Problems And Strategies For Teaching English Listening In Rural Schools In Xiangyang

With the development of the society and economy, English is widely used in all aspects of life. Hence, people attach more importance to English education. Above all, listening is the first step to learn a new language. So it not only helps to develop students’ interest in English, but also has a positive influence on their future life and work. In reality, as for English listening education, there is a great gap between urban and rural cities. As students in cities, they are exposed to different English listening materials when they were a child. For example, English songs, movies and bilingual education in kindergartens. So they are easily to learn English well, especially in listening. While students in rural don’t have a chance to learn English systematically until they attend middle school. So students who come from rural cities are poor in English listening and they can’t get high grades in English listening exams.As an English teacher in rural high school, I have a strong desire to change this situation. This is why I decide to do research about how to improve students’ listening skills in rural high schools. In the first stage, I will find out students’ and teachers’ problems in English listening. Meanwhile, I will design questionnaires according to the problems. Then I will collect and analyze the data. In the second stage, I will turn to my colleagues and find more strategies in teaching English listening and apply them to my class. In the third stage, I will check whether these strategies make a difference in my class. In a word, this article is designed to find out the teaching methods to help students in rural high schools improve their English listening skill. Besides, it also helps English teachers in rural schools organize their class more effectively.