1
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. General General Concept Concept of Listening Listening Listening is probably the least explicit of the four languageskills, making
it the most difficult one to learn. It is evident that children listen and respond to language before they learn to talk. 1 When it is time for children to learn to read, they still have to listen so that they gain knowledge knowledge and information information to follow follow directi directions ons.. In the classro classroom om,, studen students ts have have to listen listen carefu carefully lly and attentively to lectures and class discussions in order to understand and to retain the information for later recall. Shelton Shelton defines listening is a demanding demanding process. Learners Learners must be able to deal with different accents or pronunciati pronunciations, ons, unfamiliar unfamiliar lexical items and syntactic structures, competing background noise, and also make a conscious effort to not switch off! or become distracted while listening. "ll of this must be achieved and dealt with more or less simultaneously in order to identify and understand the meaning in any given message. # $urthermore, %urdy &1''1( offers a definition of listening as giving an assign meaning to the stimuli received from the brain.
)
It allows learners to
build relationship, develop intellectually, and control their environment. Listening is an active, conscious process that re*uires pattern recognition and differencing. +oreover, unan &1'-' as cited in ichards and enandya( assumes that listening is the /inderella skill in second language learning. Listening is
1 0haderpanahi, Leila, sing "uthentic "ural +aterial to 2evelop Listening
/omprehension in the 3$L /lassroom.! English /lassroom.! English Language Teaching Teaching vol. vol. 4 3#(6 178. Teaching Listening for Advanced Learners: Problem and Solution , 2 Shelton, Scott, Teaching retrieved from6 9http6::www.developingteachers.com:articles;tchtraining:list1;scott.htm http6::www.developingteachers.com:articles;tchtraining:list1;scott.htm<, <, accessed on =ctober 1', #517. ., Developing Listening Comprehension Comprehension with Internet esources, esources, 3 >omors?ki, @risten ., Developing &Washington6 0eorge Washington niversity, #51)(, p. #.
2
assuming greater and greater importance in foreign language classrooms. 7 In addition to this, as ost &1''7, p. 171A17#( points out, listening is vital in the lang languag uagee classr classroo oom m becau because se it prov provid ides es inpu inputt for for the the learn learner er.. Witho ithout ut understanding input at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin. >he >he impo import rtan ance ce of list listen enin ing g in lang langua uage ge lear learni ning ng can can hard hardly ly be overe overesti stima mated ted.. In classr classroo ooms ms,, stude student ntss alway alwayss do more more list listeni ening ng than than speaking.4 Listening Listening comprehension comprehension is universally universally larger! than speaking speaking competence. It has not always drawn the attention of education than recently. B. Definition Definition of Te Teaching aching Listening Listening for A!an A!ance ce >eachi eaching ng listeni listening ng for advanc advanced ed is derive derived d from from three three main main words, words,
namely teaching, listening and advanced. "ccording to =xford 2ictionary, 1 teach teachin ing g is the the act of givi giving ng lesso lessons ns to stude student ntss in a scho school ol,, coll college ege or university in order to help them learn something by giving information about it. While listening is defined as taking noticed and paying attention to what somebody says. Lastly, advanced is the state off being at a high or difficult level.8 >hen, it can be assumed that teaching listening for advanced is the process of giving listening lessons for the highest level of learners i.e. advanced level. >eaching listening can be hard for both teachers and students. Students who are fine with speaking at their own pace and reading may have trouble listening to a recording that is a regularAspeed conversation. Listening is often confusing for an 3nglish learner. lear ner. >he pedagogy of listening is one of the least understood, least explored areas in the field of 3$L:3SL. Listening is often referred to as outher most important language skill, perhaps because of the considerable amount of time spen spentt on doin doing g it. it. >he >he impo import rtan ance ce of liste listeni ning ng and and liste listeni ning ng skill skillss "., !ethodolog" in Language Teaching Teaching , 4 ichards, Back /., C enandya, Willy "., !ethodolog" &/ambridge6 /ambridge niversity %ress, #55#(, p. #)-. Teaching b" Principle: An Interactive Approach to Language 5 Drown, E. 2ouglas, Teaching Pedagog". Pedagog". &ew Bersey6 %rentice Eall egents, 1''7(, p. #)). Eor nby, " S. #$ford Advanced Learner%s Dictionar", Dictionar" , -th 3dition. &ew Fork6 =xford 6 Eornby, niversity %ress, #515(, p. 14)1, #1, -8-.
3
development in the process of ac*uiring language proficiency features prominently in the scholarly literature of 3$L:3SL.G >eaching listening for advanced is not as easy as pie. >he maHority of advanced learners have many of the same problems that beginners and intermediate learners have. >hey may understand more as a general rule, but still have gaps in their understanding and experience difficulties in comprehension in less than optimum listening situation. r &1'-7( points out several potential problems areas that may be faced by advanced learners in listening comprehension course, namely6 1. Listening the sounds #. nderstanding intonation and stress ). /oping with redundancy and noiseJ 7. %redicting 4. nderstanding vocabulary &mostly collo*uial( 8. nderstanding different accents G. &ot( using visual or environmental clues -. $atigue. In conclusion, as one of the maHor subHects in language teaching, listening does need to be given more attention. ot only does listening lead all other courses such as speaking, reading and writing, but also it is always being the main part in their everyday lives.
7 Laclare, 3lton C owberry, Bon, sing +oodle for Listening Skills 2evelopment.!
Proceedings of !oodle !oot &apan '()* , +oodle "ssociation of Bapan, #517, p. ))G. 8 r, %enny, Teaching Listening comprehension, &/ambridge6 /ambridge niversity
%ress, 1'-7(, p. #5.
4
CHAPTER II E"PLANATION A. #in of Teaching Listening for A!ance Earmer 7G( in his book The Practice of English Language Teaching ,
stated that there are two kinds of teaching listening for advanced, namely extensive and intensive listening. Learners can improve their listening skills, along with gaining valuable language input, through a combination of extensive and intensive listening material and procedures. Listening of both kind is especially important since it provides the perfect opportunity to listen voices other than the teacherJs, enables learners to ac*uire good speaking habits as a result of the spoken 3nglish they absorb, and helps improve their pronunciation. $. E%tensi!e listening 3xtensive listening involves a teacher that encourages the learners to choose for themselves what they listen to and to do so for pleasure and general language improvement. 3xtensive listening helps learners ac*uire vocabulary and grammar and also make them better listeners. 3xtensive listening will usually take place outside the classroom such as in the studentsJ home, car, or on personal +%) players which they can bring any time. +aterial for extensive listening can be obtained from a number of sources. =ne of the most effective materials is an audio version of reading text on cassette or /2. >hese provide ideal sources of listening material. +any students will enHoy reading and listening at the same time, using a source both in a book form and on an audio track. In order to encourage extensive listening teacher can have students perform a number of tasks. >hey can record their responses to what they have heard in a personal Hournal, or fill in the report forms which we have prepared, asking them to list the topic, assess the level of difficulty, and summari?e the contents of a recording. >he purpose of this or any other tasks is to give students more and more reasons to listen. If they can then
5
share their information with colleagues, they will feel they have contributed to the progress of the whole group. >he motivational power of such feelings should not be underestimated. &. Intensi!e listening In the intensive listening, teacher might employ audio materials. Eowever, using audio material still has advantages and disadvantages. 2espite the disadvantages, teacher still need to use recorded material at 7 various stages in a se*uence of lessons. In order to counteract some of the potential problems, teacher need to check audio and machine *uality before taking them into class. "nother way of ensuring genuine communication is live listening, where the teacher and:or visitors to the class to talk to the students. >his has obvious advantages since it allows them to practice listening in faceA toAface interactions. Students can also, by their expressions and demeanor, indicate if the speaker is going too fast or too slowly. "bove all, they can see who they are listing to and respond not Hust to the sound of someoneJs voice, but also to all sort of prosodic and paralinguistic clues. ' $or advanced learners, teacher might use several forms of live listening such as storyAtelling, interviews, conversations, and reading aloud. Live listening is also re*uired certain roles of the teacher. "lthough this is purposed for advanced learners, the teacher should also take important roles such as the organi?er, machine operator, feedback organi?er, and prompter. B. T'pe of Teaching Listening for A!ance >here are many types of listening, which can be classified according to a number of variables, including purpose for listening, the role of the listeners, and the type of text being listened to. >hese variables are mixed in many different configurations, each of which will re*uire a particular strategy on the part of the listener. Listening purpose is an important variable. In designing listening tasks, it is important to teach learners to adopt a flexible
th 9 Earmer, Beremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching , 7 3dition. &3ngland6
%earson 3ducation Longman, #55G(, p. )5)A)5G.
6
range of listening strategies. >his can be done by holding the listening text constant and getting learners to listen to the text several times.15 =n the other hand, %urdy &1''1( offers five types of listening employed in varying conditions as follows6 1. 2iscriminative, having an awareness of the speakerJs mood and intention. #. /omprehensive, for understanding and learning. ). /ritical:evaluative, for making a decision and assessing the logic of what is heard. 7. >herapeutic, showing empathy without Hudging and helping others feel better. 4. "ppreciative, for enHoyment and relaxation.11 $urthermore, exercise types of listening for advanced learners can be divided up into several goals, among others6 $. Use feat(res of sentence stress an !ol()e to ientif' i)portant infor)ation for note ta*ing. >he learners listen to a number of sentences
and extract the content words, which are read with greater stress. >hen, they write down the content words as notes. &. Beco)e a+are of sentence le!el feat(res in lect(re te%t. >he learners listen to a segment of a lecture while reading a transcript of the material. >hey are supposed to notice the incomplete sentences, pauses, and verbal fillers. ,. Beco)e a+are of organi-ational c(es in lect(re te%t. >he learners look at a lecture transcript and circle all the cue words used to enumerate the main points. >hen they listen to the lecture segment and note the organi?ational cues. . Beco)e a+are of le%ical an s(pra/seg)ental )ar*er for efinitions. >he learners read a list of lexical cues that signal a definition. +oreover they also listen to signals of the speakerJs intent such as rhetorical *uestions. 0. Ientif' specific points of infor)ation. >he learners read a skeleton outline of a lecture in which the main categories are given but the specific 10 ichards, Back /., C enandya, Willy "., #p+ cit+, p. #)'. 11 >omors?ki, @risten ., #p+ cit, p. #A).
7
examples are left blank. >hen, they are supposed to listen to the lecture and find the information that belongs to the blanks. 1. Use the intro(ction to the lect(re to preict its foc(s an irection. >he learners listen to the introductory section of a lecture then reading a number of topics on the answer sheet and choosing the topic that best expresses what the lecture will discuss. 2. Use the lect(re transcript to preict the content of the ne%t section. >he learners read a section of a lecture transcript. >hey are supposed to stop reading at a Huncture point and predict what will come next then they read on to confirm the prediction. 3. 4in a )ain iea of a lect(re seg)ent. >he learners listen to a section of a lecture that describes a statistical trend. While listening, look at three graphs that show a change over time and select the graph that best illustrates the lecture. 5. Use inco)ing etails to eter)ine the acc(rac' of preictions a6o(t content. >he learners listen to the introductory sentences to predict some
of the main ideas they expect to hear in the lecture. >hen they listen to the lecture as it played. >hey are supposed to note whether the instructor talks about the points they predicted. If she:he does, then they note a detail about the point. $7. Deter)ine the )ain ieas of section of a lect(re 6' anal'sis of the etails in that section. >he learners listen to a section of a lecture and
take notes on the important details. >hen they relate the details to form an understanding of the main points in that section. $$. 8a*e inferences 6' ientif'ing ieas on the sentence le!el on that lea to e!al(ati!e state)ents. >he learners listen to a statement and take
notes on the important words. >hey indicate what further meaning can be inferred from the statement. >hey also indicate the words in the original statement then decide which one serves to cue the interference. $&. Use *no+lege of the te%t an the lect(re content to fill in )issing infor)ation. >he learners listen to lecture segment to get the gist. >hen
they listen to a statement from which words have been omitted. >hey are
8
re*uired to use their knowledge of the text and of the general content, then fill the missing information. $,. Use *no+lege of the te%t an the lect(re content to isco!er the lect(rer9s )isstate)ents an to s(ppl' the ieas that he:she )eant to sa'. >he learners listen to a lecture segment that contains an incorrect
term. >hen, they write the incorrect term and the term that the lecturer should have used. $inally, the learners indicate what clues helped them find the misstatement. 1# C. Characteristics of Teaching Listening for A!ance >he theoretical, empirical, and practical aspects
of
listening
comprehension should have been set out. Listening classrooms need to develop both bottomAup and topAdown listening skills in learners. Such an approach is particularly important in classrooms where students are exposed to substantial amounts of authentic data, because they will not &and should not expect to( understand every word. In summary, an effective listening course will be characteri?ed by the following features. 1. >he materials should be based on a wide range of authentic texts, including both monologues and dialogues. #. SchemaAbuilding tasks should precede the listening. ). Strategies for effective listening should be incorporated into the materials. 7. Learners should be given opportunities to progressively structure their listening by listening to a text several times and by working through increasingly challenging listening tasks. 4. Learners should know what they are listening for and why. 8. >he task should include opportunities for learners to play an active role in their own learning. G. /ontent should be personali?ed.1) >he role of the teacher and the learners should both understand those characteristics in order to make the learning process run well. +oreover, these characteristics should also be the main guideline for both learners and teacher.
12 Drown, E. 2ouglas, #p+ cit , p. #7'A#45. 13 ichards, Back /., C enandya, Willy "., #p+ cit+, p. #41.
9
D. Principles of Teaching Listening for A!ance >here are several principles underlying the process in teaching as follow. $. In an interacti!e; fo(r/s*ill c(rric(l(); )a*e s(re that 'o( on9t o!erloo* the i)portance of techni<(es that specificall' e!elop listening co)prehension co)petence. If the curriculum is strongly contentAbased, or otherwise dedicated to
the integration of skills. emember that each of the separate skills deserves special focus in appropriate doses. It is easy to adopt a philosophy of Hust letAting students experience! language without careful attention to component skills. Decause aural comprehension itself cannot be overly !observe!, teacher something incorrectly assume that the inp(t provided in the classroom will always be converted into inta*e. >he creation of effective listening techni*ues re*uires studied attention to all the principles of listening already summari?ed in this chapter. &. Techni<(es sho(l 6e intrinsicall' )oti!ation. "ppeal to listener personal interests and goals. Since background information &schemata( is an important factor in listening, take into fill account the experiences and goals and abilities of your students can be both facilitating and interfering in the process of listening. >hen, once a techni*ue is launched, try to feel selfApropelled toward its final obHective. ,. Techni<(es sho(l (tili-e a(thentic lang(age an conte%t. "uthentic language and realAworld task enable students to see the
relevance of classroom activity to their long term communicative goals. Dy introducing natural text rather than concocted, artificial material, students will more readily dive in to the activity. . Caref(ll' consier the for) to listeners9 responses /omprehension itself is not externally observable. We cannot peer into a learnerJs brain through a little window of some kind and empirically observe exactly what is stored there after someone else has said something. We can overt responses &verbal or nonverbal( to speech. It is therefore important for teacher to design techni*ues in such a way that studentsJ responses indicate different ways that we can check listenersJ comprehension6
10
• •
2oingAthe listener respond physically to a command /hoosingA the listener selects from alternatives such as picture,
•
obHect, texts >ransferringAthe listener draws a picture of what is heard "nsweringA the listener answer *uestions about the message /ondensingAthe listener outlines or takes notes on a lecture 3xtendingAthe listener provides an ending to a story heard 2uplicatingAthe listener translates the message into the native
•
language or repeats it verbatim +odelingAthe listener orders a meal, for example, after listening to
•
a model order. /onversingAthe listener engages in a conversation that indicates
• • • •
appropriate processing of information. 0. Enco(rage the e!elop)ent of listening strategies. +ost foreign language students are simply not aware of how to listen one of your Hobs is to e*uip them with listening strategies that extend beyond the classroom, draw their attention to the value of such strategies as6
•
Looking for keywords Looking for nonverbal cues to meaning %redicting a speakerJs purpose by the context of the spoken
•
discourse "ssociating information with oneJs existing cognitive structure
• •
&activating schemata( 0uessing at meanings • Seeking clarification • Listening for the general gist • $or tests of listening comprehension various testAtaking strategies. • 1. Incl(e 6oth 6otto)/(p top/o+n listening techni<(es Speech processing theory distinguishes between two types of processing in both listening and reading comprehension. DottomAup processing proceed from sounds to words to grammatical relationships to lexical meaning. 3tc....to a final message.! >opAdown processing is evoked from a bank of prior knowledge and global expectations! &+orley. 1''16-G( and other background information that the listener brings to the text. DottomAup techni*ues typically focus on sounds. Word,
11
intonation, grammatical structures. "nd other components of spoken language. >opAdown techni*ues are more concerned with the activation of schemata. With deriving meaning, with global understanding, and with the interpretation of a text. It is important for learners to operate from both directions since both can offer keys to determining the meaning of spoken discourse.17 Eowever, this principles, in a communicative, interactive context, teacher is supposed to dwell too heavily on the bottomAup. $or to do so may hamper the development of a learnerJs allAimportant automaticity in processing speech.
E. Proce(res of Teaching Listening for A!ance $rom the late 1'85s, practitioners recogni?ed the importance of listening
and began to set aside time for practicing the skill. " relatively standard format for the listening lesson developed at this time6 A Pre/listening. %reAteaching of all important new vocabulary in the A
passage. Listening. Includes extensive listening &followed by general *uestions establishing context( and intensive listening &followed by detailed
A
comprehension *uestions(. Post/listening. "nalysis of the language in the text & -h" did the spea.er use the present perfect/( Listen and repeat6 teacher pauses the tape, learners repeat words.14 Eowever, the following eight processes are the procedures offered by
Drown are all involved in comprehension, with the exception of the initial and final processes below, no se*uence is implied hereK they all occur. If not 14 Drown, E. 2ouglas, #p+ cit , p. #77A#78. 15 ichards, Back /., C enandya, Willy "., #p+ cit+, p. #7#.
12
simultaneously, then in extremely rapid succession. eurological time must be viewed in term of microsecond. 1. >he hearer processes what weJll call raw speech! and holds an image! of it in shortAterm memory. >his image consist of the constituents &phrases, clauses, cohesive markers, intonation and stress patterns( of a stream of speech. #. >he hearer determines the type of speech event that is being processed. >he hearer must, for example, ascertain whether this is a conversation, a speech, a radio, broadcast, etc., and then appropriately! color! the interpretation of the perceived message. ). >he hearer infers the obHectives of the speaker through consideration of the type of speech event, the context and content. So, for examples, one determines whether the speaker wishes to persuade. >o re*uest, to exchange pleasantries, to affirm, to deny, to inform, and so forth. >hus the function of the message in inferred. 7. >he hearer recall background information &orA schemataA see chapter 18 for more on this( relevant to the particular context and subHect matter. " lifetime of experiences and knowledge are used to perform cognitive associations in order to bring a plausible interpretation to the message. 4. >he hearer assigns a literal meaning to the utterance, this process involves a set of semantic interpretations of the surface strings that the ear has perceived. In many instances, literal and intended meanings match. So, for example, if one of your students walks into your office as you are madly grading papers and says she has a *uestion that she would appreciate your answering. >hen says do you have the time! the literal meaning &do you possess enough time now to answer me( is appropriate however, this process may take on a peripheral role in cases where literal meanings are irrelevant to the message, is in metaphorical or! idiomatic! language. If, for example, a stranger sitting beside you in a bus has been silent for a period of time and then says.! 2o you have the time! the appropriate response is not a! yes! or a no! but rather itJs *uarter to nine! or whatever second language learners must, in interpret correctly.
13
8. >he hearer assigns an intended meaning to the utterance. >he person on the bus intended to find out what time of day it was, even though the literal meaning
didnJt
directly
convey
that
message.
Eow
often
do
misunderstandings stem from false assumptions that are made on the hearerJs part about the intended meaning of the speaker " key to human communication is the ability to match perceived meaning with intended meaning. >his matchAmaking. =f course, can extend well beyond simple metaphorical and its breakdown can be caused by careless speech, inattention of the hearer, conceptual complexity, contextual miscues, psychological barriers, and a host of other performance variables. G. >he hearer determines whether information should be retained is shortA term or longAterm memory. ShortAterm memoryAa matter of a few secondA is appropriate, for example, in contexts that simply call for a *uick oral response from hearer. LongAterm memory is more common when, say you are processing information in a lecture. >here are, of course, many points in between. -. >he hearer deletes the form in which the message was originally received. >he
words
and
phrase
and
sentences
themselves
are
*uickly
forgottenApruned!Ain '' percent of speech acts. Fou have no need to retain this short of cognitive clutter.! Instead the important information, if any is retained conceptually.18 In addition, it should be clear from the foregoing that listening comprehension is an interactive process. "fter the initial reception of sound, we human beings perform at least seven other maHor operations on that set of sound waves in conversational setting, of course, immediately after the listening stage, further interaction takes place as the hearer then becomes speaker in a response of some kind. "ll of these processes are important for you to keep in mind as teaching. >hey are all relevant to a learnerJs for listening, to performance factors that may cause difficulty in processing
16 Drown, E. 2ouglas, #p+ cit , p. #)4A#)8.
14
speech, to overall principles of effective listening techni*ues, and to the choices you make of what techni*ues to use and when in your classroom.
4. Ho+ to Appl' Teaching Listening for A!ance >eaching listening for advanced is considered the highest level of
teaching listening. In the teaching listening for advanced, the learners would focus on teaching listening as comprehension, also called proficiency level. >his view of listening is based on the assumption that the main function of listening in second language learning is to facilitate understanding of spoken discourse. >wo different kinds of processes are involved in understanding spoken discourse. >hese are often referred to as bottomAup and topAdown processing.1G $. Botto)/(p processing DottomAup processing refers to using the incoming input as the basis for understanding the message. /omprehension begin with the received data that is analy?ed as successive levels of organi?ation M sounds, words, clauses, sentences, texts M until the meaning is derived. /omprehension is viewed as a process of decoding. >he listenerJs lexical and grammatical competence in a language provides the basis for bottomAup processing. >he input is scanned for familiar words, and grammatical knowledge is used to work out the relationship between elements of sentences. /lark and /lark &1''G( summari?e this vies of listening in the following way6 a. Learners take in raw speech and hold a phonological representation of it in working memory. b. >hey immediately attempt to organi?e the phonological representation into constituents, identifying their content and function. c. >hey identify each constituent and then construct underlying propositions, building continually onto hierarchical representation of propositions. d. =nce they have identified the propositions for a constituent, they retain them in working memory and at some point purge memory of 17 ichards, Back /., Teaching Listening and Spea.ing: 0rom Theor" to Practice,
&/ambridge6 /ambridge niversity %ress, #55-(, p. 7.
15
the phonological representation. In doing this, they forgot the exact wording and retain the meaning. 1Eowever, teaching bottomAup processing to the advanced learners re*uires the learners to have a large vocabulary and a good working knowledge of sentence structure to process texts bottomAup. 3xercise that develop bottomAup processing help the learner to do such thing as the following6 a. b. c. d. e.
etain input while it is being processed ecogni?e word and clause divisions ecogni?e key words ecogni?e key transitions in a discourse ecogni?e grammatical relationship between key elements in
sentences f. se stress and intonation to identify word and sentence functions. $urthermore, in the language classroom, examples of the kind of tasks that develop bottomAup listening skills re*uire listeners to do the following kinds of things6 a. b. c. d. e. f. g.
Identify the referents of pronouns in an utterance ecogni?e the time reference of an utterance 2istinguish between positive and negative statements ecogni?e the order in which words occurred in an utterance Identify se*uence markers Identify key words that occurred in a spoken text Identify which modal verbs occurred in a spoken text.
&. Top/o+n processing >opAdown processing, on the other hand, refers to the use of
background knowledge in understanding the meaning of a message. Whereas bottomAup processing goes from language to meaning, topAdown processing goes from meaning to language. >he background knowledge re*uired for topAdown processing may be previous knowledge about the topic of discourse, situational or contextual knowledge, or knowledge in 18 /lark and /lark, Ps"cholog" and Language: An introduction to Ps"cholinguistics,
&ew Fork6 Earcourt Drace Bovanovich, 1'GG(, p. 7'.
16
the form of schemata! or scripts! M plans about the overall structure of events and the relationship between them. +uch of humanJs knowledge of the world consist of knowledge about specific situations, the people that someone might expect to encounter in such situations, what their goals and purposes are, and how typically accomplish them. Likewise, the knowledge of thousands of topics and concepts, their associated meanings, and links to other topics and concepts. In applying this prior knowledge about things, concepts, people, and events to a particular utterance, comprehension can often proceed from the topAdown. >he actual discourse heard is used to confirm expectations and to fill out details. In addition, teaching topAdown processing for advanced learners involves several exercises that may develop the learnerJs ability to do the following6 a. se the key words to construct the schema of a discourse b. Infer the setting for a text c. Infer the role of the participants and their goals d. Infer causes and effects e. "nticipate *uestions related to the topic or situation Desides, the following activities develop topAdown listening skills6 a. Students generate a set of *uestions they expect to hear about a topic, then listen to see if they are answered. b. Students generate a list of things they already know about a topic and things they would like to learn more about, then listen and compare. c. Students read one speakerJs part in a conversation, predict the other speakerJs part, then listen and compare. d. Students read a list of key points to be covered in a talk, then listen to see which ones are mentioned. e. Students listen to part of a story, complete the story ending, then listen and compare endings. f. Students read news headlines, guess what happened, then listen to the full news items and compare. In realAworld listening, both bottomAup and topAdown processing generally occur together. +oreover, successful listeners use both bottomAup
17
and topAdown strategies. 1' >he extent to which one or the other dominates depends on the learnerJs familiarity with the topic and content of a text, the density of information in a text, the text type, and the learnerJs purpose in listening. " typical lesson in current teaching materials involves a threeApart se*uence consisting of preAlistening, whileAlistening, and postAlistening and contains activities that link bottomAup and topAdown listening &$ield, 1''-(. >he preAlistening phase prepares students for both topAdown and bottomA up processing through activities involving activating prior knowledge, making preAdictions, and reviewing key vocabulary. >he whileAlistening phase focuses on comprehension through exercises that re*uire selective listening, gist listening, se*uencing, etc. >he postAlistening phase typically involves a response to comprehension and may re*uire students to give opinions about a topic. Eowever, it can also include a bottomAup focus if the teacher and the listeners examine the texts or parts of the text in detail, focusing on sections that students could not follow. >his may involve a microanalysis of sections of the text to enable students to recogni?e such features as blends, reduced words, ellipsis, and other features of spoken discourse that they were unable to process or recogni?e. In addition, successful listening can also be looked at in terms of the strategies the listener uses when listening. 2oes the learner focus mainly on the content of a text, or does he or she also consider how to listen " focus on how to listen raises the issues of listening strategies. Strategies can be thought of as the ways in which a learner approaches and manages a task, and listeners can be taught effective ways of approaching and managing their listening. >hese activities seek to involve listeners actively in the process of listening. Duck ȧ( identifies two kinds of strategies in teaching listening for advanced, as follows6 19 unan, 2avid, Language Teaching !ethodolog", &London6 %rentice Eall, 1''-(, p.
#4
18
1. Cogniti!e strategies 6 +ental activities related to comprehending and storing input in working memory or longAterm memory for later retrieval. #. 8etacogniti!e strategies 6 >hose conscious or unconscious mental activities that perform an executive function in the management of cognitive strategies. #5 "nother approach to incorporating listening strategies in a listening lesson for advanced involves a cycle of activities. >here are five steps in guided metacognitive se*uence in a listening lesson from 0oh and Fusnita Ȯ(, namely6 1. =tep $ > Pre/listening acti!it'. In pairs, students predict the possible words and phrases that they might hear. >hey write down their predictions. >hey may write some words in their first language. #. =tep & > 4irst listen. "s they are listening to the text, students underline or circle those words or phrases &including firstAlanguage e*uivalents( that they have predicted correctly. >hey also write down new information they hear. ). =tep , > Pair process/6ase isc(ssion. In pairs, students compare what they have understood so far and explain how they arrived at the understanding. >hey identify the parts that caused confusion and disagreement and make a note of the parts of the text that will re*uire special attention in the second listen. 7. =tep > =econ listen. Students listen to those parts that have caused confusion or disagreement areas and make notes of any new information they hear. 4. =tep 0 > ?hole/class process/6ase isc(ssion. >he teacher leads a discussion to confirm comprehension before discussing with students the strategies that they reported using. #1
20 Duck, 0, Assessing Listening , &/ambridge6 /ambridge niversity %ress, #551(, p.
157. 21 ichards, Back /., #p+ cit+, p. 1)A17.
19
G. E%a)ple of Teaching Listening for A!ance " lesson plan is a framework for a lesson.## In the teaching listening for
advanced, the example of the lesson plan would be as follow. Lesson Plan Le!el@ "dvanced level Ti)e@ 85 minutes Ai)s an o6ecti!es@ 1. 8ain ai)@ >o provide input on listening tasks through the vehicle of a listening task itself, i.e. NLoop inputN, and provide practice in listening for specific information in an exam type format. #. =(6siiar' ai)s@ >o raise awareness of exam strategies for the listening portion of the exam, provide practice in listening for gist, predicting before listening, collaborative speaking and intensive reading. ). Ass()e *no+lege@ " general familiarity with listening task procedures derived from previous inAclass practice. Teaching planning@
1. Some of the students in attendance have Hoined the group recently, and have not had as much exposure to and practice with the listening portion of the exam format as others who have been with the group since =ctober. >eacher suspects that in the warmer stage, where he will ask the students to discuss what they know about it, the newer ones may have little to say and have a difficult time coming up with any tips for others. >he solution will be pairing or grouping the newer and less experienced students with the ones who have been in the class longer, as they should be able to provide some of the information that the others may lack. It should be noted, as well, that it is not essential nor even desirable that everyone be completely familiar with the exam format in great detail, as the absence of knowledge should encourage them to listen carefully to others that have ideas and remain engaged throughout the lesson.
22 obertson, /ullum and "cklam, ichar, Action Plan for Teachers: A 1uide to
Teaching English, &3nglish6 Dritish Droadcasting %ublishing, #555(, p.G.
20
#. >he recording that is going to be used in the lesson is homemade and the *uality may be less than what the students are used to listening to, and therefore this may make it more difficult to understand and follow. >he conversation is also *uite natural and contains many of the features of natural conversational speech that the students often find difficult, such as topic shift, turn taking, collo*uialisms, redundancy, false starts, and features of connected speech. "lthough not all of these potentially difficult features are ones that can be compensated for in the lesson itself, teacher is supposed to reduce the difficulties inherent in following a recorded conversation on a potentially unfamiliar subHect by giving the class the opportunity to activate any background knowledge they do have &collectively( in the warmer stage, and in that way make it easier on them when they listen for the first time, activating their OschemataO, or OscriptO to aid their understanding. In the same way, by giving them very general information OgistO *uestions to focus on before the first listening, and allowing them to predict associated lexical items, teacher is supposed to give them a purpose for listening as well as aids to better follow and understand the conversation. ). >he multiple choice task, which is in examAstyle format, may prove to be *uite difficult for some of the OweakerO students as the *uestioning is purposefully somewhat complicated. "nd as teacher has previously mentioned,
the
conversation is *uite natural in speed and in
conversational speech features that may make it difficult for the weaker students to easily Opull outO, as it were, the information re*uired to answer the *uestions. Dy breaking down the five main topics covered chronologically in the taped conversation into five *uestions, teacher is supposed to make the task reasonably accessible even for the OweakerO students in the class. "lso, by encouraging everyone to predict and underline key words in the time before they listen a second time, teacher is supposed to simplify the processing load and improve their chances of success. In the unlikely event that the maHority of the class found the
21
taped conversation and listening tasks simply too hard to do, the teacher might have to make adHustments. =ne such adHustment could be to break down the tape into sections and play each one at a time. >his would potentially throw the timing of the lesson off but because the students must come first, it could turn out to be the appropriate action to take. 7. In the course of the lesson, there are several different activities that re*uire time, such as preAlistening, whileAlistening and postAlistening activities and there is always the possibility that time management will become an issue. >he teacher is supposed to compensate for this eventuality by allowing reasonable timing for each activity, at times explicitly telling the class how much time they have for each activity, and by providing feedback on an =E> in order to save time. 4. In the second listening task, the teacher is asking the class to follow the flow of turnA taking and recogni?e which speaker is making which statement. When they check their answers in the transcript, it may be difficult and time consuming to pinpoint the information in the text, having such a large amount of text to deal with. Dy providing the line number in the transcript, teacher is supposed to aid the students in locating the information *uickly in order to check their answers. "s mentioned above, if the listening task and recording prove, or have proven to be much too difficult, at this point. " possible solution could be to break down the recording into sections, pausing after each *uestion, and in that way help the class deal with the unforeseen difficulties. 8. In the final part of the lesson, the teacher asks the class to take on roles and briefly act out a short exchange using information learned in the lesson. Some students may be overloaded by now and not be able to think on their feet. If time allows, the teacher will ask the students playing the same roles to work together and think of or predict a few problems or answers to problems in order to make the brief activity more communicative and with the idea that two heads are sometimes better than one. In the event that time is running too short to allow this kind of interaction, teacher will simply provide each student with a few problems
22
or prompts to anticipate problems and ask them to get on with it after they have had time to think on their own for a minute. H. 8aterial of Teaching Listening for A!ance %orter and oberts &1'-1( stated that teacher cannot expect learners to
handle types of language they have never, or hardly ever been exposed to. #) It would be nice if teacher could only use authentic listening materials in the classroom. =ne way to approach this is to use materials which are very close to real 3nglish, but take into account some of the weaknesses or problems that learners at advanced level are likely to have. In most classrooms, /2s are now replacing tapes as the main way to present listening materials. >here are many reasons for thisK /2s are cheap, easy to use and can be used to expose the students to a wide range of accents and listening situations.#7 Eowever, there is no reason to limit ourselves to only using recorded materials. /onsider for a moment that in most realAlife listening situations, we can actually see the person who is speaking. >he speakerOs body language also provides a myriad of additional hints to help us understand what is being said. +ovies or television shows, or even an invited speaker can be used to add spice to the classroom and to make the listening more real for the students. $urthermore, teaching listening for advanced based on the lesson plan mentioned above re*uires the following materials6 1. " OhomemadeO recording of two teaching colleagues discussing tips and advice for students preparing for the advanced listening exam. #. >wo OhomemadeO handouts in the style and format of the advanced listening exam, section /, based on the recording. ). " copy of the transcript, transcribed as faithfully as possible, by the teacher. I. 8eia of Teaching Listening for A!ance 23 %orter, 2. C oberts, B., Authentic Listening Activities, in +.E. Long CB./. ichards
&3ds.(, !ethodolog" in TES#L, &owley, +ass6 ewbury Eouse, 1'-1(, p. 1G'. 24 Eowell, Simon, >eaching Listening /omprehension.! Listening 1ood Listeners
Internet Listening , 11'.
23
owadays, many media can be used for teaching listening. "s r &1'-7( puts it into clear that both recorded and live speech should have a placed in the classroom.#4 +oreover, the following media is re*uired to fulfill the lesson plan initially explained6 1. "n =E% and =E>s of the two handouts with the answers for feedback purposes. #. %rompts on card for the warmer and post listening discussion. ). " tape recorder Mto play the recording, obviously.
CHAPTER III CLO=ING A. Concl(sion >eaching is not merely transfer knowledge from teacher to the learners.
ather, teaching is assisting learners in order to be able to do something. >eaching listening is one of the four skills most re*uired in 3nglish. >he 25 r, %enny, #p+ cit , p. #4.
24
highest level of listening is the advanced. >herefore, teaching listening for advanced is the process of giving listening lessons for the highest level of learners. >here are two kinds of teaching listening for advanced, namely extensive listening and intensive listening. =n the other hand, the types of teaching listening
advanced
learners
occupies
five
different
types,
namely
discriminative, comprehensive, critical:evaluative, therapeutic, appreciative. >here are many strategies, approaches, methods, or techni*ues that can be employed. In this paper, the teaching process involves cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies. >he techni*ue being occupied is bottomAup and topAdown processing. >eaching listening for advanced re*uires many elements, including media and the materials. >he materials could be transcript of the listening while the media definitely employs tape recorder or /2 player. B. =(ggestion +ay this paper be of some benefits for all the readers or teachers that intend to conduct or compile a teaching listening at advanced level of the learners
BIBLIOGRAPHIE= #4
Drown, E. 2ouglas, Teaching b" Principle: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagog". ew Bersey6 %rentice Eall egents, 1''7. Duck, 0, Assessing Listening , /ambridge6 /ambridge niversity %ress, #551. /lark and /lark, Ps"cholog" and Language: An introduction to Ps"cholinguistics , ew Fork6 Earcourt Drace Bovanovich, 1'GG. Earmer, Beremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching , 7th 3dition. 3ngland6 %earson 3ducation Longman, #55G.
25
Eornby, " S. #$ford Advanced Learner%s Dictionar", -th 3dition. ew Fork6 =xford niversity %ress, #515. +orley, Boan, Listening /omprehension in second:foreign Language Instruction.! In /elceA+urcia, +arianne &3d.(, Teaching English as a Second or 0oreign Language, #nd 3dition. ewbury Eouse, 1''1. unan, 2avid, Language Teaching !ethodolog", London6 %rentice Eall, 1''-. %orter, 2. C oberts, B., "uthentic Listening "ctivities!, in +.E. Long CB./. ichards &3ds.(, !ethodolog" in TES#L, owley, +ass6 ewbury Eouse, 1'-1. ichards, Back /., C enandya, Willy "., !ethodolog" in Language Teaching , /ambridge6 /ambridge niversity %ress, #55#. ichards, Back /., Teaching Listening and Spea.ing: 0rom Theor" to Practice , /ambridge6 /ambridge niversity %ress, #55-. obertson, /ullum and "cklam, ichar, Action Plan for Teachers: A 1uide to Teaching English, 3nglish6 Dritish Droadcasting %ublishing, #555. Shelton, Scott, Teaching Listening for Advanced Learners: Problem and Solution , retrieved from6 9http6::www.developingteachers.com:articles;tchtraining:list1;scott.htm<, accessed on =ctober 1', #517. >omors?ki, @risten ., Developing Listening Comprehension with Internet esources, Washington6 0eorge Washington niversity, #51). r, %enny, Teaching Listening comprehension, /ambridge6 /ambridge niversity %ress, 1'-7. Eowell, Simon, >eaching Listening /omprehension.! Listening 1ood Listeners Internet Listening .
Laclare, 3lton C owberry, Bon, sing +oodle for Listening Skills 2evelopment.! Proceedings #8 of !oodle !oot &apan '()*, +oodle "ssociation of Bapan, #517. 0haderpanahi, Leila, sing "uthentic "ural +aterial to 2evelop Listening /omprehension in the 3$L /lassroom.! English Language Teaching vol. 4, #51#.
