We have two ears and one mouth. Why?

How do we comprehend spoken language?????

• ¿Qué hiciste ayer?• Ayer nosotros (garble garble) a la tienda.

• Bottom Up• Phase 1 – perceive and decode acoustic signals• What is the smallest meaningful unit in spoken

lang.?• Ok, let’s see we have, an unvoiced fricative,

nasalized palatal, I think we have the word Ayer?! Good, what else do we got???

Phase 2 – Parsing

• Ayer nosotros (garble garble) a la tienda.

• Match it to a huge data bank of linguistic examples.

• Try to get meaning of sounds->syllables->words.

Phase 3 – Utilization

• Ayer nosotros (garble garble) a la tienda.• Now we’ve got it or part of it.• What do we do with it?• Store, use, or discard

Top down

• Use of pre-existing knowledge • Schemata – your blue print of how something

works, What could this consist of?????• How about baseball?

Bottom up y/o Top Down

• processes interact and compensate for each other.

• EG. What do you think I said after nosotros???????

• Bottom up failed, top up compensated

Listening situations

• Collaborative v. Non-collab examples?????????• (interactive) (non-interactive)

Listening situations

• Aural perception v. visual perception• Which one is easier???????? • Is there a time where visual with audio is

harder than audio alone? • If the visual and the audio don’t match. • E.g. Songs with images

¿Te podrías casar con. . .?

Listening Activities Three stages

1. Pre listening

2. During listening

3. Post listening

• Activate background knowledge

• Generate enthusiasm

• Active listening

• Clarify, Extend, Refine

Examples of pre-Listening activities• You, the teacher listens to/views the text ahead of

time :)

• Act like this is really interesting and valuable

• Explain Key Vocab.

• Explain/Discuss relevant Cultural Information

• Tips about what to listen for

• Provide comprehension questions ahead of time.

• Show a picture related to the text and ask questions

• Use a speaking/writing question to help students think about the topic “Ask a neighbor, Imagina que eres granjero y no hay suficiente lluvia, ¿Qué harías?”

• What else?

During Listening Activities• Give students a purpose or goal

eg. Averigua como se siente el cantante hacía su amor.

• Match listening activity to students’ skill level

• Pay attention to cognates. While listening to the song, try to figure out how to say these words…..

• Listen for meaning i.e. gist

• Listen twice, once quickly, once closely

• Identify as many words as you can

• Identify three words or phrases where you here the singer’s regional accent.

• Everyone SINGS ALONG!!!!! No way dude!

Post Listening Activities• Global activities

• Write a brief summary of the text/story/article.

• Explain to your partner in your own words what the story was about.

• What do you think the author’s opinion was of X and why?

Post Listening Activities• Specific information activities (to focus on the details

of the text)

• Multiple choice/short answer quiz/questions¿Dónde estaba Carlos cuando su novia llamó?

• Opinion- ¿Porqué mastican las hojas de coca en los Andes?

Post Listening Activities• Linguistic and cultural activities (use text for lang.

and culture learning)

• Ask students to create a dialogue or role play based on two of the characters from the text.

• Ask students to write a continuation of the story.

• Ask questions and generate discussion based on some of the cultural topics presented in the reading.

• What else????