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LSA-2: Helping Lower Intermediate Learners to Understand Features of Connected Speech

Helping Lower Intermediate Learners to

Understand Features of Connected Speech.

Word Count: 2437

John Walker Language Skills Assignment (LSA-2) Page 1


Contents Page1. Introduction 3

1.1 Scope 3

2 Analysis of features 3

2.1 Bottom-up processing 3

2.2 Top-down processing 4

2.3 Specific features of connected speech 4

3 Learner problems and teaching issues 6

3.1 Learner difficulties 6

3.1.1 “They eat their words!” 6

3.2 A closer look at typical lessons 8

4. Suggestions for teaching 9

4.1 Reducing learner anxiety 9

4.2 Specific teaching suggestions 10

4.2.1 Variations using dictation 10

4.2.2 Linking and intrusion 11

5 Conclusion 11

6 Bibliography 12

6.1 Research materials 12

6.2 Resource materials 13

7 Appendix 1 – Link maze 14

7 Appendix 2 – Extract from Face2face Pre-Intermediate

Student’s Course Book.

16

7 Appendix 3 – Example of annotated transcript (from

Face2face Pre-Intermediate Student’s Course Book).

17



Helping Lower Intermediate Students to Understand Features of Connected Speech.

1. Introduction

Listening, the channel we use to process language in real time (Rost 2001), has been described as the

most widely used skill (ibid) and, at the same time probably the most difficult to learn (Vandergrift

2004). Although once thought of as a receptive skill to be taught in the same way as reading (for

example, Harmer 1991), listening is now recognized as an activity that employs many different

processes and strategies (Bowen and Marks 1994).

1.1 Scope

Students typically find listening exercises to be difficult and frustrating. In this essay, I want to look at

why this is so and what methods or strategies can be employed to facilitate the acquisition of this

skill. In particular, I want to focus on helping Lower Intermediate learners to notice some of the

characteristics of connected speech. I believe that a greater emphasis on listening skills for beginners

and intermediate students will lead to more self-confidence and greater learner autonomy and will

thus lead to more effective language acquisition.

2. Analysis of Features

Research indicates that listening involves at least two mental processes, known as ‘top-down’ and

‘bottom-up’ processing. In addition, there are a number of aspects of connected speech that learners

need to be aware of.

2.1 Bottom-up processing

This occurs as listeners gather and try to understand perceptual information, listening for individual

phonemes, relating these sounds to syllables, finding words to match the sounds and then

assembling the lexis into sentences, thereby discovering meaning. As meaning starts to emerge,

listeners form an initial interpretation which they then try to confirm or modify as they continue to

take in more information. (Richards 2008)



2.2 Top down processing

This concentrates on the ‘big picture’. The listener begins with an idea of what the message will be by

thinking about context. This thinking is influenced by the listener’s schemata, or mental information

and associations linked to the idea. Recent research suggests that this thinking anticipates not only

general meaning but also words, expressions and even whole routines (for example, restaurant

‘scripts’, where vocabulary, questions, and actions can be anticipated in advance (Brown 2006)).

In reality, both bottom-up and top-down strategies are used simultaneously. It has been suggested

that most listeners begin with a hypothesis about what they are about to hear, listen to confirm their

expectations, and use a ‘bottom-up’ approach to fill in any gaps (Færch & Kasper 1986). Although this

is perhaps a simplistic way of looking at what really happens in the brain (Bowen and Marks 1994), it

can be used to guide a teacher in creating and managing listening exercises.

2.3 Specific features of connected speech

Weak and shortened forms: Content words are usually foregrounded in natural speech as

speakers give greater emphasis to the words which bear meaning. Consequently, unstressed

syllables, often function words, can be difficult for learners to discern. For example:

Word Strong form Weak form

a / eɪ / / ǝ /

been / biːn / / bɪn /

he / hiː / / hɪ / or / ɪ /

you / ju / / jǝ /



Intrusion: sometimes, a speaker produces an extra sound between two words to facilitate

pronunciation. There are three sounds that can be produced:

Extra sound Individual words Fluent speech

/ w / two eggs / tuː wegz /

/ j / three eggs / θriː jegz /

/ r / raw egg / rɔː regz /

Catenation (resyllabification): a typical characteristic of English is the way the final

consonant of a word sounds like it is the first syllable of the following word, particularly if the

second word begins with a vowel sound. For example:

Individual words Fluent speech

left arm lef tarm / lef tærm /an apple a napple / ǝ næpl /

Assimilation: Sometimes the final syllable of a word changes sound in order to facilitate the

pronunciation of the following word:

Individual words Fluent speech

good girl goog girl / gʊg gɜːl /good boy goob boy / gʊb bɔɪ /



Elision: As mentioned above, syllables that are evident the written form seem to disappear in

connected speech. This can happen to the final consonant or a syllable within a word:

Fluent speech

final consonant next spring / neksprɪŋ /middle consonant factory / fæktri /

3. Learning Problems and Teaching Issues

3.1 Learner difficulties

Students who can understand written information and who can comprehend the speech of other

students are often bewildered by fluent speech uttered by native speakers. As an example, a

colleague related his incomprehension during his first visit to England, when he saw a man on a bus

who shouted what sounded like ‘Dig it sleaze?’ (Any more tickets please?) This problem of

communication is a particularly important issue for students of Business English who may have to

welcome important overseas visitors or take part in trade negotiations. In addition, adult learners are

often concerned about losing ‘face’ in front of their colleagues, thus increasing anxiety.

3.1.1 “They eat their words.”

Swan (2001) explains that English is a stressed-timed language rather than a syllable-timed language,

which means that in free-flowing speech, the rhythm of the sentence takes priority over the clear

pronunciation of each individual syllable. While stressed syllables stand out, unstressed syllables can

be pronounced very rapidly or can even disappear completely. Consequently, my French-speaking

students often complain that native English speakers ‘swallow’ their words. There are several factors

that contribute to this difficulty:



Unstressed syllables, which can include determiners, prepositions and other function words, are

often key to understanding. For example, the difference in meaning between I’ve been followed and

I’m being followed depends on unstressed syllables. In addition, the rhythm of sentences in English

typically follows a Strong-Weak pattern (S-W), which means that syllables may be stressed or

unstressed in different ways according to the overall pattern of the sentence.

S W W – W S W-W-W S - W

Have you ever met anyone famous?

This issue became evident to me when I created materials to help my advanced students understand

accents. I discovered that stress patterns varied widely between speakers from different countries,

particularly between native speakers and people who speak English as their L2.

Cognates can also present difficulties to learners, where the stress pattern or the number of syllables

differs from their L1. For example:

Word Pronunciation in English Pronunciation in French

comfortable / kʌmftǝbl /

(3 syllables)

/ kɒnfɔrtæbl /

(4 syllables)

So, my French-speaking learners not only have a problem with the pronunciation of this word, they

find it difficult to understand when they hear it.



An additional problem for learners is that the final consonant of a word is often vital for meaning.

When this syllable is elided in connected speech, comprehension is rendered more difficult. This is

particularly challenging for the engineers that I teach who frequently need to understand

comparatives and superlatives in their technical discussions:

Words often elided Written form Fluent speech

Superlatives fastest train / fɑːstɪs treɪn /Negation marker isn’t true / ɪzn truː /

In view of the above, the teacher cannot assume that a student will recognise words in connected

speech, even if these words have been introduced on the whiteboard and have been practiced

individually. As Rost explains (2002:96), the above mentioned factors ‘influence comprehensibility of

speech in real-time’ even for words that students feel they ‘know’.

3.2 A closer look at typical lessons

My research into this topic has brought me to the realization that at least part of the difficulty that

learners encounter is due to the way that listening is taught. A typical listening lesson in an EFL

classroom involves a pre-teaching phase, where the teacher introduces a topic and new vocabulary

and then sets questions. The teacher then plays a CD or other audio source while the students listen.

Finally the teacher poses comprehension questions thereby checking the students’ progress on the

basis of their responses. An analysis of the above set up reveals some fundamental problems:

Teaching or testing? Students often find listening lessons to be stressful as they know that

they will have to respond to questions in front of their peers and may well give incorrect

answers. Their initial anxiety increases the ‘affective filter’ (Krashen 1981), thereby reducing

their chances of correct understanding.

Which skill? Listening lessons rely heavily on other competencies. A good level in reading

may be necessary to understand instructions, rubrics or questions for the pre-teaching

phase. Responding to follow up questions requires an adequate level in writing and/or

speaking. While reluctance on the part of the students to participate in a listening activity

may be interpreted by the teacher as a lack of listening comprehension, weakness in one of

the other skills might be the real cause (Field 1998).



What is the objective? Teachers often move on from checking comprehension questions to

analysing a passage for grammatical features. While logical from the teacher’s point of view,

such a transition requires the students to switch from one type of cognitive process (listening

for comprehension) to another (analysing unfamiliar grammar). This is not only tiring for

students, it also deprives them of opportunities for further listening.

Who is working? In the above scenario, the teacher is clearly doing most of the work: setting

up the exercise, controlling the audio, posing questions, scaffolding responses and

anticipating potential problems. This puts learners in a passive situation, with little or no

control over the exercise (Field 2008).

These issues clearly have an impact on lesson design and outcomes. In outlining teaching suggestions

(see below) I have tried to take these points into account.

4. Suggestions for Teaching

4.1 Reducing learner anxiety

There are a number of strategies that can reduce learner anxiety (see 3.1).

Bowen and Marks (1994) describe ‘secure listening’, i.e., listening with no task and no follow-

up. I have found this to be useful in encouraging learners to become more autonomous

outside the classroom by doing ‘extensive’ listening. Once this has been demonstrated in

class, students can access podcasts with accompanying transcripts if they choose to.

Hulstijn (2004) recommends listening at an ‘i-minus one’ level in order to develop

automaticity in listening. I have found this to be surprisingly effective not only for building

student self-confidence (‘I can do it!’) but also to consolidate learning, making sure that

students’ listening levels are keeping pace with their reading levels.



Field (2008) points out that, in real life, a listener usually has visual cues to help give context

to conversations as well as to give information concerning the respective roles of the

participants. Teaching material is available on DVD and the internet provides endless

possibilities for listening with visual support. Again, once students see the value of accessing

such material, they may feel inclined to do it themselves, perhaps using subtitles in English as

a support. As described above, this kind of ‘secure listening’ allows students to choose

material which corresponds their own interests, thus increasing their attention.

Marks (2000) reminds us that the teacher’s voice is a ‘live’ resource for listening in the

classroom. A teacher can introduce new lexis, give a model and then recycle it in subsequent

exchanges. In addition, the teacher can draw attention to aspects of connected speech,

taking advantage of opportunities as they present themselves in the classroom.

4.2 Specific teaching suggestions

For my lower intermediate class, I want to help learners to notice features of connected speech. As

some of the students are weaker than others, I will try to break down the problem of listening

comprehension into smaller components.

4.2.1 Variations using dictation.

An exercise proposed by Scrivener (2005) is as follows:

Record and then play a number of sentences and ask the learners to simply count how many

words they hear in each sentence.

After each listening, students discuss together in order to find the correct number.

If they can’t find all the words, students try to guess the missing words by looking at the co-

text rather than slowing down the playback or speaking at an unnaturally slow pace.

I have found that learners are often surprised at the number of words that they miss, and may even

be frustrated that they are unable to hear them. These reactions show that noticing is taking place

and learners are well placed for language acquisition.



This type of exercise can be adapted to include different features of connected speech (see 2.3 and

3.1.1):

Learners could use a transcript to identify the stressed/unstressed words in a sentence.

The teacher could dictate a sentence using only stressed words and see if students can work

out the original. Even better, students could dictate their own sentences to each other, thus

discovering how much meaning can be conveyed using stress.

4.2.2 Linking and intrusion

The problem of linking and intrusion (see 2.3) can be approached by combining listening with

pronunciation exercises.

In ‘Pronunciation Games’ (Hancock), there is an exercise involving a maze (see Appendix 1).

A number of expressions are shown at various points in the maze (example: True or False,

We aren’t ready, etc.) and students move through the maze, going left, right or straight on

according to the intrusion sound ( / j / , / w / or / r / ) in the expression. I have found that, if

students can reproduce or mimic a sound, they are much more likely to be able to hear it in

connected speech, so this is an occasion when some ‘listen and repeat’ or drilling exercises

can be used.

The ‘Face2face’ Pre-Intermediate course book (Redstone & Cunningham) has several

exercises that focus on linking and intrusion by presenting individual sentences taken from

longer listening exercises, and analysing them for examples. This course book is unusual in

that it actively encourages students to use the transcripts at the back of the book for

comprehension and further practice, which are themselves annotated with stress and linking

markers (see Appendix). This kind of material is particularly valuable for weaker students, as

they can spend time after a lesson (or even as lesson preparation) listening and reading.

Sometimes students have to be reassured that they are not cheating by using all the

resources at their disposal.

5. Conclusion

Far from being a passive activity that students somehow acquire as they go along, listening is now

seen as a complex skill that needs to be taught using appropriate exercises and techniques. The time

that teachers spend on drawing attention to features of connected speech is clearly a good

investment to not only reduce learner anxiety but also to help build self-confidence and boost

language acquisition.



6. Bibliography

6.1 Research materials

Bowen, T. & Marks, J. 1994 Inside Teaching. Heinemann.

Brown, S. 2006 Teaching Listening. Cambridge University Press.

Færch, C. & Kasper, G. 1986 Procedural Knowledge as a Component of Foreign Language

Learners' Communicative Competence. (Ed. T. Slama-Cazacu) Psycholinguistics AILA Review

(Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée).

Field, J. 1998 The Changing Face of Listening. English Teaching Professional. Issue 6.

Field, J. 2008 Listening in the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press.

Harmer, J. 1991 The Practice of English Teaching. Harlow: Longman Publishing.

Hulstijn, J.H. 2001 Intentional and Incidental Second Language Vocabulary Learning: A

Reappraisal of Elaboration, Rehearsal and Automaticity. In Cognition and Second Language

Instruction (Ed. P. Robinson) Cambridge University Press.

Krashen, SD. 1981 Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Pergamon Press,

USA.

Marks, J. 2000 Listening In. English Teaching Professional, Issue 16.

Richards, J. 2008 Teaching Listening and Speaking: From Theory to Practice Cambridge University

Press.

Rost, M. 2001 Listening in The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other

Languages. (Eds. Carter, R. & Nunan, D.) Cambridge University Press.

Rost, M. 2002 Teaching and Researching Listening. Pearson Education.

Scrivener, J. 2005 Learning Teaching. Macmillan Publishers Limited.

Swan, M. 2001 Learner English Cambridge University Press.

Vandergrift, L. 2004 Listening to Learn or Learning to Listen? Annual Review of Applied

Linguistics. Issue 24. Cambridge University Press.



6.2 Resource materials

Teaching ideas (4.2)

Hancock, M. 1995 Pronunciation Games Cambridge University Press.

Redston, C. & Cunningham, G. 2005 Face2face Pre-Intermediate Student’s Coursebook.

Cambridge University Press.

Van Duzer, C. 1997 Improving Learners’ Listening Skills: At the workplace and Beyond. Center for

Applied Linguistics - Project in Adult Immigrant Education. (

http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/LISTENQA.html )

Examples (2.3)

Stirling, J. 2013 Joined Up Listening (Webinar) www.cambridgeenglishteacher.org


http://www.cambridgeenglishteacher.org/

http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/LISTENQA.html


7. Appedix 1.





Appendix 2


Listening

exercise


Appendix 3

Example of transcript showing annotations (see 4.2.3)


Documents

Used to - peterstrutt.co.ukpeterstrutt.co.uk/.../2016/05/Helping-learners-with-Connected-spee… · Web viewListening, the channel we use to process language in real time (Rost 2001),