Factors Affecting Senior High School Students English Listening Comprehension and Some SolutionsWord文件下载.docx

Factors Affecting Senior High School Students English Listening Comprehension and Some SolutionsWord文件下载.docx

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3.ListeningproblemsinSeniorHighSchool4

3.1Thesounds5

3.1.1Pronunciationandreadingspeed6

3.1.2Liaison7

3.2Thevocabulary7

3.3Theslowprocessingspeed8

3.4Theculturalbackgroundknowledgeandpsychologicalfactors9

3.4.1Theculturalbackgroundknowledge9

3.4.2Thepsychologicalfactors10

4.SolutionstolisteningproblemsinSeniorHighSchool10

4.1Solutiontoproblemscausedbysounds11

4.2Solutiontoproblemscausedbyvocabulary12

4.3Solutiontoproblemscausedbyslowprocessingspeed14

4.4Solutiontoproblemscausedbyculturalbackgroundknowledgeandpsychologicalfactors15

4.4.1Enlargetheknowledgeaboutculturalbackground15

4.4.2Overcomethebarrierscausedbypsychologicalfactors16

4.4.2.1Chooselisteningmaterials17

4.4.2.2Eliminatepsychologicalobstaclesandcutdownanxiety17

4.4.2.3Raisestudents’confidenceandbringeveryactivefactorintoplaying18

5.Conclusion18

References20

1.Introduction

Modernlanguageteachingtheoryhighlyemphasizestheeffectof“listening”onthelearningandtheuseoflanguage.TheteachingofEnglishlisteningisn’tonlyateachingoflanguage,alsoatrainingofability.Inthefourskills:

listening,speaking,readingandwriting,listeningisthebasicamongthem.Itisn’ttheonlymainwayofacquiringlanguageinformation,butthebaseofimprovingotherskills.ManyChinesestudentsregardthelisteningtestasthemostdifficultpartofawholetest.AsforthestudentswhoareweakinEnglish,theywillfindthattheyalmostmakenoprogress,nomatterhowhardtheyworkonlistening.What’sworse,theywillevenloseinterestinEnglish.AndthebarriersthatSeniorHighSchoolstudentsmeetinlisteningarevarious,forexample,thepoorinputinEnglishsounds,vocabularyslowprocessingspeedandthelackofknowledgeofculturalbackground.Thispaperintendstomakeasolutiontoenhancestudents’listeningabilities.

HowSeniorHighSchoolStudentscanimprovetheirlisteningandgetgoodmarksintheexambecomesthesubjectthatteacherscare.Toachievethissubjectrequiresteacherstofindoutwhatfactorsinfluencelisteningcomprehension.AndinthispaperwewillreadwhatkindofsolutionsaresuitableforimprovingSeniorHighSchoolStudents’listeningcomprehension.

2.Characteristicsoflisteningcomprehension

Listeningistheabilitytoidentifyandunderstandwhatothersaresaying.Rost（1994:

141-142）pointsout,listeningisvitalinthelanguageclassroombecauseitprovidesinputforthelearner.AnditistruethatthereisagreatvarietyofsituationwhereweneedtolistentoEnglish.Itisimportanttounderstandthecharacteristicsorprocessesbehindtheselisteningsituationsothatteacherscanfindappropriatesolutionstohelpstudentstodevelopeffectivehabitsandstrategies.

2.1Teachinglisteningisdifferentfromteachingreading

Teachinglisteningisquitedifferentfromteachingreading,thoughlisteningandreadingbothbelongtoreceptiveskills.Inreading,studentsconnectthemeaningwiththeprintedwordswhileinlistening,theyconnectthemeaningwithsounds.Theycanreferbackiftheywanttowhiletheydoreading,buttheycannotdoso,inmanycases,inlisteningbecausethesoundsdisappearveryquicklyandtheydonothavetheslightestopportunitytogoback.

ThispartlyaccountsforthefactthatforSeniorHighSchoolstudentswhohaveseldombeenexposedtoEnglishspokenlanguage,apassagecanbeunderstoodverywellwhenitisread,butitsmeaningcanbehardlyfiguredoutwhenitisheard.Itiscertainthatifthecomplexityofthematerialconcernedlearningisthesame,listeningtendstobemoredifficult.Itcanbesaidthattoteachlisteningeffectivelyisnotveryeasy.

2.2Listeningprocesses

TohelpstudenttoimprovetheEnglishlisteningcomprehension,weneedfirsttounderstandwhathappenswhenwelisten.MaryUnderwood（1989）pointsoutthatthelisteningprocessconsistsofthreestages.

Atthefirststage,thesoundsgointoasensorystore,oftencalledthe‘echoic’memory,andareorganizedintomeaningfulunits,accordingtotheknowledgeofthelanguagethelisteneralreadyhas.

Atthesecondstage,wordsorgroupsofwordsarecheckedandcomparedwithinformationalreadyheldinthelongtermmemoryandthemeaningisextractedfromthem.

Atthethirdstage,afterthelistenerhasconstructedameaningfromtheutterance（whichmayormaynotbethemeaningthatwasintendedbythespeaker）,heorshemighttransfertheinformationtothelongtermmemoryforlateruse.Itseemsthatgenerallyalistenerwhowantstodotheserecordsthemessageandstoresitinthelongtermmemoryinareducedform.Theproblemisthateachofthethreestageshappenswithinafewseconds.ThustheSeniorHighSchoolstudentsmaybeunabletoprocesstheincomingstreamfastenoughandwillfailtoextractmeaningfromwhattheyhaveheard.

Atpresent,theprocessbasedonthereceivingofacousticsignalsisreferredtoas“bottom-up”processingwhiletheprocessbasedontheapplicationofbackgroundknowledgeandcontextualinformationtomakepredictionsisknownas“top-down”processing.Thesuccessinlisteningcomprehensiondependsontheinteractionofthesetwoprocesses.Neithercanbelacking.

3.ListeningproblemsinSeniorHighSchool

TohelpstudentstoenhancetheEnglishlisteningability,teachersneedalsotoknowtheirlevelandidentifywheretheirproblemslieinlistening.

“Ifyouaretryingtoteachsomebodysomething,youneedtohaveaclearideaofwhatitisyouaretryingtoteach.Thisisastrueofteachinglisteningcomprehensioninforeignlanguageasitisofteachingarchitecturalstudentshowtodrawtheplansandelevationsofbuildings”（Brown,1990）.

Sotoknowthestudents’levelandidentifywheretheirproblemslieistheprerequisiteforhelpingstudentstoimprovetheirlisteningability.

TheproblemsfacingSeniorHighSchoolstudentsintheirlisteningarefoundtobeatdifferenthierarchiesofalisteningtest.Someappearin“bottom-up”processingandothersarisein“top-down”processing.Aftertheyhavebeenexposedtolisteningtests,someoftheirproblemsmaybecomelessseriousandtheymoreorlesshaveobtainedtheabilitytoadjusttotheEnglishnativespeakers’accentsonthetape.However,throughoutthethreeyearsinSeniorHighSchool,theyhaveproblemsofunderstandingspeechduringlongerdiscourse.Inlisteningtoanextendedpassageordialogue,theytendtotreateachsentenceinisolationandhencefailtomakeaninferencewhichneedstobedrawnfromthecontext.Veryoftentheyfailtodistinguishthetopicsentencefromthedevelopmentdetailsandasaresulttheyareuncertainaboutthemainideaofthelisteningtexttheyhaveheard.Also,vocabularyandthelongandcomplicatedsentencestructurewhichisentirelydifferentfromthatoftheirmothertonguepresentobstaclesfortheminunderstandingthelisteningtext.Problemsrelatedtostudentssuchasslowprocessingspeedandnervousnessaresalientduringthebeginningoflisteningtraining.Ifthosestudentswhohavesuchproblemsarenotabletobuildupconfidenceandpracticelisteningtoovercomethem,theymayremainthroughoutthewholeSeniorHighSchool.Someoftheirproblemsreflectedindoinglisteningcomprehensioninclassarerelatedtothefollowingaspects.

3.1Thesounds

ManystudentsneverspoketonativeEnglishspeakerbeforetheyenteredtheSeniorHighSchool.Undersuchconditions,whentheybegintolisten,theyfindthattheEnglishwordstheyhaveheardfromthetape-recordsoundstrangeanddifferentfromtheclearlypronouncedbytheirteachersinJuniorHighSchools.AsforthestudentswhoareweakinEnglish,theywillfindthattheyalmostmakenoprogress,nomatterhowhardtheyworkonlistening.What’sworse,theywillevenloseinterestinEnglish.Andifateacherjusttrainsstudentsbasedonthemultiple-choice,obviously,itisnotenough,whetherthestudentsuseitintheclassroomorintherealtalkwithothers.Listeningcomprehensionisviewedtheoreticallyasanactiveprocessinwhichindividuallistenersfocusonselectedaspectsofauralinput,constructmeaningfrompassages,andrelatewhattheyheartoexistingknowledge.

Littleknowledgedostudentshaveaboutthefactthatthepronunciationofwordsundergoeschangesinthestreamofspeech.Asaresult,theytendtofailtounderstandspokenEnglish.ThisproblemisquitetypicalforSeniorHighSchoolstudents.Examplesoffailuretounderstandcanbefoundinstudents’listeninginclass.Thefailurestounderstandareusuallycausedbypronunciationandreadingspeed.Theytendtoblockstudents’comprehensionandoftencompletelyconfusethem.

3.1.1Pronunciationandreadingspeed

Evenatthebeginningoflanguagelearningsomestudentsarenotsureoftheproperpronunciationofeachword.Ifthingsgoonlikethis,especiallyofthosewordswhichhavesimilarpronunciation,thestudentswouldfindit’sverydifficulttodistinguish.Herearesomecommonlyusedwordsthathavesimilaroreventhesamepronunciation.e.g.sheep—ship/ʃi:

p/----/ʃip/

house—horse/haus/----/hɔ:

s/

bad—bed/bæ

d/----/bed/

much—march/mʌtʃ/----/mɑ:

tʃ/

mouth—mouse/mauθ/----/maus/

quite—quiet/kwait/----/'

kwaiət/

Oncehearingsuchwordsabove,someofthestudentsfeelpuzz