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With reference to the present English teaching status and the existing problems， such as senior students’ interest in English learning decreasing gradually and English teaching failing to successfully improve students’ English competence in practice， I will mainly focus on how to inspire senior students’ interest in learning English and improve their English competence.
English competence basically consists of listening， speaking， reading and writing. Here I mainly focus on the senior students’ competence of listening and speaking. As listening and speaking are related closely to each other， they should not be separated in teaching. Listening is a course of input while speaking is an output course. It requires a large amount of practice not only in class but also after class.
Key words： inpire interest improve competencelistening and speaking
1Introduction
English teaching is one of the fundamental tasks in China. But some problems still exist in the senior students’ English learning process. For example， some students don’t have the interest or have lost the interest gradually during the course of learning English； most of the students cannot express themselves freely and speak or write in English fluently or clearly after many years’ English learning. That is to say， the students’ practical competence is not satisfactory at least. To solve these problems， I would like to share my opinion about inspiring senior students’ interest and improving their English competence in language use.
2The ways to maintain senior students’ interest in learning English
2.1 How to inspire senior students’ passion
Then how to inspire student to learn English with great passion and insistent interest？ The key is to make them feel it’s interesting and fantastic during the learning process.
To make an English class full of energy， imagination and passion is very necessary and fundamental according to an expert in educational field. He once said that the teaching process in class can be a significant potential power. Only if the bounce of both the teacher and the students was evoked out completely and effectively， could there be a real life in class. Actually， the teaching in class is a basic way and a stereotype of the all-round development education which put emphasis on the fulfillment of students’ development. Therefore， we are forced to think about how to create a class which can draw the student’s full attention successfully. 2.1.1 Activate the students in class
We should begin a class with interest. As the saying goes “Well begun is half done”. We can adopt many ways of beginning such as a revision of the new words before teaching the new text， an introduction about the background given by the teacher for a preview of brief retelling of the text， a discussion between students about some instructive questions according to the context or a performance directed by a group of students before class， and so on. With a simple question and a familiar topic given， you will find your students interested in seeking the answers passionately. For example， the teacher could ask a question like “what is the first word or expression appearing in your mind when you hear or see the word soccer”. To make an assumption， the numbers of students’ answers will increase. After that， the teacher can list the different answers as more as possible on blackboard in order to make a conclusion. The teacher will point out the list had nearly covered the content of the text which is going to be taught. We can safely make a guess that it will be quite easy and effective to handle the theme of it.
2.1.2 To diversify the methods
In order to make the teaching style flexible， you have to diversify the methods and activate senior students’ sense of both listening and speaking. To make it clear， we can accomplish that in the following steps：
（1） Build up a new structure of the context in students’ mind by drawing it on blackboard. Learning can be significantly effective if you follow the process in which your brain is working or memorizing. Mind maps， a tree-shaped picture with different colors and symbols which is the right example of the scientific method and simply show the structure of the whole passage. Here is the procedure of building up a picture of many relationships： ①Mark the topic which is usually the article’s title on the central part of blackboard；②Draw the branches which can symbolize every part of the article；③Record the key point simply by a word， a phrase or a mark；④Put the relative contents into the same branch；⑤Distinguish the different contents with different colors；⑥Circle the branch one by one when it was finished；
（2）Try to teach in a style from all directions. To make it clear， we should adopt a new system to teach the students by putting their eyes， ears， mouths and hands using. In fact， the psychological research has shown that people would be tired and bored if they were forced to keep one posture consistently. However， a new teaching pattern like the way of listing key words and drawing branches could inspire their energy and keep them listening carefully and passionately. 2.1.3 Importance of senior students； participation
Senior students’ explorations should be vigorous， their thoughts should be wide and deep as well as their understandings should be creative to some degree. According to the long-term research organized by some educators such as Karol and Broom， on which focused the students’ participation in class shows that：①teaching activities should be evaluated by the situation of students participation； ②students’ participation is incarnated by the period of time which a senior student spend actively； ③the opportunities and motivation of learning are keys to students’ participation；④teaching directly resulted in the transformation from opportunities to motivations. If a senior student has a clear and certain motivation， his participation activities would be communicative and his learning effectiveness would be obvious. As a teacher， we should call out students’ subjectivety thoroughly and make them think positively， evoke their stored language and guide them express themselves freely as well as sharing thoughts clearly. Take an example for that， if the given topic is “improving your study habits”， the teacher should ask students to call their old knowledge to the full and understand the passage as more as possible. Then you can ask them to share their learning habits and evaluate them with different partners when finishing listing their own methods. In addition， you can organize a debate about it. Students must read the text with a good understanding and even be in the way to achieve the goal of efficiency.
2.2 Enhance the students English competence in listening and speaking
So far， present education of all-round development just fits for the requirements of Information Age. For instance， it pays more attention to students’ language competence in practical use， upholds individual’s diversity developmental status， puts enough respect on every student and encourages them to acquire knowledge in the whole life. Views from Communicative Language Teaching believe the improvement of the senior students all-round ability must be the goal of English teaching. Only by doing that， English can be a real tool for every student in his further study course.
Listening and speaking are two closely related aspects of the four basic skills. How to train students’ listening and speaking achieve the goal to both the students’ and society’s content？
It’s significantly important for students to learn English in a good language environment including a soft and a hard one. The former means creating an English conversational environment and pormoting interests and delights for students to improve and develop themselves. The latter one means the effective trying to hang up pictures or posters with English words on the wall， editing English articles or magazines， taking part in “English Corners”， memorizing English names of different foods and objects， and so on. Encourage students to formulate a steady English study habit. Take the Report-giving performance for example. We can tell the student who is on duty to give a report that his topic could be extended， and the form could be flexible such as telling a joke， a piece of news， a story， or something else. After his program， other students can comment on it and make an evaluation. By this way， students will be excited by the competition. And they would be familiar with and be pleasant to learn what you are going to start if you give the class a brief introduction about the background knowledge. Besides， text retelling is another effective way to practice speaking competence. To realize it in a better way， you can group the class and hold a competition among them. After a long-time training practice and teacher’s proper guidance， students’good habits of listening and speaking will be formed.
The ultimate goal of study is to apply the knowledge. A teacher should particularly train the students and improve thier ability in class. For example， aiming at making a sentence， we can make an assumption like “what are you going to be when you grow up？” Students would answer willingly and frankly. Then we ask”why？” to help them think widely and response differently. In addition， we can create an atmosphere first and then ask them to read， practice or perform the text. When students are put into a real condition， they would imitate the action， facial expression according to film， TV， and so on. Therefore， book knowledge is realized in a live way， teaching activities are activated.
3Conclusion
To sum up， evoking senior students’ interest and making them become interested in English learning are might be the key to open the door of handling English freely in real sense. Only by learning English with interest， students will be possible to achieve a good reault. In addition， the improvement of language competence especially in listening and speaking is a realizing of English learning.
Bibliography：
[1]Halliday， M.A.K.（1973）， Explorations in the Functions of Language， London： Edw and Arnold.
[2]Nation， I.S.P.（1995）， Teaching， Listening and Speaking， Wellington； ELT Occasional Publication， p.15
[3]Wang Qiang， （2007）， A Course in English Language Teaching，.7， Beijing： The Higher Education Press.
[4]胡春洞、王才仁主編，王才仁著；《教学交际论》，广西教育出版社1996年版
English competence basically consists of listening， speaking， reading and writing. Here I mainly focus on the senior students’ competence of listening and speaking. As listening and speaking are related closely to each other， they should not be separated in teaching. Listening is a course of input while speaking is an output course. It requires a large amount of practice not only in class but also after class.
Key words： inpire interest improve competencelistening and speaking
1Introduction
English teaching is one of the fundamental tasks in China. But some problems still exist in the senior students’ English learning process. For example， some students don’t have the interest or have lost the interest gradually during the course of learning English； most of the students cannot express themselves freely and speak or write in English fluently or clearly after many years’ English learning. That is to say， the students’ practical competence is not satisfactory at least. To solve these problems， I would like to share my opinion about inspiring senior students’ interest and improving their English competence in language use.
2The ways to maintain senior students’ interest in learning English
2.1 How to inspire senior students’ passion
Then how to inspire student to learn English with great passion and insistent interest？ The key is to make them feel it’s interesting and fantastic during the learning process.
To make an English class full of energy， imagination and passion is very necessary and fundamental according to an expert in educational field. He once said that the teaching process in class can be a significant potential power. Only if the bounce of both the teacher and the students was evoked out completely and effectively， could there be a real life in class. Actually， the teaching in class is a basic way and a stereotype of the all-round development education which put emphasis on the fulfillment of students’ development. Therefore， we are forced to think about how to create a class which can draw the student’s full attention successfully. 2.1.1 Activate the students in class
We should begin a class with interest. As the saying goes “Well begun is half done”. We can adopt many ways of beginning such as a revision of the new words before teaching the new text， an introduction about the background given by the teacher for a preview of brief retelling of the text， a discussion between students about some instructive questions according to the context or a performance directed by a group of students before class， and so on. With a simple question and a familiar topic given， you will find your students interested in seeking the answers passionately. For example， the teacher could ask a question like “what is the first word or expression appearing in your mind when you hear or see the word soccer”. To make an assumption， the numbers of students’ answers will increase. After that， the teacher can list the different answers as more as possible on blackboard in order to make a conclusion. The teacher will point out the list had nearly covered the content of the text which is going to be taught. We can safely make a guess that it will be quite easy and effective to handle the theme of it.
2.1.2 To diversify the methods
In order to make the teaching style flexible， you have to diversify the methods and activate senior students’ sense of both listening and speaking. To make it clear， we can accomplish that in the following steps：
（1） Build up a new structure of the context in students’ mind by drawing it on blackboard. Learning can be significantly effective if you follow the process in which your brain is working or memorizing. Mind maps， a tree-shaped picture with different colors and symbols which is the right example of the scientific method and simply show the structure of the whole passage. Here is the procedure of building up a picture of many relationships： ①Mark the topic which is usually the article’s title on the central part of blackboard；②Draw the branches which can symbolize every part of the article；③Record the key point simply by a word， a phrase or a mark；④Put the relative contents into the same branch；⑤Distinguish the different contents with different colors；⑥Circle the branch one by one when it was finished；
（2）Try to teach in a style from all directions. To make it clear， we should adopt a new system to teach the students by putting their eyes， ears， mouths and hands using. In fact， the psychological research has shown that people would be tired and bored if they were forced to keep one posture consistently. However， a new teaching pattern like the way of listing key words and drawing branches could inspire their energy and keep them listening carefully and passionately. 2.1.3 Importance of senior students； participation
Senior students’ explorations should be vigorous， their thoughts should be wide and deep as well as their understandings should be creative to some degree. According to the long-term research organized by some educators such as Karol and Broom， on which focused the students’ participation in class shows that：①teaching activities should be evaluated by the situation of students participation； ②students’ participation is incarnated by the period of time which a senior student spend actively； ③the opportunities and motivation of learning are keys to students’ participation；④teaching directly resulted in the transformation from opportunities to motivations. If a senior student has a clear and certain motivation， his participation activities would be communicative and his learning effectiveness would be obvious. As a teacher， we should call out students’ subjectivety thoroughly and make them think positively， evoke their stored language and guide them express themselves freely as well as sharing thoughts clearly. Take an example for that， if the given topic is “improving your study habits”， the teacher should ask students to call their old knowledge to the full and understand the passage as more as possible. Then you can ask them to share their learning habits and evaluate them with different partners when finishing listing their own methods. In addition， you can organize a debate about it. Students must read the text with a good understanding and even be in the way to achieve the goal of efficiency.
2.2 Enhance the students English competence in listening and speaking
So far， present education of all-round development just fits for the requirements of Information Age. For instance， it pays more attention to students’ language competence in practical use， upholds individual’s diversity developmental status， puts enough respect on every student and encourages them to acquire knowledge in the whole life. Views from Communicative Language Teaching believe the improvement of the senior students all-round ability must be the goal of English teaching. Only by doing that， English can be a real tool for every student in his further study course.
Listening and speaking are two closely related aspects of the four basic skills. How to train students’ listening and speaking achieve the goal to both the students’ and society’s content？
It’s significantly important for students to learn English in a good language environment including a soft and a hard one. The former means creating an English conversational environment and pormoting interests and delights for students to improve and develop themselves. The latter one means the effective trying to hang up pictures or posters with English words on the wall， editing English articles or magazines， taking part in “English Corners”， memorizing English names of different foods and objects， and so on. Encourage students to formulate a steady English study habit. Take the Report-giving performance for example. We can tell the student who is on duty to give a report that his topic could be extended， and the form could be flexible such as telling a joke， a piece of news， a story， or something else. After his program， other students can comment on it and make an evaluation. By this way， students will be excited by the competition. And they would be familiar with and be pleasant to learn what you are going to start if you give the class a brief introduction about the background knowledge. Besides， text retelling is another effective way to practice speaking competence. To realize it in a better way， you can group the class and hold a competition among them. After a long-time training practice and teacher’s proper guidance， students’good habits of listening and speaking will be formed.
The ultimate goal of study is to apply the knowledge. A teacher should particularly train the students and improve thier ability in class. For example， aiming at making a sentence， we can make an assumption like “what are you going to be when you grow up？” Students would answer willingly and frankly. Then we ask”why？” to help them think widely and response differently. In addition， we can create an atmosphere first and then ask them to read， practice or perform the text. When students are put into a real condition， they would imitate the action， facial expression according to film， TV， and so on. Therefore， book knowledge is realized in a live way， teaching activities are activated.
3Conclusion
To sum up， evoking senior students’ interest and making them become interested in English learning are might be the key to open the door of handling English freely in real sense. Only by learning English with interest， students will be possible to achieve a good reault. In addition， the improvement of language competence especially in listening and speaking is a realizing of English learning.
Bibliography：
[1]Halliday， M.A.K.（1973）， Explorations in the Functions of Language， London： Edw and Arnold.
[2]Nation， I.S.P.（1995）， Teaching， Listening and Speaking， Wellington； ELT Occasional Publication， p.15
[3]Wang Qiang， （2007）， A Course in English Language Teaching，.7， Beijing： The Higher Education Press.
[4]胡春洞、王才仁主編，王才仁著；《教学交际论》，广西教育出版社1996年版