Research on Improving the Quality of College English Listening Teaching

Abstract. In English teaching in college， enhancing listening training to establish its fundamental status is a general trend and the needs of English language teaching development， as well as being determined by the principles of English teaching. This thesis has had a further research on improving the quality of English listening teaching and students’ listening ability through selecting proper teaching materials， cultivating students’ sense of the phrase， students’ reading ability and answering skills， and strengthening their cultural background knowledge.

Keywords： College English， Listening， Quality of teaching， Research

1. Introduction

The ultimate purpose of college English teaching is to train students’ ability to communicate in oral or written form， and the first step to cultivate this ability is the training of listening. Listening Training is an essential part of college English teaching and is one of the important means of learning English. The quality of listening training directly affects the quality of English teaching. As listening exercise and the other exercise restraint and promote each other mutually， it should be launched simultaneously with the other exercises， such as read， write， and speak.

2. Select the appropriate teaching materials

One of teachers’ most important tasks is to choose the appropriate listening materials for students. It encourage students to improve their listening ability effectively through selecting interesting listening materials in appropriate level of language， providing specific guidance and planning complementary activities. For example， teachers can choose English textbooks published by FLTRP， as the themes are more suitable for Chinese students’ English listening level.

3. Stimulate students’ interest

To obtain better teaching results， it is necessary to strive to create a fresh and pleasant learning atmosphere. From the view of persons’ psychological characteristics， interest is the main component of curiosity and the most realistic and active factor in learning motivation. For this reason， in the teaching process， teachers must import based on teaching objectives ingeniously， create a real and interesting learning situations and comfortable atmosphere， stimulate students’ curiosity， and give full play to their enthusiasm and creativity to enable them to be enthusiastically involved in learning.

4. Cultivate students’ sense of English

7.5 Writing

Through questions and answers in the class， the teacher can only understand situation of part of the students， but not all the situation of students’ listening. So the teacher can allow students to dictate， answer and repeat in written form at appropriate time， not only enhancing students’ degree of precision in language， improving writing skills， but also at any time realizing their listening level and adjusting the teaching progress and teaching materials according to the actual level of most students.

8. Training the skills of the answering

In the class， teacher should guide students to learn the listening skills， such as ignoring the unfamiliar words， grasping the key words and quickly recording the text. University listening tests are mainly constituted by multiple-choice tests and record tests.

9. Emphasis on the penetration of cultural

background knowledge

If students do not understand the culture information of language， they will also face obstacles on the listening comprehension. Therefore， teacher’s explanation of the national and cultural background knowledge of English-language countries is also quite necessary.

10. Make the utmost of multimedia network teaching

The use of multimedia network has created a new situation of listening training. The hardware of language laboratory is fully functional， providing modern training methods to foreign language teaching. During the listening training in the language lab， students can practice listening through listening and recording， fast transcription， self-listening and self-recording， repeating after listening， dialogue between teachers and students， dialogue between students， teacher’s monitoring and other means. These means broke the limitations of relying on teachers’ control to a tape recorder.

11. Listen to English radio

In the process of listening training， we must obey the gradual principle， from teaching recording to English radio programs， from Special English to Standard English. The English radio programs， such as the BBC， the VOA， etc.， have extensive content including domestic and international news clipping highlights and various series of special reports. Through listening to these radio programs， students not only can hear the pure American and British English but also can know international affairs. Consequently， adhering to the long-term training and listening can greatly improve students’ listening ability.