English Language Teaching Assignment:英語聽力策略
Strategical approach of comprehension

對學習英語的學生來說，聽力理解似乎通常是語言學習的不同技能中最難掌握的一項。因此，出現了許多學說來幫助我們進行更有效的聽力任務，這些學說設計出一些更有用的實踐練習。有一個方法說到由于聽力理解是由單詞構成的，可以對于特定單詞進行抓詞訓練，同時它也建議要運用一些聽力的戰略，從理論上使聽力變得更加容易。僅管這并不難理解也似乎很有誘惑力，但掌握聽力理解的策略對于學生來說就意味著更多的不必要的練習而不是真正意義上的提高。

 

首先，它對學生的成績有負面影響，這種對于聽力理解的方法輕視了實踐練習的重要性。1998年相關領域專家就曾明確表達，“十五年來，這一直是不言自明的，更多的閱讀并不一定意味著更好的閱讀。”（112頁）。最重要的是，專一的技能培訓就意味著無法整體性地提高聽力理解。其次，由于不同類型的練習需要不同的策略，學習者可能表現不佳，無法廣泛地使用這些策略。總之，從屬練習可能會對學生產生消極的影響。

 

關于聽力理解方法的缺點-Disadvantages of the Strategical Approach of Comprehension

 

For students of English, it is listening comprehension that usually seems to be the hardest to master among the different skills of language learning. Therefore, there are numerous theories published in order to make listening tasks more effective and to devise more useful types of practice. One of these methods proposes the separate improvement of particular sub-skills, of which listening comprehension is claimed to consist, and it also suggests the application of listening strategies, which theoretically make listening easier. It is not hard to realize, though, that however tempting they might seem, the strategic approach of listening comprehension means more needless work to students than improvement.

 

To begin with, it has a negative effect on students' results that this approach of comprehension underestimates the importance of practice. As Field (1998) formulates it, "For fifteen years it has been axiomatic that more reading does not necessarily mean better reading." (p. 112). First, this can mean that the exclusive training of sub-skills does not allow comprehension to improve as a whole. Second, since different types of exercises require different strategies, learners might perform badly in the types not practised extensively. In summary, the subordinated role of practice can have a negative effect on students.

 

The second reason is that the exclusive use of authentic texts can significantly slow down the progress of students at a lower level of proficiency. First, as the strategic approach fails to realize the importance of grading texts, it can be unnecessarily difficult although the more one can understand in a listening task, the more useful the particular task is, (Ridgway, 2000). Second, a less proficient student might lose motivation if the listening texts seem to be impossible to understand. Third, the theory of listening strategies suggests predicting the meaning and guessing unknown words from content; that, however, can lead to the reduced expansion of vocabulary. To summarize, the use of authentic texts can mean a definite disadvantage on certain levels of proficiency.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Finally, one could say that listening strategies can prove extremely helpful for learners, but actually it consumes a significant amount of resources to practice these techniques. On the one hand, practising each of these techniques separately consumes a far larger amount of time than a student could afford at the expense of training other areas of language proficiency. On the other hand, the constant effort to choose the appropriate strategy can be very difficult and exhausting for students and is often futile; Field (2000) himself tends to admit this, as well, "it seems that they may not be capable of employing it appropriately in relation to a particular listening text or of combining it successfully with other strategies that they have encountered." (p. 192). To summarize, the application of strategies requires more time and energy than the advantages it provides.

 

In conclusion, it can be seen through various reasons that the strategical approach of comprehension is not as beneficial for students as it might seem in the beginning. First, it provides a smaller amount of practice for the students. Second, the extensive use of authentic texts suggested by this theory can be inappropriate for certain students. Third, the strategy-based approach is definitely more time- and energy-consuming than it is helpful. From the above mentioned points, it is clear that the use of different strategies is not required for effective language learning. 

 

參考文獻-References:

 

Field, J. (1998). Skills and strategies: towards a new methodology for listening. ELT Journal, 52(2), 110-118.

Field, J. (2000). 'Not waving but drowning': a reply to Tony Ridgway. ELT Journal, 54(2), 186-195.

Ridgway, T. (2000). Listening strategies- I beg your pardon?. ELT Journal, 54(2), 179-185.