How to improve the students’ abilities of listening and speaking

In recent years， English is more and more widely used in the world. In Junior Middle School in China， the abilities of speaking and listening are big obstacles for most students. It is very difficult for them to listen to and speak English. Teachers just teach the English knowledge to the students and the phenomenon of deaf and dumb English is very common. The students have no chance and places to practice English speaking and listening. That is the tragedy of learning English. After graduating from Junior Middle School， Senior high school or even college， they can’t open their mouths to communicate in English. What a pity! What have they learned after so long time? The basic aim is not reached.

How do we improve the students’ abilities of listening and speaking? That should be analyzed seriously.

1. Perfecting the Teaching Materials

Teaching materials mentioned here are textbooks. A textbook determines what to teach and how to teach it for teachers. And it also determines what to learn and how to learn it for students. In the teaching work of China， textbooks play an important role. We may say that the quality of the textbook compilation determines the quality of teaching. The author considers that the textbook compilation obeys the following principles. (a). Communicative Principle: The content of the textbook should put more emphasis on speaking and listening than reading and writing. More than 70 per cent of the time in an English class should be used to listen and speak for students. They really learn English only when they are able to listen and speak frequently. The content should be in the form of a dialogue or scene. And it should be near our Chinese students’ life. Only in this way， students are willing to learn English. (b).Simplicity Principle: The content of the textbook should be easy and step-by-step for students to grasp. The dialogues or conversations shouldn’t be too long. (c) Interest Principle: Interest is the best teacher. If the textbook is very interesting， the students will learn English actively. The textbook compilation can be in the form of songs， nursery rhymes， allegros， games and so on. Students’ English abilities of listening and speaking can be trained better in the above form. If there are more beautiful and colorful pictures in the textbooks， the students will be more interested in learning English. They won’t be forced to accept the boring knowledge. Gradually， they can communicate in English with each other. The purpose of learning English can be reached.

2. Stimulating the Students’ Interests

Stimulating the students’ interests include many aspects. Here the author only introduces how to stimulate the interests of the students themselves.

A. Small-scale classes

Small-scale class teaching is the best way in the future. It will strengthen the relations of teachers and students and make the teachers teach students in accordance with their aptitude. The large number of the students in a class causes many problems. Now because of family planning， kids are becoming fewer and fewer. In a certain region， the proper distribution of teachers and students can come true entirely. This work should be done by the government and the educational department. The author thinks that it is reasonable if there are 20 students or so in a classroom. The fewer students there are in one classroom， the more chances they have. Their abilities of listening and speaking will be improved quickly.

B. Group activity

In view of existing situation，group activities are often adopted in English class. Adopting this way， students can have more time to practice dialogues and play games in class. After class teachers can help the students design some plays according to the textbook or interesting stories. Several students’ cooperation can eliminate the fear to English. There is cooperation and competition between groups. Thus the energies of the students will be mobilized. They will be glad to communicate in English.

C. Duty report and free talk

If students want to have a fluent English conversation， they must have a good command of the common everyday vocabulary and the sentence patterns to serve the aim of communication. For example， asking and directing the way; showing like and dislike， approval and disapproval; shopping; seeing a doctor and so on. In Grade 7， in order to make the students be able to speak English in public， the author asks the students to have duty report in turn at the beginning of the class. With a larger vocabulary， have free talk and let every student have chance to speak English. The students are glad to listen and speak. And their listening and speaking are improved quickly.

3. Reforming the Examination

The author thinks that English speaking test should be added in the English examination paper. English speaking test is the most difficult to operate， because it can’t go on at the same time like the written test. It needs a lot of time and labors. According to the content and the purpose of English speaking test， the author chooses the following three testing types.

A. Reading

Reading can check the candidates’ pronunciation， intonation， sense groups and the ability of reading aloud and fluently. Reading materials which might be phonetic symbol， words， sentences， dialogues or passages should be given to the candidates one minute earlier. It is easy to operate and suitable to English speaking test in Junior Middle School.

B. Talking about / describing pictures

One picture or a set of pictures can be given to the candidates several minutes earlier and then let them describe them in English. Pictures should be chosen elaborately to control the basic vocabulary the candidates need to use. Advertisements， posters and cartoons can be in the pictures. If different pictures are given to different candidates and let them find out the differences， the speaking test will be more communicative.

C．Self-introduction and everyday dialogue

Self-introduction， everyday dialogue and talking about family background and interest can be used in the English speaking test. They are close to the real life. English speaking competence is the basic ability. New Standard points out， “students should be able to provide personal information and experience.” Self-introduction and everyday dialogue used at the beginning of the test can make the candidates relaxed and do themselves in the English speaking exam. To avoid the man-made factors， we can use recording. The testing type can be from easy to difficult. The content which needs the students to answer can be letters – words – phrases – sentences – passages - composition.

4 Raising the Level of the Teachers

As the goal of education， teacher specialization is not only an important approach to improve qualities of teachers and education， but also a certain trend of development of modern education. Facing the situation that the English teachers have poor specialty level and the students are not good at English， problems press for solution.

A. Engaging foreign teachers

Engaging foreign teachers is the best way to improve the English abilities of listening and speaking. Foreign teachers can make students study English in English environment and give students pure English pronunciation. Foreign teachers can cultivate the ability of English thinking. It is the prerequisite of speaking and listening abilities. If there is not enough power to engage enough foreign teachers for all the students in Junior Middle School， a few foreign teachers should be engaged to train the English teachers in China， especially in speaking and listening.

B. Self-study or training

English teachers should update their knowledge. Only depending on the knowledge learned before， they can’t meet the need for English teaching today. Especially the teachers have poor English listening and speaking. They can improve the students’ abilities of English listening and speaking unless their own abilities of listening and speaking can be improved through training. They can improve the abilities by listening to some English broadcasts， English stories and songs. They can watch English movies. They can talk with English friends on the internet. If they have professional training on English listening and speaking， they will improve their listening and speaking by and by.

C. Increasing teachers’ salary

Increasing teachers’ salary is also a good way to enactive teachers’ activeness. If wage standard of the teachers is higher than other occupations， an army of English talents will join the ranks of the English teachers. And it can make the teachers’ mind steady and teach English more carefully.

Once the quality of English teachers is improved and the enthusiasm is aroused， they will devote all their efforts to the English teaching. Before class they will make the courseware on the base of preparing materials and prepare for classes carefully. In class， they will stimulate the students to open their mouths to speak English and create a favorable atmosphere. After class they will do their best to coach the students and correct students’ homework. Thus not only the abilities of listening and speaking， but also reading and writing can be improved quickly.

In summary， no matter what kinds of methods are used in English learning， all of them serve the purpose of building up the competence to use the language practically.