Developing Listening Skills

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Session objectives

• Discuss and analyse different purposes and ways of listening

• Explain how top down & bottom up processing influence comprehension

• Apply understanding to task design for listening skill

Which ‘listening experiences’ involved:

1. Involved speaking & listening?

2. Speaker physically present?

3. Listening for specific info?

4. For pleasure or entertainment?

5. Necessary to listen closely?

6. Allowed less attentive listening

Listening can be:

Potential difficulties for additional language learners

1. Watching news on TV

2. Listening to news on radio

3. Talking about news with a friend – face to face

4. Talking about news with a friend – on the phone

5. Listening to a recording of news in the classroom

6. Listening to a song

Potential difficulties for additional language learners

• Lack of visual reinforcement

• Inability to interact

• Inability to control rate on input

• Pressure to speak

• Poor acoustics

• The topic: density of information, lack of repetition

listen

take notes

talk together

write together

Dictogloss

Listen to the texts

• Did you understand all the words in the text?

• Did you understand the overall meaning of the text?

Listen again…

• What was different about each text the second time you heard it? Were the texts easier to understand?

• What factors make comprehension easier of more difficult?

• What are the implications of this activity on listening and reading in the classroom?

• What can the teacher do to make comprehension easier?

How can we help …..

Listening to the news

Bottom Up

Top Down

Knowledge of grammar

If “Brad has left Angelina” we can generally assume that Angelina is now alone in the house, not Brad, and that it happened recently.

Knowledge of vocabulary

How words sound and what they mean. If “Brad has left Angelina” we know that they are no longer a couple.

General knowledge of the world

Who is who, where things are, etc.

Knowledge of a particular event

For example, a story you are following as it affects you, or something you overheard on the bus and want to know more, or just a general awareness of a particular event.

Pre-Listening Tasks

While Listening Tasks

Post Listening Tasks