In teaching listening comprehension we must be careful not to go to extremes, either by being concerned too exclusively with theories without thinking about ...
In teaching listening comprehension we must be careful not to go to extremes, either
by being concerned too exclusively with theories without thinking about their
application to teaching, or by obstinately following frozen routines-opening the
textbook and explaining new words, playing the tape recorder, and asking/answering
questions. It is essential for a teacher to have an overall understanding of what
listening is, why it is difficult for foreign-language learners, and what some solutions
may be. The vital question is how to bridge the gap between an analysis of listening and actual classroom teaching.
What can teachers do to help students master the difficulties?
Not all the problems described above can be overcome. Certain features of the
message and the speaker, for instance, are inevitable. But this does not mean that the
teacher can do nothing about them. S/he can at least provide the students with suitable
listening materials, background and linguistic knowledge, enabling skills, pleasant
classroom conditions, and useful exercises to help them discover effective listening
strategies. Here are a few helpful ideas:
The Message
1. Grade listening materials according to the students’ level, and provide authentic
materials rather than idealized, filtered samples. It is true that natural speech is hard to
grade and it is difficult for students to identify the different voices and cope with
frequent overlaps. Nevertheless, the materials should progress step by step from semiauthenticity that displays most of the linguistic features of natural speech to total
authenticity, because the final aim is to understand natural speech in real life.
2. Design task-oriented exercises to engage the students’ interest and help them learn
listening skills subconsciously. As Ur (1984:25) has said, “Listening exercises are
most effective if they are constructed round a task. That is to say, the students are
required to do something in response to what they hear that will demonstrate their
understanding.” She has suggested some such tasks: expressing agreement or
disagreement, taking notes, marking a picture or diagram according to instructions,
and answering questions. Compared with traditional multiple-choice questions, taskbased exercises have an obvious advantage: they not only test the students’ listening
comprehension but also encourage them to use different kinds of listening skills and
strategies to reach their destination in an active way.
3. Provide students with different kinds of input, such as lectures, radio news, films,
TV plays, announcements, everyday conversation, interviews, storytelling, Engish songs and so on.