Reading Strategies

Reading StrategiesDifferences between reading skills and reading strategies

A reading strategy is a plan or way of doing something; a specific procedure one uses to perform a skill (Hollas, 2002). The skills of a strategic reader in the content areas can be broken down into seven areas (Hollas, 2002):1. Predict – declaring in advance or to foretell on the basis of observation and/or experience.2. Visualize – forming mental pictures of scenes, characters and events.3. Connect – to link two things together or to associate and see a relationship.4. Question – to inquire or examine.5. Clarify – to make understandable or to become clear and free of confusion.6. Summarize – to concisely obtain the essence or main point of the text.7. Evaluate – to form an opinion about what you have read.

These seven areas can be linked to various strategies to improve the effectiveness of each reader. The “predicting, visualizing and connecting” areas are implemented as before reading strategies. The “question and clarification” areas are implemented as during reading strategies whereas, “summarizing and evaluating” are implemented as after reading strategies. The goal of the teacher is to help students apply reading strategies to become effective readers.Before Reading StrategiesPredicting, visualizing and connecting are before reading strategies used in activities to spark an interest in reading. These particular strategies are used to promote interest and involvement in the upcoming assignment. Predicting, visualizing and connecting strategies help to activate any prior background knowledge so that the learner can begin to make a connection to the reading. Good learners always begin a text with a purpose, a reason for reading (D’Arcangelo, 2002). The before reading strategies are illustrated as follows:

Word Splash (Appendix I) helps build student interest and involvement in reading.This particular strategy emphasizes vocabulary skills. One should begin this activity by “splashing” a collection of key terms or concepts from the reading selection at angles on anoverhead. Next, ask the students to write complete sentences that predict how the terms arerelated to the topic. Students are allowed to work individually or in groups, then sharing thefinal results. This particular strategy is implemented at the beginning of a new story. Thisactivity can also be used with newspaper articles, which allows the students to make their ownword splash using vocabulary from the article.

Word Map (Appendix II) is a word categorization activity. This helps the studentsdeepen their understanding of concepts and vocabulary words by expanding on definitions.Word mapping helps students learn unfamiliar words and concepts by expanding wordmeanings and discovering relationships. Students develop elaborated definitions of wordsand concepts rather than one or two word definitions. The components of a word map mightinclude a definition, characteristics, synonyms and antonyms, examples, and sentences toshow understanding, parts of speech and drawings. Word Map has been associated withgraphic organizers due to the organization of the information.

KWLWH (Appendix III) chart is one of the most successful strategies suggestedthroughout research. This chart is commonly used consistently throughout the reading lessonbeginning with students predicting and connecting new information. KWLWH chart breaksdown the comprehension strategies into five columns. Students answer the followingquestions throughout the lesson:

1. What do you think you know?2. What do I want to learn?3. What did I learn?4. What else do we need to learn?5. How will I find out?

During Reading StrategiesQuestioning and Clarification are strategies used by the reader that will help reinforce

their comprehension and maintain self-interest. These particular strategies help the readers engage personally and respond to the text, consolidate ideas, and find a reason for the sequence of information. Examples of these strategies include making graphic organizers, semantic maps, marginal notes and drawing pictures (D’Arcangelo, 2002).

Reading is an informative process that requires active engagement. The more the student is actively thinking while reading, the more they feel like participants in the learning process. When the student feels that they are in control of their own learning and not what the teacher controls, then active learning takes place. The during reading strategies are illustrated as follows:

Sticky Note Symbols (Appendix IV) is one of the most popular strategies. This activity teaches students to focus on what they are reading and to deepen their understanding. Students use post-it notes during the reading process and write down questions or comments, or placing the note in a particular area with an arrow.

Selective highlighting (Appendix V) is a strategy that helps students select what is important in the text. Specific steps are taught to distinguish critical information from information that is not critical. This strategy is in line with the sticky notes. At one time, many of the textbook companies would not accommodate this particular strategy. However, with the research, textbook companies are beginning to accommodate by printing an extra student handbook called the Interactive Reader. Students can highlight sentences, paragraphs or words that they have questions about or they can highlight answers to the pre-reading questions they have asked during the KWLWH session. Once the reading is completed, the after reading strategies are implemented to give a true understanding of what the student just read.After Reading Strategies

Hollas (2002) states that the students should think about the text they have read and organize their thoughts to create a visual representation of the text. Therefore, summarizing and evaluating are strategies used by the student to thoroughly understand what they have just read. Many of the students should begin to recall information from the text allowing the evaluating process to occur. Relating differently to the author, the ideas of the text and applying knowledge to other content areas should show the student success in the reading comprehension process. The after reading strategies are illustrated as follows:

Picture This (Appendix VI) is a strategy that emphasizes visual representation. Students work together as a team to think about the text they have read and organize their thoughts to create a visual representation of the text. Students make book jackets to illustrate their understanding of the story. This activates class discussion on creativity, artwork and the important points of what they have just read.

Graphic Organizers (Appendix VII) give the students graphic representations of the relationship that links together facts, vocabulary, and concepts of texts. Graphic organizers come in many variations. They are designed to organize ideas, represent abstract ideas in more concrete ways, and to help students store and recall information.

ConclusionFlanagan (1996) contends that students with reading difficulties lack the necessary

reading strategies for efficient comprehension in content areas. The before, during, and after reading strategies indicated by research have been proven to help students with a longer lasting knowledge of the content areas. The successes of these three strategies rely on the teacher’s willingness, patience and persistence to actively engage the learning process at every opportunity. The teacher’s willingness allows the increase of lasting knowledge of information instead of “intellectual bulimia” – memorize and regurgitate (Flanagan, 1996). The teacher’s patience and persistence depend on the relationship with their students. Kids do not care how much we know until they know how much we care (Bell 2003).Hollas, B. (2002). Teaching your below-grade level students how to become strategicreaders. Professional Development Inservice attended on October 16 at the Radisson Hotel inKnoxville, Tennessee.Jelinek, A., (2000). Thirteen Strategies to Improve Reading Performance. Retrieved January17, 2002 from http://www.education-world.comMora, J.K., (2000). Teaching Concepts and Vocabulary - Principles and Strategies. RetrievedJanuary 17, 2002 from http://coe.sdsu.eduMora, J.K., (2000). Reading in the Content Area: Study Guide and Vocabulary Activities.Retrieved January 17, 2002 from http://coe.sdsu.eduNewman, T. (2000, January). Accountability strategies for reading. Schools in the Middle,9(5), pp.30-32.Olson, S., (1999). Word Wall Activity List. Retrieved February 22, 2002 fromhttp://www.teachers.net

Teaching Listening

(http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/developlisten.htm)

(©2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map | about NCLRC | contact NCLRC )

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening

Focus: The Listening Process

To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather than on its product.

They develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they listen in their native language.

They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using authentic listening tasks.

They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener rather than as a teacher.

When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the listening purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.

They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their listening assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete listening tape assignments.

They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use immediately after completing an assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.

They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies by using the target language to conduct classroom business: making announcements, assigning homework, describing the content and format of tests.

They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of listening task or with another skill.

By raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active engagement, and by explicitly teaching listening strategies, instructors help their students develop both the ability and the   confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom. In this way they give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new language.

Integrating Metacognitive Strategies

Before listening: Plan for the listening task

Set a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed

Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)

During and after listening: Monitor comprehension

Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses Decide what is and is not important to understand

Listen/view again to check comprehension

Ask for help

After listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use

Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area Evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of listening tasks

Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task

Modify strategies if necessary

Using Authentic Materials and Situations

Authentic materials and situations prepare students for the types of listening they will need to do when using the language outside the classroom.

One-Way Communication

Materials:

Radio and television programs Public address announcements (airports, train/bus stations, stores)

Speeches and lectures

Telephone customer service recordings

Procedure:

Help students identify the listening goal: to obtain specific information; to decide whether to continue listening; to understand most or all of the message

Help students outline predictable sequences in which information may be presented: who-what-when-where (news stories); who-flight number-arriving/departing-gate number (airport announcements); "for [function], press [number]" (telephone recordings)

Help students identify key words/phrases to listen for

Two-Way Communication

In authentic two-way communication, the listener focuses on the speaker's meaning rather than the speaker's language. The focus shifts to language only when meaning is not clear. Note the difference between the teacher as teacher and the teacher as authentic listener in the dialogues in the popup screens.

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Teaching Listening

Developing Listening Activities

As you design listening tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the information in an aural text is an unrealistic expectation to which even native speakers are not usually held. Listening exercises that are meant to train should be success-oriented and build up students' confidence in their listening ability.

Construct the listening activity around a contextualized task.

Contextualized listening activities approximate real-life tasks and give the listener an idea of the type of information to expect and what to do with it in advance of the actual listening. A beginning level task would be locating places on a map (one way) or exchanging name and address information (two way). At an intermediate level students could follow directions for assembling something (one way) or work in pairs to create a story to tell to the rest of the class (two way).

Define the activity's instructional goal and type of response.

Each activity should have as its goal the improvement of one or more specific listening skills. A listening activity may have more than one goal or outcome, but be careful not to overburden the attention of beginning or intermediate listeners.

Recognizing the goal(s) of listening comprehension   in each listening situation will help students select appropriate listening strategies.

Identification: Recognizing or discriminating specific aspects of the message, such as sounds, categories of words, morphological distinctions

Orientation: Determining the major facts about a message, such as topic, text type, setting

Main idea comprehension: Identifying the higher-order ideas

Detail comprehension: Identifying supporting details

Replication: Reproducing the message orally or in writing

Check the level of difficulty of the listening text.

The factors listed below can help you judge the relative ease or difficulty of a listening text for a particular purpose and a particular group of students.

How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or instruction conform to familiar expectations? Texts in which the events are presented in natural chronological order, which have an informative title, and which present the information following an obvious   organization (main ideas first, details and examples second) are easier to follow.

How familiar are the students with the topic? Remember that misapplication of background knowledge due to cultural differences can create major comprehension difficulties.

Does the text contain redundancy? At the lower levels of proficiency, listeners may find short, simple messages easier to process, but students with higher proficiency benefit from the natural redundancy of the language.

Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly differentiated? It is easier to understand a text with a doctor and a patient than one with two doctors, and it is even easier if they are of the opposite sex. In other words, the more marked the differences, the easier the comprehension.

Does the text offer visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the listeners hear? Visual aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images in a video help contextualize the listening input and provide clues to meaning.

Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view.

The activities chosen during pre-listening may serve as preparation for listening in several ways. During pre-listening the teacher may

assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their comprehension of

the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge that the students possess

clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage

make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening

provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or class discussion activities

Sample pre-listening activities:

looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures

reading something relevant

constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing how they are related)

predicting the content of the listening text

going over the directions or instructions for the activity

doing guided practice

Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose, and students' proficiency level.

While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them do during or immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these points in mind when planning while-listening activities:

If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow them to read through it before listening. Students need to devote all their attention to the listening task. Be sure they understand the instructions for the written task before listening begins so that they are not distracted by the need to figure out what to do.

Keep writing to a minimum during listening. Remember that the primary goal is comprehension, not production. Having to write while listening may distract students from this primary goal. If a written response is to be given after listening, the task can be more demanding.

Organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text. Combine global activities such as getting the main idea, topic, and setting with selective listening activities that focus on details of content and form.

Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of the whole. Before the listening activity begins, have students review questions they will answer orally or in writing after listening.   Listening for the answers will help students recognize the crucial parts of the message.

Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen. Do a predicting activity before listening, and remind students to review what they are hearing to see if it makes sense in the context of their prior knowledge and what they already know of the topic or events of the passage.

Give immediate feedback whenever possible. Encourage students to examine how or why their responses were incorrect.

Sample while-listening activities

listening with visuals filling in graphs and charts

following a route on a map

checking off items in a list

listening for the gist

searching for specific clues to meaning

completing cloze (fill-in) exercises

distinguishing between formal and informal registers

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Listening Skills

http://www.d.umn.edu/kmc/student/loon/acad/strat/ss_listening.html

The average college student spends about 14 hours per week in class listening (or perhaps I should say "hearing"--there is a difference!) to lectures. See if you can improve your listening skills by following some of the strategies below:

Maintain eye contact with the instructor. Of course you will need to look at your notebook to write your notes, but eye contact keeps you focused on the job at hand and keeps you involved in the lecture.

Focus on content, not delivery. Have you ever counted the number of times a teacher clears his/her throat in a fifteen minute period? If so, you weren't focusing on content.

Avoid emotional involvement. When you are too emotionally involved in listening, you tend to hear what you want to hear--not what is actually being said. Try to remain objective and open-minded.

Avoid distractions. Don't let your mind wander or be distracted by the person shuffling papers near you. If the classroom is too hot or too cold try to remedy that situation if you can. The solution may require that you dress more appropriately to the room temperature.

Treat listening as a challenging mental task. Listening to an academic lecture is not a passive act--at least it shouldn't be. You need to concentrate on what is said so that you can process the information into your notes.

Stay active by asking mental questions. Active listening keeps you on your toes. Here are some questions you can ask yourself as you listen. What key point is the professor making? How does this fit with what I know from previous lectures? How is this lecture organized?

Use the gap between the rate of speech and your rate of thought. You can think faster than the lecturer can talk. That's one reason your mind may tend to wander. All the above suggestions will help you keep your mind occupied and focused on what being said. You can actually begin to anticipate what the professor is going to say as a way to keep your mind from straying. Your mind does have the capacity to listen, think, write and ponder at the same time, but it does take practice.

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Prereading

Strategies

...to be beneficial,

our reading must be

carefully directed

Annaeus Lucius Seneca

Roman,, 4 BCE - 65 AD

* Reading critically

* Prereading strategies ◄

* SQ3R reading method

* KWL reading method

* Reading difficult material

* Taking notes from a text book

* Reading assignments in science

* Reading essays

* Interpretive reading

* Reading fiction

* Speed & comprehension

* Marking & underlining

What you bring to the printed page

will affect how you understand what you read,

and may be what is most important in understanding what you read

Organize yourself before you read

Strategies to activate your prior knowledge:

Brainstorming:

Examine the title of the selection you are about to read

List all the information that comes to mind about this title

Use these pieces of information to recall and understand the material

Use this knowledge to reframe or reorder what you know, or to note what you disagree with, for further research

Group discussions:

Group discussions in and out of class will help you to discover what you bring to your reading, what your fellow students bring, as well as shared experiences

If you find they have new background information, ask for more information from them

Concept or mind mapping:

This is a type of brainstorming where you place the title/subject as the main idea,

then develop a "mind map" around it. It can be effective either in a group or by yourself

Pre-questions:

Often chapters in texts provide organizing questions.

You can also write out a series of questions you expect to be answered when reading:

Examples:

Definition

What is....?

Where does ... fit?

What group does ... belong to? Characteristics

How would I describe...?

What does ... look like?

What are its parts?

Examples

What is a good example of ...?

What are similar examples that share attributes but differ in some way? Experience

What experience have I had with ....?

What can I imagine about ...?

Visual Aids:

Pictures and other visual material can activate your prior knowledge.

Use the Internet to search for pictures related to your title/topic to give you visual images of what you are about to read.

Advance Organizers:

Relate new reading material to something you already know, to your background or experiences.

Ask your teacher for assistance in developing these.

Additional Prereading Strategies:

Overviews:

Discussing information about the selection or assignment prior to reading must take place.

This may take the form of class discussions, printed previews, photographs, outlines, or films. Spend enough time before the students begin the assignment to ensure understanding of it.

Vocabulary Previews:

Unfamiliar key words need to be taught to students before reading so that new words, background information, and comprehension can improve together.

List all words in the assignment that may be important for students to understand. Arrange words to show the relationships to the learning task. Add words students probably already understand to connect relationships between what is known and the unknown. Share information with students. Verbally quiz them on the information before assigned reading begins.

Structural Organizers: Before reading an assignment, basic frameworks which are included in the text should be pointed out such as cause-effect or problem-solution. It can be beneficial to call attention to specific plans of paragraph or text organization such as signal words, main idea sentences, highlighted phrases, headings and subtitles. A review of skimming techniques might also be appropriate as these various areas are covered.

A Purpose for Reading: When students have a purpose for reading a selection, they find that purpose not only directs their reading towards a goal, but helps to focus their attention. Purposes may come from teacher directed questions, questions from class discussions or brainstorming, or from the individual student. Along with the question, it is a good idea to pose predictions of the outcome and problems which need to be solved. These may be generated by the student or the teacher, but the teacher should use these to guide students in the needed direction for the assigned selection.

Author Consideration: Depending upon the content area, a discussion of the author of the particular work can be helpful to the understanding of it. What is the author trying to say? What is his point of view and his reason for writing the particular work?

KWL: This strategy consists of three steps for students to use with expository text:

What do I Know? What do I Want to learn? What did I Learn?

A good strategy for group discussions.

Develop a three column poster with each question in a column and list out responses.

See also: K - W - L (Saskatoon Public Schools)

Adapted from

Porter, Karla, M.Ed., Prereading strategies, funded by the State Board of Education from Federal Funds, Weber State University.

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Listening

(http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/xla/ela15b.html)

Listening is more than merely hearing words. Listening is an active process by which students receive, construct meaning from, and respond to spoken and or nonverbal messages (Emmert, 1994). As such, it forms an integral part of the communication process and should not be separated from the other language arts. Listening comprehension complements reading comprehension. Verbally clarifying the spoken message before, during, and after a presentation enhances listening comprehension. Writing, in turn, clarifies and documents the spoken message.

Teachers can help students become effective listeners by making them aware of the different kinds of listening, the different purposes for listening, and the qualities of good listeners. Wolvin and Coakley (1992) identify four different kinds of listening:

* Comprehensive (Informational) Listening--Students listen for the content of the message.

* Critical (Evaluative) Listening--Students judge the message.

* Appreciative (Aesthetic) Listening--Students listen for enjoyment.

* Therapeutic (Empathetic) Listening--Students listen to support others but not judge them.

Traditionally, secondary schools have concentrated on the comprehensive and critical kinds of listening. Teachers need to provide experiences in all four kinds. For example, listening to literature read, listening to radio plays, and watching films develop appreciative in addition to comprehensive and critical listening. When students provide supportive communication in collaborative groups, they are promoting therapeutic listening. For example, the listening behaviour can show understanding, acceptance, and trust, all of which facilitate communication. Students benefit from exposure to all four types of listening.

Listening is a general purpose in most learning situations. To be effective listeners, however, students need a more specific focus than just attending to what is said. See the following chart which contrasts effective and ineffective listening habits.

Contrasting Effective and Ineffective Listening Habits

The Listening Process Assessment of Listening Informal Assessment Formal Assessment

Contrasting Effective and Ineffective Listening Habits

Effective Listeners Ineffective Listeners

Pre-listening

* Build their background knowledge on subject before listening

* Have a specific purpose for listening and attempt to ascertain speaker's purpose

* Tune in and attend

* Minimize distractions

* Start listening without thinking about subject

* Have no specific purpose for listening and have not considered speaker's purpose

* Do not focus attention

* Create or are influenced by distractions

During Listening

* Give complete attention to listening task and demonstrate interest

* Search for meaning

* Constantly check their understanding of message by making connections, making and confirming predictions, making inferences, evaluating, and reflecting

* Know whether close or cursory listening is required; adjust their listening behaviour accordingly

* Are flexible notemakers--outlining, mapping, categorizing--who sift and sort, often adding information of their own

* Take fewer, more meaningful notes

* Distinguish message from speaker

* Consider the context and "colour" of words

* Do not give necessary attention to listening task

* Tune out that which they find uninteresting

* Do not monitor understanding or use comprehension strategies

* Do not distinguish whether close or cursory listening is required

* Are rigid notetakers with few notemaking strategies

* Try to get every word down or do not take notes at all

* Judge the message by the speaker's appearance or delivery

* Accept words at face value

After Listening

* Withhold judgement until comprehension of message is complete

* Will follow up on presentation by reviewing notes, categorizing ideas, clarifying, reflecting, and acting upon the message

* Jump to conclusions without reflection

* Are content just to receive message without reflection or action

Listening requires conscious mental effort and specific purpose. The purposes for listening relate to "types" of listening:

* Are you listening to receive information?

* Are you listening to follow instructions?

* Are you listening to evaluate information?

* Are you listening for pleasure?

* Are you listening to empathize?

Students should be able to determine what their purpose should be in any given listening situation.

Undisplayed Graphic

Contrasting Effective and Ineffective Listening Habits The Listening Process Assessment of Listening Informal Assessment Formal Assessment

The Listening Process

Students do not have an innate understanding of what effective listeners do; therefore, it is the responsibility of teachers to share that knowledge with them. Perhaps the most valuable way to teach listening skills is for teachers to model them themselves, creating an environment which encourages listening. Teachers can create such an environment by positive interaction, actively listening to all students and responding in an open and appropriate manner. Teachers should avoid responding either condescendingly or sarcastically. As much as possible, they should minimize distractions and interruptions.

It is important for the teacher to provide numerous opportunities for students to practise listening skills and to become actively engaged in the listening process. The three phases of the listening process are: pre-listening, during listening, and after listening.

Pre-listening

During the pre-listening phase, teachers need to recognize that all students bring different backgrounds to the listening experience. Beliefs, attitudes, and biases of the listeners will affect the understanding of the message. In addition to being aware of these factors, teachers should show students how their backgrounds affect the messages they receive.

Before listening, students need assistance to activate what they already know about the ideas they are going to hear. Simply being told the topic is not enough. Pre-listening activities are required to establish what is already known about the topic, to build necessary background, and to set purpose(s) for listening. Students need to understand that the

... act of listening requires not just hearing but thinking, as well as a good deal of interest and information which both speaker and listener must have in common. Speaking and listening entail ... three components: the speaker, the listener, and the meaning to be shared; speaker, listener, and meaning form a unique triangle. (King, 1984, p. 177)

There are several strategies that students and their teachers can use to prepare for a listening experience. They can:

1. Activate Existing Knowledge. Students should be encouraged to ask the question: What do I already know about this topic? From this teachers and students can determine what information they need in order to get the most from the message. Students can brainstorm, discuss, read, view films or photos, and write and share journal entries.

2. Build Prior Knowledge. Teachers can provide the appropriate background information including information about the speaker, topic of the presentation, purpose of the presentation, and the concepts and vocabulary that are likely to be embedded in the presentation. Teachers may rely upon the oral interpretation to convey the meanings of unfamiliar words, leaving the discussion of these words until after the presentation. At this stage, teachers need to point out the role that oral punctuation, body language, and tone play in an oral presentation.

3. Review Standards for Listening. Teachers should stress the importance of the audience's role in a listening situation. There is an interactive relationship between audience and speaker, each affecting the other. Teachers can outline the following considerations to students:

* Students have to be physically prepared for listening. They need to see and hear the speaker. If notes are to be taken, they should have paper and pencil at hand.

* Students need to be attentive. In many cultures, though not all, it is expected that the listener look directly at the speaker and indicate attention and interest by body language. The

listener should never talk when a speaker is talking. Listeners should put distractions and problems aside.

* "Listen to others as you would have them listen to you."

4. Establish Purpose. Teachers should encourage students to ask: "Why am I listening?" "What is my purpose?" Students should be encouraged to articulate their purpose.

* Am I listening to understand? Students should approach the speech with an open mind. If they have strong personal opinions, they should be encouraged to recognize their own biases.

* Am I listening to remember? Students should look for the main ideas and how the speech is organized. They can fill in the secondary details later.

* Am I listening to evaluate? Students should ask themselves if the speaker is qualified and if the message is legitimate. They should be alert to errors in the speaker's thinking processes, particularly bias, sweeping generalizations, propaganda devices, and charged words that may attempt to sway by prejudice or deceit rather than fact.

* Am I listening to be entertained? Students should listen for those elements that make for an enjoyable experience (e.g., emotive language, imagery, mood, humour, presentation skills).

* Am I listening to support? Students should listen closely to determine how other individuals are feeling and respond appropriately (e.g., clarify, paraphrase, sympathize, encourage).

Before a speaker's presentation, teachers also can have students formulate questions that they predict will be answered during the presentation. If the questions are not answered, students may pose the questions to the speaker. As well, students should be encouraged to jot down questions during listening.

An additional strategy is called TQLR. It consists of the following steps:

T -- Tune in

(The listener must tune in to the speaker and the subject, mentally calling up everything known about the subject and shutting out all distractions.)

Q -- Question

(The listener should mentally formulate questions. What will this speaker say about this topic? What is the speaker's background? I wonder if the speaker will talk about...?)

L -- Listen

(The listener should organize the information as it is received, anticipating what the speaker will say next and reacting mentally to everything heard.)

R -- Review

(The listener should go over what has been said, summarize, and evaluate constantly. Main ideas should be separated from subordinate ones.)

5. Use a Listening Guide. A guide may provide an overview of the presentation, its main ideas, questions to be answered while listening, a summary of the presentation, or an outline. For example, a guide such as the following could be used by students during a presentation in class.

* Situation:

Speaker's name:

Date:

Occasion:

* What is the general subject of this talk?

* What is the main point or message of this talk?

* What is the speaker's organizational plan?

* What transitional expressions (e.g., firstly, secondly, in contrast, in conclusion) does the speaker use?

* Does the speaker digress from the main point?

* Write the speaker's main point in no more than three sentences.

* What is your personal reaction to the talk?

(Based on Devine, 1982, p. 33)

During Listening

Students need to understand the implications of rate in the listening process. Nichols (1948) found that people listen and think at four times the normal conversation rate. Students have to be encouraged to use the "rate gap" to actively process the message. In order to use that extra time wisely, there are several things students can be encouraged to do:

They can run a mental commentary on it; they can doubt it, talk back to it, or extend it. They can rehearse it in order to remember it; that is, they repeat interesting points back to

themselves. They can formulate questions to ask the speaker ... jot down key words or key phrases ... They can wonder if what they are listening to is true, or what motives the speaker has in saying it, or whether the speaker is revealing personal feelings rather than objective assessments. (Temple and Gillet, 1989, p. 55)

This kind of mental activity is what effective listeners do during listening.

Effective listeners:

* connect: make connections with people, places, situations, and ideas they know

* find meaning: determine what the speaker is saying about people, places, and ideas

* question: pay attention to those words and ideas that are unclear

* make and confirm predictions: try to determine what will be said next

* make inferences: determine speaker's intent by "listening between the lines"; infer what the speaker does not actually say

* reflect and evaluate: respond to what has been heard and pass judgement.

Several strategies such as the following have been developed to help teachers guide students through the listening process.

Teachers can use the Directed-Listening Thinking Activity (Stauffer, 1980). A description of this activity follows.

* Choose a story with clear episodes and action. Plan your stops just before important events. Two to four stops is plenty.

* At each stop, elicit summaries of what happened so far, and predictions of "what might happen next".

* Accept all predictions as equally probable.

* Ask the students to explain why they made particular predictions and to use previous story information for justification.

* Avoid "right" or "wrong"; use terms like "might happen", "possible", or "likely".

* After reading a section, review previous predictions and let the students change their ideas.

* Focus on predictions, not on who offered them.

* Involve everyone by letting the students show hands or take sides with others on predictions.

* Keep up the pace! Do not let discussions drag; get back to the story quickly (Temple & Gillett, 1989, p. 101).

Teachers can create listening guides to focus students' attention on the content, organization, or devices used by a speaker. The following is an example:

Sample Listening Guide

Name of student: ______________________________

Nature of spoken presentation: ___________________

Where heard: ________________________________

Name of speaker: _____________________________

# Speaker's expressed purpose:

# Qualifications of speaker:

# Main Idea(s) presented:

# Noteworthy features of presentation:

# In what ways was the talk effective? Ineffective? Why?

"Comprehension is enormously improved when the speaker's schema or organizational pattern is perceived by the listener" (Devine, 1982, p. 22). Teach students the various structures (e.g., short story, essay, poetry, play), organizational patterns (e.g., logical, chronological, spatial), and transitional devices. Effective listeners can follow spoken discourse when they recognize key signal expressions such as the following:

* Example words: for example, for instance, thus, in other words, as an illustration

Usually found in: generalization plus example (but may be found in enumeration and argumentation)

* Time word: first, second, third, meanwhile, next, finally, at last, today, tomorrow, soon

Usually found in: narration, chronological patterns, directions (and whenever events or examples are presented in a time sequence)

* Addition words: in addition, also, furthermore, moreover, another example

Usually found in: Enumeration, description, and sometimes in generalization plus example

* Result words: as a result, so, accordingly, therefore, thus

Usually found in: Cause and effect

* Contrast words: however, but, in contrast, on the other hand, nevertheless

Usually found in: comparison and contrast (and whenever speaker makes a comparison or contrast in another pattern)(Devine, 1982, p. 24).

Most students need practice in making inferences while listening. A simple way to help students become aware that there is meaning between the lines is to read a passage from literature which describes a character's actions, appearance, or surroundings. From this information, students make inferences about the character's personality. Teachers should keep in mind that the purpose of an exercise such as this is not to elicit the exact answer, but to provide opportunities for students to make various inferences. Students also need to be aware of the inferences they can make from non-verbal cues. A speaker's tone and body language can convey a message as well.

Teachers can also encourage guided imagery when students are listening to presentations that have many visual images, details, or descriptive words. Students can form mental pictures to help them remember while listening.

Although listeners need not capture on paper everything they hear, there are times that students need to focus on the message and need to record certain words and phrases. Such notemaking ("listening with pen in hand") forces students to attend to the message. Devine (1982) suggests strategies such as the following:

* Give questions in advance and remind listeners to listen for possible answers.

* Provide a rough outline, map, chart, or graph for students to complete as they follow the lecture.

* Have students jot down "new-to-me" items (simple lists of facts or insights that the listener has not heard before).

* Use a formal notetaking system (p. 48).

Transcribing or writing down live or recorded speech can sharpen students' listening, spelling, and punctuation skills.

* Teacher selects an interesting piece of writing.

* The selection is read aloud to the class (and perhaps discussed).

* The teacher then dictates the passage slowly to the class. The students transcribe the form and conventions (i.e., spelling, punctuation, and capitalization) as accurately as possible.

* Students compare their transcription with distributed copies of the original.

This task is best used as a diagnostic or teaching aid.

Palmatier (1973) suggests students can benefit from the Verbatim Split-page Procedure [VSPP]. Students divide their notebook paper so that 40% of each page lies to the left and 60% to the right. Students take brief notes on the left-hand side only. The right-hand side is used after listening for reorganizing and expanding on the scribbles to the left.

Sample VSPP

40%

60%

Heroic

Superhuman

Universal

Enduring

Typical of Time/Culture

Recurring

1. The superhuman heroic tradition is universal and enduring.

2. Each hero/heroine is typical of a time in history and the culture of that time.

Critical thinking plays a major role in effective listening. Listening in order to analyze and evaluate requires students to evaluate a speaker's arguments and the value of the ideas,

appropriateness of the evidence, and the persuasive techniques employed. Effective listeners apply the principles of sound thinking and reasoning to the messages they hear at home, in school, in the workplace, or in the media.

Planning and structuring classroom activities to model and encourage students to listen critically is important. Students should learn to:

* Analyze the message.

Critical listeners are concerned first with understanding accurately and completely what they hear (Brownell, 1996). Students should identify the speaker's topic, purpose, intended audience, and context. The most frequent critical listening context is persuasion. They should keep an open-minded and objective attitude as they strive to identify the main idea(s)/thesis/claim and the supporting arguments/points/anecdotes. They should ask relevant questions and restate perceptions to make sure they have understood correctly. Taking notes will enhance their listening.

* Analyze the speaker.

Critical listeners must understand the reliability of the speaker. Is the speaker credible? Trustworthy? An expert? Dynamic?

* Analyze the speaker's evidence.

Critical listeners must understand the nature and appropriateness of the evidence and reasoning. What evidence is used? Expert testimony? Facts? Statistics? Examples? Reasons? Opinions? Inappropriate evidence might include untrustworthy testimony; inadequate, incorrect, inappropriate, or irrelevant facts, statistics, or examples; or quotations out of context or incomplete.

* Analyze the speaker's reasoning.

Critical listeners must understand the logic and reasoning of the speaker. Is this evidence developed in logical arguments such as deductive, inductive, causal, or analogous? Faulty reasoning might include hasty or over-inclusive generalization, either-or argument, causal fallacy (therefore, because of this), non sequitur (confusion of cause and effect), reasoning in a circle, begging or ignoring the question, false analogy, attacking the person instead of the idea, or guilt by association.

* Analyze the speaker's emotional appeals.

Critical listeners must understand that persuaders often rely on emotional appeal as well as evidence and reasoning. Critical listeners, therefore, must recognize effective persuasive appeals and propaganda devices. A skilled critical listener identifies and discounts deceptive persuasive appeals such as powerful connotative (loaded) words, doublespeak, appeals to fears, prejudice, discontent, flattery, stereotype, or tradition. The listener must also identify and discount propaganda techniques such as bandwagon appeals, glittering generalities, inappropriate testimonials, pseudo-scientific evidence, card-stacking, and name-calling.

By understanding and practising the principles of objective thinking, students can prepare themselves to listen effectively in most situations.

Listening affects our ability to make good decisions, our appreciation of the world around us, and our personal relationships. Effective communication begins with listening and with listeners carrying 80 percent of the responsibility in the interaction (Brownell, 1996, pp. 6-7). Whether at home, in school, or in the workplace, effective listening is important for the development and maintenance of healthy relationships.

After Listening

Students need to act upon what they have heard to clarify meaning and extend their thinking. Well-planned post-listening activities are just as important as those before and during. Some examples follow.

* To begin with, students can ask questions of themselves and the speaker to clarify their understanding and confirm their assumptions.

* Hook and Evans (1982) suggest that the post-mortem is a very useful device. Students should talk about what the speaker said, question statements of opinion, amplify certain remarks, and identify parallel incidents from life and literature.

* Students can summarize a speaker's presentation orally, in writing, or as an outline. In addition to the traditional outline format, students could use time lines, flow charts, ladders, circles, diagrams, webs, or maps.

* Students can review their notes and add information that they did not have an opportunity to record during the speech.

* Students can analyze and evaluate critically what they have heard.

* Students can be given opportunities to engage in activities that build on and develop concepts acquired during an oral presentation. These may include writing (e.g., response journal, learning log, or composition), reading (e.g., further research on a topic or a contradictory viewpoint), art or drama (e.g., designing a cover jacket after a book talk or developing a mock trial concerning the topic through drama in role).

Contrasting Effective and Ineffective Listening Habits The Listening Process Assessment of Listening Informal Assessment Formal Assessment

Assessment of Listening

Listening is one of the more difficult aspects of the language arts to assess. It cannot be easily observed and can be measured only through inference. However, there are both informal and formal strategies and instruments that teachers can use to help them in their assessments.

Contrasting Effective and Ineffective Listening Habits The Listening Process Assessment of Listening Informal Assessment Formal Assessment

Informal Assessment

The most effective assessment of listening may be teachers' observations and students' self-assessments. Students initially may not be aware of how well they listen and, therefore, need teacher guidance.

Self-assessments should be followed with one-on-one discussions about student progress. Teachers can also videotape students while they are listening and follow up with discussion.

The following forms can be used or adapted for informal assessments:

The following assessment forms are provided as examples. To be able to view and copy these files the user must have a viewing program such as Acrobat Reader. If you do not have such a program, click on the Acrobat Insignia provided below.

Download Acrobat Reader

# Sample Self-assessment for Listening

# Sample Listening Behaviour Checklist.

Contrasting Effective and Ineffective Listening Habits The Listening Process Assessment of Listening Informal Assessment Formal Assessment

Formal Assessment

More formal listening assessments can be prepared by teachers based on objectives and perceived needs. Some examples follow.

1. Excerpts from different genres of literature

(e.g., prose, poetry, play) can be used as follows:

* Prepare a set of ten questions on the excerpt.

* Set a purpose for the listening activity

(e.g., "Listen to determine the setting of the following passage.").

* Have students listen to the excerpt (pre-taped or teacher-read).

* Have students respond in writing to the prepared questions.

* A score of 70% or better on basic recall and basic inferential questions indicates that the student has comprehended the passage.

Questions can also be designed to determine if students are comprehending critically and creatively.

2. Students can paraphrase, summarize, analyze, make notes, complete a listening guide, or write a response to a spoken or multimedia presentation. The assessment tasks can be as simple as listing significant ideas and arguments, answering a series of questions, or identifying connotative meanings of key words. They can be as challenging as formulating their own questions; identifying irrelevant details; identifying fallacies, bias, or prejudice; using the information presented and applying it to a new situation; or judging the effects of various devices the speaker may use to influence the listener or viewer.

3. Devine (1982) gives examples of other types of listening assessments.

* After placing ten details on the chalkboard, the teacher reads a ten-minute story aloud. After listening to the story, students are asked to jot down the four or five details that are most important to the outcome. The responses provide insights into students' listening ability.

* Students listen to a story and, afterwards, write down three key qualities of the character and their reasons for selecting these. While listening to the story a second time, the students listen for and record details that prove their assertions about the character.

Even though listening is a difficult language strand to evaluate, assessment must take place to validate its place in a curriculum and to provide feedback to students. The feedback should be specific, concise, and as meaningful as possible. As with all evaluation, it needs to be continuous.

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Listening Styles and Listening Strategies

David Huron Society for Music Theory 2002 Conference. Columbus, Ohio November 1, 2002

Handout

Listening mode: a distinctive attitude or approach that can be brought to bear on a listening experience. Some simple possible listening modes:

1. Distracted listening. Distracted listening occurs where the listener pays no conscious attention whatsoever to the music. Typically, the listener is occupied with other tasks, and may even be unaware of the existence of the music.

2. Tangential listening. Tangential listening is similar to distracted listening except that the listener is engaged in thought whose origin can be traced to the music, but the thought is largely tangential to the perceptual experience itself. An auditor is engaged in tangential listening when preoccupied with thoughts such as: why did the concert organizers program me this work? Isn't that the oboist who played at the last chamber music concert? I wonder how much money the guest artist makes in a year? Tangential listening behaviors may occasionally approach what might be called metaphysical listening:

3. Metaphysical listening. Metaphysical listening is also similar to distracted listening insofar as the listener may not be especially attentive to the on-going perceptual experience. But the listener may be engaged in thinking about questions of some importance related to the work, such as: what motivated the composer to write this work? what does this music mean? why do I find this work so appealing? etc.

4. Signal listening. Truax coined the term "listening-in-readiness" to denote the state of a listener waiting for some expected auditory event. E.g., rather than laboriously count hundreds of bars of rest, a percussionist may recognize a certain musical passage as a cue

or "alarm" -- signaling the need to prepare to perform. In effect, the music is heard in terms of a set of signals or sign-posts. Similarly, a dance couple may wait for a dance tune with a desired tempo before proceeding on to the dance floor. A more sophisticated example of signal listening occurs whe listening to a work known or assumed to be in sonata-allegro form; the listener will wait for features in the music that signal the advent of the next structural division, such as the advent of the development section, or the beginning of the second theme in the recapitulation.

5. Sing-along listening. This form of listening is characterized by the listener mentally "singing-along" with the music. This mode of listening presupposes that the listener is already familiar with the work. Distinctive of this listening mode is a highly linear conception of the work in which a replay of memory is synchronized with an actual rendition. The listener's behavior is not unlike that of a recording which, when started at any given point in the music, can continue forward to the end of the work. Where a work is particularly well known to a listener, sing-along listening may occur as a purely mental activity without the mnemonic assistance of an actual performance. (See the work of Andrea Halpern.)

6. Lyric listening. In music containing a vocal text, a listener may pay special attention to "catching" the lyrics and attending to their meaning. Lyric listening is possible only when the music contains lyrics in a language which is understood by the listener. Where the lyrics of a work are well known to a listener, the lyrics themselves may act as mnemonics for a form of "sing-along listening."

7. Programmatic listening. While listening to music, many listeners imagine certain situations or visualize certain scenes -- such as rolling waves, mountain vistas, city streets, and so forth. In programmatic listening the listening experience is dominated by such forms of non-musical referentiality. Musical works that are overtly programmatic in construction may be assumed to enhance or promote such a listening mode. However, programmatic listening may arise even in the case of ostensibly non-programmatic works.

8. Allusive listening. Allusive listening may be said to occur where a listener relates moments or features of the music to similar moments or features in other musical works. (`This reminds me of a passage in Bartók ...'). Allusive listening may be viewed as a form of referential listening in which the referential connection is made to the domain of music itself. Philip Tagg (1979) has made extensive use of allusive listening as a tool for studying musical meaning. Tagg has created musical "dictionaries" by asking listeners to construct lists of musical works of which a given work reminds them.

9. Reminiscent listening. In reminiscent listening, music serves to remind the auditor of past experiences or circumstances in which the music was previously heard or encountered. The reminiscent listener's primary focus of attention is on the remembrance of past events -- or more particularly, on the remembrance of emotions experienced in conjunction with the past events.

10. Identity listening. A listener engaged in asking any "what is" question regarding the music is engaged in what might be called "identity listening." Typical "what is" questions

are: What is this instrument I am listening to? Is that a Neapolitan sixth chord? What is the meter signature? What language are the lyrics in? Who might the composer be? What is the style of this music called? etc. Identity listening often employs allusive listening as a problem-solving tactic.

11. Retentive listening. The goal of "retentive listening" is to remember what is being heard. Retentive listening is most commonly encountered when music students perform ear training or dictation exercises. Unlike many other modes of listening, retentive listening is very much a problem-solving behavior. A composer in the process of improvising might use retentive listening skills to recall a fleeting passage or an appealing juxtaposition of notes.

12. Fault listening. Fault listening occurs where the listener is mentally keeping a leger of faults or problems. A high-fidelity buff may note problems in sound reproduction. A conservatory teacher may note mistakes in execution, problems of intonation, ensemble balance, phrasing, etc. A composer is apt to identify what might be considered lapses of skill or instances of poor musical judgment. Fault listening tends to be adopted as a strategy under three circumstances: 1) where an obvious fault has occurred, the listener switches from a previous listening mode and becomes vigilant for the occurrence of more faults (this is a type of signal listening); 2) where the role of the listener is necessarily critical -- as in tutors, conductors, or music critics; or 3) where the listener has some a priori reason to mistrust the skill or integrity of the composer, performer, conductor, audio system, etc.

13. Feature listening. This type of listening is characterized by the listener's disposition to identify major "features" that occur in the work -- such as motifs, distinctive rhythms, instrumentation, etc. The listener identifies the recurrence of such features, and also identifies the evolutions or changes which the features undergo. The "feature listening" mode may be considered superficially to be a creative union of two other listening modes: retentive listening (identification and remembrance of features), and signal listening (recognition of previously occurring features).

14. Innovation listening. A variant form of allusive listening is one based, not upon the recognition of similarities to previous compositions, but upon the identification of significant musical novelty. Innovation listening is characterized by a vigilant listening-in-readiness for a musical feature, gesture, or technique that is unprecedented in the listener's experience. Composers may be especially prone to engage in innovation listening.

15. Memory scan listening. When an auditor knows a work by memory, a special type of signal listening called scan listening is possible. An auditor may approach a memorized work with a question concerning the occurrence of a certain event: For example, the auditor may be interested in knowing whether the composer has used timpani in a given work; or does the word "but" occur in the lyrics to "Row Row Row Your Boat?" The scan listener will mentally execute a speedy rendition of a work in order to answer a given question. What distinguishes scan listening from signal listening is that the auditor tends to be impatient: the tempo of the music can be doubled or quadrupled to advantage for the scan listener.

16. Directed listening. Directed listening entails a form of selective attention to one element of a complex texture; the listener purposely excludes or ignores other aspects of the music. For example, the auditor may attend to a single instrument for a short or prolonged period of time. Directed listening may ensue as a result of a listener's special interest, or may result from suggestions made by others. When a listener is concurrently viewing a notated score, it is possible that a visual attraction or interest in a particular aspect of a score may cause the listener to selectively attend to the corresponding sounds. The Norton Scores use a highlighting method to draw attention to various parts in orchestral scores. These scores thus dispose listeners to adopt a directed listening mode.

17. Distance listening. Distance listening is characterized by an ongoing iterative recapitulation of the music up to the current moment in the work. As the music unfolds, the listener attempts to thread together past events and to build a complete scenario or over-view of the entire work. The distance listener is apt to make mental notes of the advent of new "sections" in the work. Distance listening may be likened to the task of memorizing a list of words. Beginning with a few words, the memorized words are iteratively repeated, each time adding a new word to the memorized list.

18. Ecstatic listening. The term `ecstatic listening' is meant here in a very concrete and technical way. On occasion music will elicit a sensation of "shivers" localized in the back, neck and shoulders of an aroused listener -- a physiological response technically called frisson. The frisson experience normally has a duration of no more than four or five seconds. It begins as a flexing of the skin in the lower back, rising upward, inward from the shoulders, up the neck, and sometimes across to the cheeks and onto the scalp. The face may become flush, hair follicles flex the hairs into standing position, and goose bumps may appear (piloerection). Frequently, a series of `waves' will rise up the back in rapid succession. The listener feels the music to have elicited an ecstatic moment and tends to regard the experience as involuntary. Goldstein (1980) has shown that some listeners report reduced excitement when under a clinically-administered dose of an opiate receptor antagonist, naloxone -- suggesting that music engenders endogenous opioid peptides characteristic of pleasurable experiences. Sloboda (1991) has found evidence linking "shivers" responses to works especially loved by subjects.

19. Emotional listening. Emotional listening is characterized by deeply felt emotion. The music engenders feels of sorrow or joy, resignation, great satisfaction. Occasionally there will be overt signs of emotion, such as the sensation of a lump in one's throat, imminent or overt weeping, or smiling. The emotions may be related to current events in the listener's life, but the feelings are more apt to seem non-specific and to arise `from nowhere'.

20. Kinesthetic listening. This form of listening is characterized by the auditor's compulsion to move. Feet may tap, hands may conduct, or the listener may feel the urge to dance. The experience is not so much one of `listening' to the music, as the music `permeating' the body. Kinesthetic listening is best described as `motivation' rather than `contemplation'.

21. Performance listening. When performers listen to works that are part of their own repertoire, they may experience a form of vicarious performance. For conductors,

instrumentalists, and vocalists, arms, fingers, and vocal cords may subliminally re-create the gestures and performance actions involved during actual performance. In such cases, listening may be mediated by an acute awareness of the listener's body. For example, musical passages that are difficult to execute may evoke a heightened sense of tension -- whether or not the sonic gesture conveys some musical tension.

N.B. This list is not intended to be exhaustive.

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