Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine
Ivan Franko Lviv National University
Listening comprehensionin English language teaching
A course-paper
presented
by I. Lutsak
a 4th-year student
by C. Lototska
Associate Professor
Lviv - 2003
Introduction
I. The principles of teaching listening comprehension
1. Reasons for teaching listening comprehension
2. What is listening?
3. Principles for developing listening ability
4. The purpose and nature of the listening comprehension programme
II. The structure of listening comprehension and types of activities
1.Organisation of listening comprehension
2. Activities and procedures
3. Listening as a stimulus to other activities
4. Interactive listening
5. Listening material
6. Listening comprehension tests
Conclusions
Bibliography
Процес історичного розвитку методів вивчення іноземної мови зумовив зростання ролі усного мовлення як невід’ємного компоненту програми вивчення англійської мови. Сприймаючи усний матеріал, учні підсвідомо засвоюють граматичні структури мови, збагачують словниковий запас, звертають увагу на особливості фонетичної системи мови. Усне мовлення надає можливість взаємодії учасників навчального процесу, внаслідок якої вони впливають один на одного.
Різноманітні вправи з відповідним матеріалом забезпечують прогресивний розвиток слухових здібностей і навиків їх використання у мовних ситуаціях. Вдало підібраний усний матеріал на аудіо і відеокасетах, а також безпосереднє спілкування з носіями англійської мови сприяють підвищенню рівня знань учнів та їх комунікативних можливостей. Наявність матеріалу, що включає різні зразки розмовної мови, сприяє вивченню різновидів англійської мови, а також способів викладу певної інформації.
Foreign languages have been taught formally for centuriesand records of language teaching materials have been around for over 500 years [8,p.139]. However, teaching listening comprehension as a part of teaching a foreign or second language is a relatively recent development whose history lies mostly in the last thirty years. In the earliest of teaching methods known, the grammar-translation method, learners focused exclusively on the analysis of written texts. Listening was used solely to accompany these texts and to provide models for oral reading. It was not until the late 1800s that listening was used in language instruction as a means of developing oral communication [8,p.139]. It was assumed that students would simply acquire the ability to understand the spoken form of the language if they occasionally heard their teacher speak it or listened to a tape of it being spoken. It was quickly demonstrated that this approach was simply not working.
This led to the development of the direct method in which oral presentations and aural comprehension were emphasized. The target language was exclusively used in the classroom and translation was proscribed. Second language learning was intended to proceed largely as first languages were learned - moving from tangible situations to more abstract ones. Initially, only everyday, concrete vocabulary and sentences were taught. Oral communication was initiated by the teacher through question-answer exchanges with the learners. All new language was taught through demonstrations, objects and pictures, much the way that a child is immersed in visual contexts and oral language.
The direct method, which was initially designed for small group teaching, was eventually adapted for use with larger groups and for teaching the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing). This new style of teaching, which emanated from England, was later dubbed the oral approach because all lessons started with oral presentations [8,p.140]. Dialogues in which new grammar patterns and vocabulary were introduced were modelled by the teacher. The learners repeated chorally, trying to imitate the teacher’s pronunciation. Oral drills, based on the dialogues, were devised to reinforce these new language points, initially through a listening mode. Eventually, learners were given reading and writing assignments using the structures and words they had practiced.
At about the same time that the oral approach was being developed in Europe, American linguists began to propagate a somewhat more extreme approach called the audio-lingual method [8,p.140]. In this approach also, the emphasis was on oral presentation and oral drills. The purpose of this method was to retain learners to think in the new language by helping them to form new habits, a view that was obviously driven by the behavioural psychology that was popular at the time.
Although these oral-aural methods helped many pupils learn second languages, there has been a gradual decline in their popularity. Starting in the 1970s, there was a worldwide rethinking of the principles involved in second language teaching. The result of this came to be known as communicative languageteaching, a movement that emphasized not just the importance of oral language in language acquisition, but the use of realistic and authentic social language [8,p.140]. The communicative language teaching movement gave rise to the use of audio and later video material which reflected authentic language in use. Learners were no longer exposed to ideal grammar and vocabulary samples of oral language. Instead, they were given a steady exposure to situational dialogues and language fictions.
Simultaneous to the development of communicative language teaching, the study of second language acquisition became an accepted and increasingly respected discipline within linguistics and social science [1; 2; 8;].
One of the main reasons for getting students to listen to spoken English is to let them hear different varieties and accents - rather then just the voice of their teacher with its own idiosyncrasies. In today’s 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, BBC-type 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 teacher’s, 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:
· discrimination between sounds
· recognizing words
· identifying grammatical groupings of words
· identifying ‘pragmatic units’ - expressions and sets of utterance which function as whole units to create meaning
· 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
· 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
· 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 person’s listening ability [9,p.4].
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]. The listener must make these kinds of decisions:
· What kind of situation is this?
· What is my plan for listening?
· What are the important words and units of meaning?
· Does the message make sense?
Successful listening requires making effective ‘real time’ decisions about these questions. In this sense, listening is primarily a thinking process - thinking about meaning. Effective listeners develop a useful way of thinking about meaning as they listen. The way in which listener makes these decisions is what we will call a listening strategy [9,p.4].
Using general knowledge about language skill development, we can draw up some guidelines for developing listening ability:
(a) 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.
(b) Listening develops through focusing on meaning and trying to learn new and important content in the target language.
By focusing on meaning and real reasonsfor listening in English, learners can mobile both their linguistic and non-linguistic abilities to understand.
(c) 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.
(d) Listening develops through attention to accuracy and an analysis of form.
The following main goals are suggested for the listening comprehension programme:
(a) to give the learners experience of listening to a wide variety of samples of spoken language. The purpose here, then, is exposure to:
· different varieties of language (standard/regional, formal/informal etc.);
· different text types (conversational, narrative, informative etc.).
The motivation for the learner should be pleasure, interest, and a growing confidence at being able to understand the spoken language without reference to the written form.
(b) to train the learners to listen flexibly e. g. for specific information, for the main idea or ideas, or to react to instructions (i. e. by doing something). The motivation for this type of listening will come from tasks, which are interesting in their own right, and which will focus the learners’ attention on the material in an appropriate way.
(c) to provide, through listening, a stimulus for other activities e. g. discussion, reading and writing.
(d) to give the learners opportunities to interact while listening. In the classroom this must be done largely through discussion-type activities and games, where listening forms a natural part of the activity. This type of activity will be done mostly in small groups, but there are occasions when the teacher can profitably interact with the whole class [1,p.15].
Listening comprehension is divided into four main sections:
Section I.Attentive listening
Section II. Intensive listening
Section III. Selective listening
Section IV. Interactive listening
Each section helps students develop a range of skills and strategies.
Section I: Attentive listening is designed to give students practice with listening and with supplying short responses to the speaker, either verbally or non-verbally (through actions). Because this kind of ‘responsive’ listening involves immediate processing of information and quick decisions about how to respond, the activities in Section I provide a great deal of support to help the learners ‘process’ the information they hear. The support is of three types: linguistic, in the form of cue words and previewed utterances, non-linguistic, in the form of visual aids, photographs, tangible objects and music used in the activity, and interactional, in the form of repetitions, paraphrases and confirmation checks by the speaker. By providing this support, the activities allow the teacher to introduce real-time listening practice to students at all levels, including beginners. Because the support in each activity can be varied, teachers can utilise these activities with more proficient students as well, to help them increase their attention span for spoken English.
Section II: Intensive listening will focus the students’ attention on language form. The aim of this section is to raise the learners’ awareness of how differences in sound, structure, and lexical choice can affect meaning. Because this kind of listening involves an appreciation of how form affects meaning, all of the activities in this section are contextualised - placed in a real or easily imagined situation [9,p.10]. In this way, all students - even beginners - can practise intensive listening in a context of language use, from which it is most likely to transfer to ‘real life’ listening situation. Because the activities in this section require attention to specific contrasts of form - grammatical, lexical, or phonological - the teacher can easily adapt the activities to more proficient students by increasing the complexity of the language forms.