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Listening is more than merely hearing words. Traditionally, secondary schools have concentrated
Listening is an active process by which students receive, on the comprehensive and critical kinds of listening.
construct meaning from, and respond to spoken and or Teachers need to provide experiences in all four kinds. For
nonverbal messages (Emmert, 1994). As such, it forms an example, listening to literature read, listening to radio plays,
integral part of the communication process and should not and watching films develop appreciative in addition to
be separated from the other language arts. Listening comprehensive and critical listening. When students provide
comprehension complements reading comprehension. supportive communication in collaborative groups, they are
Verbally clarifying the spoken message before, during, and promoting therapeutic listening. For example, the listening
after a presentation enhances listening comprehension. behavior can show understanding, acceptance, and trust, all
Writing, in turn, clarifies and documents the spoken of which facilitate communication. Students benefit from
message. exposure to all four types of listening.
Listening Comprehension skills or Enabling skills Parsing is the process by which an utterance is
segmented according to syntactic structures or
Listeningforgist—listen for main ideas Utilization occurs when listeners relate mental
Drawinginferences—ability to fill in gaps in the input representations of the input to existing knowledge in
input.
Makingpredictions—ability to anticipate before and Bottom–up Listening
It shows what listeners do in order to demonstrate clauses and sentences before the aural input is understood.
Organize and classify information bottom-up processing occur at the same time in what is
Transfer information into graphic forms over the other, depending on the amount of practice an
need to understand that the “…act of listening requires not should have paper and pencil at hand.
just hearing but thinking, as well as a good deal of interest o Students need to be attentive. In many
and information which both speaker and listener must have cultures, though not all, it is expected that
in common. Speaking and listening entail ... three the listener look directly at the speaker and
components: the speaker, the listener, and the meaning to indicate attention and interest by body
be shared; speaker, listener, and meaning form a unique language. The listener should never talk
triangle (King, 1984).” when a speaker is talking. Listeners should
put distractions and problems aside.
The teacher allows the learner to ‘tune in’ to the
context or to the topic of a given text. The students may o "Listen to others as you would have
perhaps express their views about the text to be listened to; them listen to you."
Before a speaker's presentation, teachers also can While-listening tasks are what students are asked to
have students formulate questions that they predict will be do during listening time. The listening tasks should be
answered during the presentation. If the questions are not enjoyable and meaningful to the students. It should be
answered, students may pose the questions to the speaker. simple and easy to handle. It should provide opportunities
Students should as well be encouraged to jot down for students to succeed.
questions during listening.
Students need to understand the implications of rate in
An additional strategy is called TQLR. It consists of the listening process. Nichols (1948) found that people
the following steps: listen and think at four times the normal conversation rate.
Students have to be encouraged to use the "rate gap" to
T – Tune-in actively process the message. In order to use that extra
(The listener must tune-in to the speaker and the time wisely.
subject, mentally calling up everything known about
the subject and shutting out all distractions.) Effective listeners:
organizational patterns (e.g., logical, chronological, Provide a rough outline, map, chart, or graph for
students to complete as they follow the lecture.
spatial), and transitional devices. Effective listeners can
Have students jot down "new-to-me" items (simple
follow spoken discourse when they recognize key signal lists of facts or insights that the listener has not
expressions such as the following: heard before).
Use a formal note-taking system.
Example words: for example, for instance, thus, in
other words, as an illustration Transcribing or writing down live or recorded
Usually found in: generalization plus example (but speech can sharpen students' listening, spelling, and
may be found in enumeration and argumentation)
punctuation skills.
Time words: first, second, third, meanwhile, next,
finally, at last, today, tomorrow, soon
Usually found in: narration, chronological patterns, Teacher selects an interesting piece of writing.
directions (and whenever events or examples are The selection is read aloud to the class (and
presented in a time sequence) perhaps discussed).
• Addition words: in addition, also, furthermore,
The teacher then dictates the passage slowly to the
moreover, another example
class. The students transcribe the form and
Usually found in: Enumeration, description, and conventions (i.e., spelling, punctuation, and
sometimes in generalization plus example capitalization) as accurately as possible.
Result words: as a result, so, accordingly, Students compare their transcription with distributed
therefore, thus copies of the original.
Usually found in: Cause and effect
Contrast words: however, but, in contrast, on the Critical thinking plays a major role in effective
other hand, nevertheless listening. Listening in order to analyze and evaluate requires
Usually found in: comparison and contrast (and students to evaluate a speaker's arguments and the value
whenever speaker makes a comparison or contrast
in another pattern) (Devine, 1982). of the ideas, appropriateness of the evidence, and the
persuasive techniques employed. Effective listeners apply
Most students need practice in making inferences the principles of sound thinking and reasoning to the
while listening. A simple way to help students become messages they hear at home, in school, in the workplace, or
aware that there is meaning between the lines is to read a in the media.
passage from literature which describes a character's
actions, appearance, or surroundings. From this Planning and structuring classroom activities to
information, students make inferences about the character's model and encourage students to listen critically is
personality. Teachers should keep in mind that the purpose important. Students should learn to:
of an exercise such as this is not to elicit the exact answer, Analyze the message
but to provide opportunities for students to make various Critical listeners are concerned first with
inferences. Students also need to be aware of the understanding accurately and completely what they
inferences they can make from non-verbal cues. A hear (Brownell, 1996). Students should identify the
speaker's tone and body language can convey a message speaker's topic, purpose, intended audience, and
as well. 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 Text
arguments/points/anecdotes. They should ask Three types of text feature can affect listening:
relevant questions and restate perceptions to make 1. phonology and speech rate
sure they have understood correctly. Taking notes 2. discourse features
will enhance their listening. 3. text types
Task
Analyze the speaker
They are influenced by the types of question, the amount of
Critical listeners must understand the reliability of time and whether or not the listener can get the information
the speaker. Is the speaker credible? repeated.
Trustworthy?An expert?Dynamic? Interlocutor (speaker)
Analyze the speaker's evidence This includes accent, fluency, gender, and standard or non
standard usage.
Critical listeners must understand the nature and
Listener
appropriateness of the evidence and reasoning.
Listener characteristics include: language proficiency,
What evidence is used? Expert
gender, memory, interest, purpose, prior knowledge,
testimony?Facts?Statistics?Examples?Reasons?O
attention, accuracy of pronunciation, topic familiarity, and
pinions? Inappropriate evidence might include
established learning habits.
untrustworthy testimony; inadequate, incorrect,
Process
inappropriate, or irrelevant facts, statistics, or
This refers to type of processing that listeners use, whether
examples; or quotations out of context or
top-down or bottom-up or both. The type of listening
incomplete.
strategy used by the listener is an important factor.
Analyze the speaker's reasoning
might include hasty or over-inclusive generalization, This is usually at the end of a lesson. These are off-shoots
either-or argument, causal fallacy (therefore, or extension of the work done at the pre- and while listening
because of this), non sequitur (confusion of cause stage. At this stage the students have time to think, reflect,
(e.g., designing a cover jacket after a book talk or Simulation Listen and express opinion in
developing a mock trial concerning the topic simulated situations
Listening Tasks for Communicative Outcomes Some Practical Listening Strategies and Activities
Lists Similarities/difference/errors
Forming a picture (draw an image, then write about it)
Putting information into groups (categorizing,
Sequenced information Picture sequences, lyrics “chunking”)
Matched items Pictures with texts, themes Asking questions (Why am I listening to this
with texts message?; Do I know what ___ means?; Does this
information make sense to me?)
Restored texts Complete the gaps in a text Discovering the plan (description, sequence,
comparison, cause and effect, problem/solution)
Diagrams or pictures Floor plans, sketches of
people Note taking (demonstrate by taking notes with the
children)
Notes Short notes during
Getting clues from the speaker (both visual and
presentations
verbal cues)
Speech is the most basic means of Although historically, “conversation” classes have
communication.”Speaking in a second language or foreign ranged from quasi-communicative drilling to free, open,
language has often been viewed as the most demanding and sometimes agenda-less discussions among
and challenging of the four skills.” (Bailey and Savage, students; current pedagogical research on teaching
1994) What specifically makes speaking in a second conversation has provided some parameters for
language or foreign language difficult. According to Brown developing objectives and techniques.
elision; slang and idioms; stress, rhythm, and intonation. conversation are extremely diverse—depending on the
Students who are not exposed to reduced speech will student, teacher, and overall context of the class—
always retain their full forms and it will become a language teachers have nonetheless learned to
disadvantage as a speaker of a second language. Speaking differentiate between transactional and interactional
is an activity requiring the integration of many subsystems. conversation. Instructors have discovered techniques
for teaching students conversation rules such as topic
nomination, maintaining a conversation, turn-taking,
The Goal of Teaching Speaking
interruption, and termination. Teachers have also
The goal of teaching speaking skills is learned to teach sociolinguistic appropriateness, styles
communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to make of speech, nonverbal communication, and
themselves understood, using their current proficiency to conversational routines. Within all these foci, the
the fullest. They should try to avoid confusion in the phonological, lexical, and syntactic properties of
message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or language can be attended to, either directly or indirectly.
vocabulary, and to observe the social and cultural rules that
apply in each communication situation. 2. Teaching pronunciation
There has been some controversy over the role of
To help students develop communicative efficiency pronunciation work in a communicative, interactive
in speaking, instructors can use a balanced activities course of study. Because the overwhelming majority of
approach that combines language input, structured output, adult learners will never acquire an accent-free
and communicative output. command of a foreign language, should a language
program that emphasizes whole language, meaningful
The Nature of Speaking contexts, and automaticity of production focus on these
tiny phonological details of language? The answer is is often eclipsed by conventions of how to say things,
“yes,” but in a different way from what was perceived to when to speak, and other discourse constraints.
be essential; a couple of decades ago.
David Nunan (1991) notes a further complication in
interactive discourse: what he calls the
interlocutoreffect, or the difficulty of a speaking task
as gauged by the skills of one’s interlocutor. In other
3. Accuracy and fluency words, one learner’s performance is always colored by
An issue that pervades all of language performance that of the person (interlocutor) he or she is talking with.
centers on the distinction between accuracy and
fluency. In spoken language the question we face as Factors that Influence Learners’ Speaking
teachers is: How shall we prioritize the two clearly The six factors below suggest that any learner who
important speaker goals of accurate (clear, articulate, really wants to can learn to pronounce English clearly and
grammatically and phonologically correct) language and comprehensibly. As the teacher, you can assist in the
fluent (flowing, natural) language? process by gearing your planned and unplanned instruction
toward these six factors.
It is clear that fluency and accuracy are both
important goals to pursue in Communicative Language 1. Native Language
Teaching (CLT). While fluency may in many The native language is clearly the most influential
communicative language courses be an initial goal in factor affecting a learner’s pronunciation. If the teacher
language teaching, accuracy is achieved to some extent is familiar with the sound system of a learner’s native
by allowing students to focus on the elements of language, (s)he will be better able to diagnose student
phonology, grammar, and discourse in their spoken difficulties. Many L1 to L2 carryovers can be overcome
output. through a focused awareness and effort on the learner’s
part.
The fluency/accuracy issue often boils down to the
extent to which our techniques should be 2. Age
messageoriented(or teaching language use) as Children under the age of puberty generally
opposed to languageoriented (also known as teaching stand an excellent chance
language usage). Current approaches to language of “sounding like a native” if they have continued
teaching lean strongly toward message orientation with exposure in authentic contexts. Beyond the age of
language usage offering a supporting role. puberty, while adults will almost surely maintain a
“foreign accent,” there is no particular advantage
4. Affective factors attributed to age. A fifty-year-old can be as successful
One of the major obstacles learners have to as an eighteen-year-old if all other factors are equal.
overcome in learning to speak is the anxiety generated The belief that “the younger, the better” in learning a
over the risks of blurting things out that are wrong, language is a myth.
stupid, or incomprehensible. Because of the language
ego that informs people that “you are what you speak,”
learners are reluctant to be judged by hearers. Our job
as teachers is to provide the kind of warm, embracing 3. Exposure
climate that encourages students to speak, however It is difficult to define exposure. One can actually live in
halting or broken their attempts may be. a foreign country for some time but not take advantage
of being “with the people.” Research seems to support
5. The interaction effect the notion that the quality and intensity of exposure are
The greatest difficulty that learners encounter in more important than mere length of time. If class time
attempts to speak is not the multiplicity of sounds, spent focusing on pronunciation demands the full
words, phrases, and discourse forms that characterize attention and interest of students, then they stand a
any language, but rather the interactive nature of most good chance of reaching their goals.
communication. Conversations are collaborative as
participants engage in a process of negotiation of 4. Innate phonetic ability
meaning. So, for the learner, the matter of what you say
Often referred to as having an “ear” for language, Fluent speech is phrasal, not word by word. Learners
some people manifests a phonetic coding ability that can organize their output both cognitively and physically
others do not. In many cases, if a person has had (in breath groups) through such clustering.
exposure to a foreign language as a child, this “knack”
is present whether the early language is remembered or 2. Redundancy
not. Others are simply more attuned to phonetic The speaker has an opportunity to make meaning
discriminations. Some people would have you believe clearer through the redundancy of language. Learners
that you either have such a knack, or you don’t. can capitalize on this feature of spoken language.
Strategies-based instruction, however, has proven that
some elements of learning are a matter of an 3. Reduced forms
awareness of your own limitations combined with a Contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc., all form
conscious focus on doing something to compensate for special problems in teaching spoken English. Students
those limitations. Therefore, if pronunciation seems to who don’t learn colloquial contractions can sometimes
be naturally difficult for some students, they should not develop a stilted, bookish quality of speaking that in turn
despair; with some effort and concentration, they can stigmatizes them.
improve their competence.
Douglas Brown (2000) identified eight factors that can make 8. Interaction
speaking difficult. Learning to produce waves of language in a vacuum—
without interlocutors—would rob speaking skill of its
1. Clustering
richest component: the creativity of conversational monologues can be planned or
impromptu
negotiation.
• Tasks:
– oral reports
– summaries
– short speeches
– picture-cued storytelling
– retelling a story or a news event
Type of Task/Response
Performance What is the role of the language teacher in the
classroom? In the first place, like any other teacher, the task
Imitative Speaking • student simply parrots back
(imitate) a word or phrase or of the language teacher is to create the best conditions for
possibly a sentence.
learning. In a sense, the teacher is a means to an end: an
• Tasks:
instrument to see that learning takes place. But in addition
– word repetition
– pronunciation drills (stress, to this general function, a teacher plays specific roles in
intonation)
different stages of the learning process.
Intensive Speaking • one step beyond imitative speaking
to include any speaking
performance that is designed to The Presentation Stage
practice some phonological or
grammatical aspect of language This is also known as the pre-activity phase of the
• Tasks: lesson where the teacher introduces something new to be
– directed response learned. At this stage of a speaking lesson, the teacher’s
– read-aloud
– sentence/dialogue completion main task is to serve as a kind of informant. As the teacher,
tasks you know the language; you select the new material to be
– oral questionnaires
– picture-cued tasks learned and you present this in such a way that the
meaning of the new language is as clear and as memorable
Responsive • short replies to teacher- or student-
Speaking initiated questions or comments (a as possible. The students listen and try to understand.
good deal of student speech in the Although they are probably saying very little at this stage,
classroom is responsive); replies
do not extend into dialogues; such except when invited to join in, they are by no means
speech can be meaningful and passive. Always be on guard against the danger of
authentic.
spending too much time presenting so much so that the
• Tasks:
– question and answer students do not get enough time to practice the language
– eliciting instructions and themselves.
directions
– paraphrasing a story or a
dialogue The Practice Stage
Interactive • Transactional dialogue—carried out
Speaking : for the purpose of conveying or At the practice stage it is the students’ turn to do
exchanging specific information; most of the talking, while your main task is to devise and
• Transactional
involves relatively long stretches of
(dialogue) provide the maximum amount of practice, which must at the
interactive discourse
• Interpersonal same time be meaningful, authentic, and memorable. This
• Interpersonal dialogue—carried out
(dialogue)
for the purpose of maintaining stage is also called the While (or Main) Activity or the
social relationships
SpeakingActivity stage. Your role then as teacher is
• Tasks:
– interviews radically different from that at the presentation. You do the
– role play minimum amount of talking yourself. You are like the skillful
– discussions (arriving at a
consensus, problem-solving) conductor of an orchestra, giving each of the performers a
– games chance to participate and monitoring their performance to
– conversations
– information gap activity see that it is satisfactory.
– telling longer stories
– extended explanations
The Production Stage
Extensive Speaking • usually for intermediate to
(monologue) advanced levels; tasks involve
It is a pity that language learning often stops short
complex, relatively lengthy
stretches of discourse; extended at the practice stage or does not go regularly beyond it.
Many teachers feel that they have done their job if they
have presented the new material well and have given their
students adequate—though usually controlled—practice in
it. No real learning should be assumed to have taken place
until the students are able to use the language for
themselves; provision to use language must be made part
of the lesson. At any level of attainment, the students need
to be given regular and frequent opportunities to use
language freely, even if they sometimes make mistakes as
a result. This is not to say that mistakes are unimportant,
but rather that free expression is more important, and it is a
great mistake to deprive students of this opportunity.