HowtoImproveListeningintheMiddleSchool

Title: How to Improve Listening in the Middle SchoolProject Title: Investigator In fulfillment of the coursePractical project DesignAbstractThe present study presents a detailed report of a project implemented to solve the problems, that most of my students do not like doing the listening practice. We should set up a good environment of listening and breed the students confidence in listening, to light the students interest in English. In class, I provide some listening skills and some good method to solve this problem. It is hypothesized that students interest in listening practice increased by better organization. This hypothesis is verified by a four-week classroom practice increased by better organization. Among the methods of scientific investigation used are analytic method, cause analysis, questionnaire survey, and brainstorming activation. Key words: listening ability confidence environment interest lighten investigationAcknowledgmentI am mostly grateful to my supervisors Miss Jing without whose support and patience this project would not even have got off the ground.I am also grateful to my colleagues for their time spent on brainstorming.No amount of thanks will be adequate for my students, without whose willing participation in the project implementation it would have remained on paper.Last but not the least, I am very thanks to my husband, without whose support I would not have self-confidence to finish this project.Main Headings of the project Report1. Introduction2. Summary of the Preliminary Research2.1 Problem2.2 Problem analysis2.3 Project objective2.4 Project hypothesis2.5 Possible solutions3. Full-Scaled Implementation of the Solutions3.1. Provide the listening skills.3.2 .Design effective listening tasks3.3. Select suitable listening materials4. Listening Practice Design5. Data Analysis6. Problems Unsolved7. ConclusionReference.Appendix A. The timetable of the projectAppendix B. The methods of problem analysisAppendix C. The teaching planAppendix D. The questionnaire1. IntroductionNow Ill finish my study in MengCheng TV. University. I have been teaching the students who are in their third year of a junior middle school. However, in my teaching, I found there are some problems. The problem I have in my teaching is that most of my students do not like doing listening practice. I Hope I can solve the problems that have troubled me for some time through the action research so that I can apply my knowledge and theory into practice which I learned from MengCheng TV University.2. Summary of the Preliminary Research This part of my study was conducted during Sep10th - Sep25th20082.1 Problem The problem I have in my teaching is that most of my students do not like doing listening practice. They think it is difficult and boring.2.2 Problem analysisIn my teaching the problem identified was really a serious problem. My preliminary research confirmed that there are four main reasons accounted for students reluctance to do the listening practice. Firstly, they didnt master much more listening skills. Secondly, they were too lazy to do the listening practice in class. They hoped that they could do it after class with more help of the teacher. Thirdly, they couldnt follow the tape, they thought the tape was playing faster. And when they were at home, they complained they didnt have the listening tools, like recorder, tapes, and so on. Fourthly, most students felt overloading because of a heavier homework assignments.The problem has troubled me for a long time and now I was determined to find a solution to the problem. In my study, I used three methods of analysis. 2.2.1 Analytic method Through careful analysis, I was led to a series of questions. For example I found that majority of my students do not like doing this assignment and I wanted to know why it should be so, and whether they thought it important and necessary to practice listening or not? If they thought it important and necessary, the problem was actually caused by myself. In that case I should change my teaching method and try my best to improve their interest on listening.2.2.2 Cause analysisIn this situation, I asked myself a series of questions and tried to provide some answers to them. Why did most of students not do listening practice after class? So as to know more about this issue, I designed a procedure like this; Questions AnswersIs it because they dont like to do listening? Maybe.Is it because they dont have recorders or tapes? Yes.Is it because they are too lazy to do the listening in and after class? Maybe.Is it because they have to do lots of homework? Maybe.Is it because they cant master enough listening skill? Yes.Is it because they dont like my class? Maybe2.2.3 Questionnaire SurveyI made a pilot investigation in this respect to know more about the situation. For this purpose, I designed a research as the follows. One day, I gave them a listening task-listening book Unit 6. I asked them to listen first and then finish the exercise .Then, I asked them to write the passage in their own words. I got the following feedback: Only ten students could finish my work. Only seven students could finish the exercise. The rest didnt listen at all .Then I asked them the reasons .The students reasons:First, those who could finish all my work said they enjoyed English, and they also like doing practice. Second, those who only finished the exercise said they could only understand 80%, so they could do the exercise. But they couldnt understand all the passage. For example, the passages were too long and there were many new phrases in it.Third, the students cant listen any more said they were poor at English and they didnt like English and they thought the listening were too boring.Since most of my students didnt do the listening practice, I designed a questionnaire (see Appendix D ) to find out why it should be so. At first I asked four students who were of different English levels to try out the questionnaire, then I modified some of the items. After that I gave one of my questionnaire to my students and gave them fifteen minutes to finish it. Then all my students returned their questionnaire to me.The result showed that over 70% of the students thought learning English well is necessary and about 30% of them werent interested in doing listening practice. Therefore I thought the students were clear about the importance and necessary of listening practice. But they might run up against difficulties that they could not overcome. So they lost their confidence and interest.2.2.4 Brainstorming activationIn the problem analysis, I often talked with my classmates and my colleagues about all the problems I met, and I often consulted my thesis supervisor Miss JingLi. They gave me plenty of advice and help in order that I can ponder the problem more deeply and carefully.After a lengthy problem analysis, I decided to launch a project to overcome this problem.2.3 Project objectiveThe objective of my research is to improve my students interest in doing listening practice after class.2.4 Project hypothesisIt is hypothesized that the students interest in listening practice is increased by better organization.2.5 Possible solutionsWith these reasons in mind, I have correspondingly provided some possible solutions as follows.2.5.1 Provide some listening skills.2.5.2 Design effective listening tasks.2.5.3 Select suitable Listening Materials3. Full-Scaled Implementation of the solutionsThis part of my study was conducted during Oct.10th-Nov.10th.2008.3.1 Provide the listening skills.When we hear something, we consciously or unconsciously employ particular listening skills .So listening skills are the keys to listening, especially for English listening. It can led to successful listening In my teaching, I choose some listening skills, such us listening for Gist. Listening for Special information, Inferring and Note-taking.3.1.1 Listening for Gist tries to get a general idea of what they hear, which is just like reading for Gist.3.1.2 Listening for special Information enables the listener to pick up from the whole text, not focus on the meaning of every word, but concentrates only on the information he needs.3.1.3 Inferring helps people to “listen between the lines, it is a skill which allows the listeners to decide what is indeed expressed, including the relationships between speakers, the moods or attitudes of the speakers, the physical setting of the text and so on.3.1.4 Note-taking is a skill which combines listening and writing. It is widely used by people in their daily lives. In fact, we should write down every piece of information were told that we dont want to forget.3.2 Design effective listening tasks. In order to improve my students listening, I designed some effective listening tasks. Firstly, designing tasks to develop the skill of listening for Gist. When I was teaching Unit 8 “Ill send you a photo of “Luckly”. First of all, I asked my students to guess what the word “Luckly” mean. Next, I played the recorder, the students listened carefully, and guess the meaning of Luckly. Then after listening, the students are required to decide upon a title for the text, and after listening , the students are required to writs down a summary of the text in a few sentences.Secondly, I design tasks to develop the skill of listening for specific information. Unlike the listener who adopts the skill of listening for Gist, the listener who employs this skill is not satisfied with getting only a general idea, but tries to acquire an exact and detailed picture. When I was teaching Unit 5 “Strange events in Bell Tower in neighborhood.” , first, I asked the students to talk about their neighbors, what their jobs, and ask them if they work late at night, if they also stay up at night. Next, I asked questions, “Were your neighbors quiet or noisy at night?” “Do you like them keeping quiet?” Ok, now, I let them listen the recorder carefully and find out if the writers neighborhood were quite or nosey. According to this way, the students can practice the listening skill for specific information.Thirdly, I design some tasks to develop the skill of listening for inferring. There are several sources I can use in my teaching. a) Intonation can express totally different meanings .If a person says “Close the door, please” with a rising intonation, he maybe making a polite request. But if he utters the sentence with a falling intonation, he maybe express annoyance or criticism of other persons forgetting to close the door. b) Another source is the speakers choice of the words. If a speaker uses a lot of formal words, he is probably speaking in a formal situation. If most of his words are colliqualable is likely to be chatting with someone he is familiar with. c) If the listener can see the speaker, watching the facial expressions, gestures or body movements can also help him to infer the speakers attitudes or moods. For example, when I was teaching Unit 10 section B Activity 3a, I introduced, “well listen three stories, I want you to choose which story is the most believable, which story is the least believable. I played the recorder three times, asked the students to infer which is the most or the least believable. While listening, answer the following questions according to what you hear on the tape. 1) What dose the first story talk about? 2) What dose the second story talk about? 3) What dose the third story talk about? Then, infer which story has fooled us, which story may be true. The students according to the writers intonation inferring the information they need.Fourthly, I designed tasks to develop the skill of note-taking. In fact, note-taking is widely used by people in their daily lives, we take down telephone messages for friends and numbers of our family, we write down directions for getting to a friends house, we write down the time and place of a meeting our boss wants us to attend .We take lecture notes ,write down every piece of information .we are told that we dont want to forget .If we can use the skills well we are convenient in real life. For example, when I was teaching Unit 11 Section A Activity 2a, I asked the students to write down the notes about the text. According to the notes, point out where the bank is. Then I played the recorder, while listening, number the directions of the bank in the order._ Take the escalator to the second floor._ The bank is between the furniture store and the book store._ Turn right._ Go past the drugstore.The students can point out easily where the bank is, and they also can drew the line. But it is mentioned that the teacher should guide how to abbreviate in words .For example ,in notes we often write “&”instead of “and” and shorten certain words in ways that we recognize them, such a “poss.” for “possible” or “shd.” for “should” and so on.3.3. Selecting suitable Listening Materials.In order to make it sure that the students could do the listening tasks better, I provide them with a lot of materials for reference. The students of 13 or 14 years old are usually curious. They have strong desire of seeking knowledge and novelty. They hope to express what they interested in, but they can only know a little English. Besides, the students have little listening skills. So they are not satisfied with the materials supplied only form texts. In order to solve the problem, I provided them with a lot of materials, such as Published Cassettes. Teachers Talk. Video Tapes and so on.4. Listening practice DesignMy hypothesis is that learners interest in listening practice after class is increased by better organized activities .And whats more ,my new assignment activities should have a real information value so that the students have a real purpose to listen to .I designed three activities to be tried out in three weeks.Week1. Activity1.This activity is based on Junior English Text book .Unit 2 workbook .Activity 2B.Purpose: To give the students a real purpose to listen and speak to each other and to activate the students prior knowledge about shopping. It mainly practices of listening for Gist.Instructions: Students listen to the teachers explanations carefully and then finish the writing individually.Procedure: Provide the listening textKate is going to the supermarket to buy some food. First she decides what she needs to buy at home. How much bread does she need? What kind of vegetables? Is there enough fruit? Next, Kate makes a shopping list, she is going t buy two bottles of milk and 12 eggs, four tomatoes and two loaves of bread. But she is afraid she hasnt got enough money, so shell have to stop at the bank on her way to the supermarket.Step.1. Warm up.Introduce enough about the topic, type of the text or purpose for listening. Well listening something about shopping, do you like shopping? How often do you shopping? Do you make a plan before you shopping ? Ok, now we are listening about Kates shopping.Step2. While listening Play the recorder first time, while listening, ask the students to give the title of the text. Play the recorder second time, ask the students to make a shopping list Play the recorder third time, check the answers.Step3. Post-listening Lead them to find out the main words and sentences. Ask them to exchange their ideas with each other. Then write a summary of the listening text. Hand in the paper. The teacher must give out the marks(good not bad very good .)Week2. Activity2.This is based on junior English Book2B,unit4 .Purpose: To practice the listening for specific information .Instructions: Students worked in groups. They made some specific information that they thought important.Procedure:Provide the Listening MaterialsConversation 1Boy 1: Could you tell me wheres a good place to eat?Clerk: Of course. There are a lot of good restaurants in Sunville. What kind of food are you looking for?Boy: Vegetarian.Clerk: Id try Green Land. They have delicious salads.Conversation 2Girl: Do you if there are any public restrooms around here?Clerk: Yes. Youll find some at the corner of Market and Middle Streets.Girl: Are they clean?Clerk: Oh, yes, they are very clean.Conversation 3Mother: Could you tell me if theres a good museum in Sunvills?Clerk: Well, we have several. What kind of museum do you like-history? Science? A childrens museum?Father: How about history? I like history museums. They are fascinating.Girl 1: Oh, dad! History museum are boring. Lets go to a science museum.Boy 2: Science? We always go to science museums. I want to go to childrens museum. They are more fun.Girl 2: Well, I am too old to a childrens museum. Why dont we go to an art museum?Clerk: Why dont you go to the computer museum? There are a lot of fun things for children there. You can learn all about the history of computers, as well as learn about science.Family: Thats a great idea! Lets go to the computer museum. Step 1. Warm-up . (Pre-listening ) Say: We have learnt how to use the listening for Gist, and could make a summary about a text. But if we only need some specific information, how we can do. This class, I want to ask you to write down some specific information about the “Press in America”.Step 2 While-listening Play the recorder first time, answer the following questions:1) Where can I have good vegetarian food?2) How can she get to the restroom?3) Which place can the family visit?Play the recorder second time, check the answers above, exchange the answers from each other.Play the third time, ask the students act out the conversations in role play.Step 3 Post-listening Gave a statement about students answers. Then encourage them to add more information about the text.Week3. Activity3.This is based on junior English Book2B,unit8 Section B Purpose: To practice the listening for inferring.Instructions: Students worked in groups .They made new dialogues by themselves after class, then I make the students retell the text alone.Procedure: Provide the Listening MaterialsIn1938, a radio program by actor Orson Welles announced that alien from Mars landed the earth. He described where they had landed and told how they were moving across the Unites States. Welles was so convincing that hundreds of people believed the story, and panic set of across the whole country. By the time the authorities revealed that the story was a hoax, thousands of people had fled from their homes. One April Fools Day, a reporter in England announced that there would be no more spaghetti because the spaghetti farmers in Italy had stopped growing spaghetti. Many people ran to the local supermarket to buy as much as spaghetti as they could. By the time people realized that the story was a hoax, all of the spaghetti across the country had been sold out. A famous TV star once invited his girlfriend onto his show on April Fools Day. He asked her to marry him. She was thrilled, because she really wanted to married. However, when she said “yes”, he replied, “April Fools Day!” That little joke didnt have a very happy ending. The TV Star loses both his girlfriend and his show.Step 1. Warm-up (Pre-listening)Say: Do you know we can infer the speakers situation and attitude by into