1. Teaching Listening & Speaking
Prepared by Dr Sabariah Md Rashid

2. Is listening a component of speaking?

3. Key Questions about Listening
What are listeners doing when they listen?
What factors affect good listening?
What are characteristics of “real life” listening?
What are the many things listeners listen for?
What are some principles for designing listening techniques?
How can listening techniques be interactive?
What are some common techniques for teaching listening?

4. What makes listening difficult?
Clustering
Redundancy
Reduced forms
Performance variables
Colloquial language
Rate of delivery
Stress, rhythm, and intonation
Interaction

5. What types of listening skills are developed?
Microskills
- attending to smaller bits of language; involving bottom-up approach to listening comprehension
- is achieved by dividing and decoding the sound signal bit by bit.; the ability to separate the stream of speech into individual words

6. What types of listening skills are developed? (cont’d)
Macroskills
- focusing on larger elements; involving top-
down approach to listening (listening for
general idea; use of background knowledge)

7. What kinds of listening skills are taught?
Reactive (listen and repeat)
Intensive (listen on a focused sound)
Responsive (listen and respond – briefly)
Selective (listen for particular items in a longer passage)
Extensive (listen for interactive/responsive purposes)
Interactive (listen to discuss, respond, debate)

8. Principles for teaching listening
Integrate listening into the course
Appeal to students’ personal goals
Use authentic language and contexts
Consider how students will respond
Teach listening strategies
Include both bottom-up & top-down listening

9. Common listening strategies
Looking for key words
Looking for nonverbal cues to meaning
Predicting a speaker’s purpose by the context
Activating background knowledge
Guessing at meanings
Seeking clarification
Listening for the gist
Developing test-taking strategies for listening

10. Activity (Take a break!)
With a partner/group, consider some listening strategies. Briefly plan how you might teach these strategies to students.
Report back to the whole group on at least two of the activities.

11. Current issues in teaching oral skills
Conversational discourse
Teaching pronunciation
Accuracy and fluency
Affective factors
Interaction effect
Questions about intelligibility
Questions about what is “correct” speech

12. What makes speaking difficult?
The same things that make listening difficult:
Clustering
Redundancy
Reduced forms
Performance variables
Colloquial language
Rate of delivery
Stress, rhythm, and intonation
Interaction

13. Types of classroom performance
Imitative (this should be limited)–repetition drill
Intensive – practise a grammatical/ phonological feature
Responsive – to respond to a question
Transactional (dialogue) – to convey information
Interpersonal (dialogue) – to interact socially
Extensive – monologue (intermediate/advanced)

14. Do drills have a place?
Yes, BUT….

15. Guidelines for Drills Keep them short Keep them simple
Keep them snappy
Ensure that students know WHY they are doing the drill
Limit the drill to phonological/grammatical points
Ensure that they lead to a communicative goal
DON’T OVERUSE THEM
(Excessive use becomes poisonous)

16. Principles for Teaching Speaking
Focus on fluency and accuracy (depending on objective)
Use intrinsically motivating techniques
Use authentic language in meaningful contexts
Provide appropriate feedback and correction
Optimize the natural link between listening and speaking (and other skills)
Give students the opportunity to initiate oral communication.
Develop speaking strategies.

17. Sample activities for teaching conversation
Interviews
Guessing games
Jigsaw tasks
Ranking exercises
Discussions
Values clarification
Problem-solving activities
Role plays
Simulations

18. Should we teach pronunciation?
According to Wong (1987), “sounds are less crucial for understanding than the way they are organized” (as cited in Brown, 2008, p. 339).
Native speakers rely more on stress and intonation than accurate articulation of a particular sound.

19. Factors that affect pronunciation
Native language
Age
Exposure
Innate phonetic ability
Identity and language ego
Motivation/concern for good pronunciation

20. When and how should I correct errors?
Global errors
- affect meaning; hinder communication
- prevent listeners to comprehend some/all aspects of the conveyed message
Local errors
- do not prevent message from being understood
- minor violation of a segment of a sentence
Performance slip or competence error
- e.g. slip of the tongue, spoonerisms

21. Question to ponder on!
What is your attitude towards errors/mistakes (in speech/writing)?
To what extent has your teaching or learning been characterised by a progression of noticing and repairing?
How does your approach affect your pupils?

22. Common speaking strategies
Asking for clarification (what?)
Asking someone to repeat something
Using fillers
Using conversation maintenance cues (uh-huh, right, yeah, okay, hm)
Getting someone’s attention
Using paraphrases for structures one cannot produce
Appealing for assistance from the interlocutor
Using formulaic expressions
Using mime and nonverbal expressions

23. References
Brown, H.D. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (3rd ed). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.
Richard-Amato, P.A. (2003). Making it happen: From interactive to participatory language teaching theory and practice (3rd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.