Transcript LISTENING
Listening Comprehension in
Pedagogical Research
TPR James Asher (1977) learners
were given great quantities of
language to listen to before they were
encouraged to respond orally
Natural Approach, Stephen Krashen
(1982) Learners need not say anything
during “silent period” until they feel
ready to do so
Questions about
Listening
What are listeners ‘doing’ when they listen?
What factors affect good listening?
What are the characteristics or ‘real life’ listening?
What are the many things listeners listen for?
What are some principles of designing listening
techniques?
How can listening techniques be interactive?
What are some common techniques for teaching
listening?
Processes involved in Comprehension (Clark&
Clark, 1977 and Richards, 1983)
1.
2.
3.
4.
The hearer processes “raw speech” and “holds”
an image of it in short term memory (phrases,
clauses, cohesive markers, intonation and
intonation)
The hearer determines the type of speech event
(conversation, speech, radio broadcast etc)
The hearer infers the objectives of the speaker
through consideration of the type of the speech
event, the context, and content.
The hearer recall background information relevant
to the context and subject matter
Processes involved in Comprehension (Clark&
Clark, 1977 and Richards, 1983)
The hearer assigns a literal meaning to the
utterance. (E.g.Do you have time?)
The hearer assigns an intended meaning to the
utterance
The hearer determines whether information should
be retained in short-term or long-term memory.
(simple conversation and lecturing)
The hearer deletes the form in in which the
message was originally received.
Types of Spoken Language
Dialogue
Monologue
Planned
Unplanned
Unfamiliar
Interpersonal
Familiar
Unfamiliar
Transactional
Familiar
What Makes Listening Difficult
1.
2.
3.
4.
Clustering
due to memory limitation and our predisposition for
chunking or clustering, we break down speech into
smaller groups of words
Redundancy
Rephrasing, repetitions, elaborations and more
time and extra information can be boring
Reduced Forms
Phonological, morphological, syntactic or pragmatic
Performance Variables
Hesitations, false starts, pauses and corrections
What Makes Listening Difficult
5. Colloquial Language
Idioms, slang, reduced forms are difficult point to
deal
6. Rate of Delivery
Native speaker speak too fast
7. Stress, rhythm and intonation
Subtle messages like sarcasm, endearment, insult,
solicitation, praise etc.
8. Interaction
Negotiation, clarification, attending signals, turn
taking, topic nomination, maintenance and
termination
Microskills of Listening
Comprehension
Retain chunks of language of different lengths in shortterm memory
Discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English
Recognize English stress patterns, words in stressed
and unstressed position, rhythm etc
Recognize reduced forms of words
Distinguish word boundaries, core of words,
interpretation etc
Process speech at different rates of delivery
Process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections
etc
Recognize grammatical word classes and systems
Microskills of Listening
Comprehension
Recognize that a particular meaning be expressed
in different grammatical form
Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse
Recognize the communicative functions of
utterance, according to situation, participants and
goal
Infer situations, participants, goals using real
knowledge
Distinguish between literal and implied meaning
Use facial, kinesic, body language, etc.
Develop listening strategies, such as detecting key
words, guessing the meaning etc.
Types of Classroom Listening
Performance
Reactive
Individual drills that focus on pronunciation
Intensive
focus on components (phonemes, words, intonation, discourse
markers etc)
Responsive
activities designed to elicit immediate responses
Selective
Select certain material such as in speeches, media broadcasts,
stories, anecdotes, conversations etc
Extensive
Develop top down, global understanding of spoken language
Interactive
Listening performance include all types (debates, role plays etc.)
Principles for Designing
Listening Techniques
Techniques should be intrinsically motivating
Techniques should utilize authentic
language and contexts
Carefully consider the form of listeners’
responses
Encourage the development of listening
strategies
Include both bottom-up and top-down
listening techniques
Goo
d
luc
k
See
you
Have a wonderful trip!