Suggestions for College English Listening Class.doc

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1、Suggestions for College English Listening Class Abstract Influenced by the test-oriented college English teaching, much more attention has been paid to the reading and writing, and little attention has been paid to the effective listening strategies. As an indispensable skill of the second language

2、acquisition, by no means listening strategies should be ignored. Yet, after close observation of 4 different college English listening class for 4 weeks, the author find that the teachers invariably follows four-steps pattern, in sequence they are: warming-up, new words explanation, listening, quest

3、ion and answers, and re-listening. When interviewed, they dont even have a clear methodology in their mind as to how to conduct the listening class and what the student actually need in their learning. This paper analyses the problems existing in the listening class and puts forth some tentative sug

4、gestions for the improvement of the listening class.Keywords: behaviorist, cognitive science, schema, bottom-up processing, top-down processing, affective filters, humanistic, self-image Introduction According to the statistics conducted in the USA, listening takes up 45% of our daily language inter

5、action, speaking takes up 30%, reading 16%, and writing only 9%. Therefore, listening has taken a lions share. The skill of listening is an essential part of communication and basic to EFL learning. Consequently, lots of research has been done regarding the effective listening strategies. At the beg

6、inning, the stress is on language itself, for example, the Grammar Translation; then, with the linguistics and psychological theory incorporated, language in communication became the target of learning, for example, the Situational Approach, The Audio-Lingual Method and The Cognitive Method. Later o

7、n, more and more concern of the learner is also incorporated into listening strategies, thus humanistic methods appeared; for example, the Communicative Way, The Silent Way, The Total Physical Response and the Suggestopedia. Yet, none of these methods could offer a satisfactory panacea for all teach

8、ing; finally, eclectic ways became the common understanding. That is, varies the teaching methods according to different situation and needs. In this paper, the author will research into the current situation of listening class, and come up with tentative methods for effective listening strategies.T

9、he Purpose of the studyThis study is conducted with the aim to find: what kind of methods and techniques are employed by college English teachers in the listening classes; are they effective? What are the roles for teachers and students? Should there be any problems, what are they and how to address

10、? ProcedureSubjects selection: In this study, the author selected two college English teachers; one teaches in a military academy and the other works in a college which primarily deals with the science of textiles. He took their respective listening class as the target of study. This kind of selecti

11、on is aimed to find the common features of College English listening class both in and outside the army. Methods Firstly, I myself attended their class as a learner for four weeks, and from the learners angle, I closely observed their respective teaching methods. Secondly, after my observation, in t

12、he end, I interviewed the two teachers about their respective teaching belief, their view of the nature of SLT, and the principles or methods that they believe to be effective. Finally, I analyzed the effectiveness of their teaching and the roles each the teacher and learners take. In order to make

13、my observation objective, I pretended to be a student, and remain as unassuming as possible. In this way, both the two teachers did not notice there should be a black sheep in his class, and certainly, they had conducted their listening class the way as usual, thus I did get the most natural data. I

14、n addition, the students all took me as their peer. There was no fear for them to be punished even if they have some unfavorable impression towards the teachers methodology. Thus, I got the real opinion that the students had towards the teaching methodology.Results: By observation and interviewing,

15、it seems that both the teachers are following the skinners behaviorist theory. That is “practice makes perfect” and “repetition is the mother of knowledge”. Yet, if look closely, this kind of teaching has several reverse effects. Focusing on details: cannot see the wood for the treesMuch more emphas

16、is was put on the listening for key words and key points, rather than on the global understanding of the whole text. In fact, both teachers repeatedly reminded the students of the importance of the first and last sentence of the listening material, believing they are the place where the topic senten

17、ce harbors. On being challenged for the reason, both teachers claimed that if the student could grasp the key words, they can guess more reasonablely and are likely to get the correct answer. It seems that the emphasis is put on the outcome, rather than on the true understanding of the material. In

18、fact, that is a dangerous way, because this kind of methods will promote the ability to pass tests, rather than the ability of true listening skill. It created a wrong impression on the students, that their listening was merely seeking for results and the end of listening was for merely 15 scores a

19、CET test.No attention paid to students psychological factors: are we dumb driven cattle?In the listening class, learners are generally dull and timid, full of anxiety. When interviewed, one declared that the listening class was “as dry as a chip”; one declared “there is no point studying yearly simp

20、ly for a “meaningless test”, and he cannot figure out what CET 4 will play in his future career; the third student said that the teacher simply repeated his old procedures, warming up, explaining new words, listening, checking, then listening again. He felt he was a simply an animal mechanically toi

21、ling under the repeated procedures. The last students said that everyone was standing in dread of the teacher. They felt it distasteful for the teacher keeps correcting their mistakes. In a nutshell, students lack motivations for listening, and their feeling towards the class was ignored. They are c

22、onstantly listening in an unfavorable state of anxiety.Theoretical desert: are the blind leading the blind?By interviewing the teachers in question, I find that they all hold the slogan that “practice makes perfect”. They have little acquaintance with the relevant psychology and methodology. For exa

23、mple, although their teaching seemed guided by behaviorist, but they all told me they dont know who the person skinner is, yet they seems have a little knowledge of skinners experiment. Their view of SLT was essentially to enable the learners to read foreign materials, which is reminiscent of the Gr

24、ammar Translation method; of which reading and translating was the centre of teaching and learning. What they believed of the effective strategy for listening ability was the same old slogan “practice makes perfect”. That is to say, provided the teacher gives abundant listening materials and tests,

25、the learner will gradually progress. Of course that is true, but I really doubt the applicability of it, because the student have only limited time for listening, they are already overloaded with various courses and assignments; we cannot possibly hope that they will devote most, if not all of their

26、 time to listening. With the above observation, the teaching of listening in fact diverges from the original target. The concern over testing leads to an excessive attention to test skills instead of true listening strategies. Therefore, the current situation in listening class is really a theoretic

27、al desert.SuggestionsHere, inspired by some theories listed in the natural approach proposed by Tracy Terrell, and some other ideas proposed in the humanistic methodology or by cognitive science, I prefer to incorporate the affective filter hypothesis, the schema theory into the teaching methodology

28、 for listening class. 1. According to cognitive science, schema refers to the mental framework of experiences, which a person stores in his long-term memory. When listening, listeners generally fall back on two cues for listening comprehension: A linguistic one and the other is the general knowledge

29、 of the world, is rooted in experiences. While the former (content schema) helps the learners to understand the specific details, the later helped them to infer and form expectations about common situations. If a learner matches relative new information with prior schema, it will be easier to unders

30、tand. In the process of listening comprehension, listeners utilize the incoming language data itself and construct meanings by proceeding from the words, sentences to the larger text; that is the so-called bottom-up processing. In the mean time, they also activate the former experiences of the world

31、 based on which they confirm or make new predictions about the incoming date. That is the so-called top-down processing. Both ways helps listening comprehension. Therefore, language schema and world schema are the two keys to the decoding of listening material, rich and correct schema will accelerat

32、e the comprehension. Reversely, deficient schema will handicap the comprehension. Therefore, the teachers shouldnt focus all their attention on the details of materials; the top-down processing should also be promoted to enable the students to understand the listening material as a whole rather than

33、 as fragmental things. With the above-mentioned schema theory in mind, the teacher should encourage students to study outside the class. Normally, the barrier cropped up in the listening is unknown words or different cultural pattern. Reading can enlarge the vocabulary and deepen the understanding o

34、f the culture of the second language. Activities like listening to the VOA, BBC, watching TV program, talking with native speakers and so on should also be encouraged. In this way, rich schemata will be constructed, which will become valuable cues for understanding and predicting of new materials in

35、 listening.2. According to Krasens affective filter hypothesis, the learners emotional state is a filter that may let pass or impede the input necessary for acquisition. This hypothesis mainly has three points in view, the motivations, the confidence and anxiety of learner. Learners with higher moti

36、vation generally performs better, that really make sense, as the saying has it, “he who shoot at the moon will certainly shoot higher than those shoot at trees.” Confident learners also tend to be more successful. Anyway, who says self-trust is the first secret to success. The ill effect of anxiety

37、has long been attested in the proverb “Care kills the cat” and “care brings grey hairs”. Therefore, lower personal and classroom anxiety will be conductive to second language acquisition. With the foregoing in mind, certainly, what the teacher should do is trying to motivate the students, boost thei

38、r confidence and lower their anxiety. To motivate students, the teacher can select interesting materials to attract the students; he can brief the students the importance of English, such as a major tool to communicate with people from most foreign countries, a tool for academic excellence and so on

39、. By doing this, probably, learners can be motivated to listen actively rather than passively waiting for CET test. Carl Rogers argued that significant learning would only take place when the subject matter is perceived to be of personal relevance to the learner or involves active participation by t

40、he learner. moreover, when there is a perceived threat to the learners self-image, resistance to learning is likely to occur. Independence, creativity and self-reliance are most likely to flourish in learning situations where external criticism is kept to a minimum and self-evaluation is encouraged.

41、 Therefore, to avoid resistance to learning, college English teachers shouldnt threat the student self-image; reduce his criticism as possible as he can and in the meanwhile, give his positive Feedback if necessary, in this way, the students confidence can be boosted. He should also be humorous rath

42、er than poker-faced to create a conductive atmosphere, in which the students anxiety will be reduced to the least.3. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, without a profound theoretical background, a language teacher will find a lot of troubles in teaching, the phrase “blind leading the blind” is

43、 the very word for it. Because most college English teachers have only bachelor degree and come from various colleges, most of which dont offer the fundamental teaching theories and principle, they teach rather by instinct. Besides, virtually none of the teacher training programs in china specifies

44、how to conduct a listening class, and various resources on theories are very difficult to access. Teachers cannot get the pedagogical guidance they badly needed. Therefore, in order to raise the level of teaching in listening class, various training programs should so be improved to include the meth

45、odology for listening class. Secondly, the college should leave time for the self-development of college English teachers; that is to say, to lesson their workload and give them more time for self-development. Thirdly, teachers themselves should also self-improve of their own accord, and polish thei

46、r skills in teaching. With these measures taken, teachers can definitely enhance their skills on conducting listening classes. Conclusion:In order to improve students listening proficiency, teachers should base their teaching on theoretical principles. In addition, teachers must have the students ps

47、ychological needs in mind, and shift from teacher centered listening class to a learner centered one; considering the learners as active human being rather than passive dumb-driven castles, boosting their confidence, motivating them to study, not for a test, but for their own benefit in the future e

48、xploration of knowledge; focusing on larger pictures of listening, in the meanwhile give necessary consideration to details. With the above measures taken, the danger of “blind leads the blind” will definitely be avoided.BibliographyJack C. Richards, and Theodore S.Rodgers. 1986. Approaches and Meth

49、ods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressJean Aitchison. 1998. The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics. London: RoutledgeHu Zhuanglin，and Jiang Wangqi.2002. Linguistics: An Advanced Course Book. Beijing: Beijing University PressLiu Runqing, and Hu Zhuanglin. 2000. Research Methods in Foreign Language Teaching. Beijing: Foreign Language Teacing and Research Press刘润清，1999，论大学英语教学，外语教学与研究出版社王 蔷，2002，英语教学策略论，外语教学与研究出版社董亚芬, 1997,大学英语，上海外语教育