Theoretical bases of teaching listening

b) Exercises which develop pupils' skills to understand a text under different conditions. Sound producing aids should be extensively used for developing pupils' auding, as pupils are supposed to understand not only their teacher's speech, but other people speaking the target language, including native speakers. Besides, sound producing aids allow the teacher to supply pupils with recorded speech different in speed and voice.

Before pupils are invited to listen to the text the teacher should ensure that all the words and grammar are familiar to the pupils otherwise language difficulties will prevent them from understanding the story. Thus, if there are some unfamiliar words, the teacher introduces them beforehand; he either puts them down on the blackboard with the mother tongue equivalents in the sequence they appear in the text, or he asks pupils to pronounce the words written on the blackboard if he plans a talk on the text afterwards, and pupils are to use these words in their speech [5, p. 87].

Then the teacher should direct his pupils' attention to what they are going to listen to. This is of great importance for experiments prove that if your aim is that your pupils should keep on talking on the text they have heard it stimulates their thinking and facilitates their comprehension of the text.

The following tasks may be suggested to draw pupils' attention to what they are auding:

- listen and try to grasp the main idea of the story. You will be asked questions later on;

- listen and try to grasp the details. You will have to name them;

- listen and make a plan of the story;

- listen to the story and try to finish it (think of the end of the story);

- listen to the story. You will ask questions on it afterwards;

- listen to the text. You will retell it afterwards;

- listen to the story. We shall have a discussion on it. Etc.

When pupils are ready to listen, the text can be read to them. If it is the teacher who reads or tells the story, he can help pupils to comprehend the text with gestures. If the text is recorded, a picture or pictures can facilitate comprehension. The pupils listen to the text once as is usually the case in real communication. Then the teacher checks their comprehension. If they have not understood it, they are told to listen to the text again. The teacher can use a dialogue to help pupils to understand the text after they have listened to the story for the first time, i.e., he may ask questions, make statements on the text for pupils to agree or reject them.

Skills in hearing must be built up gradually. The teacher begins with a story containing 3-4 sentences. He uses pictures, gestures to help pupils to understand it. Gradually he can take longer sections and faster speeds with less visual help and in more difficult language. The teacher must bear in mind that careful grading in all these ways is of the utmost importance. Texts, stories to be read or recorded should be interesting and fairly easy.

2.3 Language techniques in listening assessing proficiency

Listening is one of the more difficult aspects of the language arts to assess. It cannot be easily observed and can be measured only through inference. However, there are both informal and formal strategies and instruments that teachers can use to help them in their assessments. You can use post-listening activities to check comprehension, evaluate listening skills and use of listening strategies, and extend the knowledge gained to other contexts. A post-listening activity may relate to a pre-listening activity, such as predicting; may expand on the topic or the language of the listening text; or may transfer what has been learned to reading, speaking, or writing activities.

In order to provide authentic assessment of students' listening proficiency, a post-listening activity must reflect the real-life uses to which students might put information they have gained through listening. It must have a purpose other than assessment. It must require students to demonstrate their level of listening comprehension by completing some task. To develop authentic assessment activities, consider the type of response that listening to a particular selection would elicit in a non-classroom situation. For example, after listening to a weather report one might decide what to wear the next day; after listening to a set of instructions, one might repeat them to someone else; after watching and listening to a play or video, one might discuss the story line with friends.

Use this response type as a base for selecting appropriate post-listening tasks. You can then develop a checklist or rubric that will allow you to evaluate each student's comprehension of specific parts of the aural text. (See Assessing Learning for more on checklists and rubrics.). For example, for listening practice you have students listen to a weather report. Their purpose for listening is to be able to advise a friend what to wear the next day. As a post-listening activity, you ask students to select appropriate items of clothing from a collection you have assembled, or write a note telling the friend what to wear, or provide oral advice to another student (who has not heard the weather report). To evaluate listening comprehension, you use a checklist containing specific features of the forecast, marking those that are reflected in the student's clothing recommendations.

Good listening lessons go beyond the listening task itself with related activities before and after the listening. Here is the basic structure:

Before Listening

Prepare your learners by introducing the topic and finding out what they already know about it. A good way to do this is to have a brainstorming session and some discussion questions related to the topic. Then provide any necessary background information and new vocabulary they will need for the listening activity. (See Appendix A).

During Listening

Be specific about what students need to listen for. They can listen for selective details or general content, or for an emotional tone such as happy, surprised, or angry. If they are not marking answers or otherwise responding while listening, tell them ahead of time what will be required afterward. (See Appendix A).

After Listening

Finish with an activity to extend the topic and help students remember new vocabulary. This could be a discussion group, craft project, writing task, game, etc. The following ideas will help make our listening activities successful. (See Appendix A).

Noise Reduce distractions and noise during the listening segment. You may need to close doors or windows or ask children in the room to be quiet for a few minutes.

Equipment If you are using a cassette player, make sure it produces acceptable sound quality. A counter on the machine will aid tremendously in cueing up tapes. Bring extra batteries or an extension cord with you.

Repetition Read or play the text a total of 2-3 times. Tell students in advance you will repeat it. This will reduce their anxiety about not catching it all the first time. You can also ask them to listen for different information each time through.

Content Unless your text is merely a list of items, talk about the content as well as specific language used. The material should be interesting and appropriate for your class level in topic, speed, and vocabulary. You may need to explain reductions (like 'gonna' for 'going to') and fillers (like 'um' or 'uh-huh').

Recording Your Own Tape

Write appropriate text (or use something from your textbook) and have another English speaker read it onto tape. Copy the recording three times so you don't need to rewind. The reader should not simply read three times, because students want to hear exact repetition of the pronunciation, intonation, and pace, not just the words.

Video You can play a video clip with the sound off and ask students to make predictions about what dialog is taking place. Then play it again with sound and discuss why they were right or wrong in their predictions. You can also play the sound without the video first, and show the video after students have guessed what is going on.

Homework Give students a listening task to do between classes. Encourage them to listen to public announcements in airports, bus stations, supermarkets, etc. and try to write down what they heard. Tell them the telephone number of a cinema and ask them to write down the playing times of a specific movie. Give them a tape recording of yourself with questions, dictation, or a worksheet to complete. When a word ends in a consonant sound and the next word starts with a vowel the words link together. The ending consonant "jumps over" to the next word. (see Appendix A).

This is one of the trickiest problems when listening to English. A basic listening skill is being able to pick out words, being able to understand words as words; being able to understand where the word boundaries are; where words start and finish. Liaison, the way English links together makes this tough.

The Weak Vowel. The Central Vowel

This is the most important vowel you can teach your students. The "upside down e" in their dictionaries. This is the central vowel. (see Appendix B(1)). Second language learners often have difficulty with English weak vowels. Although some languages do have a system of weakening vowels, many languages do not. Students need to be taught about weak vowels. Many listening classes don't teach students about the central vowel. And students need to understand this to understand English!!

Sometimes when two consonant sounds come together, one at the end of one word and one at the beginning of another. They mix to form a new sound. (see Appendix B(2)). The "d" and the "y" mix together and make a new sound that sounds like a "j" sound. The sentence sounds like: (see Appendix B(3))

Words can disappear

Not only do sounds disappear but often entire words are not said. (see Appendix B(4). In casual speech auxiliary verbs in questions are often not enunciated. In casual speech the above might be spoken as: You got the time? This is called ellipsis and it's a common feature of casual speech. Perhaps if you were chatting with Queen Elizabeth you might not speak like this. However the average speaker certainly talks like this, especially if chatting with friends.

"Have you got the time?" becomes "Got the time?"

"Did you see her last night?" becomes "You see 'er las' nigh'. "

You might think this is lazy English, or perhaps even bad English. But it's not. It's just plain old simple natural English. And our students need to know. Teach your students about ellipsis.

Helping Sounds

When a word ends in a vowel and the next word starts with a vowel, a "helping sound" comes between them so they are easier to say (see Appendix B(5)). English uses helping sounds, usually a y (/j/), w or r . These sounds come between vowel sounds at word boundaries.

"Sea Otter" sounds like "Sea Yotter" "No agreement" sounds like "No wagreement" "Canada is" sounds like "Canada ris" (but this last one is more common with British English)

Intonation drops when we finish a speaking turn.

Falling tones tell the listener that the speaker has finished (see Appendix B(6)). In the first example, intonation goes up, which signals that the speaker wishes to continue. In the second sentence, intonation goes down signaling that the speaker is giving up their turn.

You don't need to hear/understand every word being spoken. We need to tell our students this! Prominent sentence stress signals that information is new or pertinent. Knowledge of stress and intonation prominence helps your students listen. Have students listen for the stressed words. These are the words with important meaning. Students do NOT have to hear and understand all the words in a sentence to understand. Say I listen to the following sentence, "They go to the lake at the end of the summer". But say I only hear (see Appendix B(7)). I can nonetheless understand the message being spoken. Teach your students about stress and prominence. And encourage your students to guess what they don't catch. Knowledge of how important words and grammar words are actually spoken will help. Your students need to know. Use your knowledge of grammar to guess what you don't hear. Grammar helps us guess what we don't hear clearly. Once students have been taught about the schwa, (the weak or central vowel), they should next be taught to use their understanding of grammar to help them guess. It is impossible to hear clearly everything that is said, because often natural speech is NOT clearly enunciated.

When our students listen to English there are many holes, many places where they don't know what's being said. These holes are usually the grammar words, the function words that are pronounced weakly. (see Appendix B(8)).

In the above, the students hear clearly the meaning words, (the verbs, adjectives, nouns). But the middle part is not enunciated clearly. Well in the above sentence we know it's a question because it starts with "where", so we can guess what's missing easily. We're missing an auxiliary verb and a pronoun. Since it's "last night", we know we've got a past tense auxiliary. Students can easily guess what's missing here. (see Appendix B(9)).

To make listening more interesting and effective you can use a different interesting computer program connected with the

Internet. Nowadays there are a lot of special sites including interesting and useful programs aimed at developing students' listening skills. (see Appendix C )

One of the effective methods of teaching listening is using games and songs. Following activities also are given in the Internet recourses. For example, MED-EL's online resource center. They have set up this service to provide parents, therapists, and teachers with ideas for follow-up activities that can be used at home, in the clinic, or in the classroom. These ideas are not only useful, but also can be fun for children.

The online game introduces the song, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" using 8 animals - sheep, cow, cat, pig, snake, mouse, dog, and donkey and the noises associated with each of the animals. For example, you could imitate an animal's sound rather than use the words. Songs are a very important part of early childhood learning, and "Old MacDonald" is one that most children love. (see Appendix D)

It is important to promote and motivate students to understand the foreign language comprehension. Improving the process of teaching listening has all preconditions: techniques in modern times are developing rapidly, and teachers have more opportunities to use different types of technical training.



Conclusion

The term "auding" became basic for this research. Auding is the process of hearing, recognizing, and interpreting spoken language. It should take a very important part in the very beginning of learning foreign language.

In this course paper we consider the theoretical and practical value of the listening techniques, and their role in developing students' listening skills.

In the theoretical part the most interesting and useful listening techniques have been listed. In this course paper was investigated the process of listening, how to teach it as one of the most difficult and the most important types of speech activity, the ways to overcome the difficulties that students faced by. A special place in this course paper has been given teaching listening through various exercises and online programs, and the most interesting approaches to teaching in-depth listening.

Practical part presents different types of activities which can help the teacher to organize listening activities at the English lesson. A lot of different techniques which help students to improve their listening skills have been studied.

The term "auding" became basic for this research. Auding is the process of hearing, recognizing, and interpreting spoken language. It should take a very important part in the very beginning of learning foreign language.

We have outlined the main reasons for teaching listening comprehension in a foreign language. It is now widely accepted that oral communication plays a vital role in second language teaching for it provides an exposure to language which is a fundamental requirement for the learner. Progress in listening guarantees a basis for development of other language skills. Spoken language provides a means of interaction where participation is a significant component of the listening program.

The lesson theme should be presented in the form of the text, game, and various pictures or with the help of video lessons. The aim of listening activities is to achieve students' desire to learn to listen to speech and understand the hearing, and to make them feel their capabilities, their progress. Listening is the basis of communication; it begins with the mastery of oral communication.

We presented the classification of listening activities which has become basic for the present course paper:

In showing a considerable variety of listening activities we have explored some of the many ways to help students acquire the confidence to use their skills for self-expression in language situations. Different activities and procedures provide the development of the listening for communicative tasks and for extracting general or certain specific points in the discourse.

We have stressed the importance of careful selection of practice material for testing listening skills of the learners. It is necessary to construct different types of practical exercises for students to experience language. Listening comprehension tests present an effective method for developing listening abilities.

As a result of the present course paper we accomplished the set aims:

- we studied listening as the ability to identify and understand speech;

- considered the most common listening comprehension problems;

- we found the most appropriate solutions to the listening comprehension problems;

- distinguished types of listening activities;

- planned a lesson based on the most effective listening comprehension strategies.

Listening possession allows a person to understand what he is told and respond what has been said, helps to explain his answer to an opponent, which is the basis of speech. Some ways of avoiding mistakes and some up-to-date techniques while developing listening skills have been pointed out. Thus we can say that the given aims were achieved. A technique in modern time is developing rapidly, and the teachers have more opportunities to use various kinds of technical training

The present course paper is an attempt to systematize teaching listening comprehension strategies and techniques, to reveal the most frequent difficulties with listening from students' points of view and to model a lesson taking into account these details.

References

1. Flowerdew, J. and Miller, L. Student perceptions, problems and strategies in second language lecture comprehension, Boston, 1996 - 60-80pp.

2. Brown, G. Listening to Spoken English. London, 1992 - 25-49pp.

3. Jack C. R.Teaching listening and speaking from theory to practice, 2008-1-41pp.

5. Cohen, L & Manim, L. Research methods in Education. London, 1998 - 117-125pp.

6. Cross, D. Teach English. Oxford, 1998 - 36 - 45pp.

7. Berman, M. Listening strategy guide. NY, 2003-18-36pp.

8. Goh,C. Metacognitive awareness and second language listeners. NY, 1998, 5-9pp.

9. Gass, S.M. (1988). Integrating research areas: A framework for second language studies. Applied Linguistics, 9, 198-217.

10. Hedge, T. Teaching and Learning in the language classroom. Oxford, 2001 - 25-35pp.

11. Herron, C. and Seay, I. The effect of authentic aural texts on student listening comprehension in the foreign language classroom. NY, 2003, 487pp.

12. Higgins, J.M.D. Facilitating listening in second language classrooms through the manipulation of temporal variables. Vancouver, 2001, 12-25 pp.

13 C. Farell. Listening comprehension in the ESL classroom. NY, 2007-116-132pp.

14. Underwood M. Teaching listening. 1990 - 120-125pp

15. Weir, C & Robert, J. Evaluation in ELT. Oxford, 1998 - 45-69pp.

16. Mendelsohn, D.J., & Rubin, J. (1995). A guide for the teaching of second language listening. San Diego, CA: Dominie Press.

17. Wenden, A. What do second language learners know about their language learning? London, 1998 - 186-205pp.

18. Willis, J. Teaching English through English. London, 1998 - 201-220pp.

19. Yagang, F. Listening: Problems and solutions. Washington, DC, 1994 - 174-178pp.

20. http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/eslvideo/ 11.11.2011

21. Richards, J.C. (1983). Listening comprehension: Approach, design, procedure. TESOL Quarterly, 17, 219-240.

22. Dunkel, P. A. Listening in the native and second language. 2001 - 115-118pp.

23. Rubin. J. Listening comprehension problems. 1990 - 17-32pp.

24. Feyten M.C. Power of listening activity. 1998 - 38-52pp.

25.http://ebookbrowse.com/bcp-2-15-developing-listening-skills-activity-doc-d303883991

26. http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/call/negquest.html

27. http://www.medel.com/int/show4/index/id/255/title/SoundScape



Appendix A

Dear Mom and Dad

Level

Topic:

Type:

Speakers:

Time:

Upper intermediate

Narration (story)

Dialogue

One man

02.16

I. Pre-Listening Exercises

1. In this story, a young man describes his mishaps (accidents), which occurred while he was at summer camp. Make a list of possible problems that might have happened to him before you start the listening.

II. Listening Exercises

After listening

1) What does Brad have to do before he eats breakfast?

A. Clean his sleeping quarters

B. Go down to the stream to get some water

C. Feed the rooster and the other animals

2. What happened to Brad when he went fishing?

A. A tree branch fell on him.

B. He lost his fishing pole.

C. He slipped and lost one of his shoes.

3. What did he eat for dinner?

A. Steak

B. Hotdogs

C. Beans

4. What was Brad doing when he got lost in the forest?

A. He was running away from a bear.

B. He was searching for wood.

C. He was wondering around looking for the cabin.

5. How did Brad like summer camp?

A. He had a great time.

B. It was okay.

C. He didn't have fun.

2) Listen to the conversation again as you read the Quiz Script

III. Post-Listening Exercises

1. Now retell the story from several points of view in their own words (e.g., the young man, the parents, one of the counselors at camp, etc.).

OR

2. The script can be given to the students with some words missing so that they have to complete the sentences with the newly learned vocabulary

Script.

Dear Mom and Dad,

This is my fifth day at summer camp. Life in the great outdoors isn't exactly what I expected, but I'm not starving . . . yet . . . so don't worry about me.

I guess I should tell you about what I do every day. First, everyone has to get up at 5:30 A.M. They have this silly old rooster named Harry who loves to wake us up. Next, we have to make our beds and tidy up the cabin before our camp counselor, Jeff, comes to inspect the place.

Then, we have breakfast around 6:30 A.M. After that, we have some free time, so I've been going down to the nearby stream to fish for a couple of hours. But yesterday, the only thing I caught was an old shoe and a tree branch. Great catch, huh? Then when I was trying to swat a mosquito buzzing around my head, I slipped and fell in the stream and lost my fishing pole. That ended my fishing career.

Well, in the afternoon, there are different activities we can choose from like archery, horseback riding, and hiking. I thought archery would be the sport for me until I shot an arrow through Jeff's pant leg. As you can imagine, I haven't been invited back since.

In the evening, everyone is assigned a different chore to get dinner ready. Yesterday, I was in charge of cooking the hotdogs, but I accidentally dropped them in the fire, so we had to settle for beans instead. The other kids are always razzing me about it.

At night, we sit around a campfire in front of the cabin, sing songs, and tell ghost stories. That's usually fun, but one night while trying to find more sticks for the fire, I got all turned around and got lost. After about an hour of wandering aimlessly in the forest, I finally found my way back, but no one seemed to have realized what had happened, thinking that I just had gone to bed. A bear or wolf could have eaten me and no one would have known it. I was so beat I just crashed . . . out like a light.

Well, today is another day and tomorrow I go home . . . and not a bit too soon. I've learned that camping is just not for me.

Love,

Brad

Key Vocabulary

Archery (noun): the sport of shooting arrows with a bow

Beat (noun): very tired

Chore (noun): a small job

Crash (verb): to go sleep

Inspect (verb): to check

Out like a light (idiom): fall asleep very quickly, like turning off a light

Settle (verb): accept something less than you wanted

Swat (verb): to hit an insect with the purpose of killing it

Tidy up (verb): clean up or organize



Appendix B

1)

So when students hear this simple sentence, what they hear is:

2)

3)



4)

5)

Thus in natural conversation this would sound like:

6)

7)



8)

9)



Appendix C

Telephone conversation: Making a hotel reservation.

Prepare a Post-listening task for the following activity.

Objective: To Listen for general understanding.

Audio Script

Hotel Clerk: Hello. Sunnyside Inn. May I help you?

Man: Yes, I'd like to reserve a room for two on the 21st of March.

Hotel Clerk: Okay. Let me check our books here for a moment. The 21st of May, right?

Man: No. March, not May.

Hotel Clerk: Oh, sorry. Let me see here. Hmmm.

Man: Are you all booked that night?

Hotel Clerk: Well, we do have one suite available, complete with a kitchenette and a sauna bath. And the view of the city is great, too.

Man: How much is that?

Hotel Clerk: It's only $200 dollars, plus a 10% room tax.

Man: Oh, that's a little too expensive for me. Do you have a cheaper room available either on the 20th or the 22nd?

Hotel Clerk: Well, would you like a smoking or a non-smoking room?

Man: Non-smoking, please.

Hotel Clerk: Okay, we do have a few rooms available on the 20th; we're full on the 22nd, unless you want a smoking room.

Man: Well, how much is the non-smoking room on the 20th?

Hotel Clerk: $80 dollars, plus the 10% room tax.

Man: Okay, that'll be fine.

Hotel Clerk: All right. Could I have your name, please?

Man: Yes. Bob Maexner.

Hotel Clerk: How do you spell your last name, Mr. Maexner?

Man: M-A-E-X-N-E-R.

Hotel Clerk: Okay, Mr. Maexner, we look forward to seeing you on March 20th.

Man: Okay. Goodbye.



Appendix D

Old MacDonald

Here are some different activities to do with children at home or in the classroom.

Sing one of the verses and then ask the child to pick up the appropriate animal card. Even better, ask him to sing along with you the moment he recognizes the correct animal. If there are other children in the class or family, think about having a "friendly competition."

Put the cards in front of the children and start to sing one of the verses of "Old MacDonald." Who is able to point to or pick up the appropriate card first? Don't stop after you've sung "... and on that farm he had a DOG," for example, but keep going with "E I E I O. With a woof - woof here, etc.," and encourage the children to join in. The child with the most cards wins!

Here is an activity to use with two sets of cards from the Old MacDonald activity. Distribute one set of the cards to the children. The number each child receives will depend on the number of children involved in the activity. Keep the second set of cards for yourself. Shuffle your set of cards and then pick the top card and sing the appropriate verse. The child who has the correct card has to place it face up on the table. The first child to have all his cards on the table wins!

If at all possible, it's always a good idea to have more than one singer. At home or at school, female and male singers can take turns singing the songs, but they should not sing together as that might be quite difficult at first. Brothers and sisters can also join in as singers. Try to make the activities as fun as possible for everyone.

There are many other children's songs related to farms and animals, which can be used for similar activities. Try to build up a series of songs that can be sung together. Here are some songs that might be suitable. If you don't know the songs or their tunes, search for them online using Google or another search engine.



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