On Teaching Listening Through Visual Aids

With China's entry into WTO, more and more foreign enterprises are coming to China and we will have more face-to-face communication with people from other countries. Our country is in great need of people who are good at listening and speaking English. Besides, the grades in the listening part of College Entrance Exam will be included in the total grades. This change will have a great impact on English teaching in Chinese middle schools and how to teach listening effectively has become an urgent task for English teachers.By doing this experiment, the writer tries to find the answer to the following questions:1st, Can visual aids make listening more effective?2nd. Is it possible to teach listening through visual aids in most middle schools?At present, little research has been done on how to teach listening in Chinese middle schools, so this study can be of some value. Based on Prof. Krashen's Input Hypothesis, an experiment was carried out among 60 Senior Two middle school students. The writer drew the following conclusions after the experiment:1st, the use of visual aids in listening makes the listening input comprehensible and thus facilitates language acquisition.2nd, listening with visual aids helps students build up confidence in learning.3rd, VCDs, films and CD-Roms can provide authentic listening materials in which the speakers speak more naturally, and they can avoid the drawbacks of tapes.4th, by watching films and VCDs, students can learn about the culture of the target language country.5th, teaching listening through visual aids can heip students get a sense of achievement andmake learning enjoyable.In teaching listening through visual aids, the teacher introduces language acquisition theory into the tedious and boring classroom and makes the lessons more lively. In this way, the students are better motivated than in the traditional way of teaching. Although the students in Chinese middle schools learn English mainly through language learning process, language acquisition is an indispensable part in mastering the language. In the writer's opinion, combining Language Learning with Language Acquisition with both large quantities of input and reinforcement is the right way for Chinese students to leam English.Teaching listening through visual aids is an attempt to use modern technology in language learning. With the development of multimedia computer network, Computer Assisted Language Learning will be adapted by more and more people in the world. Teachers will be able to share the audio-visual materials on the net and do the evaluation work on the computers. Teaching each student as an individual will become a reality.This thesis is made up of seven parts:Chapter One: Introduction. A brief introduction of the research and theoriesm teaching listening.Chapter Two: Input Must Be UnderstandableChapter Three: Psychological Factors In ListeningChapter Four: Culture And Language. Relationship between culture and language learning.Chapter Five: An Experimental Study on Teaching Listeing. Preparation and procedure of the experiment.Chapter Six: Results And DiscussionChapter Seven:Conclusion.