An Analysis of the Key Factors Affecting Learners’ Listening Comprehension

【摘 要】为了提高听力课堂的教学效果，本文探讨分析了影响提高学习者英语听力理解力的主要因素，它们是坚实的语言基础、相关文化背景知识、学习策略和技巧以及大量的语言实践，最后作者就如何提高听力提出了相关的建议。

【关键词】听力理解力 影响因素

【中图分类号】G642 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】1006－9682（2011）09－0032－04

【Abstract】With the purpose of improving the teaching of listening, this paper attempts to explore the key factors that hinder the improvement of students’ listening comprehension. The research results indicate that problems mainly lie in the lack of a solid language foundation, cultural background knowledge, appropriate acquisition strategy and skills as well as enough practice and in the end the writer offers some suggestions on how to improve students’ listening comprehension.

【Key words】Listening comprehension Affecting factors

Ⅰ Introduction

Foreign language listening comprehension is a complex process and crucial in the development of foreign language competence, yet the importance of listening in language learning has only been recognized relatively recently. With a view to keeping pace with the development of society and meeting the needs of the country and society for qualified personnel in the new era, College English Curriculum Requirements for non－English major students, drawn up by the Ministry of Education of China in 2007, provides colleges and universities with the guidelines for instruction to non－English major students. According to College English Curriculum Requirements, the objective of college English is to develop students’ ability to use English in an all－round way, especially in listening and speaking, so that in their future work and social interactions, they will be able to enhance their ability to study independently and improve their cultural quality so as to meet the needs of China’s social development and international exchanges. Students should be able to understand English radio and TV programs spoken at a speed of about 130 to 150 words per minute（wpm）, grasping the main ideas and key points. They are expected to be able to employ basic listening strategies to facilitate comprehension（Basic Requirements）. Students should generally be able to follow talks and lectures in English, to understand longer English radio and TV programs on familiar topics spoken at a speed of around 150 to 180 wpm, grasping the main ideas, key points and relevant details（Intermediate Requirements）. Students should, by and large, be able to understand radio and TV programs produced in English－speaking countries and grasp the gist and key points. They should be able to follow talks by people from English－speaking countries given at normal speed, and to understand courses in their areas of specialty and lectures in English（Advanced Requirements）. The above－mentioned three requirements serve as reference standards for colleges and universities in teaching English. In doing so more emphasis should be placed on the cultivation and training of listening and speaking abilities. How can we, English teachers, achieve the goal set by College English Curriculum Requirements? A variety of measures have been taken to strengthen the training, but it just can be found that it is very problematic for many Chinese students to make progress quickly in listening, and the performance of students in listening comprehension in both traditional and Internet－based CET4 and CET6 turned out to be quite unsatisfactory, which reveals that quite a number of students still have a long way to go, and it is quite a job for us teachers to improve students’ listening ability in more effective ways. Therefore, we had better find out what obstacles the students have in their studies and try to solve them as soon as possible.

Ⅱ Key factors affecting students’ listening comprehension

As we know, language is a means of communication, and the final goal of learning English is to communicate. Nunan（1998）believes that, “Listening is the basic skill in language learning. Without listening skill, learners will never learn to communicate effectively. In fact over 50% of the time that students spend functioning in a foreign language will be devoted to listening.”（p.1）Despite students having mastered the basic elements of English grammar and vocabulary, their listening comprehension is often weak. Improving listening comprehension has become the main concern of both the teachers and the students. Yet under the present examination systems, language knowledge is mainly tested rather than the communicative competence is trained. This leads to a great dissatisfaction due to the obvious deficiency of communicative ability and listening ability. Careful observation of school English teaching practice has found that the teaching of listening skills is still the weak link in the language teaching process. Through systematic study of basic English teaching stages at university, it has been recognized that while students’ integrated skills in reading, writing and translating have been improving, their listening and speaking capabilities have been left behind. We conducted a survey by questionnaire and interview with 239 four－year non－English major students from Grade 2009. The questionnaire is administered under the supervision of teachers in class. From the statistics of the survey we had conducted, we find there are four major factors leading to this unsatisfactory situation. They are poor language foundation, bad study habits, lack of cross－cultural understanding and neglect of enough practice.

1．Lack of a solid language foundation

As we know there are mainly two aspects affecting language learning, i.e. linguistic and non－linguistic factors. The linguistic factors relate to basic language knowledge, for instance, phonetics, vocabulary and grammar, which have a profound effect on listening comprehension. In traditional approaches to language teaching, the degree of proficiency that a learner achieves is described in terms of his mastery of “structures” ― that is, whether or not, or to what degree he has learned the sounds of the target language, a certain amount of grammar, and a certain number of words. Language is the voice, and listening training consists of both the discriminative listening stage and the comprehensive listening stage. So first of all, students should be familiarized with English consonants, vowels, stress, liaison, contraction, reduction and intonation, because inaccurate pronunciation results in vague listening. If a learner’s pronunciation is far from correct, or he is unable to discriminate certain similar phonemes, such as thirty and thirteen, pressure and pleasure, field and failed, etc., it is almost impossible for him to know the meaning of a word, a sentence, or a passage. In addition, it is effective to make the students aware of some characteristics of spoken English and the differences between American English and British English. For instance, Americans pronounce the word address ［'ædres］, either［'i:ðə］, garage［ə'ra:ʒ］, while［hwail］, tomato ［tə'meitəu］, schedule［'skedʒul］, etc. in a different way from British speakers, who pronounce them as［ə'dres］, ［'aiðə］, ［'æra:ʒ］,［wail］,［tə'ma:təu］and［'ʃedju:l］. In oral English, contractions like “I’ve”, “You’d”, “Let’s” are very common. Besides, there may be changes in pronunciation owing to intonation, liaison, loss of plosive, stress, or speed, like “And you?” “Hurry up.” “Just do it.” “I don’t know.” etc.

Secondly, it is common knowledge that grammar is the rules of a language. To a second language learner, the study of grammar is indispensable. And the purpose of studying grammar is not merely to express yourself freely and correctly, but to understand the meanings of words, structures, and textual relationships, e.g.:

M: If the traffic were not so bad, I could have been here by six o’clock.

W: What a pity! John was here to see you.

Q: What happened to the man?

A. He had to work overtime. B. His car ran out of gas.

C. He was held up in traffic. D. He had a traffic accident.

Since the subjunctive mood is used, which refers to opposition contrary to the fact, then C. “He was held up in traffic.” is the best answer. So there is no denying the fact that grammar is very important for listeners.

Thirdly, an increased vocabulary can help the students become more knowledgeable, thus making their listening and reading easier and more enjoyable. Listeners can not understand sentences or passages when they come across too many new words while listening. The students should not only expand their vocabulary and have a good command of idiomatic expressions, but also become familiar with them through listening and reading. As a result, college English course design should help students to have a solid foundation in the English language while developing their ability to use English, especially their ability to listen and speak in English.

All in all, listening comprehension has much to do with one’s all－round knowledge of English, without a solid language foundation, it is difficult to improve one’s listening ability, while the improvement of one’s listening ability will in turn prompt the development of other language skills.

2．Lack of cultural background knowledge

There are also non－linguistic factors affecting language learning. The non－linguistic factors consist of background knowledge, mother tongue interference, listening habit, learning strategy and skills, etc. As we know, listening comprehension consists of far more understanding of what the words and sentences mean, it involves understanding what the speakers mean. Every country has different customs and cultures. Culture and language cannot be separated. More specifically, language carries knowledge and cultural information and it reflects the substantial and particular ways of thinking of that group of people. Thus culture is embedded in even the simplest act of language; it is indispensable to language learning. Then an important requirement for language learning is the acquisition of cultural knowledge. A lack of general background knowledge of a specific topic or subject also presents a barrier to listening comprehension. Students do not have adequate knowledge of life, work, history, and customs in foreign countries, thus it sometimes happens that, although they might understand the context, they are unable to understand completely and answer specific questions. However, if they are listening to a passage very familiar to them（e.g. April Fool’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, etc.）, they will surely understand it and breeze through the questions. Therefore, students must read more extensively to broaden their knowledge of areas where English is spoken, and to know about these peoples and their cultures. By cross－cultural comparison, students can achieve new cultural knowledge different from their own native culture.

College English is not only a language course that provides basic knowledge about English, but also a capacity enhancement course that helps students broaden their horizons and learn about different cultures in the world. It not only serves as a tool, but also has humanistic values. When we design College English courses, therefore, it is necessary to take into full consideration the development of students’ cultural capability and the teaching of knowledge about different cultures in the world.

3．Lack of adequate exposure to English

Just as the proverb goes, “Practice makes perfect.” It is imperative for the students to have more practice outside class because the classroom hours are insufficient. The students haven’t been practicing enough. On the one hand, careful selection of materials that suit students’ interests and English proficiency is vital to English learning. On the other hand, for Chinese college non－English majors, the non－supportive environment, limited time for English study and inadequate exposure to English, etc. are so obvious and likely to lead to the adoption of certain learning strategies. As a result, it is important to keep in practice. College students themselves should spare certain amount of time to read or listen to English regularly. Colleges and universities should explore and establish a web－based listening and speaking teaching model that suit their own needs in line with their own conditions and students’ English proficiency, and deliver listening and speaking courses via the intranet or campus network. The computer－ and classroom－based teaching model should be built on modern information technology, particularly network technology, so that English language teaching and learning will be, to a certain extent, free from the constraints of time and space and geared towards students’ individualized and autonomous learning.

4．Lack of learning strategy

Second language learning strategies have been defined in various ways. Oxford（1986）summarized five key factors derived from self－reported strategies:（1）general study habits,（2）functional practice,（3）search for communication of meaning,（4）studying or practicing alone and（5）memory devices.

Wenden（1987:6~7）maintains that second language learning strategies involves three aspects:（1）language learning behaviors learners actually engage in to learn and regulate the learning of a second language;（2）learners’ knowledge about their use of strategies;（3）learners’ knowledge about aspects of their language learning which may influence their choice of strategy.

During the past few decades, the research emphasis of second language acquisition began to shift from teaching to learning. Students are expected to be able to employ basic listening strategies to facilitate comprehension. Stern attempted to identify ten strategies of successful learners, including（1）Planning strategy,（2）Active strategy,（3）Empathic strategy,（4）Formal strategy,（5）Experimental strategy,（6）Semantic strategy,（7）Practice strategy,（8）Communication strategy,（9）Monitoring strategy and（10）Internationalization strategy. It has become increasingly clear that a more direct understanding of the language learning process is needed to improve teaching methods. Psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology are trying to explain the development of competence in a second language. It has been widely acknowledged that language processing strategies exist and influence second language acquisition. Less competent learners can improve their skills in a second language through training on strategies evidenced among more successful language learners. Second language learners employ various learning strategies in assisting their mastery of the second language. Yet in class, quite a few English teachers give listening lessons in such a way that recording is played, difficult words and phrases are explained, multiple－choice questions are attempted by the students, and finally they are checked for comprehension. Listening skills are seldom taught and practiced in class. Then listening, in fact, is not being taught, but tested. By such teaching methods, the students are not only unlikely to make improvement in their listening ability quickly, but also owing to repeated failure and apparent lack of progress, they may feel disappointed or even bored, then some students may lose heart and give up.

Now I would like to offer some suggestions as to the improvement of listening comprehension:

（1）Gist listening: Full concentration is essential while listening. Ask the students to grasp the main idea or major points of a passage, and try to discard unreal elements. In this way, we may gradually raise the effectiveness of listening comprehension practice sessions.

（2）Memory training and selective listening: Aim to enhance their memory span. In listening lessons, we should help the students to develop their memory. Such training is very important and helpful to the students. For in listening tests, each conversation, passage and question will be spoken only once, and they cannot go back and listen again. So students with good memories will have better listening ability and will gain good marks in different English tests.

（3）Inferencing listening & predicting: Develop the students’ aural anticipation and prediction skills as well as word－guessing skills. The key factors in comprehension is the ability to make intelligent guesses as to what the speaker is likely to say and then listen carefully to what is actually saying in order to confirm or reject predictions. Effective listeners are those who are able to select relevant information and not be distracted by irreverent details. In all, listening class should largely be concentrated on practicing listening skills, not just on doing more exercises.

（4）Note－taking: Help the students to form the habit of taking notes while listening. Successful language learning is active learning. Students with good study habits can obtain a lot more in their scholastic achievements than those without. They should learn how to take notes and do so, not only in listening lessons, but also in intensive reading and extensive reading. In such cases they can obtain better results in listening tests, swearing specific questions about time, places, numbers or persons.

Ⅲ Conclusion

The objective of College English is to develop students’ ability to use English in a well－rounded way, especially in listening and speaking, so that the speaker is able to use the language as a tool to communicate, work, function, and understand the people of the culture. Among the five language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation, listening ranks first. Therefore, listening comprehension is one of the focus language skills for college English studying, and the improvement of one’s listening ability will promote the development of other language skills. If one wants to become a good listener, he or she must pass through phonetics, vocabulary and grammar clearance, have a good command of background knowledge, develop learning skills and have lots of practice. Besides, the difficulty of an oral material itself, the speed and sound of language, some psychological factors and students’ learning habit and interest also exert great influence on their listening comprehension. Only when we help the students to lay a solid foundation in language learning can they achieve the goal set by College English Curriculum Requirements and use English in an all－round way so as to meet the demands of changing conditions in our country and the rapid developing world. Of course, there are many other good ways to improve their listening ability. I am sure if we persevere and proceed step by step, we can obtain better results.

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