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关于小学生英语听力培养的几个问题
江苏省扬州市广陵区教育局教研室 龚海平
听是分辨和理解话语的能力,即听并理解口语语言含义。这也是小学生英语听力培养的出发点和归宿。那么,怎样培养小学生的英语听力呢?这里,本文就此问题作以下探讨。
一、听什么
“听什么”是培养小学生的英语听力必须首先要解决的问题。“听什么”的问题,实际上是一个语料呈现的问题。它不仅指教师应该向学生提供什么样的语料,还指教师所提供的语料以什么样的程序和方式进行呈现。这个问题如果处理不好,势必影响小学生听英语的兴趣,并且会因违反教学规律而挫伤小学生练习英语听力的积极性和自信心。
1. 立足教材内容,组织听力语料。
听力语料立足于教材内容并不意味着完全机械地照搬教材,它可以是教师对教材处理后的听力语料(如例1),也可以是教师选取的与教材语言知识和词汇量相当的语料(如例2)。这里以《新儿童英语》(English Steps)第四册Lesson One中的课文为例,设计了如前所说的两种呈现方式。
原文:It's Saturday today. Tom and Jack don't go to school. They are walking in the street.
In front of a big store they meet Mike. Mike is Tom's friend. But Jack doesn't know him. Tom and Jack want to play cards with Mike. But Mike is not free. His grandmother is ill in hospital. He has to go to see her.
例1:Look at the tall boy, please. His name is Jack. The boy beside him is Tom. Tom and Jack are classmates.
Today is Saturday. They are free. They are walking in the street.
There is a big store in the street. In front of it, they meet Tom's friend Mike. They ask Mike to play cards with them. But Mike has to go to see his grandmother, for she is ill in hospital.
例2:Look at the picture, please. There is a boy in the picture. He is David. David likes swimming very much. He often goes swimming with his classmates when they are free.
Today is Sunday. But David is very busy. He doesn't go swimming. He gets up early in the morning and stays at home, for he has to finish his homework today.
David's mother sits in a sofa beside him and reads a magazine. David's father is out. He plays chess with his workmates.
不难看出,“例1”中的听力语料实际上是根据课文的内容、在不改变课文原来意思的基础上改写、加工而成的,语言的难度系数与原文完全对等,只是在语言表达方式上作了一些分解或合成处理。“例2”的听力语料则是在遵循语言知识、语言结构和词汇量基本对等原则的基础上由教师自行编写而成的。如果说“例1”侧重于考查学生听懂与课文内容难度一致的语料的能力,那么“例2”则对学生英语听力水平的提高更有意义,因为它不仅通过有机组合以前已经学过的语言知识和词汇使其语言信息量明显地超过了“例1”,而且要求学生在听力训练的过程中利用已有语言知识,推测出其他生词(如:学生已经学过“work”一词,也已经学过“classmate”一词,要求学生根据“classmate”一词的词义推断生词“workmate”的词义)。可以认为,“例2”比“例1”更有利于培养和提高学生对所听语料的理解能力。当然,这并不是说“例2”就比“例1”更优越,在教学实践上,“例1”的模式可用于基础性训练,而“例2”的模式则可较多地用于能力提高训练。
2. 满足学生兴趣,选编听力语料。
实践证明,机械的、单纯的重复性的听力训练或不加选择地运用听力语料对学生的英语听力水平的提高非但没有什么益处,反而有可能会使学生感到厌倦乃至丧失对英语学习的兴趣。《英语课程标准(实验稿)》把“激发和培养学生学习英语的兴趣”作为英语课程开设的首要任务提了出来。由此可见,对学生进行英语听力训练时一定要满足他们的学习兴趣。在听力语料的选编上既要考虑到学生的现有语言能力,考虑到所选编的英语听力语料本身是否与教学对象的心理和生理发展水平相适应,是否有利于学生的语言能力的进一步发展,更要考虑到所选编的英语听力语料是否具有一定的意义和趣味性。那种把成年人英语听力强化训练的方法用来培养小学生英语听力的做法是不可取的。
不可否认,目前适合小学生进行英语听力训练的既有意义、又有趣味性的语料还很少见。由于小学生的英语语言知识和词汇量十分有限,直接照搬英语原文作为听力语料往往是不可能的。教师当然可以自行编写一些英语听力语料,但是,为了保证听力语料的语言地道和减少教师的备课工作量,似乎应更多地采用对英语原文进行改写的办法。在改写的过程中,教师需要做的工作主要有三:一是根据听力训练的需要,对原文在长度上作一些适当的扩写或缩写;二是对原文的句子结构进行灵活调整,分解那些超出学生语言认知发展水平的、有可能影响学生听力理解的句子(如例3),并对那些语言难度系数较低、语义分散的单句作一些合成处理(如例4);三是利用学生已知词汇来替换原文中的生词(如例5)或在保留原文句子意思的基础上对原句进行改写(如例6),以扫除学生在生词理解上的障碍,提高英语听力训练的效率。
例3:
原文:Balzac, a famous French writer, was proud of his ability to tell a person's character by his or her handwriting.
分解:Balzac was a famous French writer. He could tell your character when he saw your handwriting. And he was proud of it.
例4:
原文:It was a Friday evening. Mr Coy went to a concert.
合成:One Friday evening, Mr Coy went to a concert.
例5:
原文:Mr Brown is a wealthy man.
替换:Mr Brown is a rich man.
例6:
原文:He's quite well off.(“well”和“off”对小学生来说都不是生词,但当它们构成了“well off”时便产生了与其独立使用情况下完全不同的意思,即“富裕的”、“有钱的”。)
改写:He is rich.
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