An Analysis of the Listening Problems about Spoken Language and Relative Measures

【Abstract】Listening is an important skill. With the development of society and education， the interests of learning a language have changed a lot. No matter what the reason is， the initial contact with the language may be the four learning abilities， which include listening， speaking， reading and writing. However， different learning objectives are more or less affected by the learners learning styles. Moreover， learners may encounter some difficulty around the different learning stages and methods. This essay will discuss the details of these issues and put forward some appropriate arguments.

【Key words】listening； spoken language； measure

【作者簡介】常丹丹（1993-），女，黑龍江哈爾濱人，哈爾濱環球雅思學校，英語專業，碩士，口語教師，研究方向：高校英語教育學。

1. The problems of listening （Especially about spoken language）

As far as I am concerned， hearing may be the first step for learners to come in touch with the language. Whatever the language is， the most likely way for a learner to start learning is the pronunciation of a single letter or word. One major difference between spoken language and written language is the density of available information. One other difference is the language standard. The written language is usually very standard， and spoken language is often mixed with local dialects， slang and other non-standard language elements. The first step in listening comprehension is to understand the difference between written and spoken language. As a next step， the differences in listening comprehension between an examination environment and daily human communication are also well worth discussing.

1.1 Listening for tests. Learners in this group are high school students from 12 to 18 years old. Because of the shortage of systematic and detailed learning， their English basic is weak even though they all have strong learning motivation. This is just the learning background of these high school students. The students in this stage are learning to listen to a language so that they can pass a variety of exams while most of them have not studied abroad. There is little basis for language learning， but there is no systematic and detailed learning of all the available knowledge.

1.2 Syllable discrimination and vocabulary. As usual pronunciation phenomenon， similar phonetic symbols， liaison and elision may let some students wrongly judge listening content. Whether it is a listening test or daily communication， having a clear pronunciation and knowing how to distinguish different pronunciations is quite a basic and important part. There are many unavoidable and similar phonetic symbols in languages. An excellent ability to distinguish sounds not only will improve the level of listening but also will make pronunciation more standard. However， it is common that the most basic and important part is the one which is the most easily overlooked. For example， because the pronunciation of [e] and [?] in English is very similar， quite many learners will ignore the subtle differences. At the same time， ‘pet is very easy to be mistaken for ‘pat. In fact， there are many similar phonetic symbols of letters and words. In this case， a syllable resolution error may affect the whole listening comprehension or a whole conversation.

Another common variant of the problem is liaison and elision. This situation may not appear in all languages， but it is common in English. In English pronunciation， not in all cases， each word is usually pronounced very clearly. However， some sounds may be reduced， and some words may be read together. If someone does not understand these features of English pronunciation， it is difficult to understand the pronunciation of standard （typical） British or American. On this point， there are two very typical examples. For example， ‘n and ‘a in ‘an apple are often read. Of course this is a simple enough example， but it may sound puzzling if the two words are particularly complicated. There are many kinds of reduction sounds， one of which being ‘v， which is not pronounced if the next letter is a consonant. It is difficult to raise the level of listening if the listener only knows one meaning and one pronunciation of a word. There are various meanings and pronunciations for a word， and there may be different pronunciations and meanings if the word interacts with other words. However， the listening test will not just focus on the parts that the listeners are familiar with.

2. How to deal with the problems

Compared with writing， reading and speaking， the improvement of listening receives the least systematic attention from teachers and instructional materials （Vandergrift & Goh， 1988）. However， listening should not be ignored for whatever reason. For some learners whose purpose is just to pass their listening exams， the learning and practice of listening should be equal to the other three skills， i.e. speaking， reading and writing.

Syllable discrimination and vocabulary.

The first step to improve the ability to distinguish sounds is to understand the special pronunciation. For example， /sma?l?n/ may refer to the two words， ‘smile on， rather than one word. As a next step， a learner could correct their pronunciation by listening to recorded speech， such as the CD of textbooks and BBC. After following these two steps， the learner could insist on doing some relevant listening exercises every day. It is also effective to record themselves while they practice some speech passages and get some feedback and advice from their teachers. According to this feedback and suggestions， learners need to have some self-reflection and correct their errors.

Many students have a great misunderstanding when they are learning to remember words； they just read them and recite their meaning. This is an incorrect practice that should be avoided. Words are divided into many types， such as high frequency words， professional terms， core vocabulary， cognitive vocabulary and so on. For cognitive vocabulary， students may only ask to recite the meaning and pronunciation. In textbooks， in fact， there are just keywords as an exercise， which ask students to master listening， speaking， reading and writing. In extracurricular reading and advanced English books， there may be some cognitive vocabulary. For example， the word ‘anaesthetic appears in the book ‘Apple Tree Yard. Based on the British National Corpus， the word ‘anaesthetic belongs to the ‘K-11 range. This means that this word will be found between the 11000th and 12000th word range in BNC. According to Johnsons report， the most common vocabulary size for foreign test-takers is 4，500 words while foreign test-takers tend to reach over 10，000 words when they are living abroad. In other words， there is some cognitive vocabulary just like the word ‘anaesthetic， which almost will not appear in English textbooks. According to the importance of vocabulary， students can choose different learning methods and goals in relation to listening skills. It is unnecessary to memorize all of knowledge about every word.

3. Conclusion

Unlike native speakers， foreign language learners rarely encounter spoken language in everyday life. Therefore， they lose a large advantage about context.Overall， three kinds of pronunciation phenomenon that are possible to confuse listening ability were listed in the first chapter. There was analysis about them in terms of learners in various groups. Subsequently， some relative measurements were discussed according to the problems， which are caused by the pronunciation phenomenon. In fact， language learning is flexible. Learners can also watch some TV shows in their spare time. After that， they will accumulate more latest and local vocabulary and discover their incorrect pronunciation.

References：

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[6]Compleat Lexical Tutor，from http：//www.lextutor.ca.Vocabulary Size：Lexical Facts[J].（Johnson.2013，April 29th）.The Economist.