How to Develop Professional School Students’ Abilities in both Listening and Speaking

Deng Qiu-ping

Script：Due to peoples more and more emphasis on the communicative competence and the more frequent exchanges of economy and cultures among nations，mastering English is becoming more and more important and essential，because English can help obtain the latest information about the progress of science and technology in the world.

Key words：listening；speaking；confidence；interest；grasp；improve；practice；build；develop；encourage；habit；create；situation；communicative；competence

Nowadays with the progress of science and technology，especially the rapid spread and wide use of internet，English language is having an increasing effect on the wide exchange of culture among countries，therefore mastering English language has become more and more important，of which listening and speaking are both the very important skills for students to grasp.

As far as we know，where there is communication，there is listening and speaking，we live in a world of words.Listening and speaking always work together in communication，to be a good speaker，one must first be a good and patient listener（audience），otherwise the communication will get into trouble，that means，it will be difficult to carry on.In fact，neither of them can go alone，they，on the one hand，must rely on each other；on the other hand，they help each other and advance each other.Listening can not exit without speaking，or the communication will be a dumb one.Similarly，speaking will be limited if one can not listen effectively and fluently.One who is good at listening is usually good at speaking.The more one speaks，the better one will speak.The same is with listening.

Therefore，if we wish to master a foreign language and use it perfectly and fluently，we must acquire the four skills or abilities，that is，listening，speaking，reading and writing，of the four skills，listening and speaking are the basic ones and the road to success，they can help to build us students confidence in many ways，whether in communication with the outside world or in practical life，or in making friends with others.But how to develop our students listening and speaking is always a problem to us，because our teaching has been restricted by the traditional teaching method and teaching requirements all the time，or in other words，we teachers find it hard to jump out of the frame of the traditional teaching.

In fact，we have many practical and effective ways in developing students abilities in both listening and speaking.First，help students to form a good habit of listening to English and speaking it by cultivating students interest；Second，always try to inspire their enthusiasm；Third，ensure them of not being afraid of making mistakes and let them know that nothing is impossible if one is willing to put ones heart into it；Finally，it is always true that it is important to help students to build up confidence in studies.

Now I would like to have a talk on how to develop their listening and speaking abilities，and do wish it can be helpful for those who hope to improve their communicative competence in the coming days.

Firstly，as an English teacher，he or she must realize that imitating the native speaker is a very important step.That means we teachers should create situations in which students can have more chances to imitate，that is，speak while listening.In fact，all the beginners need to experience this stage.We must help our students to learn to listen to English and speak it.We can play some recordings or tapes word by word，or sentence by sentence，then ask students listen to them and repeat what they have heard.Playing like “parrot learns to speak” is perhaps a naive activity but interesting.

Secondly，role-exchanging/playing is also a recommendable way.Sometimes we teachers can be a manager or director；sometimes just be a listener.We teachers can give students some tasks，then guide them how to deal with them；meanwhile，give them some time to discuss，next let them present their “products----works”.To carry out the tasks smoothly，we can divide students into different groups，or just let them work pair by pair as they choose，then discuss in group or by pair，we just work as “judges” or audience.Our chief task is to create as many chances as possible for them to practice speaking，and the final purpose is，of course，to force them to open their mouths to speak so that the teaching activity will not come to a pause.

Thirdly，watching English films is，indeed，very helpful to improve listening and speaking too.Students can practice listening by judging what the heroes in the films say or from their facial expression.So we teachers can play some English videos or films，instead of teaching the text，to practise students listening in teaching situation.If time permits，ask them to answer some questions according to what they hear and see.Of course，retelling stories is suggested after watching the videos or films.Surely，the more they watch，the more interested they will be in the programs，and the more they watch，the more experienced they will be in listening and expressing themselves in English.Practice makes perfect.This is always the truth.

Fourthly，Advise students to learn as many English songs as they can.Because，on the one hand，it can help students to distinguish the sounds of the words they hear by listening to the songs；On the other hand，it also helps students to put the sentences into practice that they learn from the songs，and finally use in the real life，and even grammatical knowledge.That means，we should not limit our teaching only to the textbook，in the course of our teaching we can also play some songs to students only to help them to learn more words and sentences by heart；.Listening to English songs is really an enjoyable thing.We can kill two or more birds with one stone.

In fact，we still have many useful ways to improve students listening and speaking，for example，listening to English reports or broadcast，story-telling，taking part in English corner or speech competition，and so on.But I would like to end my talk here.I do wish to have more advice on improving students listening and speaking.Thats all.