Strategies for Linking Authentic Listening and Speaking by Jill Robbins and Andrew J. MacNeill
Tapestry of Teaching and Learning CATESOL 2004 Statewide Conference
Friday April 23, 2004 Santa Clara, California
Overview of session
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Brainstorm: What are the components of airplane announcements? These are the short
informative announcements we hear in flight. Take a few minutes to work with your
neighbors to list what kind of information you normally hear in these announcements. Is
there a structure to the announcements?
Rationale for our approach to teaching listening strategies
Making authentic material comprehensible: working with authentic materials in popular
media and textbooks
Textbook examples from Impact Listening 2
Expansion examples
Discussion or Questions and Answers
Rationale: We use a method of teaching language learning strategies based on CALLA:
Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach - Theory and Practice
A. CALLA "is an instructional model that integrates current educational trends in
standards, content based language instruction, learning strategies, and portfolio
assessment" (Chamot, Barnhardt, El-Dinary & Robbins, 1999, p. 7).
B. CALLA provides teachers with a task-based five phase instructional design that helps
them combine language, content, and learning strategies in a carefully planned lesson.
1. Preparation - activate background knowledge of strategies
2. Presentation - teacher models the use of the new strategy for
a particular task and explains how and when to use it
3. Practice - students practice the strategy in class activities
4. Evaluation - students evaluate their use of the strategy and its
effectiveness for the task
5. Expansion - students extend the use of the strategy into new
situations or tasks
Activating Background Knowledge, or Schema Activation – Pre-listening Activities:
Activities to be used before listening should help students to activate their background knowledge
of the topic (here, the topic is the problems of foreign travel) One example is a video segment
from a popular movie. Students can learn about the announcements made on airlines as an
additional listening practice.
Presentation of Listening and Speaking Strategies - a simplified set of listening and speaking
strategies developed by Michael Rost was used in a listening textbook written by Robbins &
MacNeill, Impact Listening 2.
Practice using authentic listening extracts - Most of our 'real world listening' extracts are based
on recorded conversations between college students. They were used to develop the material in
This presentation is online at: http://jillrobbins.com/catesol
Strategies for Linking Authentic Listening and Speaking Robbins & MacNeill p.2
this textbook. It was scripted and re-recorded to become part of the listening textbook. However,
for this particular extract, we used our actual experiences or those of our family.
Practice Activity for Low Intermediate students:
Impact Listening 2 page 28:
Vocabulary Task: This is part of the schema activation done in preparation for listening.
Listening Task
Listening Strategy: Predict
Students look at the pictures to guess the problem of each traveler.
Listening Strategy: Focus
Students listen to identify each person's problem
Listening Strategy: Guess
Students guess what will happen next
Listening Strategy: Respond
Students elaborate by imagining other problems.
Impact Listening 2 page 29:
Real World Listening
Predict
Listening Strategy: Predict
Students are asked to predict what happened when Trevor went to Costa Rica.
They fill in the blanks on the postcard
Listening Strategy: Focus
When they listen the first time, they Focus to check on their predictions.
Get the Main Ideas
Listening Strategy: Focus
Students are asked to choose from possible problems and listen a second time.
Respond
Listening Strategy: Respond
Students respond by discussing Trevor's apparent feelings about the trip and
relate their own experiences.
Language Awareness “Focus on Form’
Interaction Link: The Terrible Trip Game
Listening Strategy: Review
Students review the vocabulary they've learned by playing this game.
This presentation is online at: http://jillrobbins.com/catesol
Strategies for Linking Authentic Listening and Speaking Robbins & MacNeill p.3
Evaluation activity:
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After using particular strategies students are asked which were helpful in their listening
or speaking activities. They complete a checklist meant to encourage reflection on the
way they use strategies.
Extensions on the theme
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Survey Project: Students were asked to do a survey project. Students in groups chose the
theme and questions. They surveyed students on campus or neighbors. This gave them
the chance to talk more in depth about a topic of their choice and to practice listening and
other academic skills while gathering data, analyzing, organizing and presenting it. When
they do the presentations, I ask them to evaluate each other as this encourages them to
listen more attentively.
Travel Research: Student research a travel destination and give an oral report on a
particular country; telling about the environment and culture, the cost of a trip, and what
one can do there.
Discussion: How about you? How do you help students build confidence in listening and
speaking?
Q&A
Contact us:
jill@jillrobbins.com
amacneill@swc.cc.ca.us
References
Chamot, A. U., & O’Malley, J.M. (1994) The CALLA Handbook. White Plains, NY: Longman.
Chamot, A. U., S. Barnhardt, P.B. El-Dinary, J. Robbins. (1999). The Learning Strategies
Handbook. White Plains, NY: Longman.
Cohen, A. (1998). Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language. New York: Addison
Wesley Longman.
El-Dinary, P. B. 1993. Teachers Learning, Adapting and Implementing Strategies-Based
Instruction in Reading. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.
Robbins, J. and A. J. MacNeill. (2000) IMPACT Listening 2 . Singapore: Pearson. Companion
Website link Amazon.com link
Robbins, J. 1999. "East meets West - Approaches to Learner Autonomy" In Proceedings of JALT
98, Japan Association for Language Teaching International Conference, Omiya, Japan, November
21-23, 1998.
Robbins, J. 1996. Between 'Hello' and 'See you Later:' Development of Strategies for
Interpersonal Communication in English by Japanese EFL Students. Published Ph.D. dissertation,
University Microfilms, International. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Robbins, J. 1996. Language Learning Strategies Instruction in Asia: Cooperative Autonomy? In
Proceedings of Autonomy 2000 - The Development of Learning Independence in Language
Learning. King Mongkut's Institute of Technology, Thonburi, in association with the British
Council, Bangkok, Thailand. November 21, 1996. Available as an ERIC document: ED409728
p/d 1996
This presentation is online at: http://jillrobbins.com/catesol
Strategies for Linking Authentic Listening and Speaking Robbins & MacNeill p.4
Robbins, J. and E. S. Dadour. 1996. University-level strategy instruction to improve speaking
ability in Egypt and Japan. In R. Oxford (Ed.) Language Learning Strategies Around the World:
Cross-cultural perspectives. Manoa: University of Hawaii Second Language Teaching and
Learning Center, Technical Report #13.
Rost, M. 2001. Teaching and Researching Listening (Applied Linguistics in Action) White
Plains, NY: Pearson.
Web resources:
National Capital Language Resource Center: http://www.nclrc.org/
The Language Resource Newsletter: April 2004 issue: http://www.nclrc.org/caidlr83.htm
University of Minnesota’s Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
http://carla.acad.umn.edu/strategies-bib.html
Jill’s website, with links to strategies sites, articles, etc. http://jillrobins.com
CALLA Instructional Framework:
This presentation is online at: http://jillrobbins.com/catesol