The Integration Of Multimedia Technology And English Listening & Speaking Skills

The fast-developing multimedia technology and computer science provide unprecedented possibility for English listening & speaking teaching reform. The ultimate goal of English teaching is to enable students to acquire the ability to speak English fluently and understand others easily, or to put it formally, to communicate in English without any difficulty. Multimedia technology used in English listening & speaking has greatly developed during the last several decades. It is true that multimedia has many advantages in listening and speaking class, such as stimulating students'interest, offering more information, saving time in classroom, providing support unities for real communication, etc. So the question is not whether we should take advantage of multimedia or not but how to make the most of the multimedia in the language teaching class.This dissertation focuses on how to integrate the multimedia technology with the English teaching of listening and speaking, which is really a direction of English teaching reform. It reports a teaching research conducted by a substitute English teacher at Shanghai Normal University. Relevant literature was reviewed, puzzle areas were uncovered, data were collected and interpreted, some hypotheses were formulated and teaching intervention took place. In an effort to contribute to this research, the author believes that the combination of multimedia technology and some teaching methodologies has considerable advantages over traditional teaching media in terms of generating and maintaining interest. The integration builds up linguistic points around real-life topics. Therefore, the author is convinced that multimedia technology, when providing with authentic materials and applied to listening and speaking English class properly, is helpful to encouraging learners'involvement and ultimately to enhance their English listening and speaking performances.