Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Research Background

Listening, speaking, reading and writing are the most essential linguistic skills inlanguage teaching. Among those four language skills, listening skills has been one ofthe most important means of input. Listening plays a significant role in daily lifecommunication since information has acquired from listening process in differentperspectives, such as listening to the news, listening to the English songs. One theother hand, listening test has accounted for 35% of the whole English test in CET 4(College English Band 4) and CET 6 (College English Band 6) since 2006, whichalso indicates the importance of improving listening skills. Therefore, listening hasbecome one of the main focuses in English education in Chinese universities. Notonly the English-major students but also the non-English major students have one ortwo listening classes (according to the investigation in listening class plan in SISU)each week during the four-year learning. Moreover, listening textbooks are theguidance to the listening teaching, which indicates the importance of listeningmaterial arrangement. However, there are still a lot of problems in listeningtextbooks which directly affect the current level of listening teaching, such aslistening material incoherence, the difficulty in listening comprehension and learners’motivation in material learning.

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1.2 Research Objectives

The current four kinds of listening materials are analyzed through theiradvantages and disadvantages. Moreover, the questionnaire investigates the listeningmaterial application in class. The thesis tries to put forward the principle of listeningmaterial designs with the NF model and propose teaching procedures in listeningclass with narrative approach according to the combination of NF model listeningmaterial so as to improve the quality of current listening teaching. Along with the research of the listening material design and the teachingapplication in narrative approach in listening class, the quantitative and qualitativestudies have been carried out. The quantitative research is presented in the form ofquestionnaire survey and interview for both teachers and students. In the process ofdata collection, the result is presented as the percentage. While the qualitativeresearch is on analyzing the current listening materials which are used in SISU (SiChuan International Studies University) for non-English majors in the second year.At last, some merits and demerits of current listening materials are concluded and anNF model is proposed to design listening material for college English.

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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 The Nature of Listening

Listening can be defined in different time periods. In the 1920s and 1930s,listening was defined as an unconscious process controlled by the hiding cultural“schemata” because of improving knowledge of the human brain. In the 1940s, withthe development of the new industry in telecommunications, information-processingwas the new scientific frontier. Therefore, listening was defined as the successfultransmission and “messages” transmissions. In the 1950s, computer was invented.Listening was defined as an analysis input to store and retrieve effective information.In the 1960s, with the rise of transpersonal psychology, listening is includedheuristics for understanding the speaker’s intention (Michael Rost, 2005). In the1970s, the definition of listening was performed as explaining the speech behaviourin the cultural significance. In the 1980s and 1990s, because the computer softwarecould deal with different quantities and types of data, listening was defined as theparallel processing of input. In the early 1990s, with the increasing of the recordingtechnology, acoustic phonetics was an important breakthrough in communicativeresearch.

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2.2 Different Approaches to Listening Material Designing

Broadly speaking, syllabus plans the experience of learning in the pedagogicsystem. Specifically, syllabus arranges the course content through selecting,sequencing and justifying, which also influences the content selection and languageteaching (Murcia, 2001). According to the different teaching methods betweensynthetic approach and analytic approach, Wilkins (1976) divided syllabus intosynthetic syllabuses and analytic syllabuses. Based on the division of Wilikins,Nunan (1988) divided syllabus into product-oriented syllabuses and process-orientedsyllabuses according to the different perspectives of the teaching content andteaching object in his book named Syllabuses Design. The main syllabuses in recentyears are the situational syllabus, notional-functional syllabus, and task-basedsyllabus. Different syllabus is related to different teaching approach, which directlyinfluence the selection and design of listening material.

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Chapter Three Theoretical Background of Narratology: .........12

3.1 Introduction of Narratology .....13

3.1.1 Influence of Narratology.......13

3.1.2 Previous Studies on Narrative Approach ..........15

3.2 NF Model in Listening Material Designing.........17

3.3 Summary......27

Chapter Four Mixed Methods Research ......28

4.1 Quantitative Analysis of Students’ Opinions on Listening Materials.....29

4.2 Qualitative Analysis of Current English Materials in China ....39

4.3 Summary......42

Chapter Five Principles of Designing English Materials in a NF way.........42

5.1 Principles of Designing Listening Material Based on NF model ....44

5.2 Examples of Material Designing ....53

5.3 Applications in Language Teaching.......56

5.4 New Requirement ......58

5.4.1 Requirement for Teachers .....58

5.4.2 Requirement for Students .....59

5.4.3 Situational setting ..........59

5.5 Summary......60

Chapter Five Principles of Designing English Materials in a NFway

With the effective supplement of frame theory in narrativization, theimprovement of NF listening material designing is necessary in the area of Englishteaching. Listening materials are the important tools in listening teaching, which actas the guide in the real language education. On the other hand, the arrangement ofNF model in listening material design should take into account. Through combingthis, NF model can apply in listening teaching to improve learners’ listening learningdesire and their ability of text understanding.Revising listening materials is a hard work for the material designer to fulfilltheir satisfaction. The listening materials design needs to combination with thetheory of linguistics, pedagogy, psychology, philosophy etc. Because of applicationof multimedia materials in listening teaching, listening materials on paper are closelymatched with record, network, video and any other teaching tools.Developing listening materials is a complex task. It includes various aspects ofitems. First, listening material design is related to syllabus, which follows the reformof education. Second, it is about the materials. Material arrangement should bematched in the NF model. Third, situational setting should be planned according tothe listening materials, which tries to activate the real environment in listening class.Fourth, listening activity should be also taken into consideration for arousinglearners’ interests and strengthen the memory. Finally, listening strategy is also a keylearning point in analyzing listening materials and improving the ability ofunderstanding. Those five aspects are the basic principles in designing listeningmaterials in the way of NF model.

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Conclusion

The NF theory is based on the combination of narrativization and frame theory.The concept of narrativization is developed from the aspect of narratology. Becauseof the deficiencies of narativization in material such as discursiveness and materialincohesion, frame theory can make the narrativization within the certain scope. Thenarrative approach is the recent application in language teaching and the basic theoryof this approach is the narrativization. Narrativization can strengthen Englishlearners’ listening understanding ability and arouse their interests in listening class.The NF material is arranged with the cognitive process. Therefore, the syllabus of theNF listening material is sythentic from different material teaching process. Thelistening activity and the listening strategy are also designed to apply NF listeningmaterial. Besides, the teaching procedure is also presented in listening class in theaspect of pre-listening part, while-listening part and post-listening part with narrativeapproach. Teachers and learners both are required to their task in each teachingprocess.

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Reference (omitted)