10/05
Developing everyday and academic listening skills:
online, adaptable self-access materials for EAL students
Name of Principal Applicant
Dr Michelle Picard
Ms Lalitha Velautham
University of Adelaide
Contact email address: michelle.picard@adelaide.edu.au
Project/Activity description
Aim: This project aims to develop a range of online self-access materials for English
as an Additional Language (EAL) undergraduate and postgraduate learners which are
publicly assessable and linked to the ALL website.
Characteristics & Rationale:
1.
The listening input will be authentic content from a range of academic and
nonacademic contexts including Australian television programs, multimedia
presentations, narrated Powerpoints, podcasts, conversations, tutorial interactions
and radio programs on topics relevant to university students. Formal permission will
be obtained for all listening input.
2.
These materials will be updated on a bi-annual basis and there will be a
facility for learners to input their own authentic materials from publicly accessible
sources in each category of input in order to build up a listening portfolio.
The rationale for authentic input is that materials in pre-enrolment English courses
often rely on simplified listening materials or material recorded or spoken at a
slower speed. Research has shown, however, that the best practice model for
listening development involves practice in real-life listening skills (Goh, 2002;
Vandergrift, 2003).
A range of English as a Second Language listening material is available online.
However, this material is mainly from North America and the United Kingdom and
often involves simplified materials with an emphasis on answering simple
comprehension questions which does little to facilitate the range of high level skills
required in authentic academic listening contexts.
In Australia, ESL teachers have relied for some time on the materials created by a
company called Janco. These materials ask questions based on the ABC Program
Behind the News (BTN). Although useful for low level learners, the program itself is
aimed at Australian primary school children. Therefore the content is inappropriate
for adult learners and the speed and simplicity of the delivery does not mirror real
life experiences students will face studying in Australia.
Listening materials focusing on academic English abound, but again the listening
activities are ‘cleaned up’ for publication and do not fully replicate the lecture/
tutorial environment and the emphasis is on answering of questions. In addition,
there is no opportunity for renewal and for students to collect and explore their own
listenings. Finally, the currently available material focuses on pre-enrolment
students, whereas the proposed materials will be for students during their
undergraduate or postgraduate programs.
My review of the AALL listening materials currently available online and advertised in
workshops at Australian universities reveals that very little emphasis is placed on
listening skills. The few offerings available such as the “notetaking” workshops at
UniSA, Monash, ANU and the University of Adelaide focus on formal lectures rather
than other less structured contexts, yet anecdotal evidence suggests that many
students experience problems listening in formal academic contexts and particularly
in their interactions with students and lecturers outside of formal lectures.
3.
The listening input will be accompanied by a range of activities which will
utilize both “top down” and “bottom up” listening strategies. As recommended by
Vandergrift (2007), the materials will emphasize word segmentation skills along with
other cognitive and meta-cognitive skills and will take the students through the
processes of 1. planning and directed attention; 2. monitoring; 3. monitoring,
planning and selective attention; 4. monitoring and problem-solving; 5. monitoring
and evaluation; 6, selective attention and monitoring; 7. final evaluation. These
processes will be adapted for each type of listening.
4.
There will be generic activities available which the students can apply to
their own material which they add to their listening portfolio.
It is hoped that these materials could assist ALL practitioners who might find it
difficult to teach listening due to its “ephemeral” (Vandergrift, 2007) nature and
provide students with an explicit and focused approach to developing their listening
skills independently. As our time is full taken up with academic language and
learning support related to research writing and presentation, this project is
completely out of the scope of normal duties.