A Research On English Listening Training Materials For Professionals

To meet the demands of developing international markets and ensure enough talents in developing international markets in recent years, many state-owned large or medium-sized enterprises make great efforts in the English training of their professionals. Jianghan Oilfield, which belongs to SINOPEC, also regularly selects and recommends professionals for English training. Two main training institutions, Cadre Management Institute of SINOPEC and Training Center of Staff and Workers of Jianghan Oilfield, are in charge of the training work respectively. The main goal of this training is to enhance the trainees' listening and speaking ability, thus enabling them to adapt themselves to fulure foreign-related work and life. The two training institutions have chosen Book 1 and Book 2 of Step by Step for the English listening course. Feedback from the former trainees reveals that this teaching material cannot meet the trainees' practical needs. To combat this problem, the present author and her colleagues, directed by previous teaching experience and relevant theories about the choice and evaluation of teaching materials, coupled with an analysis of the trainees' needs, compile a new material for the listening training course. The present author, by means of questionnaires, experiments, tests and contrastive analyses, aims to demonstrate the feasibility of using this material in the training of listening ability of Jianghan Oilfield professionals.In this thesis, the author first gives a survey of domestic and foreign theories about the choice and evaluation standards of foreign language materials. According to these theories, the author compiles two questionnaires, one for the analysis of trainees' needs, the other for trainees' evaluation of the teaching material. The trainees are put into two classes, Class One being the experimental group, and Class Two being the control group. "English Listening Training Materials for Jianghan Oilfield Professionals" compiled by the present author and her colleagues is used in the experimental group while Book 1 and Book 2 of Step by Step is used in the control group. The results of the trainees' evaluation of their teaching materials show that the teaching materials for the experimental group meets the trainees' needs better. Furthermore, trainees are tested in listening before and after the experiment respectively. Their academic records demonstrate that the teaching materials for the experimental group can greater enhance the trainees' English listening skill.The research results demonstrate the feasibility of "English Listening Training Materials for Jianghan Oilfield Professionals", which indicates that, under the circumstance where no suitable special listening materials for professionals are available in the present domestic markets, it is a practical method to compile a new material by moans of combining several different materials. The diversity in sounds, compiling styles, practice patterns and skill training of different materials may complement each other to enrich the contents of materials, arouse trainees' interest and bring trainees' initiative into full play, thus eventually enhancing their listening ability. The present author advocates taking trainees' listening ability, English level and learning needs into consideration while compiling teaching materials and activities. She hopes that this research may be of any significance to the development and research of the listening training materials for professionals.