Teaching Listening

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Teaching Listening

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SourcesBerne, J. (1995). How Does Varying Pre-listening Activities Affect Second Language Listening Comprehension? Hispania, Vol. 78, No. 2

Popieszynska, M. (2000). Listening in FL Classrooms: A few recipes. International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language .

Saricoban, A. (1999). The teaching of listening. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. V, No. 12

Thanajaro, M. (2000). Using authentic materials to develop listening comprehension in the ESL classroom. Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Vandergrift, L. (2006). Second language listening: Listening ability or language proficiency? The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 90, No. 1

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Definition

Listening is an active and interactional process in which a listener receives speech sounds and tries to attach meaning to the spoken words.The listener attempts to understand the intended message of the oral text so that he/she can respond effectively to oral communication.

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Background

• Listening has been the forgotten language skill for generations

• It has received little attention in language teaching and learning

• Listening comprehension was usually characterized as a passive activity

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• Theorists realized that listening is not a passive but an active process of constructing meaning from a stream of sounds

• Listeners actively attempt to grasp the facts and feelings in what they hear by attending to:– what the speaker says– how the speaker says it– the context

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Knowledge required for listening process

Listening requires comprehension of the speaker's intended message.

• Command over major components of the language: phonology, lexicon, syntax, semantics, and text structure

• Socio-cultural competence• Strategic competence• Discourse competence

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Study: Listening comprehension ability

• Both L2 proficiency and LI listening ability contribute substantially to L2 listening comprehension ability

• L2 proficiency appears to be a much better predictor than LI listening comprehension ability

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Study: Listening comprehension ability

Limitation:• Most of the questions on the tests required

students to read and choose from a list of potential choices.

• Because of this test structure, the students'

ability to read and understand was tested along with their ability to listen and understand.

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Study: Listening comprehension ability

Implications for Pedagogy:

1. Vocabulary development– Match aural form of a word with that of mental

lexicon– Top-down skills/bottom-up skills

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Top-down vs. Bottom-up listening

Imagine the following situations:

• Over lunch, your friend tells you a story about a recent holiday, which was a disaster. You listen with interest and interject at appropriate moments, maybe to express surprise or sympathy.

• That evening, another friend calls to invite you to a party at her house the following Saturday. As you’ve never been to her house before, she gives you directions. You listen carefully and make notes.

How do you listen in each case? Are there any differences?

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Top-down vs. Bottom-up listening

Holiday anecdote

Directions to a party

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/listening-top-down-bottom

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Study: Listening comprehension ability

Implications for Pedagogy:

2. Reduce the gap in transfer of L1 inferencing skills to L2 inferencing tasks– how to use world knowledge in L2 listening – how to use context to infer logical outcome– nonthreatening environment

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Listening Process - Stages

1. Pre - listening2. While – listening 3. Post - listening

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Pre - Listening

• Purpose of listening • Necessary background information

Activities:Teacher giving background info

Discussion and answer session

Students reading something relevant

Written exercises

Students looking at pictures Instructions for the while-listening activity

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Pre - Listening

• Studying a vocabulary list may not be an effective way of improving listening comprehension

• Suggestion: provide learners with some type of brief summary before listening

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While - Listening• The aim is to help learners listen for meaning • Attention on listening itself

Marking/checking the items in pictures

Show understanding by a physical response

Information transfer

Filling in gaps/blanks Sequencing

Detecting differences or mistakes

Information search

Ticking off items (bingo) Matching items

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Post - Listening• Allow learners to reflect on the language from

the passage

Answering multiple-choice or true/false questions

Jigsaw listening

Problem solving activities Writing letters, telegrams, postcards, messages, etc

Summarizing Debates, interviews, discussions, role-plays, etc.

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Performing to indicate understanding

• More effective if they are constructed around a task

• Dependent upon students' skills in listening– Drawing a picture– Matching exercises– Physical movement

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Teaching rather than testing

• The emphasis should be more on functional listening toward the development of listening process, and less on memory and recall of details heard

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Real-life situations

• Use materials cast in real-life situations for listening comprehension exercises

• As close as possible to a "slice of life"

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Aural authentic materials

• Definition: Unaltered texts that are generated by native speakers and for native speakers

• Positive results when given opportunities to interact with authentic oral texts

• Listening-comprehension improves with increased exposure to authentic speech

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Aural authentic materials

• Blend with instructional materials

• Importance of authentic oral texts very early in the language experience.

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Aural authentic materials

• Proper instructional planning by the teacher• Students experience the rewards of learning a

language• Positive effect on both comprehension and

motivation

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Aural authentic materials

Challenge for the second-language teacher: • To identify authentic materials of potential

interest to students • To prepare the students for dealing with these

texts in a meaningful way

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Thank you!