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copyright paper51.com 本科毕业论文 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 某某师院附中高一年级学生听力学习 paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 的问题及对策
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copyright paper51.com 姓名：徐秋娥 内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com学号： 2007061205
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paper51.com 指导教师姓名： 郭 莹
paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 职 称： 讲 师 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 单 位： 外国语学院 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 专 业 名 称 ： 英 语 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com申请学位级别： 学 士
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com论文提交日期： 2011年5月
内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 学位授予单位： 某某师范学院
内容来自www.paper51.com paper51.com内容来自www.paper51.com 二○一一年五月
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com Solutionsto the Listening Problems of the First-year http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comStudentsin Middle School Affiliated to 内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Yuxi Normal University http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com
copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Xu Qiu’e paper51.com http://www.paper51.com
copyright paper51.com Supervisor copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Guo Ying copyright paper51.com paper51.com
http://www.paper51.com AThesis Submitted as a
内容来自www.paper51.com paper51.comPartialFulfillment for the Degree of
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com B.A.in English 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com YUXI NORMAL UNIVERSITY 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.comhttp://www.paper51.com May, 2011
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com Statement of Authorship
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Exceptwhere reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains nomaterial published elsewhere or extracted in whole or part from a thesispresented by me for another degree or diploma. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comNoother person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main textof the thesis. copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Thisthesis has not been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma inany tertiary institution. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com
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内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Acknowledgments
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http://www.paper51.com In my writing of this thesis, I would like to take thisopportunity to express my sincere thanks to all the people who have given meinvaluable suggestions and help.
paper51.com copyright paper51.comFirstly, I am very grateful to my supervisor Guo Ying whospares no time and energy out of her heavy load of teaching work and dailybusiness to giveme valuable advice and suggestions during the process of my writing. Withouther patience in reading and helpful criticism on this paper I could not havecompleted this paper successfully. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Secondly, I would like to give my thanks to theother teachers who taught me much knowledge and opened my mind so that I couldwrite the paper.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com Thirdly, my thanks go to all the students and Englishteachers in Middle School Affiliated to Yuxi Normal University, who have takenpart in the research. And I am grateful to those librarianswho offered me some useful books. paper51.com copyright paper51.com
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paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Abstract
copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Thepurpose of learning English is to improve learners’ abilities of listening,speaking, reading and writing which enable them to gain more communicativecompetence. As we all know, communication will not take place if the listenercannot understand what they have heard successfully. Listening not onlyprovides input for the listeners, but also constitutes the first step ofcommunication. It is the most basic ability in all intercommunication. However,listening is considered to be one of the most difficult skills in English learning.To senior high school students, listening takes up an extremely importantposition in College Entrance Examination, but many students’ listening are poorand they often meet different problems in their English listening. It isnecessary to study these problems because understanding learners’ listeningproblems is perhaps the first step to improve their listening. This paper isdedicated to investigate the problems existing in the process of Englishlistening of the first-year students in Middle School Affiliated to Yuxi NormalUniversity via questionnaire and interview. This paper also puts forward someresolutions accordingly.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Key words: listening; listening problems; relative suggestions paper51.com paper51.comhttp://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com
paper51.com paper51.com
http://www.paper51.com 摘 要copyright paper51.com
copyright paper51.com 英语语言学习的目的就是培养学习者听、说、读、写的能力，从而使他们达到运用语言进行交际的目的，而交际的首要条件是具备一定的听力。听力不仅为学习者提供语言输入，而且是语言交际的基础，它是所有人际交往中最基本的能力，然而在英语学习中，听力也是最难掌握的语言技能之一。对于高中生来说，听力在高考中占很大的比例，但是许多学生存在着不少听力问题。对听力问题的研究是解决听力问题的第一步。本文通过问卷调查和访谈法调查了某某师院附中高一年级学生听力过程中遇到的一些问题，并根据问题给出了一些建议。
paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.compaper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 关键词：听力；听力问题；建议
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com
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内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Contents
内容来自www.paper51.com Statement of Authorship …………………………………………………………....i 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….ii copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………..iii copyright paper51.com paper51.com摘要………...………………………………………………………………………...iv
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com1. Introduction..............................................................................................................1 http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com1.1Importance of Listening………………………………………………………...1 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com1.2 Significanceof the Study………………………………………………………2 paper51.com copyright paper51.com 1.3Research Scope…………………………………………………………………3 copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com1.4Research Questions………………………………………………………..........3 http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com2. LiteratureReview ...................................................................................................3 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com2.1Nature of Listening Comprehension....................................................................3
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com2.2 Process of ListeningComprehension...................................................................4
http://www.paper51.com paper51.com 2.1.1 Bottom-up Process.......................................................................................4 copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 2.1.2 Top-down Process……………………………………………………........5 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com 3. ResearchMethodology.............................................................................................5 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com3.1 Subjects.................................................................................................................5 copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com3.2 ResearchInstruments...........................................................................................6
内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com3.3 Research Data CollectingProcess………………………………………………6 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 4.Findings and Data Analysis......................................................................................6
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 4.1 Analysis ofQuestionnaire.....................................................................................7
copyright paper51.com paper51.com 4.2 Analysis of the Interview......................................................................................11 paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 5. Some Suggestions to Improve Students’ ListeningComprehension....................12
copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com 5.1 Improving Phonetic Knowledge...........................................................................12
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com 5.2Enlarging Vocabulary............................................................................................12 http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com5.3 Enriching BackgroundKnowledge.......................................................................12
paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 5.4 Cultivating Positive Psychological State………………………………………...12
copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 5.5 Forming Good ListeningHabits…………………………………………….........14 copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com5.6 GuidingStudents to Assess Their Listening Efforts……………………………..14
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 6. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………15 paper51.com http://www.paper51.comReferences paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Appendix I
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Appendix II 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com
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paper51.com 1. Introduction
copyright paper51.com 1.1 Importance of Listening内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com As acommunicational tool, language at first is a vocal system. In the course of communication human beings getinformation mainly through listening. At the first step of communication andthe most basic ability in all intercommunication, listening is really verycrucial in effective and successful communication. As we all know,communication will not take place if the speakers cannot understand what theyhave heard successfully. Therefore, listening plays a very important role inhuman’s communicative activities. At the same time, listening is not onlyessential in our daily life but also contributes much to our understanding ofsecond language acquisition. Among the four language skills（listening, speaking, reading, and writing）,listening is the most frequently used one. According to statistics released by most of language researchers, humanbeings, in their language communication activities, spend 45% of their timein listening and 30% in speaking, whereas they spend only 16% in reading and 9% in writing. It isalso undoubtedly that contemporary society exhibits a shift away from printedmedia towards sound, and its members therefore need to develop a high level ofproficiency in listening.( Hedge,2000:228; cited by Zeng Zhiping 2008). 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com Generallyspeaking, listening is vital in English learning, especially for language learners.Listening is the foundation to develop other language skills. Without goodlistening, it is hard to imagine that anyone could learn to speak a foreignlanguage accurately and fluently.We know that listeningtakes up 30% in the NationalMatriculation Entrance Test . It is obvious that listening accounts for a largepart in the Test. So we need to improve their listening in order to get a good mark in theNational Matriculation Entrance Test and build a solid foundation for theirfurther English learning. Since English listening is an important and essentiallanguage skill, it is wise for both teachers and studentsto pay more attention to English listening. copyright paper51.com paper51.com 1.2 Significance of the Study内容来自www.paper51.com In China,English is regarded as a major subject in secondary school. The purpose oflearning English is to improve learners’ abilities of listening, speaking,reading, writing and enable them togain communicative competence. Listening, as an essential part of Englishlearning, should be given more attention. Traditionally, in senior high schoolclasses, listening is practiced inappropriately or inadequately. Although manyresearchers advocates more attention be paid to listening, in China,traditional teaching approach is still dominating most listening classes, inwhich the teacher usually plays a role as to simply play the tape recorder andcheck the students’ answers. After listening, the teacher may ask the studentsseveral questions. Therefore, students usually act as a passive role in thelistening class. In such classes, students will gradually lose interests inEnglish learning. So many students find it very hard to do well in listening.
内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com With regard to theimportance of listening, this paper is dedicated to investigate problemsexisting in listening learning of first-year students in Middle SchoolAffiliated to YuXi Normal University. As a student teacher,the author of this paper can get more valuable teaching experience via investigatingproblems which exist in the process of students’ English listening. Meanwhile,according to the listening problems, the author will try her best to put forward some useful solutions that can improvestudents’ listening competence. On the other hand, the study may enrich our insight intolanguage learning and help to improve listening teaching and learning.
paper51.com copyright paper51.com 1.3 Research Scopehttp://www.paper51.com This paper focuses on listening problems of the first-year studentsin Middle School Affiliated to Yuxi Normal University.
paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 1.4 Research Questions
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Although thispaper cannot cover all the questions which exist in the area of listening, it deals with some main focuses on listening of thefirst-year students in Middle School Affiliated to Yuxi Normal University andtries to come up with the following detailed research questions: http://www.paper51.com paper51.com(1) Whatlistening problems do the first-yearstudents often meet?
copyright paper51.com paper51.com (2) What factorsaffect students’ listening?
copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com (3) Relativesolutions to the listening problems.
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内容来自www.paper51.com 2. LiteratureReview
内容来自www.paper51.com 2.1 Nature of ListeningComprehensioncopyright paper51.com Listeninghas been gaining recognition as a vital aspect of language learning andcommunication. Many researchers have taken great efforts to work out a satisfactory answer to the nature oflistening in order to improve learners’ listening comprehension. According toVandergrift (1999), “listening isanything but a passive activity. It is a complex, active process in which thelistener must discriminate sounds, vocabulary and grammatical structures,interpret stress and intonation, retain what was gathered in all of the above,and interpret it within the immediate as well as the larger socio-culturalcontext of the utterance. ” WhileO’Malley & Chamot (1989) defined it as “ Listening comprehension is viewed theoretically asan active process in which individuals focus on selected aspects of aura inputconstructing meaning, and relate what they hear toexisting knowledge.” And Brown (1990:11) considers that listening comprehensionis a series of information processing in which the listener is involved inmodes of communication. Little (2000:67) holds the view that the nature oflistening comprehension means that the learner should be encouraged to engagein an active process. As the views mentioned above, in this paper, the authorthinks that listening is an active cognitive process rather than a passive one.In the course of listening, learners need to interpret sounds and constructmeanings by using clues from contextual information and existing knowledge.
copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 2.2 Process of Listening Comprehension
内容来自www.paper51.com By studying cognitive process, many scholars have discussed different waysin which listeners can improve their listening comprehension. In Bacon’s (1992)study, Bacon points out that the two significantprocesses: bottom-up process and top-down process. Goh (1997) summarizes that “we need to involve studentsin thinking, not just about the content of listening, but more importantlyabout the process of listening.” So from the views above, we can see that theprocesses of listening are also very important in listening learning.
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 2.2.1Bottom-up Process
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com In the bottom-up process, listening comprehension isbelieved to start with sound and meaning recognitions. In other words, “we useinformation in the speech itself to try to comprehend the meaning”(Hedge,2000:230). Accordingto Rost (2002), in bottom-up processing listeners firstattend to individual phonological units, then to a large unit of input inhierarchical orders, from vocabulary to structures, and finally arrive at themeaning of the discourse. Listeners construct meaning of what they hear basedon the sound they hear. paper51.com paper51.com 2.2.2Top-down Process 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com The top-downprocess emphasizes on listening for gist and making use of the contextual cluesand background knowledge to construct meaning. In other words, listeningcomprehension refers to “knowledge that a listener brings to a text, sometimes called inside the headinformation, as opposed to the information that is available within the textitself.” (Hedge, 2000:232). Hence, if thelisteners know something about the speaker, the setting, the topic and thepurpose of the talk, they can understand the talk better.
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com In recent years,bottom-up process is overlooked because some scholars regard the top-downprocess as a superior strategy (Wilson, 2003). As the matter of fact, listeningrefers to both bottom-up process—recognizing sounds of words, phrases or structures andtop-down process—referring meaningfrom a broad contextual clues and background knowledge. At the same time, Rostpoints out that “comprehension is the result of integration of the informationconveyed by the text with information and concepts already know by thelistener.”(Rost, 2002:60). In other words, the two processes are mutually dependent. (Hedge 2000; Oxford, 1993) paper51.com copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 3.Research Methodologycopyright paper51.com 3.1 Subjects内容来自www.paper51.com The subjectsinvolved in this study are 100 first-year high school students from Middle School Affiliated to YuxiNormal University. They have been chosenrandomly from two classes—Class 6 and Class 5. Accordingly, they share similar educationbackground. All the listening classes of these students are taught by a foreignteacher Ellen. The researcher hoped that the participants who came fromdifferent level would more accurately reflect the general situation and providemore reliable data. copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 3.2 Research Instruments 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Two kinds ofinstruments are used in this study: questionnaires andinterview. The questionnaires areself-designed to research the first-year high school students’ listeningproblems existing in their listening. The interview questions consist of 3items, and all of them are open-ended questions so that the teacher can offer his opinion freely. The purpose of this interview is to learn what strategies have been introduced when the teacher teaches listening and what their opinions are on how to improve students’ listening. http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 3.3 Research Data Collecting Process
内容来自www.paper51.com Effective ways ofdata collection are the factors that determine the value, effectiveness, and significance of a research paper.The data were collected during the researcher’steaching practice. The researcher found that students in these twoclasses had many difficulties in listening comprehension which prevented them from understanding English courses. At the same time, listeningproblems also created them a lot of pressure in their English learning. So theresearcher used some instruments to find out and analyze these factorsinfluencing students’ listening comprehension. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Firstly, accordingto the purpose of the research, the researcher used the questionnaire (seeappendix1) to find the problems existing in the students’ listeningcomprehension. There were thirteen questions. Ten of these questions were multiple choices, andthree of them were open-ended questions. In students’ spare time, theresearcher gave out the questionnaire to the students. The students were asked to choose the one they thought suitable for them. 100 questionnaires were given out and 100 were called back. http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.comSecondly, in theinterview, three questions were set open-ended for the teachers to answerfreely. Through the interview questions, the researcher learned that how theteachers taught listening and what ways they used to improve the students’listening.
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 4. DataAnalysis
http://www.paper51.com 4.1 Analysis of the Questionnaire
内容来自www.paper51.com This questionnaireincludes thirteen questions. The questions from Question 1to Question 10 are followed by “always”, “often”, “sometimes”,“never”and eachstudent can only choose the one that is suitablefor him orher. The details can be found in thefollowing table.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Answers paper51.com http://www.paper51.comQuestions
内容来自www.paper51.com paper51.com A 内容来自www.paper51.com paper51.com always
paper51.com paper51.com B
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com often 内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com C
paper51.com paper51.com sometimes
copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com D
内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.comnever copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com1. Do you have much phonetic problems in your English listening?
copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 65% 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 27%
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com 8%
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com0% http://www.paper51.com paper51.com 2. Is your listening affected by grammar? paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com53% paper51.com copyright paper51.com25%
copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com12%
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 10% http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 3. Is your listening affected by vocabulary?
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 59%
paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com19% paper51.com paper51.com 22% 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 0%
http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 4. Is your listening affected by speed?
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 51%
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 40%
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com9%
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 0% http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com5. Is your listening affected by background knowledge? 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 48%
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com32%
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 14% copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 6% 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com6. Is your listening affected by your mother tongue? paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com60% 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 18%
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com 16%
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 6% 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 7.Do you feel nervous when you are listening English? copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com46%
paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 24%
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 19% 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com11% 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com8. Do you scan the materials before you listen? http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com62%
copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 18% 内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com3% 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 17%
copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com 9. Does your teacher help you to improve your listening abilities in your class? 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 40% 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 20%
copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 28%
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 12%
copyright paper51.com paper51.com10. Is it an interesting thing for you to listen to English?
paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 24%
copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com16% copyright paper51.com paper51.com 10%
paper51.com copyright paper51.com 30% paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Table1: Results of Questionnaire (Question 1to Question 10) 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comThe finding fromTable1 shows that student’ listening problems refer to phonetic problems, grammar problems, vocabulary, and other commonproblems. Almost everyone may have phonetic problems during their listening. As usual, students may havesuch phonetic problems as pronunciation, sound linking, stress, strong form, weak form and intonation. In the course oflistening, students need to identify sounds that they hear. Because of theirpoor pronunciation, some students cannot discriminate the sounds they hear.Stress and intonation are also very important in English listening. Forinstance, in the example below, different intonationsfor “sorry” indicate different meanings. A neutral tone would indicate a normal apology. However, a sharp falling tone or a risingtone means the opposite. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comA: Would you please turn down the radio a little bit? 内容来自www.paper51.com B: Sorry.↘ (No, I don’t want to) 内容来自www.paper51.com Or 内容来自www.paper51.com As mentioned above, if the students master listening well, the speaker can be understood well.
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Question 2 shows that 53% students are always affected bygrammar in the course of their listening. Everything has its rule and Englishis no exception. Grammar plays an important role in the analysis of writtensentence structure and sentence pattern. The purpose of analysis is tounderstand the whole passage. The same is true of listening comprehension. Some students find listeningdifficult because they are unaware of the structure of conversation and theyfail to understand some fixed sentence patterns and structures.
paper51.com copyright paper51.comAccording to Question 3and Question 4, 59% students are always affected by vocabularyand 51% students are always influenced by speed of the speaker. Above data indicate that vocabulary isalso a big problem in English listening. “Vocabulary is the major component oflanguage, so people always compare vocabulary tobuilding materials. For every English learner, studying English without a certain amount of vocabulary isjust like builders building houses without bricks”.(Liu, 2004:96). Some students find listening hard because of lackof vocabulary. Vocabulary is the most basic element of a sentence. If thestudents want to understand the sentence they hear, they must know most of the words in the sentence.It is true that a listening text can be understood even though they have neverlearned those structures and vocabulary before. But ifthese words or structures happen to be important for the performing of acertain task, students will certainly find it hard. Speed of the speaker is another factor affecting listening. Ifthe speed is too fast, students may fail to catch the information. paper51.com paper51.com Question 5 and Question6 illustrate that 48% students are always affected bybackground knowledge and 60% students are always affected by their mothertongue. It isdifficult for students to comprehend some materials which refer to westernculture if they lack of adequate background knowledge. For example, a very simple utterance “Did you seeTitanic yesterday?” may present difficulty to someone who does not know thatTitanic is in fact a famous movie. Cultural difference has caused differentunderstanding for people to the identical thing or concept, even causesmisunderstanding (Elaine Baldwin,2005). Therefore, as for language learners, it isessential to learn culture of the target language. Besides, Englishis a foreign language for Chinese students, and many students are alwaysaffected by their mother tongue. They always organize their English expressions byusing their native language in advance. So in most cases, they often translate Englishsentences into Chinese one by one, which make them unable to follow and catch the listening materials. paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comPsychologicalfactors often affect students listening. As known to all, the process of listening comprehension isa complex process of psychological activities. Question 7shows that about 46% students feel anxious during the process of listening. Anxiety often refers to such feelings as fear,uneasiness and apprehension. Students who are always anxious tend to get lowerscores in their test, in turn, they are afraid of listening. paper51.com paper51.com Question 8 indicates that 62% students always scan thelistening materials before listening while 17% students do so. Scanning can help the students guess and predict what will be discussedin the listening tasks. And the questions listed on the paper will givestudents some useful information about the whole text. At the same time,scanning is a useful listening strategy. Therefore, , students should master the strategy in order toimprove their listening. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comAccording toQuestion 9 and Question 10, only 40% teachers try to take some measures to help students improve their listening and24% students think learning English is interesting. Teachers, as organizers,should try their best to improve students’ listening. To the author’s surprise,only 24% students are interested in English listening. Interest is the bestteacher. As long as students are interested in something, they will try theirbest to achieve it. Due to lack of interestin English, many students fail in their tests. Hence, it is necessary for teachers to cultivatestudents’ interest in English listening. paper51.com copyright paper51.comIn theQuestionnaire, there are another three open-ended questions for students. Theyare listed as follows: 内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com(1) Dose yourschool emphasize English listening? paper51.com http://www.paper51.com(2) Could you tellme the difficulties you often meet in your listening?
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com (3) How much timedo you spend in practicing listening each week? copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.comThrough analyzingthe three open-ended questions, the author finds that the school of the participants dose not emphasize listening, though listeningcomprehension accounts for 30% scores in senior high students’ English test. Soto some extent, teachers should attach more importance to the students’ listening.And many students say that listening isvery difficult. And they tellme the difficulties they often encounter in listening as follows: The speed ofmaterial is too fast; the pronunciation is not clearly during listening; theirvocabulary is limited andthey often encounter unknown words; and can’t understand the meaning completelyand so on. They also express thatthey often quickly forget some partsof information they have listened.And when they are listening, they will feel nervous so that they cannot write down the sentences and gain the truelevel of listening sometimes.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.comAccordingto the third open-ended question, many students only spend one or two hours topractice their listening each week. That is why most students find listeningdifficult.
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 4.2 The Analysis of the Interviewpaper51.com Thereare two interview questions for their teachers, and they are listed as follows: 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com (1) What do you think aboutteacher’s roles in listening?
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com (2) Which methods do you use to improve students’ listening?
paper51.com http://www.paper51.comInMiddle School Affiliated to Yuxi Normal University, all the first-year students’ listening are taught by a foreignteacher, Ellen. According to Ellen, she thinks that teacher is an organizer inthe listening class. She always tries her best to organize the classes. And sheleads students to do more activities to cultivate students’ interest. Butsometimes she just acts as a radio player. She asks students to listen to the materials and checks their answers.As for improving students’ listening, Ellen thinks thatstudents should do more exercises and learn more listening strategies. At the sametime, students should spend more time on it.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 5. Some Suggestionsto Improve Students’ Listening Comprehensionpaper51.com Through the analysis of questionnaire, the author finds outsome problems that influence students’ listening. According to the findingsfrom the questionnaires, the author puts forward following suggestions both forteachers and students: copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 5.1Improving Phonetic Knowledge
http://www.paper51.com Pronunciation, stress, and intonation are the basic phoneticknowledge that obstructs listening comprehension. According to an Americanscholar, Rita Wong, “phonetic is crucial inlistening comprehension. This is because sound is the direct medium oflistening and speaking. Only by using correct sound can we express our viewsand ideas accurately. Similarly, it is inevitable that poor pronunciation willcause aural difficulties in smooth acceptance of other’s idea expressed incorrect pronunciation” (Ma Zhangxiang, 2002:96). Therefore, it is veryessential for students to improve their pronunciation. In addition, intonationand stress are of equal important in improving listening. Consequently, studentsshould spend more time to get used to different kind of intonations.
http://www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 5.2Enlarging Vocabulary
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Vocabulary is the common basis of everything in English. Itis no doubt that students’ limited vocabulary will affect their listening.Therefore, it is necessary for students to enlarge their vocabulary to improvetheir listening. copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com 5.3Enriching Background Knowledgehttp://www.paper51.com Background knowledge has a close relationship with listeningcomprehension. Therefore a certain amount of background knowledge is helpful tostudents’ listening comprehension. In their spare time, students can read moreEnglish books about English-speaking countries’ history, religion, education,geography, customs, ect. The author finds that students who have enoughbackground knowledge can get a better understanding than those who have littlebackground knowledge in listening comprehension. Therefore, students shouldexpand their background knowledge. copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com 5.4Cultivating Positive Psychological State
内容来自www.paper51.com In listening activities, positive psychological qualities canhelp students improve their listening ability. Some students find listeninghard because they get nervous as soon as teachers play the tape, especiallyduring exams. Indeed, one cause of anxiety and nervousness lies in the factthat the students are not confident, which is a result of lack of linguisticcompetence. In other words, they are nervous simply because they know they havenot learned enough to cope with the tasks expected of them. So some specialtraining in strategies of easing anxiety and nervousness can be helpful. copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com 5.5Forming Good Listening Habits.
http://www.paper51.com Since good listening habits are important for students’ listening,both teachers and students should scan the materials quickly then predict whatthe materials are about. paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 5.6Guiding Students to Assess Their Listening Efforts
http://www.paper51.com Each time after the listening is completed, students need tobe guided to evaluate both their methods and outcomes of the listening tasks.Students need to not only check whether they have understood what they areexpected to understand, but also reflect on why they have failed to understandor missed parts of messages. In this way, they make overall evaluation ofeffectiveness of their strategies used during the whole listening process. Ifthis evaluating activity is used consistently, the students can generate an individualizedroute for the successful completion of each specific listening task. 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.comhttp://www.paper51.com 6. Conclusion内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com In the thesis, the author discusses the difficulties studentsalways encounter in listening and possible reasons that cause the obstacles.The author believe that a better understanding of listening problems andprocess will help teachers understand the difficulties that students experiencein developing listening competence. It will also help teachers design betterlistening activities for their students. As mentioned in this paper, listeningis one of the most important parts in language learning and it is also verydifficult for students to learn. In the course of listening, students always encountermany problems. According to questionnaire, difficulties in listening comprehensionmainly lie in lack of phonetic knowledge, inadequate vocabulary, speed andaccents of the speaker, lack of background knowledge (including knowledge ofworld, knowledge of syntax, knowledge of text types, etc.). Low psychologicalstate such as anxiety and inattention also affects listening. As for theseproblems, both teachers and students should attach more importance to them.What more important is that they should take great efforts to solve theseobstacles. copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com
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内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com paper51.com References
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Brown, G. 1990. Listening to SpokenEnglish[M]. New York: Long man Press.
copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Baldwin E.& G. Smith.2005. Introducing CulturalStudies[M]. Beijing：Beijing University Press.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.comGoh, C.M. 2000. A Cognitive Perspective on Language Learners’ Listening copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com Hedge, T. 2000. paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com O’Malley J. & A.Charmot. 1989. Listening ComprehensionStrategies in Language Acquisition[M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Rost, M. 2002. Teachingand Researching Listening[M]. Harlow:Pearson Education.
copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.comVandergrift, L. 1999. Acquiring Successful strategies[J] paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com William L. 2000. CommunicativeLanguage Teaching[M]. Beijing:Foreign Language Education Press. P-67 内容来自www.paper51.com paper51.com 程晓堂、郑敏，2002，《英语学习策略》。上海：外语教学与研究出版社。
内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com刘红梅，2004,论影响大学英语听力的障碍因素，《通话师范学院学报》，第2期36-41页。 paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 马占祥，2002，关于提高学生听力理解的研究，《内蒙古师范大学学报》，第3期45-49页
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 王蔷，2006，《 英语教学法教程 》。 北京 ：高等教育出版社。 http://www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com 曾志萍， 2008，《寻找关联性：提高高中生英语听力理解的个案研究》，福建大学硕士论文。 http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 朱晓琴，2008，《背景知识和语言水平对听力理解的影响》，江西师范大学硕士论文。
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paper51.com Appendix I
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Questionnaire of Listening Problems
copyright paper51.com copyright paper51.com School__________ Class__________
paper51.com paper51.com Hello,everybody, in order to know the situation of the English listening, I offerthis paper to you. Please choose the one that fits you. And from Question11 toQuestion13, there are three open-ended questions for you to answer freely.Thanks for your supporting.
paper51.com copyright paper51.com 1. Do you have much phonetic problems in Englishlistening?
内容来自www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.comA.always B. often C. sometimes D. never
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com2. Is your listening affected by grammar?
paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com A.always B. often C. sometimes D. never
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com3.Is your listening affected by vocabulary?
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com A.always B. often C. sometimes D. never copyright paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 4. Is your listening affected by speed?
内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com A.always B. often C. sometimes D. never
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com 5. Is your listening affected by background knowledge? 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.comA.always B. often C. sometimes D. never
paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com6. Is your listening affected by mother tongue? 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com A. always B. often C. sometimes D. never 内容来自www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com7 Do you feel nervous when you are listening English?
内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.comA.always B. often C. sometimes D. never
http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com 8. Do you scan the materials before your listening? 内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com A.always B.often. C. sometimes D. never. 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 9. Dose you teacher help you to improve your Englishlistening in your class? http://www.paper51.com paper51.com A. always B. often. C. sometimes D. never. copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com10. Is it an interesting thing for you to listenEnglish? 内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com A.always B. often. C. sometimes D. never.
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com paper51.com 11 Does your school emphasize English listening?
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内容来自www.paper51.com 12. Could you tell me the difficulties you often meetin listening?
内容来自www.paper51.com paper51.com内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 13. How much time do you spend in practice listeningeach week?
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内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com http://www.paper51.com http://www.paper51.com Appendix II内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com Interviews Questions for Teachers http://www.paper51.com copyright paper51.com1. What do you think about teacher’s roles inlistening?
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内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 2. Which methods do you use to teach listening?
内容来自论文无忧网 www.paper51.com 内容来自www.paper51.com内容来自www.paper51.com 3 How do you improve students’ listening?
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