Gao Yufen

  PGDELT Class

  DELT200

  Question 1

 

Listen and Do

¾Recommendation to Teaching Listening and Speaking

 

    Listening and Speaking are used far more than any other single language skills in normal daily life. On average, we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write (Rivers, 1981; Weaver, 1972).  The importance of listening and speaking cannot be underestimated; it is imperative that they not be treated lightly in second and foreign language curricula.

 

    However, now, in China, although listening and speaking are well recognized as critical dimensions in language learning, they remain the least understood processes. As a focus of instruction, listening continues to be underrated in many programs, and some of the recommended methods and techniques, as well as some of the published materials, continue to be based on outdated models of language learning and teaching. Course books give limited attention to listening comprehension, and very few specialized listening instructional materials are available. Usually, in the one-hour-a-week Listening and Speaking class for the non-English Majors, students are asked to listen to an oral text (e.g., a sentence, a dialog/conversation, a paragraph reading, a talk or lecture), then answer a series of factual (“quiz-style”) comprehension questions on the content in order to “prove” that they have understood. Questions are true-false, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, short answer, and similar question types borrowed from traditional reading techniques. Follow-up activities often include work with grammar (e.g., rewriting sentences changing tense, person, or some other element) or vocabulary exercises based on the aural text. Beyond this kind of language manipulation, students are not asked to “do” anything functional with the information.

 

    The efficacy of this model has been called into serious questions. These include the following: The focus is on the “testing”, not teaching; essentially this model seems to call for memorization of information and, in fact, it may be more a test of memory, or previous knowledge, or good guessing ability, than a measure of meaningful comprehension; this model features neither authentic functions nor genuine communicative outcomes; overall it has little true motivational value and may be perceived by students as a boring activity and simply another vehicle for studying grammar and vocabulary. Students have no chance to practice speaking though it is Listening and Speaking Class.

 

    Therefore, I believe, a Listen-and-Do format, that is, information gathering and information using, should be recommended for listening instructional activities in the English Listening and Speaking curriculum. Listen-and-Do in the listening comprehension context implies an “outcome” objective. The purpose of oral communication in the real world is to achieve a genuine outcome; it may be very simple (e.g., enjoying social conversation) or it may be very complex (e.g., understanding complicated instructions), but an outcome is achieved. And so it must be in any listening comprehension activity planned for use in English language-learning context.

 

    Minimum requirements for two-way oral communication are two active participants and an outcome. Participants alternate roles of speaker-sender and listener-receiver. One-way communication requires one active participant (a listener-receiver), one long distance participant, either “live” or recorded (who functions as speaker-sender), and an outcome.

 

    An outcome is a “real job where people can actually see themselves somewhere…” (Sinclair,1984). “Outcome” is an essential component in both two-way and one-way communication listening comprehension activities. I will recommend six broad categories of outcome in the following and each category can be sub-divided into more narrowly focused specific outcomes. The six categories are:

  1. Listening and performing actions and operations
  2. Listening and transferring information
  3. Listening and solving problems
  4. Listening, evaluating, and manipulating information
  5. Interactive listening and negotiating meaning through questioning /answering routines
  6. Listening for enjoyment, pleasure, sociability

 

1. Listening and performing actions and operations

     This category includes responses to directions, instructions, descriptions in a variety of contexts. Examples include listening and

  1. Drawing a picture, figure, or design
  2. Locating routes of specific points on a map
  3. Selecting a picture of a person, place, or thing from description
  4. Identifying a person, place, or thing from description
  5. Performing hand or body movements as in songs and games such as “Simon Says” or “Hokey Pokey”
  6. Operating a piece of equipment, such as a camera, a recorder, etc.
  7. Carrying out steps in a process, such as steps solving a math problem, a science experiment, a cooking sequence

 

2. Listening and transferring information

    It means hearing information and writing it in order to achieve outcomes such as the following:

  1. Listening and taking a telephone message by either transcribing the entire message word for word or by writing down notes on the important items in order to give the message to a third person.
  2. Listening and filling in blanks in a gapped story game in order to complete the story.
  3. Listening and completing a form or chart in order to use the information for some further purpose, such as making a decision or solving a problem.
  4. Listening and summarizing the gist of a short story, report, or talk in order to report it to a third person.
  5. Listening to a “how to” talk and writing an outline of the steps in the sequence
  6. Listening to a talk or lecture and taking notes in order to use the information later for some further purpose.

    Geddes and Sturtridge (1979) suggested “jigsaw listening”. In one form of jigsaw listening, small group of students listen to different parts of a total set of information and write down the important points of their portion. Then they share their information with other groups in order to complete a story or a sequence of actions, or some form of larger-level outcome such as making a decision or solving a problem. Jigsaw listening can be used with verbal transfer (i.e., aural or oral) from person to person, or group to group.

 

3. Listening, evaluating, and manipulating information

    These outcomes are intellectually challenging ones in which the listener evaluates and manipulates the information received in some manner. The following are the lesson activities I’d like to recommend:

  1. Writing information received and reviewing it in order to answer questions or to solve a problem.
  2. Evaluating information in order to make a decision or construct a plan of action.
  3. Evaluating arguments in order to develop a position for or against.
  4. Evaluating cause-and-effect information.
  5. Projecting from information received and making prediction.
  6. Summarizing information.
  7. Evaluating and combining information.
  8. Organizing unordered information received into a pattern of orderly relationships.

   

    Tasks that I recommended here around outcomes that focus on information evaluation and manipulation are especially useful in the learner’s development of the base of operational experiences and contribute to building a repertoire of familiar information-handling routines.

 

4. Interactive listening and negotiating meaning through questioning /answering routines

        In this category the focus of the outcome is on both the product of transmitting information and the process of negotiating meaning in interactive reciprocal listener/speaker exchanges. To introduce and practice this kind of listening skill-building, the following kind of work can be undertaken. Initially, in small group activities, one “speaker” can give a brief presentation, such as a short set of locally relevant “announcement” a 5-minute “how to” talk, story-telling, etc. Either during or immediately after the presentation, each of the listeners is required to participate by asking at least one question in a questioning/answering routine. At first each listener can be given a card with a question type listed and assigned the responsibility for asking that kind of question. The listener-questioner must continue with follow-up questions, as necessary, until both speaker and listener are satisfied that clear meaning has been “negotiated”. This means that the speaker is also a listener and must keep questioning the listener to make sure of the nature and intent of the listener’s question. Thus students practice both Listening Comprehension and Speaking.

 

     A variety of question types can be used to build the listening skills. Some question types are the following:

Repetition: Questions asking only for verbatim repetition of information (“Could you repeat the part about…?”)

Paraphrase: Questions asking only for restatement in different words, often words that are simple and easier to understand

Verification: Questions seeking confirmation that the information was understood correctly by the listener (“Do you mean that…”? )

Clarification: Questions seeking more details, an explanation of an item, examples (“Could you give us an example of …?”)

Elaboration: Questions asked for additional information on a point introduced in the presentation (could you tell us more about…?)

Extension: Questions that ask for information on a new point, one that was not introduced in the presentation (What about …? How is this related to…?)

Challenge: Question that challenge points given or conclusions drawn ( What did you base …on? Why did you…?)

 

5. Listening for enjoyment, pleasure, sociability

    Tasks with this outcome can include listening to songs, stories, plays, poems, jokes, anecdotes, or, as Ur (1984) suggested “ general interesting chat improvised by the teacher.” Ur makes an especially good case for informal “teacher-chat” as an excellent source of listening “material”, and observes that it serves as a relaxing break from more intensive work. She suggests teacher-talk on personal topics such as a friend, your favorite hobby, etc. She notes that this, in turn, may lead to student-talk on similar subjects.

 

    There is overlap between some outcome categories, and I have no attempt to make them mutually exclusive. A lesson may contain more than one outcome although too many outcomes for a given activity may be overwhelming. Any outcome can be used at any classroom, as long as it is part of a task that is appropriate to the age, interests, and language proficiency level of the students. By alternating roles of speaker-sender and listener-receiver students practice both listening and speaking, therefore the one-hour-a-week Listening and Speaking Class can achieve its real meaning.

 

References:

Brown, Gillian, et al (1984). Teaching Talk: Strategies for production and assessment. Cambridge University Press, London.

Geddes, M. &Sturtridge, G. (1979). Listening links. London: Heinemann Educational       Books.

Rivers, W. M. (1981). Teaching Foreign-Language skills (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Sinclair, J. McH. (1984). The Teaching of  Oral Communication. Speech and Language Learning.

Ur, P. (1984) Teaching listening Comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Weaver, C. (1972). Human listening: Processes and behavior. New York: Bobbs-Merrill.