小学英语教学中听力培养的重要性和策略探究

论文总字数：25100字

摘 要

《小学英语新课程标准》中指出：听、说、读、写技能是构成语言交际能力的重要组成部分。由此可见，我们不能忽视英语听力教学的重要性，甚至听力排在了四项技能之首。英国著名语言学家P.格里说过:“初学者更需要天才教师的技巧。”教师在英语的启蒙阶段的作用是巨大的。本文旨在指出听力教学的重要性，并从练习发音，培养学习兴趣，创造良好的语言环境，掌握一定的听力技巧，这四个方面研究小学英语教学的策略。教师应在不断探索中寻求合适的途径来提高学生的听力能力。

关键词：听力；能力；重要性；启蒙；策略

Contents

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review ………………………………………………………….2

3. Situation of English listening teaching ……………………………..……...2

4. Strategies of listening teaching in primary school………………..……….3

4.1 Practicing pronunciation ……………………………………………….…...3

4.2 Cultivating students’ enthusiasm and interest in learning……………....…..4

4.3 Creating a good language environment ………………………………..…...6

4.4.Mastering basic skills of listening……………………………………….… 8

1. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..10

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………..12

1.Introduction:

As an international language, English is paid more and more attention by people. Listening teaching is to develop students’ ability to access information and understand them. Linguistic studies show that speaking ability and listening ability are inseparable. One can express clearly only after he masters listening ability. This view can be proved from early childhood language learning. Little baby first listen carefully, then he can imitate to say. Even though some simple words, such as ‘mom’, is said by baby after he is trained repeatedly. However, in actual teaching practice, English teachers mostly focus on students’ abilities of speaking, reading and writing and ignore the training of listening. But how we can speak with standard pronunciation if our listening ability is weak. Primary English is an important part of the national primary school English teaching system. The level and quality of Primary English teaching have a direct effect on the improvement of students’ ability to enhance their English. There is a saying that listening and speaking lead reading and writing, which is a principle of learning English. The importance of listening teaching is obvious. But to students, listening is often most difficult. The traditional teaching has been paying much attention to reading and writing, so it overlooks the training of listening. The cultural foundation and the mental state of students also influence the development of their listening. What’s more, lack of language environment leads to weaken their ability of listening. How to change this situation and let students bid farewell to the “dumb English” is an important subject in front of us.

2.Literature Review

There exists many problems of English listening skill. Many people have talked about the importance of learning ability of listening. And many of them have given important suggestions on teaching listening. Chen Chuntian, Zhang Yujuan and Gao Ying stressed the importance of psychology influence(Chen Chuntian, Zhang Yujuan and Gao Ying,1998:12-13)With good psychological quality, students can relax themselves and devote themselves into listening. According to the survey, difficulties in listening comprehension arise from nonintellectual factors and psychological condition plays an important role in training listening.

Gong Xinyuan points out choosing answers is the last step in doing listening tests and it is a vital procedure(Gong Xinyuan,2002:20-22). We can explore regularity of choosing right answers by analyzing the correlation between answers and original texts. In this way, students can improve accuracy. However, we should improve our listening skill to communicate with others, more than taking a test.

Yang Lianrui amp; Zhang Deyu point out studying cooperative principle, polite principle and relevance principle, is beneficial for students to understand the intention of utterance in the context(Yang Lianrui amp; Zhang Deyu,2004:18-19). It helps students to choose right answers in listening context.

3. Situation of English listening teaching

Nowadays, many primary school students have problems with listening. However, teachers are always ignoring the teaching of listening. It is because scores of listening are lower than writing. Primary students don’t master solid basic knowledge of English, such as vocabulary, grammar, some habits of speaking of foreign, and so forth. As a result, while students are listening English, students may be familiar with the vocabulary, but they can’t tell them immediately and even can’t learn the general meaning of the dialogue or the context. What’s more, in English, one word may have more than one meaning, which requires students to recognize which meaning it refers to according to the dialogue or the context. The reason for these situations is lack of practice. As we all know ‘ Practice makes perfect.’ Moreover, Chinese students lack a good language environment. They are influenced by the mother tongue, so large quantities of students often speak Chinese English, which is also a cause of their poor listening skills. Lots of students may achieve high scores in English text, but many of them can’t understand English dialogue in their daily life. With regards to English spoken, even college students can’t speak with standard pronunciation. Nevertheless, the aim of learning a language is not just to succeed in exams but to communicate with others. If we don’t master listening skills, how we can speak in standard English, let alone communication with foreign people. So we must take actions to improve primary students’ level of English listening.

1. Strategies of listening teaching in primary school

4.1 Practicing pronunciation

For quite some time, ‘Chinese English’ bothers English learners. When students listen to foreigners, they may have a feeling that there are some differences between our English pronunciation and theirs. Chinese students begins to learn English only after they have mastered Chinese very well. In the meanwhile, pronunciation of some Mandarin Chinese is similar to that of English. Due to the effect of Chinese, many students are unable to read English with accurate pronunciation, which brings about bad influence on students’ listening comprehension because listening and reading are inseparable. However, ability of listening lies in their correct and skilled pronunciation. Reading is an effective way to improve listening ability. If you want to master correct pronunciation and smooth tone, you must work hard. Only when they can say, their listening ability will have a corresponding improvement. Only when one reads English accurately can he improve his listening ability. But how can students have access to accurate pronunciation? I have some insights. Firstly, teachers themselves should do it. If teachers can’t read English correctly, how students can do it, especially primary students, who tend to worship and imitate their teachers in many aspects.In the usual teaching, teachers should play the tape for students and ask them to follow the recording. In the meanwhile, teachers ought to pay great attention to students’ reading exercises. If there are some mistakes students made, they should point out immediately to prevent students from making mistakes next time. After students master the dialogue in their books, teachers can let them make a dialogue and performance it by themselves. As a result, students will be able to use language freely.Secondly, with regard to students themselves, they should learn phonetic symbol correctly and pay attention to pronunciation of each vowels and consonants. After mastering the phonetic symbol, then they can choose correct recording materials which are suitable for primary students according to their own English level. The recording should not be too difficult or too easy. If students choose over-difficult recording, they may not adapt themselves to it and lose interest in it right away. And if too easy recording is chosen, the ability of students’ reading and listening can’t be trained. So students should choose moderate difficult materials with pure accent. After selecting right materials, students should pay attention to how to follow the recording. What should be focused on are meanings of words, stress, tone of voice, as well as the emotion of the talker. Then imitate it. They had better write down what they have listened, which is beneficial to their listening ability at the same time. Students should read context everyday. ‘Practice makes perfect.’ as an old saying goes. Thirdly, teachers can make some tongue twist for students to train their reading like ‘Cat, cat, catch that fat rat.’, which will help students tell these confusing pronunciation and deepen their impression of the words. Apart from pronunciation, tongue twists are also good for speeding up the pace of reading, so that students will do better during the listening comprehension. What’s more, there is a simple song at the end of each unit and teachers can lead students to sing it before or after class.

4.2 Cultivating students’ enthusiasm and interest in learning

One can hardly succeed in something if he is uninterested in it and don’t have passion on it. Therefore, enthusiasm and interest are two inner motivations to learn English listening. A successful English teacher can consciously develop students’ enthusiasm and their interest to encourage them to learn in a better state. Only when they are interested in listening can they are in pleasant mood and thirsty for knowledge. How to cultivate students’ interest and enthusiasm? My suggestions are as follows.

4.2.1 Creating a relaxing atmosphere

How to develop students’ enthusiasm and interest? As far as i am concerned, first of all, teachers should create a relaxing classroom atmosphere, which can help students overcome fear and develop their enthusiasm and interest in listening.“The success of the teaching depends on the sincere, understanding and trust between the teachers and students, a full of the sense of psychological safety of classroom atmosphere.”, Rodgers, the USA psychology said. Therefore, developing student’s interest and enthusiasm is on the basis of a good atmosphere. According to the foreign language education and psychology theory, there is a close relationship between the listening competence and the psychological qualities of a person. During the training of listening, the students are asked to understand the language materials and clarify their meaning, in the meanwhile, to make the right judgments and answers to the questions. Once they have no answer to the question, students will be under a heavy psychological burden, which may results in that the pupils can’t understand even simple words. Some teachers may criticize those who don’t give the right answers, or those who do incorrectly in simple questions. However, what teachers do will have a great impact on students. If teachers criticize students with comparatively poor ability of listening frequently, students will feel themselves inferior, which will do harm to their confidence. As time passes, students will lose their interest and enthusiasm in English listening, as a result, they may be even weaker in listening. What’s worse, it is possible for them to become resistant to having English class. Therefore, during the usual listening training, teachers ought to pay attention to the students’ psychological changes and be concerned about their learning mental. What teachers should do is to encourage students as often as possible instead of blaming on them for not understanding the content of the context. What’s more, teachers can’t tease those who may try many times but fail in listening test, which will bring hurt to them. Psychological research shows that in order to understand passage, you must listen with a motivation, confidence and natural relaxed state, so teachers must create a good atmosphere for developing and stimulating student’s interest in listening. In addition to what I have mentioned above, What else can teacher do to create a pleasant study atmosphere? First, I believe a good relationship between teachers and students is of great importance. Teachers can take advantages of some time after class to talk to students, from which teachers can not only develop a harmonious relationship with student but also have a better understanding of their situations of learning. What’s more, teachers can play games and do other after-class activities with students, which will shorten the distance between teachers and students, moreover, students’ interest and enthusiasm are cultivated at the same time.

4.2.2 Combining with several teaching methods

First of all, teachers can design some practices.I guess teachers can spend part of class time on role-playing in order to cultivate students’ interest and enthusiasm, avoiding students producing disgust and even resentment. In Oxford teaching material, each unit has a picture which shows a story and students should be encouraged to imitate the voice and emotion in groups, then go to the front of the classroom to performance in the face of the whole class. Whether students performance excellently or badly, teachers should firstly praise them for their courage and then point out their mistakes in appropriate method to ensure that students are not hurt, through which their enthusiasm and interest can be mobilized and increased. Second, multimedia teaching is a good way to attract students’ attention, which can mobilize students’ multiple senses to learn rather than mechanical drills. In this way, students will pay more attention to what are taught and will be absorbed in learning rather than other distractions. Besides, teachers can make some interesting flash cards to catch students’ eyes. If permitted, some English songs and films can be shown to the whole class.

4.3 Creating a good language environment

As to Chinese students, they lack foreign language environment .The process of learning English is mainly carried out in the classroom. Thus, teachers must pay attention to the conventional teaching environment in class and create a good English language environment. First of all, teachers should try to teach lessons in English, which influence students on their listening ability by environment. As we all know, strong curiosity, memory ability, imitation ability are the main characteristics of primary students. Therefore if teachers can insist on organizing the teaching in English when students contact English before long, it will develop their good listening and speaking habits. There’s no doubt that teachers themselves must have good qualities of language and master idiomatic fluent spoken English, which leads students to the ocean of English and let them gradually master the liaison, stressed, lost blasting sentence reading skills and so on. In the classroom teaching, teachers and students should communicate in English as much as possible. For example: Look at the blackboard, please. Read after me, please. Louder, please. Again, please. Read it by yourselves. Listen to me carefully. Look at my mouth. Act the dialogue, please. Work in pairs. Are you ready? Who will have a try? Class is over, and so on. In addition, when in greeting, indication, interpretation practice, correcting mistakes, praising step, teachers should also try to use English. Besides, teachers should ask students questions as often as possible. And students should answer questions in English. In this way, teachers can not only make students pay attention to class, but also develop their ability of expressing in English, which is beneficial to their listening ability too. Teachers should follow the rule “From easy to difficult, from slow to fast, and then gradually in-depth.” And teachers ought to persevere to teach in English, with the help of the rich body language, which helps students gradually immerse in English atmosphere. Moreover, it develops the students’ habit of thinking in English. Through classroom training, students’ listening level can be constantly improve. Days and months multiplying, students can well achieve the skilled application degree. Doing this can also expand inputs of students’ language. Modern language teaching theory shows that the more the amount of language inputs, the more the amount of language out put. When the input reaches a certain amount, the students’ language ability will have a qualitative change. For students, who lack natural English environment, the classroom education usually is the main way of language input. Therefore, teaching in English can directly help students to practice listening. Using English organization of teaching helps students adapt to the environment, which can edify people and affect the growth of them. Besides, outside class, teachers should encourage students to communicate with each other in English, that is to say, students can practice simple dialogues. So that it can form a strong extracurricular English atmosphere. Gradually, students will never be shy to speak English, but be able to express their ideas in English bravely. At the same time, the ability of listening will be gradually increased. Nowadays, the number of people who love American TV series is becoming larger, which is also a good way to practice listening comprehension. What’s more, some beautiful English songs are good choices for students.

4.4 Mastering basic skills of listening

Psychology research also shows that listening is a psychological process of searching information. It is an active rather than a passive interpretation. It is more than the simple acoustic. It is actually a complex process and it needs to identify constantly and compare, memory, judge. To complete a series of complex psychological process, apart from good language bases, students must master some necessary skills as well.

4.4.1 Grasping the key points

Grasp the key points, that is, to seize the main content and theme. In another word, to avoid irrelevant content but focus on some specific information. For example, in the primary school English listening, listening content is accompanied by pictures in many cases. Therefore, it is necessary to allow students to observe the picture before listening. Students should try to understand the scene, such as the number of characters, objects in the graph, the relationship between the positions, and so on, which is beneficial for students to choose a correct answer. It is an important skill in listening training. During listening, students shouldn’t expect to understand all of the information, which is unnecessary. What’s more, it’s hard to achieve for primary school students.

4.4.2 Paying attention to combine listening with speaking,reading and writing training to solid basic ability.

Only when teachers insist in training students of their listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities, students can consolidate and raise their lever of listening. Teachers should encourage students to take advantage of every opportunities to speak English in and out class. Listening and speaking can promote each other. The combination of listening and reading contributes to enhance the sense of language and distinguish the speech flow. It helps students to unify the sound and shape quickly to reduce the errors in judgement. Teachers can let students read English following the tap for half an hour everyday.

4.4.3 Learning to predict

While do listening comprehension, students should catch the time to analysis options. The answers to the questions of primary school listening practice is mostly the contents that the tape read. So to understand the options has become the key to choosing right answers, which helps the students to predict what may be heard after and what the focus may be. Teachers should develop students’ ability to guess what is the related content and where should be stressed on. What’s more, students ought to write down the stressed information quickly. In dealing with subjects like filling blanks , students can read the passage twice first to guess the main meaning. While listening, students can take shorthand. Generally they only need to remember several letters of a word and a phrase that they can know what it is.

4.4.4 Learning to check

After listening, students should check if there is something wrong about selection codes. Think over numbers, characters, events and time. As to subjects like filling the blank, students must pay attention to the size of the written word and the singular and plural.

5. Conclusion

This article has discussed the importance of Primary English listening teaching and pointed out the situation of Chinese English listening and existing problems. In the third part of the article, i give some different ways to improve listening ability of primary school students. The article aims at talking about the strategies from four main aspects, including practicing pronunciation, cultivating enthusiasm and interest, creating a good language environment and mastering some listening skills. Moreover, cultivating students’ enthusiasm and interest includes two aspects. One is creating a relaxing atmosphere, the other is combining with several teaching methods. What’s more, listening skills includes four pots, which are grasping key points, improving the ability of combining listening with speaking, reading, and writing, learning to predict, learning to check. I think after reading the article, people will attach more importance to English listening teaching and learning. Teachers will learn a lot to teach students better and students can also master some useful methods to improve their listening comprehension. However, the article hasn’t point out the problems overall. Proposals offered are also not enough. More better ways to improve students’ level of listening are waiting for people to find. I believe students can improve their ability of listening comprehension as long as they make every effort to practice it. Above all, Chinese can express themselves in English and have a thorough understanding what foreign say instead of just being able to writing.

Works Cited

[1] Davies,Paul amp; Pearse, Eric. “Success in English Teaching.” Foreign LanguageEducation Press 2000:75.

[2] Goh,C,A. “Exploring listening comprehension tactics and tjeor omteration patterns.” System 30,(2002).

[3] Littelwood, whlliam. “Communicative Language Teaching.” Foreign Language Education Press 2000:67.

[4] 陈春田,张玉娟,高颖. 《听力心理素质分析》. 外语电化教学, 1998(1):12-13.

[5] 龚心源. 《听力测试中正确答案的选择原则》. 外语电化教学, 2002(4):20-22.

[6] 杨坚定. 《听力理解策略训练与教师的作用》. 外语研究, 2003(3):15-16.

[7] 杨连瑞,张德玉. 《会话含义理论与英语听力教学》. 山东外语教学, 2004(1):18-19.

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