Applied Linuistics and Listening

Applied Linguistics, which draws from theories of language acquisition to develop first and second language teaching methodologies and to implement successful literacy programs.

I. Introduction

The purpose of middle school English teaching is to improve the students' four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, with the base of necessary phonetics, large vocabulary and good grammar, But this is not the final purpose. The final purpose is to lot let students be able to use the language.

Why do we study English? If a man is only good at listening and speaking, can we say that he is good at English? No, If a man is only good at reading and writing, can we say that he is good at the language? No, If a student is good at English, he should be able to use the language, both in speaking and writing.

Now most of the students do better in reading and writing English than in listening and speaking. They can read and write, but they can hardly communicate. They can hardly express themselves with their own words. This is partially because of our examination system, and partially of the teaching method . We are not able to change the examination system, but we can improve our teaching method.

Most of all the teachers like to provide the students with a lot of knowledge-words, phrases, grammar, usages and so on, They are focusing these thing, especially on the grammar. Yes, the students do need these, but many teachers forget to teach them how to study English, and how to use it. So when you are giving the knowledge to the students, don't forget to teach them all the abilities of the four skills.

II. Ways on developing the four abilities

1.Listening

The teachers often speak of the four skills- listening, speaking, reading and writing. That means each of them is important. You can't say that you have mastered the language without any one of them, Listening, one of the means of language communication, is used most widely in people's daily lives. Giving the students a lot of listening activities is a good way of enlarging their vocabulary. On the other hand, it also helps the students improve their listening comprehension. Both listening test and listening practice are necessary, but practice is more important.You can understand your students through listening tests. Only through the practice can the students improve their listening comprehension.

2.Speaking

Speaking can't be taught separately. It is often connected with listening. So we often speak of listening and speaking. After all, the aim of the language learning is to communicate.

3.Reading

Reading is an important way of gaining information in foreign language learning, It is a basic skill for a foreign language learner. There is a lot of reading exercises in an examination today. But all these readings must be done in limited time. So students are asked to read them correctly and with a certain speed. To do this, you should change your bad reading habit and raise your reading efficiency.

4.Writing

Writing is one way of providing variety in classroom procedures. It provides a student with physical evidence of his achievements and becomes a course whereby he can measure his improvement. It helps to consolidate the students' grasp of vocabulary and structure, and complements the other language skills.

III. conclusion

While you are training these four skills, you'd better make full use of your teaching instrument use varieties of ways to stimulate the students' interests.

Generally speaking these four skills can't be separated. People often say "First listening and speaking, then reading and writing". That's right. But I think this way of saying is fit for the beginning stage. For a senior middle school student, reading and writing is more important.

Before you are going to have a new lesson, do reading and writing first. Ask students to read the text in advance, and do some exercises connected with the text.

Listening and speaking are the major ways while teaching the new lesson. Be sure to let the lesson go on in a foreign language situation.

You can ask the students questions about the text, do some discussion, check the students' homework. This helps students raise their ability of listening and speaking. It also helps to understand or comprehend the text and the sentences.

Through small-group and computer-based instruction, ongoing review with peers and conferences with the teacher,