LISTENING AND SPEAKING Yuleyzi Márquez Junio, 05 de 2012.

UNIVERSIDAD SIMON BOLIVAR DECANATO DE ESTUDIOS DE POSTGRADO

COORDINACION DE POSTGRADO EN LINGÜÍSTICA APLICADA

LISTENING AND SPEAKING

Yuleyzi Márquez

Junio, 05 de 2012

TECNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM AND THE TEACHING

OF LANGUAGE SKILLS

LISTENING AND SPEAKING

***

TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

HISTORY

-1950’s 1960’s ------------Listening laboratory

-1980’s ------------------------Personal computer

- Computer-assisted language learning (CALL)

TECNOLOGICAL AIDS

-Commercially produced CDs

-Commercially Produced videos

-Self-made CDs

-Self-made videos

-Overhead projection, among others.

CALL

What are some of the benefits of the use of the so called CALL?

***

-Multimodal practice with feedback

-Individualization in a large class

-Pair and small group work on projects, either collaborative or competitively

-The fun factor

-Variety in the resources available and learning styles used

-Exploratory learning with large amounts of language data

-Real-life skill- building in computer use (Brown, D 2001)

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

“Given that communicative competence is the goal of a language classroom, instruction needs to point toward all its components: organizational, pragmatics, strategy and psychomotor .Communicative goals are best achieve by giving due attention to language use and not just usage, to fluency and not to accuracy, to authentic language and context , and to student’s eventual need to apply classroom learning to previously unrehearsed contexts in the real world” ( Brown, D 2001 p. 68 )

LISTENING SKILL

“ The importance of listening language learning can hardly be overestimated. Through reception, we internalize linguistic information without with we could not produce language” ( Brown, D 2001 p. 247)

LISTENING SKILL

Listening Comprehension in Pedagogical Research

-Total Physical Response (TPR). James Asher

-Natural Approach. Stephen Krashen

Pedagogical research was focused on the role of listening comprehension in the late 1970’s and showed evidence of the importance of input (comprehensible input), and intake.

LISTENING SKILL

Teaching Comprehension in Pedagogical Research

Later pedagogical research showed the effect of contextual characteristics such as text, interlocutor, task, listener ,and process characteristics.

LISTENING SKILL

Listening as an Interactive Process

Listening comprehension is an interactive process. According to Clark and Richards it contains eight processes:

- The hearer processes raw speech.

- The hearer determines type of speech.

- The hearer infers speaker’s objectives

- The hearer recalls background information

LISTENING SKILL

Listening as an Interactive Process

- The hearer assigns literal meanings to utterances

- The hearer assigns and intended meaning to the utterances he/she hears.

- Then, he/she determines whether the information should be retained in short or long term memory.

- Finally, The hearer deletes the form in which the message was received and retains what is important.

LISTENING SKILL

Types of Spoken Language

-Monologue (planned, unplanned )

Difficult easy

to understand

LISTENING SKILL-Types of Spoken Language

-Dialogue ( interpersonal, transactional)

Promotes social relationship To convey factual

information

LISTENING SKILLWhat makes listening difficult?

There are some factors of spoken language which second language learners need to pay special attention to because they influence the processing of speech which is crucial for having comprehension Such factors are: clustering, redundancy, reduced forms, performance variables, colloquial language, rate of delivery, stress rhythm and intonation.

LISTENING SKILLType of Listening Performance in the Classroom

The knowledge of different types of listening performance is crucial for teachers , that is what students do in a listening technique ,in order to select what to use .These are:

-Reactive

-Intensive

-Responsive

-Selective

-Extensive

-Interactive

LISTENING SKILL

Type of Listening Performance

Reactive: Technique in which a learner listens to the surface structure of an utterance and repeats it back to the teacher.

Intensive: Technique that focus on components of discourse (phonemes, words, discourse, markers, etc).Here students just single out elements of spoken language ( bottom-up skills are included here)

LISTENING SKILLType of Listening Performance

Responsive: Short stretches of teacher language

designed to elicit answers.(questions, commands,etc)

Selective: The student scans material for certain information . The goal is to find important information in a field of distracting information

Extensive: The aim in this case is a top-down global understanding of spoken language, and to get a comprehensive message or purpose

LISTENING SKILL

Type of Listening Performance

Interactive: This listening performance can include all five of the above as learners participate in conversations, role play; among others. Listening should be integrated with speaking and other skills

LISTENING SKILL

Principles for Designing Listening Skills

- Do not overlook those techniques directly related to the development of listening skill.

- Use techniques that are motivated to our students.

-Use authentic language and contexts.

-Consider the form of listener’s responses since comprehension is not externally observable.

-Encourage the development of listening strategies in order to help students learn by their own.

-Include both bottom-up and top-down listening techniques

-Consider the level of proficiency.

SPEAKING SKILL

Some factors studied previously such as type of spoken language , factors that make listening difficult and listening microskills are closely related to the oral code and consequently to the teaching of speaking too.

The interaction of listening and speaking performance apply strongly to conversation

SPEAKING SKILLOral Communication Skills in Pedagogical Research

Conversational Discourse:

According to Richards :

“…The goals and the techniques for teaching conversation are extremely diverse, depending on the student, teacher, and overall context of the class” ( Brown, D p.268)

Research on the area has provided some parameters for the design of objectives and techniques

SPEAKING SKILLOral Communication Skills in Pedagogical Research

Teaching Pronunciation:

Most of people are not going to acquire foreign- like accent ,but emphasis on pronunciation is necessary

Accuracy and fluency

In the mid to late 1970’s some teachers turn away from accuracy (clear, articulated, grammatically and phonologically correct) in favor to natural language (flowing, natural)activities in the classroom ,but recent research has highlighted the importance of both .

SPEAKING SKILLOral Communication Skills in Pedagogical Research:

Affective Factors:

Because of the language ego ( you are what you speak) .Learners are reluctant to be judged by hearers and sometimes avoid speaking. Teachers should encourage students to speak.

The Interaction Effect :

The biggest difficulty of students is the interactive nature of communication). According to David Nunan:

SPEAKING SKILL

Oral Communication Skills in Pedagogical Research

“…what he calls interlocutor effect, or the difficulty of a speaking task as gauged by the skills of one’s interlocutor. In other words, one learner’s performance is always colored by that of the person( interlocutor) he or she is talking with.” ( Nunan in Brown, p.269)

SPEAKING SKILL

What Makes Speaking Difficult?

The same factors of spoken language that make listening difficult should be considered here , but this time taking into account that the producer is the student. Those factors are: clustering, redundancy, reduced forms, performances variables, colloquial language, rate of delivery, stress, rhythm and intonation and interaction.

SPEAKING SKILLTypes of Classroom Speaking Performance

Imitative:

Learners can practice intonation contour or try to identify a vowel sound. The purpose here is to focus on some particular element of language. Meaning is not important here.

Intensive

Any speaking performance that is designed to practice some phonological or grammatical aspect of language.

SPEAKING SKILLTypes of Classroom Speaking Performance

Responsive:

Students speech consist on replies to teacher or student-initiated questions. This answers are enough and do not require a dialogue.

Transactional (dialogue):

The purpose is to exchange specific information. Dialogues are predominant here and can be part of a group work activity.

SPEAKING SKILLTypes of Classroom Speaking Performance

Interpersonal (dialogue):

This kind of dialogue has the purpose of maintaining social relationship. It can involve some of the following factors: a casual register, colloquial language, emotionally charged language, slang, ellipsis, sarcasm, a covert agenda

SPEAKING SKILLTypes of Classroom Speaking Performance

Extensive (monologue):

At intermediate to advanced levels students give extended monologues in the form of reports, summaries or speeches. These monologues can be planned or un planned, but most of the time are formal.

SPEAKING SKILLTeaching Conversation

Two approaches are involved in current teaching conversation : An indirect and a direct approach

Indirect Approach to Teaching Conversation

Students acquire conversational competence by participating in meaningful tasks .

Direct Approach to Teaching Conversation

A direct approach calls students attention to conversational rules, conventions and strategies

SPEAKING SKILLTeaching Pronunciation

Since audiolingualism, pronunciation component has been a key factor, but in different ways. Current approaches have highlighted its importance and its features “… stress, rhythm and intonation are given high priority. Instead of teaching only the role of articulation within words, or at best, phrases, we teach its role in a whole stream of discourse( Brown, p.283)

The way in which sounds are organized is more important because that affects understanding.

SPEAKING SKILLTeaching Pronunciation

Factors that affect pronunciation

The following factors are related to learners

Native Language:

Because of the lack of a sound in the mother tongue language system ,pronunciation of a sound in L2 can be troublesome.

SPEAKING SKILLTeaching Pronunciation

Factors that affect pronunciation

Age:

According to The Critical Period Hypothesis there is a biological timetable and beyond the age of puberty is more difficult to acquire a foreign-like accent. Children under this age are likely to acquire a foreign like accent if they are expose to the language in authentic contexts.

SPEAKING SKILLTeaching Pronunciation

Factors that affect pronunciation

Exposure:

Exposure has to do not only with living in a foreign country, but with taking advantage of living with people. The quality and intensity of exposure is more important than the length of time .

SPEAKING SKILLTeaching Pronunciation

Factors that affect pronunciation

Innate Phonetic Ability :

Some people are more talented than others or have a good “ear” for language.

Identity and Language Ego:

One’s attitude towards target language speakers . Students need not to be afraid of the second identity that may be emerging within them.

SPEAKING SKILLTeaching Pronunciation

Factors that affect pronunciation

Motivation and Concern for Good Pronunciation

Motivation is a crucial factor in learning a language . We teachers, can help students to perceive or develop that motivation how clarity of speech is very significant in shaping their self- image and reaching some other goals.

**

CONCLUSION

There are several factors involved in the teaching and learning of listening and speaking that we as teachers should take into consideration at the time of planning our classes.

Technology is a topic in vogue and a wonderful tool which can help us to mediate the process of learning of our students. There are not specific recipes for incorporating technology in the classroom. There is a range of t tools that varies from PC to E-mails that we can use taking into account students needs and goals of the class.

**

REFERENCES

Brown, D. (2001). Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy United States of America. Pearson Education.