Abstract:English plays an important role in the modern society. It is widely in the world. In China, English is learned as a foreign language but learners have few opportunities for speaking and listening. Thus the emphasis of learning is the development of reading. The students are good at grammar, but they are poor in listening. Many teachers have now realized the importance of listening. They pay more attention to students' listening skill in their English teaching, but they also meet with some difficulties in improving the students' listening skills. On the one hand, because homonymy produces confusion forms of words and affects students' listening comprehension. On the other hand, homonymy produces humorous effects. And the effect of homonymy for listening is often neglected. The paper will explain the definitions and effects of homonymy, analyze the effects of homonymy on listening and point out the ways and skills to resolve these effects caused by homonymy.
Keywords: homonymy; listening; effect; importance; teaching