Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening

STUDENT: MENTOR: Armen Neziri Doc.dr.Lulzime Kamberi STATE UNIVERSITY OF TETOVAFACULTY OF PHILOLOGY

Abstract

Recently teachers are devoting more attention to listening as one of the basic skills used in the teaching process in the study of foreign languages. This attention is due to the introduction of communicative language teaching and the use of ICT in the teaching process.The experiences of many teachers show that listening improves the pronunciation and the conversational skills of the students. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the strategies and techniques that would help improve students listening comprehension. The thesis also focuses on the process of how languages are learnt and taught and why is important to learn foreign languages. In the methodology part Ive shared a personal experience regarding the teaching process, and Ive also mentioned some of the most commonly used methods. The goals and techniques for teaching listening are also elaborated in detail.

Introduction

Listening plays an important role in communication as it is said that, of the total time spent on communicating, listening takes up 40-50%; speaking, 25-30%; reading, 11-16%; and writing, about 9% (Mendelsohn, 1994). Although the teaching of listening comprehension has long been somewhat neglected and poorly taught aspect of English in many EFL programs(Mendelsohn, 1994, p. 9), listening is now regarded as much more important in both EFL classrooms and SLA research. Listening involves an active process of deciphering and constructing meaning from both verbal and non-verbal messages (Nunan, 1998).The need for competence in listening in EFL English language learners is increasing, so that listening teaching has attracted considerable attention. Unfortunately, the teaching of listening skills is still neglected in the English language teaching process. EFL learners have serious problems in English listening comprehension due to the fact that universities pay more attention to English grammar, reading and vocabulary.

Literature review

1. Teaching and Learning LanguagesIn this section well focus on the process of how languages are learnt and taught. The main concentration will be on this issues:-How people learn languages-Factors which influence upon peoples learning-Acquisition vs. learningHow people learn languages? Active learning and Scaffolded learning.-What is Active Learning?Learning is an active process, hence active learning simply means to learn actively. This is easy to be understood theoretically but how to implement it is the most difficult part. Active learning can be applied to any learning that we do, not just language learning.

What is Scaffolded learning ? This can be better understood through the assumptions of Prof. Neil Mercer ( Open University, UK), who says : Often there is a very big gap between what learners already know and the new knowledge they are expected to gain. They may find it hard to make the connections, no matter how active they are. Good teaching should aim help learners to bridge this gap. One of the ways in which teachers can help students is by providing carefully designed support for the learning process. This support is sometimes described as scaffolding, the teacher supports the efforts of the student, guiding them in the right direction, until the knowledge and understanding they built is strong enough for the scaffolding to be taken away.Thus Scaffolded learning will involve the teacher in :-designing activities which break down the learning task into manageable stages-designing activities that are based on the previous knowledge, until eventually learners manage to bridge the gap between their existing knowledge and the new -helping the learners see how the knowledge they already have is useful for making sense of the new knowledge -deciding when learners are ready to move on to the next stage

What factors influence upon the way we learn languages ?

Studies have shown that there are various factors for this, being them psychological, social, cultural and educational.

Acquisition vs. LearningA lot of discussion has been made held on defining the distinction between acquiring a language and learning a language, mostly supported by the American scholar Steven Krashen. He characterizes acquisition as a subconscious process, which results only knowing about a language. Acquiring a language is more successful and longer lasting than learning.He suggests that foreign language learning needs to be more like the childs acquisition of his native language, that is, the learners should learn a foreign language as the children learn their mother tongue.The gradual ability of a child to use the language is the result of many subconscious processes, he hears a lot and he is never consciously taught. These processes are based on the experiences in which the child began to acquire, without conscious by setting out to do so and naturally comes the ability to enter linguistically into the communication.

Language teaching

There are many methods of teaching languages. Some have fallen into relative obscurity and others are widely used; still others have a small following, but offer useful insights.While sometimes confused, the terms "approach", "method" and "technique" are hierarchical concepts.An approach is a set of assumptions about the nature of language and language learning, but does not involve procedure or provide any details about how such assumptions should be implemented into the classroom setting. Such can be related to second language acquisition theory. There are three principal "approaches":The structural view treats language as a system of structurally related elements to code meaning (e.g. grammar).The functional view sees language as a vehicle to express or accomplish a certain function, such as requesting something.The interactive view sees language as a vehicle for the creation and maintenance of social relations, focusing on patterns of moves, acts, negotiation and interaction found in conversational exchanges. This approach has been fairly dominant since the 1980s.

A method is a plan for presenting the language material to be learned, and should be based upon a selected approach. In order for an approach to be translated into a method, an instructional system must be designed considering the objectives of the teaching/learning, how the content is to be selected and organized, the types of tasks to be performed, the roles of students, and the roles of teachers.A technique (or strategy) is a very specific, concrete stratagem or trick designed to accomplish an immediate objective. Such are derived from the controlling method, and less directly, from the approach.

What is a Foreign Language (FL)?

A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e., an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her. These two characterisations do not exhaust the possible definitions, however, and the label is occasionally applied in ways that are variously misleading or factually inaccurate. Some children learn more than one language from birth or from a very young age: they are bilingual or multilingual. These children can be said to have two, three or more mother tongues: neither language is foreign to that child, even if one language is a foreign language for the vast majority of people in the child's birth country. For example, a child learning English from his English father and Japanese at school in Japan can speak both English and Japanese, but neither is a foreign language to him.

Before mentioning the most commonly used methods in the teaching of the English language, I want to share my personal experience of internship in the elementary school Penestia.During the last year of my studies I had the opportunity to get an internship at a local school in the municipality of Debar, this was a great opportunity for close encounter with the educational process in the teaching of EFL. During this internship I had the chance to see how are used in practice the methods and techniques in teaching English.I noticed that the older teachers prefer to use older methods such as the grammar -translation method, they argued that this method is effective in learning foreign languages, which I personally do not accept given the fact that this method is most often used in the study of extinct languages such as Latin and is mainly based on the interpretation of texts and learning grammar rules. On the other hand, younger teachers preferred to use newer methods and techniques, they were trying to achieve the objectives through mastery of the four basic skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening , for this purpose, they used a variety of techniques: brainstorming, Veno diagram, discussion, role play etc..It left me a special impression the use of ICT in the teaching process, this enables the students to have access to various educational sites where theyll have the opportunity to be much more actively involved in the EL, but also the use of ICT enables teachers to be more creative and more effective throughout the teaching process.

Methodology

Language teaching methodologiesThe Direct MethodIn this method the teaching is done entirely in the target language. The learner is not allowed to use his or her mother tongue. Grammar rules are avoided and there is emphasis on good pronunciation.Grammar-translationLearning is largely by translation to and from the target language. Grammar rules are to be memorized and long lists of vocabulary learned by heart. There is little or no emphasis placed on developing oral ability.Audio-lingualThe theory behind this method is that learning a language means acquiring habits. There is much practice of dialogues of every situations. New language is first heard and extensively drilled before being seen in its written form.The structural approachThis method sees language as a complex of grammatical rules which are to be learned one at a time in a set order. So for example the verb "to be" is introduced and practiced before the present continuous tense which uses "to be" as an auxiliarySuggestopediaThe theory underlying this method is that a language can be acquired only when the learner is receptive and has no mental blocks. By various methods it is suggested to the student that the language is easy - and in this way the mental blocks to learning are removed. Total Physical Response (TPR)TPR works by having the learner respond to simple commands such as "Stand up", "Close your book", "Go to the window and open it." The method stresses the importance of aural comprehension.

Communicative language teaching (CLT)The focus of this method is to enable the learner to communicate effectively and appropriately in the various situations s/he would be likely to find her/himself in. The content of CLT courses are functions such as inviting, suggesting, complaining or notions such as the expression of time, quantity, location. The Silent WayThis is so called because the aim of the teacher is to say as little as possible in order that the learner can be in control of what he wants to say. No use is made of the mother tongue. Community Language LearningIn this method attempts are made to build strong personal links between the teacher and student so that there are no blocks to learning. There is much talk in the mother tongue which is translated by the teacher for repetition by the student. Immersion ESL students are immersed in the English language for the whole of the school day and expected to learn math, science, humanities etc. through the medium of the target language, English.Task-based language learning The focus of the teaching is on the completion of a task which in itself is interesting to the learners. Learners use the language they already have to complete the task and there is little correction of errors.

Earlier I mentioned that in the last year of my studies, I had the opportunity to get an internship in several primary schools in the municipality of Debar. Part of that experience I have already shared when I was talking about the methodology. During this internship I put special emphasis on the listening as one of the basic skills in learning a foreign language, for this purpose I decided to carry out a small research and answer an important question . Which strategies are used by teachers to teach listening?During the research, I had a lot of conversations with the teachers, but also most of the time I devoted to their lessons, the views of teachers in terms of listening as a skill were different, some of them shared my opinion that listening is as important as the other three skills (speaking, reading and writing), but some teachers thought that listening would not give the expected results.Internet offered them a variety of activities where they can develop their listening skills, the most frequently used exercises were: Listening to conversations and identify where they take place, reading information about a topic, and discover through listening whether or not the same points are mentioned, inferring the relationship between the people involved etc.All these activities arise from certain strategies that teachers use in order to develop listening skills, which will help students to learn the language more easily.

Research question

Language learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication. Effective language instructors show students how they can adjust their listening behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and listening purposes. They help students develop a set of listening strategies and match appropriate strategies to each listening situation. Listening Strategies Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the input. Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next. Top-down strategies include listening for the main ideapredictingdrawing inferencessummarizing Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning. Bottom-up strategies include listening for specific detailsrecognizing cognatesrecognizing word-order patterns

Strategies for Developing Listening Skills

To extract meaning from a listening text, students need to follow four basic steps: Figure out the purpose for listening. Activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate listening strategies.Attend to the parts of the listening input that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the inputand reduces the amount of information they have to hold in short-term memory in order to recognize it.Select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the listening task and use them flexibly and interactively. Students' comprehension improves and their confidence increases when they use top-down and bottom-up strategies simultaneously to construct meaning.Check comprehension while listening and when the listening task is over. Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures, directing them to use alternate strategies.

Listening for Meaning

Focus: The Listening Process To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather than on its product. 1. They develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they listen in their native language. 2. They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using authentic listening tasks. 3. They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener rather than as a teacher. 4. When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the listening purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies. 5. They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their listening assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete listening tape assignments. 6. They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use immediately after completing an assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies. 7. They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies by using the target language to conduct classroom business: making announcements, assigning homework, describing the content and format of tests. 8. They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of listening task or with another skill.

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening

Integrating Metacognitive StrategiesBefore listening: Plan for the listening task 1. Set a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for 2. Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed 3. Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)During and after listening: Monitor comprehension 1. Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses 2. Decide what is and is not important to understand 3. Listen/view again to check comprehension 4. Ask for helpAfter listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use 1. Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area 2. Evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of listening tasks 3. Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task 4. Modify strategies if necessary

Using Authentic Materials and SituationsOne-Way Communication Materials: 1. Radio and television programs 2. Public address announcements (airports, train/bus stations, stores) 3. Speeches and lectures 4. Telephone customer service recordingsProcedure: 1. Help students identify the listening goal: to obtain specific information; to decide whether to continue listening; to understand most or all of the message. 2. Help students outline predictable sequences in which information may be presented: who-what-when-where (news stories); who-flight number-arriving/departing-gate number (airport announcements); "for [function], press [number]" (telephone recordings) 3.Help students identify key words/phrases to listen for

As you design listening tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the information in an aural text is an unrealistic expectation to which even native speakers are not usually held. Listening exercises that are meant to train should be success-oriented and build up students' confidence in their listening ability.Construct the listening activity around a contextualized taskContextualized listening activities approximate real-life tasks and give the listener an idea of the type of information to expect and what to do with it in advance of the actual listening. A beginning level task would be locating places on a map (one way) or exchanging name and address information (two way). At an intermediate level students could follow directions for assembling something (one way) or work in pairs to create a story to tell to the rest of the class (two way).Define the activity's instructional goal and type of response.Each activity should have as its goal the improvement of one or more specific listening skills. A listening activity may have more than one goal or outcome, but be careful not to overburden the attention of beginning or intermediate listeners. Recognizing the goal(s) of listening comprehension in each listening situation will help students select appropriate listening strategies.Identification: Recognizing or discriminating specific aspects of the message, such as sounds, categories of words, morphological distinctionsOrientation: Determining the major facts about a message, such as topic, text type, settingMain idea comprehension: Identifying the higher-order ideasDetail comprehension: Identifying supporting detailsReplication: Reproducing the message orally or in writing

Developing Listening Activities

Check the level of difficulty of the listening textThe factors listed below can help you judge the relative ease or difficulty of a listening text for a particular purpose and a particular group of students.How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or instruction conform to familiar expectations?Texts in which the events are presented in natural chronological order, which have an informative title, and which present the information following an obvious organization (main ideas first, details and examples second) are easier to follow.How familiar are the students with the topic?Remember that misapplication of background knowledge due to cultural differences can create major comprehension difficulties.Does the text contain redundancy?At the lower levels of proficiency, listeners may find short, simple messages easier to process, but students with higher proficiency benefit from the natural redundancy of the language.Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly differentiated?It is easier to understand a text with a doctor and a patient than one with two doctors, and it is even easier if they are of the opposite sex. In other words, the more marked the differences, the easier the comprehension.Does the text offer visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the listeners hear?Visual aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images in a video help contextualize the listening input and provide clues to meaning.

Perhaps the most effective way to teach listening skills is for teachers to try and model their own techniques, to create environment which encourages listening. Teachers can create such an environment by constant and positive interaction, actively listening to all students. English listening competence is a complex skill that needs conscious development. It can be best developed with practice when students reflect on the process of listening without the threat of evaluation. By focusing on the process of listening, students can acquire a useful tool to raise their English comprehensive competence. Listening comprehension levels affect the capacity for improvement in other language skills such as speaking, reading, writing and translating. It is important for the teacher to provide various opportunities for students to practice listening skills and to become actively involved in the listening process.

Conclusion

Thank you for your attention