Unit 5. Using Technology to Teach Listening Skills
Reference
Butler-Pascoe, M. E. & Wiburg, K. M. (2003). Technology and teaching
English language learners. Chapter 4, pp. 81-96.
5.1 The Role of Listening in SLA
- The Comprehension Approach
- Krashen's Monitor Model
5.2 Approaches to the Teaching of Listening Skills
5.2.1 The Natural Approach
5.2.2 The Total Physical Response (TPR)
5.3 Listening Processes
5.4 Listening Purposes
5.1 The Role of Listening in SLA (second language acquisition)
1. Listening was first recognized as a major component of language
learning and teaching in the late 1970s. At that time, research
suggested that language instruction should focus on the
learner's listening comprehension in the early stages of
acquisition, while delaying oral production until the learner
was more familiar with the new language.
2. This school of thought manifested itself in the form of
the comprehension approach which proposed the following:
a. Comprehension abilities precede productive skills in
language learning.
b. The teaching of speaking should be delayed until
comprehension skills are established.
c. Skills acquired through listening transfer to other skills.
d. Teaching should emphasize meaning rather than form.
e. Teaching should minimize learner stress.
3. The comprehension approach was supported by Krashen's
Monitor Model of second language acquisition. This model
consists of five hypotheses:
a. Acquisition-learning hypothesis (Acquisition is
subconscious, whereas learning is consciously developed by
instruction and aided by error correction).
b. Monitor hypothesis (Conscious learning is limited to use as
a monitor that can edit and make corrections in the
learner's output before s/he writes or speakes, but
language fluency relies on acquisition).
c. Natural order hypothesis (Learners acquire linguistic
structures in a predictable order in L1 and a similar order
is present in L2 acquisition).
d. Input hypothesis (Learners acquire language by exposure
to comprehensible input: "i +1". Learning is first focused
onmeaning and structure is learned as a consequence of
understanding the message).
e. Affective filter hypothesis (Depending on the learner’s
state of mind, the affective filter limits what is noticed
and what is acquired. The presence of an affective filter
could act as a mental block if a poor affective state
existed)
5.2 Approaches to the Teaching of Listening Skills
Two approaches to the teaching of listening skills, the natural
approach and the total physical response (TPR), are supported
by Krashen's Monitor Model of SLA and grouped within the
broader comprehension approach umbrella.
5.2.1 The Natural Approach
The natural approach, developed by Krashen and Terrell (1983),
focuses on comprehensible input and the optimum affective
state of the learner.
I. Principles and Pedagogical Implications (i.e., application to
classroom practices):
Principles
1. Comprehension precedes productions.
That is, listening and reading skills will
be acquired before speaking and
writing skills.
Pedagogical implications
a. Teachers speak in the
target language only.
b. Content is selected
according to its relevance
to student interests.
c. Teachers consistently
provide comprehensible
input.
2. Language production emerges from
a. The "silent period" is
nonverbal responses, single
allowed; students are
words, combinations of two or three
never forced to speak
words, to phrases, sentences, and
before they are
ultimately to complex discourse.
comfortable doing so.
b. Error correction is given
only when errors interfere
with communication.
3. The syllabus and course content is
organized around topics with
a. The teaching focus is on
communicating ideas with
communicative goals rather than
little or no attention to
linguistic structures.
grammatical accuracy in
the early comprehension
and production stages.
4. The learning environment must be
conducive to language learning.
a. Activities should ensure
that students can practice
the language in a
supportive, nonthreatening
setting that reduces
anxiety, promotes
motivation, and builds
self-esteem.
* Discussion Questions:
1. Is it really good for L2 learners to delay their oral
production?
II.
2. Does the natural approach attend to learners' output? Can
comprehensible input alone lead to learners'
comprehensible output?
The Use of Computers in Teaching Listening Skills with the
Natural Approach:
Comprehensible Input
1. Computers allow teachers to add
Low-anxiety Learning Environment
1. Multimedia programs can be
multisensory elements, text,
designed to present material
sound, pictures, video, and
at different difficulty
animation, which
levels with adjustments in speed
provide meaningful contexts to
of delivery according
facilitate comprehension.
toindividual learner needs.
2. Computers allow learners to hear
the available input as many times
Examples:
- Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab
as neededuntil they feel they
- John's ESL Community - Listening
understand it.
Activities
Examples:
2. Computers allow learners to
- Interactive Audio-Picture English
develop their autonomy to
Lessons
review and practice materials as
- Adult Learning Activities - California
many times as they wish.
Distance Learning Project (news stories
and Interactive exercises)
- British Council - Learn English: Songs
and Lyrics
3. Computers can
provide immediate, nonjudgme
ntal feedback and additional
assistance to learners. They
correct learners' errors without
giving them embarrassment or
anxiety.
* Discussion Questions:
1. According to your language learning experience with
computers, do you think those CALL programs always
provide comprehensible input, particularly in listening?
2. Do you think the feedback from the computer is sufficient
for language learners to develop their listening skills ?
5.2.2 Total Physical Response (TPR)
Total physical response, developed by Asher (1977), is frequently
used as a technique within a variety of teaching approaches and
methods rather than strictly as an approach unto itself. It focuses
on psychomotor associations and lowering of the affective
filter.
I. Principles and Pedagogical Implications:
Principles
Pedagogical implications
1. Listening comprehension skills are
1. Teachers speak in the
developed before oral production skills
target language to
(based on the natural order of L1
students and focus on
acquisition).
students' listening
comprehension in the
early stage.
2. Psychomotor association: Learning is
2. Teachers give command
enhanced through the association of
forms (i.e. "Open the
language with motor activity. Motor
door") to which students
activity is a function of the right-brain,
respond by physically
and the right-brain activities should
doing the action.
precede the language processing
functions of the left-brain.
3. TPR lowers students' affective
filter andstress level.
3. Teachers ask students
to listen only but not to
give an oral response.
II.
The Use of Computers in Teaching Listening Skills with the
TPR:
Examples:
- TPR Games (program description from TPR World Website)
- Live Action English Interactive (program description and demo)
- Review of Live Action Spanish Interactive (from Language
Learning and Technology, Vol. 8, No. 3, September 2004, pp.
40-43)
* Discussion Questions:
1. TPR is usually used in the face-to-face classroom. Is there
anything missing when TPR is used on a computer?
2. Please read the program descriptions of "Live Action English
Interactive" and "Live Action Spanish Interactive" and a
review of the Spanish one. Both programs use the principles
of TPR to design for beginning and intermediate adult
learners. However, TPR is usually used to teach languages
to younger learners. Do you think "TPR-on-a-computer" is
good for adults to learn languages? Why or why not?
5.3 Listening Processes
Two types of processes, bottom-up and top-down, have been
identified as central to listening comprehension.
I.
Principles of Bottom-up and Top-down Processing:
Bottom-up Processing
1. It focuses on individual linguistic
components of discourse.
Top-down Processing
1. It focuses on macrofeatures of discourse such
as the speaker's
2. Comprehension is viewed as a process
ofdecoding messages proceeding from
phonemes to words, to phrases and
clauses and other grammatical elements,
to sentences.
purpose and the discourse
topic.
2. Comprehension is viewed
as a process of activating
the listener's background
information and
schemata* (i.e.
prior knowledge about the
context and the topic) for
a global understanding of
the message.
* Note: "Schemata" is defined as "plans about the overall structure of events and the
relationships between them" that are stored in the listener's long-term memory
(Richards, 1990). These schemata relate to our real-world experiences and how
we expect people to behave and events to occur.
II. Bottom-up Activities and Top-down Activities in Teaching
Listening Skills:
Bottom-up Activities
1. Identify sounds or
lexical items
according to their
linguistic function.
2. Use phonological cues
to distinguish between
Top-down Activities
1. Identify the speaker's communicative purpose
or the main idea of discourse.
2. Use schemata to infer the contextual
information from the heard speech or
conversation.
3. These activities are designed to help learners
positive and negative
develop their pragmatic and discourse
sentences or
knowledge.
statements and
questions.
3. These activities are
designed to help
learners develop their
phonological, lexical,
and grammatical
knowledge.
4. These activities are
often used for
learning phonics and
pronunciation
practice.
Examples:
- American English
Pronunciation Practice
- Emily's Pronunciation
Class
4. These activities are often used for improving
communicative skills focusing on meaning
rather than form.
Examples:
- Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab
- John's ESL Community - Listening Activities
* Discussion Question:
1. Based on your English (or other foreign language) learning
experience, what type of listening processes do you use
more often, bottom-up or top-down? In your opinion, what
type of knowledge can CALL programs better help learners
to develop, linguistic or background knowledge? Why?
Please give examples.
5.4 Listening Purposes
I.
Interactional Purposes and Transactional Purposes:
According to Brown and Yule (1983), language communicative
functions can be divided into two
types: interactional andtransactional functions. Both language
functions are needed for effective classroom
participation. Students use interactionallanguage to socially
interact with each other and their teacher and engage
in transactional uses to develop new skills and construct new
knowledge.
Interactional Purposes
1. The focus is on harmonious
communication in social contexts.
2. Interactional uses of language typically
Transactional Purposes
1. The focus is
on conveying
information and
include greetings and small talk that
language use is message
center on noncontroversial
oriented.
topics thatelicit agreement among the
participants.
3. Interactional uses of language
2. Transactional uses of
language include
listening to lectures,
do notrequire careful attention to
taking notes, and
details and facts.
practicing dictations and
cloze exercises
that require
understanding of
details.
3. Transactional language
is explicit, clear,
and coherent in order
for the listener to
comprehend the
meaning of the
message.
II.
The Use of Computers in Teaching Listening Skills for Two
Types of Purposes:
Teaching for Interactional Purposes
Teaching for Transactional
Purposes
Example:
Examples:
- Learning Oral English Online
- Randall's ESL Cyber
This website offers interactional speaking
practice through dialogs centered on topics
such as making friends, going to a party, and
dating. Students can practice different
aspects of social conversation. This site also
practices another type of interactional
listening that focuses on simple serviceoriented tasks such as ordering lunch and
shopping in America.
Listening Lab - Listening
Quizzes for Academic
Purposes
- BBC Learning English:
Watch and Listen Welcome to London
- Adult Learning Activities California Distance
Learning Project
These websites provide
transactional language
practice and are designed to
focus on getting information
and promote English
development for academic
purposes.
* Discussion Questions:
1. In everyday language use, we often carry out both
interactional and transactional functions of language at the
same time. Can you always distinguish which language
function you are using? If it is difficult to distinguish them,
then why do we have to learn these two functions
separately?
2. In your opinion, which language function do you think CALL
programs can better help students to learn? Why? Please
give examples.
* Please do Exercise 5 Using Technology to Teach Listening
Skills
Unit 6. Using Technology to Teach Speaking and
Pronunciation Skills
Reference
Butler-Pascoe, M. E. & Wiburg, K. M. (2003). Technology and teaching
English language learners. Chapter 4, pp. 96-111.
6.1 The Role of Speaking in SLA
6.2 Approaches to the Teaching of Speaking Skills
6.3 The Role of Pronunciation in SLA
6.4 Approaches to Pronunciation Instruction
6.5 The Use of Computers in Teaching Speaking and
Pronunciation Skills
6.1 The Role of Speaking in SLA (second language acquisition)
1. Speaking is viewed in the larger context of communication with
the focus on the speaker's ability to 1) take in messages, 2)
negotiate meaning, and 3) produce comprehensible output.
This view recognizes the interactive nature of listening and the
crucial role of negotiating meaning in order to produce
comprehensible speech.
2. The importance of comprehensible output:
Swain (1985) argued for the importance of comprehensible
output that requires the learners to negotiate
meaning andformulate and test hypotheses about
the structures and functions of the language they produce.
In this way, when non-native speakers receive feedback from
their interlocutors that their message is not clear, they revise
their speech to clarify their meaning. Through this process
of adjusting their language output in order to make their
messages more comprehensible to native speakers, language
learners improve the accuracy of their language production.
3. Types of oral interactions:
Bygate's model of oral interactions (1987):
Bygate's information and interaction routines (1987)
correspond respectively to
the transactional and interactional functions of language
proposed by Brown and Yule (1983) (see Unit 5 - Listening
Purposes).
* Discussion Questions:
1. Can you identify the differences of language use in the two
types of oral interactions? For example, you may find
people use different tones, styles, and terms/words for
information and interaction routines. Can you give
examples to illustrate your points?
2. Based on your foreign language learning experience, which
type of oral interactions is more difficult to learn and why?
How do you think the use of technology can help you
improve your oral communication skills in the target
language? Please give specific reasons and examples.
6.2 Approaches to the Teaching of Speaking Skills
Teachers need to draw on more than one approach and use a
variety of instructional tools, such as audiotapes, videos, and
multimedia computer technology, to meet different students'
needs in teaching speaking skills.

For the beginning levels of instruction: audio-lingual method
(ALM), total physical response (TPR), the natural approach,
the silent way, and suggestopedia.

For the more advanced levels of instruction: communicative
language teaching (CLT) and the task-based approach.
Note: Please find the explanation of the various teaching
approaches in the Overview of Treatment of Speaking in Second
Language Teaching Methods.
6.3 The Role of Pronunciation in SLA
A historical view of the role of pronunciation in SLA:
1940s - 1960s
1970s - 1980s
late 1980s present
- the teaching of
- the teaching of
pronunciation was largely
was a key
ignored
ingredient to
pronunciation was greatly
stressed
- behavioristic audiolingual methods; used
- pronunciation
the
development of
communicativeapproache
communicative
s; focused more
competence
on fluency than form
-a
imitation drills, pattern
more balanced
practice, and dialog
approach that
memorization
valued
both accuracy
and fluency
6.4 Approaches to Pronunciation Instruction
1. Intuitive-imitative approach
The learner listens to and imitates the sound and rhythms of the
target language without the assistance of explicit instruction.
Technologies, such as audiotapes, videos, and computer-based
programs and websites, can offer rich resources of native speech
as good models.
2. Analytic-linguistic approach
The learner is provided with explicit, structured teaching of
speech features utilizing articulatory descriptions and charts of
speech apparatus, phonetic alphabet and vowel charts, and a
variety of interactive speech analysis software and websites.
3. Current integrative approach
- Pronunciation is viewed as an integral component of
communication, rather than an isolated drill and practice subskill
- Pronunciation is practiced within meaningful task-based
activities
- Use pronunciation-focused listening activities to facilitate the
learning of pronunciation
- There is more focus on the suprasegmentals of stress, rhythm,
and intonation as practiced in extended discourse beyond the
phoneme and word level.
- Pronunciation is taught to meet the learners' particular needs
- A dual-focus oral communication program (Morely, 1994):
a. The micro level instruction is focused
on linguistic (i.e., phoneticphonological) competence through practice of
segmentals and the suprasegmentals.
b. The macro level attends to more global elements of
communicability with the goal of developing discourse,
sociolinguingisc, and strategic competence by using the
language for communicative purposes.
- Goals of pronunciation instruction: The primary goals of
pronunciation teaching are for the learner
to develop intelligible speech and to be able to effectively
communicate in the target language (Miller, 2000).
Morely (1991) identified four basic pronunciation goals that are
realistic aspirations:
a.
Functional intelligibility
b.
Functional communicability
c.
Increased self-confidence
d. Speech monitoring ability and speech modification
strategies
* Discussion Questions:
1. Do you think pronunciation is important in learning a
second/foreign language?
2. Based on your learning experience, which pronunciation
goal or goals do you think is/are more difficult to achieve?
How do you think the use of technology can help you
achieve your pronunciation goal(s)? Please give specific
reasons and examples.
6.5 The Use of Computers in Teaching Speaking and Pronunciation
Skills
1. Purpose of using computers:
We use the computer technology to create an environment
that encourages communication and provides increased and
more varied communicative opportunities for students to
utilize their oral skills.
2. In teaching speaking skills:
a. The Computer used as a Tutor (human-to-machine
interaction)
Examples: My English Tutor 我的口說英語家教(CD-ROM 試
用版下載)
TriplePlay Plus (CD ROM)
b. The Computer used as an Instructional Tool (human-tohuman interaction via the computer in the classroom)
Examples: Focus English: Everyday English in Conversation
Conversation Questions for the ESL & EFL
Classroom
c. The Computer used as a Communication Medium (humanto-human interaction via the computer outside the
classroom) - using MOOs (Multi-user domains, Object
Oriented) and Chat Rooms (or IRC - Internet Rely Chat) for
"live" real-time communication (i.e. synchronous
communication)
Examples: schMOOze University
ESL Cafe's Chat Central
ESL Chat Room in EnglishClub.com
Chat Room in Englishbaby.com
VLC Chat Rooms (Hong Kong)
3. In teaching pronunciation skills:
Computer-based activities/programs of pronunciation instruction
include the following
a. Articulatory charts
b. Sample words utilizing the targeted sound
c. Minimal pairs/comparison words
d. Listening discrimination of minimal pairs within a sentence
e. Sample sentences with several words utilizing the targeted
sound
f. Dictations
g. Cloze exercises
h. Suprasegmental exercises (including intonation, rhythm,
stress, and timing)
Examples: American English Pronunciation Practice
Sounds of English
English Pronunciation at EnglishClub.com
Phonetics: English Sound Library (University of Iowa)
English Pronunciation/Listening (Okanagan University
College, Canada)
* Please do Exercise 6 Using Technology to Teach Speaking and Pronunciation
Skills