A Study Of College Students’ English Listening Comprehension Barriers

In English learning, listening is one of the five skills, which occupies an important position in speech communication. Only students overcome barriers in English listening comprehension, can they greatly improve English listening abilities.Based on the theory of English learning strategies and learning motivation and according to Robin’s classification of listening comprehension barriers, the author tries to explore the questions from three aspects which are English basic knowledge, learning strategies and personal factors. The questions are:1. What are the barriers of students in English listening learning in colleges or universities? 2. What are the similarities and differences in English listening comprehension between liberal arts and science students?The subjects in the research are 160 students from Guangxi Normal University. The research combines data and the interview to discuss the result.The findings of the research indicate that:1. Students’ listening comprehension barriers are: barrier of speech rate, barrier of obtaining details, barrier of learning motivation, barrier of short-term memory and barrier of obtaining knowledge.2. Liberal arts and science students have significant differences in the aspect of learning strategies and personal factors. Compared with science students, liberal arts students have fewer barriers in the aspect of pronunciation, speech rate, grammar, information processing, obtaining details, learning motivation, short-term memory and obtaining knowledge.Based on these findings, the thesis concludes that students should strengthen learning of basic knowledge of English, strengthen the training of listening strategies and adjust their learning attitudes positively. Teachers should improve their teaching methods and enhance the communication of teachers and students.