[Abstract] Modern language teaching theory highly emphasizes the effect of “listening” on the learning and the use of language. The teaching of English listening isn’t only a teaching of language， also a training of ability. In the four skills: listening， speaking， reading and writing， listening is the basic， and the most important skill. It isn’t only the main way of acquiring language information， but the base of improving other skills. Many Chinese students regard the listening test as the most difficult part of a whole test. In this article， we start with the conditions of the middle school listening teaching， point out some problems and design some activities in the beginning of the class. Then we focus on some activities of teaching English listening and insist that the activities should be emphasized on the process of listening， rather than the result of listening. How can students improve their listening and get good mark， become the subject that junior middle school teachers care. During the English teaching， it is important for teachers to master the skill of designing the listening activities [Key Word] listening; middle school; English teaching; barrier; teaching activity designing;

【摘 要】隨著時代的發展和進步，英語作為一種國際通用語在貿易往來和文化交流過程中發揮著不可替代的作用。掌握好英語這種交際工具，對學生將來的發展有著深遠的影響。現代語言教育理論高度重視“聽”在語言學習和語言使用中的作用。聽力教學既是一種語言教學，也是一種技能的培養。在聽，說，讀，寫四項技能中，聽是最基礎的，最重要的技能。它不僅是獲取語言信息的主要途徑，還是提高其他技能的基礎。許多中國學生認為聽力能力的測試是所有測試中最難的部分。在本篇論文中，開篇介紹了現在中學聽力教學的情況，指出當中存在的一些問題，針對課前的一些較短的時間設計了一些教學活動。然后集中介紹了聽力教學活動的設計，強調聽力教學活動應將目光集中在聽力的過程上，而非其結果上。如何提高學生英語聽力水平，使他們能取得好的成績，成為廣大初中教師所共同關注的問題。在英語教學中，教師如何進行聽力教學，精心設計教學活動，如何掌握聽力教學的各種技巧顯得十分重要。 【關鍵詞】聽力；初中；英語教學；障礙；設計教學活動

1. Introduction It is true that listening， speaking， reading， and writing are four basic skills in language teaching and learning. Developmentally， these skills are acquired in a certain sequence. Listening is essential for developing other skills and provides a basis for language learning. But it is also the most difficult of all the learning skills for learners to master. When listening， listeners follow the speaker， thinking about what the speaker is saying and what is going on in the mind of the speaker， guessing the speaker’s opinions and attitudes and catching the true meaning of the speaker’s words. Listening itself accounts for almost half of the commutative activities in one’s daily life. In addition， learners should have the knowledge of phonetics， vocabulary and grammar. Many learners are afraid of listening， looking on it as more difficult than any other skills and pay much attention to training their ability to speak， read and write. Improving listening ability is not in a short time， it is a long time work. 2. Background study Listening is important in junior students’ English learning. A child first listens for a long time before he is able to speak， so listening plays the first and the most important role in learning a foreign language. Listening is an important means of language. “It is one of the important ways in English language communication. According to Rivers study indications， listening occupies 45% of the whole social interactions. From this， we can see that a good listening can help to improve students’ ability of language understanding. And some statistics show that nearly 50% students regard listening comprehension as the most difficult part among all kinds of examinations.” [1] ( p1-2) . We must admit that there is no short cut in our life， so as the English learning. It finds that the original initiative to learn listening is very important， which can lead the way to success. Now have a look at our junior schools. What most teachers do in class is merely to play the recorder and check answers to listening exercises. So most students can hardly learn anything in class， and listening comprehension gives much headache. Hence， in teaching listening comprehension， it is very important for teachers to find the problems students have and suitable ways to solve the problems. English teaching and learning asks for quite some challenges. The challenges are the lack of adequate linguistic environment， the strong interference from their mother tongue， the overcrowded classrooms and the lack of sufficient time for English study on the students' side. And students are having quite a few subjects on hand and shouldering the great task of all-respect full development in schools. And， in many junior school， it is true that Chinese students are not so influent as those in Western countries mainly because they lack self-confidence and they are afraid of making mistakes .In addition， teachers are quite used to the old teaching method， which lays more emphasis on grammar. In order to make themselves understood by all the students， some teachers would explain the grammar rulers or even the texts in Chinese rather than in English in class. Thus， students get fewer opportunities to improve their listening skills.

3. What are the factors influencing the listening comprehension in Chinese middle school classrooms? Listening is an important mean of language learning. It is one of the significant ways in English language communication. But so many students regard listening comprehension as the most difficult one among all kinds of examinations. Where are their barriers? How to train some tactics for them? That’s what I am going to talk about here. 3.1 The analysis of the reasons for students’ poor listening ability 3.1.1．About the teacher aspect There is a shortage of English teachers in China. It is usually difficult for English teachers in China to go to English-speaking countries to study or work. Most of them don’t have the experience of going abroad. They have learned their English only in China. So we may say they have certain shortage. 3.1.2．The English environment The English environment in China is different from other countries e.g. Canada. In China， English is a foreign language (EFL)， not a second language (ESL). Both students and teachers are doing their jobs under this condition which is quite different from that such as in the US. For example， Chinese immigrant students in Canada can learn English more quickly than those in China. Why? Because in Canada， English is regarded as their second language. They enjoy a much better English environment as well as have English high motivations. This is what is needed in China. What those students in China need is this authentic language environment which isn’t easy to be created in China. 3.1.3. The learning aspect Listening comprehension is the summation of hearing and understanding. If you have a better level about English knowledge， you may be capable of understanding very well in listening to the materials， and may have an excellent response to any questions asked by the speakers on the tapes. （ⅰ）Barriers on Phonetics and Phonology It is clear that “Phonetics is defined as the study of the phonetic medium of language， and Phonology studies how speech sounds system in a language form pattern.” [2] (p22) English， as a new language for Chinese students， usually appears some problems exactly on Phonetics and Phonology， such as the mistakes on pronunciation， intonation， and all kinds of skills like word stress， sentence stress， motion of sound， assimilation， sound---linking and incomplete explosion， etc. Therefore some basic knowledge about English Phonetics and Phonology will directly influence students’ listening comprehension. So designing activities must be aimed at point. So designing some interesting game is to let students discriminate the different pronunciation. The key point is guiding students to find the difference themselves. For example， most Chinese students find the discrimination of some sounds is a problem in listening comprehension， especially， some vowels. E.g.， they can hardly distinguish the words like “sit—sea” and “bed--bad”. In a sentence like “He saw a thief steal into the palace”， steal /sti:l/ is very important in understanding the sentence， but some students just recognize it as still/stil/. (ⅱ) Barriers on tempo Tempo means the speed of speaking. It can be controlled by an actor who is good at tongue twisters. Some people enjoy more variation in tempo than others， but everyone has a norm which in characteristic of his usual conversational style. One who tends to use a rapid tempo in everyday speech in English， but Chinese students usually don’t have such a tempo in listening. Although sometimes they can speak very fast， they may not catch up with the materials on normal tempo while they’re listening to a tape， especially to a longer conversation or a passage， that’s their problems. Because they only used to listen to teachers who always read under the average speed in daily life， or used to slow conversations with their partners while practicing oral English， that’s why Chinese students can not suit the need of normal speed listening materials or native speakers. Teachers can help students to form a good sensation. Students can train the tempo through reading， because there are many skills on it. English teachers should take efforts to teach students how to learn some knowledge about sentence stress， rhythm， sound and intonation， etc. So， during in the class， or at the beginning of the class， teacher can design a game or completion about reading. The student who is the winner can give him/her a present. Through insisting on doing so， students’s sensation can be improved. (ⅲ) Barriers on lexicology and grammar During the process of listening comprehension， listeners should not only do the exercises of sound recognition， but also learn more vocabulary. If a new word appeared while they’re listening， they’ll find it difficult for them to understand the whole meaning， even some students stop to listen and think about over and over the new word they met before while the material are going on. So does the grammar. Grammar can help us to catch the implication of the vocal sounds， and understand them well， and it is also the essential condition of a whole passage comprehension. It gives us a basis for judging when the action happens， who is the operator or supporter? What is the factual evidence? Whether it is the subjunctive mood? Etc. If you don’t have a solid foundation on grammar it’ll directly influence your achieving good results while you are listening. (ⅳ) Barriers on listening habits The main purpose of listening is to understand the general idea of the materials. During the listening process， they should try to catch the major content， which’s the key point. But many Chinese students have some bad habits while listening. For example， they always try their best to get the meaning of each words， each sentences. Once they meet a new word or a difficulty sentence， they will stop to think. It is doubtless they can’t catch up with the speed any more. Still some students can’t directly understand materials in English， but with the help of Chinese， experienced the process of a heart translation. These bad habits are the main factors influencing their listening comprehension. In fact， it is unnecessary to know every word， every sentence， only should catch the main idea and grasp the major point， that’s enough. If you concentrate to think， you can’t catch up with the materials， and also that’s why you have no time to attend to the main content， let alone seize the implication of it. Therefore， it is necessary for the teacher to point out the bad habits and then help the students form good habits. Here are some bad listening habits on Listening， which are paraphrased below. “(1) A poor listener will/ turnoff his or her ears as soon as he or she decides a listening task is going to be dull. (2). A poor listener listens to only facts and ignores the ideas， the general picture. (3). A poor listener will fix his or her eyes on the teacher or blackboard， then relax， or Do some thing else， expecting to get the information out of the tape scripts later. (4).A poor listener will use very little distraction --footsteps， a door opening or closing， a cough， a dropped book—as an excuse to stop listening to the recording or the teacher.”[3] ( p1-2) (ⅴ) Barriers on cultural background Language is a kind of cultural expression. It is necessary for students to know some background about the English-speaking countries， such as the history， culture， customs and habits， even life styles. Many students lack of these kinds of knowledge， no wonder they are always making mistakes about them. For example， if teachers give two pieces of passage for them to understand the former， because Spring Festival is the traditional festival in China， everybody knows it very well， that’s helpful for their understanding， however the latter about the Thanksgiving day， students know little about it， it is not easy for them to understand， even very difficult for them to answer some questions about it. Listeners should base on their background knowledge about the topic and their experience of how talks on such themes are structured (as in the case of listening to news or weather reports) besides their understanding of language forms related to the subject area. (ⅵ) Barriers on psychological factors It is very important of students to have a good state while listening. Students should get clear that listening is the first step of any language learning， they should pay attention to learn it well at the very beginning. The process of listening comprehension is a very complicated psychological one. Linguists tell us that it is easy for one to produce frightens when he is at his nervousness. If students meet some words or sentences they don’t understand by chance， they’ll have the fidgets， even some students are afraid of listening at the very beginning. It have placed all sorts of obstacles on the important information invisibly and make them less effective， this lowered the degrees of listening comprehension. On the other hand， eternal links， such as the noise made by inside or outside factors， the quality of the recorders， the loudness and the articulation of the sounds， etc， may all become obstructions influencing the students’ listening well. “Psychological linguistics regards listening is involved with the perception of a language: Perception is to turn the voice into meanings，and it is an analysis of the language signal perception. The process of the language perception is an activity of the short--time memorization .”[4] (p1) Training and improving students’ ability in listening comprehension should combine daily teaching with following points. First of all， in English class， teachers should try to organize their classes in English， which’s the most effective way， students can concentrate their attention while listening to English. Teachers can also know from the expressions in students’ eyes if they understand. Second， using the first five minutes efficiently before the class， or the revision time， ask students to listen to the radios， television programmers in English. Never be afraid of it. Psychological quality is quite important to do everything， so does listening comprehension.

4.3 post --- listening activity Post--- listening， teachers can determine how well the students have understood what they listened to， but it is important to design the tasks well. “One important point to keep in mind is whether we are testing the students’ listening comprehension or their memory. In fact， in real life， listener can remember the gist of the conversation， but cannot remember exactly what words were said. It is more natural to select and interpret what we hear rather than repeat everything we have heard.” [13] ( p187) .Here are some types of post—listening activity: multiple choice questions， answering questions， note-taking， gap—filling and dictogloss. “It is important to remember when designing activities not to demand that students remember more details the native-speaker would in a real life， because we do not want our students to get into the habit of thinking that they need to understand and remember.” [14] ( p117) 5. Conclusion As teachers change their practice activity they gain new insights about the learning potentials of their students. “These successes have encouraged teachers to persevere in their efforts to design learning experiences that provide multiple entry and exit points for their students.” [15] ( p290-297) During the exercitation in middle school， in fact， teachers did not teach the phonetics and phonology. Main practice on listening is just about the textbook. For example， GO FOR IT， the book has a small part for training listening. but the listening teaching is limited. It must add some activities. In the listening activities， according to the certain purpose， it can choose different skills: listen and act， listen and draw， and so on. These types of activities can be designed into games， which are popular for students.

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