Language Skills:
Listening
Students: Jasmine Pai & Candace Liu
Nov.2007
Introduction
1969,AILA (International Association
of Applied Linguistics) have been
prophetic in pointing the way toward
trends in S/FL (second/foreign
language)
education during the last middle of 20th.
century.
Four New Important of Views
1.Self learner and the individuality of
learning;
2.Both listening and reading as active
and mixed receptive processes;
3.Listening comprehension’s (LC) being
recognized as a basic skill;
4.True language used for real
communication as a achievable
classroom model.
Listening & Language
Learning
- Multiple benefits accrue to the
learner over the apparent
improvements in listening skills.
- LC lessons are a vehicle for teaching
elements of grammatical structure
and allow new vocabulary items to
be contextualized within a body of
communicative discourse (essay;
speech or conversation).
4 Perspectives of Listening
and Language Instruction
Nowadays, the role of and the purpose
Of LC instruction in S/FL curriculum,
can be one of four different erspectives.
Each instructional model for each
perspective reflex basic view about
language learning theory and education.
Model 1：Listening ＆Repeating
◎Learner
Goals
To pattern-match; listen and imitate and memorize
 Instructional material
- base on a listening-and question-answering model
 Procedure
- listen>repeat>memorize
 Value
- enables Ss to do pattern drills; repeat dialogues ;
memorize prefabricated patterns in conversation; imitate
pronunciation patterns.
Model 2：Listening ＆Answering
Comprehension Questions
◎Learner Goals
To process discrete point information; listen＆
answer comprehension Qs.
 Instructional material
- base on a hearing-and pattern matching model
 Procedure
- listen>answer (quiz-show)
 Value
- enables Ss to handle disjunctive pieces of
information, also with increasing speed and
accuracy of recall.
Model 3：Task Listening
◎Learner Goals
To process spoken discourse for functional
purposes; carry out real tasks using the
information received.
 Instructional material
- base on a listening-and-using model
 Procedure
- listen>use (the orally transmitted language input to
complete a task)
 Value
- enables Ss to engage learners in using the
inforamitnal content presented in the spoken
discourse. 2 types of task:1. language use tasks; 2.
language analysis tasks
Model 4：Interactive Listening
◎Learner Goals
To develop aural/oral skills in semiformal
interactive academic communication; develop
critical thinking and listening; then effective
speaking abilities
 Instructional material
- base on a real-time/ real-life give –and take of
academic communication
 Procedure
- decoding>simultaneous＞instant response
 Value
- communicative/ competence-oriented as well as task
oriented. 4 communicative competences: linguistic;
discourse; sociolinguistic and strategic.
The Dynamic Process of
Communicative Listening
1988, Anderson and Lynch specified the
listening as a “listener-as-tape-recorder
explanation. The interpretations listeners
make as they hear the spoken text
according to their own purposes for
listening and their own store of
background knowledge.
3 Communicative Listening
Modes
• Mode 1
Bidirectional Listening Mode
- 2 way communicative listening
(2 or more participants take turns
exchanging speaker role and listener
role as they engage in face-to-face or
telephone verbal interaction).
• Mode 2
Unidirectional Listening Mode
- 1 way communicative listening
(A variety of auditory input sources
surrounds us as we through the day.
We hear speakers but unable to
interact; we may do self-dialogue
manner as we analyze what we hear.
• Mode 3
Autodirectional Listening Mode
- Self-dialogue communicative listening
(Both speaker and listener/reactor in
our own thought process. All by
talking and listening to ourselves.
Brief of 3 Modes
Listening is not a passive experience.
Each listening mode is a
highly active,
clearly participatory,
verbal experience.
2 Psychosocial Functions of
Listening
1983, Brown and Yule suggested to
divide language function into 2 major
divisions.
They found the transactional language
matches to Halliday’s idea of
ideational, while interactional language
matches to his term interpersonal
(Halliday 1970, p.143).
1. Transactional Language Function
- It is message oriented and view as
“business-type” talk. It focus on
content and conveying factual or
propositional information.
- Speakers often use confirmation
checks to make sure what they are
saying is clear; even contradict the
listener if they appear to have
misunderstood.
2. Interactional Language Function
- It is person oriented and view as
“social-type” talk. Its objective is the
establishment and maintenance of
cordial social relationships.
- Important features identify with other
person’s concerns, being nice,
maintaining and respecting “face”.
2 Psychosocial Processes of
Listening
In accounting for the complex nature of
listening to understand spoken
language, it is hypothesized that 2
different modes work together in a
cooperative process.
1. Bottom-Up Processing
- External process
- Make sure the listener totally
understand the “heard” language is
worked (input=output)
- Sounds＞Words＞Grammatical
relationship＞Lexical meanings
2. Top-Down Processing
- Internal process
- The listener’s ability to bring prior
information to bear on the task of
understanding the “heard” language.
- The internal resource include
previous knowledge and global
expectations about language and the
world.
- Facts; propositions; expectations＞
Inference＆Prediction
Implications for Instruction
Richards(1990) observes that the content
to which one or the other process
controlled is determined by :
a.) whether the purpose for listening is
transactional or interactional;
b.) what kind of background knowledge
can be applied to the task;
c.) what degree of familiarity listeners
have with the topic.
Conclusive Opinion of Richards
Ss should not be required to respond
to interactional discourse as if it were
being used for a transactional purpose,
nor should they be expected to use a
bottom-up approach to an aural (listen)
text if a top-down one is more
appropriate(p.83).
Richards’s Functions/Processes Chart
INTERACTIONAL
1
2
BOTTOM-UP
TOP-DOWN
3
4
TRANSACTIONAL
Affect and Attitudes
- In developing activities and materials
for listening instruction, we consider
the affective domain (include attitudes;
emotions; and feelings).
- Later more consider and focus on：
1.) the ways attitudinal and emotional
information may be cover both
linguistically and nonlinguistically,
2.) some of the attitudinal language
functions that second language learners
need to experience via instructional
listening materials.
Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Cues
to Affect
1. Linguistic Messages (the words)
- Affective interpretation must be a part
of listening comprehension activities.
- The instruction experiences must be
contextualized and must reflect realworld situations and feelings.
2. Paralinguistic Messages (vocally
transmitted meaning)
- The speaker’s attitude toward what he
or she is saying is transmitted by vocal
features.
- The vocal elements shows affective
information onto the linguistic message
are those beyond the neutral patterns
of basic stress, rhythm, and intonation
3. Extralingustic Messages (meaning
transmitted through body language)
- The simultaneous physical messages
are being transmitted with the words
and vocal information and must be
interpreted by the listener.
- Ss could learn the meanings of
specific features of body language in
the second language; also to
recognize the body language differs
between language and between
cultures.
Developing Listening
Comprehension Activities and
Materials
◎ 3 important points about listening
as a language act:
• Information Processing
• Linguistic Functions
• Dimensions of Cognitive Processing
◎ 3 important principles in making
choices about both language
content and language outcomes:
• Relevance
• Transferability/Applicability
• Task Orientation
Communicative Outcomes:
An Organizing Framework
- It is by the Listen-and-Do format＞
Information gathering and
information using＞recommended
for listening instructional activities
in the ESL or EFL curriculum.
□ Outcome 1:
Listening and Performing Actions
and Operations
- This category includes responses to
things such as directions, instruction,
and descriptions in a variety of
contexts.
□ Outcome 2:
Listening and Transferring Information
- 2 kinds of information transfer are
featured: spoken-to-written (hearing
information and writing it) and spokento-spoken (hearing information and
transmitting it in speech)
□ Outcome 3:
Listening and Solving Problems
- Many kind of activities for either groups
or individuals can be developed in this
category (game and puzzle).
□ Outcome 4:
Listening, Evaluating, and Manipulating
Information
- This is intellectually challenging ones in
which the listener evaluates and/or
manipulates the information received in
some manner..
□ Outcome 5:
Interactive Listening-and-Speaking:
Negotiating Meaing through
Questioning/Answering Routines
- Repetition
- Paraphrase
- Verification
- Clarification
- Elaboration
- Extension
- Challenge
□ Outcome 6:
Listening for Enjoyment, Pleasure,
and Sociability
- General interesting chat improvised by
the T.
- By using “teacher-talk” on personal
topics and naturally lead to “student –
talk” on similar subjects for loosely
structured and comfortable
communicative interludes.
- Afford Ss “practice” chances in both
listening and speaking.
Self-Access/Self-Study Listening
＆Language Learning
- The purpose is to provide an
inviting listening center within a
conventional language laboratory
or a broader language resource
center.
- Facility needs to offer a wide
choice of appealing audio ＆video
materials on a variety of topics and
at a range of proficiency levels.
Conclusion
- Listening, the language skill used
most in life.
- Listening instruction include both 2way interactive listening activities
and 1-way reactive listen-and-do
activities and tasks.
Discussing
- Discuss why listening has been
called the neglected skill of language
teaching?
Introduction: The Importance of
Listening in Language Learning
Proficiency Levels: beginning,
intermediate, and, advanced
(Peterson)
Listening Skills: 2 how
(1) How do people learn to listen?
(2) How does listening promote
learning?
Theories of Language
Comprehension
•
The Primary Channel for Language
Input and Acquisition
 Listening before speaking
 Two Approaches:
Total Physical Response (Asher
1969), Natural Approach (Krashen
and Terrel 1983)
Listening Comprehension Is a
Multilevel, Interactive Process of
Meaning Creation
•
Two Processes:
(1) Higher Level Process  Top-Down
(2) Lower Level Process  Bottom – Up
•
Phases:
(1) Perceptual processing (Anderson
1985)
(2) Parsing phase
(3) Utilization stage
• Both top-down and bottom-up are used
in different proficiency levels.
• Schemata (Rumelhart 1980): “ a data
structure for representing generic
concepts store in memory” (p.34)
• Schemata: background information
(Carrell and Elisterhold 1983)
 Content and Formal Schemata
Models of the
Comprehension Process
• 2 processes of listening
comprehension
 information receiving
 constructing
• Nagle and Sander (1986):
Listening comprehension isn’t
exactly learned.
Principles for Listening
Comprehension in ESL Classroom
1. The time increasing of listening
2. Listening before other three skills
(Speaking, Reading, and Writing)
3. Global & Selective Listening
4. Top- down
5. Bottom- up
6. Interactive (bottom-up & top- down)
Skills & Strategies
• Process
• Skills
• Strategies: can be controlled
 Metacognitive
 Cognitive
 Socioaffective
A Developmental View of Listening
Skills On All Proficiency Levels
1. Proficiency Levels
2. Profile
3. Bottom- Up Processing Goals &
Exercise Types
4. Top – Down Processing Goals &
Exercise Types
5. Interactive Processing Goals &
Exercise Types
Beginning-Level Listeners
1. Profile: lack of phonological rules,
uncomplicated structural competence
2. Listening Techniques:
 Global:
introduction of new material &short texts
 Selective:
Bottom-Up Exercise: form & structural systems
Top-down Exercise: meaning &
global listening strategies
Bottom-Up Processing
Exercises
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Intonation contours in sentences
Phonemes
Morphological endings
Stressed syllable
Sentence fillers
Details from the text
Top-Down Exercises
1. Emotional reactions
2. The main idea of a passage
3. The topic
Interactive Exercises
1.Formal or informal statement
2.Recognize a familiar word and
relate it to a category
3.Compare information in memory
with incoming information
4.Compare information with
experience
Intermediate-Level Learner
1. Profile:
 Internalize the phonemics but
understand the phonological rules less
 Listen to longer dialogue & get the gist
 Predict what will happen next & explain
relationship between events and ideas
2. Global Listening: Authentic texts
3. Selective Listening: Systematic feature
Bottom-Up Exercises
1. Content & Function words
2. Stressed syllable
3. Reduced vowels or dropped
syllables
4. Words linked
5. Appreciate details
Top-Down Exercises
1. The difference between registers of
speech & tones of voice
2. Identify the speaker or the topic
3. Main ideas & supporting details
4. Making inferences
Interactive Exercises
1. The speaker’s intent from word
stress
2. Missing grammar markers in
colloquial speech
3. Use context to build listening
expectations
4. Listen to confirm expectations
Advanced Learner
Profile:
Cummins (1981): use L2 skills completely
to acquire knowledge
 ACTEL Proficiency Guidelines
(1988)
 listen to longer texts
 fill in gaps and make inferences
 miss jokes, slang, and cultural references
Bottom-Up Exercises
1. Sentence stress and intonation to
identify the importance
2. Reduced form in spoken English
3. No fillers
4. Organizational cues in lecture text
5. Lexical & suprasegmental markers
for definitions
6. Specific points of information
Top-Down Exercises
1. The content of the text from
knowledge of the topic
2. The focus and direction from the
introduction to the lecture
3. The content of the next section
from the lecture transcript
4. The main idea of a lecture
5. Points of view
Interactive Exercises
1. The content in the next segment
from phrases & discourse
2. Making inferences about the text
Summary
• The role of listening on language
learning process
• The listening process & different
types of listening
• How listening skills help Ss learn
L2
Extensive & Intensive
Listening
1.
Extensive Listening
•
Take place outside the classroom.
(home, car, personal stereos)
•
Motivational power increases
dramatically.
•
Materials can be found from a lot of
sources.
•
Perform tasks.  Task-based
Place
Extensive
Listening
□Outside
Classroom
-Home
-Car
-Personal stereo
Intensive
Listening
□Inside Classroom
-Teacher
-Classmates
-Materials
Material
Extensive
Listening
□Tape
-Learners’ level
-Authentic material
-Task output
Intensive
Listening
□Tape
-Get information
Task
□Live
-Class talk
-Story-telling
-Reading aloud
-Interviews
-Conversation
Procedure of Using
Tape Material
•
•
•
•
•
Predict & Gist Task
Listen to the tape
Give a task
Return the tape
Play again
Intensive Listening
Advantage
□Tape
-Could listen to
different characters
□Live
-Interaction
-Change the speed
Disadvantage
□Tape
-Unsure hear
equally well in big
class
-Without interaction
□Live
-Too much time
to do prepare
Extensive Listening
Advantage
-More chance to do
listen
-More language obtain
-Lots listening activities
Disadvantage
-Low motivation
due to uncertain
level
-Language use
-Schematic knowledge unnaturally
-Improve
-Difficult to
Vocabularies
evaluate
&Grammar
Roles of Teachers
Intensive Listening Extensive Listening
□Organizer
□Introducer
□Machine Operator □Director
□Feedback
□Supervisor
Organizer
□Prompter
Listening Lesson Sequences
•
•
•
•
•
Interview
Re-order
Telephone Message
Completing the Task
Sharing and Solving the
problem
• Daily Spoken Drill
• The Sound of Music
Example 1: Interview
• T briefs Ss’ level to the visitor.
• Ss guess and write down Qs about the
visitor.
• Ss interview the visitor based on the Qs.
• T prompt Ss to ask Follow-up Qs.
• Ss make notes during the interview.
• Ss write a short essay about the visitor.
• Ss role-play after the interview.
Example 2:Re-Order
 Listen and put pictures in the right
order.
• Ss see the pictures first & predict what
happens.
• T won’t confirm and deny their
predictions.
• Ss listen & put pictures in correct order.
• T should lead Ss to listen again to learn
some particular phrases.
Example 3:
Telephone Message
• T make three simple records of
phone calls.
• Ss have to take messages.
• Ss compare their versions with each
other to see they have written.
• Ss listen again and clear up any
problems.
 Message taking is a communicative
act.
Example 4:Complete the task
• Each group (GA &GB) listen to different
tapes.
• They fill in the information what they
heard.
• They share different information.
• They interview each other, make notes,
and discuss the information.
 Including listening & speaking
Example 5:Sharing &
Solving the Problem
• T leads a discussion about the topic,
help Ss come up with sentence patterns.
• Ss look at the photos, predict and
discuss them.
• Ss listen and fill in the chart.
• They discuss and think to solve
problems.
 From training in language skills to
language analysis.
Example 6:
Daily Conversation
• Spoken language
 studied for information about how the
text is constructed
 in what orders certain functions can
occur within an exchange
• Both simplified and authentic text.
• A record of daily spoken reality.
Example 7:
The Sound of Music
• A variety of songs (Ss’ or T’s favorites)
• Choose the song →
Worksheet (song lyrics) →
Compare and Check answers →
Listen again & Read the answer →
T asks Qs about the song →
T explains it. →
Listen again ~
Thanks for Your
Attention!
~The End~