experienced in their work field. Since theyve graduated from college many years ago, their English is comparatively weak. The other two students are fresh graduates. Their English is comparatively better and are brave enough to talk in English, but they are weak at professional knowledge. For both groups, it is difficult for them to catch up with the holistic meaning of the speakers in communication in English.5.2. Teaching materialsFive materials need to be prepared for class. These materials should be suitable for students English level and the content cshould be relevant to students work or life. To take consideration toof students current weakness, the researcher prepared three movies and two corporation news VCR. The movies are, Up in the Air, Message in a Bottle, Charlie and Chocolate Factory. The company videos are from company chairman that announced company new culture and projects. Up in the Air is a very popular movie that describes a white collar elites work and life, so the contents are not unfamiliar with students. Its helpful for them to understand the movie context. Message in a Bottle is movie with beautiful sentences and speaking speed is not very fast. It sounds comfortable so the researcher believe it is of some help to arouse students interest. Charlie and Chocolate Factory is an impressive movie that has many musical lyrics. So the sentence in this movie is short and easy to understand. The research uses it in the beginning stage of class. 5.3. Movie/Company sharing designA four-week movie/company sharing plan designed by the researcher aims to improve students ability in