英语教学法教程9 Teaching Listening

1、Unit 9 Teaching Listening1. Why does listening seem so difficult for students?2. What do we listen to in everyday life?3. What are the characteristics of the listening process?4. What are the principles and models of teaching listening?5. What are the common activities in teaching listening?9.1 Why

2、does listening seem so difficult?o Importance of listeningn Of the total time an individual is engaged in communication, approximately 9% is devoted to writing, 16% to reading, 30% to speaking, and 45% to listening (Rivers & Temperley, 1978)=Listening should be given more attention in language t

3、eaching.9.1.1 Problems in listeningo Goh (2000) listed some problems reported by learners when listening to an English text.1. Quickly forget what is heard.2. Do not recognize words they know.3. Understand the words but not the intended message.4. Neglect the next part when thinking about meaning.5.

4、 Unable to form a mental representation from words heard.6. Do not understand subsequent parts of input because of earlier problems.9.1.2 Reasons for difficulty in listeningoListening is often neglected in language teaching due to lack of teaching materials, lack of equipment in some schools, and la

5、ck of real-life situations where learners need to understand spoken English.oEven if listening were not neglected,nDifferent speakers produce the same sounds in different ways (dialects, accents, stresses, rhythms, intonations);nThe listener has little or no control over the speed of the input of sp

6、oken material;nSpeech is likely to be distorted with background noise;n (pp. 136-137)9.2 What do we listen to in everyday life? (Ur, 1996)o Loudspeaker announcementso Radio newso Lesson, lectureo Conversation, gossipo Instructionso Watching televisiono Watching movieso Telephone conversationso Inter

7、viewo Shoppingo Story-tellingo Meetingso Negotiationso Theater showo 9.3 Characteristics of the listening process (Ur, 1996)1.SpontaneityoMost of the time we listen to people speaking spontaneously and informally without rehearsing.2.ContextoIs usu known to both L and S, which helps predict what we

8、are going to hear.3.Visual cluesoThe visual clues such as facial expressions, gestures and other body language as well as the surrounding environment help us understand and predict what we hear.4.Listeners responseoMost of the listening in daily life allows L to respond to S (interruption, repetitio

9、n or clarification).5.Speakers adjustmentoS can adjust the way of speaking according to Ls reactions.9.4 Principles and models for teaching listening9.4.1 Four principles1.Focus on process: listening is as active a skill as speaking (attending, parsing, decoding, re-encoding, understanding)2.Combine

10、 listening with other skills: listening is not an isolated skill. Listening +speaking (retelling, interviewing, discussion, answers); listening+ writing (note-taking, a writing task).3.Focus on comprehension of meaning: listening comprehension, not memory checking.4.Grade difficulty level appropriat

11、ely: 3 major factors 1)type of language used; 2) task or purpose in listening; 3) context in which the listening occurs.9.4.2 Principles for selecting and using listening activitiesoOxford (1993: 210) offered 12 principles:1. The listening activity must have a real, communicative purpose.2. The acti

12、vity must use authentic language without significantly slower or simpler speech.3. Pre-listening tasks (e.g. discussing the topic, brainstorming, presenting voc, sharing of related articles) must be used to stimulate the appropriate background knowledge and help learners identify the purpose of the

13、activity.4. The listening text must offer content that is personally interesting and motivating to learners.5.To allow listeners to infer meaning from body language and related context clues, the speaker must be visible whenever possible.6.The activity must offer many environmental clues to meaning.

14、7.When possible, the whole listening text should be given, and then divided into parts that can be repeated.8.At the end, the whole text should be given again, and ss should have opportunity to discuss their hypotheses and how they tested and altered them.9.The activity requires listeners to respond

15、 in some meaningful fashion, individually or in pairs/groups.10. The activity must be fashioned so that ss with normal background knowledge are able to understand the topic.11. The activity must be typical for its own speech type.12. The classroom climate must be non-threatening and positive.9.4.3 M

16、odels of listening process1. Bottom-up modeloListening comprehension starts with sound and meaning recognition, then to words, phrases, and structures.2. Top-down modeloListening comprehension involves “knowledge that a listener brings to a text, sometimes called inside the head information” (Hedge,

17、 2000:232).oListening for gist and making use of contextual clues and background knowledge to construct meaning are emphasized.Interactive modelo The two processes are mutually dependent.o Comprehension is “the result of integration of the information conveyed by the text with information and concep

18、ts already known by the listener.”9.4.4 Three teaching stages1. Pre-listening2. While-listening3. Post-listening9.5 Pre-listening activitieso Three things for teachers to consider:1. How to motivate ss by making the topic relevant and interesting?2. What knowledge is already known to ss and how to a

19、ctivate known knowledge for new knowledge to be built upon?3. What language support is needed?to motivate ss, to activate their prior knowledge, to teach key words or key structures, so as to get ss prepared.9.5.1 Predictingo Good listeners are good predictors.o Teachers should design activities to

20、help ss predict the content of what they are about to hear.o E.g. use a picture, some visual aids; ss read the listening comprehension questions before they listen (guess the topic)9.5.2 Setting the sceneo Teachers help provide the background information to activate ss schema.o For example, a passag

21、e about Yao Ming9.5.3 Listening for the gisto Listening for the gist is similar to skimming a passage in reading.o The key is to ask ss 1 or 2 questions that focus on the main idea or the tone or mood of the whole passage.9.5.4 Listening for specific informationo It is important to expose ss to a va

22、riety of types of listening texts for a variety of purposes so that they will develop a variety of listening strategies to use for different situations.o E.g. listen to the weather report for tomorrows temperature in the city where we live; listen to airport announcements for the boarding time of ou

23、r flightSummary on pre-listening activitieso Pre-listening tasks should not take much time.o We select most often one kind of activity before each listening session.o The purpose is to motivate ss, activate their schema, to add context, prepare ss for necessary language so that the actual listening

24、itself becomes easier.9.6 While-listening activities1. No specific responsesnBy not giving ss any task the first time they listen to a passage, it can take the anxiety out of listening.2. Listen and tick (p. 148)3. Listen and sequence (p.149)4. Listen and act5. Listen and draw (Task 11)6. Listen and

25、 fill (in the blanks)7. Listen and take notes (p.151)9.7 Post-listening activities1. Multiple-choice questions2. Answering questions (comprehension or inference)3. Note-taking and gap-filling (e.g. mini-lecture in TEM8)4. Dictogloss (cf. dictation)1. Preparation (introduce the topic, key words, general questions)2. Dictation (at normal speed)3. Reconstruction4. Analysis and correctionSummary on post-list