Transcript Barriers to Listening

Aural Processing
and
Barriers to Listening
Aims and Objectives
•To describe the listening process
•To suggest some barriers that the
teacher imposes
•To suggest some barriers that the
student faces
What is Listening?
Listening is an active process where listeners SELECT and
INTERPRET information that comes from visual and auditory clues
what is going on and what speakers
are trying to express
in order to define
It is a two way process between a speaker and a listener
Listening is a complex, cognitive process that is often described as
a parallel processing model. That is, information is processed by
using “bottom up” and “top down” processing, simultaneously
The Listening Process
Anderson (1983, 1995) suggests that there are 3 phases in the
cognitive (comprehension) process
Perception maintaining attention to spoken
input
Parsing – holding the information in your short
term memory and making sense of it
Utilisation – using your background
knowledge to interpret the input for storage
Bottom Up Processing
Perception = Aural Decoding
•Phonemic and word recognition
•Discerning known words in connected
speech
•Recognising lexis, syntax and
morphology
Top Down Processing
Utilization =
understanding the rules of spoken English
•Formulaic expressions: idioms, colloquialisms
•Intonational patterns: sarcasm, emphatic stress
•Situational contexts: phatic communion
•Cultural knowledge
patas arribas
Comprehension
Parsing
Input
received
and decoded
holding the
information in
short term
memory
“Rules” of
English are
known and
acknowledged
Comprehension problems for the L2 learner
•The desire to understand every word and so miss the gist
•The need to translate into L1 before attempting comprehension
Barriers to Listening :Take a Dictation
•Speed of delivery
•Clarity of voice and utterance
•Accent and dialect
•No pause and rewind
•The materials aren’t matched to the learner’s proficiency: too
lengthy and/or complex
•Lack of context or meaningless to the learner: topic unfamiliar
•Poor quality audio materials
Barriers to Listening : The Student
Physical Barriers
•Hearing problems
•Poor concentration: tiredness, frustration, boredom, resistance
Habitudinal Barriers
•Insistence on listening word by word
•Silently translating in to the L1 in order to comprehend
Linguistic Barriers
•Lexical, syntactical and grammatical knowledge isn’t in
place and so can’t pick up key words
Psychological Barriers
•Inability to hold gathering information in short
term memory
•Allowing yourself to get distracted
•Unable to process English phonemic patterns
•Unable to distinguish words in connected speech
• Unable to process English rhythm and intonation
Cultural Barriers
•Learners whose native language possesses stress and
intonation features similar to English are likely to have less
trouble than learners whose L1 is based on different rhythms
and tones
•Students whose culture and education includes a strong
storytelling and oral communication tradition are generally
better at listening comprehension than those from a reading
and book-based background
Underwood (1989)
•Lack of schematic and cultural knowledge of British traditions:
Loch Ness Monster; Morris dancing; Pancake Day races
Any Questions?
Further Reading
Carter & Nunan (2001) The Cambridge Guide to TESOL (chapter 1)
Bremer et al. (1996) Achieving Understanding
Brindley (1998b) Assessing listening abilities
Flowerdew (l994b)
comprehension
Research
related
to
second
language
lecture
Mendelsohn and Rubin (1995) A Guide for the Teaching of Second
Language Listening
Nunan (l995c) New Ways in Teaching Listening
Rost (1990) Listening in Language Learning
White (1998) Listening
Chen Yiching (2005) Barriers to Acquiring Listening Strategies for EFL
Learners and their Pedagogical Implications