An Investigation Into Difficulties Of English Listening Learning Of Junior High School Students

Listening is the first process of language input and it is also an important skill of English learning.With the further implementation of the new curriculum reform in junior high school,the importance of English listening has become increasingly prominent.It is obvious that students who only know words and grammar,but do not communicate with people cannot meet the requirements of the society.Therefore,improving students’ listening ability is not only the main goal of junior high school English teaching,but also to meet the needs of social development.In this context,this research aims to explore the difficulties of students in listening learning,and give junior high school students some targeted advice according to their learning characters,then providing the guidance of English listening learning for junior high school students.Based on the theories of Input Hypothesis and schema theory,the author conducts the research in the form of questionnaire,test and interview.The subjects of this research are the4 teachers and 152 students of Grade 8 in Linfen No.3 middle school.Through the analysis and summary of the survey results,the author tries to answer the following two questions: 1)What are the difficulties of junior high school students in the process of English listening learning? 2)What are the reasons that cause these difficulties for junior high school students?The findings of this research are as follows.Junior high school students have difficulties in English listening learning concerning four aspects: basic knowledge,listening skills,psychological factors and listening materials.Students’ difficulties in basic knowledge mainly involve vocabulary,pronunciation of words and grammar.Students’ difficulties in listening skills are mainly reflected in their inadequate listening skills.Students’ difficulties in psychological factors contain their listening learning motivation,interest and mentality.Students’ difficulties in listening materials mainly include the accent of the speaker,the speed of speech,and the difficulty of listening materials.As for the causes of students’ listening learning difficulties,the author believes that it can be divided into internal reasons and external reasons.Internal reasons are related to students themselves.First,they do not pay enough attention to English listening learning and they have no strong interest in it.Second,their basic knowledge is not solid.Finally,students don’t have good listening habits.External reasons are related to the teachers’ teaching and learning environment.In this regard,the author puts forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions to teachers and students respectively.Teachers should stimulate students’ interest in English listening,choose suitable listening materials to students,arrange classroom listening teaching reasonably,consolidate students’ basic knowledge and strengthen students’ listening skills.Students should cultivate correct listening learning motivation,increase their knowledge reserve,form good listening habits and do more listening practice to improve their English listening level.