Teacher Listening Comprehension Educational

http://www.allbest.
ru/
Contents
Introduction
1. Theoretical bases of teaching listening
1.1 Teaching listening comprehension as a part of educational process at school
1.2 Teachers speech as a basic form of teaching listening comprehension
1.3 Principles for developing listening ability
1.4 Teaching listening methods
2. The use of activities developing listening comprehension
2.1 Types of listening activities
2.2 Techniques the teacher uses to develop hearing
2.3 Language techniques in listening assessing proficiency
Conclusion
References
Appendix
teacher listening comprehension educational
http://www.allbest.ru/
Introduction
Language is a medium of communication, which helps the members of a
community in the society, to communicate and interact with one another. This
involves both verbal and non-verbal communication. Language focuses on
listening and reading that can be named as passive or receptive skills, while
speaking and writing can be named as, active or productive skills. Listening is one
of the important skills in learning a language. The process of acquiring a language
starts with listening and ends up in the production of writing. After birth, a child
hears variety of sounds and can distinguish among them. Every language has a
common and a natural sequence for the development of the language skills.
Listening skill is ranked first of all the four folds. This highlights the importance of
listening skill in the life of human beings. Students normally face and encounter
listening problems especially in foreign languages.
This paper presents arguments for an emphasis on listening comprehension
in language learning/teaching. An explanation of how listeners can use strategies to
enhance the learning process is presented, with a review of the existing research
base on how second language listening is taught. The major part of the paper
presents and discusses pedagogical recommendations.
Listening and speaking are often taught together, but beginners, especially
non-literate ones, should be given more listening than speaking practice. It's
important to speak as close to natural speed as possible, although with beginners
some slowing is usually necessary. Without reducing speaking speed it is possible
to make a language easier to comprehend by simplifying vocabulary, using shorter
sentences, and increasing the number and length of pauses in speech.
Given the importance of listening in language learning and teaching it is
essential for language teachers to help their students become effective listeners. In
the communicative approach to language teaching, this means modeling listening
strategies and providing listening practice in authentic situations: those that
learners are likely to encounter when they use the language outside the classroom.
The research available on second-language listening comprehension is
insufficient. Comparing with other skills W. Goh said that "there are fewer insights
about the process of listening and the way it is learnt". Similarly, D. Richards
stated that: "there is little direct research on second language listening
comprehension". As for that, we are doing this research not only to help students
with better listening but also to contribute a small part to enrich the listening
research which has been done so far.
The Topicality of this research is due to the fact that the issues of teaching
listening at school is studied insufficiently and require more attention and
methodological development.
The aim of the present research is to explore the classification of techniques
for teaching listening of a foreign language and developing students listening
comprehension.
The general aims defines the following objectives of the research:
1. To explore listening comprehension peculiarities and fundamental
characteristics.
2. To consider listening comprehension methods.
3. To study effective techniques for developing listening skills.
The object of the given research is the process of teaching listening.
The subject is the ways of developing students listening skills using a set of
teaching materials which provide the formation of listening skills.
The major methods used in the research process are: the method of linguistic
description and analysis, which let us create the theoretical basis of the present
course paper. The method of continuous selection was used to single the research
material out. The structural, formalization methods were used for working with the
results got in the research process. The research material of the work is the
exercises taken from different modern course books and manuals. The given
material presents a broad field for research. It also gives us an opportunity to rich
the set goals of the present research.
1. Principles of teaching listening comprehension
1.1 Teaching listening as a comprehension
Listening as comprehension is the traditional way of thinking about the
nature of listening. Indeed, in most methodology manuals listening and listening
comprehension are synonymous. This view of listening is based on the assumption
that the main function of listening in second language learning is to facilitate
understanding of spoken discourse. We will examine this view of listening in some
detail before considering a complementary view of listening listening as
acquisition. This latter view of listening considers how listening can provide input
that triggers the further development of second-language proficiency.
To understand the nature of listening processes, we need to consider some of
the characteristics of spoken discourse and the special problems they pose for
listeners. Spoken discourse has very different characteristics from written
discourse, and these differences can add a number of dimensions to our
understanding of how we process speech. For example, spoken discourse is usually
instantaneous. The listener must process it "online" and there is often no chance to
listen to it again. Often, spoken discourse strikes the second-language listener as
being very fast, although speech rates vary considerably. Radio monologs may
contain 160 words per minute, while conversation can consist of up to 220 words
per minute. The impression of faster or slower speech generally results from the
amount of intraclausal pausing that speakers make use of. Unlike written
discourse, spoken discourse is usually unplanned and often reflects the processes
of construction such as hesitations, reduced forms, fillers, and repeats. Spoken
discourse has also been described as having a linear structure, compared to a
hierarchical structure for written discourse. Whereas the unit of organization of
written discourse is the sentence, spoken language is usually delivered one clause
at a time, and longer utterances in conversation generally consist of several
coordinated clauses. Most of the clauses used are simple conjuncts or adjuncts.
Also, spoken texts are often context-dependent and personal, assuming shared
background knowledge. Lastly, spoken texts may be spoken with many different
accents, from standard or non-standard, regional, non-native, and so on [3, p. 48].
Listening involves a sender (a person, radio, and television), a message, and
a receiver (the listener). Listeners often must process messages as they come, even
if they are still processing what they have just heard, without backtracking or
looking ahead. In addition, listeners must cope with the sender's choice of
vocabulary, structure, and rate of delivery. The complexity of the listening process
is magnified in second language contexts, where the receiver also has incomplete
control of the language [2, p. 226].
Given the importance of listening in language learning and teaching it is
essential for language teachers to help their students become effective listeners. In
the communicative approach to language teaching, this means modeling listening
strategies and providing listening practice in authentic situations: those that
learners are likely to encounter when they use the language outside the classroom.
Instructors want to produce students who, even if they do not have complete
control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in
communication situations. In the case of listening, this means producing students
who can use listening strategies to maximize their comprehension of aural input,
identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-byword comprehension. In Listening classes, students are usually given practice in
listening but they are not actually taught listening. Practice is not enough.
Research and case studies have told us many things about how listening
should be taught. But often, this knowledge has not made the jump into classroom
practice. While many classes are based on the idea of giving students lots of
practice with English, research tells us that we also need to teach listening. In
addition to giving students plenty of listening practices. We should also break the
skill of listening into micro-skill components and make sure that our students are
aware of what they need to know to understand how to listen to English.
Students need to know and understand:
- how words link together (liaison);
- how vowels weaken (the central vowel);
- how sounds mix together (assimilation);
- how sounds disappear (elision);
- how syllables disappear (ellipsis);
- how helping sounds are used between vowel sounds (intrusion);
- how intonation helps with conversational turn taking (intonation);
- how stress signals new information (prominence);
- how to use grammar to help guess meaning (strategies);
- how to use discourse knowledge to help guess meaning (strategies);
- how to use knowledge of intonation and stress to guess meaning (strategies).
1.2 Teachers speech as basic form of teaching listening comprehension
Teaching is a very complicated complex process. Its success depends on
several factors. One of the most important factors is a teacher himself or herself.
There are three main activities that teachers have to manage simultaneously:
- managing the group;
- managing activities;
- managing the learning.
In many group teaching situations, the role of the teacher is that of facilitator
of learning: leading discussions, asking open-ended questions, guiding process and
task, and enabling active participation of learners and engagement with ideas.
However, small groups function and behave in various ways and have different
purposes. Teachers therefore need to be able to adopt a range of roles and skills to
suit specific situations, often during the same teaching session. According to
McCrorie the roles that may be adopted include that of:
- the instructor, who imparts information to students;
- the neutral chair;
- the consultant, from whom learners can ask questions;
- the devils advocate;
- the commentator;
- the wanderer, such as in a larger workshop;
- the absent friend [8, p. 6].
Making the shift from teacher as expert to facilitator is sometimes seen as
diminishing a teachers power and authority, but this should not be the case.
Facilitating learning is empowering for both the learner and the teacher and frees
the teacher from many of the burdens that having to be an "expert" might entail. It
would traditionally have been seen as a weakness for a teacher to say "I dont
know, lets find out" or "I dont know, do any of you students know the answer?"
and clearly clinical teachers need to know more about many topics than their
students or trainees, but medical science is changing so rapidly that no one can
know everything. Implementing an evidence-based approach to clinical learning
and to medical practice involves finding out about the latest research. You can use
these techniques and this approach to facilitate your own and your
students/trainees learning [9, p. 16].
Practical learning a foreign language is possible only under condition when
it is used as a mean of communication. A lesson has a lot of opportunities for using
a language as a mean of communication between a teacher and a student. While
choosing material for a lesson a teacher should take into account certain purposes
of a lesson:
a) developing listening comprehension;
b) broadening passive vocabulary and potential foresight skills.
That is why it is essential that material should be comprehensible and having
all the qualities listed above. If to speak about grammar constructions used by a
teacher during a lesson it is clear he or she cannot use all of them. However, basic
structures should be taken into account as students usually memorize the phrases
repeated by a teacher as a whole. A teacher has more freedom with lexical material.
He or she should include into a lesson new words all the time using such
techniques as language guess, context and potential foresight [8, p. 142].
Presenting new material should be carefully dosed and balanced. At first a
teacher should give 2-4 new expressions a lesson. Besides he or she should add
new elements every lesson. But new material should be brought only in case when
a teacher is absolutely sure that the old one has been already memorized. A teacher
should also take all the measures so that students could understand it correctly.
There are several techniques for gaining it:
- a teacher can vary the forms of pronunciation of the same phrases each lesson. For
instance, "read please" can be substituted for "will you read". These variants will
not cause troubles in understanding as separate parts of it have been already used
by a teacher;
- each new word should be pronounced 2-3 times suggesting students guessing what
it might mean. For example, the expression "raise your hands" has been mentioned
before. The phrase "put down your hands" will be easier to understand. This also
helps to develop students abilities to analysis and synthesis;
- new phrases should be repeated in different ways, in 4-5 lessons new phrases may
be included in the questions to students so that they could be ready to face them in
real life.
That means the dialogue between a teacher and a student becomes the
leading part of having students got used to oral speech in foreign language and,
thus, the first fundamental step to auding itself.
1.3 Principles for developing listening ability
Using general knowledge about language skill development, we can draw up
some guidelines for developing listening ability.
Listening ability develops through face-to-face interaction. By interacting in
English, learners have the chance for new language input and the chance to check
their own listening ability. Face-to-face interaction provides stimulation for
development of listening for meaning.
Listening develops through focusing on meaning and trying to learn new
and important content in the target language. By focusing on meaning and real
reasons for listening in English, learners can mobile both their linguistic and nonlinguistic abilities to understand.
Listening ability develops through work on comprehension activities. By
focusing on specific goals for listening, learners can evaluate their efforts and
abilities. By having well-defined comprehension activities, learners have
opportunities for assessing what they have achieved and for revision.
Listening develops through attention to accuracy and an analysis of form. By
learning to perceive sounds and words accurately as they work on meaningoriented activities, our learners can make steady progress. By learning to hear
sounds and words more accurately, learners gain confidence in listening for
meaning [9, p. 7].
One of the main reasons for getting students to listen to spoken English is to
let them hear different varieties and accents - rather than just the voice of their
teacher with its own idiosyncrasies. In todays world, they need to be exposed not
only to one variety of English (British English, for example) but also to varieties
such as American English, Australian English, Caribbean English, Indian English
or West African English. There are, of course, problems associated with the issue
of language variety. Within British English, for example, there are many different
dialects and accents. The differences are not only in the pronunciation of sounds
(bath like laugh vs. bath like cat) but also in grammar (the use of shall in
northern varieties compared with its use in Standard English - the southern, BBCtype variety). The same is of course true American, Indian or West African English.
Despite the desirability of exposing students to many varieties of English,
however, common sense is called for. The number of different varieties (and the
degree to which they are different from the one students are learning) will be a
matter for the teacher to judge. But even if they only hear occasional varieties of
English, which are different from the teachers, it will give them a better idea of
the world language, which English has become.
The second major reason for teaching listening is because it helps students to
acquire language subconsciously even if teachers do not draw attention to its
special features. Exposure to language is a fundamental requirement for anyone
wanting to learn it. Listening to appropriate tapes provides such exposure and
students get vital information not only about grammar and vocabulary but also
about pronunciation, rhythm, intonation, pitch and stress.
Lastly, students get better at listening the more they do it. Listening is a skill
and any help we can give students in performing that skill will help them to be
better listeners [5, p. 97-98].
In order to define listening, we must outline the main component skills in
listening. In terms of the necessary components, we can list the following:
a) discrimination between sounds;
b) recognizing words;
c) identifying grammatical groupings of words;
d) identifying pragmatic units - expressions and sets of utterance which function as
whole units to create meaning;
e) connecting linguistic cues to paralinguistic cues (intonation and stress) and to
nonlinguistic cues (gestures and relevant objects in the situation) in order to
construct meaning;
f) using background knowledge (what we already know about the content and the
form) and context (what has already been said) to predict and then to confirm
meaning;
g) recalling important words and ideas.
Successful listening involves an integration of these component skills. In this
sense, listening is a coordination of the component skills, not the individual skills
themselves. This integration of these perception skills, analysis skills, and
synthesis skills is what we call a persons listening ability.Even though a person
may have good listening ability, he or she may not always be able to understand
what is being said. In order to understand messages, some conscious action is
necessary to use this ability effectively, so it is not possible to view it directly, but
we can see the effects of this action. The underlying action for successful listening
is decision making [9, p. 4].
1.4 Teaching listening methods
There are many types of listening activities. Those that don't require learners
to produce language in response are easier than those that do. Learners can be
asked to physically respond to a command (for example, "please open the door"),
select an appropriate picture or object, circle the correct letter or word on a
worksheet, draw a route on a map, or fill in a chart as they listen. It's more difficult
to repeat back what was heard, translate into the native language, take notes, make
an outline, or answer comprehension questions. To add more challenge, learners
can continue a story text, solve a problem, perform a similar task with a classmate
after listening to a model (for example, order a cake from a bakery), or participate
in real-time conversation. Good listening lessons go beyond the listening task itself
with related activities before and after the listening. Here is the basic structure [15,
p.196]:
Before Listening
Prepare your learners by introducing the topic and finding out what they
already know about it. A good way to do this is to have a brainstorming session
and some discussion questions related to the topic. Then provide any necessary
background information and new vocabulary they will need for the listening
activity.
During Listening
Be specific about what students need to listen for. They can listen for
selective details or general content, or for an emotional tone such as happy,
surprised, or angry. If they are not marking answers or otherwise responding while
listening, tell them ahead of time what will be required afterward.
After Listening
Finish with an activity to extend the topic and help students remember new
vocabulary. This could be a discussion group, craft project, writing task, game, etc.
Teaching listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any teacher.
This is because successful listening skills are acquired over time and with lots of
practice. It's frustrating for students because there are no rules as in grammar
teaching. Speaking and writing also have very specific exercises that can lead to
improved skills. This is not to say that there are not ways of improving listening
skills, however they are difficult to quantify [16, p. 207].
One of the largest inhibitors for students is often mental block. While
listening, a student suddenly decides that he or she doesn't understand what is
being said. At this point, many students just tune out or get caught up in an internal
dialogue trying translate a specific word. Some students convince themselves that
they are not able to understand spoken English well and create problems for
themselves.
They key to helping students improve their listening skills is to convince
them that not understanding is OK. This is more of an attitude adjustment than
anything else, and it is easier for some students to accept than others. Another
important point that I try to teach my students (with differing amounts of success)
is that they need to listen to English as often as possible, but for short periods of
time [17, p. 175].
Students need to apply the same approach to listening skills. Encourage
them to get a film, or listen to an English radio station, but not to watch an entire
film or listen for two hours. Students should often listen, but they should listen for
short periods - five to ten minutes. This should happen four or five times a week.
Even if they don't understand anything, five to ten minutes is a minor investment.
However, for this strategy to work, students must not expect improved
understanding too quickly. The brain is capable of amazing things if given time;
students must have the patience to wait for results. If a student continues this
exercise over two to three months their listening comprehension skills will greatly
improve [18, p. 23].
Effective, modern methods of teaching listening skills encompass everything
from interactive exercises to multimedia resources. Listening skills are best learned
through simple, engaging activities that focus more on the learning process than on
the final product. Whether you are working with a large group of students or a
small one, you can use any of the following examples to develop your own
methods for teaching students how to listen well.
Interpersonal Activities
One effective and nonthreatening way for students to develop stronger
listening skills is through interpersonal activities, such as mock interviews and
storytelling. Assign the students to small groups of two or three, and then give
them a particular listening activity to accomplish. For example, you may have one
student interview another for a job with a company or for an article in a newspaper.
Even a storytelling activity, such as one that answers the question "What was your
favorite movie from last year?" can give students the opportunity to ask one
another questions and then to practice active listening skills [19, p.27].
Group Activities
Larger group activities also serve as a helpful method for teaching listening
skills to students. You can begin with a simple group activity. For the first part,
divide students into groups of five or larger and instruct them to learn one hobby or
interest of at least two other group members. Encourage them to ask clarifying
questions during the activity, and you may allow them to take notes if helpful.
However, as time passes and their skills grow, you should limit students to only
writing notes after the completion of the first part of the group activity. For the
second part, have the students sit in a large circle, and then have each individual
student share the name and the hobby or interest of the group members that she or
he met. This second part of the group activity can also lend itself to additional
listening exercises. For example, you may ask students to name a number of the
hobbies and interests identified during the sharing session [18, p. 26].
Audio Segments
You can also teach listening skills through audio segments of radio
programs, online podcasts, instructional lectures and other audio messages. You
should model this interactive listening process in class with your students, and then
instruct them to repeat the exercise on their own. First, instruct students to prepare
for listening by considering anything that they will want to learn from the content
of the audio segment. Once they have written down or shared these ideas, then play
the audio segment, allowing the students to take notes if helpful. Once they have
gained confidence and experience, repeat this activity but instruct students to not
take notes until the completion of the audio segment. You can use shorter or longer
audio segments, and you can choose more accessible or more challenging material
for this type of exercise.
Video Segments
Another helpful resource for teaching listening skills are video segments,
including short sketches, news programs, documentary films, interview segments,
and dramatic and comedic material. As with audio segments, select the portion and
length of the video segment based on the skill level of your students. With your
students, first watch the segment without any sound and discuss it together.
Encourage the students to identify what they think will be the content of the
segment. Then, watch the segment again, this time with sound, allowing students
to take notes if helpful for their skill level. After the completion of the video
segment, you can have students write a brief summary of the segment, or you can
take time to discuss as a group how the segment compares with the students'
expectations [18, p. 27].
Instructional Tips
Whatever method you use for teaching listening, keep a few key
instructional tips in mind that will help both you and your students navigate the
learning process. One, keep your expectations simple, as even the most
experienced listener would be unable to completely and accurately recall the
entirety of a message. Two, keep your directions accessible and build in
opportunities for students not only to ask clarifying questions, but also to make
mistakes. Three, help students navigate their communication anxiety by developing
activities appropriate to their skill and confidence level, and then strengthen their
confidence by celebrating the ways in which they do improve, no matter how
small.
Listening-really listening to students is critical to the student/teacher
relationship, for knowing their teacher is interested in what they are saying, makes
students feel cared about and emotionally connected to school. Since research
shows that feeling connected is requisite to students' motivation to learn, showing
that we listen is important not only as a matter of kindness, but also as a
motivational strategy [20, p. 116].
It is easy to perform routine tasks while listening to students. In fact, at times
teachers are evaluated for their multitasking ability; however, unless you appear to
be completely focused on the student speaking to you, he is apt think you care
neither about what he is saying or him. Consequently, in addition to really listening
to students, we must also show we are really listening.
An effective way to demonstrate your attentiveness is to use active listening,
a technique extraordinary:
- for gaining self-understanding;
- for improving relationships;
- for making people feel understood;
- for making people feel cared about;
- for the ease with which it is learned.
By using active listening with students, you build the relationship of trust
and caring essential to students' motivation to learn. By teaching active listening,
you help students overcome poor listening habits such as:
- Turning a speaker off and dwelling on the plethora of internal distractions we all
have.
- Letting an early remark of a speaker, with which one disagrees, develop a
prejudice which clouds or puts a stop to any further listening.
- Allowing personal characteristics of the speaker or his poor delivery to prevent
understanding [21, p. 18].
Although some people recommend giving feedback with a statement rather
than a question, the objective remains the same--to clarify either the factual and/or
emotional content of the message. By refining the listener's interpretation of his
statements, the speaker gains greater insight about his own feelings, he may reap
benefits of a catharsis, and he knows the listener is really paying attention to him.
The listener improves his ability to focus on a speaker and to think about implied
meanings.
Although the feedback step is at the heart of active listening, to be effective,
each of the following steps must be taken:
- Look at the person, and suspend other things you are doing.
- Listen not merely to the words, but the feeling content.
- Be sincerely interested in what the other person is talking about.
- Restate what the person said.
- Ask clarification questions once in a while.
- Be aware of your own feelings and strong opinions.
- If you have to state your views, say them only after you have listened.
The main conclusion can be based on following suggestion: there is an
analogy between native and foreign languages. In the first case a child goes from
hearing to speech. In the second case a student does the same thing, where a
teachers speech is the basic condition and factor predetermining these transfer.
Also it has become clear that recognition is possible under several
conditions: solid lexical, grammar and pronunciation skills. There is a
methodological recommendation that texts for auding tasks should be given only
after working with lexical and grammar items [22, p. 45].
We also have come up with the conclusion that without correct teachers
actions during a lesson there is no possibility to teach students listening
comprehension. And a teacher is the one whose speech is indicative for students
from the first moment of learning foreign language. That is a teacher should
carefully choose material for a lesson and ways of introducing it.
Listening comprehension has a number of roles to play within a language
course, and its importance clearly depends on the aims of the program as a whole.
It may only be a minor feature, just to give learners exposure to what English
sounds like: alternatively, it may have a major function for someone planning to
study in English speaking country or to interact extensively in the language.
Whatever its purpose, we have tried to show in this chapter how views on the
learning and teaching of listening have developed from a growing understanding
both of the nature of the skill itself, and of the variety and range of language on
which it can be practiced.
Listening skills are vital for learners. Of the 'four skills,' listening is by far
the most frequently used. Listening and speaking are often taught together, but
beginners, especially non-literate ones, should be given more listening than
speaking practice. It's important to speak as close to natural speed as possible,
although with beginners some slowing is usually necessary. Without reducing our
speaking speed, we can make our language easier to comprehend by simplifying
your vocabulary, using shorter sentences, and increasing the number and length of
pauses in our speech.
There were many types of listening activities. Those that don't require
learners to produce language in response are easier than those that do. Learners can
be asked to physically respond to a command (for example, "please open the
door"), select an appropriate picture or object, circle the correct letter or word on a
worksheet, draw a route on a map, or fill in a chart as they listen. It's more difficult
to repeat back what was heard, translate into the native language, take notes, make
an outline, or answer comprehension questions. To add more challenge, learners
can continue a story text, solve a problem, perform a similar task with a classmate
after listening to a model (for example, order a cake from a bakery), or participate
in real-time conversation.
To conclude the theoretical part we can say that listening is a difficult
process with the same measure for a teacher and for a student. The effectiveness of
listening depends on several strategies which can help a teacher make his or her
lesson productive. However, the results of research we have accomplished show
that the most common difficulty for students is pronunciation, accent and
colloquial language. That is why a lesson developing listening skills should take
into account these facts [7, p.8].
2. The use of activities developing listening comprehension
2.1 Types of listening activities
Listening is one of the most challenging skills for students to develop and
yet also one of the most important. By developing their ability to listen well
teachers develop students' ability to become more independent learners, as by
hearing accurately they are much more likely to be able to reproduce accurately,
refine their understanding of grammar and develop their own vocabulary [10,
p.32].
In this chapter we intend to outline a framework that can be used to design a
listening lesson that will develop students' listening skills and look at some of the
issues involved.
The basic framework on which a teacher can construct a listening lesson can
be divided into three main stages:
- Pre-listening, during which teachers help students prepare to listen.
- While listening, during which teachers help to focus their attention on the listening
text and guide the development of their understanding of it.
- Post-listening, during which teachers help students integrate what they have learnt
from the text into their existing knowledge.
Pre-listening
There are certain goals that should be achieved before students attempt to
listen to any text. These are motivation, contextualization, and preparation [14, p.
156].
Motivation
It is enormously important that before listening students are motivated to
listen, so a teacher should try to select a text that they will find interesting and then
design tasks that will arouse students' interest and curiosity.
Contextualization
When we listen in our everyday lives we hear language within its natural
environment, and that environment gives us a huge amount of information about
the linguistic content we are likely to hear. Listening to a tape recording in a
classroom is a very unnatural process. The text has been taken from its original
environment and teachers need to design tasks that will help students to
contextualize the listening and access their existing knowledge and expectations to
help them understand the text.
Preparation
To do the task teachers set students while they listen there could be specific
vocabulary or expressions that students will need. It's vital that teachers cover this
before they start to listen as we want the challenge within the lesson to be an act of
listening not of understanding what they have to do.
While listening
When we listen to something in our everyday lives we do so for a reason.
Students too need a reason to listen that will focus their attention. For students to
really develop their listening skills they will need to listen a number of times three or four usually works quite well - as practice shows the first time many
students listen to a text they are nervous and have to tune in to accents and the
speed at which the people are speaking [11, p. 735].
Ideally the listening tasks should guide them through the text and should be
graded so that the first listening task they do is quite easy and helps them to get a
general understanding of the text. Sometimes a single question at this stage will be
enough, not putting the students under too much pressure.
The second task for the second time students listen should demand a greater
and more detailed understanding of the text. Make sure though that the task doesn't
demand too much of a response. Writing long responses as they listen can be very
demanding and is a separate skill in itself, so keep the tasks to single words,
ticking or some sort of graphical response [12, p. 527].
The third listening task could just be a matter of checking their own answers
from the second task or could lead students towards some more subtle
interpretations of the text.
Listening to a foreign language is a very intensive and demanding activity
and for this reason we think it's very important that students should have 'breathing'
or 'thinking' space between listening.
Post-listening
There are two common forms that post-listening tasks can take. These are
reactions to the content of the text, and analysis of the linguistic features used to
express the content [14, p, 26].
Reaction to the text
Of these two we find that tasks that focus students reaction to the content
are most important. Again this is something that we naturally do in our everyday
lives. Because we listen for a reason, there is generally a following reaction. This
could be discussion as a response to what we've heard - do they agree or disagree
or even believe what they have heard? - or it could be some kind of reuse of the
information they have heard.
Analysis of language
The second of these two post-listening task types involves focusing students
on linguistic features of the text. This is important in terms of developing their
knowledge of language, but less so in terms of developing students' listening skills.
It could take the form of an analysis of verb forms from a script of the listening
text or vocabulary or collocation work. This is a good time to do form focused
work as the students have already developed an understanding of the text and so
will find dealing with the forms that express those meanings much easier [14, p.
27].
There are numerous activities to choose from for developing listening skills.
T. Lund has categorized them according to eight responses that can be observed as
comprehension checks [14, p 27-28]:
Choosing: the listener selects from alternatives such as pictures, objects,
texts, or actions;
Transferring: the listener transforms the message such as drawing a route on
map, or filling in a chart;
Answering: the listener answers questions about the text;
Condensing: the listener takes notes or makes an outline;
Extending: the listener goes beyond the text by continuing the story or
solving a problem;
Duplicating: the listener simply repeats or translates the message;
Modeling: the listener performs a similar task, e.g. gives instructions to a
coworker after listening to a model;
Conversing: the listener is an active participant in a face-to-face
conversation. [17, p. 48].
2.2 Techniques the teacher uses to develop hearing
Auding or listening and comprehension are difficult for learners because
they should discriminate speech sounds quickly, retain them while hearing a word,
a phrase, or a sentence and recognize this as a sense unit. Pupils can easily and
naturally do this in their own language and they cannot do this in a foreign
language when they start learning the language. Pupils are very slow in grasping
what they hear because they are conscious of the linguistic forms they perceive by
the ear. This results in misunderstanding or a complete failure of understanding.
When auding a foreign language pupils should be very attentive and think
hard. They should strain their memory and will power to keep the sequence of
sounds they hear and to decode it. Not all the pupils can cope with the difficulties
entailed. The teacher should help them by making this work easier and more
interesting. This is possible on condition that he will take into consideration the
following three main factors which can ensure success in developing pupils' skills
in auding:
- linguistic material for auding;
- the content of the material suggested for listening and comprehension;
- conditions in which the material is presented.
1. Comprehension of the text by the ear can be ensured when the teacher
uses the material which has already been assimilated by pupils. However this does
not completely eliminate the difficulties in auding. Pupils need practice in listening
and comprehension in the target language to be able to overcome three kinds of
difficulties: phonetic, lexical, and grammatical [4, p. 125].
Phonetic difficulties appear because the phonic system of English and
Russian differ greatly. The hearer often interprets the sounds of a foreign language
as if they were of his own language which usually results in misunderstanding. The
following opposites present much trouble to beginners in learning English:
s tr t A o s z a: o
f dr dg d z t t o: :
w v d v n rj ae e
Pupils also find it difficult to discriminate such opposites as: o: o, a A,
i: i, u: u. They can hardly differentiate the following words by ear: worked
walked; first fast forced; lion line; tired tide; bought boat
board.
The difference in intonation often prevents pupils from comprehending a
communication. For example, Good morning (when meeting); Good morning (at
parting). The teacher, therefore, should develop his pupils' ear for English sounds
and intonation.
Lexical difficulties are closely connected with the phonetic ones. Pupils
often misunderstand words because they hear them wrong. For example: The horse
is slipping. The horse is sleeping. They worked till night. They walked till night.
The opposites are often misunderstood, for the learners often take one word
for another. For example: east west, take put; ask answer. The most
difficult words for auding are the verbs with postpositions, such as: put on, put off,
put down, take off, see off, go in for, etc.
Grammatical difficulties are mostly connected with the analytic structure of
the English language, and with the extensive use of infinitive and participle
constructions. Besides, English is rich in grammatical homonyms, for example: to
work work; to answer answer; -ed as the suffix of the Past Indefinite and the
Past Participle. This is difficult for pupils when they aud.
2. The content of the material also influences comprehension. The following
factors should be taken into consideration when selecting the material for auding:
The topic of communication: whether it is within the ability of the pupils to
understand, and what difficulties pupils will come across (proper names,
geographical names, terminology, etc). The type of communication: whether it is a
description or a narration. Description as a type of communication is less
emotional and interesting, that is why it is difficult for the teacher to arouse pupils'
interest in auding such a text. Narration is more interesting for auding.
Consequently, this type of communication should be used for listening
comprehension. The context and pupils' readiness (intellectual and situational) to
understand it. The way the narrative progresses: whether the passage is taken from
the beginning of a story, the nucleus of the story, the progress of the action or,
finally, the end of the story. The title of the story may be helpful in comprehending
the main idea of the text. The simpler the narrative progresses, the better it is for
developing pupils' skills in auding. The form of communication: whether the text is
a dialogue or a monologue. Monologic speech is easier for the learners, therefore,
it is preferable for developing pupils' ability to aud.
3. Conditions of presenting the material are of great importance for teaching
auding, namely:
- the speed of the speech the pupil is auding. The hearer cannot change the speed of
the speaker;
- there are different points of view on the problem of the speed of speech in teaching
auding a foreign language.
Consequently, in teaching listening comprehension the teacher should bear
in mind all the difficulties pupils encounter when auding in a foreign language. To
fulfill the task the teacher must train his pupils in listening comprehension
beginning with the first lesson and throughout the whole period of instruction.
These are the techniques the teacher uses for the purpose:
1. The teacher uses the foreign language:
- when giving the class instructions;
- when presenting new language material (words, sentence patterns);
- when checking pupils' comprehension;
- when consolidating the material presented;
- when checking pupils' assimilation of the language material covered.
These are the cases when the target language is used as a means of
communication and a means of teaching. There is a great deal of auding in all the
points of the lesson. This raises the problem of the teacher's speech during the
lesson. It should be correct, sufficiently loud, clear, and expressive. But many of
the teachers are too talkative. We can hear them speaking most of the time.
Moreover, some teachers speak a great deal in Russian. Conducting a lesson in a
foreign language gives the teacher an opportunity to develop pupils' abilities in
hearing; to train them in listening to him attentively during the lesson; to
demonstrate the language as a means of communication; to provide favorable
conditions for the assimilation of the language; to perfect his own speaking skills;
to keep his own speech under control, i. e., to keep himself from undue
talkativeness.
2. The teacher uses drill and speech exercises for developing listening
comprehension.
We can group drill exercises into exercises designed for overcoming
linguistic difficulties, and exercises which can eliminate psychological difficulties.
The first group of drill exercises includes:
Phonetic exercises which will help the teacher to develop his pupils' ear for
English sounds;
- listen to the following words and raise your hands when you hear the words with
[ae] (The teacher says: desk, pen, ten, bag, etc.);
- listen to the following pairs of words and say in what sound they differ: pen pin;
bed bad; eyes ice; white wide.
Lexical exercises which will help the teacher to develop pupils' skills in
recognizing words:
- listen to the words and recognize the word "boy" among other words: a baby, a toy,
a boat, a boy, a girl;
- listen to the following words and raise your hands when you hear the words
referring to plants: street, tree, grass, class, flower, and tower;
- listen to the following sentences and say whether the word country has the same
meaning in both sentences:
I usually spent my holidays in the country.
The Soviet Union is a large country.
Grammar exercises which help the teacher to develop pupils' skills in
recognizing grammar forms and structures:
- listen to the following words and raise your hands when you hear words in plural:
desk, tables, book, box, pens, books, boxes, etc.;
- listen to the following sentences and say in which one the word help is used as a
noun. He can help you. I need his help.
The second group of drill exercises includes:
1. Exercises which help the teacher to develop his pupils' auditory memory:
- listen to the following words and try to memorize them. (The teacher pronounces a
number of words pointing to the object each denotes: a carrot, a potato, a
cucumber, a tomato. Afterwards pupils are told to point to the object the teacher
names.);
- listen to the phrases and repeat them. The teacher says: on the table, in the box,
near the blackboard;
- listen to the sentences and repeat them. (The teacher says: I like tea. Ann doesn't
like tea. She likes milk.);
- listen to the sentences and repeat them in the same sequence. (The teacher says: In
the evening we have tea. I like it very much. The teacher may increase the number
of sentences for pupils to memorize.).
2. Exercises which are designed for developing pupils' attention:
- listen to the following text: I have a sister. Her name is Ann. Mike has no sister. He
has a brother.
- Now say what is the name of Mike's sister is.
- listen to the text. (The text follows.) Now say which sentence was omitted (added)
when you listened to it a second time.
3. Exercises which develop pupils' visual imagination:
- listen to the following definition and give it a name: We write with it on the
blackboard. We take it when it rains.
- listen and say which season it is: It is cold. It often snows. Children can skate and
ski.
4. Exercises which help the teacher to develop his pupils' logical thinking:
- listen to the sentences and say whether they are logically arranged: Her name is
Mary. This is a girl.
Drill exercises are quite indispensable to developing pupils' skills in
listening comprehension. Speech exercises are designed for developing pupils'
skills in auding. Several groups of exercises may be suggested:
a) Exercises which teach pupils to understand texts different in content,
form, and type. Pupils are asked to listen to a description or a narration; the text
may be a dialogue, it may deal with the life of people whose language the pupils
study, or with the pupils' environment:
- listen to the story. Your task is to define its main idea. You should choose one
among those suggested by the teacher;
- listen to the story. Your task is to grasp as much information as you can. While
auding try to put down key words and sentences; they will help you to convey the
context of the story.
b) Exercises which develop pupils' skills to understand a text under different
conditions. Sound producing aids should be extensively used for developing pupils'
auding, as pupils are supposed to understand not only their teacher's speech, but
other people speaking the target language, including native speakers. Besides,
sound producing aids allow the teacher to supply pupils with recorded speech
different in speed and voice.
Before pupils are invited to listen to the text the teacher should ensure that
all the words and grammar are familiar to the pupils otherwise language difficulties
will prevent them from understanding the story. Thus, if there are some unfamiliar
words, the teacher introduces them beforehand; he either puts them down on the
blackboard with the mother tongue equivalents in the sequence they appear in the
text, or he asks pupils to pronounce the words written on the blackboard if he plans
a talk on the text afterwards, and pupils are to use these words in their speech [5, p.
87].
Then the teacher should direct his pupils' attention to what they are going to
listen to. This is of great importance for experiments prove that if your aim is that
your pupils should keep on talking on the text they have heard it stimulates their
thinking and facilitates their comprehension of the text.
The following tasks may be suggested to draw pupils attention to what they
are auding:
- listen and try to grasp the main idea of the story. You will be asked questions later
on;
- listen and try to grasp the details. You will have to name them;
- listen and make a plan of the story;
- listen to the story and try to finish it (think of the end of the story);
- listen to the story. You will ask questions on it afterwards;
- listen to the text. You will retell it afterwards;
- listen to the story. We shall have a discussion on it. Etc.
When pupils are ready to listen, the text can be read to them. If it is the
teacher who reads or tells the story, he can help pupils to comprehend the text with
gestures. If the text is recorded, a picture or pictures can facilitate comprehension.
The pupils listen to the text once as is usually the case in real communication.
Then the teacher checks their comprehension. If they have not understood it, they
are told to listen to the text again. The teacher can use a dialogue to help pupils to
understand the text after they have listened to the story for the first time, i.e., he
may ask questions, make statements on the text for pupils to agree or reject them.
Skills in hearing must be built up gradually. The teacher begins with a story
containing 3-4 sentences. He uses pictures, gestures to help pupils to understand it.
Gradually he can take longer sections and faster speeds with less visual help and in
more difficult language. The teacher must bear in mind that careful grading in all
these ways is of the utmost importance. Texts, stories to be read or recorded should
be interesting and fairly easy.
2.3 Language techniques in listening assessing proficiency
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. You can use post-listening activities to check
comprehension, evaluate listening skills and use of listening strategies, and extend
the knowledge gained to other contexts. A post-listening activity may relate to a
pre-listening activity, such as predicting; may expand on the topic or the language
of the listening text; or may transfer what has been learned to reading, speaking, or
writing activities.
In order to provide authentic assessment of students' listening proficiency, a
post-listening activity must reflect the real-life uses to which students might put
information they have gained through listening. It must have a purpose other than
assessment. It must require students to demonstrate their level of listening
comprehension by completing some task. To develop authentic assessment
activities, consider the type of response that listening to a particular selection
would elicit in a non-classroom situation. For example, after listening to a weather
report one might decide what to wear the next day; after listening to a set of
instructions, one might repeat them to someone else; after watching and listening
to a play or video, one might discuss the story line with friends.
Use this response type as a base for selecting appropriate post-listening
tasks. You can then develop a checklist or rubric that will allow you to evaluate
each student's comprehension of specific parts of the aural text. (See Assessing
Learning for more on checklists and rubrics.). For example, for listening practice
you have students listen to a weather report. Their purpose for listening is to be
able to advise a friend what to wear the next day. As a post-listening activity, you
ask students to select appropriate items of clothing from a collection you have
assembled, or write a note telling the friend what to wear, or provide oral advice to
another student (who has not heard the weather report). To evaluate listening
comprehension, you use a checklist containing specific features of the forecast,
marking those that are reflected in the student's clothing recommendations.
Good listening lessons go beyond the listening task itself with related
activities before and after the listening. Here is the basic structure:
Before Listening
Prepare your learners by introducing the topic and finding out what they
already know about it. A good way to do this is to have a brainstorming session
and some discussion questions related to the topic. Then provide any necessary
background information and new vocabulary they will need for the listening
activity. (See Appendix A).
During Listening
Be specific about what students need to listen for. They can listen for
selective details or general content, or for an emotional tone such as happy,
surprised, or angry. If they are not marking answers or otherwise responding while
listening, tell them ahead of time what will be required afterward. (See Appendix
A).
After Listening
Finish with an activity to extend the topic and help students remember new
vocabulary. This could be a discussion group, craft project, writing task, game, etc.
The following ideas will help make our listening activities successful. (See
Appendix A).
Noise Reduce distractions and noise during the listening segment. You may
need to close doors or windows or ask children in the room to be quiet for a few
minutes.
Equipment If you are using a cassette player, make sure it produces
acceptable sound quality. A counter on the machine will aid tremendously in
cueing up tapes. Bring extra batteries or an extension cord with you.
Repetition Read or play the text a total of 2-3 times. Tell students in advance
you will repeat it. This will reduce their anxiety about not catching it all the first
time. You can also ask them to listen for different information each time through.
Content Unless your text is merely a list of items, talk about the content as
well as specific language used. The material should be interesting and appropriate
for your class level in topic, speed, and vocabulary. You may need to explain
reductions (like 'gonna' for 'going to') and fillers (like 'um' or 'uh-huh').
Recording Your Own Tape
Write appropriate text (or use something from your textbook) and have
another English speaker read it onto tape. Copy the recording three times so you
don't need to rewind. The reader should not simply read three times, because
students want to hear exact repetition of the pronunciation, intonation, and pace,
not just the words.
Video You can play a video clip with the sound off and ask students to make
predictions about what dialog is taking place. Then play it again with sound and
discuss why they were right or wrong in their predictions. You can also play the
sound without the video first, and show the video after students have guessed what
is going on.
Homework Give students a listening task to do between classes. Encourage
them to listen to public announcements in airports, bus stations, supermarkets, etc.
and try to write down what they heard. Tell them the telephone number of a cinema
and ask them to write down the playing times of a specific movie. Give them a
tape recording of yourself with questions, dictation, or a worksheet to complete.
When a word ends in a consonant sound and the next word starts with a vowel the
words link together. The ending consonant "jumps over" to the next word. (see
Appendix A).
This is one of the trickiest problems when listening to English. A basic
listening skill is being able to pick out words, being able to understand words as
words; being able to understand where the word boundaries are; where words start
and finish. Liaison, the way English links together makes this tough.
The Weak Vowel. The Central Vowel
This is the most important vowel you can teach your students. The "upside
down e" in their dictionaries. This is the central vowel. (see Appendix B(1)).
Second language learners often have difficulty with English weak vowels.
Although some languages do have a system of weakening vowels, many languages
do not. Students need to be taught about weak vowels. Many listening classes don't
teach students about the central vowel. And students need to understand this to
understand English!!
Sometimes when two consonant sounds come together, one at the end of one
word and one at the beginning of another. They mix to form a new sound. (see
Appendix B(2)). The "d" and the "y" mix together and make a new sound that
sounds like a "j" sound. The sentence sounds like: (see Appendix B(3))
Words can disappear
Not only do sounds disappear but often entire words are not said. (see
Appendix B(4). In casual speech auxiliary verbs in questions are often not
enunciated. In casual speech the above might be spoken as: You got the time? This
is called ellipsis and it's a common feature of casual speech. Perhaps if you were
chatting with Queen Elizabeth you might not speak like this. However the average
speaker certainly talks like this, especially if chatting with friends.
"Have you got the time?" becomes "Got the time?"
"Did you see her last night?" becomes "You see 'er las' nigh'. "
You might think this is lazy English, or perhaps even bad English. But it's
not. It's just plain old simple natural English. And our students need to know. Teach
your students about ellipsis.
Helping Sounds
When a word ends in a vowel and the next word starts with a vowel, a
"helping sound" comes between them so they are easier to say (see Appendix
B(5)). English uses helping sounds, usually a y (/j/), w or r . These sounds come
between vowel sounds at word boundaries.
"Sea Otter" sounds like "Sea Yotter" "No agreement" sounds like "No
wagreement" "Canada is" sounds like "Canada ris" (but this last one is more
common with British English)
Intonation drops when we finish a speaking turn.
Falling tones tell the listener that the speaker has finished (see Appendix
B(6)). In the first example, intonation goes up, which signals that the speaker
wishes to continue. In the second sentence, intonation goes down signaling that the
speaker is giving up their turn.
You don't need to hear/understand every word being spoken. We need to tell
our students this! Prominent sentence stress signals that information is new or
pertinent. Knowledge of stress and intonation prominence helps your students
listen. Have students listen for the stressed words. These are the words with
important meaning. Students do NOT have to hear and understand all the words in
a sentence to understand. Say I listen to the following sentence, "They go to the
lake at the end of the summer". But say I only hear (see Appendix B(7)). I can
nonetheless understand the message being spoken. Teach your students about stress
and prominence. And encourage your students to guess what they don't catch.
Knowledge of how important words and grammar words are actually spoken will
help. Your students need to know. Use your knowledge of grammar to guess what
you don't hear. Grammar helps us guess what we don't hear clearly. Once students
have been taught about the schwa, (the weak or central vowel), they should next be
taught to use their understanding of grammar to help them guess. It is impossible
to hear clearly everything that is said, because often natural speech is NOT clearly
enunciated.
When our students listen to English there are many holes, many places
where they don't know what's being said. These holes are usually the grammar
words, the function words that are pronounced weakly. (see Appendix B(8)).
In the above, the students hear clearly the meaning words, (the verbs,
adjectives, nouns). But the middle part is not enunciated clearly. Well in the above
sentence we know it's a question because it starts with "where", so we can guess
what's missing easily. We're missing an auxiliary verb and a pronoun. Since it's
"last night", we know we've got a past tense auxiliary. Students can easily guess
what's missing here. (see Appendix B(9)).
To make listening more interesting and effective you can use a different
interesting computer program connected with the
Internet. Nowadays there are a lot of special sites including interesting and
useful programs aimed at developing students' listening skills. (see Appendix C )
One of the effective methods of teaching listening is using games and songs.
Following activities also are given in the Internet recourses. For example, MEDELs online resource center. They have set up this service to provide parents,
therapists, and teachers with ideas for follow-up activities that can be used at
home, in the clinic, or in the classroom. These ideas are not only useful, but also
can be fun for children.
The online game introduces the song, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" using 8
animals sheep, cow, cat, pig, snake, mouse, dog, and donkey and the noises
associated with each of the animals. For example, you could imitate an animals
sound rather than use the words. Songs are a very important part of early childhood
learning, and "Old MacDonald" is one that most children love. (see Appendix D)
It is important to promote and motivate students to understand the foreign
language comprehension. Improving the process of teaching listening has all
preconditions: techniques in modern times are developing rapidly, and teachers
have more opportunities to use different types of technical training.
Conclusion
The term "auding" became basic for this research. Auding is the process of
hearing, recognizing, and interpreting spoken language. It should take a very
important part in the very beginning of learning foreign language.
In this course paper we consider the theoretical and practical value of the
listening techniques, and their role in developing students listening skills.
In the theoretical part the most interesting and useful listening techniques
have been listed. In this course paper was investigated the process of listening,
how to teach it as one of the most difficult and the most important types of speech
activity, the ways to overcome the difficulties that students faced by. A special
place in this course paper has been given teaching listening through various
exercises and online programs, and the most interesting approaches to teaching indepth listening.
Practical part presents different types of activities which can help the teacher
to organize listening activities at the English lesson. A lot of different techniques
which help students to improve their listening skills have been studied.
The term "auding" became basic for this research. Auding is the process of
hearing, recognizing, and interpreting spoken language. It should take a very
important part in the very beginning of learning foreign language.
We have outlined the main reasons for teaching listening comprehension in a
foreign language. It is now widely accepted that oral communication plays a vital
role in second language teaching for it provides an exposure to language which is a
fundamental requirement for the learner. Progress in listening guarantees a basis
for development of other language skills. Spoken language provides a means of
interaction where participation is a significant component of the listening program.
The lesson theme should be presented in the form of the text, game, and
various pictures or with the help of video lessons. The aim of listening activities is
to achieve students' desire to learn to listen to speech and understand the hearing,
and to make them feel their capabilities, their progress. Listening is the basis of
communication; it begins with the mastery of oral communication.
We presented the classification of listening activities which has become
basic for the present course paper:
In showing a considerable variety of listening activities we have explored
some of the many ways to help students acquire the confidence to use their skills
for self-expression in language situations. Different activities and procedures
provide the development of the listening for communicative tasks and for
extracting general or certain specific points in the discourse.
We have stressed the importance of careful selection of practice material for
testing listening skills of the learners. It is necessary to construct different types of
practical exercises for students to experience language. Listening comprehension
tests present an effective method for developing listening abilities.
As a result of the present course paper we accomplished the set aims:
-
we studied listening as the ability to identify and understand speech;

considered the most common listening comprehension problems;
we found the most appropriate solutions to the listening comprehension problems;
distinguished types of listening activities;
planned a lesson based on the most effective listening comprehension strategies.
Listening possession allows a person to understand what he is told and
respond what has been said, helps to explain his answer to an opponent, which is
the basis of speech. Some ways of avoiding mistakes and some up-to-date
techniques while developing listening skills have been pointed out. Thus we can
say that the given aims were achieved. A technique in modern time is developing
rapidly, and the teachers have more opportunities to use various kinds of technical
training
The present course paper is an attempt to systematize teaching listening
comprehension strategies and techniques, to reveal the most frequent difficulties
with listening from students points of view and to model a lesson taking into
account these details.
References
1. Flowerdew, J. and Miller, L. Student perceptions, problems and strategies in
second language lecture comprehension, Boston, 1996 - 6080pp.
2. Brown, G. Listening to Spoken English. London, 1992 25-49pp.
3. Jack C. R.Teaching listening and speaking from theory to practice, 2008-1-41pp.
5. Cohen, L & Manim, L. Research methods in Education. London, 1998 117125pp.
6. Cross, D. Teach English. Oxford, 1998 36 45pp.
7. Berman, M. Listening strategy guide. NY, 200318-36pp.
8. Goh,C. Metacognitive awareness and second language listeners. NY, 1998, 59pp.
9. Gass, S.M. (1988). Integrating research areas: A framework for second language
studies. Applied Linguistics, 9, 198217.
10. Hedge, T. Teaching and Learning in the language classroom. Oxford, 2001
25-35pp.
11. Herron, C. and Seay, I. The effect of authentic aural texts on student listening
comprehension in the foreign language classroom. NY, 2003, 487pp.
12. Higgins, J.M.D. Facilitating listening in second language classrooms through
the manipulation of temporal variables. Vancouver, 2001, 12-25 pp.
13 C. Farell. Listening comprehension in the ESL classroom. NY, 2007-116-132pp.
14. Underwood M. Teaching listening. 1990 120-125pp
15. Weir, C & Robert, J. Evaluation in ELT. Oxford, 1998 45-69pp.
16. Mendelsohn, D.J., & Rubin, J. (1995). A guide for the teaching of second
language listening. San Diego, CA: Dominie Press.
17. Wenden, A. What do second language learners know about their language
learning? London, 1998 - 186205pp.
18. Willis, J. Teaching English through English. London, 1998 201-220pp.
19. Yagang, F. Listening: Problems and solutions. Washington, DC, 1994 174178pp.
20. http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/eslvideo/ 11.11.2011
21. Richards, J.C. (1983). Listening comprehension: Approach, design, procedure.
TESOL Quarterly, 17, 219240.
22. Dunkel, P. A. Listening in the native and second language. 2001 115-118pp.
23. Rubin. J. Listening comprehension problems. 1990 17-32pp.
24. Feyten M.C. Power of listening activity. 1998 38-52pp.
25.http://ebookbrowse.com/bcp-2-15-developing-listening-skills-activity-docd303883991
26. http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/call/negquest.html
27. http://www.medel.com/int/show4/index/id/255/title/SoundScape
Appendix A
Dear Mom and Dad
Level
Topic:
Type:
Speakers:
Time:
Upper intermediate
Narration (story)
Dialogue
One man
02.16
I. Pre-Listening Exercises
1. In this story, a young man describes his mishaps (accidents), which
occurred while he was at summer camp. Make a list of possible problems that
might have happened to him before you start the listening.
II. Listening Exercises
After listening
1) What does Brad have to do before he eats breakfast?
A. Clean his sleeping quarters
B. Go down to the stream to get some water
C. Feed the rooster and the other animals
2. What happened to Brad when he went fishing?
A. A tree branch fell on him.
B. He lost his fishing pole.
C. He slipped and lost one of his shoes.
3. What did he eat for dinner?
A. Steak
B. Hotdogs
C. Beans
4. What was Brad doing when he got lost in the forest?
A. He was running away from a bear.
B. He was searching for wood.
C. He was wondering around looking for the cabin.
5. How did Brad like summer camp?
A. He had a great time.
B. It was okay.
C. He didn't have fun.
2) Listen to the conversation again as you read the Quiz Script
III. Post-Listening Exercises
1. Now retell the story from several points of view in their own words (e.g.,
the young man, the parents, one of the counselors at camp, etc.).
OR
2. The script can be given to the students with some words missing so that
they have to complete the sentences with the newly learned vocabulary
Script.
Dear Mom and Dad,
This is my fifth day at summer camp. Life in the great outdoors isn't exactly
what I expected, but I'm not starving . . . yet . . . so don't worry about me.
I guess I should tell you about what I do every day. First, everyone has to get
up at 5:30 A.M. They have this silly old rooster named Harry who loves to wake us
up. Next, we have to make our beds and tidy up the cabin before our camp
counselor, Jeff, comes to inspect the place.
Then, we have breakfast around 6:30 A.M. After that, we have some free
time, so I've been going down to the nearby stream to fish for a couple of hours.
But yesterday, the only thing I caught was an old shoe and a tree branch. Great
catch, huh? Then when I was trying to swat a mosquito buzzing around my head, I
slipped and fell in the stream and lost my fishing pole. That ended my fishing
career.
Well, in the afternoon, there are different activities we can choose from like
archery, horseback riding, and hiking. I thought archery would be the sport for me
until I shot an arrow through Jeff's pant leg. As you can imagine, I haven't been
invited back since.
In the evening, everyone is assigned a different chore to get dinner ready.
Yesterday, I was in charge of cooking the hotdogs, but I accidentally dropped them
in the fire, so we had to settle for beans instead. The other kids are always razzing
me about it.
At night, we sit around a campfire in front of the cabin, sing songs, and tell
ghost stories. That's usually fun, but one night while trying to find more sticks for
the fire, I got all turned around and got lost. After about an hour of wandering
aimlessly in the forest, I finally found my way back, but no one seemed to have
realized what had happened, thinking that I just had gone to bed. A bear or wolf
could have eaten me and no one would have known it. I was so beat I just crashed .
. . out like a light.
Well, today is another day and tomorrow I go home . . . and not a bit too
soon. I've learned that camping is just not for me.
Love,
Brad
Key Vocabulary
Archery (noun): the sport of shooting arrows with a bow
Beat (noun): very tired
Chore (noun): a small job
Crash (verb): to go sleep
Inspect (verb): to check
Out like a light (idiom): fall asleep very quickly, like turning off a light
Settle (verb): accept something less than you wanted
Swat (verb): to hit an insect with the purpose of killing it
Tidy up (verb): clean up or organize
Appendix B
1)
So when students hear this simple sentence, what they hear is:
2)
3)
4)
5)
Thus in natural conversation this would sound like:
6)
7)
8)
9)
Appendix C
Telephone conversation: Making a hotel reservation.
Prepare a Post-listening task for the following activity.
Objective: To Listen for general understanding.
Audio Script
Hotel Clerk: Hello. Sunnyside Inn. May I help you?
Man: Yes, I'd like to reserve a room for two on the 21st of March.
Hotel Clerk: Okay. Let me check our books here for a moment. The 21st of
May, right?
Man: No. March, not May.
Hotel Clerk: Oh, sorry. Let me see here. Hmmm.
Man: Are you all booked that night?
Hotel Clerk: Well, we do have one suite available, complete with a
kitchenette and a sauna bath. And the view of the city is great, too.
Man: How much is that?
Hotel Clerk: It's only $200 dollars, plus a 10% room tax.
Man: Oh, that's a little too expensive for me. Do you have a cheaper room
available either on the 20th or the 22nd?
Hotel Clerk: Well, would you like a smoking or a non-smoking room?
Man: Non-smoking, please.
Hotel Clerk: Okay, we do have a few rooms available on the 20th; we're full
on the 22nd, unless you want a smoking room.
Man: Well, how much is the non-smoking room on the 20th?
Hotel Clerk: $80 dollars, plus the 10% room tax.
Man: Okay, that'll be fine.
Hotel Clerk: All right. Could I have your name, please?
Man: Yes. Bob Maexner.
Hotel Clerk: How do you spell your last name, Mr. Maexner?
Man: M-A-E-X-N-E-R.
Hotel Clerk: Okay, Mr. Maexner, we look forward to seeing you on March
20th.
Man: Okay. Goodbye.
Appendix D
Old MacDonald
Here are some different activities to do with children at home or in the
classroom.
Sing one of the verses and then ask the child to pick up the appropriate
animal card. Even better, ask him to sing along with you the moment he recognizes
the correct animal. If there are other children in the class or family, think about
having a "friendly competition."
Put the cards in front of the children and start to sing one of the verses of
"Old MacDonald." Who is able to point to or pick up the appropriate card first?
Dont stop after youve sung "... and on that farm he had a DOG," for example, but
keep going with "E I E I O. With a woof - woof here, etc.," and encourage the
children to join in. The child with the most cards wins!
Here is an activity to use with two sets of cards from the Old MacDonald
activity. Distribute one set of the cards to the children. The number each child
receives will depend on the number of children involved in the activity. Keep the
second set of cards for yourself. Shuffle your set of cards and then pick the top
card and sing the appropriate verse. The child who has the correct card has to place
it face up on the table. The first child to have all his cards on the table wins!
If at all possible, its always a good idea to have more than one singer. At
home or at school, female and male singers can take turns singing the songs, but
they should not sing together as that might be quite difficult at first. Brothers and
sisters can also join in as singers. Try to make the activities as fun as possible for
everyone.
There are many other childrens songs related to farms and animals, which
can be used for similar activities. Try to build up a series of songs that can be sung
together. Here are some songs that might be suitable. If you dont know the songs
or their tunes, search for them online using Google or another search engine.
Allbest.ru

Teacher Listening Comprehension Educational

Încărcat de

Informații document

Titlu original

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Teacher Listening Comprehension Educational

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

http://www.allbest.

1.4 Teaching listening methods

we studied listening as the ability to identify and understand speech;

Thus in natural conversation this would sound like:

S-ar putea să vă placă și