Abstract: As English becomes more and more important in our life, the English listening ability is called upon to be higher and higher. Since the average level of college students’ listening ability is low, we conduct a series of surveys to find out the reasons. Thus we find that too easy and boring listening practice in the textbooks, lower learning interest and motivation level as well as poor phonetic basis lead to the fact. At the same time, we find that the students are fond of English movies, which are said to be good teaching materials for English learners. So another survey which shows the likes and learning methods of the students towards English movies is done. All the data collected will help to lay foundation for further study.