观看英文电影对大学生英语听说能力的影响

毕业设计（论文）
题目：观看英文电影对大学生英语听说能力的影响The Impact of Watching English Films on
College S tudents’ English Listening and
Speaking______
学生姓名：叶志美
学号：0807060222
专业班级:
指导教师：
学院:
观看英文电影对大学生英语听说能力的影响
摘要
本研究考察了观看英文电影对大学生英语听说能力的影响。

研究以广东白云学院的学生为对象，通过问卷调查、资料采集和比较分析等方法对观看英文电影对大学生英语听说能力的影响进行调查，依据百分比率对调查结果进行分析。

在探讨观看英文电影与大学生英语听说能力的相关性的同时，也分析了中国学生学习英语的现状，从而指出观看英文电影对大学生英语听说能力的影响。

本研究发现：观看英文电影对大学生英语听说能力的提高有着积极的促进作用。

因为通过观看英文电影能够更大地激发其对英语学习的兴趣，从而使得其听说能力在不知不觉中得到提高，这样也使“观看英文电影”成为集实用性、文化性和趣味性于一体的手段来提高大学生英语听说能力。

本文的研究结果对日后大学生英语听说能力的提高有一定的促进作用。

关键词：观看英文电影；英语听说能力；影响
THE IMPACT OF WATCHING ENGLISH FILMS ON COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LISTENING AND
SPEAKING
ABSTRACT
This research examines the impact of watching English films on the college students’English listening and speaking. And the research first examined in Guangdong Baiyun University. The questionnaires, information collections and contrast were required to investigate the impact of watching English films on the college students’ English listening and speaking and the percentage rate was used to analyze the data and results. The research not only discusses the relevance of watching English films and college students’ English listening and speaking, but also analyzes the current situation of Chinese students’English learning, therefore we pointed out the impact on improving college students’English listening and speaking. The finding of this research: watching English films plays a positive role in improving college students’English listening and speaking. As watching English films can easily arouse college students’interest in learning English, so their English listening and speaking skills get improvement without notice. Watching English films is becoming a more practical, more cultural and more interesting way to enhance college students’English listening and speaking. The results of the research are beneficial to the improvement of college students’ English listening and speaking skills.
Key Words: watching English Films; English Listening and Speaking; impact
Contents
1．Introduction (1)
1.1 The Importance of English Listening and Speaking (1)
1.2 Need of the Study (1)
1.3 Purpose of the Study (3)
2. Current Situation of Chinese Students’ English Learning (3)
2.1 Mainly Embodiments (4)
2.1.1 Mute English (4)
2.1.2 Exam-oriented English (4)
2.2 Main Reasons of Mute English and Exam-oriented English (5)
2.2.1 The Lack of English Language Environment (5)
2.2.2 Restrictions of Chinese Teaching and Learning Mode (5)
3．Research Design and Methodology (8)
3.1 Research Questions (9)
3.2 Subjects (9)
3.3 Research Designs and Treatments (10)
3.4 Data Analysis (11)
4. The Research Findings (14)
4.1 The Reasons of Watching English Films have Impacts on College Students’ English Listening and Speaking (14)
4.1.1 Different Styles of Using Words between Western Countries and China (14)
4.1.2 Different Mindset and Culture between Western Countries and China (14)
4.2 How to use English Films on Improving English Listening and Speaking (16)
4.2.1 Conversation and Scenarios Simulation (16)
4.2.2 Topic Discussion (16)
5. Conclusion (17)
5.1 Summary (18)
5.2 Suggestion (18)
Bibliography (18)
Acknowledgements (19)
Appendix (20)
1．Introduction
1.1The Importance of English Listening and Speaking
As our society has rapidly developed and the international exchange has constantly expanded and deepened, the international relationship is becoming closer and closer. English became the most widely used language in the world and the most important way to communicate with different countries among the foreign trades, therefore the demand of high proficiency in English increases gradually, especially the skills of English listening and speaking. The more proficient you are in English, especially in English listening and speaking, the more easily you can succeed in your career. That is one of the reasons why English listening and speaking becomes more and more important.
As we all know, there are also many other ways people can use to communicate with foreign traders, not only English, but English is the most effective way to communicate with different people from different countries simultaneously. For example, when you take part in an international conference or a lecture which hold for people from different countries, English must be the first choice.
Moreover, English, as a language, its true aim is communication. So only understanding what the foreigners talking about is not enough, we have to communicate with them, then we can learn more about their culture, their feeling and understand their real meaning, so the mistakes can be avoided as much as possible.
For so many reasons above, high proficiency in English listening and speaking is very important, necessary and essential.
1.2 Need of the Study
On one hand, English listening and speaking is very important, not only for your job, your trades but also for your life. Because we may meet foreigners in our daily life, listen to English songs, watch English films, or read English magazines. But when we do the things above, I don’t know how much we can really understand without misunderstandings. So we have to improve our English listening and speaking in an effective way otherwise we cannot
enjoy ourselves or devote ourselves in that wonderful English world.
On the other hand, as for us, the college students, we have to take part in many different kinds of test, such as the CET4, CET6, TEM4, TEM8, TOEFL, IELETS…… Listening is an essential section in that kind of exams, which is also the main reason leads to so many college students cannot pass the exam successfully, even though they did listening exercises again and again before the test. For this reason, more and more college students lost their confidence and gave up.
And one more important thing is that we began learning English since we were little children, which was a really long period which lasted over ten years, and now we are college students. As a formal situation, when people keep doing or practicing something, they will be good at it for certain, like the saying “More practice, more perfect.” But as for our Chinese college students, the result turns out oppositely. Not all of us who with over ten years English learning experience can speak English fluently. Most of us learn English and know English for a really long time, but also few of us can understand thoroughly when we talk with somebody else in English or cannot express our real meaning
Therefore we have to find an effective way to improve our English listening and speaking, which can catch attention, arouse interest and be full of enjoyment during taking the exercise. After the research, I found that watching English films is one of the effective ways to improve college students’English listening and speaking. Because English films have attractive stories, interesting characters, special roles, unique situation, specific culture background, different themes and different styles, which can catch college students’ attention, arouse college students’ interest and passion in practicing, and makes entertainment, learning into one. Furthermore college students can also know more customs and culture styles through watching English films which can be a great help to avoid the culture shocks, reduce misunderstandings and provide a good chance to get used to the normal speed of native English speakers.
In order to validate whether watching English films is an effective method to improve college students' English listening and speaking or not, we must study the impact of the watching English films on col lege students’ English listening and speaking. And what kind of impact does it have in improving college students’ English listening and speaking.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study as following:
First, we would like to analyze the current situation of Chinese students’ English learning, and to find out the reasons of Mute English and Exam-oriented English.
Second, we would like to find out the reasons why watching English films have influence on college students’ English listening and speaking.
Third, we would like to do the questionnaires to draw a conclusion that watching English films have active and huge impacts on improving college students' English listening and speaking.
Finally, in order to maintain and mend the daily study of improving college students’English listening and speaking, all of us devote our mind to study how to use English films to improve college students’ English listening and speaking, not only for entertainment.
And the aim of this study is to provide the impacts of watching English films for improving college student’s English listening and speaking.
2. Current Situation of Chinese Students’ English Learning
2.1 Mainly Embodiments
With the fierce competition of society, English becomes more and more important in social interaction and career development. At the same time, with a pressure of school education, English learning is not only the mission for adults, but also for children. Therefore, more and more parents who adhere to the rules “English learning should start from baby” “Cannot lose at the starting line”enforce their children to learn English. In their mind, the earlier you begin to learn English, the more easily you will succeed, and the higher score you get in the exam, the more easily you can get into the best school then you can get a good job. So no matter the teachers or the parents are only pay attention to the test and the score, the so-called English test capabilities, as a result, neglect the comprehensive ability of English, which made mute English and exam-oriented English appeared.
2.1.1 Mute English
Mute English is a kind of study that pays extreme attention to written English and neglects oral English under the traditional English teaching method and teaching mode of training English students’ ability.
That is to say, Mute English means somebody who learns English for a long period but cannot communicate well with others in English or somebody who understands every word of an article, but fails to read them out fluently and correctly. Just like the dumb who knows everything but cannot speak it out to express their real thoughts because of their disability.
2.1.2 Exam-oriented English
Exam-oriented English is a kind of English which treats exam and score as the purpose of learning and overlooks the English comprehensive skills. That is, Exam-oriented English learners often get a high score and perform perfectly in different kinds of exam. Moreover, they will study the question types, and mark out the key points of different kinds of exam. In a word, they only focus on the test and the certificates.
They often meet many difficulties and get into trouble, if they put what they have learned into use in the daily life. As they always put a great deal of emphasis on grammar, they need a long time to compose a perfect sentence which is match with the grammar, so they cannot
speak it out fluently without thinking.
2.2 Main Reasons of Mute English and Exam-oriented English
In the contemporary society, everyone learns English and we watch English advertising on TV, read English newspaper every day, so in daily life we get a lot of chances to get in touch with English. That is to say, everyone knows English, the difference is that you know more or less, you are proficient or ordinary. On this premise, why Mute English and Exam-oriented English still exist? Why is this? After investigated, we found the main reasons as follow:
2.2.1 The Lack of English Language Environment
Li Yang (2008)pointed out that learning English not only need to speak out, but also need to speak loudly and frequently. [1]
Let us recall our mother languages’ learning process. Since we were born, our parents and the people around us talk in our mother language every day. And they are always trying to communicate with us no matter whether we understand or not, as a result, our language ability gradually formed during that process. So, as for the language learners a good language environment is very important, which provides the chance to speak loudly and frequently, which can be a great help on improving their listening and speaking skills.
For college students, the training of English listening and speaking is extremely important. We need more practices on English listening and speaking to get improvement after understanding. However, we seldom communicate with others in English because there is no good English language environment. As we all know, people in daily life only use their mother language to communicate with others, if you speak English at that time, they will feel strange and laugh at you. Because of this, for most college students can only practice speaking English during having lessons, but the fact is that the time of classes is very limited, not long enough for everybody to express their ideas.
Besides, after class, it is a hard job to find someone who is willing to do the practice together. In the end, things we learned from classes cannot put into use except having lessons.
So the lack of English language environment is one of the reasons of Mute English and Exam-oriented English.
2.2.2 Restrictions of Chinese Teaching and Learning Mode
During the three months I stayed in America, my American friends always asked me a question that why Chinese people are always quiet even in an exciting party. In my mind, this kind of impression has a close relationship with Chinese traditional teaching and learning mode.
First, the Fixed Education Mode.
Chinese traditional English education gives priority to reading and writing. The first contact of English in learning process is the words and texts, we do not need to speak out and then is complicated and changeable grammar, the last is the pronunciation and intonation.
In the traditional English class, the teachers give lessons about grammar and language points on the podium in Chinese while the students sit in the seat and pay attention to write down notes. This is the obvious embodiments of Mute English and Exam-oriented English.
Curriculums of university must be in a strict accordance with the scheduled teaching plan under the Chinese traditional teaching mode. College English teaching does not have that kind of lessons which reserved exclusively for English listening and speaking, due to the insufficient of teacher resources and hardware facilities. So college students’training of English listening and speaking is very limited because of the lack of systemic teaching material, the limited practice and time of class.
In addition, the pressure of tests keeps increasing all the time. For instance,first, the pressure forces teachers and students to put the exam-oriented education in the first place, and treat passing the exam as the first mission and the only purpose. Some colleges even set the rule that you cannot graduate or cannot get the degree until you pass CET4, CET6 in your college life. Second, most of employers are willing to hire people with CET4 or CET6 certificate rather than others without them. Under this kind of internal and external pressure, the college students pay more and more attention to “test”, because you can graduate only when you pass CET4, then you can get degree certificate successfully and get a satisfactory job.
In fact, a large number of college students want to improve their English abilities when they first entered the college, however, because of Exam-oriented Education, they can only take more time to recite words, learn grammar or try to do exercises as much as they can.
So most of college students have no enough time to practice oral English, or do listening trainings. As a result, what they have learned in the listening and oral English classes is Mute English and Exam-oriented English.
Second, the Fixed Mindset.
When we were little kids in the primary school, teachers kept telling and reminding us that good student should behave and keep silent in the class. If we cannot help talking with somebody during the class and the teacher noticed, then we will be blamed in the class immediately and loudly and we will be punished after school, which made us feel shamed and become afraid of speaking. So students noticed that if you do not want to be punished, the best way is to keep silent and keep writing down notes. This situation keeps passing on no matter in middle school or high school. Under this kind of the traditional teaching mode, students are getting used to listening instead of speaking. Therefore Chinese classes are quiet, because Chinese students already got used to keeping silent when having lessons, even in oral English class. There are just a few students perform actively in communicating with the foreign teacher, most of them just listen silently and carefully.
That is the Fixed Mindset of Chinese students. That is why Chinese college students prefer to listen to the teacher rather than talk with them even in the oral English class.
Furthermore, refers to the Brief Talk of the English Films’Common Use in English Listening Teaching written by Xu Xiangying and Huang Ruying(2009),as our mother language is Chinese, we think in Chinese mode certainly. This is the difference between Chinese Mindset and English Mindset. So when communicating with somebody in English, we also speak English with Chinese mode. That is the main reason why most students feel that it is difficult to understand some sentences with all simple words. [2]
In a conclusion, the Fixed Education Mode and the Fixed Mindset are the restrictions of Chinese Teaching and Learning Mode which made Chinese students’English listening and speaking difficult to improve. But English is a language whose aim is to communicate. So we only know how to write articles or learn English only for test is not enough, the ability of English listening and speaking is very important and necessary. As a result, we have to find out an effective way to improve English listening and speaking.
3．Research Design and Methodology
3.1 Research Questions
The study is mainly focus on the following:
(1) How important is English listening and speaking？
(2) Why is the English listening and speaking so important?
(3) How is the current situation of Chinese students’ English learning?
(4) What are the embodiments of current situation of Chinese students’ English learning?
(5) How is the ability of Chinese students’ English listening and speaking?
(6) Why did the current situation appear?
(7) What are the effective ways in improving English listening and speaking?
(8) What is the relationship between watching English films and college students’English listening and speaking?
(9) Why watching English films is the most effective way in improving college students’English listening and speaking?
(10) What are the differences between the classroom learning and the learning from watching English films?
(11) Which is college students’ favorite way to improve English listening and speaking?
(12) What are stude nts’ attitudes on improving English listening and speaking through watching English films?
(13) How to develop and conduct to cultivate college students’English listening and speaking through watching English films?
Therefore, based on this survey, we could find out whether watching English films is an effective way in improving college students’ English listening and speaking skills.
3.2 Subjects
Table 3-1 Students Participating in the Questionnaire
The targets of the questionnaire are students from Guangdong Baiyun University. There are 175 students involved in this survey. Among them 23 are male students and 152 are female students. They are from the Foreign Languages Department, majoring in English.
There are six classes in total; three classes of juniors and three classes of sophomores are chosen as the participants in the questionnaire.
3.3 Research Designs and Treatments
(1) Questionnaire: This questionnaire is based on the thesis of Learning in Second Language Acquisition written by O’ Malley J, Chamot A(1990)[3] .
The design of the questions is based on some of the Learning in Second Language Acquisition. So the questionnaire is both of reliability and validity.
We sent the brief relevant questionnaires about the impacts of watching English on improving college students’ English listening and speaking to the students, and asked them to answer questions, so we get the related materials and information indirectly.
(2) Literature: Literature is a method to gather and analyze multifarious subsistent relevant literature and articles, choose the information, to achieve and accomplish specific research purpose, which also named historical literature. This is an effective way to select the appropriate materials of given theme in voluminous article, also an effective way to make suitable analysis and use the materials in the article.
(3) Interview: interviewers have the discussions or individual conversations with their oral English teachers or other teachers about how to improve English listening and speaking. The purpose is to find out an effective way to improve English listening and speaking.
(4) Data analysis: we analyzed the collective data by percentage rate. Then we can find out the relevance and impacts of watching English films on college students’listening and speaking.
3.4 Data Analysis
We knew the situation of college students’English listening and speaking through questionnaires which on below list:
Table 3-2 Sur vey of Students’ English Listening and Speaking（%）
As table 3-2 shows students who participated in the questionnaire and with more than ten years English learning experience only have a general level of English listening and speaking. The number of who can totally understand what the foreigners said is 4 among 175, only takes up 2.3%. The number of students who is able to communicate with foreigners fluently in English is only 5 among 175, takes up 2.7%. And the number of college students who did not found difficulty in expressing their real ideas in English is 18 among 175, takes up only 10%. In the end, we found out most of the students who participated in the questionnaire cannot understand and express the real meanings without difficulties.
Table 3-3 S tudents’ Opinions on the Impacts of Watching English Films （%）
Figures from table3-3 shows that the students ’ opinions on the impacts of watching English films. Firstly, 66.3% of students have the habit of watching English films frequently. Only 1.7% of them do not watch English films in their daily life. So it means that most of college students like watching English films in their spare time. Secondly, according to table 3-3 we know that most of the students from Guangdong Baiyun University agreed with the opinions that watching English films is a great help in improving English listening and speaking. That means watching English films can be an effective way to improve college students ’ English listening and speaking. Finally, watching English films not only can improve their English listening and speaking, but also can enlarge their English vocabulary which
helps to know how to describe something in local and native way, and helps to understand sentences more thoroughly.
Table 3-4 The Students’ Favourite Ways in Improving English Listening and Speaking （%） There are so many ways for students to improve their English listening and speaking, such as listening classes, CET4/6 listening trainings, watching English films, listening to English songs …... But we can learn from the table3-4, 83.4% of the students want to enhance their English listening and speaking through watching English films, listening English songs is 71.4%, both watching English films and listening English songs are more relaxing and entertaining ways to be a training way in improving English listening and speaking. As a contrast, the percentage of listening classes and CET4/6 listening training is only about 20%. So we can draw a conclusion that college students are fond of improving English listening and speaking through the more interesting, attractive and entertaining ways. Thus watching
English films can be an effective way to enhance college students’English listening and speaking skills.
Table 3-5 T he Students’ Comments on improving English Listening and Speaking skills through
Watching English Films
Table3-5 suggests that watching English films has advantages in improving college students’ English listening and speaking. As watching English films not only can arouse and increase the interest of learning, but also can provide a better environment for practicing English listening and speaking with the fixed theme and situation. The last but the most important one is that English films can provide more standard pronunciation and the local sayings, which can be a great help for students to learn more about the unique culture and the different mindset, then students can understand more easily and without misunderstandings. In a word, students agree that watching English films have great and active impacts on their English listening and speaking.
4. The Research Findings
4.1 The Reasons of Watching English Films have Impacts on College Students’ English Listening and Speaking
We can conclude the reasons why watching English films has impacts on college students’English listening and speaking from the figures of questionnaire in the following sections.
4.1.1 Different Styles of Using Words between Western Countries and China
The traditional teaching mode and traditional English classes are purposeful. That is to say, the English which we learned from the texts is purposeful, planned and organized. They aim at getting a good score, a high rate of outstanding performances and passing the exams, then, they can achieve the target and goal of the teaching plans. So we are getting far from the purpose of completing and widening the content of college lessons, improving the students’English listening and speaking, broadening their knowledge and enriching their lives.
As a result, most of college students can only use the words for tests, cannot express their real meanings with the words in common use. Furthermore, most of Chinese students recognize or understand the single and simple meaning of one word. Once they know that meaning, they use that word with the fixed meaning only. So when some foreigners communicate with us in the simple sentence which with simple words, not each student can real understand it. This situation is due to the different styles of using words between western countries and China.
We know and learn the word choices from watching English films. As the specific topics and situations in the English films which are the helpful materials to get to know the English style of using words, so we can know more about the western habits of using words and understand them more easily. Moreover, watching English films is the easiest way to arouse the interest in learning English, and the most effective way to catch students’ attention, then our English listening and speaking improved without conscious.
4.1.2Different Mindset and Culture between Western Countries and China
The English abilities include five different kinds of capabilities. They are Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing and Translation.
“Listening” is listed as the NO.1 among the “five abilities”. “Listening” is the first step for learning any language. And “Speaking” is based on listening. “Speaking” is the basis for learning a language and is the essential, convenient and valid way to achieve the most important purpose that communicating with others. That is one of the reasons why learning English becomes more and more important. As we all know, only being able to “speak correctly”, we can thoroughly express personal thoughts, opinions and the real ideas, and is beneficial to let others understand more easily.
But in China, it is totally opposite. After the research, we found that we paid first and most attention to writing, reading and test. And during the three months I stayed in America, I found that they do not mind whether you can read or write correctly. The only thing they minded is whether you could express your real meanings in the way everybody understands. Also, our Chinese students always think about the grammar and the rules before speaking, we are afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at. But foreigner does not agree with this point, in their daily life they do not mind the grammar or the rules; they just say out what they want to say and try to make themselves understood. Once they made mistakes, they just corrected and remembered. They do not really care about what others thinking about themselves. They dare to make mistakes, and also, they are brave to accept the corrections from others, because it is also an effective way for them to remind themselves. These are due to the different mindset and culture between English countries and China.
As Li Yang (2008)said that let's love losing face. That means if you want to get improvement, please do not be afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at, as a contrary, please be fond of losing face and making mistakes which can be a great help for you to speak bravely and fluently. [1]
Meanwhile, Long Qianhong(2003) said that English films showed us the authenticity of communication scenes from our daily life, so it can be a kind of good learning materials for the English learners, also watching English films is an important and more interesting means of understanding western culture.[4]
We know and get used to the different mindset and culture between English and Chinese。