A Developmental View of Listening Skills (adapted from Teaching English as a
Second or Foreign Language, 3rd edition, Marianne Celce-Murcia, editor)
True beginners of a second language do not have adequate processing skills to hear the
language. They perceive it as undifferentiated noise. You may have even experienced this
yourself in a country where the language is one you have never studied or really every
heard spoken. However, very soon, learners begin to sift and sort the information by
forming categories and differentiating sounds. As an English teacher or tutor, it is helpful
to be able to see the fundamental components of English to appreciate the different kinds
of processes that go on for a learner. Highways to English is a good source of explanation
and description of English phonetics. The explanation of processing below will give you
a framework from which to understand how and when some of this information may be
useful.
Processing of language is classified as bottom-up or top-down. Bottom-up means an
exercise focuses on form and the structural system of English. Top-down focuses on
meaning. Here, a learner uses global or broader strategies and may rely on skills and
ways of knowing she already knows. An interactive exercise is one in which both forms
of processing are activated.
Bottom-up Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Beginning-Level Listeners
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Intonation
o Rising/falling, mark with punctuation
o Listen to pairs of sentences spoken by a driver and policeman. Use
intonation pattern to determine whether one or the other is repeating or
asking a question.
Discriminate between phonemes
o Listen to pairs of words, circle the one you hear
o Listen to several words and determine which is different
Listen to word endings
o Listen for different ‘s’ sounds at ends of words: s, z, iz
o Listen to sentences and decide if the verb is in the present tense or past;
different endings of –ed: t, d, id
Recognize syllable patterns, number of syllables and word stress
o Listen to a text and count or note syllable patterns
Be aware of sentence fillers in informal speech
o Listen to sentences and identify sentence fillers such as: well, I mean, like,
you know
Select details from the text
o Listen to recorded telephone menus from movie theaters and listen for
show times.
o Listen to conversations about sickness and listen for symptoms
Top-Down Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Beginning-Level Listeners
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Discriminate emotional reactions
o Listen to statement about a vacation and decide whether or not the speaker
enjoyed the vacation
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Get the gist or main idea of a passage
o Listen to a dialogue and decide what type of weather is being described
o Listen to a series of short conversations and for each one mark a picture
being described that shows where the picture took place
o Listen to a number of short biographies and for each write the title that
expresses the main idea
Recognize the topic
o From a list of possible topics predict the topics that people will discuss
when they don’t know each other well. Listen to conversations and note
which are discussed.
o Listen to a series of process descriptions and mark the picture that it tells
about
Interactive Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Beginning Level Listeners
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Listen to speech to determine if statement is formal or informal
Recognize a familiar word and relate it to a category
o Listen to statements about what people want to buy and circle a picture of
it
Compare information in memory with incoming information
o Read a sentence then listen and decide if they are the same.
o Listen to a passage that describes an event, then listen to a sentence and
remember its meaning. On a worksheet, pick a sentence that would best
follow.
Compare information that you hear with your own experience
o Listen to statements about recycling in the US and compare with your
country.
The Intermediate Level Learner
At this level, learners know the basics of words and sounds, but have little understanding
of the rules of fast speech. They are beyond the limits of words and short phrases and
their memory can retain longer phrases and sentences.
Bottom-Up Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Intermediate-Level Listeners
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Differentiate between content and function words in stress pattern
o Read a series of sentences and predict which words will be stressed
(content words) and which will be reduced (function words). Listen to
sentences and confirm predictions
Find the stressed syllable
o Listen to a list of multisyllable words. Repeat each one and check whether
the stress is on first, second or third syllable. Note which syllables are
most frequently stressed.
Recognize words with reduced vowels or dropped syllables
o Listen to series of sentences for ‘can’ or ‘can’t’
Recognize words as they are linked in the speech stream
o Listen to conversation for words and phrases that are linked
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Top-Down Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Intermediate-Level Listeners
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Discriminate between registers of speech and tones of voice
o Listen to sentences of flat or varied intonation to determine whether
speaker is enthusiastic, friendly, sincere by the change in voices.
Listen to identify the speaker or the topic
o Listen to short conversations of people making small talk, and match with
picture of speakers and setting
o Read headlines of five different news stories. Listen to the news stories
and match each with a headline.
Find main ideas and supporting details
o Listen to short conversation between friends. On answer sheet are scenes
from TV show. Decide which speaker saw which show.
Making inferences
o Listen to a man and women ordering food in a restaurant. Based on food
choices, decide which is more conscious of health concerns.
Interactive Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Intermediate-Level Listeners
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Use word stress to understand speakers intent
o Listen to a series of statement about money problems. Circle words
emphasized. Discuss what is important to speaker and how speaker feels.
Recognize missing grammar markers in colloquial speech and reconstruct
message.
o Listen to a series of short questions in which the auxiliary verb and subject
have been deleted. Use grammatical knowledge to fill in. “(Have you) got
some extra?”
o Listen to a series of questions with assimilated auxiliary and subject, use
grammatical knowledge to fill in: (does it/is it) “Zit need more salt?” and
“Zit OK?”
Use context and knowledge of the world to build listening expectations; listen to
confirm expectations
o Based on knowledge of other cultures, predict whether their topics of
conversation in an academic setting will be personal or impersonal. Listen
to a newcomer describe his experience and discuss after with a partner
whether predictions were correct, and revise your ideas.
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