Teaching English Listening Effectively in Middle School

康道俊

1. Introduction

It is now widely accepted that listening plays an important role in foreign language instruction. In our first language we rarely have trouble listening， but in a second language， it is one of the harder skills to develop-dealing at speed with unfamiliar sounds， words and structures（楊陽(yáng)，2005）. In this case， the students' listening ability must bu the most important thing for teachers to improve. Naturally， teaching listening becomes an extremely demanding task. Now most of the students to better in reading and writing English than in listening， this is partially because of present situation of the listening instruction in China is not very encouraging， and partially of the teaching method. To facilitate the development of students' listening ability， the teachers must improve the teaching methods. In this article， will explore some ways to make teacher's teaching more effective and guide teachers though the process of teaching a listening in a way which will build up a student's listening skills. To make teacher's teaching more effective， the teachers should choose and arrange the listening materials properly， create a friendly and flexible atmosphere in class， make good use of multi-media technologies and most importantly， improve students' listening skills in pre-while-and post-listening stages.

2. The Problems in current Teaching Listening

The listening is very important in our daily life and could show person's communicating ability， but the traditional method and malpractice of listening teaching still exist. They set the obstacles to the development of listening teaching.

2.1 Students' Problems in Listening

The present situation of the listening instruction in China is not very encouraging. As Brown （1990） pointed out， the students are taught how to memorize， but are not taught how to listen and how to cope with their listening problems. As a result， students often fell very bored. About 43.2% of the students think that the most bothering and most difficult is listening comprehension and even some of them have difficulty in understanding what their teachers deliver in class. Without question， it is difficult for students to understand the listening materials， if they have not enough vocabulary. So to improve listening， English idioms and phrases should be paid attention to. Sometimes when people listen to the radios or communicate with others， unknown words also will suddenly drop barriers and make the learners stop and think about what the words mean. After they remember or give up these words， they will find that they miss the next part of speech.

About 35%of the students are poor in listening comprehension. This is partly because of the nature of listening activity itself. Unlike the written language， listening material is usually no well-organized language and always in formal， the speakers often have their own accent， and make grammatical mistakes， a lot of repetition and hesitation.

The listening habits also affect students' listening quality； some students often try to understand every word or every sentence. They translate the English into Chinese in their mind， thinking that it is the only way to understand what the speakers say. However， trying to understand each word is difficult in listening. It is not necessary at all. What you should do is catch the key words and get the main idea of the materials.

There are also some other problems in listening， which the listeners cannot control. They cannot predict the content of what the speakers speak before listening. They cannot control over the speed at which the speakers talk.

2.2 Teachers' problems in Listening teaching

Although the importance of listening in people's daily life has been recognized， the traditional listening teaching in China is not effective， probably because of the education system. In China， exams tend to test rather than to train learners' listening ability. In an English test， the listening comprehension only has 15-20 points， but the reading and writing have more than 80 points， so many teachers think that listening is not as important as other skills. As a result， they pay little attention to it and many of them even neglect the listening skill. The teacher always uses some listening materials to make the students listen to the dialogue， short story repeatedly and then finish a few questions about what they have heard. After that， the teachers will explain the listening materials and correct the answers， tell the students why the answer is this， not that. This traditional method is only for finishing the practice in the book. It neglects the real communicative ability. But the teachers also have their own difficulty； it is very hard to find a proper， interesting and latest authentic material for students to listen. Many of the materials they listen to in the class were made a few years ago， such as the news about America， they had to listen to the news abut Reagan， but now the president of the United States in Bush. This kind of material adds the difficulty in listening.

It is known the largest difference between mother language and foreign language learning is the environment. A child can soon learn his mother language well. He has heard a lot before he can speak and walk. Then after he is able to walk and say， he has a chance of listening to more. But for a foreign language，， one can meet it only in formal places， more than classes， for example； otherwise， one can hardly have a chance to meet it. One should listen more and create the chance to communicate. And he also could talk with his English teachers or roommates and suggest his teacher creating some interesting activities in his spare time. He also treasures the chance to talk with foreigners. These practices will make him fell perfect.

3. Some effective ways in teaching English listening in middle school

Jeremy Harmer （2000：25） said：“Listening is a skill and any help we can give students in performing that skill will help them to be better listener.”The teachers should pay more attention to guide the students to develop their listening skills. According to the problems above mentioned， people need take some steps to solve them. During the teaching， people had better put forward to some useful methods in listening teaching.

3.1 Choosing proper listening materials

The materials were developed in response to teachers' demands for support in the area of speaking and listening. The materials we chose should be true and natural which the students are interested in and close to the daily life. The teachers should actively create some condition to listen to some communicative materials which are appropriate for ages， qualifications and situations and we should choose the materials neither easy nor difficult for students. Besides， as the subject of the materials are various， the students should listen to a wide variety of English materials， dialogues， broadcast， stories， discussions， poems， songs， inducing all the wide life materials and the natural science. Because of the different pronunciation of the local language， the teachers not only should finish the “l(fā)istening task ”after the text， but also should listen to “New concept English， Family Album USA or VOA， BBC” and other English programmers.

The students may not have to do any thing in response to the listening text， when they are engaged in such activities as：

Stories： the teachers tell a joke or real-life anecdote， retell well-known story， read a story from a book or play a recording of a story. If the story is well chosen， your students are likely to be motivated to attend and understanding the words.

Songs： the teachers sing a song themselves， or play a recording of one. If no response is required， the pupils may simply enjoy the music without understanding the words.

Entertainment： films， theatre and video. As with stories， if the content is really entertaining， the students will be motivated to make the effort to understand without the need for any further task.

3.2 Arranging the teaching properly

Content The teaching method always has three steps. In pre-listening the teachers arrange the content properly. This step in is allusion to that the students cannot predict what they will hear and know little about the materials. For instance， the teachers choose the listening materials， which are close to our real life and make the students be interested in them. In that case， the students will perform actively and cooperate with their teachers harmoniously. For example， when the teachers teach the food of western countries， they do not just make the students listen to the tape and then do some exercises. As a result， the st udents only know the conversation among a few speakers or write down some words. They cannot understand the culture of food in western countries， so the teachers could take the steps as follow to achieve their teaching goals.

First， let the students collect the materials about the food as much as possible. From these materials they will know something about the culture so that they will have their own thoughts about it and share the opinions with others； also they could ask questions and discuss the problems that puzzle them in the class. Second， the teachers could make lists of possibilities， ideas， suggestions and take five minutes to ask questions such as： Do you like western food？ What are the characteristics of western food？ Do you know the requirement when you have the western food？ Through these questions that concern with the listening materials， the students will get the information about the topic and some words about it will appear in their mind automatically. Third， before listening to the tapes， the teachers should provide some new words and grammatical expression that are difficult for them. The teacher should also give students more knowledge about western food， for example how to taste the dishes and how to pay the money and so on. Fourth， let the students play roles in the dialogue and feel the real atmosphere of restaurant. This will arouse the students' interest and they would be very glad to take part in the activity. The content they learn in the class will be more likely kept in their mind.

3.3 Creating a relaxing classroom atmosphere

The while-listening step is a pivotal part in teaching listening. The teachers try their best to create a flexible classroom atmosphere. This is allusion to that the students are short of the learning atmosphere. Classroom is the most important place for students to study. A good learning atmosphere will promote the efficiency of study， so the teachers play an important role to create a flexible classroom atmosphere. Also the interest in the best motivation for study， before the class， teachers and students may sing an English song， tell a funny story or even create a few games in order to make the classroom active and let the students not feel bored when they sit down in the classroom. The students are the center of teaching and the teachers only the designer of the class. They should make all the students take part in any kind of activities and at the same time， boost the ability of using language. The teachers always make the students feel confident and confirm their achievement. Teachers and students may become friends and narrow the difference between them.

3.4 Making good use of multi-media technologies

With the development of our economy， the teaching condition in universities has changed a lot. In allusion to that the materials can not keep step with the social development， many universities have introduce the multimedia into classroom. Multimedia such as video， internet are useful teaching aid which have commonly been adopted recently， especially the internet is a supercharged medium of conversation and a powerful vehicle of information. It provides people with vast space of message and images. After the multimedia is applied into the teaching as education technology， it brings the real world into the classroom and makes the language alive in a way in which the printed page cannot. This kind of method of learning enables students to use authentic language. It is well-received by all the students， because it is relaxing and flexible. It provides variety and fun， and encourages harmony within oneself and within a group， so it is highly memorable and its massages touch deep-seated emotional or aesthetic chords. The usage of multimedia in the classroom makes the students' brain， ears and eyes work at the same time.

3.5 Improving the students' abilities step by step

When designing listening tasks， it is very important for the teachers to grade the difficulty level and improve the students' ability step by step. To facilitate the development of students' listening ability， the teachers need to develop lessons that guide the students through three stages： pre-listening， while-listening， post-listening.

There are certain goals that should be achieved before students attempt to listen to any text. These are motivation， contextualization， and preparation.

Nunan （1991：58） argued that motivation is a key element in English learning. It is enormously important that before listening students are motivated to listen， so the teachers should try to select a text that they will find interesting and then design tasks that will arouse your students' interest and curiosity. For example， before you ask your students to listen an interview about computer dating， you may use the following activity from Cambridge Skills for Fluency： Listening（1）：15 to arouse their interest：

Imagine you have gone to compudate to look for a partner. How would you answer the questions？

To promote motivation， varied types of task should be set， but the underlying principles will be 'problem-solving' of some kind. As far as possible the formula 'text+questions' should be avoided. Holden （1983：17） once said： “The aim is to teach， not to test.”

When we listen in our everyday lives we here language within its natural environment， and that environment gives us a huge amount of information about the linguistic content we are likely to hear. Listening to a tape recording in a classroom is a very unnatural process. The text has been taken from is original environment and the teachers need to design tasks that will help students to contextualizes the listening and access their existing knowledge and expectations to help them understand the text.

To do the task the teachers set student while they listen there could be specific vocabulary or expressions that students will need. It's vital that teachers cover this before students start to listen as we want the challenge within the lesson to the act of listening not of understanding what they have to do.

When we listen to something in our everyday lives we do so for a reason. Students too need a reason to listen that will focus their attention. For our students to really develop their listening skills they will need to listen a number of times-three or four usually works quite well-as I have found that the first time many students listen to a text they are nervous and have to tune in to accents and the speed at which the people are speaking.

Ideally the listening tasks we design for them should help them through the text and should be graded so that the first listening task they do is quite easy and guide them to guess the general ideals of the text. Xu Enmei （2002：17） said： “A good language learner is a willing and accurate guesser.” A good listener can sometimes guess or predict when a speaker will say something important. Sometimes a speaker does not directly state everything， and the listener must learn to “hear” and understand may things that are not directly stated. For instance， a speaker says： Yesterday after Beth got up and are breakfast， she went to the park. Then the listener can guess or infer the statement chat： It was morning； the weather was nice； maybe it was Saturday or Beth was not working that day； Beth is old enough to go alone. Sometimes a single question at this stage will be enough， not putting the students under too much pressure.

The second task for the second time students listen should demand a greater and more detailed understanding of the text Make sure though that the task does not demand too much of a response. Writing long responses as they listen can be very demanding and is a separate skill in itself， so keep the tasks to single words， ticking or some sort of graphical response.

There are two common forms that post-listening tasks can take. These are reactions to the content of the text， and analysis of the linguistic features used to express the content.

Of these two， tasks that focus students' reaction to the content are most important. Again this is something that we naturally do in our everyday lives. Because we listen for a reason， there is generally a following reaction. This could be discussion as a response to what we have heard-do they agree or disagree or even believe what they have heard？ Or it could be some kind of reuse of the information they have heard.

The second of these two post-listening task types involves focusing students on linguistic features of the text. This is important in terms of developing their knowledge of language， but less so in terms of developing students' listening skills. It could take the form of an analysis of verb forms from a script of the listening text or vocabulary or collocation work. This is a good time to do form focused work as the students have already developed an understanding of the text and so will find dealing with the forms that express those meanings much easier.

3.6 Teaching listening interactively with speaking

Listening and speaking are important skills that are closely linked to each other， listening provides with language input， without which any learning will not happen. On the other hand， it effectively connects with speaking. The teachers do not make students listen to the tape only and then finish the exercise in the books. The students are forced to accept the knowledge and confined to understanding what they have heard， this kind of method will lose t he real meaning of learning English. Speaking and listening need cooperate with each other. The more you listen， the better your oral English is， and vice verse. When one is speaking， he should have the right pronunciation of the words and pay attention to the liaison， loss of explosion and assimilation of the words. All of these will make you catch the words and the sentences more easily and help you get the main idea as soon as possible.

In post-listening step the teachers provide the students with some practice. The most typical type of post-listening task is the multiple choice comprehension questions. Also there are some other activities such as note taking and gap filling， isogloss， analysis and correction.

4. Conclusion

Now most of the students do better in reading and writing English than in listening and speaking. They can read and write very well， but they can hardly communicate. They can hardly express themselves with other people with their own words. This is partially because of the examination system. The main way for them to prove themselves is the mark， and partially of the teaching method， we are not able to change the examination system， but we can improve the teaching method. The students need recognize the importance of listening； their goal of learning English is to use it in daily life， understanding what others speak is the first step to communicate. When they meet some problems， first of all they need find out what has caused them， so they must pay attention to the problems in listening and find them from their own experience， for example， when they listen to the radio， they can not control over the speed at which speakers speak and they can not predict what speakers will tell us and so on.

English teachers play an important role in listening teaching. They make good use of all the available materials and teaching equipment and properly arrange the teaching content and create a flexible classroom atmosphere in order to nurture the students' interest of learning. During teaching the listening， the teachers also pay attention to some other problems； for example， they need have patience and improve the students' ability step by step and teach listening interactively with speaking. Nothing is perfect. Teachers always work hard to improve the teaching method so that it will meet the need of modern society. As China opens to the whole world， it will need more people who not only do well in the test， but also in the real practice so the burdens of the teacher will be harder and harder. They still have a long way to go.

Bibliography

[1] Brown ，G.. Listening to Spoken English， London：Longman Press，1990.

[2] Harmer， Jeremy. How to Teach English， Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2000.

[3] Holden ， Susan. Second Selections from Modern English Teacher， London： Longman Press， 1983.

[4] McDonough， Jo and McDonough， Steven. Methods for English Language Teachers， Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2000.

[5] Nunan， D. Language Teaching Methodology： A Textbook for Teachers. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press， 1991.

[6] Paulston， Christina Bratt and Bruder， Mary Newton. Teaching English as a Second Longuag： Techniques and Procedures， Cambridge： Winthrop Publisher， 1976.

[7] Ur， Penny. Teaching Listening Comprehension， Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 1984.

[8] Ur， Penny. A Course in Language Teaching： Practice and Theory. Beijing： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press， 2000.

[9] 李家薌，《英語(yǔ)教學(xué)法》，北京：高等教育出版社，1983年.

[10] 宮可成，“高中英語(yǔ)聽(tīng)力教學(xué)與思考”.《英語(yǔ)周報(bào)》，高中教師版式，2000年第33期.

[11] 許恩美，《新英語(yǔ)數(shù)學(xué)法》，吉林：吉林科學(xué)技術(shù)出版社，2002年.

[12] 席玉虎，《當(dāng)代英語(yǔ)教學(xué)實(shí)用模式與技巧》，北京：清華大學(xué)出版社，2002年.

[13] 尹剛，陳靜波.（主編）.《給英語(yǔ)老師的101條建議》，南京：南京師范大學(xué)出版社，2004年.

[14] 楊陽(yáng)，《英語(yǔ)教學(xué)法》，北京：高等教育出版社，2005年.

[15] 劉建榮，“初中英語(yǔ)聽(tīng)力教學(xué)的思考”.2005.

[16] http：//www.nigqzx.net/jspd/zlijl/jylwk/200503/33.html.

[17] 張勁.“初中生英語(yǔ)聽(tīng)力障礙淺談”.2005.

[18] http：//www.njgqzx.net/jspd/zljl/jylwk/200503/32.html.