Blended Workshop for in-Service Teachers on Listening Strategies in
Computer Enhanced Environments
Angelica Barreto Avila
UNAM
Mexico
angelicacch2005@yahoo.es
Abstract: This paper addresses the question of the effectiveness of a b-learning workshop on
listening comprehension teaching strategies in a computer-based environment cultivating learner
autonomy. It describes the development of a 20 hour workshop designed to help in-service
language teachers to explore, understand and use teaching strategies to improve listening
comprehension in computer enhanced learning environments that promote autonomy. For this
project we applied the model offered by the action research cycle as well as a focus on a problem
that constitutes a learning goal in a constructivist learning environment. Students are now facing
problems to improve their English listening skills and educators are likely to find their classes
going online with instruction of metacognitive listening strategies as a solution. Learning and
teaching is different in online environments and educators need to be prepared to design and
implement classes appropriately.
Work-in-progress Project
This paper shows a work-in-progress project related to the integration of instructional technologies into inservice teacher education programs. It has to do with the research and practice about technology in the development
of English senior high school teachers at Autonomous National University of Mexico.
It mainly addresses the question of the effectiveness of a b-learning workshop on listening comprehension
teaching strategies in a computer-based environment cultivating learner autonomy. The paper describes the
development of a 20 hour workshop designed to help in-service teachers to explore, understand and use teaching
strategies to improve listening comprehension in computer enhanced learning environments that promote autonomy.
The activities designed for the workshop involve the exploitation of appropriate technology to support open and
distance learning, and the design of curricula based upon constructivist and experiential learning principles (Duffy &
Jonassen, 1992).
The major aspects dealt with are autonomy, design of constructivist learning environments, action research
as a tool for teacher education and instruction of metacognitive listening strategies.
Teacher education
Appropriate teacher training is key to any success in language education. For our current project we
applied the model offered by the action research cycle. For language teachers, action research refers to “a systematic
approach to carrying out investigations and collecting information that is designed to illuminate an issue or problem
and to improve classroom practice…taking practical action to resolve classroom problems”(Richards, 1995: 171). A
workshop for in-service teachers can provide not only the means for collecting information about problems with
teaching listening comprehension and the use of technology but also the opportunity “to examine their beliefs on
perspectives on teaching and learning, and use this process to reflect on their own teaching practices”(Richards,
1995:23).
Autonomy and CLE
The workshop aimed at preparing educators to work more effectively in online environments, as well as
understand how autonomy develops, and thus experiencing new ways of teaching. In a computer enhanced learning
environment, learners have informed control over the choice of task, topic or text content, and they can be
introduced to taking control over their own learning by providing them with exposure to awareness-raising
activities.
One of the design models considered suitable for our purposes is the modern constructivist learning
environments, which are technology-based spaces in which learners are engaged in meaningful interactions to solve
a particular problem (Jonassen, 1999). The workshop for in-service English teachers represented a challenge to
adapt and change instructional design strategies to actively engage them in meaningful projects and activities that
promote exploration, collaboration, and reflection on both teaching listening strategies in L2 and new pedagogic
models for e-learning.
Jonassen (1999) refers to information banks that include resources like text documents, computers, World
Wide Web access, hypermedia applications, animation, sound devices, and other technological devices that are
accessible to the learner to solve the problem or project.
Teaching listening
As technology use continues to increase in education and L2 teaching, we need to examine current effective
L2 teaching strategies so as to facilitate technology and curriculum development. Listening instruction can be
improved using multimedia, collaborative activities, and access to facilities for multi-channeled
perception/production. Teachers also explored some of the positive effects of metacognitive strategy training on
listening comprehension (Goh, 2008) as well as suggestions to train students in the use of prediction, individual
planning, peer discussions, and post listening reflections that make up the metacognitive strategies (Vandergrift,
2003).
The context
This action research Project grows from a particular problem in the field of EFLT and the incorporation of
technology to language teaching in a Mexican public system of senior high schools. Its main purpose is to explore
teaching listening strategies in computer enhanced environments that foster autonomy to propose a model that
improves teacher education.
During the 2009-2010 school cycle, an extraordinary shift took place in the five senior high schools (with a
total population of 60,000 students and 300 English teachers) of the National University Of Mexico. We went from
teaching reading comprehension to the teaching of the so called four skills. In just one year, we were supposed to
hire and train 150 teachers of English, redesign our curriculum and develop materials to take advantage of the brand
new language laboratories and self-access learning centers. The needs and interests in teacher education perceived in
recent surveys deal precisely with language teaching strategies and integration of instructional technologies into
daily practice.
Methods
Action research methodology offers a systematic approach to introducing innovations in teaching and
learning. It seeks to do this by putting the teacher in the dual role of producer of educational theory, and user of that
theory. No separation need to be made between the design and delivery of teaching, and the process of researching
these activities, thereby bringing theory and practice closer together (Levy, 1995). The design of this study and the
problems posed in the workshop are rather exploratory in nature. Research on needs analysis in our language
teaching field serves as an initial step in curriculum design for further development of teaching materials, learning
activities, tests and program evaluation strategies (Brown,1995).
Within the general methodology of action research, there are three techniques described by McKernan
(1996) that were chosen to gather information throughout the workshop. The first one is dilemma analysis, a
technique that assists in the interpretation of qualitative action research data. The research task was to create an
account of a teaching problem in computer enhanced environments that foster autonomy related to listening
comprehension which would be regarded by participants of the workshop as authentic and valid. To this end, written
questionnaires were administered prior to the workshop to 29 English teachers from all five senior high schools, and
the resulting data was analyzed not in terms of particular opinions but in in terms of the issues about which various
opinions were held, thus identifying the following dilemmas, tensions or contradictions:
a) Are listening comprehension strategies specific for oral texts or similar to those used for written texts?
b) Should teachers use authentic oral texts or customized ones for beginners ?
c) Do teachers need knowledge about the use of information technology or teaching strategies for listening
comprehension?
e) Should listening sub-skills development take place in the classroom or in individual activities with e-learning?
The next step was organizing perspective documents, where each of the above dilemmas was presented in
the second session of the workshop and further developed by each participant through a wiki , so as to formulate an
overall perspective which would transcend individual beliefs.
Another technique used was the action inquiry seminar, in which each participant was given alternating
responsibility for leading the discussion around problems in the curriculum, namely those raised in the dilemma
analysis. Each member of the group prepared a presentation and other members were expected to read around the
topic and to reflect and discuss ideas.
A third way for gathering data was a projective technique in which respondents completed open-ended
questions on-line to reveal attitudes and values about a general situation, such as: “On-line tasks and podcast are
rarely used because …” and “ For some English teachers at CCH, teaching listening comprehension in computer
enhanced learning environments is …”.
Data
Twelve English senior high school teachers attended the 20 hour blended workshop on December, a week
before Christmas holidays. It consisted in 5 sessions, two with face-to-face instruction, and three with online
activities and discussions. The complete workshop was available online at:
http://aulasvirtuales.cuaed.unam.mx/moodle/
An overview of the content as it appeared online shows the three activities(*) that allowed the gathering of
data selected from the action research specific techniques described before:
SESSION 1- EXPLORATION OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION ISSUES
 Activity online to reflect on listening skills, listen to answer machine messages at
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/english/en35spec/game/en35spec-game-listening-tovoicemail/answermachine010.swf
 Group discussion
 Individual reading of Field (1998)
SESSION 2 - DILEMMAS AROUND LISTENING COMPREHENSION TEACHING
 Survey research results and dilemma analysis presentations
 Action inquiry seminar * based on Field (2008), Goh (2008) Rost (2004) and Flowerdew (2005)
 Wiki: Building up a perspective document around the dilemmas *
SESSION 3. ONLINE – ORAL TEXT TYPES ANS LISTENING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES
 Text types and listening activities according the CEFR.
 Online discussion on strategies
SESSION 4 – ONLINE - METACOGNITION AND AUTONOMY.
 Podcast # 1 : Applying the strategies of good listeners
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1lwFg-ot68&feature=youtube_gdata_player
 Projective technique: complete open-ended questions *
 Online discussion on autonomy and computer enhanced learning environments
SESSION 5 – ONLINE – LESSON-PLANNING AND EVALUATION OF THE WORKSHOP
Wiki: Building up a perspective document around the dilemmas
c) Do teachers need knowledge about the use of information technology or teaching strategies for listening
comprehension?
Participants concluded that due to the poor results of students on listening comprehension the first step should be
train teachers on teaching strategies.
e) Should listening sub-skills development take place in the classroom or in individual activities with e-learning?
Participants agreed that these could take place on both environments, as modeling activities first on the classroom
and then online to ensure the appropriate amount of practice according to individual needs, apart from the fact that
internet resources facilitate access to authentic texts.
Projective technique: complete open-ended questions
“On-line tasks and podcast are rarely used because …teachers are not used to new technologies, do not feel
comfortable using them in teaching situations, it´s easier to use recordings in commercial textbooks”.
“ For some English teachers at CCH, teaching listening comprehension in computer enhanced learning
environments is …crucial, a challenge, really difficult because teachers cannot integrate technology with pedagogy”.
Discussion
The workshop achieved its main goal of offering teachers an environment to explore, understand and select
teaching strategies for listening comprehension in computer enhanced learning environments that promote
autonomy. The inclusion of awareness-raisin practices allowed participants to experiment techniques, both as a
learner and as a teacher, and to reflect on this experience.
The activities designed also allowed to identify problems and possible solutions in teaching listening
through exploration of computer enhanced learning environments and metacognitive strategies that promote
autonomy.
Relevant URLs or literature references.
Brown, J. D. (1995). The elements of language curriculum: A systematic approach to program
development. New York: Heinle & Heinle.
Goh, C. & Taib, Y. (2006) Metacognitive instruction in listening for young learners. ELT Journal, 60/3,
222-232.
Goh, C. (2008). Metacognitive Instruction for Second Language Listening Development: Theory, Practice
and Research Implications. Regional Language Centre Journal, 39(2), 188 -223.
Jonassen, D. H. (1999). Designing constructivist learning environments. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.),
Instructional design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory, Volume II, pp. 215-239).
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Jones, L. (2006) Effects of Collaboration and Multimedia Annotations on Vocabulary Learning and
Listening Comprehension. CALICO Journal, 24 (1), p-p 33-58. University of Arkansas.
Kemmis, S. & McTaggart, R. (2005). Participatory Action Research. In Denzin, N.K. Y Lincoln, Y.S.
Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Levy, P. (1995) "An action research approach to curriculum development". Information Research, 1(1)
Available at: http://InformationR.net/ir/1-1/paper2.html http://informationr.net/ir/1-1/paper2.html
McKernan. J. (1996) Curriculum Action Research: A Handbook of Methods and Resources for the
Reflective Practitioner. London: Routledge.
Richards, J & Farrell, T. (2005) Professional Development for Language Teachers: Strategies for Teacher
Learning. Cambridge University Press.
UNAM. Colegio de Ciencias y Humanidades. (2011). Segundo Acercamiento a los Programas de Inglés I a
IV, [en línea]. México: UNAM. Retrieved on September 28, 2011, from:
http://www.cch.unam.mx/sites/default/files/Segundo%20Acercamiento%20de%20Ingl%C3%A9s%20I%20a%20IV.
pdf
Vandergrift, L. (2003). Orchestrating strategy use: Toward a model of the skilled second language listener.
Language Learning, 53 (3), 463-496.