这篇文章是本组杨琦老师2000年写的教学随笔。部分内容发表在2000年3月16日英文21st Century 报的Longman Edition 上，并被一些网络转载。现在拿出来给老师们交流，目的是想让老师们对以下两个问题进行思考：一、新课改以前的教学实践有哪些方面的尝试？二、当时的局限性在哪里？

My Ideas Of An Effective Listening Class

Yang Qi

Many modern teaching methods have been tried and used successfully in English classrooms of China's high schools since the new textbooks for the junior high school based on the new syllabi came out in 1993.And 1996 saw the publication of the new textbooks for the senior high school. The new textbooks have brought about great changes in teaching concepts as well as in teaching practice. However there still remain unsatisfactory factors in the English classroom of high schools in China.

Take the classroom of senior high schools for example. The new textbooks for senior high school are arranged in such a way that each unit contains four lessons: a dialog, one or two reading comprehension materials and a listening comprehension material. Many senior high school teachers spare no efforts to dig into the part of reading comprehension. They can dig out no end of alien things from one reading material to another and cram their students. But when it comes to the part of listening comprehension, their enthusiasm and curiosity are declining. They seem to be unable to carry a listening class forward. Some teachers hurry through it without any activity. Even a few of them pass it by .From the phenomena we can draw the conclusion that listening ability has been in the past and is being at present neglected in most classrooms of senior high schools. No wonder listening is sometimes called the Cinderella of language study .Is there really nothing we as Chinese teachers of English can do about the listening class? Can we turn the Cinderella into a queen? The answers lie in how much we think listening ability is worth and what role we think it plays in the English teaching and learning process.

I think it is important to develop the students' listening skills. The new syllabi for English education in schools are meant to develop the students' four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Although more emphasis is placed on reading, they don't mean putting the other skills aside. If English is taught or learned for communication, listening skills are indispensable for this very purpose. A certain linguist said:"...in communication activities,45 percent(of the time) is devoted to listening, only 30 percent to speaking,16 percent to reading and only a mere 9 percent to writing. "It is clear that the ability to understand what an English-speaking person is saying is always essential to effective communication.

It is generally acknowledged that the ultimate aim in English teaching is to teach the students how to use it. When they begin with ABC, our students are expected to understand, speak, read and write English in the future. They cannot acquire speaking ability without listening ability, or writing ability without reading ability. The two productive skills entirely depend on the other two receptive skills. So we should put listening before speaking and reading before writing. It is easily acceptable for high school teachers to give priority to listening practice when the students are at the elementary stage, but it is seemingly unacceptable for them to allot some time to the cultivation of listening skills in senior high school classrooms. There are three reasons. One is that the entrance examination does not have the listening  test(It is said there will be listening tests in the national entrance examination .Some provinces have made a good beginning.) .Another is that there, as many teachers of senior high schools complain, seems to be no  time to spare in doing listening practice. The last but not the least is that the teachers themselves lack the listening ability .When a teacher himself has a problem with listening skills, how can he efficiently train his students listening in his own class?(I do not deny the fact that some teachers can  guide their students by some other means. For example, they may ask the students to do this kind of job by themselves. That belongs to some other pedagogical problems.)

In my opinion, we teachers of English can and have to do something in our teaching curriculum to help our students smooth away the difficulties they may meet with in understanding English speech .It is not always necessary to act as an advisor or a conductor. But sometimes we can make a deep impression on our students by our own English proficiency and make ourselves an example for them to follow. When the students have trust in their teachers, they will be led to wherever the teachers want them to go. A well-conducted listening class will benefit the students not only at listening skills but also at the other skills.

What is a well-conducted class like? Most teachers agree that a well-conducted class is active, creative, effective and impressive. A listening class can be conducted actively and effectively in the classroom of the senior high school if the edition of "English for Senior High School" is used. In order to make an effective and active listening class we must make good preparations. We must familiarize ourselves with the listening material the students are going to listen to, weighing up whether or not it is suitable for them to do right away, picking out the words and expressions as well as revolved sentences and unusual structures that probably hinder the students' understanding, Sometimes we should turn to other sources such as specific books, magazines, newspapers and so on for more relevant knowledge or background information about the listening material.

We should find a favorable access for the students to eagerly enter the listening class. If the material is about American country music, a song of that kind can be played or sung to arouse the students' interest. If it is about computer, we can refer to something or somebody that is connected with it, say, Bill Gates and his Microsoft. All that must be a careful choice. It serves as a flexible introduction to the class we will be conducting.

 I once gave an English listening lesson, which was open to teachers from some other senior high schools. Around 60 English teachers attended the class. After the class many suspicious questions were thrown out. Among them are: "Had you rehearsed before the class was given?" "Are your students always active like that?" There is no need to say 'yes' or 'no' to such questions ."Rome is not built in only one day. " How can a teacher make his demonstration class active and lively if he has not given his students enough practice in his usual teaching time?

Here I would like to present my teaching procedure of the listening class for the purpose of exchanging with other teachers my ideas of teaching English. The listening material is in Unit10 Senior Book2. The aim of this class is to enable the students to understand English through the aural medium. The class was conducted in a multimedia classroom .The Microsoft power point was used to make a courseware.

　Listening Comprehension for Unit 10 in Senior Book II

 Step1 Introduction to class: a summary of the language used at a shop.

Note: The lessons in this unit share the same situation—at a shop. This listening material is also related to buying and selling .It is a good time to make a summary of the useful expressions at a shop in order to make them know how sentences are used to communicative effect. As the charcoal of oblivion is ignited in the memory of the students, their interest is aroused and the class activate.                       

Step2.Warming-up for listening: learn the new words and expressions and revise some old words and expressions for listening; do some translation jobs:

①She often goes to the department store for shirts.

 ②I don't like stockings, because I cannot move easily if I'm wearing them.

③The material is easy to wash.              

④As he is a worker, he can't have much money to spare.  

⑤You may pick up cheap clothes in the sales.

Note: The students are asked to translate 5 Chinese sentences into English using some words and expressions similar to the listening material. Their sentences may be somewhat different: S1".to buy shirts."S2"It is difficult... move in stockings" S3"The material washes easily." S4 & S5 also can be translated in another way. A proper use of Chinese-English translation is helpful to get the students ready for listening. I don't think absolute exclusion of the mother tongue will cause the students to think in English. In the learning process students may unconsciously make a constant comparison between English and their mother tongue. If we can help them clear away whatever comes in their way, they will get a better understanding of the target language they are learning. Besides, the acquisition of a language should have translation skills included.

Step3 Listening:① Play the tape three times. ② Ask them to do exercises 1,2,3 while listening. ③ Check the answers with their partners. While discussing the possible answers, they are reminded of the difference in season between Australia and China. ④ Listen to the tape a fourth time and stop where the students have problems and ask them to pay attention to liaison, stress, pitch, accent, articulation, intonation and audibility of the voice.

In order to have an active listening class, we should design some exercises for the students to do. Listening practice in Senior English for China is valuable for this purpose. Why must we stop half way? Because sometimes the students' understanding is not hampered by the words but by the liaison, stress, pitch, accent, articulation, audibility and intonation of the voice. In one word they are not used to the speaker’s way of speaking. "Pause" can help them identify them and raise the level of their listening skills. So a tape recorder must be used. If we do not use one and read the material ourselves instead, these problems of the students' are not to be found.

Step 4 Writing: Ask the students to write something about what they have heard from the tape, giving them five questions as a clue:

①    Does Annie like ordinary clothes?

②    At the shop called Last Legs, what does she buy?

③    Why does she like to buy clothes in the sales?

④    Are yellow, red, blue and green her favorite colors?

⑤    Does she like pink or orange?

Step5 Speaking: ①Ask the students to read what they have written.

②Let the students imitate in the way the reporter asks the woman and the woman answers the reporter in the tape, asking and answering their partners' questions.

Note: Listening practice combined with writing and speaking can achieve a vivid and vigorous effect. If we teach listening only for listening's sake, the class will be dull and motionless, and the students would feel bored and tired. Writing and speaking to a listening class is what flavoring and spice to soup. They can make our listening class flavorous and spicy.