Adopting the Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar Defense Language Institute October 15, 2011

The Nature of Listening 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 2 Listening is personal, internalized and time-constrained. The listener reconstructs the message from the speaker’s utterance. L2 listeners approach the partially understood input differently

The CA approach is based on the one to teaching reading Written multiple-choice options are more difficult to interpret than the recording CA tests listening but does little or nothing to teach it. The CA focuses on the product of listening, but provides no insights into the process. The CA overemphasized the function of context information. 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 3 Critical review of the Comprehension Approach (CA approach)

The process approach is based on the insights provided by listening research. The PA is concrete. Teaching is based on skilled listeners’ behavior. The PA relies on a program of focused, small-scale exercises. The teacher is better equipped for developing the skills in the classroom. 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 4 Process Approach to teaching listening (PA) Rationale

Decoding: Decoding turns the acoustic input into ever- larger units of language. Phonemes  syllables  words  word chunks  clauses At early stages, focus first on practice at word level. Another two large patterns: grammatical structure and intonation 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 5 Process Approach to teaching listening (PA) Two Components of the Process Approach

The listener has to turn acoustic signals into units of the language. Decoding takes the form of a matching process. Listener’s linguistic knowledge is the key factor for decoding. The final product of decoding is an abstract idea. Listening seems to be an online activity. 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 6 Process Approach to teaching listening (PA) Features of the Decoding Process

Phoneme level  Identifying consonants and vowels  Adjusting to speaker’s voices Syllable level  Recognizing syllable structure  Matching weak syllables and function words Word levels  Working out where words begin and end  Matching sequence of sounds to words  Identifying words which are not in their standard forms  Dealing with unknown words 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 7 Process Approach to teaching listening (PA) Examples of important L1 decoding processes

Syntax level  Recognizing where clauses and phrases end  Anticipating syntactic patterns  Checking hypotheses Intonation group level  Making use of sentence stress  Recognizing chunks of language  Using intonation to support syntax  Reviewing decoding at intonation group level 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 8 Process Approach to teaching listening (PA) Examples of important L1 decoding processes (cont)

Enrich/expand the literal meaning or raw message by drawing on the context. Context: world/topic knowledge, the listener’s personal experience co-text: what has been said so far in the conversation. Decide the relevance of the speaker’s speech to the present situation, Decide information or unimportant information 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 9 Meaning-building process

Which process contributes more to L2 listening success? Tsui and Fullilove’s (1998) research shows:  skilled listeners use context to enrich the message,  unskilled to supplement poor decoding Unskilled listeners depend on co-text to identify words, co- text knowledge is unavailable For unskilled listeners, recognizing words takes up working memory, leaving no memory spare for wider meaning 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 10 Meaning-building process The importance of decoding

Be careful to switch a student’s attention from bottom-up to top-down alternative. Vary the use of context information according to listeners’ level. In pre-listening phase, use brain-storm activity for different purposes. The relationship between input and context is not a constant one, but one that revolves. 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 11 Meaning-building process Implications for the Teacher

How do we provide practice once a process problem has been identified? Divide the macro listening skill into parts that are practiced individually. In the early stages, devote time/effort to building up learners’ decoding process. Used context knowledge according to the level of the learners. The input should vary in the few respects: 1) Speech rate: slow and careful  rapid relaxed; 2) Adjustment to speakers: one familiar accent  many unknown accents; 3) Speaker fluency: fluent and planned  not very fluent and spontaneous 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 12 Implementation of the Process Approach in the Classroom

The teacher observes closely, take notes of the breakdowns of understanding, design small-scaled exercises focusing on the problems identified. Micro-listening task lasting 5-10 minutes. Prognostic approach: the teacher, based upon his previous experience, offers a pre-planned program of small-scaled exercises, focusing on a single aspect of L2 that is likely to cause learners problems. 10/15/2011 Process Approach to Teaching Listening Dr. Jian Kang Loar - DLI 13 Implementation of the Process Approach in the Classroom (cont)