Effective Ways to Improve Students’ Listening Comprehension in the Classroom

王慧

As for English learners， being able to understand listening discourse and materials is essential. In our daily life， doing listening practice in the classroom is common especially for the students in the secondary school. In general， we can divide the listening process into the following 3 stages： Pre-listening （purpose must be recognized at this stage）； While listening； Post -listening .

1. Pre-listening （what to hear）

Pre-listening activities usually have two primary goals： a. to bring to consciousness the tools and strategies that good listeners may use when listening， and b. to provide the necessary context for that specific listening task. Studies show that learners can comprehend more in a text if they are familiar with it or they have known some information about the topic before or they know in advance what the listening passage concerns. The good listeners would prepare themselves or broaden their outlook through anyway in order to understand the listening material smoothly.

Also， barriers to success include disillusion when unrealistic study expectations are kept. For this reason， good learners usually think carefully beforehand， and schedule self-instruction time on a calendar.

Before listen， listeners should know their listening purposes：

General information （understanding of the main points）；Specific information （understanding of the particular items）； Cultural interest （about the target language culture）； Information about people's attitudes and opinions； The organization of ideas； Sequence of events； Lexical items （words expressing movement）； Structural items （their use and meaning）； Functional items （their form and use）

According to those objectives， we can estimate listening may need an emotional and dramatic ability. It also requires attention， thought， interpretation， and imagination. Good listeners will prepare their available good state to listen：

Adopt a positive attitude； Be responsive.； Shut out distractions； Listen for the speaker's purpose； Look for the signals of what is to come； Look for summaries of what has gone before； Evaluate the supporting materials； Look for non-verbal clues.

2. While listening （how to listen）

The most important things when we are listening can be classified as：

Coping with the sounds， Understanding intonation and stress， Coping with redundancy and noise， Predicting， Understanding colloquial vocabulary， Understanding different accents. These are the fundamental requirements for listening well. Actually， this stage is the process of analytical and critical listening. The listener not only seeks an appropriate answer to a serious question but evaluates the quality of the answer. So it is essential for him to master some advanced skills.

Willis lists a series of micro-skills of listening， which she calls as enabling skills. They are：

guessing at unknown words or phrases without panic

identifying relevant points； rejecting irrelevant information

retaining relevant points （note-taking， summarizing）

recognizing discourse markers， e. g. ， Well； Oh， another thing is； Now， finally； etc.

recognizing cohesive devices， e. g. ， such as and which， including linking words， pronouns， references， etc. understanding different intonation patterns and uses of stress， etc. ， which give clues to meaning and social setting understanding inferred information， e. g. ， speakers' attitude or intentions.

3. Post-listening

After listening， effective listener may analyze what they have done and give themselves a comment for each practice. If they uncover some imperfection on their score， they would find out the reasons and regulate their conduct so as to exempt those problems for next listening or solve them positively. No matter whether they use various strategies consciously or subconsciously， they have the awareness of regulating out their most favourable states to listen. Also， effective listeners may choose many methods to recall input knowledge， such as new words， new expressions. In this case， they prefer to write vocabulary journals. They can be encouraged by themselves to keep a list of new vocabulary. Small pocket notebooks of the vocabulary with native language-target language translations—or， if the learner is advanced enough， target language vocabulary with target language explanations—are handy to carry and practice any time， like on the train， or while waiting at stoplights. Diligent review， even for just five minutes a day， can bring positive results.