Listening Lecture 5 PDF

Lecture Five LISTENING FIRST YEAR Application of Schema Theory in Listening Teaching A. Pre-listening Activities: Pre-listening stage is a necessary phase, which turns the students' passive state of mind into an active one and prepares students for the while- listening with a purpose, a high mo...

Lecture Five LISTENING FIRST YEAR Application of Schema Theory in Listening Teaching A. Pre-listening Activities: Pre-listening stage is a necessary phase, which turns the students' passive state of mind into an active one and prepares students for the while- listening with a purpose, a high motivation, anticipation as well as some necessary listening skills. 1. Establishing a purpose for listening: A purpose should be given to the learners. Listening purposes vary according to whether learners are involved in listening as a component of social interaction, listening for information, academic listening, listening for pleasure, or for some other reasons. The definition of a purpose enables the listener to listen selectively for significant information, easier as well as more natural than trying to understand everything. 2. Activating existing knowledge: Teachers should give students the questions before they listen to the target text. By reading the questions, students may build up their own expectations about the coming information, and also by trying to find answers to these questions, their prior knowledge on the topic can be activated. 3. Brainstorming: - Brainstorming is a technique whose purpose is to initiate some sort of thinking process, which involves students in a rapid free-association listing of concepts or ideas or facts or feelings relevant to some topic or context. - Brainstorming serves as a warming-up to the theme, as well as the framework for the introduction of some new information. - The teacher introduces the general topic and students are asked to brainstorm possible events, characters, feelings, any information they know about the topic. - By brainstorming, good learners can make intelligent guesses, use contextual clues and trigger a variety of potentially relevant schemata to help their comprehension. 4. Providing necessary cultural background information: At the pre-listening stage, the teacher should provide students with much more cultural background knowledge concerned with the listening material. Listeners who are not familiar with the culture may have considerable difficulty in interpreting the words that they hear even if they can understand their surface meaning. Take the following dialogue as an example, A: Have you got any seats in the stalls, please? B: Yes, we have. A: How much are they, please? B: 3.75 each. A: Are there any seats at 2.50? B: Yes, there are some in the balcony, for how many? A: … How can you interpret varying prices between seats in the stalls and in the balcony…it needs cultural knowledge of Btitish theatre. 5. Multi-media: Projector, computer, scanner, and video presenter will achieve satisfactory results in listening comprehension. Pictures are also very important for listeners to construct complete and permanent schema. It will help them better remember and comprehend and recall the information in the listening materials. For example, while talking about traveling in New York, teachers could show some pictures of the famous places in New York, together with key words below them. Features and history about these places can be explained by teachers. After some actively prepared work at pre-listening stage, students are willing to receive the incoming information. B. While-listening Activities: Teacher intervention during this phase is virtually impossible, because of the ephemeral nature of listening. In listening, especially, the hearer may not always have the opportunity to stop the speaker. Instead, the stream of speech will continue to flow. People listen and think at approximately four times the normal speaking rate. Simply speaking, one can think faster than the speaker can talk. Therefore, students are encouraged to use the “rate gap” to actively process the message. In order to use that extra time wisely, there are several things students can be trained to do: - put down key words, - or wonder what motives the speaker has in saying it, - or predict information expected to be included in the message, - or decide whether the ongoing interpretation is consistent with their predictions, - or summarize frequently in their minds what has been said, - or identify the main points and the speaker’s organization pattern. In all of these above-mentioned activities, schemata can be recalled to help enormously. C. Post-listening Activities: Well-planned post-listening activities are just as important as those before and during. In this stage, students should be encouraged to act upon what they have heard to clarify meaning and extend their thinking. Students can summarize the listening material orally, in writing, or as an outline. Having students retell or summarize the report is proved a useful way of checking comprehension. In addition to the traditional outline format, students could use time lines, flow charts, ladders, circles, diagrams, webs, or maps.  Firstly, these activities strengthen students’ understanding about information having been heard and help them store new information prepared for listening comprehension next time.  If students are asked to take notes during listening, then in this stage, students can also review their notes and add information that they do not have an opportunity to take down during the speech.  In all, in post-listening stage, prior knowledge that has been activated is consolidated and new information that has just been learned get reviewed. Active Listening: Active listening is a skill that can be acquired and developed with practice. However, active listening can be difficult to master and will, therefore, take time and patience to develop. 'Active listening' means, as its name suggests, actively listening. That is fully concentrating on what is being said rather than just passively „hearing‟ the message of the speaker. Active listening involves listening with all senses. - Interest can be conveyed to the speaker by using both verbal and non- verbal messages. - Listeners should remain neutral and non-judgmental, this means trying not to take sides or form opinions. - Listeners should not be tempted to jump in with questions or comments every time there are a few seconds of silence. Active listening involves giving the other person time to explore their thoughts and feelings, they should, therefore, be given adequate time for that. Active listening not only means focusing fully on the speaker but also actively showing verbal and non-verbal signs of listening. Non-Verbal Signs of Attentive or Active Listening: 1- Smile: Small smiles can be used to show that the listener is paying attention to what is being said or as a way of agreeing or being happy about the messages being received. 2- Eye Contact: Eye contact can however be intimidating, especially for more shy speakers – gauge how much eye contact is appropriate for any given situation. 3- Posture: Posture can tell a lot about the sender and receiver in interpersonal interactions. The attentive listener tends to lean slightly forward or sideways whilst sitting. 4- Mirroring Automatic reflection/mirroring of any facial expressions used by the speaker can be a sign of attentive listening. These reflective expressions can help to show sympathy and empathy in more emotional situations. Attempting to consciously mimic facial expressions (i.e. not automatic reflection of expressions) can be a sign of inattention. 5- Distraction The active listener will not be distracted and therefore will refrain from fidgeting, looking at a clock or watch, doodling, playing with their hair or picking their fingernails. Listening Terms Quiz: 1. If we listen to English speakers from different countries, regions or social classes, we'll hear different A-languages b- lyrics c-accents 2. Which can you download for practising your listening skills? A- an e-book b- a podcast c-an article 3. Which kind of computer file can you listen to? A- an image file b- an audio file c- a text file 4. What do we call the written version of something we listen to? A- a transcript b- a recording c- a writing 5. Which can help you understand what's being said in a foreign-language movie? A- subtitles b- lyrics c-emoticons 6. If you can comprehend what you're listening to, you can A- hear it b-understand it c-misunderstand it 7. If you understand the gist of what someone is saying, you understand A- everything b- nothing c-the main point 8. When listening to someone speak, we can understand them better bytheir body language. a- watching b- speaking c-listening to 9. If you're taking in sounds and attaching meaning to them, you're engaged in………listening. A- action b- active c- activated 10. To understand what a song is about, you have to listen to a- the melody B- the instruments C- the lyrics See You Next Time