STATE UNIVERSITY OF TETOVA

FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

TITLE:

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening

-DIPLOMA THESIS-

STUDENT: MENTOR:

Armen Neziri Doc.dr.Lulzime Kamberi

Tetova, 2014

Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………...……………………………………...……5

Literary review…………………………………………………………………………….6

Language teaching.................................................................................................................10

Learning languages...............................................................................................................12

What is a foreign language?..................................................................................................16

Methodology……………………………………………………………………………….18

Research question ………………………………………………………………………..22

Strategies for developing listening skills…………………………………………………..23

Goals and techniques for teaching listening……………………………………………..25

Using Textbook Listening Activities ……………………………….…………………….28

Developing listening activities…………..…………………………………………………29

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….34

Reference…………………………………………………………………………………….35

2

Abstract

Recently teachers are devoting more attention to listening as one of the basic skills used in

the teaching process in the study of foreign languages. This attention is due to the

introduction of communicative language teaching and the use of ICT in the teaching process.

The experiences of many teachers show that listening improves the pronunciation and the

conversational skills of the students. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the strategies and

techniques that would help improve students’ listening comprehension.

The thesis also focuses on the process of how languages are learnt and taught and why is

important to learn foreign languages. In the methodology part I’ve shared a personal

experience regarding the teaching process, and I’ve also mentioned some of the most

commonly used methods. The goals and techniques for teaching listening are also elaborated

in detail.

Key words

Listening strategies, learning styles, active learning, listening activities, listening process

3

Rezime

Во последно време, наставниците се повеќе посветуваат внимание на слушањето како

една од основните вештини кои се користат во процесот на наставата при

изучувањето на странските јазици. Ова внимание се должи на воведувањето на

комуникативниот пристап во наставата и употребата на ИКТ во наставниот процес.

Искуствата на многу наставници покажуваат дека слушање го подобрува изговорот и

разговорните вештини на учениците. Целта на овој труд е да се анализираат

стратегиите и техники кои ќе помогнат и подобрат вештината слушање.

Тезата, исто така, се фокусира на процесот на тоа како јазиците треба да се учат и

предаваат, како и зошто е важно да се изучуваат странските јазици. Во делот на

методологијата споделив лично искуство во однос на процесот на учење, исто така ги

споменав некои од најчесто користените методи. Целите и техниките за подобрување

на слуховната способност се исто така разработени во детали.

Kлучни зборови

Стратегии на слушање, стилови на учење, активно учење, слуховни активности, процес

на слушање

4

I.Introduction

1Listening plays an important role in communication as it is said that, of the total time spent

on communicating, listening takes up 40-50%; speaking, 25-30%; reading, 11-16%; and

writing, about 9% (Mendelsohn, 1994). Although the teaching of listening comprehension

has long been somewhat neglected and poorly taught aspect of English in many EFL

programs”(Mendelsohn, 1994, p. 9), listening is now regarded as much more important in

both EFL classrooms and SLA research. Listening involves an active process of deciphering

and constructing meaning from both verbal and non-verbal messages (Nunan, 1998).

The need for competence in listening in EFL English language learners is increasing, so that

listening teaching has attracted considerable attention. Unfortunately, the teaching of

listening skills is still neglected in the English language teaching process. EFL learners have

serious problems in English listening comprehension due to the fact that universities pay

more attention to English grammar, reading and vocabulary. Listening and speaking skills are

not important parts of many course books or curricula and teachers do not seem to pay

attention to these skills while designing their lessons EFL English language learners have

limited listening comprehension. Listening levels of learners are different from each other,

because listening is affected by crucial factors. The most important factors that should be

emphasized are: the significance of listening, the study of listening teaching theory and use of

the most advanced listening teaching methods.

In many English language classes, grammar - translation method is used for teaching. This

method has been found inadequate to the demands for producing efficient English speakers

and listeners. So a new teaching method should be used to meet the needs of students. This

new method is called communicative approach. English must be taught as a tool for

communication. It is now widely accepted that students‘ listening ability must be at the core

of teaching practice, and it is the area in which teachers need to concentrate their own efforts

to improve their teaching. This is a significant challenge for English teachers; however, it is

1 http://ojs.academypublisher.com/5

crucial in the development of English language communicative competence. The purpose of

this approach is to improve the student’s English overall linguistic capability and oral and

aural competence. The researchers attempt to discuss the definition of listening, importance

of listening. Then, they review the process of listening comprehension, strategies of listening

comprehension. Analysis of listening comprehension problems is reviewed. Then, teaching

methods for listening comprehension and teaching listening activities will be discussed.

Finally, general principles in teaching listening comprehension are discussed. Findings of this

study will be beneficial to EFL learners to improve their English language listening

comprehension ability.

II.Literature review

1. Teaching and Learning Languages

In this section we’ll focus on the process of how languages are learnt and taught. The main

concentration will be on this issues:

- How people learn languages

- Factors which influence upon people’s learning

- Acquisition vs. learning

How people learn languages?

In this part we will mostly focus our attention on two types of learning: Active learning and

‘Scaffolded’ learning.

-What is Active Learning?

Learning is an active process, hence ‘active learning’ simply means to learn actively. This is

easy to be understood theoretically but how to implement it is the most difficult part. Active

learning can be applied to any learning that we do, not just language learning. While learning

actively ‘’we do not simply ‘’soak up’’ information as a sponge soaks up water’’. 2But we

try to understand the new information by trying to relate it what we already know. So we try

2 Teaching and Learning English, OU Toolkit, UK, 20006

to fit new knowledge into what is already known, for e.g. when we hear a new word in

English, we firstly try to relate it to words in English or in our mother tongue that we already

know.

So at the very first moment we hear an English word

- We try to see if there is a similarity to this word in our tongue as: dialogue,

political party, opinion, risk, activity, article, lecture, airport, etc.

- Then we try to see if it contains an English word that we already know as:

triangle – (angle), home-made (home and make), sea-port (port), participate –

(take part), armchair (arm- chair), etc. and we use them to help guess the

meaning of the new words.

- or we try to look at other word around it in the text, and use the meanings of

words we do understand to help make sense of the new word. Thus we make

use of understanding the meaning of a certain unknown word or phrase

through context.

In each of the points mentioned above we are actively doing something to relate the new

word and new knowledge to our existing knowledge, thus putting into practice in a way ‘

active learning’.

What is ‘’Scaffolded ‘’ learning ?

This can be better understood through the assumptions of Prof. Neil Mercer ( Open

University, UK), who says :

“ Often there is a very big gap between what learners already know and the new knowledge

they are expected to gain. They may find it hard to make the connections, no matter how

“active” they are. Good teaching should aim help learners to bridge this gap. One of the ways

in which teachers can help students is by providing carefully designed support for the

learning process. This support is sometimes described as “scaffolding”, the teacher supports

the efforts of the student, guiding them in the right direction, until the knowledge and

understanding they built is strong enough for the “scaffolding” to be taken away.3

Reading carefully what Prof. Mercer recommends , we may sum up that “scaffolded”

learning is that type of learning that helps learners to accumulate new knowledge portion by

portion, step by step, stage by stage, in small chunks, thus making easier for the learners to

fill in the gap between what learners already know and the new information.

Thus “Scaffolded learning will involve the teacher in :

3 Neil Mercer, “Scaffolding” Learning in the classroom, OU, UK, 19927

- designing activities which break down the learning task into manageable

stages

- designing activities that are based on the previous knowledge, until eventually

learners manage to bridge the gap between their existing knowledge and the

new

- helping the learners see how the knowledge they already have is useful for

making sense of the new knowledge

- deciding when learners are ready to move on to the next stage.

An understanding of the active nature of learning and of the principles of scaffolding the

learning process, can influence our general approach to teaching in a number of ways and

will help us to improve our learning and teaching process. Whatever activities our learners

are involved in, we should encourage them to think about what they are doing. At the end of

this process we should reach to that point to make our learners able to act meaningfully,

consciously and independently without expecting the teacher to explain everything.4Implementing this kind of learning we help our learners to learn better and more easily. At

the same time we must be careful to move from one stage to another, from what our learners

know, towards the new knowledge, thus showing them the way of learning to be followed.

What factors influence upon the way we learn languages ?

Before examining the factors that influence language learning, let us see some attitudes to

language learning. Through brainstorming the teacher will try to generate as many ideas as

possible from the students about the ways and factors that influence language learning. At

the same time the teacher will add some of his/her ideas, trying to lead the discussion where

he/she wants to. The teacher might pose some questions to enhance discussion, as : How do

people behave towards language learning? How do individuals learn a language? Which is

the easiest way to learn a language according to your opinion? Who learns better and faster?

etc. The teacher or one of the students will write the generated ideas on the blackboard. Some

of them might be:

1. Children learn foreign languages more easily than adults do. What about teenagers ?

2. Everyone can learn a foreign language

3. There are people who are constraint, they cannot start speaking in a FL until they can

say things correctly.

4 Teaching and Learning English, OU, UK, 20008

4. Some people find it easier than some others do to learn a language.

5. Some people learn a language better by being immersed where the new language is

spoken all the time.

6. Some need to practice speaking a lot in order to a FL

7. Some others need to practice reading and writing a lot in order to learn language.

8. Some learn better by speaking things.

9. Some others think that learning grammar is most important in learning FL.

10. Students may add others…

After having written these suggestions on the blackboard, the teacher and the students may

start discussions about them. To help discussion the teacher may ask the students: How many

of the students think that that the first, second… idea is absolutely true? Why? Which of the

ideas written on the blackboard are partly true? Why? Which is mostly a good way of

learning a language? Which are true and which are untrue? Why? etc.

So these questions may generate to a discussion based on the written ideas on the blackboard.

The first statement rises a lot of controversy opinions and the students may give their pros

and cons. Recent research has shown that teenagers are often the most successful language

learners. The second and the fourth might be absolutely true.

The fifth, the sixth, the seventh and eight are good ways of learning a language. By using the

language all the time in our daily life, a lot of practice makes a lot of progress.

Some may be true, some not. The truth depends on what kinds of learners are involved and

what kind of competence they are trying to develop, it also depends on age, and aims of

learning.

The third assumption contradicts the principle of active learning. Students should be

encouraged to use English to try to communicate as soon they begin learning it. This can be

very motivating. Students may add other opinions as well.

While discussing the above ideas and attitudes, the discussion may lead naturally to the

factors that promote or inhibit to some extend learning a language. As we said above some

people learn languages more easily than others do. Studies have shown that there are various

factors for this, being them psychological, social, cultural and educational.5

Acquisition vs. Learning

5 Teaching and Learning English, OU, UK, 20009

A lot of discussion has been made held on defining the distinction between acquiring a

language and learning a language, mostly supported by the American scholar Steven

Krashen. He characterizes acquisition as “a subconscious process, which results only

“knowing” about a language. Acquiring a language is more successful and longer lasting than

learning”.6

He suggests that foreign language learning needs to be more like the child’s acquisition of his

native language,7 that is, the learners should learn a foreign language as the children learn

their mother tongue.

The gradual ability of a child to use the language is the result of many subconscious

processes, he hears a lot and he is never consciously “taught”. These processes are based on

the experiences in which the child began to acquire, without conscious by setting out to do so

and naturally comes the ability to enter linguistically into the communication.

1.1 Language teaching

8Language education may take place as a general school subject or in a specialized language

school. There are many methods of teaching languages. Some have fallen into relative

obscurity and others are widely used; still others have a small following, but offer useful

insights.

While sometimes confused, the terms "approach", "method" and "technique" are hierarchical

concepts.

An approach is a set of assumptions about the nature of language and language learning, but

does not involve procedure or provide any details about how such assumptions should be

implemented into the classroom setting. Such can be related to second language acquisition

theory.

6 Steven Krashen, “Acquiring a Second Language”, WLE, 1982

7 Steven Krashen, “Acquiring a Second Language”, WLE, 1982

8 http://www.rusnauka.com/28_PRNT_2011/Philologia/1_94042.doc.htm10

There are three principal "approaches":

1. The structural view treats language as a system of structurally related elements to

code meaning (e.g. grammar).

2. The functional view sees language as a vehicle to express or accomplish a certain

function, such as requesting something.

3. The interactive view sees language as a vehicle for the creation and maintenance of

social relations, focusing on patterns of moves, acts, negotiation and interaction found

in conversational exchanges. This approach has been fairly dominant since the 1980s.

A method is a plan for presenting the language material to be learned, and should be based

upon a selected approach. In order for an approach to be translated into a method, an

instructional system must be designed considering the objectives of the teaching/learning,

how the content is to be selected and organized, the types of tasks to be performed, the roles

of students, and the roles of teachers.

1. Examples of structural methods are grammar translation and the audio-lingual

method.

2. Examples of functional methods include the oral approach / situational language

teaching.

3. Examples of interactive methods include the direct method, the series method,

communicative language teaching, language immersion, the Silent Way,

Suggestopedia, the Natural Approach, Total Physical Response, Teaching Proficiency

through Reading and Storytelling and Dogme language teaching.

A technique (or strategy) is a very specific, concrete stratagem or trick designed to

accomplish an immediate objective. Such are derived from the controlling method, and less

directly, from the approach.

11

1.2 Learning Languages

9This section contains a collection of advice, suggestions, tips and techniques for learning

languages. Many of these tips, perhaps with some minor modifications, also apply to learning

others skills, such as music.

Why should I learn a language?

Learning a foreign language takes time and dedication. The reasons below may help to

convince you to take the plunge, if such persuasion is needed. Some reasons are practical,

some aspirational, some intellectual and others sentimental, but whatever your reasons,

having a clear idea of why you're learning a language can help to motivate you in your

studies.

The more languages you know, the more you are human. (Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk)

Emigration

10When you move to a different country or region, learning the local language will help you

to communicate and integrate with the local community. Even if many of the locals speak

your language, for example if your L1 is English and you move to the Netherlands, it's still

worth your while learning the local language. Doing so will demonstrate your interest in and

commitment to the new country.

Family and friends

If your partner, in-laws, relatives or friends speak a different language, learning that language

will help you to communicate with them. It can also give you a better understanding of their

culture and way of thinking.

Work91 http://www.omniglot.com/language/

10 http://www.omniglot.com/language/index.htm12

If your work involves regular contact with speakers of foreign languages, being able to talk to

them in their own languages will help you to communicate with them. It may also help you to

make sales and to negotiate and secure contracts. Knowledge of foreign languages may also

increase your chances of finding a new job, getting a promotion or a transfer overseas, or of

going on foreign business trips.

Many English-speaking business people don't bother to learn other languages because they

believe that most of the people they do business with in foreign countries can speak English,

and if they don't speak English, interpreters can be used. The lack of foreign language

knowledge puts the English speakers at a disadvantage. In meetings, for example, the people

on the other side can discuss things amongst themselves in their own language without the

English speakers understanding, and using interpreters slows everything down. In any

socialising after the meetings, the locals will probably feel more comfortable using their own

language rather than English.

Study or research

11You may find that information about subjects you're interested in is published mainly in a

foreign language. Learning that language will give you access to the material and enable you

to communicate with fellow students and researchers in the field.

Language is the archives of history.

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Travel

Many English speakers seem to believe that wherever you go on holiday you can get by

speaking English, so there's no point in learning any other languages. If people don't

understand you all you have to do is speak slowly and turn up the volume. You can more or

less get away with this, as long as you stick to popular tourist resorts and hotels where you

can usually find someone who speaks English. However, if you want to venture beyond such

11 http://www.omniglot.com/language/index.htm13

places, to get to know the locals, to read signs, menus, etc, knowing the local language is

necessary.

Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all

the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in

foreign languages.

(Dave Barry)

A basic ability in a foreign language will help you to 'get by', i.e. to order food and drink, find

your way around, buy tickets, etc. If you have a more advanced knowledge of the language,

you can have real conversations with the people you meet, which can be very interesting and

will add a new dimension to your holiday.

The limits of my language are the limits of my universe.

(Ludwig Wittgenstein)

Studying abroad

If you plan to study at a foreign university, college or school, you'll need a good knowledge

of the local language, unless the course you want to study is taught through the medium of

your L1. Your institution will probably provide preparatory courses to improve your

language skills and continuing support throughout your main course.

Secret communication

12If you and some of your relatives, friends or colleagues speak a language that few people

understand, you can talk freely in public without fear of anyone eavesdropping, and/or you

can keep any written material secret. Speakers of such Native American languages as Navajo,

Choctaw and Cheyenne served as radio operators, know as Code Talkers, to keep

12 http://www.omniglot.com/language/index.htm14

communications secret during both World Wars. Welsh speakers played a similar role during

the Bosnian War.

Required course

You may be required to study a particular language at school, college or university.

Getting in touch with your roots

If your family spoke a particular language in the past you might want to learn it and possibly

teach it to your children. It could also be useful if you are researching your family tree and

some of the documents you find are written in a language foreign to you.

What's the best way to study?

After choosing a language, you can start thinking about how you're going to study it. For

popular languages like French and Spanish, there's a wealth of materials available. For lesser-

studied languages, the choice can be more limited. If courses are available in your area, it

might help you to attend them, or you may prefer to study on your own, or to have individual

lessons.

Learning pronunciation

Learning the pronunciation of a language is a very important part of your studies. It doesn't

matter so much if you just want to read and/or write the language, but if you want to speak a

language well, pay particular attention to the pronunciation and review it regularly.

15

Learning vocabulary

Building up your vocabulary in a foreign language can take many years. Learning words in

context from written and spoken material is probably the most effective way to do this. You

could also try learning words in a more systematic way - perhaps a certain number of words

every day.

Learning grammar

Familiarity with the grammar of a language enables you to understand it, and also to

construct your own phrases and sentences. It's not essential to know all the grammatical

terminology or to understand why words change, as long as you're able to apply to relevant

changes when necessary.

1.3 What is a Foreign Language (FL)?

13A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not

spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e., an English speaker living in Japan

can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her. These two characterisations do not

exhaust the possible definitions, however, and the label is occasionally applied in ways that

are variously misleading or factually inaccurate.

Some children learn more than one language from birth or from a very young age: they are

bilingual or multilingual. These children can be said to have two, three or more mother

tongues: neither language is foreign to that child, even if one language is a foreign language

for the vast majority of people in the child's birth country. For example, a child learning

English from his English father and Japanese at school in Japan can speak both English and

Japanese, but neither is a foreign language to him.

Foreign language education and ability

13 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language16

14Most schools around the world teach at least one foreign language. By 1998 nearly all

pupils in Europe studied at least one foreign language as part of their compulsory education,

the only exception being Ireland, where primary and secondary schoolchildren learn both

Irish and English, but neither is considered a foreign language (although Irish pupils do study

a third European language). On average in Europe, at the start of foreign language teaching,

learners have lessons for three to four hours a week. Compulsory lessons in a foreign

language normally start at the end of primary school or the start of secondary school. In

Luxembourg, Norway and Malta, however, the first foreign language is studied at age six,

and in Flanders at age 10. In Wales, all children are taught Welsh from the first year of

primary school. The Welsh language is also compulsory up to the age of 16.

In some countries, learners have lessons taken entirely in a foreign language: for example,

more than half of European countries with a minority/regional language community use

partial immersion to teach both the minority and the state language.

In 1995, the European Commission's White Paper on Education and Training emphasised the

importance of schoolchildren learning at least two foreign languages before upper secondary

education. The Lisbon Summit of 2000 defined languages as one of the five key skills.

Despite the high rate of foreign language teaching in schools, the number of adults claiming

to speak a foreign language is generally lower than might be expected. This is particularly

true of native English speakers: in 2004 a British survey showed that only one in 10 UK

workers could speak a foreign language and less than 5% could count to 20 in a second

language. In 2001, a European Commission survey found that 65.9% of people in the UK

spoke only their native tongue.

Since the 1990s, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages has tried to

standardise the learning of languages across Europe.

Instruments for foreign language learning

14 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language17

15In recent years, computer-assisted language learning has been integrated into foreign

language education and computer programs with varying levels of interactional relationship

between computer and the language learner have been developed. Language learning aids

such as foreign language writing aid and foreign language reading aid, targeted at the specific

language skills of foreign language learners, are also alternative instruments available for

foreign language learners.

2. Methodology

Before mentioning the most commonly used methods in the teaching of the English language,

I want to share my personal experience of internship in the elementary school “Penestia”.

During the last year of my studies I had the opportunity to get an internship at a local school

in the municipality of Debar, this was a great opportunity for close encounter with the

educational process in the teaching of EFL. During this internship I had the chance to see

how are used in practice the methods and techniques in teaching English.

I noticed that the older teachers prefer to use older methods such as the grammar -translation

method, they argued that this method is effective in learning foreign languages, which I

personally do not accept given the fact that this method is most often used in the study of

extinct languages such as Latin and is mainly based on the interpretation of texts and learning

grammar rules. On the other hand, younger teachers preferred to use newer methods and

techniques, they were trying to achieve the objectives through mastery of the four basic

skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening , for this purpose, they used a variety of

techniques: brainstorming, Veno diagram, discussion, role play etc..

It left me a special impression the use of ICT in the teaching process, this enables the students

to have access to various educational sites where they’ll have the opportunity to be much

more actively involved in the EL, but also the use of ICT enables teachers to be more creative

and more effective throughout the teaching process.

Language teaching methodologies

15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language18

The Direct Method

16In this method the teaching is done entirely in the target language. The learner is not

allowed to use his or her mother tongue. Grammar rules are avoided and there is emphasis on

good pronunciation.

Grammar-translation

Learning is largely by translation to and from the target language. Grammar rules are to be

memorized and long lists of vocabulary learned by heart. There is little or no emphasis placed

on developing oral ability.

Audio-lingual

The theory behind this method is that learning a language means acquiring habits. There is

much practice of dialogues of every situations. New language is first heard and extensively

drilled before being seen in its written form.

The structural approach

This method sees language as a complex of grammatical rules which are to be learned one at

a time in a set order. So for example the verb "to be" is introduced and practiced before the

present continuous tense which uses "to be" as an auxiliary

Suggestopedia

The theory underlying this method is that a language can be acquired only when the learner is

receptive and has no mental blocks. By various methods it is suggested to the student that the

language is easy - and in this way the mental blocks to learning are removed.

16 http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/method.htm19

Total Physical Response (TPR)

17TPR works by having the learner respond to simple commands such as "Stand up", "Close

your book", "Go to the window and open it." The method stresses the importance of aural

comprehension.

Communicative language teaching (CLT)

The focus of this method is to enable the learner to communicate effectively and

appropriately in the various situations s/he would be likely to find her/himself in. The content

of CLT courses are functions such as inviting, suggesting, complaining or notions such as the

expression of time, quantity, location.

The Silent Way

This is so called because the aim of the teacher is to say as little as possible in order that the

learner can be in control of what he wants to say. No use is made of the mother tongue.

Community Language Learning

In this method attempts are made to build strong personal links between the teacher and

student so that there are no blocks to learning. There is much talk in the mother tongue which

is translated by the teacher for repetition by the student.

Immersion

ESL students are immersed in the English language for the whole of the school day and

expected to learn math, science, humanities etc. through the medium of the target language,

English.

Immigrant students who attend local schools find themselves in an immersion situation; for

example refugee children from Bosnia attending German schools, or Puerto Ricans in

American schools.

17 http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/method.htm20

Task-based language learning

18The focus of the teaching is on the completion of a task which in itself is interesting to the

learners. Learners use the language they already have to complete the task and there is little

correction of errors.

(This is the predominant method in middle school ESL teaching at Frankfurt International

School. The tasks are subsumed in a major topic that is studied for a number of weeks. In the

topic of ecology, for example, students are engaged in a number of tasks culminating in a

poster presentation to the rest of the class. The tasks include reading, searching the internet,

listening to taped material, selecting important vocabulary to teach other students etc.)

The Natural Approach

This approach, propounded by Professor S. Krashen, stresses the similarities between

learning the first and second languages. There is no correction of mistakes. Learning takes

place by the students being exposed to language that is comprehensible or made

comprehensible to them.

3. Research question

Earlier I mentioned that in the last year of my studies, I had the opportunity to get an

internship in several primary schools in the municipality of Debar. Part of that experience I

18 http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/method.htm21

have already shared when I was talking about the methodology. During this internship I put

special emphasis on the listening as one of the basic skills in learning a foreign language, for

this purpose I decided to carry out a small research and answer an important question .

1. Which strategies are used by teachers to teach listening?

During the research, I had a lot of conversations with the teachers, but also most of the time I

devoted to their lessons, the views of teachers in terms of listening as a skill were different,

some of them shared my opinion that listening is as important as the other three skills

(speaking, reading and writing), but some teachers thought that listening would not give the

expected results.

During the listening exercises, I noticed that teachers use a variety of teaching tools: CD

players , computers, DVD, internet, etc. All these tools play an important role in the

development of the students' listening skill. In conversation with students, I discovered that

their favorite teaching tool was the Internet.

Internet offered them a variety of activities where they can develop their listening skills, the

most frequently used exercises were: Listening to conversations and identify where they take

place, reading information about a topic, and discover through listening whether or not the

same points are mentioned, inferring the relationship between the people involved etc.

All these activities arise from certain strategies that teachers use in order to develop listening

skills, which will help students to learn the language more easily.

3.1Strategies for Developing Listening Skills

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19Language learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the

basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication.

Effective language instructors show students how they can adjust their listening behavior to

deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and listening purposes. They help students

develop a set of listening strategies and match appropriate strategies to each listening

situation.

Listening Strategies

Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension

and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener

processes the input.

Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the

topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge

activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate

what will come next. Top-down strategies include

listening for the main idea

predicting

drawing inferences

summarizing

Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is,

the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning. Bottom-up strategies

include

listening for specific details

recognizing cognates

recognizing word-order patterns

19 http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/goalslisten.htm23

Strategic listeners also use metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate their

listening.

They plan by deciding which listening strategies will serve best in a particular

situation.

They monitor their comprehension and the effectiveness of the selected strategies.

They evaluate by determining whether they have achieved their listening

comprehension goals and whether the combination of listening strategies selected was

an effective one.

Listening for Meaning

20To extract meaning from a listening text, students need to follow four basic steps:

Figure out the purpose for listening. Activate background knowledge of the topic in

order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate listening strategies.

Attend to the parts of the listening input that are relevant to the identified purpose and

ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the input

and reduces the amount of information they have to hold in short-term memory in

order to recognize it.

Select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the listening task and

use them flexibly and interactively. Students' comprehension improves and their

confidence increases when they use top-down and bottom-up strategies

simultaneously to construct meaning.

Check comprehension while listening and when the listening task is over. Monitoring

comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures,

directing them to use alternate strategies.

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3.2 Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening

Focus: The Listening Process

         21 To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather than on its

product.

          1. They develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by

asking students to think and talk about how they listen in their native language.

          2. They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using

authentic listening tasks.

          3. They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a

listener rather than as a teacher.

          4. When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that

will work best for the listening purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why

students should use the strategies.

          5. They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice

outside of class in their listening assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of

what they're doing while they complete listening tape assignments.

          6. They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use

immediately after completing an assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-class

and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically review how and when to use

particular strategies.

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          7. They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies

by using the target language to conduct classroom business: making announcements,

assigning homework, describing the content and format of tests.

          8. They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another.

They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of listening

task or with another skill.    

22Integrating Metacognitive Strategies

Before listening: Plan for the listening task

          1. Set a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for

          2. Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed

          3. Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall

meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)

During and after listening: Monitor comprehension

          1. Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses

          2. Decide what is and is not important to understand

          3. Listen/view again to check comprehension

          4. Ask for help

23After listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use

          1. Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area

22 http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/goalslisten.htm

23 http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/goalslisten.htm26

          2. Evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of listening tasks

          3. Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task

          4. Modify strategies if necessary

Using Authentic Materials and Situations

One-Way Communication

          Materials:

                   1. Radio and television programs

                   2. Public address announcements (airports, train/bus stations, stores)

                   3. Speeches and lectures

                   4. Telephone customer service recordings

Procedure:

          1. Help students identify the listening goal: to obtain specific information; to decide

whether to continue listening; to understand most or all of the message.

          2. Help students outline predictable sequences in which information may be presented:

who-what-when-where (news stories); who-flight number-arriving/departing-gate number

(airport announcements); "for [function], press [number]" (telephone recordings)

3.Help students identify key words/phrases to listen for

24Two-Way Communication

24 http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/goalslisten.htm27

          In authentic two-way communication, the listener focuses on the speaker's meaning

rather than the speaker's language. The focus shifts to language only when meaning is not

clear.

Instructors want to produce students who, even if they do not have complete control of the

grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In the

case of listening, this means producing students who can use listening strategies to maximize

their comprehension of aural input, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and

tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.

3.3 Using Textbook Listening Activities

25The greatest challenges with textbook tape programs are integrating the listening

experiences into classroom instruction and keeping up student interest and motivation. These

challenges arise from the fact that most textbook listening programs emphasize product (right

or wrong answer) over process (how to get meaning from the selection) and from the fact that

the listening activities are usually carried out as an add-on, away from the classroom.

You can use the guidelines for developing listening activities given here as starting points for

evaluating and adapting textbook listening programs. At the beginning of the teaching term,

orient students to the tape program by completing the exercises in class and discussing the

different strategies they use to answer the questions. It is a good idea to periodically complete

some of the lab exercises in class to maintain the link to the regular instructional program and

to check on the effectiveness of the exercises themselves. Integrating Listening Strategies

with textbook audio and video, students can use this outline for both in-class and out-of-class

listening/viewing activities. Model and practice the use of the outline at least once in class

before you ask students to use it independently.

1.Plan for listening/viewing

•Review the vocabulary list, if you have one

25 http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/goalslisten.htm28

•Review the worksheet, if you have one

• Review any information you have about the content of the tape/video

2. Preview the tape/video

• (tape) Use fast forward to play segments of the tape; (video) view the video without sound

• Identify the kind of program (news, documentary, interview, drama)

• Make a list of predictions about the content

• Decide how to divide the tape/video into sections for intensive listening/viewing

3. Listen/view intensively section by section. For each section:

• Jot down key words you understand

• Answer the worksheet questions pertaining to the section

• If you don’t have a worksheet, write a short summary of the section

4. Monitor your comprehension

• Does it fit with the predictions you made?

• Does your summary for each section make sense in relation to the other sections?

3.4 Developing Listening Activities

As you design listening tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the information in an

aural text is an unrealistic expectation to which even native speakers are not usually held.

Listening exercises that are meant to train should be success-oriented and build up students'

confidence in their listening ability.26

Construct the listening activity around a contextualized task.

Contextualized listening activities approximate real-life tasks and give the listener an idea of

the type of information to expect and what to do with it in advance of the actual listening. A

beginning level task would be locating places on a map (one way) or exchanging name and

address information (two way). At an intermediate level students could follow directions for

26 http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/goalslisten.htm29

assembling something (one way) or work in pairs to create a story to tell to the rest of the

class (two way).

Define the activity's instructional goal and type of response.

Each activity should have as its goal the improvement of one or more specific listening skills.

A listening activity may have more than one goal or outcome, but be careful not to

overburden the attention of beginning or intermediate listeners.

Recognizing the goal(s) of listening comprehension   in each listening situation will help

students select appropriate listening strategies.

Identification: Recognizing or discriminating specific aspects of the message, such as

sounds, categories of words, morphological distinctions

Orientation: Determining the major facts about a message, such as topic, text type,

setting

Main idea comprehension: Identifying the higher-order ideas

Detail comprehension: Identifying supporting details

Replication: Reproducing the message orally or in writing

Check the level of difficulty of the listening text.

The factors listed below can help you judge the relative ease or difficulty of a listening text

for a particular purpose and a particular group of students.

How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or instruction conform to

familiar expectations? Texts in which the events are presented in natural chronological order,

which have an informative title, and which present the information following an obvious  

organization (main ideas first, details and examples second) are easier to follow.

How familiar are the students with the topic? Remember that misapplication of background

knowledge due to cultural differences can create major comprehension difficulties.

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Does the text contain redundancy? At the lower levels of proficiency, listeners may find

short, simple messages easier to process, but students with higher proficiency benefit from

the natural redundancy of the language.

Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly differentiated? It is

easier to understand a text with a doctor and a patient than one with two doctors, and it is

even easier if they are of the opposite sex. In other words, the more marked the differences,

the easier the comprehension.

Does the text offer visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the listeners

hear? Visual aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images in a video help

contextualize the listening input and provide clues to meaning.

Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view.

27The activities chosen during pre-listening may serve as preparation for listening in several

ways. During pre-listening the teacher may

assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text

provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their comprehension

of the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge that the students possess

clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage

make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will

play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening

provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or

class discussion activities

Sample pre-listening activities:

looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs

reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures

reading something relevant27 http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/goalslisten.htm

31

constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing

how they are related)

predicting the content of the listening text

going over the directions or instructions for the activity

doing guided practice

Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose, and students' proficiency level.

While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them do during or

immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these points in mind when planning

while-listening activities:

If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow them to

read through it before listening. Students need to devote all their attention to the listening

task. Be sure they understand the instructions for the written task before listening begins so

that they are not distracted by the need to figure out what to do.Keep writing to a minimum

during listening. Remember that the primary goal is comprehension, not production. Having

to write while listening may distract students from this primary goal. If a written response is

to be given after listening, the task can be more demanding.28Organize activities so that they

guide listeners through the text. Combine global activities such as getting the main idea,

topic, and setting with selective listening activities that focus on details of content and form.

Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to

comprehension of the whole.Before the listening activity begins, have students review

questions they will answer orally or in writing after listening.   Listening for the answers will

help students recognize the crucial parts of the message.

Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen. Do a

predicting activity before listening, and remind students to review what they are hearing to

see if it makes sense in the context of their prior knowledge and what they already know of

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the topic or events of the passage.Give immediate feedback whenever possible. Encourage

students to examine how or why their responses were incorrect.

Sample while-listening activities

listening with visuals

filling in graphs and charts

following a route on a map

checking off items in a list

listening for the gist

searching for specific clues to meaning

completing cloze (fill-in) exercises

distinguishing between formal and informal registers

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Conclusion

Perhaps the most effective way to teach listening skills is for teachers to try and model their

own techniques, to create environment which encourages listening. Teachers can create such

an environment by constant and positive interaction, actively listening to all students. English

listening competence is a complex skill that needs conscious development. It can be best

developed with practice when students reflect on the process of listening without the threat of

evaluation. By focusing on the process of listening, students can acquire a useful tool to raise

their English comprehensive competence. Listening comprehension levels affect the capacity

for improvement in other language skills such as speaking, reading, writing and translating.

It is important for the teacher to provide various opportunities for students to practice

listening skills and to become actively involved in the listening process.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank Prof. L.Kamberi for her patience and the useful guidelines .

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References

Tafani, V. (2004). Language Teaching & Learning Methodology

http://www.omniglot.com/language/index.htm

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/goalslisten.htm

http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/method.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_question

http://www.rusnauka.com/28_PRNT_2011/Philologia/1_94042.doc.htm

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