A Developmental View of Listening Skills (adapted from Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 3rd edition, Marianne Celce-Murcia, editor)
True beginners of a second language do not have adequate processing skills to hear the language. They perceive it as undifferentiated noise. You may have even experienced this yourself in a country where the language is one you have never studied or really every heard spoken. However, very soon, learners begin to sift and sort the information by forming categories and differentiating sounds. As an English teacher or tutor, it is helpful to be able to see the fundamental components of English to appreciate the different kinds of processes that go on for a learner. Highways to English is a good source of explanation and description of English phonetics. The explanation of processing below will give you a framework from which to understand how and when some of this information may be useful.
Processing of language is classified as bottom-up or top-down. Bottom-up means an exercise focuses on form and the structural system of English. Top-down focuses on meaning. Here, a learner uses global or broader strategies and may rely on skills and ways of knowing she already knows. An interactive exercise is one in which both forms of processing are activated.
Bottom-up Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Beginning-Level Listeners
· Intonation
o Rising/falling, mark with punctuation
o Listen to pairs of sentences spoken by a driver and policeman. Use intonation pattern to determine whether one or the other is repeating or asking a question.
· Discriminate between phonemes
o Listen to pairs of words, circle the one you hear
o Listen to several words and determine which is different
· Listen to word endings
o Listen for different ‘s’ sounds at ends of words: s, z, iz
o Listen to sentences and decide if the verb is in the present tense or past; different endings of –ed: t, d, id
· Recognize syllable patterns, number of syllables and word stress
o Listen to a text and count or note syllable patterns
· Be aware of sentence fillers in informal speech
o Listen to sentences and identify sentence fillers such as: well, I mean, like, you know
· Select details from the text
o Listen to recorded telephone menus from movie theaters and listen for show times.
o Listen to conversations about sickness and listen for symptoms
Top-Down Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Beginning-Level Listeners
· Discriminate emotional reactions
o Listen to statement about a vacation and decide whether or not the speaker enjoyed the vacation
· Get the gist or main idea of a passage
o Listen to a dialogue and decide what type of weather is being described
o Listen to a series of short conversations and for each one mark a picture being described that shows where the picture took place
o Listen to a number of short biographies and for each write the title that expresses the main idea
· Recognize the topic
o From a list of possible topics predict the topics that people will discuss when they don’t know each other well. Listen to conversations and note which are discussed.
o Listen to a series of process descriptions and mark the picture that it tells about
Interactive Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Beginning Level Listeners
· Listen to speech to determine if statement is formal or informal
· Recognize a familiar word and relate it to a category
o Listen to statements about what people want to buy and circle a picture of it
· Compare information in memory with incoming information
o Read a sentence then listen and decide if they are the same.
o Listen to a passage that describes an event, then listen to a sentence and remember its meaning. On a worksheet, pick a sentence that would best follow.
· Compare information that you hear with your own experience
o Listen to statements about recycling in the US and compare with your country.
The Intermediate Level Learner
At this level, learners know the basics of words and sounds, but have little understanding of the rules of fast speech. They are beyond the limits of words and short phrases and their memory can retain longer phrases and sentences.
Bottom-Up Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Intermediate-Level Listeners
· Differentiate between content and function words in stress pattern
o Read a series of sentences and predict which words will be stressed (content words) and which will be reduced (function words). Listen to sentences and confirm predictions
· Find the stressed syllable
o Listen to a list of multisyllable words. Repeat each one and check whether the stress is on first, second or third syllable. Note which syllables are most frequently stressed.
· Recognize words with reduced vowels or dropped syllables
o Listen to series of sentences for ‘can’ or ‘can’t’
· Recognize words as they are linked in the speech stream
o Listen to conversation for words and phrases that are linked
Top-Down Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Intermediate-Level Listeners
· Discriminate between registers of speech and tones of voice
o Listen to sentences of flat or varied intonation to determine whether speaker is enthusiastic, friendly, sincere by the change in voices.
· Listen to identify the speaker or the topic
o Listen to short conversations of people making small talk, and match with picture of speakers and setting
o Read headlines of five different news stories. Listen to the news stories and match each with a headline.
· Find main ideas and supporting details
o Listen to short conversation between friends. On answer sheet are scenes from TV show. Decide which speaker saw which show.
· Making inferences
o Listen to a man and women ordering food in a restaurant. Based on food choices, decide which is more conscious of health concerns.
Interactive Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Intermediate-Level Listeners
· Use word stress to understand speakers intent
o Listen to a series of statement about money problems. Circle words emphasized. Discuss what is important to speaker and how speaker feels.
· Recognize missing grammar markers in colloquial speech and reconstruct message.
o Listen to a series of short questions in which the auxiliary verb and subject have been deleted. Use grammatical knowledge to fill in. “(Have you) got some extra?”
o Listen to a series of questions with assimilated auxiliary and subject, use grammatical knowledge to fill in: (does it/is it) “Zit need more salt?” and “Zit OK?”
· Use context and knowledge of the world to build listening expectations; listen to confirm expectations
o Based on knowledge of other cultures, predict whether their topics of conversation in an academic setting will be personal or impersonal. Listen to a newcomer describe his experience and discuss after with a partner whether predictions were correct, and revise your ideas.
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