Spoken Communication Skills

Developing Listening and Speaking Skills

Communication

What should be the main goal of an English language cousre? To focus on developing students’ mastery of the

the language form OR

To focus on developing students’ ability to effectively communicate for study, work or leisure

Features of using language for communication

We communicate because we want to or need to, NOT just to practise the language

Focus is on what we are communicating NOT on how we are communicating (ideas vs. language)

The language that is used is VARİED in grammar and vocabulary, NOT made of a single structure or a few structures and NOT normally repeated over and over again

Communication in the Classroom If you want to encourage real communication in

the classroom you need to Establish English as the main classroom

language Try to use interesting topics and stimulating

activities, which take the learners’ minds off the language Real life events ( weather, the students’ cloths, their

health and mood, pictures and realia brought to class)

Events in the world outside ( new films, a circus in town, national sports victory, the students’ families, etc.)

Focus on fluency vs. accuracy

Support and encourage listeners in their efforts to communicate their ideas

Don’t try to control what they say Don’t interrupt learners everytime they make a

language mistake to correct them.

Listening Skills

Listening is not a ‘passive” skill but a “receptive” skill. It requires as much attention and mental activity as speaking.

That of the time an individual is engaged in communication, approximately 9 per cent is devoted to writing, 16 per cent to reading, 30 per cent to speaking, and 45 per cent to listening.

Debates concerning the development of listening skills

Debates focusing on the nature of listening input Whether or not listening should be made

comprehensible for learners through simplification?

Debates focusing on the role of listening in the early ELT curriculum Whether teachers should stress the importance of

learners haing a “silent period” in the early stages of learning and wait for “readiness” to produce the language

Debates concerning the development of listening skills

Debates on the role of listening for comprehension and development of oracy (the ability to understand and participate in spoken communication) How can classroom practice rehearse the kinds of

listening purposes and situations that learners will experience outside the classroom?

How can we help learners build confidence in dealing with authentic spoken English?

What kind of classroom procedures will develop listening ability?

What do we know about the listening process?

There are two types of listening processes Bottom-up process Top-down process

Bottom-up: We use our knowledge of language and our ability to

process acoustic signals to make sense of the sounds that speech presents to us

Top-down We infer meaning from contextual clues and from making

links between the spoken message and various types of prior knowledge which we hold.

What learners need to be able to do in order to listen effectively

Bottom-up processes Retain input while it is being processed Recognize word divisions Recognize key words in utterances Recognize key transitions in a discourse

Another interesting development was… One of theproblems was.. / In contrast…

Recognize grammatical relations between key elements in sentences

Recognize the function of word stress in sentences Recognize the function of intonation in sentences

What learners need to be able to do in order to listen effectively

Top-down processes Use key words to construct the schema of discourse Infer the role of the participants in a situation Infer the topic of a discourse Infer the outcome of an event Infer the cause and effect of an event Infer unstated details of a situation Infer the sequence of a series of events Infer comparisons Distinguish between facts and opinions

Types of Listening Participatory Listening

Interactional (for the purpose of engaging in social rituals) Transactional (for the purpose exchanging information)

İdentification of specific details Non-Participatory

Listening to live conversations without taking part Listening to announcements to extract info. Listening to or watching films, plays, radio and songs

where purpose is enjoyment Following instructions in orderto carry out a talk efficiently Attending a lecture or following a lesson Liistening someon egive a public address

What are the implications for the English Language Classroom?

Creating reasons for listening (motivate students) Teachers need to ensure that learners experience a range

of listening purposes, especially those that might be immediately relevant to their lives outside the classroom. What purpose might there be for listening to this particular

text? Is thatpurpose similar to the purpose a listener might have

in real life? Does the task given to the learner encourage that listening

purpose?

Which is more authentic? Asking learners to listen to a short airport

announcement to obtain information about a particular flight, as a passenger ?

OR Asking learners to listen for the details of four

different flights ?

Skills that are practised Listening for key words Picking out relevant information Retaining significant details

Designing listening activities for the classroom

The standard procedure used for listening activities are Pre-listening stage While-Listening stage Post-listening stage

Pre-Listening stage

The purpose of the pre-listening stage is to Prepare the learners for what they are going to hear

by activating existing prior knowledge introducing necessary schematic knowledge Introducing the language which students will encounter

Objectives Contextualize the text Provide any information to help learners appreciate the

setting and the role relationships between particiapnts

Activity types for the pre-listening stage

Predicting content from the title of a talk Talking about a picture which relates to the text Discuss relevant experiences Discussing the topic Answering a set of questions about the topic Agreeing or disagreeing with opinions about the

topic Associate vocabulary about the yopic Predict info. about the topic Write questions about the topic

While-Listening Stage

Purpose of While-listening stage is TO HELP learners understand the text While learners listen they need to be involved in

an authentic purpose for listening and encouraged to attend to the text more intensively

While-Listening activities

Ticking multiple-choice items Filling in a chart Complete a table, map or picture Matching pictures with the text Making notes Answer questions Complete sentences

Post-Listening Activities

The purpose of post-listening activities is to help learbners connect what they have heard with their own ideas and experienxe.

Helps learners to move easily from listening to another skill.

Post-listening Activities

Give opinions Relate similar experiences Role-play a similar interaction Write a brief report Write a similar text Debate the topic