CHAPTER 7

Listening

The term communication implies a minimum of two people

One to create a meaningful message and one to recreate that message

The listening context, setting or social situation is really important in helping us to work out the meaning and interpret what we hear.

Who and where are the people? How are they communicating?

Listening

Listening is an essential skill for communication

It is necessary to understand what we hear in order o keep a conversation with someone or to express opinions about something

Communicating in real-language situations, listening occupies an important position

To communicate with native speakers, sts must first learn to understand enough in real language situations

Importance of Listening Comprehension

Ability to follow the general trend of what is said (background knowledge)

Ability to understand specific details Ability to understand the speaker’s intention (why

did he/she say that?) Ability to understand the speaker’s attitude (how did

he/she felt?) Ability to understand and confirm expectations

(students can make guesses about what they are going to hear.)

p.190-191

Listening subskills

Listening is not a ‘passive” skill but a “receptive” skill.

It requires as much attention and mental activity as speaking

Listening to get general overview of the main story or message

Listening to catch specific details such as names, numbers, addresses, etc.

Listening Process

Discrimination: Ability to distinguish all the sounds, intonation patterns and voice qualities in the second language and to discriminate between them and similar sounds in the native tongue.

Perception: With maximum concentration the perception of an entire message produced by a speaker

Auditory memory: Ability to hold that message in one’s auditory memory until it can be processed

Comprehension: The listener processes what the speaker has said to comprehend the meaning

Listening comprehension process

The process of recreating meaning continues in a series of expectations, predictions, samples and verifications until the entire message is understood.

What is the purpose of the task?

What listening skills will be practiced? Is the task suitable for the learners’ level?

What language do students need in order to do the task (key vocabulary)?

How can I create interest in the listening

text?

Early stages - Preparing a listening task

Three main stages in a listening skills lesson

PRE-LISTENING

(WHILE) LISTENING

POST-LISTENING

Classroom sequence