Middle School English Listening Teaching Guided By The SECFCECSMS

This thesis explores the listening teaching in middle schools in China on the basis of the interpretation of the SECFCECSMS according to the theories of social constructivism, constructing a TBL-based, student-centered model with three stages: pre-listening, while-listening, post-listening stages to improve listening teaching.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter one introduces briefly the importance of English as the most widely-used language in the era of globalization of world economy. Listening, as a critical element of the linguistic communicative ability, becomes more and more important. However, English teaching in middle schools in China, to some extent, is still a type of examination-based education, the middle-school students' listening comprehension is poor. We must make a shift in English teaching to meet the requirements of quality education and the needs of society. The SECFCECSMS clearly points out the teaching aim is to improve students' linguistic capacities. Considering the present situation of English teaching in China, we think the followings are important to listening teaching: to promote TBL, to strengthen listening strategies training. Meanwhile, changing the role of teacher and showing attention to the students' emotion are also important.Chapter two analyzes the result of our survey of listening teaching, finding out the major factors affecting listening comprehension: too insufficient authentic materials, too small vocabulary and lack of background knowledge; incorrect pronunciation and intonation; improper study methods; the language environment, mental and physical conditions, etc., and briefly introduces and comments on the current research in listening teaching: building vocabulary as much as possible; solving the incorrect pronunciation and intonation problems; building up a good listening habit and be active; understanding different accents and listening to authentic materials; and creating an ideal environment for listening and avoiding fatigue, etc. which seems not to very systematically and efficiently solve the problems existing in listening teaching.Chapter three firstly addresses the nature of listening comprehension and difficulties and provides a general set of principles for listening teaching, secondly analyzes the theoretical basis of the SECFCECSMS and its interpretation, compares the teaching purposes of the SECFCECSMS with the previous two syllabuses, and states the purposes in listening teaching; In light of the teaching purposes of the SECFCECSMS, TBL approach is welcome. The definitions of "task" and "TBL" are given, and then, the theoretical basis of TBL is analyzed.Chapter four constructs a model of listening teaching, concerns the three stages in listening teaching: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening stages. The definition, purpose and tasks in each stage are given. It also provides some categorized listening tasks and the selective criteria of tasks.Chapter five deals with how to help students to improve the listening comprehension, shows the present use of listening comprehension strategies and solutions. For the theoretical aspect, the author ventures a system of strategies, which is based on the well-established cognitive classification of learning strategies, meanwhile includes those strategies characteristic of listening comprehension. For the practical aspect, in order to find out what strategies students need more training, a survey has been conducted on how students make use of listening comprehension strategies in the process of listening comprehension. The result shows it's necessary to strengthen strategies training. It can not only improve students' listening comprehension, but also foster the students' linguistic capacity. Then, it provides some listening techniques for middle school students.