On the Development of Listening Skills in College English1.doc

提高大学生英语听力On the Development of Listening Skills in College EnglishAbstractThis paper gives detailed analysis of the nature and process of listening comprehension and the factors that affect it. On the basis of the analysis, the paper makes some suggestions on how to improve the teaching and learning of listening comprehension. Listening ability is an indispensable part in language acquisition, it is not only the foundation of the ability of speaking, reading and writing, but also has become an effective means of language acquisition. In particular, it is frequently used in international communication. With the fast development of modern science and technology, developing language skills is much more urgent than we think. The ultimate goal of foreign language teaching is to cultivate students communicative competence in which listening skills play a key role. Several suggestions to improving teaching must be listed: Pay attention to the stages of listening teaching. Give emphasis on developing micro-skills of listening. Attach importance to developing students listening strategies. Teach listening with other language skills. Make good use of modern audio-visual media and other learning facilities.Key words: listening comprehension, ability, language skills, teaching提高大学生英语听力摘要论文详细分析了听力理解的性质、过程以及影响听力理解的因素，在分析的基础上提出了如何提高听力理解教学的建议。语言学习离不开听力，它不仅是说、读、写等能力发展的基础，而且是一种有效的语言学习方法，尤其是在国际交往日趋密切，科学技术突飞猛进的今天，发展语言能力已变得比我们想象中还要更加迫切。外语教学的最终目的是培养学生的交际的能力，其中听力起到至关重要的作用。因此，提高英语听力的几条建议是必备的：专心于听力教学阶段，注重细微的听力技巧发展，注重发展学生的听力策略，用其他语言技巧来教听力，充分利用多媒体和其他设施。关键词：听力理解，能力，语言技能，教学目 录AbstractI摘要IChapter 1 Introduction11.1 The Study on English Listening Teaching11.2 The Purpose of Paper21.3 The Study Methods of This Paper2Chapter 2 Literature Review32.1 Overseas Review32.2 Domestic Review4Chapter 3 The Nature and The Process of Listening Comprehension6Chapter 4 Factors That Affect Listening Comprehension84.1 The Limitation of Vocabulary84.2 The Speed of Reaction84.3 The Pronunciation of College Students84.4 Listeners Interest94.5 The Speaker94.6 The Knowledge of Cultural Background94.7 Psychological Factor of College Students94.8 Other Obstacles10Chapter 5 Suggestions to Improve Teaching115.1 Pay Attention to the Stages of Listening Teaching125.1.1 Engage the Learners in a Pre-listening Activity135.1.2 During the Listening Activities135.1.3 Engage in a Post-listening Activity.135.2 Give Emphasis to Develop Micro-skills of Listening145.3 Attach Importance to Developing Students Listening Strategies155.3.1 Intrigue the Students Interesting155.3.2 Pay Attention to the Social Cultural Knowledge155.3.3 Improve the Vocabulary and Pronounce Correctly155.3.4 Build Confidence When Listening English165.3.5 Train the Students Listening Skill165.4 Teach Listening with Other Language Skills.175.4.1 Remove the Effect of Voice to Listening175.4.2 Remove the Effect of Grammar to Listening175.5 Make Good use of Modern Multi-media and Other Learning Facilities.185.5.1 Use Multi-media Technology to Simulate of Real Listening Environment185.5.2 Use Multi-media to Stimulate Students Interest, Reduce Students Anxiety185.5.3 Use Multi-media to Promote the Interaction in Listening Class19Chapter 6 The Prospects of English Listening Study20Chapter 7 Conclusion21Acknowledgements22References23Chapter 1 Introduction1.1 The Study on English Listening TeachingListening involves hearing the speakers words, understanding the message and its importance to the speaker, and communicating that understanding to the speaker. The apparent problem is, of all the communication skills, listening is the earliest learned and the most frequently used, yet it seems to be the least mastered.The status of listening teaching: traditional listening teaching in English is that teachers firstly make students listen to the listening materials and then students will take exercise. McDonough once pointed that this method is a way of testing, not the teaching method. Through this education form, students would always be passive in action; the limited listening level would still be the biggest obstacle in their process of communication. With the further development and reform of English education in college, listening teaching is becoming increasingly important and popular. During 1980s, some experts began to study listening strategies. During 1990s researchers made adjustment to the connection between listening strategies and listening level and finally made a conclusion that listening strategy is of great effectiveness. During 21st century listening strategy has entered a new age; many researchers have put this strategy into practice. In the end, it is proved to be necessary for students. Moreover, students at different listening levels should learn to grasp listening strategies that can appropriately meet their needs and cultivate their autonomous learning, which emphasizes students activeness and individual traits.Since it is different from traditional teaching method, it is not smooth in implementing the detailed procedures and the results are not promising. At the same time, during 1980s modern audio-visual media began to spring up, which facilitates listening teaching to some degree. While there also exist are some problems, stubborn teachers find it hard to accept this equipment, because it hinders the direct emotional communication between teachers and students. On the other hand, if schools lavish much more reliance on multimedia and even abuse this equipment, they wont use it properly and it will be hard to realize “students-centered class” teaching doctrine. So experts suggest that schools should combine the multimedia teaching and traditional teaching together.1.2 The Purpose of PaperListening is not only the basic of speaking, reading and writing, but also is a very effective studying tools and a means of acquiring knowledge. Especially in today, the communication is more frequent and the development of science is rapid, the development of listening skills is more need than ever before. In this paper, I intend to explore the factors which affect the college students listening, remove these obstacles which hinder the college students listening, in the end, I want to explore how to improve the college students English listening1.3 The Study Methods of This PaperIn this paper, I choose these following ways to study on how to improve college students listening. The first way is investigation. During the process of investigation, I get some experience from the college English teachers and college students. The second way is reading articles written by scholars. Through which, I learn some knowledge about how to improve college students English listening.Chapter 2 Literature Review2.1 Overseas Review Fischer and Farris (The instructional basis of Libra, 1995) regard listening comprehension as a process by which students actively form a mental representation of an aural text according to prior knowledge of the topic and information.Coakley & Wolvin(Listening Instruction, 1979)suggest that listening comprehension in a L2 (second language) is the process of receiving, focusing attention on, and assigning meaning to aural stimuli. It includes a listener, who brings prior knowledge of the topic, linguistic knowledge and cognitive processes to the listening task, the aural text, and the interaction between the two.Douglas Brown (1994, Teaching by Principles) defines listening comprehension as not only the process of sending and receiving sounds, but also as the interactive and conscious process to send and transmit the message to the brain which will influence in the process of communication.According to Anderson and Lynch, there are two influential views: traditional view and alternative view. Traditional view regarded the listener as a tape-recorder and the listener took in and stored aural messages in much the same way as a tape-recorder. Anderson and Lynch criticized this view as inappropriate and inadequate. This notion is not a tenable one. Alternative view considered the listener as an active model builder. This kind of listener could combine the new information with his previous knowledge and experience to reach full comprehension of what had been heard. Anderson and Lynch agreed with this view. It emphasized the active interpretation and integration of incoming information with prior knowledge and experience. Many scholars supported this view. OMalley and Chamot(1989,420, Learning strategies in second language acquisition) made a conclusion by doing a research on LC in 1989: “Listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which the listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual information and existing knowledge, while relying upon multiple strategic resources to fulfill the task requirement”.2.2 Domestic ReviewThe satus of listening teaching: traditional listening teaching in English is that teachers firstly make students listen to the listening materials and then students will take exercise. McDonough once pointed that this method is a way of testing, not the teaching method. Through this education form, students would always be passive in action, the limited listening level would still be the biggest obstacle in their process of communication. With the further development and reform of English education in college, listening teaching is becoming increasingly important and popular. During 1980s, some experts began to study listening strategies. During 1990s researchers made adjustment to the connection between listening strategies and listening level and finally made a conclusion that listening strategy is of great effectiveness. During 21st century listening strategy has entered a new age, many researchers have put this strategy into practice. In the end, it is proved to be necessary for students. Moreover, students at different listening levels should learn to grasp listening strategies that can appropriately meet their needs and cultivate their autonomous learning, which emphasizes students activeness and individual traits.Since it is different from traditional teaching method, it is not smooth in implementing the detailed proceedures and the results are not promising. At the same time, during 1980s modern audio-visual media began to spring up, which facilitates listening teaching to some degree. While there also exist some problems, stubborn teachers find it hard to accept this equipment, because it hinders the direct emotional communication between teachers and students. On the other hand, if schools lavish much more reliance on multimedia and even abuse this equipment, they wont use it properly and it will be hard to realize“students-centered class” teaching doctrine. So experts suggest that schools should combine the multimedia teaching and traditional teaching together.Xu fang(1970, Listening Comprehension in EFL Teaching) thought that the nature of LC (listening comprehension) means that the learner should be encouraged to concentrate on an active process of listening for meanings, using not only the linguistic clues but his nonlinguistic knowledge as well. He should also know that not every clue is equally important to the message. Therefore, even when he misses a piece of language, he need not worry: there is a good chance that other clues will make him understand the message, or at least, enough of the message for his own aim. Of course, it may be that the missed item is one which completely changes the whole message. This doesnt concern the general point being made here; since the learner has more hope of realizing his own misunderstanding if he concentrates on the communication rather than being distracted by a sense of failure.Chapter 3 The Nature and The Process of Listening ComprehensionCourses in listening comprehension have a prominent place in language programs around the world today. Ever-growing needs for fluency in English around the world because of the role of English as the worlds international language have given priority to find more effective ways to teach English. It is therefore timely to review what our current assumptions and practices are concerning the teaching of these crucial language skills. Our understanding of the nature of listening and speaking has undergone considerable changes in recent years, and in this paper I want to explore some of those changes and their implications for classroom teaching and materials design.Listening has often been called a passive skill, though most teachers of the ability do not agree with this assertion. Listening is neither passive, nor receptive. On the contrary its quite an active process because it demands a great deal of active involvement from the hearer. We also consider listening as a creative skill. In order to reconstruct the message that the speaker intends, the hearer must actively contribute to the process with linguistic and nonlinguistic sources. To comprehend the sounds he hears, the listener takes the material and from that material he creates a significance (what the hearer understands from the text) which depends on a number of factors such as: The linguistic information the listener grasps from what was emitted by the speaker. In order to avoid misunderstanding or lack of motivation, the social-cultural information the situational context of the utterance and the intention of the speaker that surrounds the text which the listener must have some ideas of.Fischer and Farris (The instructional basis of Libra, 1995) regard listening comprehension as a process by which students actively form a mental representation of an aural text according to prior knowledge of the topic and information.Coakley & Wolvin(Listening Instruction, 1979)suggest that listening comprehension in a L2 (second language) is the process of receiving, focusing attention on, and assigning meaning to aural stimuli. It includes a listener, who brings prior knowledge of the topic, linguistic knowledge and cognitive processes to the listening task, the aural text, and the interaction between the two.Douglas Brown (1994, Teaching by Principles) defines listening comprehension as not only the process of sending and receiving sounds, but also as the interactive and conscious process to send and transmit the message to the brain which will influence in the process of communication.I believe that using some of these listening techniques or activities makes the process of listening comprehension easier for students and allows them to gain independence, to overcome their fears and to combine what they learn from a listening text to other activities in the language oral or