English 565

Serpil Sonmez

Week 7

http://www.flat33.com/bzzzpeek/html/bzzzpeek.html

Listening skill is used x2 speaking, x4 read, x5 write (Rivers, 1981; Weaver, 1972)

Until 60’s not much attention is paid to listening. It was regarded as a “passive” skill (Situational Approach, and Audiolingual Methods did not pay much attention to it other than grammar and pronunciation drills and learners’ imitation of dialogues and discriminating sound patterns and pronunciation.

Listening is a language act. (It’s not passive)Listening Comprehension is an act of

information processingListening comprehension is a multilevel

interactive process of meaning creation. Spoken communication serves 2 linguistic

functions: interactional & transactionalThe cognitive processing of spoken language

involves simultaneous activation of top-down and bottom-up processing.

Listening & RepeatingInstruction: Drills/ Repeating/Dialogue MemorizationStudents are able to recognize conversation patterns, imitate pronunciation patterns.

Addresses to lower level cognitive processing . Listening & Answering Comprehension QuestionsInstruction: Ss listen to an oral text and answer primarily factual questions. Ss can manipulate discrete pieces of info. Can increase Ss block of vocab units and

grammar constructions and bottom-up processing strategies. ot communicative, doesn’t encourage authentic use of language.

Task ListeningInstruction: Ss listen & “do” (follow directions, complete a task, take notes, etc.)Task-oriented. Engage learners in using the information content presented in discourse.

Emphasizes functional use of lx. To help Ss develop cognitive and metacognitive strategies.

a. Lx use tasks b. Lx analysis tasks Interactive ListeningInstruction: Communicative/Competence oriented (Linguistic competence, discourse

competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. Listening-thinking-speaking model. Interactive oral/aural development of skills.

Ss participate in discussion activities that would develop 3 phases of speech act: decoding spoken discourse, critical analysis & synthesis, instant response encoding appropriate to the situation.

Bidirectional: UnidirectionalAutodirectional

(listening to the self)

Transactional: message oriented, conveying factual or propositional information. Transactional language is used for explaining, giving instructions, describing, comprehension checks, requesting, etc.)

Interactional: Social type talk, establishing social relationships.

Functions of Listening

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgRlBrw2PPw

Discriminate between emotional reactions

Get the main idea of a passage

Recognize the topic Use knowledge of topic to

predict the content of the text.

Use introduction to the lecture to predict its content and focus

Predict what comes next in the text

Recognize point of view

Use features of sentence stress and intonation to identify important info for note taking

Be aware of sentence fillers in informal speech

Become aware of organizational cues in text.

Become aware of lexical markers for definitions.

Identify specific points of information.

Use speech features to see if speech is formal or informal

Recognize a familiar word and relate it to a category

Compare information in memory with incoming information

Compare information that you hear with your own experience.

a. Purpose of listening is transactional or interactional?

b. What kind of background knowledge can be applied to the task?

c. What’s listeners’ familiarity with the topic?

Richards’s Functions Chart

Bottom-up1: Listening closely to a joke (interactional) to know when to laugh3. Listening to instructions (transactional )during a driving lesson.

Top-down2.Listening to cocktail party talk (interactional)4. Listening to air safety instructions on a plane (transactional)

Cognitive: used to manipulate informationMetacognitive: planning, monitoring, and

evaluating comprehensionSociaoaffective: negotiation of meaning in

bidirectional conversations.

Increase listening timeUse listening before other activities (beginnig

& low-interm)Include both global (get the gist of the text)

and selective listening (pay attention to form)Encourage top-down and bottom-up

processing at every proficiency levelDevelop conscious listening strategies.

1. Relevance : Lesson content & outcome need to be relevant. Relevant to real-life situations- getting and holding learner attention. Ts can adapt materials to create relevant learning activities.

2. Transferability: applicability value both in and out of class. (i.e. news broadcasts)

3. Task-orientation:

Lx Use Tasks: Sts listen for information and immediately do something with it. (i.e. Simon Says, listening & drawing a map, real-life spatial problems, summarizing, asking questions (see C-M p.78 for more) Increases vocab, help build a repertoire of familiar top-down networks of background knowledge and build schemata (mental frameworks of knowledge)

Lx Analysis Tasks: Give Ss opportunities to analyze selected aspects of lx form and use. Develop personal strategies to facilitate learning. Goal is consciousness raising about the lx. (i.e. analysis of “fast-speech”, phrases, sociolinguistic dimensions, communicative episodes, comm. Strategies.

Outcome Type Activities

Listening & Performing Drawing a pictureLocating routes on a mapSimon SaysOperating equipment (i.e. camera)Carrying out steps in a process.

Listening & Transferring Info Taking a message over the phoneFilling blanks in a gapped story gameCompleting a chartSummarizing/reporting gist of a story Taking notes in a lecture

Listening & Solving Problems Word & number gamesClass versions of jeopardyMystery storiesShort descriptions of court cases –listeners are asked to make a decision and defend it.Field trips to grocery store

Listening, Evaluating & Manipulating Information

Evaluating arguments in order to take a positionMaking predictions from the info received

Interactive Listening & Speaking (Negotiation of meaning through Questioning/Answering.

Repetition/paraphrasing/verification/clarification/elaboration/extension/challenge questions.

Listening for enjoyment, pleasure & sociability

Interactional listening activitiesTalk about hobbies, plans for future.

Canale & Swain (1985)Ability to communicate:Grammatical CompetenceSociolinguistic Competence (rules for expression

and understanding of appropriate social meanings and grammatical forms in different contexts)

Discourse competence (how texts are constructed and how sentence elements are tied together)

Strategic Competence: a repertoire of strategies that help with a variety of communication difficulties.

negotiation of meaning is a goaluse of integrated skillsstrategy trainingstudents are responsible for their own learning

Fluency (Hedge, 1993)The ability to link units of speech together

without hesitationNegotiation of meaning, where overt

correction is minimized.

discussions (based on readings, video material, etc. or discussion activities found in textbooks)

speeches (planned or impromptu) - can overtly teach hesitations in this kind of activity

role plays - focus on speech acts conversations - recording and analyzing natural

conversations to raise students’ metalinguistic awareness

oral dialogue journals - recorded dialogue journals can be used to give students feedback on fluency and accuracy

In EFL contexts there are other issues large classes native culture which discourages speaking out in class students speak same L1