Dr Philida Schellekens Nationaal Congres Engels25 March 2011

Take the learners’ perspective to look at:

Learning to understand spoken English

Work in small groups Brainstorm how you teach listening skills◦techniques◦activities◦feedback

Comprehension

Processing the stream of sound

Drink a cup of tea

Take it to the bank

Wrap it in a scarf

Put it in a big envelope and hide it under the bed

Origin unknown

Drin ka cu pe tea

Ta ki te the bank

Ra pi ti ne scaf

Pu ti ti ne bi genvelope en[h]i di tunde the bed

Origin unknown

We teach the rules of grammar. Why?

Should we consider teaching the rules of spoken English?

I suggest we should but what are the rules?

recognise word boundaries

understand how words are linked in English

how stress and rhythm work and influence pronunciation

How can you help learners to understand spoken language?

Natural pause every 12 syllables in spoken English

Often no indication of where words start and end

Learners scan for words they already know

How much are they worth?

How much work?

written as sounds like phonetic notation

one apple

two apples

three apples

four apples

q

Michael Vaughan-Rees (2010) Rhymes and Rhythm Garnet 2nd edition

Linking consonant & vowel

written as sounds like phonetic notation

one apple wa napple wvYY YYnapxl

two apples two wapples tu: waplz

three apples three yapples hri:J japlz

four apples four rapples fO: raplz

q

Linking consonant & vowel

Michael Vaughan-Rees (2010) Rhymes and Rhythm Garnet 2nd edition

ten people ten cars that boythat girlgood playgood causethis shirtthose shoesright you aredid you go?

Field, J. 2003. ‘Promoting perception: lexical segmentation in L2 listening.’ English Language Teaching Journal 57/3.

Linking consonant to consonant

ten people tem people ten cars teng carsthat boy thap boythat girl thak girlgood play goo play

good cause goo causethis shirt thi shirt

those shoes tho shoesright you are rye chew are

did you go? di dja go?

Skill of identifying words in a stream of sound

In English stress is the most important factor

Principles of lexical segmentation vary across languages

Anne Cutler research: 90% of words in English have stress on first syllable!

How can you use the information on lexical segmentation to understand English better?

Anne Cutler 1990 Exploiting prosodic possibilities in speech segmentation in Cognitive models of processing MIT

How it's writtenBilly ate an apple, a nice ripe apple

Lucy ate an ice creama nice creamy ice cream

Chloe ate an egg,A nice brown egg

Flo ate an olivea nice Greek olive

Michael Vaughan-Rees p 16

How it's writtenBilly ate an apple, a nice ripe apple

Lucy ate an ice creama nice creamy ice cream

Chloe ate an egg,A nice brown egg

Flo ate an olivea nice Greek olive

How it soundsBilly yate a napple,a nice ri papple

Lucy yate a ni scream,A nigh screamy yi

scream

Chloe yate a negg,A nice brow negg

Flo wa ta noliveA ni scree colive

Michael Vaughan-Rees p 16

What shall we do now?/wo? Sxl wi du: n3/

What do you want to do now? /wo dZu: wonx du: n3/

Don’t think about it

Dictation

If you gave the Mercury text as a dictation to intermediate level learners, how well would they manage the task?

What would you anticipate they can/cannot do?

B are duty

A who will

A allocationD elecated

C The council made recomadation

A FansB Funds of B

D made ………… for the spend of the money

B made

D cost

All students write deprived accurately

Mercury Wednesday 8th February 2006

Teach stress, rhythm and linking explicitly◦ The impact on listening is a priority, especially for

beginners ◦ Helping the learners improve speaking makes them

more intelligible

Help the learners notice through dictation◦ Dictation can be done at all levels, including beginner levels

Any questions, feedback?

Any other suggestions on how to promote listening?

If we have time, what makes Dutch speakers of English hard to understand?

And OUP discount on my book!

Some of Philida’s recent publications: Oxford ESOL Handbook. Oxford University press

(2007) ESOL - case studies of provision, learners’ needs

and resources NRDC (2005) Language in Construction (2005) EFL and ES(O)L: Common learning needs,

common teaching goals? IATEFL Conference Proceedings; ed Alan Pulverness (2005)

English as a Barrier to Employment, Education & Training (2001)