How to improve the English listening and speaking ability of higher vocational students

First, the status quo of English learning of higher vocational students

Students are not enthusiastic about learning. There are two main reasons: First, due to the long-term exam-oriented education, most students learn English grammar simply and mechanically in the process of English learning, and only pay attention to reading and writing skills, which leads to students' inability to understand and speak English listening, which directly affects their enthusiasm for practicing listening and speaking skills. Second, the listening materials are boring. For most vocational students, an important indicator to measure and test their English learning ability is CET-4 and CET-6, so in the process of teaching and learning, teachers and students tend to practice CET-4 and CET-6, and these contents are just boring. Repeated practice for a long time will inevitably lead to the decline of students' interest in learning.

Higher vocational students have poor listening and speaking ability. There are two main reasons: first, poor listening ability is related to the teaching mode of listening and speaking class. In order to cope with the listening test, the traditional English classroom teaching mode is generally divided into three stages. After playing the listening materials, the students read aloud and practice, then the teacher plays the listening materials, the students check the answers, and then the teacher explains the listening materials. This model makes the process of teaching and learning a mechanical listening test, and the purpose of learning a language is to communicate. The traditional listening practice in English class makes students build on communication. Secondly, the poor oral English ability is more due to the weak phonetic foundation of students, and because of the popularity of mobile phones and various electronic dictionaries, students rely more on technology in the process of English learning than on memorizing words, which directly affects students' oral expression ability. In addition, students' long-term attention to grammar also limits the improvement of students' expression ability, and students' requirements for their own language accuracy in oral expression also greatly affect their oral output.

Second, how to improve the listening and speaking ability of higher vocational students

(A) to strengthen the basic training of listening and speaking

Mastering the basic knowledge of language is the cornerstone of listening and speaking teaching. Basic knowledge of language includes: (1) phonetic knowledge. (2) Vocabulary knowledge. (3) Grammar knowledge. Attach importance to the teaching of cultural background knowledge. Culture is the foundation of language. Paying attention to cultural differences and customs is helpful to improve students' English cultural quality and make cultural behavior an indispensable part of every class. Teachers should introduce British and American customs in various ways as far as possible. For example, before listening practice, introduce some background knowledge related to the text properly, which will help students understand the listening materials; In the process of listening, help students use pragmatic analysis to hear the implication; In the process of speaking, students can discuss different topics, deepen their understanding of the cultural background and customs of major English-speaking countries such as Britain and the United States, and thus learn to communicate correctly and appropriately in a specific context.

When teaching listening skills, teachers should pay attention to cultivating students' extensive listening and intensive listening ability. With written materials, we must insist on listening before reading. In the process of intensive listening, students should first be familiar with some basic vocabulary, common words and common sentence patterns, and only in this way can they respond quickly to what they hear. Secondly, teachers should introduce two understanding modes of listening skills, bottom-up and top-down, and introduce language points in detail, such as rhythm, intonation and stress of listening sentences, so as to understand the speaker's language attitude and emotional characteristics and help students understand the language. Students can also make predictions before listening, and compare these contents with predictions when listening to achieve the effect of further understanding. Oral skills training should closely follow the listening content and carefully imitate various language points in listening, including pronunciation, intonation, tone, idioms, slang and sentence patterns. Consolidate and expand the common sentence patterns of the learned language function and strengthen the communicative function. Students can be asked to repeat what they have heard. In order to prevent students from actively participating, students can study in groups according to the characteristics of the listening content and the main points of the listening materials. Students * * * agree to determine the main points of this listening material, communicate in groups first, and then each group will send representatives to make a presentation to the whole class, while students in other groups will judge their presentations. In this way, not only the oral English expression ability of this group of students is trained, but also the listening ability of other students is trained again. Situational dialogue is also a good method. Students practice consciously and actively, so that all kinds of senses can participate in the activities, their enthusiasm is enhanced, their language ability is improved in the process of communication, and their communication habits are also cultivated in the process of performance.

(B) the use of multimedia, Internet intensive listening and speaking training.

Due to the limited allocation of teaching resources, most of the listening and speaking courses in higher vocational colleges are completed in the classroom, and only a few courses can be taught by multimedia and network. Therefore, teachers should give full play to the advantages of the network in a limited time and directly conduct listening and speaking teaching and training online. Encourage students to listen widely and get in touch with more language phenomena. Numerous professional listening and speaking trainings provide a broad space for students to learn independently. Some English listening teaching websites specially serving ESL/EFL (English as a Foreign Language) groups provide a large number of listening and speaking online courses and resources for English learners at all levels, and their openness, interest and interactivity are conducive to personalized learning. These courses are also very practical, with authentic language, intonation and idioms, and corresponding scenes, which can enable students to train in a more real environment. A powerful online dictionary is

Students provide help at all levels, from pronunciation to doubt. Students can combine different professional development needs, use the network to find useful information and choose to study. In oral training, we should give full play to the characteristics that multimedia can be used for repeated listening and speaking training, encourage students to contact a large number of corpora on the same topic, and then gradually achieve the goal of free output through processing. (3) Create a language environment to stimulate learners' initiative in listening and speaking.

Language learning has a strong practicality, and students' English communicative competence can only be cultivated and improved through a large number of language practice activities. Therefore, it is very important to create a relaxed, pleasant, harmonious and cooperative English learning atmosphere. There are few English classes in higher vocational colleges, so we can consider offering minor courses or taking listening and speaking courses. The teaching content can be listening and speaking training or various special lectures, such as the introduction of British and American background culture. This will provide some students with a good foundation with opportunities for improvement, which in turn will promote the improvement of English learning and style of study in the whole school. At the same time, students need a language environment to practice, so as to make up for the shortcomings of classroom teaching due to its limitations. Because practical activities are not limited by time and teaching materials, the content can be more abundant, which can involve related language, culture, current affairs, life, science and technology, etc. We should constantly improve English teaching conditions in schools, carry out campus broadcasting, make full use of language laboratory equipment, and open English audio-visual and teaching programs to students all day. Organize English evenings, games, competitions, English corners, speeches and other activities regularly, so that students can visit the English communication environment in person and show their learning achievements. The above measures can not only increase students' English practice, but also give full play to their creativity and talents and greatly enhance their interest in learning English.