Aural Processing and Barriers to Listening

Aims and Objectives To describe the listening process To suggest some barriers that the teacher imposes To suggest some barriers that the student faces

What is Listening? Listening is an active process where listeners SELECT and INTERPRET information that comes from visual and auditory clues in order to define what is going on and what speakers are trying to express It is a two way process between a speaker and a listener Listening is a complex, cognitive process that is often described as a parallel processing model. That is, information is processed by using “bottom up” and “top down” processing, simultaneously

The Listening Process Anderson (1983, 1995) suggests that there are 3 phases in the cognitive (comprehension) process Perception maintaining attention to spoken input Parsing – holding the information in your short term memory and making sense of it Utilisation – using your background knowledge to interpret the input for storage

Bottom Up Processing Perception = Aural Decoding Phonemic and word recognition Discerning known words in connected speech Recognising lexis, syntax and morphology

Top Down Processing Utilization = understanding the rules of spoken English patas arribas Formulaic expressions: idioms, colloquialisms Intonational patterns: sarcasm, emphatic stress Situational contexts: phatic communion Cultural knowledge

Comprehension Parsing holding the information in short term memory “Rules” of English are known and acknowledged Input received and decoded Comprehension problems for the L2 learner The desire to understand every word and so miss the gist The need to translate into L1 before attempting comprehension

Barriers to Listening :Take a Dictation Speed of delivery Clarity of voice and utterance Accent and dialect No pause and rewind The materials aren’t matched to the learner’s proficiency: too lengthy and/or complex Lack of context or meaningless to the learner: topic unfamiliar Poor quality audio materials

Barriers to Listening : The Student Physical Barriers Hearing problems Poor concentration: tiredness, frustration, boredom, resistance Habitudinal Barriers Insistence on listening word by word Silently translating in to the L1 in order to comprehend

Linguistic Barriers Lexical, syntactical and grammatical knowledge isn’t in place and so can’t pick up key words Psychological Barriers Inability to hold gathering information in short term memory Allowing yourself to get distracted Unable to process English phonemic patterns Unable to distinguish words in connected speech Unable to process English rhythm and intonation

Cultural Barriers Learners whose native language possesses stress and intonation features similar to English are likely to have less trouble than learners whose L1 is based on different rhythms and tones Students whose culture and education includes a strong storytelling and oral communication tradition are generally better at listening comprehension than those from a reading and book-based background Underwood (1989) Lack of schematic and cultural knowledge of British traditions: Loch Ness Monster; Morris dancing; Pancake Day races

Any Questions?

Further Reading Carter & Nunan (2001) The Cambridge Guide to TESOL (chapter 1) Bremer et al. (1996) Achieving Understanding Brindley (1998b) Assessing listening abilities Flowerdew (l994b) Research related to second language lecture comprehension Mendelsohn and Rubin (1995) A Guide for the Teaching of Second Language Listening Nunan (l995c) New Ways in Teaching Listening Rost (1990) Listening in Language Learning White (1998) Listening Chen Yiching (2005) Barriers to Acquiring Listening Strategies for EFL Learners and their Pedagogical Implications