The Listening Skill between Theory and Practice in EFL Classrooms ( by Benhamed Afrah)

People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research Badji Mokhtar Annaba University Faculty of Letters, Social and Human Sciences Department of English

Domain: Foreign Languages Branch: English Language Major: Language Sciences

The Listening Skill between Theory and Practice in EFL Classrooms A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Master in Language Sciences

Submitted by :

Supervised by:

BEN HAMED Afrah

Dr. GHAOUAR Nesrine

Board of Examiners:

President: Dr. GRINE Nadia, Badji Mokhtar University - Annaba Supervisor: Dr. GHAOUAR Nesrine- Badji Mokhtar University - Annaba Examiner: Melle NEDJEH Hana, Badji Mokhtar Mokhtar University - Annaba

June 2015

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DEDICATION In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah for helping me to accomplish this humble work I would like to dedicate this dissertation To my beloved parents who have always provided me with the necessary support to succeed To my sister Rima, her husband Mohamed, and my brother Salah Eddine for their continuousencouragement To all my friends who helped me whenever I needed help To Mr. Rachedi who helped me with his valuable advice throughout my dissertation To Mr. Frioukh who has always been my moral support To my new born nephew Ilin

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my infinite thanks to my supervisor Miss Ghaouar. Without her advice, patience, guidance, knowledge and support, I would not have been able to complete my dissertation. Besides, I would like to express my sincere tha nks to all my teachers and the jury j ury members: Dr. Ghaouar, Dr. Grine, and Miss Nedjeh for reading and evaluating my work.

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ABSTRACT

The listening skill is one of the four pillars on which language learning stands.  Nevertheless, it has long been neglected and perceived as a passive skill. However, recently, certain studies have revealed its importance in language learning and have proven that it is not  passive but rather active. Thus, this research sheds light on the importance of listening in language learning and teaching situations. Therefore, it attempts to provide answers for three main questions: 1) Is listening a simple or a complex skill? 2) To what extent is the listening skill important in the teaching/ learning process? And 3) how to teach the listening skill in the EFL classrooms?As a result, this work shows that listening is not a simple skill to be taken for granted but rather it is a complex one that needs investigation from different stand points: its  physiology, psychology and types. Besides, this mémoire emphasizes the different approaches that learners use in order to reach comprehension. Moreover, some studies show that listening does not play a major roleonlyin daily communication, but also in language learning. Hence, a comparison has been made between first and foreign language listening and the main difficulties learners’ encounter wer e highlighted. Finally, this work demonstrates that teaching the listening skill can be effectively achieved through following the three lesson planning steps and through applying certain strategies that may develop learners’ l earners’ listening comprehension. Furthermore, it suggests some sample listening lessons and tests along with some games that teachers can play with their learners in order to develop their listening comprehension.

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LIST OF TABLES

Tabl e 1: Results of the studies conducted on the time spent in listening ……………………...20 ……………………...20

strategies………………………………………………..……. …….….24 Tabl e 2: Cognitivelistening strategies……………………………………………… strategies…………………………………………………....26 ..26 Tabl e 3: Metacognitive listening strategies………………………………………………….. : Socio- affective listening strategies………………………………………………...... strategies………………………………………………......27 27 Tabl e 4  : Heard vs. not heard words or phrases……………………………………………… phrases ………………………………………………...45 ...45 Tabl e 5  : Monu …………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………………………….…………..….48 Tabl e 6 

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LIST OF FIGURES

: Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas…………………..……………………………. areas…………………..…………………………….…….5 F igure 1  : The listening process…………………………………………………….……… process…………………………………………………….………..…6 F igure 2  F igur e 3:   Human  Human ear ………………………………………………………………………. ……………………………………………………………………….….7

 Time spent in communication……………………………………………………..20  Time communication ……………………………………………………..20 F igur e 4: 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………..…....I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………………………………..…..II ABSTRACT………………….………………………………………………………...…....... III LIST OF TABLES……………………………….………………………………………....…IV LIST OF FIGURES……………..………………………………………………………...........V

General introduction

1. Statement of the problem………………………………………………….…….….…...1 2. Aim of the study……………………………………………………………….………..1 3. Research questions………………………………………………..………………………1 3. Division of the dissertation………………………………………………………..….....2

Chapter one: An Overview on the Listening Skill

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… ..…………...3

1. Listening definitions…………………………….……...………………..………………3 2. Historical background on the listening skill…………………………………….…….....4 3. Listening physiology…………………………………………………...………….....…5 4. Listening psychology…………………………………………………………..….…….6 5. The listening process………………………………………………...…………………..6 5.1. Receiving………………………………………………………………….….….............7 5.2. Understanding........................................................................................................... ...…..8

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5.3. Remembering…................................................................................................... ..............8 5.4. Evaluating….......................................................................................................... ............9 5.5. Responding………………………………………………………………………..……...9 6. Listening types............................................................................................................... ……....9 6.1. Informative listening....................................................................................................10 6.2. Evaluative listening…………………………………………………………………..10 6.3. Discriminative listening…………………………………………..………………….11 6.4. Empathetic listening…………………………………………….……………….…...11 7. Extensive vs. intensive listening skills……………………………………………………....12 7.1. Extensive listening…………………………………………………………………..12 7.2. Intensive listening……………………………………………………………….…..13 8. Active vs. passive listening….................................................................................................14 9. Listening comprehension…………………………………………………………………….15 9.1. Listening comprehension approaches………………………………………………..15 9.1.1. The top down approach ……………………………………………………....16 9.1.2. The bottom up approach…............................................................... ................17 9.1.3. The interactive approach…………….……….………………….….……..….17 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………... ..18

Chapter two: Teaching and Learning Listening

Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………. ..19

1. Listening and communication……………………………………...…………………..19 2. The listening skill and language development…………………………...…………….21 3. Teachers’ roles in listening instruction…………………………………………….…..22

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4. Listening strategies developing learners’ comprehension…………………..……...…..23 4.1. Cognitive listening strategies…................................................................... ................23 4.2 Metacognitive listening strategies……………………………………………………..24 4.3. Socio- affective listening strategies…………………………………………………...26 5. First language vs. foreign languagelistening………………..…………………………27 6.

Key elements of listening comprehension…………………………………...………...27

6.1. Phonology……………………………………………………………………………..27 6.2. Syntax…........................................................................................... .............................28 6.3. Semantics……………………………………………………………………………...28 6.4. Text structure …............................................................................................. ...............28 7. Foreign language listening difficulties……….……………………………………….....29 7.1. Pronunciation problems………………………………………………………………...29 7.2. Speech speed……………………………………………………………………......30 7.3. Repetition problems………………………………………………………….…......30 7.4. Vocabulary problems………………………………………………………………..30 7.5. Concentration problems...................................................................................... .…...30 7.6. Interpretation problems….......................................................................... ................31 7.7. Physical conditions.....................................................................................................31 8. Criteria of listening techniques and activities selection…………………………………..…31 8.1. Relevance of the content…............................................................................... .........32 8.2. Listening materials authenticity……………………………………………………..32 8.3 Inclusion of bottom- up and top- down processes ………………………………...…32 8.4 Development of learners’ listening strategies…………………………………….......32 8.5 Focusing on teaching rather than test…………………………………………….…...33 9. Planning for a listening lesson…………………………………………………………….....33

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9.1. Pre-listening stage…………………………………………………………………...33 9.2 While listening stage………………………………………………………..…….….34 9.3 Post listening stage………………………………………………….……………..…35 10. Listening skill assessment……………………………………………………………….....35

Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….………….. .….36

Chapter three: Listening Instruction in Practice

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………… .......38

1. Listening lessons promoting the top down approach………………………….…….…38 1.1. Sample lesson1: A fun day………………….………………………………………...38 1.2. Sample lesson 2: The intelligent dog…………….…………………………………....40 2. Listening lessons promoting the bottom up approach……………………………………....41 2.1. Sample lesson one: Word stress...................................................................................41 2.2. Sample lesson 2: Final “s” pronunciation………………………………………….....42 3. Listening lessons promoting the interactive approach…………………………………...….43 3.1. Sample lesson 1: Looking for a new job……………………………………………....43 3.2. Sample lesson 2: The right job………………………………………………………..44 4. Sample listening tests……………………………………………………………………..…46 4.1. Sample test one……………………………….……………...…………………….…46 4.2. Sample test two ………………………………………………………………………50 4. Games that improve the listening skill……………………………..……….……….…53 5.1. The telephone game…………………………………………………………………...54 5.2. Guess what game…………………………………………………………………...…54 5.3. Simon says game…………………………………………………………………..….54

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5.4. I spy game…………………………………………………………………………......55 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………….. 55

General conclusion…………………………………………………………….. 56 Bibliography …………………….…………………………………………… ...58 Webography………………………………………………………………….... 64

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1. Statement of the problem One of the key elements to foreign language learning is the listening skill which is referred to as the “Cinderella skill”. Despite the fact that the latter  plays a major role in language learning, in general, and in foreign language learning, in particular; it has been noticed that it is neglected throughout learners‟ academic track , and that the focus is often on the improvement of the other language skills: speaking, reading and writing. Hence, this situation raised our curiosity to know more about this complex receptive skill that has long  been considered as passive.

2. Aim of the study

This dissertation mainly aims at providing a deeper understanding of listening as a language skill. Therefore, it highlights some facts related to listening such as clarifying the listening process; listening psychology, listening types, listening skills, listening comprehension and its approaches. Besides, it emphasizes its role in language learning. Moreover, it provides certain insights and illustrations of how to effectively teach the listening skills.

3. Research questions

This dissertation attempts to answer the following questions:

1. Is listening a simple or a complex skill?

2. To what extent is the listening skill important in the teaching/ learning process?

3. How to teach the listening skill in the EFL classrooms?

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3. Dissertation division

This dissertation consists of three chapters. The first one is an overview on the listening skill. It provides details related to the physiology and the psychology of listening. It also stresses the main steps through which the listening process passes. Besides, it emphasizes the difference between active and passive listening. Moreover, it sheds light on the listening types and skills. Furthermore, it spots listening comprehension and its  processes.

The second chapter reveals the importance of the listening skill in communication and in language learning. In addition, it deals with the listening skill as part of the teaching learning process by providing some strategies which may assist learners to develop their listening skills. Chapter two also discusses some difficulties encountered by learners while listening and some standards that should be taken into account by teachers while selecting listening activities and techniques. Another important point that this chapter stresses is how to plan for a listening lesson and how to assess this skill. The third chapter, unlike the first and the second chapters, is somehow practical. It  provides illustrations of listening lessons which promote different comprehension processes involving the top- down approach, the bottom up approach and the interactive approach; and some listening tests. Besides, this chapter suggests some listening games which teachers may play with their learners (especially, young ones) in order to train them and help them improve their listening skills.

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Introduction Listening is generally regarded as simply decoding an aural input. However, the fact is that it is much more complex than that. Therefore, having a closer look at it would certainly clarify the image and would reveal why it is not that simple. This chapter  provides an overview on the listening skill through which one can discover some hidden details which may serve him/her to deeply understand listening. Thus, this chapter introduces listening in various ways by different experts. Besides, it deals with both listening  physiology and listening psychology along with the listening process and the different types of listening. Moreover , it clarifies „listening comprehension‟  which learners can reach through different approaches.

1. Listening definitions

Various definitions were given to listening from different perspectives, and at different  periods of time. However, no definition is accepted as the best. According to Hedahl (2001,  p. 11), listening was defined in the early part of the 20th century, as: “the ability to understand spoken language”. She adds that in the mid-20th century listening was defined as: “the process of hearing, identifying, understanding, and interpreting a spoken language” (Hedahl 2001, p.11). Downs (2008, p.1) defines listening simply as “making an effort to hear something”. A more detailed definition  was given by the International Listening association (1996) (as cited in Collins‟  book Interpersonal Communication Listening and Responding 2006, p. 7), it states that listening is: “the process of   receiving, constructing meaning from and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages”. A similar definition was given by Rost (2002, p. 279) in which he states that listening is a “mental process of constructing meaning from spoken input”. Moreover, Rubin and Mendelshon (1995, p. 7), explain that “listening is conceived of as an active process in which listeners select and

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interpret information which comes from auditory and visual clues in order to define what is going on and what the speakers are trying to express”. Therefore, from the previous definitions, one may deduce that listening is a complex active process that passes through a set of sub-processes starting with hearing and ending with responding.

2. Historical background of the listening skill

The history of language skills is dense. There are several sources which address the importance of speaking, reading, and writing skills (Montgomery, 2008, p. 4). However, a closer look demonstrates that there is a lack of focus on the listening skill since it has been considered less important than speaking, this may be due to the traditional wrong perception of the latter as a passive skill and due to the belief that learners will develop their listening skill by osmosis and without help (Mendenson; 1984, P. 133).

Considering language teaching methods, the direct method is the first teaching method that took into account the importance of the listening skill. Learners were immersed in the target language that was the language of instruction. Therefore, listening played a major role (Flowerdew and Miller, 2005, p. 6).The audio lingual method, as well, relied on the listening skill. The listener was required to recognize and practice utterances and then create similar utterances after the ones s/he was listening to. In fact, developing the listening skill was not the focus of this method, but rather it was used as a medium to learn grammatical and lexical structures. Similarly, the communicative approach assumed the listening skill, real- life listening was a basic principle in this approach but still no direct instruction of the latter was given (Flowerdew and Miller, 2005, p. 12) Recently, however, many psycholinguists and foreign language educators have addressed the importance of the listening skill, starting with the pioneering work of Rankin

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(1930) who found that listening is the most frequently used skill in communication amongst humans.

3. Listening physiology

During communication, the listener receives a verbal/ non- verbal message. The auditory reception of the verbal vocal message is an auditory logical process that relies on the hearing mechanism. Problems with the latter impede this receptive process (Wolvin, 2010).

The physiology of listening extends to the neurology of the process (Goss, 1995 as cited in Listening and human communication in the 21st century by Wolvin, 2010). Once the auditory and or visual receptors receive the stimulus, that stimulus is stored in the brain. Thus, the Wernicke‟s area which is one of the cerebral cortex parts that is included in spoken and written language production (Traxler, 2012), and Broca‟s area which is an area in the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere with functions related to speech production (Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo, 2006), is activated in response to auditory stimuli. Therefore,  brain damage can influence and interrupt the processing of messages (Wolvin 2010).

Fig.1- Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas (N evid, 2012, p.71)

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4. Listening psychology

After receiving the message through the auditory and visual channels, it will be stored either in short term memory or long term memory according to the amount of attention given to the message that is influenced not only by the listener‟s working memory,  but also  by his/her perceptual filter which is made up by the listener‟s background, experience and mental and physical states. Once the message has been received by the listener, it must be interpreted. Therefore, this step includes fitting the verbal message into the relevant linguistic category stored in the brain and then constructing the meaning of the message (Wolvin, 2010)

5. The listening process Listening is a highly complex, interactive process “by which spoken language is converted to meaning in the mind” (Cohen and Cowen, 2008, p. 330). This process passes through a set of sub- processes summarized by (Devito 1997 as cited by Flojo) as follows (see figure 2):

F i g.2- T he li steni ng pr ocess (F lojo, 2009, p.11)

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5.1. Receiving

It is the first sub- process of the listening process. According to Devito (1997), it consists of two stages which are hearing and attending.

First, at the hearing phase, the listener receives sound waves that come from the outside environment and stimulate the sensory receptors of the ear. Many parts of the latter work together to convert those sound waves into information that the brain transform into sounds. Scientifically speaking, sound waves enter the outer ear and go through the ear canal where the waves make the eardrum vibrates (see figure 3). Eardrum is: “a thin, cone-shaped membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear ” (Wikipedia, 2015). Then, those vibrations are transmitted to the middle ear bones making them vibrate too. Finally, those vibrations go to the innermost part of the ear, which is the cochlea in which there are tiny hair cells surrounded by fluid. When the latter reacts to the vibrations transmitted from the middle ear, the tiny cells send signals to the auditory nerve that transmits information to the brain which interprets those signals into meaningful sounds (Kalat, 2011, p. 113).

F ig.3- H uman ear (  Star r et al ., 2009, p.578) 

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Second, attending is the listener‟s intention to focus on hearing (Public Speaking: Practice and Ethics, 2012). It is the process of accurately classifying specific sounds as words. In other words; attending is paying attention to some sounds and filtering out the others. Attending is considered as a psychological process (unlike hearing which is a  physiological one) as the listener decides whether to focus on what is being said or not according to his/her interests, relevance of what is being said, and its duration (Davey, Sterling, and Field, 2008, p. 173)

5.2. Understanding

The listener, at this phase, tries to decode the speaker‟s message by constructing meaning from the stream of sounds s/he receives (Osborne, 2005, p. 78). In the listening  process, understanding and interpreting a speaker‟s message is an important stage because it allows the listener to assess its meaning for correctness and validity (Steinberg, 2006 p. 71). Although there is no explanation of how understanding occurs, it is evident that past experiences play a major role (Livingston, 2010, p.187); therefore, the listener‟s previous knowledge will help him/her to better understand what is being said.

5.3. Remembering

The listener, at this phase, stores what was said for future use. Therefore, remembering “is the process of storing the meanings that have been received so that they may be recalled later ” (Steinberg, 1994, p.77). It is a very important step in the listening  process since it means that the listener did not only receive and decode the speaker‟s message but also added it to the mind‟s storage bank .

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5.4. Evaluating

The listener, at this stage, judges the ideas of the speaker in the light of what s/he knows about the topic (Flojo, 2009, p. 12). Therefore, evaluating is “the process of critically analyzing information to determine how truthful, authentic, or believab le”  (Solomon, Theiss, 2013, p. 211). Besides, at this stage, the listener tries to infer the speaker‟s message and looks for accuracy and evidence of this message (Prentic e Hall of India, 2004, p.82).

5.5. Responding

At this stage the listener provides a kind of feedback to the speaker which can be verbal or non- verbal (Steinberg, 1994, 71). Responding is the only means through which the speaker can measure the degree of success in transmitting his/her message. Furthermore, it is considered as a turning point in the listening process since by responding the listener  becomes a speaker and the speaker becomes a listener.

6. Listening types

Listening types vary according to the listener‟s purpose of listening. We may listen to get a particular piece of information (informative listening), as we may listen to make  judgments about the speaker‟s message (evaluative listening). We may also listen to discriminate sounds (discriminative listening), and we may listen to show the speaker that we are interested in his/her message (empathetic listening). For better understanding, an explanation and a description of each type is provided bellow:

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6.1. Informative listening

The listener, in this type, listens to obtain information that is why s/he has to concentrate on the message rather than on its source (Ober, 2007, p.82). Besides, “Informative listening is common in teaching and learning contexts ranging from a student listening to an informative speech to an out-of-towner listening to directions to the nearest gas station” (Public Speaking: Practice and Ethics, 2012). More examples of informative listening may include listening to instructions, descriptions, news, weather, news reports, and voice mail. Successful Informative listening is based on three variables, namely, rich vocabulary, concentration, and memory (Dawood, 2010, p.71).

6.2. Evaluative and critical listening

This type of listening is used when the listener listens with the aim of analyzing or assessing a speaker‟s  message (Morreale, Spitzberg, Barge, 2007, p. 140). According to Metcalfe (2010, p. 69), evaluative listening is the listener‟s response to a persuasive message. Besides, the listener, in this type of listening, makes judgments and evaluates what is being said, i.e. s/he tends to assess the speaker‟s message against his/her beliefs and values. Evaluative listening occurs when the speaker is trying to convince the listener to change his/her behavior and even to change his/her beliefs (Straker, 2010). It is the most complicated type since the listener has to understand in order to make judgments and evaluations about the content of the speaker‟s message. Hence, evaluative listening requires high cognitive efforts from the part of the listener as s/he is going to analyze what is being said and relates it to his/her knowledge and rules ( Ibid).

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6.3. Discriminative listening

This type of listening entails listening with the aim of discriminating sounds. According to Hedahl (2001, p. 48), discriminative listening is “listening to distinguish auditory and/or visual stimuli.”  It is when the listener “engages in listening to scan and monitor his/her surroundings in order to isolate particular auditory or visual stimuli” (A Primer in Communication Studies, 2012). Moreover, according to Purdy and Borisoff (1991, p. 129), discriminative listening relies on completely understanding and remembering the content of a message. Metcalfe (2013, P. 68) adds: “It can occur in formal settings such as in class, at work, or in a business meeting…discriminative listening also occurs inf ormally in the  process of daily conversation”.

When talking about discriminative listening, three elements should be taken into account: first, the ability to hear, if one is not able to hear, s/he will not be able to discriminate between sounds. Second, awareness of sounds, if the listener is not a native speaker s/he may find it difficult to recognize sounds for example: a native speaker sa ys: this handle”, however, a non-native speaker, may hear it “this sandal”. Third, the ability of understanding non-verbal clues (Kline, 1996, p .42).

6.4. Empathetic listening

This type of listening entails listening with the aim of offering attention and then responding appropriately. In other words, it is listening driven by the value of empathy (Egan, 2002, p. 82). Moreover, Berman (2004, p. 111) clarifie s:

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Empathetic listening allows speakers to speak and writers to write without interruption, interrogation, or disproval. Empathetic listening implies neither boredom nor lack of interest; on the contrary, it shows the highest respect, for it demonstrates that nothing is more important than hearing the other…Empathetic listening promotes reciprocity: we listen carefully and sensitively to others so that they will listen carefully and sensitively to us.

Therefore, from the previous quote, empathetic listening can be defined as listening with empathy, showing the speaker respect, importance, and interest so that s/he will do the same.

7. Extensive vs. intensive listening skills

Extensive and intensive listening are two important listening skills. The two “are complementary in that one is focused on quality while the other is focused on quantity” ( Li and Ruan, 2014, p.523). Besides, extensive listening is not necessarily under the teacher‟s guidance while intensive listening is under his/her control. Extensive and intensive listening can be explained separately as follows:

7.1. Extensive listening

Extensive listening is one of the major listening skills. According to Rost (2002), “extensive listening refers to listening for an extended period of time focusing on meaning”. It can also involve extended periods of listening in the target language usually outside of classroom settings in the learner‟s home, car, or on personal stereos. The teacher, in this type of listening, encourages his/her learners to choose for themselves what to listen to and to do

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so for pleasure and general language improvement. Rost adds that for extensive listening to  be successful, the learner has to have access to an input that is comprehensible.

Extensive listening is certainly a useful way that highly contributes in improving the learner‟s listening skill. In this context, Brown et al. (2008, p. 195) state that: “extensive listening is also valuable for building confidence and simply enjoying listening in the target language”  (cited by Rost, 2002, p. 195). Moreover, Broughton (1980, p. 69) claimed that extensive listening can be used for two distinct aims. The first one is the “re- presentation of already known material in a new environment”. The second one is letting learners listen to vocabulary items and structures which are not familiar for them. Renandya and Farrell (2011) argue that “extensive listening facilitates language acquisition even at low levels by  providing the opportunity of listening to meaningful, enjoyable and comprehensible, spoken texts”

7.2. Intensive Listening

Intensive listening refers to listening closely for precise sounds, words, phrases, grammatical units and pragmatic units, i.e., listening for particular details. Intensive listening involves: dictation, elicited repetition, word spotting, and grammar processing and so on. In other words, it focuses learners‟ attenti on on language form.

Moreover, Harmer (2001, p. 229) sees that teachers, heavily rely on taped materials, as intensive listening means. However, on one hand, these taped materials have advantages including the fact that they are available, not expensive and portable. On the other hand, they have some disadvantages involving, the fact that not all students are able to listen at the same rate, besides, in large classes, it is often difficult to ensure that all students can hear equally well. Therefore, intensive listening is very demanding either for learners or even for

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teachers who have to play different roles including machine operators and organizers (Ibid,  p.231-232).

8. Active vs. passive listening

A clear distinction should be made between active and passive listening. Listening is considered, on one side, passive if the listener is present while the speaker is speaking, but no evidence that the listener is listening. Listening is considered, on the other side, as active when the listener demonstrates through a particular behavior as asking questions that s/he is listening (Hope, 2010, p. 55-56). Knapp (1990, p. 58) states that passive listening implies  just taking in a piece of information while active listening implies taking part in a conversation.

Similarly, Keith and Lundberg (2014, p. 67) state that passive listening is like watching television or a movie letting words and ideas wash over leaving whatever impact on the listener . They add that passive listening is like “zoning out from a conversation”. However, they see active listening as listening attentively looking for meaning and the appropriateness of what is being said.

Kasser and Lytle (2005, p. 65) view passive listening as “listening without saying anything”  while they regard active listening as indicating to the speaker that hearing took  place, this can be done through paraphrasing, questioning, clarifying. Moreover, Grikscheit, Cash, and Young (1993, p. 58), clarify that a passive listener is the one who only listens to what is being said while an active is one who takes the initiative in extending the content of a conversation.

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9. Listening comprehension

Whenever we talk about listening, we talk about comprehension; therefore, the relationship between them is very tight since the main aim of listening is to comprehend a speaker‟s message. Thus, listening comprehension is defined as: “The understanding of the implications and explicit meanings of words and sentences of spoken language ” (Borkowski and Martin, 2014, p. 17) . Besides, (Hamouda, 2013, p. 117) explains that:

Listening comprehension is highly cognitive process in which listeners are involved in a dynamic construction of meaning. Listeners understand the aural input from sound discrimination, prior knowledge of vocabulary, grammatical structures, stress and intonation, as well as others use linguistic, paralinguistic, or even non-linguistic clues in contextual utterance.

The definition of listening comprehension, therefore, may be summarized simply as one‟s ability not only to hear what is being said but also to understand it.  Furthermore, being able to comprehend a speaker‟s message requires from the listener to have some command over key elements of the speaker‟s language, namely, phonology, syntax, semantics, and text structure (Pearson and Fielding, 1983, p. 3).

9.1. Listening comprehension processes

While listening, listeners process the aural input in two ways; they either use the topdown processing or bottom up processing. The former relies on the listener‟s background knowledge, which is referred to as schema, whereas the latter requires from the listener to focus on different parts to construct meaning.

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A combination between these two approaches is needed while listening. Sometimes, it is the individual details that help the listener to understand the speaker‟s message, and other times, it is the listener‟s schema that enables him/her to process details. In other words, the top down approach and the bottom up approach are equally important for language learners to be good listeners.

9.1.1. The top down approach

The listener, in a top down processing, proceeds from what s/he already knows about the subject and the lexical knowledge s/he possesses. Besides, s/he activates his/ her  background knowledge to predict and to understand the meaning of the speaker‟s message. This knowledge is called schema, it can be content schema (general knowledge based on life experience and previous learning) or textual schema (language and content knowledge used in a particular situation) (Helgesen and Brown, 2007, p. 6).

Shafaei (2010, p. 218) adds that the top-down approach emphasizes the listener‟s use of his/her existing knowledge about the topic and the relevant context in forming hypotheses about the speaker‟s intended meaning.  According to Carroll (1992, p. 56), in a top down approach, information at the higher levels may affect processing at the lower levels. For instance, a sentence context may affect meanings of words.

9.1.2. The bottom up approach

The listener, in this approach, tries to make sense of the input s/he receives by focusing on different parts: vocabulary, grammar, and sounds. It is then a process of decoding sounds, from the smallest meaningful units to complex texts (Lengyel and Navracsics, 2007, p. 61) starting by phonemes moving to individual words, then to the s yntactic level followed by the semantic content analysis to finally reach understanding of the literal meaning.

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Richards (1990, p.50) explains the bottom- up processing as follows: “Bottom up  processing refers to the use of incoming data as a source of information about the meaning of a message”. From his perspective, the process of comprehension begins with the message received, which is analyzed at successive levels of organization- sounds, words, clauses, and sentences- until the intended meaning is arrived at. Flowerdew and Miller (2005, p .24) also provided a clear explanation of the bottom up approach, he stated that:

Listeners build understanding by starting with the smallest units of the acoustic message, individual sounds or phonemes. These are then combined into words, which, in turn, together make up phrases, clauses, and sentences. Finally, individual sentences combine together to create ideas and concepts and relationships between them.

9.1.3. The interactive approach

This approach combines both the top- down and the bottom up approaches. It was developed by Rumelhart (1980). The interactive approach suggests that listening comprehension is an interaction between the aural input, different types of linguistic knowledge, details, background knowledge, context and so forth (Gilakjani and Ahmadi, 2011). In other words, bottom up is based on linguistic knowledge while top-down is built on  background knowledge, therefore, if one is missing, the other would compensate it . Besides, according to Flowerdew and Miller (2005, p. 2), the main advantage of this approach lies on the fact that it admits the individual variation in linguistic processing i.e. it takes into account different learning styles.

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Conclusion

Listening is a highly complex process that passes through a set of sub- processes namely receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding. As a language skill, listening needs to be developed in both ways: extensively and intensively. Besides, it is out of doubt that listeners listen for different aims, they may listen to get a particular piece of information, to make judgments about the speaker‟s message, to discriminate sounds, or to show the speaker empathy. Moreover, in order to comprehend the aural input, listeners use either the top- down approach or the bottom- up approach. However, it has been demonstrated that a third approach may be more effective, it is called the interactive approach; the latter involves the use of both the top- down and the bottom- up approaches simultaneously.

.

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Introduction

Humans are given two ears and only one mouth, so that they might hear more than they speak. Therefore, listening plays a major role in human life. As a language skill, listening has long been neglected; however, recently, it started to gain attention due to the amount of studies that have demonstrated its great importance not only in communication  but also in language learning. Hence, this chapter sheds light on the importance of the listening skill in communication and its role in language learning. Besides, it emphasizes the different roles that a foreign language teacher plays in listening instruction. Moreover, it  provides an insight into the listening strategies that develop learners' comprehension. Furthermore, it involves a comparison between listening in first language and listening in foreign language. In addition, it stresses the key element of listening comprehension and the main difficulties that foreign language learners encounter while listening. Finally, it highlights some standards that should be taken into account when teaching listening.

1. Listening and communication

Many studies were conducted to find out the importance of the lis tening skill in foreign language learning. Hence, table 1 summarizes results of the studies conducted on the time spent in listening while communicating compared to the other language skills. These studies were conducted in the United States of America.

Research on the listening skill began with the pioneering work of Rankin (1930) who found that the time spent in listening is about 42% while speaking takes 32% followed by reading which takes about 15%, and finally writing which takes the least percentage about 11%. Brieter, as well, conducted a study on homemakers in 1972; he found that listening takes about 48%, speaking about 35%, reading about 10% and writing about 7%. Barker et.

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al conducted a study on U.S. college students in 1980. They found that students spend 53% in listening, 16% in speaking, 17% in reading, and 14% in writing. Bohlken‟s study, in 1999 on U.S. College Students too, demonstrates that they spend 53% in listening, 22% in speaking, 13% in reading and 12% in writing (Janusik, 2009, p. 106). Study

Year

Population

Listening

Speaking

Reading

Writing

Rakin

1930

Varied

42%

32%

15%

11%

Brieter

1972

Homemakers

48%

35%

10%

7%

Barker

1980

U.S. college

53%

16%

17%

14%

53%

22%

13%

12%

students Bohlken

1999

U.S. college students

Tabl e 1: Resul ts of the studies conducted on the ti me spent i n l isteni ng (Jan usik, 2009, p. 106) Furthermore, according to Adler  (2001), adults spend an average of 70% of their time engaged in some kind of communication; of this an average of 45% is spent listening compared to 30% speaking, 16% reading and writing 9% (Eddolls, 2014, p. 57). (See figure 4)

F igur e 4- Ti me spent i n communi cation (Adl er et al. 2001) 

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The previous results of the previous studies, conducted on the listening skill and communication, show that the listening skill takes the lion‟s share. Therefore, it is a  prerequisite for effective communication in everyday life. Several studies have confirmed that listening skills are identified as more important than speaking, and writing skills. Furthermore, in a foreign language learning situation, listening instruction helps learners to communicate effectively using the target language in a real-life situation.

2. The listening skill and language development

The listening skill is referred to as “the Cinderella skill” in foreign language learning (Nuan, 1989, p. 47). Therefore, it is out of doubt that listening instruction affects to a large extent the development of the listening skill as well as the other language skills (speaking, reading, and writing). Research has confirmed the major role which the listening skill plays in language learning by providing the necessary comprehensible input. Therefore, it has  been proven that improvements in the listening skill affect positively the development of the other language skills. Morris and Leavey (2006) conducted a study on preschoolers‟  phonological development.

The

study

has

demonstrated

that

listening

instruction

ameliorates

 preschoolers‟ phonological awareness. Another study was conducted, at Qingdao University of Science and Technology in China, to reveal the correlation between listening instruction and speaking ability. Results of the study has confirmed that introducing relevant listening materials to oral English classes lead to better learning results. Therefore, these studies have  proven that listening instruction improves student‟s speaking ability. (Zhang 2009, p. 201) Similarly, two other studies revealed that listening instruction helps middle school students to improve their reading comprehension (Badian, 1999; Bergman, 1999). Besides, results of Bergman‟s (1999) study have shown that listening and reading stories at the same

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time lead participants to ameliorate their reading comprehension performance. In addition, a study reported by Berninger (2000) demonstrates that listening instruction improves  participants‟ spelling. Bozorgian (2012, p. 661) has also conducted a study in Tehran, the capital of Iran, to reveal that listening improvement leads to the efficiency of second and foreign language learning. He found that, in the International English Language Testing System, which is a test that provides a profile of a candidate‟s ability to use English, the correlation between listening and reading is stronger than listening and speaking due to the common features  between listening and reading. Results also show that the correlation between listening and writing is very close to the correlation between listening and speaking.

Listening instruction does not have effects only on the other language skills but also on the listening skill itself. Petric (2000) conducted a study at the English Department, University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, to confirm the hypothesis that listening instruction leads to listening skill improvement. Results demonstrate that the experimental group achieved greater scores than the control group in the post-test of the study. Therefore, this study demonstrates the significance of listening instruction, and that it should be an integral  part of language development instruction.

3. Teacher’s roles in listening instruction

The teacher is the one who facilitates and helps his/her learners to improve their listening skills. Therefore, s/he teacher plays different roles in listening instruction. These roles include organizer, machine operator, feedback organize and prompter (Harmer, 2001,  p. 231).

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Playing the role of organizer, the teacher has to inform his/her learners about their listening aim. Besides, s/he has to give them instructions about how to achieve it. Moreover, s/he is in charge of building his/her learners‟ confidence  by giving them tasks that are achievable and inputs that are comprehensible (Ibid). As a machine operator, the teacher has to be efficient in using tape players. Besides, s/he should be able to play and replay the tape. Therefore, the teacher is supposed to try the material before coming to the class (Ibid). As a Feedback organizer, the teacher has to conduct a feedback session when students have completed the task. S/he can make them compare their answers. When performing this role, the teacher has to be supportive in order not to sustain their motivation (Ibid). Playing the role of prompter, the teacher plays the role of prompter when s/he replays the tape in order to draw learner‟s attention to particular language features (Ibid).

4. Listening Strategies that develop learners’ comprehension

One of the most useful ways to develop learners‟ listening skills is teaching them listening strategies. Vandergrift (1999, p. 176) claims „‟Strategy development is important for listening training because strategies are conscious means by which learners can guide and evaluate their own comprehension and responses”. O‟ Malley & Chamot (1990) claimed three types of strategies: cognitive, meta-cognitive and socio-affective strategies, namely, cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective listening comprehension strategies.

4.1. Cognitive listening strategies

These strategies are used to decode linguistic input and to obtain information. For instance, learners sometimes do not recognize words‟ meanings, so they try to guess them from the context. The cognitive strategies are related to understanding and adding input to short term memory or long-term memory for later use. Here are some illustrations of

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cognitive strategies are provided in table 2 along with the role of the teacher and the role of the learner in each one .

Strategy Linguistic inferencing

Summarization

Transfer

Note taking

Role the learner Guessing the meaning of unknown words by linking them to known words.

Learners make a mental or written summary of what they hear.

Learners use knowledge about their first language to facilitate listening to the second language Learners write notes as they follow some spoken text.

Deduction/ induction

Learners apply rules they have learned or have developed themselves to follow a text

Imagery

Learners use mental imagery to create a  picture of what is happening.

Role of the teacher Before a listening task, the teacher writes some difficult vocabulary on the board so as to draw attention to these words. He, then plays the tape and asks students to listen to the new vocabulary and to guess the meaning from their understanding of the whole text. The teacher asks the learners to give an oral summary to each other, or to write one sentence to summarize what they have listened to. The teacher could draw students‟ attention to words in the L2 that are similar to words in the L1 The teacher assists the learners in making notes that will help them comprehend the message. The teacher either explains the rules of a particular part of speech or has learners guess what the rules are by listening to a text. The teacher asks learners to keep their eyes closed while listening to a story and try to picture what is happening.

Tabl e 2- cogniti ve l isteni ng strategies (Boul fel f el , 2014, p. 105-107)

4.2. Metacognitive listening strategies

Learners, in these strategies, know when they have to listen to the text cautiously. This method deals with learning how to plan, monitor and evaluate the collected data (Holden, 2004). Oxford (1990) states that the conscious use of metacognitive strategies assists

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learners get their attention back when they lose it. Vandergrift (2003) claimed that advanced listeners use twice as many metacognitive strategies as elementary listeners use. Metacognition can be defined as “thinking about one‟s own thinking.”   For instance, if a student knows s/he encounters difficulties in finding the link between important concepts within a story. s/he is uses a graphic organizer, such as a concept map, to identify the main concepts and links them together using lines, similar to a spider web, then that student has used metacognition to complete the task (Nelson & Conner, 2008).

Hence, using

metacognitive instruction in teaching listening enhances learners‟  confidence, motivation and ability to complete the given tasks. Table 3 demonstrates some illustrations of

metacognitive strategies.

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Strategy

Role of the learner Learners must pay attention to the main points in a listening task to get a general understanding of what is said.

Role of the teacher In setting up a listening task, the teacher has to ask his/her learners what type of information they would expect to hear. “You are listening to the news. What would you hear at the beginning of the news?”

Selective attention

Learners pay attention to details in the listening task.

Comprehension Monitoring

Checking one‟s understanding

Before listeners listen a second time, to a recording, set specific types of information for them to listen for. “Listen again to the tape and find out what type of relationship the speakers have.” The teacher sets up a task that requires listeners to understand one  part of the task at a time

Directed attention

Performance evaluation

Learners judge how well they  perform a task

The teacher can use a variety of  techniques to get students to judge their individual performance. For instance: “Raise your hand if you think that you understood 100%; 75%; 50%.”

Table 3- M etacogni ti ve l isteni ng strategies (B oul f el fel , 2014, p. 104-105)

4.3. Socio-affective listening strategies

These strategies ensure and promote positive emotional reactions and perspective of language learning. Vandergrift (2003) defined socio-affective strategies as the techniques listeners use to collaborate with others, to check understanding, or to decrease anxiety. Wilson states that the socio-affective strategies are related to the learners‟ interaction with

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other speakers and their attitude towards learning. Some illustrations of socio- affective listening strategies are summarized in table 4.

Strategy

Roles of learners

Roles of teachers

Cooperation

Learners work together to  pool their Comprehension

The teacher asks learners to work in pairs or groups to discuss what they heard and find out from each other what they understand about the text. The teacher has the learners close their eyes for one minute before  beginning the listening task and asks them to think of something that makes them feel happy. Attitude toward the task and believe that it is  possible for them to understand what they will hear. The teacher asks the learners to set themselves a personal standard for the listening task .

Lowering anxiety

Self- encouragement

Learners try to  before listening to the message.

relax

Learners develop a  positive attitude toward the task and believe that it is possible for them to understand what they will hear.

Tabl e 4- Socio-aff ective li steni ng strategies (Boul fel fel , 2014, p. 107-108)

5. Listening to a first language vs. listening to a foreign language

Listening to and learning a foreign language in the classroom differs from listening to a first language. According to Swabrik (2002, p. 62), being aware of these differences would reveal some reasons behind the difficulties that foreign language learners encounter. She adds, listening to a foreign language is more difficult than listening to a first language  because listening is decontextualized i.e., it does not take place in a restaurant or in a bus

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station. Besides, she sees that foreign language learners often are not able to interact or discuss meaning with a tape. Moreover, time devoted to listening is very limited. Furthermore, learners are unfamiliar with cultural norms (Ibid, p. 63).

Besides, Swabrik (Ibid, p.63) states that listening in a foreign language situation is much more demanding than listening in first language situation. This may be due to the fact that listening in the first language is often social and informal, besides, the context is common. However, in case of foreign language learning, the listening is usually informative and the context is formal, therefore, learners have to focus on the actual words used by teachers.

6. Key elements of listening comprehension

Being able to comprehend an aural input is based on some key elements involving  phonology, syntax, semantics and text structure:

6.1. Phonology

At the phonological level, the listener has to be able to distinguish between sounds. Pearson and Fielding (1983, p. 3),  provided an illustration, “a speaker of English knows that /bat/ differs from /vat/ but a speaker of Spanish along the Rio Grande does not "know" that same distinction”. Besides, the listener has to know intonation patterns which provide cues that help him/her to understand whether the speaker‟s statement is command, a request, a question a declaration and so forth Moreover, the listener has to know stress patterns  because this would tell him/her on what part the focus should be (Ibid p. 4).

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6.2. Syntax

At the syntactic level, the listener should be able to know “ paraphrase, as in (1) and (2); and recognize cues regarding form class (inflections like -ed or -ing for verbs, -er and est for adjectives, etc., as well as sentence position cues like subject, verb, and object slots) ” (Ibid, p. 4).

(1) John thanked Susan. (2) Susan was thanked by John.

6.3. Semantics

At the semantic level, the listener should be able to recognize words‟  meanings. Fielding and Pearson illustrated: “a dog is an animal that barks, has a sloppy tongue, and fetches newspapers” (Ibid, p. 5).

6.4. Text structure

At this level, the listener should know “how things such as stories are typically organized in their culture (in Western society characters have problems, goals and conflicts that elicit actions designed to resolve problems, overcome the conflicts and achieve the goals).”When listeners can orchestrate all these kinds of knowledge and apply them to achieve a satisfactory interpretation of a text (an interpretation that makes listeners feel like they have experienced "the click of comprehension” i.e., it makes sense to them) we can say that they have experienced listening comprehension” (Ibid, p. 5).

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7. Foreign language listening comprehension difficulties

Foreign language learners while listening to the target language encounter some difficulties that may impede the listening comprehension process. These difficulties may include: pronunciation problems, speaker‟s speech speed, repetition problems, vocabulary  problems, concentration problems, interpretation problems.

7.1. Pronunciation problems

One of the most common difficulties that foreign language learners can meet while listening is the pronunciation of English words. According to Rixon (1986, p. 38) “ pronunciation of English can cause students problems in recognition, and therefore in comprehension”. These problems may include the fact that some English words are not  pronounced the same way they are written (Macháčková, 2009, p. 13), for instance, the word “enough” is pronounced /ɪˈnʌf/, therefore, the letters “ou” are pronounced /ʌ / and the letters “gh” are pronounced / f /. Another pronunciation problem that may impede listening for foreign language learners is the fact that some vowel sounds are weakened in connected speech, for example, the word “to” in isolation is pronounced /tu: /, however in connected speech it is pronounced /tə/. Moreover, assimilation can also cause a listening comprehension problem for foreign language learners. According to Skandera and Burleigh (2011, p. 89), assimilation occurs when “the articulation of one sound is influenced by a neighboring sound in that a speech organ either prolongs a distinctive feature of a preceding sound or anticipates a distinctive feature of a following sound”. For instance “ten pigs” is  pronounced / tem pigz / (Skandera and Burleigh, 2011, p. 89).

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7.2. Speaker’s speech speed

Foreign language listeners encounter difficulties related to the speaker‟s speech speed. This problem is referred to the fact that while listening, unlike while reading, the speaker‟s speed of speech is out of the listener‟s control, especially, in academic situation. Hence, foreign language learners may miss an important piece of information while concentrating on another (Underwood, 1989).

7.3. Repetition problems

One of the major problems that face foreign language listeners is that they cannot always ask the speaker to repeat. If the listener is allowed to control the recordings, s/he can replay them again and again. However, if they are under the teacher‟s control, s/he is the only one who decides whether to replay them or not (Ibid).

7.4. Vocabulary problems

Another listening problem may be the amount of vocabulary that the foreign language learner possesses in the target language. Therefore, having a very limited vocabulary certainly impedes listening comprehension (Ibid). In other words, the more vocabulary the listener has, the more comprehension takes place.

7.5. Concentration problems

These problems occur due to many factors including the fact that if the learners are not interested in a particular topic or they do not like it, they will not be able to concentrate, and thus, listening comprehension is going to be difficult for them. Another factor which is related to concentration is the length of the listening passages the longer is the passage, the

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more learners lose their concentration, and the more likely listening comprehension  problems occur (Ibid).

7.6. Interpretation problems

These  problems occur because of the listener‟s unfamiliarity with the speaker‟s  background knowledge and context. Considering a foreign language l earner who is listening to a native speaker, the former is not familiar with the latter‟s background knowledge nor with his/her habits, religion and so forth. Hence, t he foreign language listener may encounter a difficulty in interpreting the native speaker‟s message. However, this may also occur for  people who speak the same language and share the same background knowledge (Ibid).

7.7. Physical conditions

Sometimes

inappropriateness

of

classrooms

influences

students

listening

comprehension. Students who are sitting on the back rows in large classrooms may not hear the recording the same way as students sitting in front. Besides, students who sit next to the windows are influenced by the outside noise. As a teacher we have to take into account all this conditions in a body. The size of the classroom as well impedes teacher s‟ management of the all class in group activity or to get feedback from students (Bingol et al. 2014, p. 4).

8. Criteria of listening techniques and activities selections

Selection of listening techniques and activities is based on a set of standards which the teacher has to take in to account. These standards include relevance of the content, authenticity of the listening materials, inclusion of both bottom-up and top- down processes, development of learners‟  listening strategies, and focusing on teaching rather than testing. (they have been adapted from a variety of sources including Brod (1996), Brown (1994),

33

Dunkel (1991), Mendelsohn (1994), Morley (1991), Peterson (1991), Richards (1983), and Rost (1991) as cited by Duzer, 1997).

8.1. Relevance of the content

One of the most prominent standards that the teacher has to take into consideration is the relevance of the content which his/her lear ners are going to listen to. In other words, s/he has to select topics that interest them and increase their motivation. Therefore, the teacher has to account for his learners‟ aims and interests.

8.2. Listening materials Authenticity

Materials authenticity is a prerequisite in listening instruction; it involves both the language and the task. The language, on one hand, should reflect real discourse, including hesitations, rephrasing, and a variety of accents. The task, on the other hand, should be authentic and should reflect real life situations.

8.3. Bottom- up and top- down processes

The teacher has to offer opportunities to develop both the bottom- up and the top- down  processes. S/he should provide top-down oriented activities in order to encourage the learners to discuss what they already know about a topic. Besides, s/he has to provide bottom-up activities in order to give confidence in accurate hearing and comprehension of

the language components (sounds, words, intonation, and grammatical structures).

8.4. Development of learners’ listening strategies

Predicting, asking for clarification, inferencing, note taking, and using non-verbal cues are examples of strategies that increase opportunities for successful listening. For instance,

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“using video can help learners develop cognitive strategies. As they view a segment with the sound off, learners can be asked to make predictions about what is happening by answering questions about setting, action, and interaction; viewing the segment again with the s ound on allows them to confirm or modify their hypothesis” (Rubin, 1995). Therefore the teacher has to expose his/her learners to listening activities that elicit the use of those strategies.

8.5. Focusing on teaching rather than testing

Teachers should not use activities that are based on memory rather than on the process of listening or that simply focus on practicing rather than helping learners develop listening ability. For instance, having the learners listen to a passage followed by true/false questions might reveal the degree of memorization rather than helping them to develop their listening skills such as extracting the main idea and specific details. “Pre- and post-listening task activities would help the learners to focus attention on what to listen for, to assess how accurately they succeeded, and to transfer the listening skill to the world beyond the classroom”.

9. Planning for a listening lesson

Lesson planning is one of the most important steps in language teaching. Pemberton Toogood and Barfield (2009, p. 118) claim that: “lesson planning is an activity all language teachers have been trained to carry out and something which many teachers perform on a daily basis”. Therefore, in a listening lesson as well, planning is vital and it passes through three main stages:

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9.1. Pre-listening stage

The starting point for any successful listening lesson is introducing the topic or the type of activity which the learners are going to work on because in real life, most of the time  people know or at least expect what they are going to listen to. This pre-listening support  builds their confidence and success. This stage includes outlining the setting and giving  background information, however, teachers should not tell students too many details otherwise the whole listening will be useless. Besides, at this stage, teachers can ask their students to anticipate missing information or the context. Underwood claims that “pre listening task can consist of a variety of activities, which can help the teacher to focus the students‟ minds on the topic by narrowing down the things that the learners anticipate to hear and stimulating relevant previous knowledge and already known language”. Moreover, Yagang provides some tasks for pre-listening stage that can help students to gain the needed knowledge for the listening task. These tasks may include opening discussions about the topic at hand, brainstorming and guiding questions. Furthermore, other aspects of prelistening activities may include authenticity of materials, in other words, things that can imitate the real life situations; giving the students direct instructions so that they know what to do. For instance, if they are asked to answer a question, teachers have to specify whether they can use yes or no answers or more complex answers (Macháčková, 2009, p. 23-26).

9.2. While listening stage

This stage involves activities done by the students during the listening passage. The main goal of these activities is helping the students to obtain the main meaning of the text to have enough information in order to interpret the text. Teachers have to spotlight the idea that at this stage students should not worry about interpreting long and difficult questions and subsequent production of complex answers, they should rather be concerned with

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revealing the important information (Rixon, 1986). Besides, one of the main functions of while-listening activities is to expose students to the sound of the target language which enables them to improve their listening comprehension skills. Furthermore, when selecting a while-listening activity, teachers have to take into account some criteria. First of all, they should select an activity which is interesting and challenging at the same time. Other criteria that should be considered are selecting a while-listening activity short enough and doing various types of listening exercises because it would be annoying to do the same activity over and over again. Moreover, knowledge based exercises should not be included since such activities are time consuming and students who have some knowledge can lose their interest. Another criterion is the level of difficulty, a difficult or too easy listening text can  be demotivating for the learners. Furthermore, graded tasks should be taken into account. In other words, the learners start with listening to the main gist and then move to more and more complex listening activities (Macháčková, 2009, p. 27).

9.3. Post- listening stage

During this stage, students use their knowledge obtained during the previous stage for completing the exercises. There are many reasons behind the integration of follow-up activities into the lesson plans. Checking if the learners have understood the listening  passage or whether they completed the task successfully may be a good reason. Another reason for a follow-up activity may be reflecting on why some students have failed or have missed some parts of the text. Besides, there are several activities which can be used in the follow-up stage such as: Problem solving and decision-making tasks in which students try to find out a solution for a problem from the recording. Moreover, role- play in which students are asked to try out newly acquired things. Furthermore, summarizing where students can be asked to summarize what they heard (Macháčková, 2009, p. 28).

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10. Listening skill assessment

Listening comprehension is considered as the first step of language learning. Consequently, students generally have greater listening comprehension than ability to  produce the appropriate word (Gottlieb, 2006). Therefore, it is necessary for the teacher to assess his/her learners‟ listening comprehension in order to have an idea about the extent to which his/her learners can listen to and correctly understand the oral language. Hence, Mead and Rubin (1985) highlight that there are some elements that should be taken into account  by the teacher including measurements of assessment such as reliability, validity and fairness along with some other elements such as assessment stimuli, the questions, and the environment. They further clarify that assessment stimuli are supposed to represent typical oral language and to model the language that learners expect to hear in the classroom, in media, or in conversations. Besides, the passages should be interesting and not too long nor too short. Moreover, topics should be selected according to experiences common to all students regardless their sex, social, economic, geographic and ethnic differences. In addition, assessment questions should not be very easy or very difficult; thus, difficulty level should be relevant to the learners‟ level so that balance is maintained. Furthermore, assessment environment should be free of external distractions; therefore, the sound quality should be high and the material should be clearl y presented with relevant volume and speech speed (Idem).

Conclusion

Listening is an important language skill that plays a major role not only in communication but also in foreign language learning. Therefore, many studies were conducted to find out its importance and its effect over the other language skills. Results of these studies have revealed that listening takes the lion‟s share in communication and that it

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improves the other language skills, namely, speaking, reading, and writing. Besides, listening instruction is a challenging task for language teachers as they have to play different roles at the same time and they have to introduce some strategies that develop learner‟s listening comprehension involving cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective strategies. Furthermore, Learners, while listening, encounter many difficulties that impede their comprehension such as pronunciation problems, speech s peed, and vocabulary problems and so forth. Hence, teachers have to take into account some standards when selecting listening activities and techniques including relevance of the topics, authenticity of materials and so on, in order to minimize these difficulties. Finally, as lesson planning plays a major role in the success of a listening lesson, being aware of its main stages is necessary for effective listening instruction.

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Introduction

Despite of the fact that the listening skill plays a critical role in language learning, teachers often neglect it. This may be due to the fact that they find it difficult or time consuming to teach listening or maybe they do not know how to do so. However, neglecting this skill leads learners to have poor listening skills because they were not trained enough. For this reason, this chapter provides some illustrations of listening lessons that promote different approaches to comprehension (the top- down approach, the bottom up approach, and the interactive approach). Besides, it suggests some games that can be helpful in improving learners‟ listening skills, especially, young learners

1.

Listening lessons promoting the top down approach

The following two listening lessons illustrate the top down approach. The first one (a fun day) is taken from Randall‟s ESL cyber listening lab (1998) and the second one is taken from John‟s ESL community (2000).

1.1 Sample lesson 1: A fun day .

A/ Pre- listening stage

At this stage the teacher activates learners‟  prior knowledge by asking them if they were children where they would ask their parents to take them on their day off (e.g., amusement park, zoo, swimming pool, a park, etc.).

B/While listening stage

At this phase, the teacher asks his/her students to listen to a conversation (see appendix 1) then answer the following questions:

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1. Where does the young girl want to go with her father? A. To the park B. To the movies C. To the swimming pool 2. Who are they going with? A. The girl's mother B. The girl's best friend C. The girl's older brother 3. Based on the conversation, what time will they most likely leave? A. 9:30 AM B. 12:45 PM C. 2:00 PM 4. What does the girl want to do later? A. She wants to walk to the ice cream store. B. She wants to swim at the park. C. She wants to go down to the beach. 5. What does the father suggest they do at the end of the day? A. Go to a restaurant B. Watch a fireworks display C. Play a board game

C/ Post- listening stage

At this phase, the teacher asks his/her students to compare their answers. After that s/he asks them to answer the following question: What things did you do together with your family when you were growing up?

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1.2. Sample lesson 2: The intelligent dog

A/ Pre listening stage

At this stage, the teacher informs his/her students that they will have an opportunity to listen to a story called "The Intelligent Dog." Before they listen, however, s/he asks them to take a moment and try to guess the answers to the following questions: -

When did the young woman go to the theater?

-

Describe the woman's dog.

-

What movie theater did the woman go to?

-

How many tickets did the woman buy?

-

Why was this special case?

-

Who tried to stop the woman from entering the theater?

-

Why the woman was finally permitted to take her dog into the theater?

-

Describe the manager's reaction at the end of the movie.

B/ While listening stage

At this phase, the teacher asks his/her students to listen to the tape and to change their answers when needed.

C/ Post- listening

At this stage, the teacher provides his/her learners with the tapescript (see appendix 2) and asks them how many correct answers they got. If the y still have problems in understanding s/he has to give them the correct answers by playing the part of the record which contains the answer.

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2. Listening lessons promoting the bottom- up approach

To illustrate the bottom up approach, two sample listening lessons are provided. The first one is taken from Emily‟s Pronunciation Class (1999) and the second one is taken from Richard‟s et al. s book Interchange (2005, p. 9).

2.1. Sample lesson 1: Word stress

A/ Pre- listening stage

At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher draws learners‟ attention to the differences  between a stressed and an unstressed syllable. S/he explains that a stressed syllable should  be pronounced louder, longer, full, and with a high pitch).

B/ While listening stage

At this stage, the teacher asks his/her students to listen to the words in each pair ( see appendix 3), and then decide whether the two words in each pair have the same stress  pattern by choosing “S” for the same or “D” for different.

C/ Post- listening stage

At this stage, the teacher provides learners with word stress pattern rules including; the use of suffixes to predict stress for example: stress on the suffix itself as Chinese, the use of  parts of speech to predict stress such as for certain two-syllable words used as both nouns and verbs, stress nouns on the first syllable, and verbs on the s econd syllable.

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2.2. Sample lesson 2: Final “s” pronunciation

A/ Pre- listening stage

At this phase, the teacher explains that plural – s endings can be pronounced in three different ways: /S/, /Z/, /IZ/ according to the sounds that precede the final “s” of plural. Then s/he gives the rules for the pronunciation of each one.

B/ While listening stage

At this stage, the teacher asks students to listen and practice the following examples:

-

S=/Z/

1) a-Telephone

b- telephones

2) a- Camera

b- cameras

3) a-Bookbag

b- bookbags

-

S=/S/

1) a-Desk

b- desks

2) a- map

b- maps

3) a- basket

b- baskets

-

S= /IZ/

1) a- sentence

b- sentences

2) a- exercise

b- exercises

3) a- watch

b- watches

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C/ Post listening stage

At this stage the teacher asks his/her students to say the plural form of the following nouns, and then complete the chart (see appendix 4). After that, the teacher asks them to listen and check their answers.

3. Listening lessons promoting the interactive approach

Here are two sample listening lessons that illustrate the interactive approach. The first one is provided by miller (2009) and the second one is provided by Macháčková (2009,  p.38).

3.1. Sample lesson 1: Looking for a new job

A/ Pre- listening stage

At this stage, the teacher introduces the topic of the lesson by asking his/her students to make a list of the ways they use when looking for a new job . Therefore, through this activity, their prior knowledge is activated. B/ While listening stage

At this stage, the teacher provides a bottom up listening task and a top- down listening task. In the bottom up listening task, students are asked to listen to a tape in which two interlocutors are talking about a job (see appendix 5), and to check words/ phrases they hear (by putting either    or X see table 5) and then compare their answers with each other. However, in the top- down listening task, students are asked to listen to the dialogue again and then answer the following questions: -

Where are these two people?

-

What jobs do they talk about?

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-

Which job does the man prefer? Heard

  

X

Not heard

Part- time job

Lawyer

Find a job

Weekends

Sell

Check that one out

Sure!

Cruise ship

Listed on the internet

Working long hours

Door- to- door salesperson

At sea

Good at

Pay

Buy

Phone

  

Tabl e 5- H eard vs. not hear d words or phr ases (M ill er , 2009)

C/ Post- listening stage

At this stage, students are asked to discuss the following questions:

-

With your major/degree/diploma, can you get a good-paying job?

-

Do you mind working long hours if the pay is good?

-

Have you ever found a job listed on the Internet?

-

How many people in your family work full-time? Part-time?

-

Do you know anyone who works on weekends?

3.2. Sample lesson 2: The right job

Materials used in this lesson included CD, handouts, CD player and pictures. It is assumed that students will not recognize some key words even though they possess enough

X

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knowledge. This lesson aims at helping students to use the appropriate listening strategies and preparing them for the first certificate in English (CFE) listening paper; therefore, this type of activity, students are asked to listen for specific words or phrases and to provide written answers.

A/ Pre- listening stage

At this stage, the teacher introduces the topic showing the students a set of pictures. Then, s/he asks them to identify the jobs: a window cleaner, a vet, a detective, a plumber, a singer, a dentist, a surgeon, a chef and an astronaut. Besides, at this stage, students are asked to brainstorm as many words as they can about these jobs while the teacher writes their ideas, this can be considered as a revision of words related to these jobs. Moreover, students are asked to discuss the following questions in groups: How do you feel about each job? Would you be interested in doing this kind of job? Why/ Why not? Finally, the teacher has to pre- teach the vocabulary which s/he expects his/ her leaners do not know (

B/ While listening stage

At this stage, students are going to listen to a part of a radio interview with a woman whose name is Christine Whitelaw talking about her job ( see appendix 6) . The student‟s fist task is to read the article (see appendix 6), and try to predict the possible answers. Then, they listen to the women and complete the sentences, after the listening they compare their answers with their partners and discuss them. After that, they listen again to the women and fill in the rest and check their answers. Finally, they listen again with the tapescript .

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C/ Post listening stage

At this stage, the teacher asks his/her students what job they do, whether they enjoy it or not, if they are not working, the teacher asks them about their free time or weekend jobs or what they would like to do after finishing their studies. S/he can also ask them which factors they consider as the most important when looking for a new job.

4.

Sample listening tests

Assessment is very important in the teaching/ learning process in order to check learners‟ progress or to identify their levels. Two sample listening tests are provided bellow to demonstrate how the listening skill can be assessed. These two tests are taken from Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and Listening Skill s in English (2012, p. 10-20).

4.1. Sample test 1

Part one

First, students are going to listen to a tape about a police announcement (see appendix 7), and then they are asked to select the picture that corresponds to the criminal described in the tape. Second, students are asked to listen to another tape about “the garden of Suresh” „see appendix 8), then they have to select the appropriate sign from the given signs that Suresh should put. Third, students are going to listen to a tape in which Monu describes himself (see appendix 9), after that they have to fill in table 6. Forth, the teacher plays a tape which contains a dialogue between Amit and Anand (see appendix 9) who have just completed their studies, and they are talking about organizations that offer scholarships for students for different purposes; then, the teacher asks his/her learners which organization will Amit opt for. Fifth, students listen to a short passage in which a description of a house

48

that joy wants to live in, is provided (see appendix 11); after that students are asked to select one of the pictures that correspond to the house that joy wants.

Age Nationality

Table 6- M onu (I ntr oduction: A ssessment of Speaki ng and L isteni ng Ski l ls i n E ngl i sh, 2012, p. 9)

Part two

The students, in this part are going to listen to a talk by Dr. Praveen Chawla on healthy foods (see appendix 12). The teacher, then, explains that there are three questions to be answered.

A/Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase

1. …………… are rich in Vitamin D and help in good hearing. 2. ………..mood regulating chemical can make you feel happy. 3. Broccoli keeps away ……………………………

B/Tick the most appropriate answer choices given below :

4. The food containing lycopene which reduces heart attack risk is A. grape B. tomato C. cheese

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5. In the talk, Dr. is advising people to A. eat a balanced diet B. be happy; live healthy C. live close to nature D. eat healthy food

Part three

The teacher explains to his/her learners that in this part they are going to listen to a speech about joint families. Then, they have one of the three given options for each question.

1. A joint family consists of a. husband, wife and children.  b. immediate family and extended family. c. immediate family with grandparents. 2. People prefer nuclear families because a. there is more freedom.  b. there are fewer members. c. it is the latest trend in many countries. 3. According to the speaker, young people don‟t listen to elders because they a. don‟t want to be restricted.  b. think they know better. c. learn from their mistakes. 4. In a joint family, you don‟t have to ask for help from outsiders as a. you are smart enough to make decisions.  b. your children are able to take care of themselves

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c. your family are there to support you. 5. Burglary cases decrease when a. everyone has enough money for their needs.  b. stronger family values c. there is always someone at home. 6. Joint families follow the concept of sharing as a. the clothes are shared among family members.  b. all family members are collectively responsible. c. the finances are distributed equally. 7. Joint families do not depend on outside help for children because a. grandparents take care of them.  b. mothers stay at home. c. children care for each other. 8. The best way to create a good joint family is to a. be open to differences in opinion.  b. listen to elders all the time. c. not voicing your views on anything 9. The foundation of a Joint Family gets strengthens when a. the members are like minded  b. the members have selfless moral values c. the members work for each other 10. In a joint family we become wiser and better persons because we get a. guidance from elder  b. benefitted from the presence of elders c. money from elders

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3.2. Sample test 2

At the beginning of the test, the teacher explains that the test consists of ten questions and that they have to answer them while listening. S/he, further, adds that they are going to listen to four extracts.

Part one

1. Extract one (see appendix 13) states that: a. There was an explosion before the crash  b. The crash was a consequence of collision with a cliff c. There have been several air crashes in the recent past d. Indians always die in the air crashes in and around Nepal 2. According to extract two (see appendix 14), what option do you think the speaker would not opt for?

a. e-mail  b. air mail c. postal department d. surface mail 3. Complete the following statement according to extract three (see appendix 15) The speaker advocates the use of … now.

a. cars  b. buses c. bicycles d. metros 4. According to the extract (see appendix 16), what is the news report is about?

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a. invention of Curiosity  b. landing of Curiosity c. happiness at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory d. possibility of living on Mars 5. According to the extract (see appendix 17), what does the V- chip do?

a. It allows the cable company to monitor what TV programs you watch  b. It turns your TV into a "virtual reality" computer. c. It allows parents to block out certain programs, so their children cannot watch them. d. It reduces the use of the remote control device

Part two

At this part the teacher informs his/her students that they are going to listen to a long text about tigers (see appendix 18) and asks them to read the questions before they listen. Then, they do the following tasks: 1. State whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) a. People‟s fascination with the tigers is causing them harm.  b. Wildlife tourism should be banned. c. Tigers tourists are destroying their living places.

Part three

At this part, the teacher explains to his/her learners that they are going to listen to a lecture about libraries and that they are asked to choose one of the three given options.

1. The speaker thinks that librarians

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a. are very important for libraries.  b. fulfil many functions in a library. c. are more useful today than previously .

2. The speaker says that libraries have an obvious effect on a. schools.  b. cities. c. business 3. According to the speaker, there are not enough libraries in t he world because a. it is hard to build libraries in some areas.  b. libraries are very expensive. c. there is a lack of interest in books. 4. According to the speaker, students are using libraries less because the internet a. makes research easier for them.  b. has more up-to-date information. c. given them answers to exam questions. 5. Today, students do not read books because they have no a. interest.  b. money to buy books. c. motivation. 6. The speaker says that the demand for fiction books is a. decreasing with young audiences.  b. being replaced by exam books. c. focused on non-Indian authors.

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7. The speaker believes that film and radio can a. be a good alternative to reading.  b. encourage people to read more. c. teach us about famous people. 8. What example does the speaker give of a way to increas e interest in reading? a. good books.  b. famous people. c. historical films. 9. The speaker feels that it is possible to encourage interest in reading if a. we spend more time on the internet.  b. we think about how to use electronic media. c. we visit the library more

10. Young people can use the library more if they a. stop buying books.  b. take interest in electronic media, films and internet. c. have an access to it.

5. Games improving listening skills

One of the most motivating ways to learn is playing games. Here are four listening games, namely, the telephone game, guess what game, Simon says game, and I spy game. Teachers can play these games with their learners in order to motivate them help them to ameliorate their listening abilities.

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5.1. Telephone game

The teacher, in this game, asks his/her students to make a circle. Then, s/he whispers a statement to a student sitting next to him/her. After that, that student transmits the teacher‟s statement to another student sitting next to him/ her. This process goes all around the circle till it returns to the teacher. Invariably, this statement gets jumbled somewhere along the way. Therefore, the teacher tells his/her students that they are going to play this game again  but this time they can repeat the sentence to the one who gave it to them. At the end of the game, s/he explains that the game worked better in the second time because each one has the opportunity to make sure that s/he heard correctly (Tummers, 2011, p. 45).

5.2. Guess what game

This game works better with children. Learners, in this game, listen, for example, to six audio segments about pets. For each segment, there are three pictures. There will be a question about the pictures and the learners are asked to choose the picture that answers the question. If they answer correctly they move forward, if not the y listen again (Gerngross and Puchta, 2004 p. 107)

5.3. “Simon says” game

This is a good listening game, especially, for kids. Simon is someone who tells everyone what to do. The aim of this game is to make the learners follow some directions. However, if the teacher gives the directions without saying “Simon says” and the learner s follow them, they will be out (Root, 2010, p. 13).

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5.4. “I spy” game

The teacher, in this game, finds an object within view and starts describing it (as shown in the following example). Then, the learners must listen to all the attributes carefully and figure out what the item is (Edwards, 1999, p. 60). “I spy something beginning with…” “I spy something round and soft…” “I spy something we write with…”

Conclusion

The listening skill, undoubtedly, plays a major role in language learning. Therefore, giving it some attention becomes a necessity. This attention does not include only the theory  but should also involve practice. Hence, listening instruction should be included in language learning programs. Besides, teachers have to provide their learners with listening lessons that require from them to process the aural input using different approaches to comprehension involving the top- down approach, the bottom approach and the interactive approach as illustrated in this chapter. Furthermore, in order to have better outcomes teachers may play with their learners some listening games that would improve their listening skill such as the telephone game, guess what game, “Simon says” game and “I spy” game.

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General conclusion

Listening is a highly complex process that consists of receiving, understanding, remembering, and responding. As a language skill, listening is defined as a receptive decoding skill in the oral mode. This skill has long been neglected and thought of as a passive skill that does not need to be taught. Hence, this work attempts to provide a deep understanding of listening by shedding light on its physiology, its psychology, the different listening types, and the main approaches to attain comprehension. It, further, reveals the importance of the listening skill and its effect on the development of the other language skills in addition to the main problems that learners face and some strategies that may help them to overcome these  problems. Besides, it explains how to plan for a listening lesson and how to assess it. Furthermore, it provides sample listening lessons and tests and suggests listening games which may be useful for the development of learners‟ listening skills. The listening skill is an important language skill that should be taken into account by language teachers. Therefore, this dissertation attempts to provide answers for the following questions: 1) Is listening a complex or a simple skill? 2). To what extent is the listening skill important in the teaching/ learning process? 3) How to teach the listening skill in EFL classrooms? Having a closer look at the listening skill demonstrates that it is a complex skill. Its complexity lies on the fact that it requires the learners to go through certain steps to finally reach comprehension. Besides, it requires them to use different mental processes (the top down processing, the bottom up processing, and the interactive processing) in order to construct meaning from the received aural input. The listening skill is important to a large extent in the teaching/ learning process since it is the first step to language learning and studies have shown that it positively affects the

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development of the other language skills as most of learning comes through it. Therefore, learners are in need of this skill. Hence teaching it should be included in all language curricula. Teachers can effectively teach listening through considering some criteria including the choice of topics, the length of the audio passages, and the level of difficulty and so on. Besides, lesson planning is the key of successful teaching, therefore, following the steps of lesson planning is of great usefulness. The limitation of this research lies in its theoretical nature. Hence, no hypotheses were  proposed because there is no practical part due to time constraints. Classroom observation or experimental study in addition to teachers‟ /learners‟ questionnaire would be effective tools to investigate this topic in the department of English, Badji Mokhtar University.

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General introduction

General introduction

1. Statement of the problem 2. Aim of the study 3. Research questions 4. Dissertation division

Chapter one: An Overview on the Listening Skill

Chapter one: an Overview on the Listening Skill Introduction 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6.

7. 8.

9.

Listening definitions Historical background of the listening skill Listening physiology Listening psychology The listening process 5.1. Receiving 5.2. Understanding 5.3. Remembering 5.4. Evaluating 5.5. Responding Listening types 6.1. Informative listening 6.2. Evaluative listening 6.3. Discriminative listening 6.4. Empathetic listening Active vs. passive listening Extensive vs. intensive listening skills 8.1. Extensive listening 8.2. Intensive listening Listening comprehension 9.1. Listening comprehension approaches 9.1.1 The top down approach 9.1.2 The bottom up approach 9.1.3 The interactive approach

Conclusion

Chapter two: Teaching and Learning Listening

Chapter two: Teaching and Learning Listening Introduction 1. 2. 3. 4.

Listening and communication The listening skill and language development Teachers’ roles in listening instruction Listening strategies developing comprehension 4.1 Cognitive strategy 4.2 Metacognitive strategy 4.3 Socio- affective strategy 5. First language vs. foreign language listening 6. Key elements of listening comprehension 6.1 Phonology 6.2 Syntax 6.3 Semantics 6.4 Text structure 7. Foreign language listening difficulties 7.1 Pronunciation problems 7.2 Speech speed 7.3 Repetition problems 7.4 Vocabulary problems 7.5 Concentration problems 7.6 Interpretation problems 7.7 Physical conditions 8. Standards of listening activities and techniques selecti on 8.1 Relevance of the content 8.2 Listening materials authenticity 8.3 Inclusion of bottom- up and top- down processes 8.4 Development of learners’ listening strategies 8.5 Focusing on teaching rather than test 9. Planning for a listening lesson 9.1 Pre-listening stage 9.2 While listening stage 9.3 post listening stage 10. Listening skill assessment Conclusion

Chapter Three: Listening Instruction in Practice

Chapter three: listening instruction in practice Introduction 1. Listening lessons promoting the top down approach 1.1. Sample lesson 1: A fun day 1.2 Sample lesson 2: The intelligent dog 2. Listening lessons promoting the bottom up approach 2.1. Sample lesson 1: Word stress 2.2. Sample lesson 2: Final “s” pronunciation 3. Listening lessons promoting the interactive process 3.1. Sample lesson 1: Looking for a new job 3.2. Sample lesson 2: The right job 4. Sample listening assessments 4.1. Sample test 1 4.2. Sample test 2 5. Games improving listening skills 5.1. The telephone game 5.2. Guess what game 5.3. Simon says game 5.4. I spy game Conclusion

Appendices

Appendices

1. A fun day 2. The intelligent dog 3. Word stress 4. The final “s” 5. I need a job 6. The right job 7. Police announcement 8. The right sign board 9. Monu 10. Amit and Anand 11. Joy’s dream home 12. Healthy foods 13. The nuclear family 14. Officer comment to his colleagues 15. Report news 16. Bicycles 17. Landing of curiosity 18. AV- chip 19. Tigers 20. Libraries

Appendix 1- A fun day tapescript (Randall’s ESL cyber listening lab, 1998)

Appendix 2- The intelligent dog (John’s ESL community, 2000)

Appendix 3- Word stress (Emily’s Pron un ciati on Class, 1999)

Appendix 4- The final “s” pron un ciati on (Ri chards, 2004, p. 9) 

Appendi x 5- I need a j ob tapescri pt (Ri chards, 2005, p. 64)

 Appendix 6: The right job (Macháčková, 2009, p. 63)

Appendi x 7 –  poli ce annou ncement (I ntr oduction : Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Ski ll s in En gli sh, 2012, p. 9)

Appendi x 8- T he r ight si gn board (I ntr oduction : Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Ski ll s i n En gli sh, 2012, p. 9 -10)

Appendix 9- Monu (I ntr oduction: Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Ski ll s i n En gli sh, 2012, p. 10)

Appendix 10- Amit and Anand (I ntr oduction: Assessment of Speaki ng and L isteni ng Ski ll s i n E ngl ish, 2012, p. 10) 

Appendix 11- Joy’s dream home (I ntr oduction : Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Skil l s i n En gli sh, 2012, p. 11)

Appendix 12- Healthy foods (I ntr oduction: Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Skil l s i n En gli sh, 2012, p. 12)

Appendix 13- The nuclear family (I ntr oduction: Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Skil l s i n En gli sh, 2012, p. 13)

Appendix 14- Report news (I ntr oduction: Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Ski ll s i n E ngl ish, 2012, p. 16) 

Appendix 15- Officer comment to his colleague (I ntr oduction: Assessment of Speaki ng and L isteni ng Skil ls in E ngl ish, 2012, p. 16)

Appendix 16- Bicycles (I ntr oduction: Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Ski ll s i n En gli sh, 2012, p. 16) 

Appendix 17- Landing of curiosity (I ntr oduction: Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Ski ll s i n E ngl ish, 2012, p. 17 ) 

Appendix 18- AV- chip (I ntr oduction : Assessment of Speaki ng and L isteni ng Ski ll s i n En gli sh, 2012, p. 17)

Appendix 19- Tigers (I ntr oduction: Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Ski ll s i n En gli sh, 2012, p. 18) 

Appendix 20- Libraries (I ntr oduction: Assessment of Speaki ng and L i steni ng Ski ll s i n En gli sh, 2012, p. 19) 

Résumé

La compétence d'écoute est l'une des quatre piliers sur lesquels l'apprentissage des langues se tient. Néanmoins, elle a été longtemps négligée et perçue comme une compétence  passive.

Toutefois, récemment,

certaines

études

ont révélé

son

importance

dans

l'apprentissage des langues et ont prouvé qu’elle n’est pas passive mais plutôt active. Ainsi, cette étude fait la lumière sur l'importance de l'écoute dans des situations d'apprentissage et d’enseignement des langues. Par conséquent, ce mémoire tente de fournir des réponses à trois questions principales: 1) est ce que l'écoute est une compétence simple ou complexe? 2) A quel point la compétence d'écoute est importante dans le processus d'enseignement / apprentissage? Et 3) comment enseigner la compétence d'écoute dans des classes d’ALE (l’Anglais comme une langue étrangère) ? Ce travail montre donc que l'écoute n’est pas une compétence simple mais plutôt une compétence complexe qui doit être examinée à partir de différents points: sa physiologie, sa psychologie et ses types. En outre, ce mémoire souligne les différentes approches que les apprenants utilisent pour parvenir à la compréhension. Certaines études montrent que l'écoute joue

un grand rôle non seulement dans la

communication quotidienne, mais aussi dans l'apprentissage des langues. Ainsi, une comparaison a été faite entre l'écoute dans une première langue et l’écoute dans une langue étrangère,

de plus les difficultés

principales

que les apprenants

rencontrent ont été

soulignées. Enfin, ce travail montre que l'enseignement de la compétence d'écoute peut être atteint de manière efficace en suivant les trois étapes de la planification de la leçon et en appliquant certaines stratégies qui peuvent développer la compréhension de l'écoute des apprenants. En outre, il suggère des exemples de leçons d’écoute et des tests et aussi quelques  jeux que les enseignants peuvent pratiquer avec leurs apprenants afin de développer leur compréhension orale.

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