Teaching Listening Comp

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UNIT 20 TEACHING LISTENINGCOMPREHENSION

Structure

ObjectivesIntroductioiiWhat is Listening Comprehensio~i'?Different Types of Listening Skills: Extensive and Intensive ListeningC ompre l i ens i~~iDifferent Kinds of Listening MaterialThe Phases of a Listening Lesson in'a Classroom.Sample Listening Lesson.Let Us Sum UpKey WordsSuggested ReadingsAnswers

20.0 OBJECTIVES

In this itnit we will concentrate on the skill of listening. The airii of the unit is to maketeachers aware of tlie

e different ,typesof listening sit~iationsone encounters in real lifeo purpose o f listening situationse different types of listening ski1 Is to be handled in class.o three phases ofa listening lesson.

Learning a lang~lage involves the cievelopnient of four skills which can becategorized as receptive skills and productive skills, Reading and listening arereceptive skills, whereas writing and speaking are productive skills. For effectivespoken conimunication, a student has to develop the skills oflistening and speaking.As. such communication is by definition a two-sided process. A message cannot becom~nunicated uiless there is a recipient. A student is placed in varioils sitilatio~ isinlife daily where s/he has to respond to many spoken messages. This itnit focuses onthe develop~nentof the student's ability and skill as a receiver of spoken messages.As teachers of English therefore, our interest is to train st~rdentsto understand andrespond to tlie various sitnations.Largely it can be said that the aim of teaching listening comprehension is to helpstudents cope with different real life situations by responding to tliem appropriately.This skill is often overlooked in tlie fornial teaching of English as a second languagealthough learners of English both at tlie middle and secondary stage have tocomprehend speecli in a variety of situations.Given below are some listening situations wliiclz a student may encounter duringhisher day-to-day life. You may use them as activities for inc~~lcat ingbetterlistening skills in yoiir students.


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Teaching SpeahingAn d oListenbzqe

listening to radio newstweather forecast, sports commentary, announcements,ecc.listening to a talk or a lecture, discussing work/current problems with falnilyand fiiends.listening to recorded broadcastslannounce~ne~itsat airports, stations, etc.exchanging news with friends

listening and responding to telephone conversationsreceiving instructions on how to do something, get solnewhereparticipating in a lesson.

watching a film, play or TV .

participating in a meet ing, seminar or discussionlistening to programmes as school activity and assembly talks/lectureseavesdropping on other people's conversation.

I n all these situations and many niore of a similar nature, it is i11ipotTantthat a studenti~nderstandswhat s h e is listening to and responds appropriately if required.CheckYour Progress - 1I. Teaching of listening skills is very inipo~Tant in class because it helps

students in and to what is being said 01.done.2. Think of fibe other situations in which you think students require the

listening skill.

20.2 WHAT IS LISTENING COMPREI-IENSION?

As a teacher ofEnglisli it is important to know to what extent th e interlocutors or thepersons taking part in any interaction understand each other. To what extent do theycomprehend each other? Is comprehension a mental plienotnenan recoverablethrough probing the mind of the hearer or is it a social phenomenon recoverablethrough examination of subsequent behaviour of the listeners?In this unit, we have no intention of getting into the co~nplexitiesof the listeningprocess. However, it is important to point out that it is clearly recognized in secondlat~guageacquisition research, that listening is not merely a skill, but is a criticalmeans of acquiring L2. In fact, listening is the primary channel by which the learnergains access to L2 'data', and therefore serves as a trigger for acquisition.Rost (2001) suggests that listening involves both 'bottorn-up' processing (in whichlisteners attend to data in the incoming speech signals) and 'top

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down' processing ( inwhich listeners utilize prior knowledge and expectation to create meaning). In orderto understand this concept better, let us visualize ourselves as 'listeners'.

When we listen to any piece of discourse we have some idea - a pre-conceived ideaof the content of the 'discourse' we are about to hear. Siicll ideas are based on the'knowledge we possess in advance about tile subject matter. Our expectations may belinked to our puipose in listening. For example, if we want to know the answer to aquestion on the weather, then we 3.vill ask and expect to hear a relevant response. Inmany cases this leads to our "listening out" for certain key phrases or words. If we


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listen to a talk we generally know what the subject is going to be. ~ h u s ,here is a Teaching Listeningclose relationship between listener expectation and purpose on the one hand, and Comprehensioncomprellension on.the other. Heard discourse which correspor~dsclosely to what thelistener expects and needs to hear is more likely to be accurately perceived andunderstood than which is unexpected, irrelevant or unhelpfi~l.Hence for developing effective listening comprehension, anticipation/expectation hasto be developed. You will have to provide passages and activities wl~ichcan helpstudents with sucli aspects as recognising the speakers elnotional attitude or therelationships between the speakers. Not only what is said but the way in wliich it issaid is important to get a correct understanding ofthe social situatio~ias well as themessage. Students should be helped to pay attention to such things as tone of voice,volume and speed as clues to what the speaker is thinking or feeling as well as to th eactual words used. .

, Check Your Progress - 2

I . There is a close relationship between listener and onthe one hand and on the ot i~erhand.

2. Understanding , V O ~ L I I I I ~and facilitates effectivelistening comprehension.

3. "Anticipation/ExpectationM are an. itnportant aspect of listeningcomprehension. Discuss.

- -20.3 DIFFERENT TYPES OF LISTENING SKILLS:EXTENSIVE AND INTENSIVE 1,XSTENING

COMPREHENSION

Listening is of two kinds - extensive and intensive. When a person listens tosomething in a relaxed way, not really concentrating on every word bu t for the sheerpleasure of following the content of what is said, for example listening to radioprogrammes - perhaps Radio Mirchi, which poses no pal-ticular problelr~sof languageand is purely for entertainment, we term it as extensive listening. This kind ofexperience can last for quite a long time without any strain to tlie listener, Thelistener is not expected to complete a worksheet or a task.

On the other hand, a student might find hi~nself/hcrselfin a situation in which slhehas to listen with great attention, fo r example, to follow some cla ss room inslructionsor listen to directions, etc. This is listening intensively.

Such listening material is short an d Iias a special taskor worksheet designed on it.There is some aliionnt ofcllallenge so that the learner feels motivated to complete thetask. It is through the completion o f this task that the learner gets practice in specificlistening skills. The intensive listening practice t akes place in class and should be sodesigned that it is practical, easy to administe r, and can be completed within the timelimit of a lesson.The listening task are effective ifthe learners have a well designed, interesting andcarefully graded activity to complete. Some of these tasks can be to expressagreement or disagreement, take notes, make a picture or diagram according toinstructions or answer questions.


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and guiding them to handle the information and niessages in the discourse. PostListening or Follow up: Reflecting on the activities in the while-listeningphase--perhaps even Project work.Check Your Progress - 4

1. Wliy is it very important to set a taskfor the listening activity?

2. What are some of the physical featnres of the listening class that a teachermust prepare for in advance?

3. What are soriie oftlie features ofo good listening task?

4. What are the three stages of tlie listening lesson? What learner activity takesplace in each oft l ~ e ~ n ' ?Stage in Listening Learner Activity

5. How can you integrate with other skills?

20.6 SAMPLE LISTENING LESSON

In this section we discuss a listening lesson with the help of a tape script andworksheets designed for CBSE Course A Class IX students.This particular lesson is about kidnapping wliece details about a persons looks arevery crucial, As a pre-listening task, therefore, tile students are taken through a taskwhere they try to describe people by looking at some pictures given. Tliis equipsthem with some necessary adjectives and helps them to discriminate the meanings ofcertain words. (You may refer to the relevant book for the pictures)Let us read the sample listening taskvery careftllly

Teaching ListeningCompreliension


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TeachirzgSpeaking And The Pre-Listening ActivityListening

The kidnapping of Preeti DuggalI . We notice lots of details about people and their appearance. But when we

need to describe them accurately and vividly (as in a kidnapping), it becomesinore difficult.Look carefully at these pictures. Draw a table like the one below, and till inappropriate words from the box below it. Then add other words that you thinlcdescribe the four people.

angular close-cropped well-tailored causal stockyelegant unshaven ill-fitting formal lankybearded S ~ O P P Y medium petite heftybalding slim plaited thick roundopen friendly sharp-feati~red wavy longreceding overweight

2. When we meet people, we notice their face more than anything else. The boxbelow contains words which describe the features ofa face. List then1 underthe appropriate heading, then add more words ofyour own.

Twinkling shifty neat discoloured shortPear-shaped large wavy close-cropped RomanProtruding gapped upt~~rned thick pointedFair thin pale swarthy staringLong round untidy tidy c ose-setBroken oval square

DO THIS EXERCISE IN YOUR NOTE-B001

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Teaching Listening Comp