A uthentic listening activities
Don Porter and Jon Roberts
1 Authentic
language
Native speakers or teachers of English as a foreign language are able with
little hesitation and considerable accuracy to distinguish between listening
texts which have been specially prepared for ELT and 'the real thing'—
instances of spoken language which were not initiated for the purpose of
teaching. We shall call this 'real' language not intended for non-native
learners authentic.
When asked to pinpoint what it is diat 'gives away' the ELT listening text,
listeners mention a very wide range of linguistic features. We might note:
Intonation
There is a tendency for the intonation used in EFL listening materials to
resemble diat which indulgent modiers use to babies. It is marked by unusually wide and unusually frequent pitch-movement. Although intonation of diis sort may be appropriate to young children, it is clearly inappropriate in most of the situations and uses occurring in ELT. At best, it
causes amusement in learners; at worst, it is a source of irritation, of a
tendency to reject die materials, and of general demotivation.
Received pronunciation
(RP)
With a few recent exceptions, speakers on die majority of British ELT tapes
and cassettes have an RP accent, or a very close approximation to it. What
die learner listens to is thus quite unlike what he will normally hear in
Britain, since only a tiny minority of British speakers have diis accent.2
Enunciation
Speakers tend to enunciate words widi excessive precision; assimilation
and elision are minimal.
Structural repetition
A particular function or structure recurs widi obtrusive frequency.
Complete sentences
Not only do ELT listening materials normally avoid die fragmentation of
ELT Journal Volume 36/1 October 1981
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Features of authentic language use are beginning to make their way
into EL T materials, although it continues to be characteristic of listening materials that they are recognizable as not being the 'real thing'.
There is still a long way to go in the design of listening materials which
incorporate features of real use, but at least the value of exposing
learners to such features is widely accepted. It is not so widely
accepted, however, that the authentic listening experience involves
more than exposure to certain features of language: it also involves a
great variety of listening activities, and these are rarely exploited in EL T
methodology.
In this article a number of authentic listening experiences are
outlined and discussed. A set of sample classroom activities is then presented, in which authentic texts are exploited. The aim of each activity
is to replicate authentic listening experiences and outputs while taking
pedagogic constraints into account.
37
linguistic structures at various levels which characterizes most informal
speech, but the speakers in such materials also typically express themselves
in neat, simple, rather short, well-formed discrete sentences, rather than in
more natural sequences of loosely connected clauses.3
Where there is a conversation, discussion or other transaction involving
more than one speaker, listeners in ELT texts wait for the person speaking
to finish before themselves beginning; in authentic situations, they often do
not.
Pace
The typical ELT listening text has a uniform pace—and it is slow. The
uniformity may be inappropriate to the type of speech, and may prove
boring; the slowness may irritate. The learner will moreover not have been
familiarized with die relative rapidity and variability in pace of authentic
discourse.
Quantity
In die typical ELT dialogue, both speakers say an approximately equal
amount, and neidier says very much. In real life, it is more often the case
mat one speaker dominates the interaction for some time, while die other
plays a subsidiary role, until by tacit agreement or force majeure die roles
are reversed.
Attention signals
ELT conversational exchanges are often radier uncanny because of die
absence of normal attention signals. These 'uhuh's' and 'mm's' are
important indicators diat die listener is participating actively.
Formality
There is a tendency for materials to be biased towards standardized, quasiliterary language. Thus, syntax and lexis tend to be radier formal. Swearwords never occur, for example, while slang and odier colloquial forms are
rare.
Limited vocabulary
Vocabulary in ELT texts has almost always been 'tidied up' and restricted
in a variety of ways. There seems to be a general feeling diat textual content
should be 'disengaged' from die particularities of everyday life or of
specific incidents and times. In die audientic listening experience, diese
pardcularities constandy intrude. It is die specific references to
'WoolworthY or 'die Co-op', to 'parkas' and 'music-centres', to 'mortgage
interest rates' and 'die Ayatollah', which anchor language in reality. It is
die general absence of such references which renders many ELT texts
anodyne.
Too much information
An intuitive grasp of die fact diat shared knowledge is at a minimum
between speakers in ELT materials and diose who listen to diem often leads
die materials writer to include more explicit reference to objects, people
and experiences dian would normally be diere in die audientic situation.
Mutilation
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Distinct turn-taking
Listening texts are rarely marred by disturbing extraneous noise such as
typewriters in die background, passing cars, odier people talking, etc. Such
'mutilation of die message' is, however, a natural and integral part of die
audiendc listening experience.
One could go on. But one diing diat diis list makes abundandy clear is
diat diere is a massive mismatch between die characterisdcs of die discourse
we normally listen to and diose of die language which die student normally
38
Don Porter andJon Roberts
2 Authentic listening
activity
The need for and usefulness of audienuc materials have been increasingly
acknowledged in recent years. But should we stop diere, widi die linguistic
characteristics of audienucity? It is our belief diat diere is much more
involved in audienuc listening, particularly concerning the type of activity,
die kind of process to which die listener submits die language he hears, and
die physical results of diese processes. The richness and variety of activities,
processes and resultant behaviour has scarcely begun to be exploited in
ELT materials. It is, of course, possible to exploit audienuc texts in nonaudientic ways, but we feel diat to limit ourselves to such exploitation is to
miss a great many opportunities: where it is possible to approach audienticity, why not do so? In our experience, die closer die learner comes to
normal language use, die greater is his endiusiasm.
As an illustration, consider die times when you listen during die course
of your normal day. Consider what is going on in your head as you listen
(process) and how diis is exhibited in external behaviour (output). Here are
some samples from a normal day:
Authentic listening actix/ities
39
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hears in the ELT classroom. There is, moreover, an unrealistic match
between the characteristics of the language which the student listens to and
that which he is taught to produce. This match between die language for
production and reception is perhaps a major reason for die classic situation in which students do well in the classroom but are unable to transfer
dieir skills to die world outside. They have, of course, never been allowed
to come to grips widi the language of die world outside. They produce
dieir neatly constructed sentences in radier formal English, widiin the
limitations of dieir vocabulary, in an approximation to an RP accent. They
are, of course, understood. Then dieir interlocutors reply widi loosely constructed strings of phrases and clauses, laced widi colloquialism and references to what is wrongly assumed to be shared knowledge, die whole in a
regional accent which is in any case not very clearly pronounced. The
students understand little or nodiing. They expect odiers to speak, die way
diey diemselves have been taught to speak; die sad fact is diat practically
no-one does.
Why has it come about diat die characteristics of production and reception have been confused in diis way? In our opinion, almost entirely
because listening, more dian any odier 'skill', has been sold short: it has
been made to play die role of handmaiden to all odier aspects of language
work. This role was made explicit in die ordering of language skills
advocated in die audio-lingual approach: listen—speak—read—write. The
purpose of listening practice was dius primarily to model structures for
language production (Rivers, 1964: 103). Listening was die first step in a
teaching strategy for production, and so had nothing to do widi die
handling of new information and unpredicted language widi its diverse
characteristics, which are die essence of authendc listening.
If we are to help learners cope widi die audienuc situation of mismatch
between die language diey produce and diat which diey hear, we must at
least expose diem to audientic language and, if possible, lead diem to work
out strategies for coming to terms widi it. We would stress here diat we are
certainly not advocating exposing die learners solely—or even mainly—to
recordings from life; die use of listening to provide models for production
is legitimate and an important part of teaching. But we would also stress
diat we cannot expect learners to handle types of language diey have never,
or hardly ever, been exposed to.
Listening to the radio, e.g. weather, news, the 'Today' programme.
1 'In one ear and out of the other'. This is very superficial listening with
little awareness of die content of what is being said. Output: zero.
2 Evaluative listening and scanning for topics of interest to self or companion(s). This involves matching topics against one's own and/or companion's interests, and making mental notes. Output: summarize and later
retell to companion.
3 Focused listening for specific information, e.g. about the day's weadier.
Output: selection of appropriate activities for the day, or of appropriate
clothes to wear, etc.
Activity
Process
Listening in face-to-face conversational interaction.
1 Evaluation, mental commentary, and developing a line of thought.
Output: oral response.
2 Listening for conversational signals indicating the possibility of starting
one's own turn. Output: taking a turn at the appropriate moment.
3 Affective listening, i.e. not to what the speaker is saying but to how he or
she is saying it (e.g. is he or she annoyed, pleased, taken aback, etc.).
Output: response to affective signals.
4 Listening for feedback. In this kind of listening die speaker monitors his
or her own success in getting a message across. Output: appropriate
modification or repetition of utterance content.
5 Labelling. Whenever we listen to someone, we immediately begin to
form impressions about diem—where diey come from, what sort of background they have, whedier they are lively or quiet, or have a sense of
humour, etc. Output: varying degrees of modification in behaviour towards
die speaker, depending on how we see ourselves.
Activity
Process
Listening to greetings.
1 Confirming acceptance by odier members of one's social group (i.e.
failure to note greetings and to respond to diem could well be resented by
odier members of one's social group). Output: respond in kind.
Activity
Listening to administrative requirements (face to face) involving requests,
suggestions or instructions.
Determine necessary action. Output: perform some physical activity, make a
considered oral response, telephone someone and impart or solicit information, etc.
Process
40
Activity
Listening on the telephone. This will include die same processes and
outputs as e.g. conversational interaction and listening to administrative
requirements, but die absence of visual reinforcement places particular
emphasis on listening for feedback, affective listening and labelling.
Activity
Eavesdropping. Some may have moral scruples about listening in to other
people's private conversations, but diis activity holds great fascination for
many foreign-language learners. The reason is that diey are listening to
utterances which have in no way been doctored for dieir consumption—die
essentially private nature of the communication underlines its audienticity.
There is also the added attraction of a total absence of pressure on the
learner to participate. Much ELT listening material implicidy casts die
learner in die role of eavesdropper, but not audientically: he or she is
expected to understand everything, whereas in audientic eavesdropping die
Don POTUT andJon Roberts
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Activity
Process
Process
Process
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listener catches snatches of conversation and has to piece them together.
Thus the authentic eavesdropping situation reflects in miniature the
learner-listener's permanent need to pick up bits and pieces of meaning
and put them together in the way that makes best sense.
Reconstruction of a meaningful message from fragments. Output: If the
listener is alone, zero, with possible later retelling. If the listener is accompanied, there may be an exchange of information ("What did she say?').
A variant form of eavesdropping is listening to someone making a telephone call.
Reconstruction of the unheard half of the dialogue in accordance with the
structural, syntactic, semantic and phonological dues supplied in die half
diat is heard. Output: zero, or die eavesdropper tries to confirm his or her
guesses about die unheard half by questioning die person who made the
call.
Activity
Process
Watching T.V., seeing a film at the dnema, etc.
Follow plot-development, logical argument, etc., with reference to visible
speakers), or visual information about die content. Output: 1 laughter at
die right moments;
2 later discussion of plot, motivation,
acting;
3 retelling—'I liked it when/My favourite bit was when Bond
tore offJaws' parachute in mid-air!'
Activity
Process
Listening to recordings of songs.
1 In one ear and out of die odier.
2 Trying to catch the words. A favourite teenage occupation is trying to
catch die words of die latest hit, often writing diem down as part of die
process {Output).
3 Picking up die chorus and tune. Output: singing along.
The activities, processes and outputs oudined here are not intended to
constitute an exhaustive list: on die contrary, diey represent only a small
selection. A few moments' diought about your own daily life will certainly
produce further examples. But just as die linguisdc features of audientic
language were shown earlier to be rich in variety, diis short list of listening
activities, processes, and outputs should suggest diat diere is a wealdi of
ways of listening. If die learner is to achieve any degree of real proficiency in
language use—as opposed to a radier abstract proficiency, which operates
only under die strictly controlled, laboratory-like conditions of the classroom—dien he or she must be given die chance to listen in authentic ways.
Of course, a certain amount of weighting and selecting must be done.
Individual teachers and materials-constructors will feel diat it is inappropriate in one case, or uneconomic in anodier, to introduce some of diese
activities into die classroom, while odier activities should be given varying
degrees of emphasis. Thus for example it might be felt diat eavesdropping
should not be encouraged, diat listening and reacting appropriately to
greetings should probably take up very little time in any course, but that
listening for spedfic informadon dirough different degrees of mutilation,
or following die logical development of an argument widi televisual
support, might be given considerable attention. Whatever die dedsion is,
some opportunity to listen in a variety of audientic ways will always be
desirable.
It is our argument diat at least some provision should be made in ELT
for die student to become involved in die listening processes demanded in
Authentic listening activities
41
authentic listening situations. The second part of this article will discuss
specific listening activities, and provide examples.
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3 Authentic listening Multiple choice questions and 'wh' questions are still widely used in the
activities in the exploitation of listening materials, even when they consist of authentic
classroom speech. However, we suggest that the kind of processing of the text that
Active guessing these questions require might encourage learners to adopt counterproductive attitudes to their own experience of the target language.
Teachers frequently note that learners seem to believe: 'unless I understand everything, I won't understand anything', and expect 'total comprehension' of all texts as a prerequisite to interpreting worthwhile
meaning. However, there are signs that good language learners have
different attitudes. In the 'Good Language Learner' study (Naiman et al,
1978) it is suggested that the learner at beginner level needs to be a 'willing
and active guesser' who makes full use of his own direct linguistic
experiences. This implies that it is desirable to encourage learners to make
the most of their 'incomplete' comprehension and use every clue available
to them as the basis for active guessing.
It seems to us thaj: multiple choice exercises and many forms of
questioning are liable to inhibit such desirable attitudes to text. They may
induce teacher dependency and a fear of'incomplete' comprehension, that
is, not being able to understand and recall large chunks of the text. These
exercises, we feel, may lead to the assumption that the learner's comprehension goals are represented only in terms of the knowledge of the text
that exists in the teacher's head, a knowledge which is 'complete' and rich
in fine discriminations, and so is only approachable with the teacher's
mediation between text and learner. The learner will only be able to show
that his 'knowledge' of the text is approximating to that of the teacher
through tests, re-production, and answers to 'higher inference' questions.
Where the text does contain target knowledge, then such an approach is
probably appropriate. However, we listen for many different reasons, and
this 'complete comprehension' represents only one. Through alternative
exercises the learner can see that texts may be experienced other than as
models of language.
A broader approach to comprehension recognizes that we understand a
target language at different levels according to our ability to use linguistic
clues and situational and paralinguistic information. Even native speakers
do not impose a standard of total comprehension on themselves, and
tolerate vagueness. For example, on the BBC weather forecasts for
shipping, millions of listeners may hear that a wind is 'backing southeasterly'. To a layman, 'backing' will mean 'moving' and he is quite content
with that, though aware that there is probably a finer distinction contained in the term.4 His comprehension is partial, but sufficient for his
needs, and in proportion to his knowledge. This single example points to a
general truth: we can, indeed must, tolerate degrees of vagueness in our
comprehension of text. However, the language learner is trained to
demand of him or herself complete comprehension in every experience of
every kind of text. We would advocate a broader range of textual experiences, so that at certain stages learners would be encouraged to ignore the
parts of a message which they do not need, and also to make 'best guesses'
about a text, in the recognition that such guesses entail partial comprehension. Learners can always get something from an English text. Below
are examples of how 'partial comprehension' may be realized, where text is
42
Don Porter andJon Roberts
used for message value, not as a model or source of knowledge.
4 Authentic text.
authentic use
We conclude that the use of text as a language model, presupposed in
such exercise types as multiple choice, questioning, and language focus,
does not allow the range of listening experiences encountered in die real
world. The learner should experience this range in the classroom. There is
also a stronger, if more speculative claim, namely that diese conventional
exercises may actually inhibit productive and desirable language learning
strategies. We therefore mink it worthwhile to parallel in classroom
activities processes and outputs of the types specified above, while taking
into account the conditions of learning of a given group. Ultimately, we
are arguing for a kind of'listening role play'.
/ Station announcements
(The material we used was recorded
on Reading Station. There is background noise, and distortion caused
by the public address system.)
Aims
To provide experience of the
features of a 'mutilated message'; to
encourage listening for a purpose,
in which the learner develops
expectancies which are later confirmed or rejected.
Procedure
a. Pre-listening phase: die teacher may encourage the
learners to pool dieir 'background knowledge' and expectations of die announcement, and expose diem to some key
vocabulary before it occurs in die audientic text. The teacher
may ask questions such as: 'You are at die station. You are
going to hear an announcement. Is die announcer going to be
a man or a woman? What is he/she going to talk about? What
is he/she going to tell us about die train diat is arriving?'
(Possible responses: die time, a delay, which train it is.) 'What
else will he/she tell us ?' (Possible response: die platform.)
Each learner's contribution is built on and developed. The
teacher can dien elicit suggestions about what die station
announcer will actually say. For example, if die learners
suggest diere will be information about die arrival time, die
Authentic listening activities
43
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Authentic texts for listening comprehension commit us to trying to
replicate in class the roles the native speaker plays in the authentic
situation. This is because authentic texts are structured according to their
purpose. For instance, a radio commercial is brief and striking, designed to
be heard many times, and relays a small quantity of information very
dramatically. It is designed to attract attention and drive home a very
limited message (a jingle, brand name), and is often supported by other
media. The listener's role indicates how this text type might be exploited
appropriately in class: recognition of brand names; noting down information (prices, phone numbers and addresses); voluntary recall. It would
hardly conform with the nature of the text to attempt detailed questioning, or to require the sort of semantic discrimination commonly found in
multiple choice items. It is clear that we should be wary of a form of
exploitation that is not appropriate to the sample. It would be reasonable
to use 'information transfer' activities with a spoken itinerary, but not with
a song. It would be suitable for learners to attempt highly selective 'scan'
listening with a weather forecast or a station announcement, but not with
an expository monologue where there is great interdependence of the component parts of the text. This rather obvious point is in fact often overlooked in the exploitation of authentic texts.
teacher can ask what the announcer will say: 'Will he/she say
"A train is coming at 11.02" ?' (A visual aid of a station might
help, as this phase might well reveal cultural differences and
unfamiliarity with what a British station is like.) The length of
time devoted to the pre-listening phase will vary according to
die lengdi of the announcement.
b. Listening phase: students listen to die message and
comment on what was actually contained in it. This could be
followed by further listening while reading a transcription.
Alternatively, die teacher could give each learner a role card
(Fig.
I).
Smrau
Mnvpcrt
Wrton
-suptf-Mira
Piftwiy
Swindon
Bratd
Tmplt Mvtdt
PiddjnQton
Tiumon
Listen to the announcement. Must you change?
If so, where? If you are not sure, ask someone.
Ftg.l
The output of listening may be no more than a response to the
questions or a development of the role play in which learners
check if they are on the right train. The teacher may act as a
traveller or a railway employee.
2 Weather forecasts
(preferably very recent)
Aims
To practise focused listening for
specific information without visual
support; to promote a sense of
involvement in the native speaker's
environment; use of shared knowledge to predict form and content
of the message; familiarization with
regional accents; and exposure to a
text of moderate length with a repetitious structure.
44
Procedure
The teacher elicits learners' knowledge of forecast structure
and content. Learners adopt a location on a map, either from
free choice, or according to a role card. They then listen and
note relevant weadier details. Then learners may:
a. report regional weather details to die teacher;
b. exchange information widi odiers in small groups;
c. select appropriate dodiing;
d. discuss and choose alternative activities for the day.
Don Porter andJon Roberts
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You are going to Torquay from Paddington.
You are on the 11.12 to Cardiffand it stops at Reading.
Procedure
The teacher elicits students' knowledge of news content and
organization.
a. Learners listen to die first broadcast for items of interest to
diem, and compare items diey noted with diose noted by
others. They then listen to die second broadcast for new information or other differences.
b. Learners predict die content of die first broadcast. They
dien listen, check predictions, and predict changes in the
priority of Items in the second broadcast. Finally they listen to
diis and check predictions.
c. Learners scan newspapers of die same date, or pages from
them, for die main topics, and listen to the broadcast to see
which do/do not occur, and widi what developments.5
4 Tape recording of a song
Aims
'In one ear and out of the other';
assimilation of some knowledge of
die language and culture. Listening for precise words and phrases;
use of context, cultural knowledge,
etc., to predict form and content.
Exposure to texts delivered at a
moderate-to-slow pace widi strong
internal structure.
Procedure
a. Learners hear die song in die background.
b. Learners read an incomplete text, representing an intermediate stage in a learner's attempt to write down the words,
and diey dien predict die content and form of the incomplete
sections. They guess die meaning of unknown words, and
listen to die song repeatedly until die text is complete,
checking dieir predictions. Finally diey can play the recording and 'sing along'.
5 Radio advertisements
Aims
To encourage 'minimal' comprehension; exposure to a text
incorporating features of mutilation and variation.
As for (a), but widi some limited
transfer of information.
Procedure
a. Show packages of four brands of a popular product (e.g.
cereal). Learners dien listen to several adverts., one of which
promotes one of die four brands seen. Students identify the
brand (and, optionally, indicate if diey would buy it).
b. Learners are given role cards, e.g.
It is November. You do not have a warm winter overcoat. You want to
buy one. or
You are going to the anema tonight withfnends. You like westerns and
horrorfilms, or
You are a housewife. You want some new recipes for your children's
meals. They like vegetables, fish, chicken, and eggs.
Learners hear a series of advertisements, including ones for a
winter coat sale, a horror film, and eggs. In the latter, listeners
are told to write for a free egg recipe. Learners note down the
names, phone numbers, addresses or tides mentioned which
are relevant to diem.
c. The teacher records a set of advertisements for entertainments, and also constructs a complementary 'What's On'
guide from newspaper clippings. Learners first consult the
guide and selea what diey want to do. They dien hear the tape
Authentic listening activities
45
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3 Two radio broadcasts
(preferably
very
recent
and
separated by a very short space of
time, e.g. one hour)
Aims
Evaluative listening and scanning,
without visual support; use of background knowledge to predict
content; exposure to texts of
moderate length with repetitious
structure and delivered at a
moderate pace.
and extract any further information needed, e.g. days of
showing, times, cost, etc.6
d. Learners listen to advertisements with strong 'personality'
voices, and try to match the voices with a set of pictures of
people. They then attempt to explain their choices.
Labelling of speakers
6 Extracts from conversations
Aims
Procedure
In the role of a guest at a party, the learner is asked to 'eavesdrop' on a series of short overheard conversations. The level
will determine the degree of detail required in comprehension: guessing the general topic will often be sufficient. A
'starter' is given on a worksheet to help the learners tune in to
new speech styles. The sample has features of pace and
regional variation, and may be mutilated. Worksheet:
Eavesdropping
You are at a party given by the Director of Studies at your
school. A lot of teachers and students are there. As you go
around, you can hear pieces of conversation. Try to guess what
the people are talking about. You hear four different conversations. Would you like to join any of them?
You can write notes if you want:
Topic
Are you interested?
A transcript of the first few words of each is given.
Notes on exploitation
of material
1 These types of activities work least well when offered as an isolated listening comprehension activity, unrelated to die rest of a course. After all,
audientic listening never happens in isolation. We feel that the listening
should be integrated, for example by topic, or dirough its inclusion in a
series of related experiences.
2 Students will find listening to authentic texts more difficult than listening
to the usual idealized and standardized material. The degree to which they
can perform the activities suggested will depend on what linguistic and
paralinguistic clues are available and how able die learners are to make use
of diem. This sort of consideration will determine which texts are chosen.
There is nevertheless a danger of rejecting many authentic texts in the
interest of ensuring learner success; die teacher should guard against
selecting texts which are so easy diat no guessing or selective listening will
go on, aJdiough it would have been an appropriate activity.
It is preferable in these activities not to use a transcript or frequent
replays except where this is appropriate to die listener's normal role vis-dvis a text. The decision not to use a transcript or rely on multiple replays
does, however, imply using texts diat are either very short in diemselves, or
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Don Porter andJon Roberts
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To encourage guessing: the listener
must hold clues in his memory in
order to form and then check
'hypotheses'.
have a clear, predictable and repetitive inner structure (such as news broadcasts), as a step towards experience of longer texts. Using short texts, or
sequences of short episodes, avoids die risk of overload, of incomprehension of one element which may lead to incomprehension of die whole text.
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3 Many learners find it extremely helpful in dealing widi audientic speech
simply to listen and to use a transcription. They may listen, dien simultaneously listen and read, then listen again. This is very helpful in aiding
segmentation of the stream of sound and recognition of weak forms or
other features of reduction. We see this exploitation of audientic materials
as a useful strand in developing listening competencies which are complementary to die activities we suggest.
4 A source of difficulty in die use of authentic samples is diat in die real life
setting, the listener is assisted in his interpretation of die oral language by
features of the situation (the setting, die appearance and body language of
speakers, etc.), and also by general knowledge of die world. Clearly die
'guessability' of an audientic text is gready reduced if eidier situational
information or culturally acquired knowledge is no't available. If you know
how news broadcasts are structured and what is likely to appear in diem,
your ability to extract meaning is greater. If, on the odier hand, you have
no experience of news broadcasts and do not know what is likely to be
reported, your ability to understand is vasdy reduced, and transcripts,
replays, or even simultaneous translation may be of little help. Hence, the
degree to which the student knows die text format or prerequisite information will suggest which texts to select, how to exploit diem, and die
nature of possible preparatory work. It is clear diat acquiring knowledge of
format and probable content is part of die cultural boundary-crossing
entailed in target language learning.
S Conclusion
We hope we have suggested not a replacement of conventional listening
activities, but a valuable addition to diem, one which will contribute to
better preparation of learners for die experience of audientic listening. CH
Received October 1980
Notma
1 This article is based on a presentation made by the
audiors at International House, London, in
November 1979.
2 Hughes and Trudgill (1979) estimate that 3% of the
population of Britain speak RP.
3 See Crystal and Davy, 1969, p. 110.
4 'Backing' means 'moving counter-sunwise'.
5 Suggested by Brian Abbs.
6 Suggested by Brian Abbs.
Rivers, W. M. 1964. The Psychologist and the Foreign
Language Teacher. Chicago: Chicago University
Press.
Th« authors
Don Porter and Jon Roberts are lecturers at the Centre
for Applied Language Studies, University of Reading
(part of the University's Department of Linguistic
Science).
Reftencvs
Don Porter has taught English and Applied
Crystal, D. and D. Davy. 1969. Investigating English Linguistics both in Britain and in a number of counStyle. London: Longman.
tries overseas since 1963. He is particularly interested
Hughes, A. and P. Trudgill. 1979. English Accents and in language testing and English phonology.
Dialects. London: Arnold.
Jon Roberts has postgraduate qualifications in
Naimann, N., M. Frohlich, H. Stern and A. Todesco.
Education and Applied Linguisucs and has worked as
1978. The Good Language Learner. Research in Educaa TEFL teacher and teacher-trainer since 1969. He is
tion Series No. 7, Ontario Institute for Studies in
interested in communication activities in the class and
Education.
in problems related to teacher education.
Authentic listening activities
47