Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine
/>/>/>/>/>/>/>Ivan Franko Lviv National University
/>/>/>/>/>/>English department
/>/>/>/>/>/>
Listening comprehension in English language teaching
A course-paper
presented
by I. Lutsak
a 4th-year student
/>/>/>/>/>/>Consulted
by C. Lototska
Associate Professor
Lviv — 2003
/>Plan
Introduction
I. The principles ofteaching listening comprehension
1. Reasons forteaching listening comprehension
2. What islistening?
3. Principles fordeveloping listening ability
4. The purpose andnature of the listening comprehension programme
II. The structure oflistening comprehension and types of activities
1.Organisation oflistening comprehension
2. Activities andprocedures
3. Listening as astimulus to other activities
4. Interactivelistening
5. Listening material
6. Listening comprehension tests
Conclusions
Bibliography
Summary
Процес історичного розвитку методів вивченняіноземної мови зумовив зростання ролі усного мовлення як невід’ємного компонентупрограми вивчення англійської мови. Сприймаючи усний матеріал, учні підсвідомо засвоюютьграматичні структури мови, збагачують словниковий запас, звертають увагу на особливостіфонетичної системи мови. Усне мовлення надає можливість взаємодії учасників навчальногопроцесу, внаслідок якої вони впливають один на одного.
Різноманітні вправи з відповідним матеріаломзабезпечують прогресивний розвиток слухових здібностей і навиків їх використанняу мовних ситуаціях. Вдало підібраний усний матеріал на аудіо і відеокасетах, а такожбезпосереднє спілкування з носіями англійської мови сприяють підвищенню рівня знаньучнів та їх комунікативних можливостей. Наявність матеріалу, що включає різні зразкирозмовної мови, сприяє вивченню різновидів англійської мови, а також способів викладупевної інформації.
/>/>/>/>/>/>/>Introduction
Foreign languages have been taught formallyfor centuriesand records of language teaching materials have been aroundfor over 500 years [8,p.139]. However, teaching listening comprehension as a partof teaching a foreign or second language is a relatively recent development whosehistory lies mostly in the last thirty years. In the earliest of teaching methodsknown, the grammar-translation method, learners focused exclusively on the analysisof written texts. Listening was used solely to accompany these texts and to providemodels for oral reading. It was not until the late 1800s that listening was usedin language instruction as a means of developing oral communication [8,p.139]. Itwas assumed that students would simply acquire the ability to understand the spokenform of the language if they occasionally heard their teacher speak it or listenedto a tape of it being spoken. It was quickly demonstrated that this approach wassimply not working.
This led to the development of the directmethod 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 werelearned — moving from tangible situations to more abstract ones. Initially, onlyeveryday, concrete vocabulary and sentences were taught. Oral communication wasinitiated by the teacher through question-answer exchanges with the learners. Allnew language was taught through demonstrations, objects and pictures, much the waythat a child is immersed in visual contexts and oral language.
The direct method, which was initially designedfor small group teaching, was eventually adapted for use with larger groups andfor teaching the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing). This new styleof teaching, which emanated from England, was later dubbed the oral approachbecause all lessons started with oral presentations [8,p.140]. Dialogues in whichnew grammar patterns and vocabulary were introduced were modelled by the teacher.The learners repeated chorally, trying to imitate the teacher’s pronunciation. Oraldrills, based on the dialogues, were devised to reinforce these new language points,initially through a listening mode. Eventually, learners were given reading andwriting assignments using the structures and words they had practiced.
At about the same time that the oral approachwas being developed in Europe, American linguists began to propagate a somewhatmore extreme approach called the audio-lingual method [8,p.140]. In thisapproach also, the emphasis was on oral presentation and oral drills. The purposeof this method was to retain learners to think in the new language by helping themto form new habits, a view that was obviously driven by the behavioural psychologythat was popular at the time.
Although these oral-aural methods helped manypupils learn second languages, there has been a gradual decline in their popularity.Starting in the 1970s, there was a worldwide rethinking of the principles involvedin second language teaching. The result of this came to be known as communicativelanguage teaching, a movement that emphasized not just the importanceof oral language in language acquisition, but the use of realistic and authenticsocial language [8,p.140]. The communicative language teaching movement gave riseto the use of audio and later video material which reflected authentic languagein use. Learners were no longer exposed to ideal grammar and vocabulary samplesof oral language. Instead, they were given a steady exposure to situational dialoguesand language fictions.
Simultaneous to the development of communicativelanguage teaching, the study of second language acquisition became an accepted andincreasingly respected discipline within linguistics and social science [1; 2; 8;].
/>/>I. The principles of teaching listening comprehension/>1. Reasonsfor teaching listening comprehension
One of the main reasons for getting studentsto 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’sworld, 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 withthe issue of language variety. Within British English, for example, there are manydifferent dialects and accents. The differences are not only in the pronunciationof sounds (‘bath’ like ‘laugh’ vs. ‘bath’ like ‘cat’)but also in grammar (the use of ‘shall’ in northern varieties compared with itsuse in ‘Standard English’ — the southern, BBC-type variety). The same is of coursetrue American, Indian or West African English.
Despite the desirability of exposing studentsto many varieties of English, however, common sense is called for. The number ofdifferent varieties (and the degree to which they are different from the one studentsare learning) will be a matter for the teacher to judge. But even if they only hearoccasional varieties of English, which are different from the teacher’s, it willgive them a better idea of the world language, which English has become.
The second major reason for teaching listeningis because it helps students to acquire language subconsciously even if teachersdo not draw attention to its special features. Exposure to language is a fundamentalrequirement for anyone wanting to learn it. Listening to appropriate tapes providessuch exposure and students get vital information not only about grammar and vocabularybut also about pronunciation, rhythm, intonation, pitch and stress.
Lastly, students get better at listening themore they do it. Listening is a skill and any help we can give students in performingthat skill will help them to be better listeners [5,p.97-98]./> 2. What is listening?
In order to define listening, we must outlinethe main component skills in listening. In terms of the necessary components, wecan list the following:
· discrimination between sounds
· recognizing words
· identifying grammatical groupings of words
· identifying ‘pragmatic units’ — expressions and setsof 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 objectsin the situation) in order to construct meaning
· using background knowledge (what we already knowabout the content and the form) and context (what has already been said) to predictand then to confirm meaning
· recalling important words and ideas
Successful listening involves an integrationof these component skills. In this sense, listening is a coordination of the componentskills, not the individual skills themselves. This integration of these perceptionskills, analysis skills, and synthesis skills is what we call a person’s listeningability [9,p.4].
Even though a person may have good listeningability, he or she may not always be able to understand what is being said. In orderto 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 primarilya thinking process — thinking about meaning. Effective listeners developa useful way of thinking about meaning as they listen. The way in which listenermakes these decisions is what we will call a listening strategy [9,p.4]./> 3. Principles for developing listeningability
Using general knowledge about language skilldevelopment, we can draw up some guidelines for developing listening ability:
(a) Listening ability develops through face-to-faceinteraction.
By interacting in English, learners havethe 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 meaningand 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-linguisticabilities to understand.
(c) Listening ability develops through work oncomprehension activities.
By focusing on specific goals for listening,learners can evaluate their efforts and abilities. By having well-defined comprehensionactivities, learners have opportunities for assessing what they have achieved andfor revision.
(d) Listening develops through attention to accuracyand an analysis of form.
By learning to perceivesounds and words accurately as they work on meaning-oriented activities,our learners can make steady progress. By learning to hear sounds and words moreaccurately, learners gain confidence in listening for meaning [9,p.7]./> 4. The purpose and nature of the listeningcomprehension programme
The following main goals are suggested for thelistening comprehension programme:
(a) to give the learners experience of listening toa wide variety of samples of spoken language. The purposehere, 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 languagewithout 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 reactto instructions (i. e. by doing something). The motivation for this type of listeningwill come from tasks, which are interesting in their own right, and which will focusthe learners’ attention on the material in an appropriate way.
(c) to provide, through listening, a stimulus forother activities e. g. discussion, reading and writing.
(d) to give the learners opportunities to interactwhile listening. In the classroom this must be donelargely through discussion-type activities and games, where listening forms a naturalpart 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 wholeclass [1,p.15].
/>II. Thestructure of listening comprehension and types of activities/>/>1.Organisation of listening comprehension
Listening comprehension is divided into fourmain sections:
Section I. Attentive listening
Section II. Intensive listening
Section III. Selective listening
Section IV. Interactive listening
Each section helps students develop a rangeof skills and strategies.
Section I: Attentive listening is designedto give students practice with listening and with supplying short responses to thespeaker, either verbally or non-verbally (through actions). Because this kind of‘responsive’ listening involves immediate processing of information and quick decisionsabout how to respond, the activities in Section I provide a great deal of supportto help the learners ‘process’ the information they hear. The support is of threetypes: 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 theactivity, and interactional, in the form of repetitions, paraphrases andconfirmation checks by the speaker. By providing this support, the activities allowthe teacher to introduce real-time listening practice to students at all levels,including beginners. Because the support in each activity can be varied, teacherscan utilise these activities with more proficient students as well, to help themincrease their attention span for spoken English.
Section II: Intensive listening willfocus the students’ attention on language form. The aim of this section is to raisethe learners’ awareness of how differences in sound, structure, and lexical choicecan affect meaning. Because this kind of listening involves an appreciation of howform 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. Becausethe activities in this section require attention to specific contrasts ofform — grammatical, lexical, or phonological — the teacher can easily adapt theactivities to more proficient students by increasing the complexity of the languageforms.
Section III: Selective listening willhelp enable students to identify a purpose for listening. By providing focused information-basedtasks, the activities in Section III help direct the students’ attention on keywords, discourse sequence cues, or ‘information structures’ (exchanges in whichfactual information is given). By learning to attend to words, cues, and facts selectively,students at all levels come to handle short naturalistic text (such as announcements)as well as longer and more complex texts (such as authentic video programmes). Becausethe task support in these activities can b adjusted, Section III is useful for studentsat all proficiency levels.
Section IV: Interactive listening isdesigned to help learners assume active roles in shaping and controlling an interaction,even when they are in the ‘listener’s role’. Because it is important for learnersto take an active role as listeners, each activity in this section has a built-inneed for information or classification questions by the listener. In order to worktoward the goal of active participation by the listener, the students themselves- rather than the teacher or an audio or video tape — become the focus of the activity.To this end, in Section IV, listening skills are developed in the context of interaction- mainly through information gap pair work, jigsaw groups, and student presentationsand reports [9,p.10]./> 2. Activities and procedures
1. ‘Exposure’ listening
The material for this will consist mainly of:
(a) Stories, anecdotes, jokes, talks, commentaries (i. e. with one speaker only)
Most learners need practice in listening tomaterial with a single speaker only, so that they do not have the added difficultyof trying to identify the speakers when they cannot see them. The material may berecorded or improvised by the teacher.
(b) Conversations, discussions, plays (i. e. with more than one speaker)
The students will need to be given some backgrounde. g. about the speakers. For plays they may actually need to follow the writtentext.
(c) Songs (both traditional and pop)
These provide a good form of listening becausethe students are generally very much concerned to make out the words [12,p.28].
(d) Videos andfilms
Clearly there is great advantage in using whereverpossible recorded material where the students can see what is happening (even ifit is only two people talking) as well as listen [1,p.16].
2. Task listening
The number of possible activities here is virtuallylimitless, although it is intended that the list below cover key areas.
(a) Ear-training
In distinguishing between key sounds, stressand intonation patterns. Most learners need, enjoy and will benefit from activities,which will help to improve their receptive ability in these areas, especially ifthey are presented in a game-like way.
(b) Game-like activities
‘Simon says” and variations on the game of ‘Bingo’are effective ways of getting learners to respond to instructions, listen out forspecific items and so on. Many language games depend for their success on studentslistening [1,p.17].
(c) Instructions
Activities such as picture dictation, wherethe students have to draw a picture which the teacher (or another student) talksabout without showing them; completing a map or picture; following a route on themap in order to arrive at a particular place; arranging objects (e. g. pictureson an outline scene), involve careful listening without requiring a verbal response(unless the listeners ask for clarification).
(d) Completion-type activities
For these the students have an incomplete versionof a story, a description or a song (words, phrases or sentences omitted) whichthey have to complete either while they listen or afterwards.
(e) Identifying mistakesor contradictions
For example an object (thing, person or place- either real or in pictorial form) is described and the students have to listenand note down any mistakes. Similarly a text (a story or description) containinginternal contradictions can be used for the same purpose.
(f) Finding differences
The students hear, for example, two versionsof a story or two accounts of an event and have to identify the points of difference.
(g) Problem-solving
For example, the students are shown picturesof 3-4 people, places, events and listen to one of these being described. Theirtask is to decide which item is being talked about. Students may also be asked tocategorise on a worksheet items mentioned in a conversation or discussion.
(h) Extracting information
This is one of the commonest types of listeningtasks. For this the students will probably need a chart of some kind, which theyhave to fill in according to specific instructions. For example, if they are listeningto a broadcast they may be asked to note down the main topics or, on an easier level,decide in what order they occur in the talk.
For tasks, which involve extracting information,it is often desirable to define the role of the listener so that he has a clearpurpose for carrying out the task [1,p.17].
listening material comprehension english
3. Listening as a stimulus to otheractivities
The activities in this section are speciallydesigned to lead on to activities involving other skills.
(e) Jigsaw listening
As its name implies, the basic mechanism underlyingthis activity is that the information needed to complete a task (such as attendinga meeting) has been shared out between 3-4 groups in the class. Each group listensto its own piece of recorded material and notes down on a worksheet the informationavailable. The groups then combine to pool their information.
(f) Ambiguous conversations
The students hear a short conversation (or anextract from a long conversation), which provides very few clues as to what thespeakers are talking about. The students themselves have to decide who the speakersare, where they are, what they are talking about, and, possibly, what will happennext. This type of listening then, leads on naturally to discussion (and, if desired,writing).
(g) Decision-making
The students are given some information e. g.about a town (places of interest, facilities etc.) in the form of a talk or conversation,on the basis of which they have to plan a visit. The planning involves discussionand note making. Decision-making activities can also involve, for example, makingchoices between places, events, activities, for which the background informationis made available in recorded form.
(h) Pre-reading activity
The students hear, for example, a conversationabout the Loch Ness Monster, as a stimulus to listen to an article or book on thesubject. Similarly they can be asked to listen to short reports on books beforedeciding which one they want to read.
(i) Pre-writing activity
This can be in the form of a communication game.One student describes a picture, which the others in the group are not allowed tosee. The students who are listening make notes (and can also ask questions if theywant more information). They then use these notes to write a description of thepicture [1,p.18]
4. Interactive listening
Most interactive listening situations are inthe form of discussions and games. Two important points need to be kept in mind.
First, these activities form the basis of oralwork, where the emphasis is on getting the learners to use language for self-expression.It should not be forgotten, however, that listening is an important aspect of theseactivities. The learners have to listen in order to participate.
Secondly, although these activities are normallydone in groups, in order to give the students themselves as many opportunities aspossible to use language, we should also look for suitable opportunities to interactwith the class as a whole, through conversation, discussion and games. This mustbe regarded as a significant component of the listening comprehension programme.
(a) Discussion-type activities
These provide good listening practice becausethey get students to listen to one another, especially if the discussion is gearedtoward making a decision of some kind. For such activities the student have to listento one another in order to participate.
(b) Predictive listening
For this activity a text is read aloud sentence-by-sentence.The students are asked to interpret the sentence and to predict what they thinkwill follow. As the text builds up, they can revise their interpretations. Althoughthis is a contrived activity, it encourages very careful listening both to the textitself and to the various interpretations suggested.
(c) Communication games
Many communication games provide excellent practice.For example, Describe and draw where the listeners, whose task is to drawthe picture being described, interact with the speaker in order to elicit more information.completeit is based on the jigsaw principle. In this case, however, the informationis divided up visually among the participants, who have to talk and ask questionsin order to build up the complete story. Games, which involve the evaluation ofa player’s performance, such as, Use it, also provide purposeful listeningpractice [8,p.28].
(d) Interviews
The students can be asked to design questionnairesor surveys, which they use to interview one another or people outside the classroom.Interviewing of this kind involves careful listening and recording of answers [1,p.19]./> 5. Listening material
The usage of the authentic listening materialis one of the problems in the teaching listening comprehension. The important point,as always, is to meet the needs of the learners. On the short-term basis the learnersneed to listen to material, which allows them to feel comfortable, perhaps becauseit is mainly recycling known language. In addition to this, particularly takingtheir long-term needs into account, the learners have to be exposed to listeningmaterial, which is beyond their productive level. Whether this is ‘authentic’ inthe early stages is not entirely relevant provided the material gets them used tonot understanding every word; encourages them to guess — and, overand above this, stimulates them to talk (or read or write, if these are following-upactivities). But, of course, whenever possible, some authentic material should beused, and on an increasing scale as the course progresses. However, it must be keptin mind that the use of authentic material for listening is very different fromreading, where, because the learners can work individually and at their own pace,authentic material carries fewer risks. In the typical listening situation, carehas to be taken to see that learners are not discouraged by excessive difficulties.In general, authentic materials are best used where the learners themselves arelikely to appreciate them and accept them in spite of difficulties [1,p. 20]./> 6. Listening comprehension tests
An effective way of developing the listeningskill is through the provision of carefully selected practice material. Such materialis in many ways similar to that used for testing listening comprehension. Althoughthe auditory skills are closely linked to the oral skills in normal speech situations,it may sometimes be useful to separate the two skills for teaching and testing,since it is possible to develop listening ability much beyond the range of speakingand writing ability if the practice material is not dependent on spoken responsesand written exercises.
An awareness of the way in which the spokenlanguage differs from the written language is of crucial importance in the testingof the listening skills. For example, the spoken language is much more complex thanthe written language in certain ways, as a result of the large element of ‘redundancy’that it contains [4, p.64]. Such features of redundancy make it possible for mutilatedmessages to be understood. Furthermore, the human brain has a limited capacity forthe reception of information and it would often be impossible to absorb informationat the speed at which it is conveyed through ordinary speech. Such conversationalfeatures as repetition, hesitation and grammatical re-patterning are all examplesof this type of redundancy.
What is the significance of these features fortesting purposes? Firstly, the ability to distinguish between phonemes, howeverimportant, does not in itself imply an ability to understand verbal messages. Moreover,occasional confusion over selected pairs of phonemes does not matter too greatlybecause in real-life situations listeners are able to use contextual clues to interpretwhat they hear.
Secondly, impromptu speech is usually easierto understand than carefully prepared (written) material when the latter is readaloud. Written tests generally omit many of the features of redundancy and impartinformation at a much higher rate than normal speech does. Consequently, it is essentialto make provision for restating important points, rewriting and rephrasing themwhen writing material for aural tests [4,p.64-65].
/>Conclusions
We have outlined the main reasons for teachinglistening comprehension in a foreign language. It is now widely accepted that oralcommunication plays a vital role in second language teaching for it provides anexposure to language which is a fundamental requirement for the learner. Progressin listening guarantees a basis for development of other language skills. Spokenlanguage provides a means of interaction where participation is a significant componentof the listening programme.
We have provided a methodological organizationof the listening comprehension process and we have discussed the principles of developingreceptive skills of the learner. All subtypes of listening provide a natural progressionfrom activities that entail minimal verbal interaction to those that involve a maximumof interaction. The goal of any activity is to provide the optimal challenge forthe students. Since learners’ listening abilities vary, teachers should note howthe activities could be adapted to the learners’ capabilities.
In showing a considerable variety of listeningactivities we have explored some of the many ways to help students acquire the confidenceto use their skills for self-expression in language situations. Different activitiesand procedures provide the development of the listening for communicative tasksand for extracting general or certain specific points in the discourse.
We have discussed the use of authentic listeningmaterial and stressed the need for authentic-like texts at different levels. Theteachers and students may encounter some difficulties not only in the reliabilityof the listening material, but also in the quality of English language media (TVand radio broadcasts, audio and videotapes, records) with the help of which listeningmaterial is presented. The important point is to satisfy the learners’ requirementsand to involve their abilities to understand and reproduce the given material.
We have stressed the importance of careful selectionof practice material for testing listening skills of the learners. It is necessaryto construct different types of practical exercises for students to experience language.Listening comprehension tests present an effective method for developing listeningabilities.
/>Bibliography
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