Listening is crucial in English teaching, especially in a primary school. During my teaching, I’ve found the students of the country middle school have many problems in English listening. They don’t like listening any English tapes . They are also afraid to do somelistening practice in the English tests.
In order to solve this problem, I used several methods of problem analysis to analyze the problem. They are the analytic methods, cause analysis, observation, questionnaire survey and brainstorming.
Ⅱ. Problem analysis
1.Analytic methods
Listening ability is a basic skill for students, so I’m always doing research into the problem, how to lead students to listen, and how to let my students form a good habit oflistening , especially they are in the country middle school. I found most of them dislike doing English listening, they often make mistakes and listen slowly.
2. Cause analysis
In order to know why some of my students can’t do well in listening and lead them tolisten well. I think of the problem many times, and have designed a cause explanation procedure, especially my class in the country. We have many things to do. At present things in the country school can’t be done as well as that in the city school. For this I have writtensome good ways of leading students to listen and improving their listening ability.
3. Observation
In my teaching, I’m always paying attention to students’ listening. I found some students did lots of listening practice but they couldn’t do well. And they often listen slowly. Some students even depended on guessing in the test.
4. Questionnaire survey
In order to solve the serious problem. I spend a lot of time finding the real reasons. For this, I interviewed some students to get some information. And I designed a set of questionnaire to know why some students can’t do well in listening and designed a draft to find some good ways to improve their listening skills.
5.Brainstorming
Sometimes I asked some students to discuss their problems of listening when I found they made mistakes again and again. I also asked for some other teachers’ opinions. Because their students also often had the same problem, their answer they gave me was that the students’ weakness in listening was caused by themselves, they sometimes don’t listencarefully or listen more English books ,and sometimes they even couldn’t know some words. Sometimes they thought the new words were too many and difficult .
In a word, their weakness in listening was due to their lack of practice and good ways.
Ⅲ.Project design
1.Project objective
To enhance the students’ interest ,lead them to listen and improve their listening ability to a higher level.
2.Project hypothesis
It is hypothesized that students’ listening ability can be improved by varied listening—training techniques.
3.Project rationale1.
3.1 Do more listening Practice.
Practice makes perfect. Only practice more can help students get better grades. The teacher can prepare a lot of listening practice for the students as their homework or tests. And ask them to finish them in limited time.
① Everyday Practice
The teacher can leave a listening tape for the students to finish after school, and let them hand in the next day.
② Tests
After a week’s learning, the teacher can arrange a test to check their grades. It can help students know how much they’ve gotten. Also ,they can get rid of some bad habits, such as listening up guess too often. The teacher can also know how much the students know.
③ Weekend listening
On weekends, students are free and they have plenty of time to do some listening. So, the teacher can ask them to listen some English songs they like, and ask them to take notes when they meet important sentences , new words or useful pronunciation. This activity can help the students take an interest in English listening.
3.2 Build up students’ vocabulary
The biggest problem in students’ listening is that they know fewer words. One with a small vocabulary will find it very difficult in listening comprehension. Some students say they just can’t remember so many words pronunciation. How to solve this problem?
First, learn about word pronunciation. The teacher should enlarge students vocabulary by using the rules of word pronunciation, such as prefix, suffix, conversion, and so on. For example, when you know the word “like”, “unlike, dislike, likely” will not be new to them.
Second, collect the new words they often meet in listening. This doesn’t mean encouragingthe students to consult the guess whenever you met a new word in listening. The appropriate way is to try to guess the word’s meaning from context clues, from the words around it, and then they will gradually know the clear sound of the word after meeting it often. And now, if you they look it up in the dictionary, they will have a good memory of it.
Third, learn a certain number of new words pronunciation by heart every day. Young students have good memories. It is possible for the teacher to memorize some wordspronunciation every day without much difficulty. Students can ask their teacher to choose some words pronunciation for them. This is very helpful. When they meet these words intheir listening, they will feel easy, they will feel confident and more interested in listening.