Mengyao Ll

Abstract : In the process of English learning, listening, as one of the four basic skills required by English learners , is the weak link ofmost students. The main problem is that they can ' t understand , speak quickly and pay no attention. In order to solve this problem , this pa-per classifies the obstacles affecting students' English listening into two categories :linguistic and non-linguistic.

Key wor ds : English listening ; listening barriers ; coping strategies

Students' English listening comprehension barriers are divided intotwo parts : language barriers and non-language barriers.

1 Language Barriers

1.1 speech sound disorders

In general, the main obstacles students encounter in pronunciationare the difficulty in identifying homophones , the unintelligibility of weakor connected sounds . and the interference of different accents and dia -lects. In addition , a large part of the reason is that Chinese students havedeveloped the had habit of memorizing English words with Chinesecharacters since childhood . which leads to their failure to form correctlanguage view when they first leam the language , thus causing hearingimpairment.

1.2 vocabulary barriers

For students , the emergence of new words in listening comprehen -sion is an important factor in the students' comprehension of listeningmaterials. For English learners . each dialogue and paragraph in the lis -tening material is made up of sentences whose basic units are words orphrases. In the process of listening. the listener will encounter some newwords. especially when the listener is not familiar with the dialoguescene . they will find it difficult to understand the whole meaning, so thestudents will stop to think, you can no longer focus on the informationyou receive. in which case the listener will miss the next part of thespeech and will not be able to understand the entire text.

2 non-language barriers

2. 1 psychological barriers

Sometimes, focusing too much on the listening material can lead totension and anxiety. especially in uncertain situations. Research showsthat anxiety has a negative effect on language learning. psychologicalbarriers are manifested in two main areas : excessive stress or inahility toconcentrate while listening. In regular listening practice , some studentscan t concentrate on the listening content, absent-minded, althoughwearing headphones. but this listening state can only last a few seconds ,and then the attention will be divided. There are also some students he -cause of long time listening. leading to auditory fatigue. the brain can ' tconcentrate under the state of fatigue. Especially in examinations , somestudenLs are eager to get high marks , hut because they fear that they can 't adapt to the listening materials and transmission speed , they become toonervous and blind, can' t guarantee the continuitV and accuracy ofhearing.

2.2 Background barriers

When listeners are learning a language, they are also learning aculture. In the process of listening , learners will inevitably encounter in -formation related to cultural background. Many listening materials covera wide range of knowledge, from geography to history , news to customsand so on. Therefore . cultural background knowledge has become a ma -jor obstacle to listening comprehension. Due to the lack or limitation ofbackground knowledge . many students can ' t really understand what thespeaker is trying to convey even though they understand the words.

3 coping strategies

3. 1 stress on pronunciation training pronunciation

Stress and intonation are the hasic factors that hinder listeningcomprehension. Therefore, at the beginning of the listening class, it isparticularly important to develop students' ability to distinguish the na -ture of sound. In order to improve this ability, students need to identifythe pronunciation of isolated words through various exercises. By con -stantly making your ears work , the students will be more sensitive to thepronunciation of words.

3.2 breaking through the harriers of background knowledge

Many students can ' t really understand the specific situations in thelistening materials. hecause they lack the hackground knowledge of thehistory , culture . custorus , politics and economy of the English-speakingcountries. while learning language , students should also supplement theirhackground knowledge of economy and culture by reading English origi -nal books . foreign magazines and periodicals . through the analysis of thispaper. students can have a better understanding of the causes of Englishhearing impairment by using English movies and other methods to com -bine English language ability, background cultural knowledge and lis -tening expression , apply the correct method to the actual listening prac -tice , so as to improve the English language ability.

References

[1]llPenny Ur. A Course in Language Teaching: Practiceand TheoryEMl . Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Re -search Press, 2000, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1996.

[2]Dai wei dong, He zhao xiong. A New Concise Courseon Linguistic for Students of English[M]. Shanghai:Shang -hai Foreign Language Education Press,2002.