Teaching Listening

​Teaching Listening

​Teaching listening to ESL/EFL learners

• describe the nature and process of listening

• explain the theories in teaching listening

• ​discuss practices in teaching listening to EL learners

​Objectives

• Overview

• Listening to EL learners

• ​Theories in teaching listening

• ​Practices in teaching listening to EL learners

​Teaching Listening

​Outline

​Listening: Overview

​Teaching Listening

​​Speaking

​​Writing

​​Reading

​​Listening

​​The 4 Language Skills

Poll

Among the four language skills, which one gives second language learners the hardest time in mastery?

• Speaking

• Writing

• Reading

• Listening

​Listening is an underrated skill

​“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

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- Stephen R. Covey

Open Ended

What is the difference between hearing ang listening?

- ​The International Listening Association (2000)

​"process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal message."

​​Attending

​​Interpreting

​​Responding

​​Remembering

​​Stages of Listening

​​Active

​​Passive

​2 Kinds of Listeners

​Overcoming External and Internal Distractions

1. Physical Environment

2. Message Context​

3. Media Noise

4. Attitudinal Barriers

5. Personal Investment

6. Indifference​

TESOL

Teaching Listening

Multiple Choice

Listening to a recording with background noise.

• Media Noise

• Message Context

• Attitudinal Barriers

• Personal Investment

Multiple Choice

You take the advice of your doctor and live purposefully healthy lifestyles by frequently exercising and eating only nutritious food but still smoke cigarettes.

• Media Noise

• Message Context

• Attitudinal Barriers

• Personal Investment

Multiple Choice

The teacher talks too fast that's why the students are having difficulty understanding the lesson.

• Indifference

• Personal Investment

• Message Context

• Attitudinal Barriers

Multiple Choice

My listening challenge is getting distracted/hooked by what’s happening elsewhere in the room, especially noise or movement.

• Message Context

• Media Noise

• Attitudinal Barriers

• Physical Environment

Multiple Choice

Listening to a lecture while thinking about what food to eat for dinner.

• Indifference

• Personal Investment

• Message Context

• Attitudinal Barriers

Multiple Choice

You don't listen or take adivce from any women.

• Attitudinal Barriers

• Personal Investment

• Media Noise

• Physical Environment

​Being a good listener

• Identify your listening goal

• Prepare to listen

• Listen with an open mind

• Choose your responses carefully

• Make the effort to interact

TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Kinds of listening goals

• Listening for appreciation

• Listening for comprehension

• Listening for empathy

• Listening for evaluation

TESOL

Teaching Listening

Multiple Choice

The jury listens to the arguments made by the defendants’ lawyers.

• Listening for appreciation

• Listening for comprehension

• Listening for empathy

• Listening for evaluation

Multiple Choice

Listening to a friend sharing about his/her problems.

• Listening for appreciation

• Listening for comprehension

• Listening for empathy

• Listening for evaluation

Multiple Choice

Listening to your child's piano recital on Mozart.

• Listening for appreciation

• Listening for comprehension

• Listening for empathy

• Listening for evaluation

Multiple Choice

The panelists listen to oral defense of the students about their case study.

• Listening for appreciation

• Listening for comprehension

• Listening for empathy

• Listening for evaluation

Multiple Choice

Listening to the lecture of your professor in an English class.

• Listening for appreciation

• Listening for comprehension

• Listening for empathy

• Listening for evaluation

Multiple Choice

Listening to a patient in a counseling session.

• Listening for appreciation

• Listening for comprehension

• Listening for empathy

• Listening for evaluation

Multiple Choice

Listening to weather forecast about the super typhoon Yolanda.

• Listening for appreciation

• Listening for comprehension

• Listening for empathy

• Listening for evaluation

Multiple Choice

Listening to personal testimonies of the victims of Martial Law.

• Listening for appreciation

• Listening for comprehension

• Listening for empathy

• Listening for evaluation

​Preparing to listen

• Clear your mind

• Eliminate distractions

• Set goals

• Take notes

TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Listening for EL learners

​Teaching Listening

(David Mendelsohn, 1994 as cited in Nunan, 2015)

​Teaching Listening

​"Cinderella Skill" of ESL

​There are two ways in which spoken language can be processed:

Some text here about the topic of discussion

• Comprehension starts with background knowledge​ (schema) based on the context of the communication.

• Previous knowledge​

​Top-down

• Comprehension is possible by decoding the smallest parts of the language (sounds, words, grammar, etc.)

• Language knowledge​

​Bottom-up

Draw

Write the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word "Banana"

Teaching Listening

“The guy I sat next to on the bus this morning on the

way to work was telling me he runs a Thai restaurant in

Chinatown. Apparently, it’s very popular at the moment.”

• the guy

• I sat next to on the bus

• this morning

• was telling me

• he runs a Thai restaurant in Chinatown

• apparently, it’s very popular

• at the moment

• I was on the bus.

• There was a guy next to me.

• We talked.

• He said he runs a Thai restaurant.

• It’s in Chinatown.

• It’s very popular now.

Teaching Listening

“I heard on the news there was a big earthquake in China last night.”

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On recognizing the word earthquake, we generate a set of questions for which we want answers:

• Where exactly was the earthquake?

• How big was it?

• Did it cause a lot of damage?

• Were many people killed or injured?

• What rescue efforts are under way?

Multiple Choice

That evening, another friend calls to invite you to a party at her house the following Saturday. As you’ve never been to her house before, she gives you directions. You listen carefully and make notes.

• Top-down

• Bottom-up

Multiple Choice

Over lunch, your friend tells you a story about a recent holiday, which was a disaster. You listen with interest and interject at appropriate moments, maybe to express surprise or sympathy.

• Top-down

• Bottom-up

​- Wilson, 2016, p. 16

"Successful listening depends on the ability to combine top-down and bottom-up processing" 

(Interactive model)

​Let's try this!

McKenzy brought me another present today. It was too late to save it so I buried it in the garden. I think I’m going to have to put a bell around his neck.

TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Theories on Teaching Listening

​Teaching Listening

Asserts that students learning a language must understand the “linguistic environment”

​Teaching listening

​Listening in Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

Four fundamental properties of spoken language:​

1. the phonological system​

2. phonotactic rules​

3. tone melodies​

4. the stress system

​Teaching Listening

​Speech Processing​

Cultural differences in conversation

​Teaching Listening

​Listening in Interactive Settings​

1. hypothesis-testing

2. ​think-aloud

3. ​planning and monitoring

​Teaching Listening

​Strategy Use​

​Practices in Teaching Listening to EL Learners

​Teaching Listening

​Effective teaching involves:

1. Use of carefully selected, appropriately authentic, interesting, varied, and challenging input sources;​

2. Implementation of well-structured tasks which provide learners with opportunities to use background knowledge to evaluate their performance;​

3. Application of listening strategies which are done with sufficient guidance; and​

4. Integration of listening with the other language skills (speaking; reading and writing).​

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TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Relevant researches from (Rost (2001, p.11 cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001)

Morley (1984) offers an array of examples of selective listening materials, using authentic information and information-focused activities (e.g. notional-informational listening practice, situation-functional listening practice, discrimination-oriented practice, sound-spelling listening practice).

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TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Relevant researches from (Rost (2001, p.11 cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001)

Ur (1984) emphasized the importance of having listening instruction resemble “real-life listening” in which the listener has a built-in sense of purpose and expectations for listening and in which there is a necessity for listener response.

TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Relevant researches from (Rost (2001, p.11 cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001)

Anderson and Lynch (1998) provide helpful means for grading input types and organizing tasks to maximize learner interaction.

TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Relevant researches from (Rost (2001, p.11 cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001)

Underwood (1989) describes listening activities in terms of phases: pre-, while, and post-listening activities. She demonstrates the utility of using “authentic” conversations.

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TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Relevant researches from (Rost (2001, p.11 cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001)

Richards (1990 provides an accessible guide for teachers in constructing exercises promoting top-down or bottom-up processing and focusing on transactional and interactional layers of discourse.

TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Relevant researches from (Rost (2001, p.11 cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001)

Rost (1991) formalizes elements of listening pedagogy into four classes of “active listening”: global listening to focus on meaning; intensive listening to focus on form; selective listening to focus on specific outcomes and interactive listening to focus on strategy development.

TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Relevant researches from (Rost (2001, p.11 cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001)

Nunan (1995c) provides exercises for listening classes, organized into four parts: developing cognitive strategies (listening for the main idea, listening for details, predicting); developing listening with other skills, listening to authentic material, and using technology.

TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Relevant researches from (Rost (2001, p.11 cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001)

Lynch (1996) outlines the types of negotiation tasks that can be used with recorded and “live” inputs in order to require learners to focus on the clarification process.

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TESOL

Teaching Listening

​Relevant researches from (Rost (2001, p.11 cited in Carter and Nunan, 2001)

White (1998) presents a series of principles for activities in which learners progress through repeated listening texts. She indicates the need to focus listening instruction on “what went wrong” when learners do not understand and the value of having instructional links between speaking and listening.

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TESOL

Teaching Listening