1. Chapter 2 Listening for beginning level learners Helgesen, M. & Brown, S. (2007). Listening [w/CD]. McGraw-Hill: New York.

2. ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines Summaries of all ACTFL Proficiency Guidelinesall ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines This book discusses listening for novice, intermediate, and advanced proficiency language learners. This chapter focuses on novice (beginner) learners.

3. ACTFL Beginner Guidelines Novice-Low Understanding is limited to occasional isolated words, such as cognates, borrowed words, and high-frequency social conventions. Essentially no ability to comprehend even short utterances. Novice-Mid Able to understand some short, learned utterances, particularly where context strongly supports understanding and speech is clearly audible. Comprehends some words and phrases from simple questions, statements, high- frequency commands and courtesy formulae about topics that refer to basic personal information or the immediate physical setting. The listener requires long pauses for assimilation and periodically requests repetition and/or a slower rate of speech. Novice-High Able to understand short, learned utterances and some sentence- length utterances, particularly where context strongly supports understanding and speech is clearly audible. Comprehends words and phrases from simple questions, statements, high-frequency commands, and courtesy formulae. May require repetition, rephrasing, and/or a slowed rate of speech for comprehension.

4. Some Factors Receptive vs. Productive skills – Focus of listening is on receptive skills Topic and Schema – Knowledge of topic and context can make for better performance. True vs. False Beginners – True Beginner: little exposure to/knowledge of the language – False Beginner: exposure to and knowledge of the language, but unable to utilize that knowledge. Give the EFL context as an example. Lots of learning of vocabulary and grammar, but little ability to use that.

5. Teaching, Not Testing Comprehension approach is not good at assessing ability. (see p.28 “Action”) – Listening and answering questions doesn’t provide the variety of production that is needed to better assess performance. Tasks are better at assessing ability. – “an activity which learners carry out using their available language resources and leading to a real outcome.” – Have learners produce something that cannot be done without using the language. Listening tasks list on pages 158-161.

6. Levels of Processing 1.Literal (lowest) – Students identify information directly stated. – This is what is required in the comprehension approach. 2.Reorganization – Students organize or order the information a different way than it was presented. 3.Inference – Students respond to information that is implied but not directly stated. 4.Evaluation – Students make judgments in light of the material. 5.Appreciation (highest) – Students give an emotional or image-based response. - Barrett’s taxonomy of levels of comprehension (1965)

7. Principles for teaching listening to beginning learners Be aware of the goal of your task – Prepare learners before the task; give preparation time; build schema – Increase fluency and accuracy Use a variety of tasks – Variety is better for motivation, attention, and performance. – Learners need exposure to different types of tasks as they have to do in authentic experiences. – Variety of tasks on pages 158-161) Be aware of the difference between spoken and written language – Idea units: short phrases that serve a communicative function. Build on success

8. Principles for teaching listening to beginning learners (2) Be aware of the difference between spoken and written language – Idea units: short phrases that serve a communicative function. Spoken language is – redundant, – not always fluent (many false starts), – more informal language/slang, – more personal, – more external references, – prosody (sound characteristics: stress, intonation, loudness, pitch, and duration of syllables)

9. Principles for teaching listening to beginning learners (3) Build on success – Provide the opportunity for students to succeed in small ways. Provide multiple opportunities Adjust the difficulty level of tasks Design assessments that focus more on what students can do than what they can’t

10. Scaffolding Instructional scaffolding is the provision of sufficient support to promote learning when concepts and skills are being first introduced to students. (Wikipedia)Wikipedia – These supports may include the following: Resources A compelling task Templates and guides Guidance on the development of cognitive and social skills

11. Helping with Difficult Tasks Build schema through pre-listening activities to activate vocabulary, content, and context knowledge. – Micro-tasks: Brainstorming; Discussion on the topic; Readings Use group work (pairs, groups, whole class) Provide the script before the listening Provide multiple opportunities for review/correction/feedback

12. Useful Categories for Beginners Pre-listening warm-up activities Listening for specific information/literal comprehension Listening for gist/reorganization Inferencing Listening and making evaluations Appreciation

13. Pre-listening Warm-up Activities Activate schema and orientate the students for a learning activity Provide balance. – Beginners require more pre-listening than more advanced learners. Check examples (pp. 38-40) Personalize it – use/design activities that provide multiple pathways for engagement.

14. Listening for Specific Information/ Literal Comprehension Lowest level of processing, but still important to work on. With a single listening text, have students listen for different things in multiple plays. Can have a focus on decoding as well as meaning-building.

15. Listening for Gist/Reorganization Listening for general meaning. Approaches – Summarize – Synthesize – Organize – Reorganize

16. Inferencing Make a guess using available understandings and experiences. Higher-order process Important for beginning level learners to do this. Have students think about language that gives them clues. Can be used for extending activities that don’t already include inferencing

17. Listening and Making Evaluations Students evaluate what they hear Apply what they hear to their personal understandings of the world Is the story true/false, right/wrong, appropriate/inappropriate?

18. Appreciation Simply, “Did you like it”? Requires understanding This is often destroyed when asking students to do lower-process activities.