LG 228 TEACHING LISTENING

LISTENING. The term listening is used in language teaching to refer to a complex process that allows us to understand spoken language. Listening, the most widely used language skill…45% of our communication time is spent listening, is often used in conjunction with the other skills of speaking, reading and writing. Listening is not only a skill area in language performance, but is also a critical means of acquiring a second language.

Problems in listening May be the real life characteristics of speech turns may be exchanged quickly, with overlaps in speech Pronunciation problems in listening may include weak stress and other stress patterns that affect meaning Rate of delivery or speech rate: Excessive speed in speech will clearly impair comprehension

Listening situation and purpose In real life we have an idea of the topic through the context, and the relationship to the speaker will determine the kind of thing they will say to us. Also we can see the speaker and their adjustments to what they are saying. For example, we can more or less predict what a cashier in a supermarket or our family doctor or our lecturer at college are going to say to us; if you come to talk to a lecturer here about your essay,you would not expect her or him to say at the end of the meeting, “That will be 15 pounds eighty pence please, have a nice day now.”

Is Listening Difficult? There may be a problem caused by the type of listening tasks given by teachers in many language classrooms, since the tapes used tend to have very sanitized, cleaned up dialogues which are artificial and do not help the learners to get used to listening to authentic English speaking. Native speakers in listening situations will encounter the speech in context, which may also be,missing in the classroom, so that listening to a tape will not have all the normal cues or signs to meaning that would be present in native speaker listening

In the classroom. The listening exercise may based on a cd/tape, but also be on a dvd, which would help in giving the learners visual and contextual input to the meaning, as they would have in real life listening. There is no reason to restrict listening tasks to audio only. The speaker would be visible so that aspects of paralinguistic meaning could also be taught. Tapes or dvds could be played twice to aid understanding or divided into sections

Main Stages of Listening Lesson. Pre-listening: to engage interest, give topic area, discuss learners possible predictions of content. First Listening: May be for skimming, scanning, working in groups or pairs into order to collect and check their answers. Second listening: for checking first listening or for different type of task such as related to intensive or extensive listening. Follow Up; discussing answers, implications, in groups

REFERENCES 1 Lynch, T Teaching Second Language Listening. Oxford. Lynch, T Study Listening. CUP. Rost, M Listening in Language Learning. Longman. Wilson, J.J How to Teach Listening. Longman. Anderson, A. & Lynch, T. (1988) Listening, OUP Field, J Listening in the Language Classroom. CUP Hedge, T. (2000) Teaching and Learning in the language classroom (ch 7) OUP Lynch, T. (1996) Communication in the language classroom OUP Morley, J. (2001) Aural comprehension instruction in Celce- Murcia, M (ed) Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language Heinle and Heinle

REFERENCES 2 Nunan, D. (1991) Language Teaching and Methodology (Ch.2) Prentice Hall Richards, J. (1985) The Context of Language Teaching Ch. 14 CUP Richards, J. (1990) Language Teaching Matrix Ch. 3 CUP (for bottom up & top down) Rost, M. (2002) Teaching and Researching Listening Longman Underwood, M. (1989) Teaching Listening, Longman Rost, M Teaching and Researching Listening Longman Wilson, R Supporting Speaking and Listening. London.