Based on the reading "Listening Comprehension in EFL Teaching" that was sent to your e-mails, please post your comments and reply to at least five of your partners. You have time before Saturday, Sep. 15th midnight to post them. I recommend you to participate as soon as possible becuase that enriches the learning process.
Hello to everyone. I missed you on Saturday! Im doing much better now and back to work...
ResponderEliminarI read the article this morning, which by the way I think it was really well written and planned out.
My comments:
1."Large amounts of listening practice before speaking or reading may prepare the learner to
acquire a second language with a greater efficiency than if he or she was taught all the skills simultaneously"(Postovsky, 1974; Winitz & Reeds, 1973, 1975; Winitz, 1973; Gary, 1978)."> I agree with this idea as you already know. As a child I grew up with both languages and have tried to teach my children to listen to everything they can in English...I see it works. However, I dont know how exactly to feel about learning skills separately, as mentioned in the text. I think a child learning a second language can learn it integrated...of course, NOT explaining grammar rules, etc...more naturally. But then again, I think about our school systems and what parents need to see. Learning a language in an integrated way gives its results later on.
2. "Comprehension in its broader sense, however, rarely ends here, for listeners
normally put the interpretations they have built to work.”> I feel it is very true. Many times after using an activity in class that was really motivating and to the point in helping students comprehend, a student has walked up to me and shared his/her experience when, on his/her own, has listened to a text of choice and UNDERSTOOD the message. Those are the kinds of moments when we say to ourselves...YAY!POSITIVE FEEDBACK is necessary right there and then! :)
3. On page 4, " the listener is unfamiliar with the content of the listening text
and deficient in language proficiency, he can only depend on his linguistic knowledge, especially the lexical and
syntactical knowledge to make sense of the information." THis point I find sometimes take up time from class, especially with students that like to know everything EVERYTHING about the linguistic elements of the language and compare it to Spanish!!!! It is difficult at times because I see Ss get stuck and do not move on (in their processing skills) until they get an answer. I guess what is needed is better listening materials that are adapted to their level, materials that incorporate them in a proper way and help them move from the STM to the LTM.
4. On page 5, Listening Skills> why not add to those 2 outlined skills by McDonough & Shaw the following: "Processing social and cultural elements. a. to recognize time and space, b. to identify age c.to recognize jargon, slang, ..." ???
Cuture is part of everything. THe same way the author points the importance on focusing on accents (pg. 8), intonations, and rhythms one should consider knowing where? who? why? when? to activate background knowledge of the listener.
5. Finally> feedback! Students need feedback and for that I believe well designed rubric scales and assessment sheets can enable students to understand their weaknesses and motivate them to continue.
Conclusion> It is necessary to continue analyzing the learning of listening and learning acquisition. Nevertheless, I find important to also improve the types of activities that challenges and motivates Ss cognitive processes.
I agree your all opinion!!
EliminarEspecially No4. Language express culture!! Second language is not familiar to us. So we should know culture we're learning languages'.And as you said, students try to gain as much feedback as possible. It can aid students to heighten their confidence in their ability .
as you stated before, to incorporate processing social and cultural elements and concentrate on other elements and specific structures of the language in order to provide more cultural knowledge.
EliminarAnd also agree on giving feedback to the students, that can definetely help Ss to feel confidence and improve their abilities since they will have known what are their waekness and how to overcome it. That will provide them positive thoughts and motivation.
I agree with Jenny she made a point stating how language is culture. In my opinion it is a pity to learn a language with making an effort to emerge yourself in the culture. Part of the beauty in learning a language is in deed the culture. You can learn all types of linguistic aspects such as phrases, slang, inflections among other things.
EliminarJenny, students need to feel so confident! What you say is true. The more they know about culture, the more they learn about a variety of aspects of language hence the more confident they become.
EliminarSometimes, teachers make the mistake of playing in the classroom some recording that are not appealing to students' interests so they get a really hard time to complete the tasks with this kind of topics. That is why, we have to take into account that when they are just beginners they start by relying on their previous experiences. It comes up the importance of choosing material relevant for them.
EliminarI have round useful to give students the chance of letting me know what they like or would like to , listen to. A needs assessment form is great for that purpose.
EliminarYlenia!!! You are right! is impressive to see how easy is for kids to learn a second language. We are trainnig their brains but in a creative way, through their senses becasue, that´s the way they learn. To be exposed to a second language and a different culture during the childhood it´s a great way to start.
Eliminarwhat you mentioned above about the feedback and assessment is very important. Because students need to be aware of their improvemet, their strenghts and weaknesses, but in a comfrotable envioroment. Let them know about their mistakes but with respect, knowing that they can do better .Because frustration will affect the whole process and the most important of all our students integrity.
EliminarHi guys!! How have you been?
ResponderEliminarI'm sick from yesterday. I have a stomachache.
My condition is terrible :(
First, I was surprised that we listen twice as much as we speak, four ties as much as we read, and five times as much as we write!! It was awesome. And, It was very helpful to me. Because listening comprehension is one of the highest hills too in Korean English learners! I'm no exception. I have made every effort to foster my listening comprehension skills for years. We can imagine,for example,that your sight is hindered by something that is so long and wide that it completely blocks the screen. When listening to English, you're almost certain to face hardly recognizable words,which are like the parts of the TV screen masked by something.
The only different is,in the case of listening,those imaginary shields or things that interfere with your perception of what you're hearing.As we know, so many factors are involved in the listening process-namely,your wavering attention,the speakers' unique accents,speaking speeds,noises,and so forth,not to mention your listening comprehension ability. As we know, an ideal way to enhance your listening comprehension ability is to be exposed to English in your daily lives.I think this is large because in that situation,you naturally can concentrate on the meanings in spite of all the hindrances haunting you. And we can use any materials like lectures,radio news,films,TV plays,announcements,everyday conversations,interviews,English songs,and so on!!!
Hello jenny
EliminarIntresting comment, on how you have to deal with listening,there ary many interferances and difficulties for Ss when learning a target language. Ss should be exposed everyday to the target language by applying different activities and using different materials.
You make a good point when discussing the difficulties that many people encounter when listening. Students especially suffer when listening. Sometimes they can get a case of the nerves and block out what they are listening. Or they focus on a little detail which does not allow them to concentrate on the rest of the information provided. My students and I use ebooks in the classroom its a tool that they enjoy thoroughly. They read and listen at the same time. Other times I will bring them a short episode of a tv series with subtitles so that they can associate the word with its pronunciation.I was over the moon when I saw one of my first year students with a nook. I also a nook and know how valuable this ebook device can be. It is especially useful for students to enhance vocabulary.
EliminarHello guys!
EliminarIsn't amazing how much technology helps us do. I believe this tool is motivating to student due to its novelty and trending it has. There are many activities that we can develop in a class with the use of internet, ebooks and more. One of my favorite activities to do is the recording of their own voices. This is not a new tool, we have had tape recorders and video cams for awhile; however, the excitement Ss have while recording themselves on video and then evaluating their performance is enriching in whatever focus the teacher wants to bring in to class. Jennifer, please, let me know what ebooks, and how to get them. Thanks.
It happends that for beginner students listening exercises are the top of the hill. In this case, the teacher's role is to create a comfortable environment so the students dont feel hesitant about doing a listening exercise or task. Also, it is important to remember that listening tasks can have different purposes not only filling the blanks. For example, Jennifer mentioned to practice pronunciation through listening. Actually this is a good website to find ebooks: www.librivox.org
EliminarHow intresting and helpful are all the ideas that you all apply in your clases. I really enjoy how the use of different tools seem to motivate the students more because they are learning with thing they feel comfortable with and have knowledge on them. These strategies really seem to help students to improve their abilities and get intrested during the lesson.
EliminarJenny, I hope you feel better.
ResponderEliminarHow interesting that you mention all the difficulties that a listener encounters. Teachers have the 'responsibility' to help students become aware of those factors so that they can begin improving on them. Once we know what we need to correct, we can concentrate on making things better. Once a student knows that there are different kinds of English accents then he or she can be aware of the differences and understand better.
:)
Yes, you summarized perfectly!!
EliminarI feel better . But it's still strange a little bit.
Thank you my friend!!!
Although the article explores interesting listening theories in the 70s, I have to admit that the best of all those theories is the most recent one in which Krashen states the principles for language adquisition. In the past, experts thought that learners had to start speaking in the arly stages in order to have a wide range to understand the listening input. As Postovky (1974) said "delay of oral practice in the early stages of language learning is an important factor in reducing task overload and proficiency in listening comprehension". After a lot of research, it is possible for us to know that the first step in language adquisition is listening and reading so they can receive all the necessary input. The second step according to Krashen is a Silent period. This silent period is going to help our students to internalize a lot of vocabulary and structures. The final step in language adquisition is the production stage. In this stage the learner is going to be able to put into practice all the knowledge. Contrary to the author, I do not think that teachers should provide beginners with spaces to speak but with a lot of input materials such as lectures, radio news, films, plays, announcements, interviews, story telling, songs and so on.
ResponderEliminarOn the other hand, the Cognitive Perspective Theory shows very valuable information for teachers when stating that key words and phrases are converted into mental represention into the learner's brain. Personally, I made a research about the use of pictures for meaningful learning and I could prove that images help students to store the vocabulary in the long term memory for further use. The same process occurs with listening, the learner have the opportunity to listen and then to store all the information in the long term memory as input. As a conclusion, I can recommend listening and visual material in order to provide our students with enough input they can have at hand when speaking or writing.
Melissa,
EliminarYou know, I like to share with my adult Ss Krashen's ideas. Usually, they agree with him, too. It is a motivating first day class discussion in which they relax, share ideas, understand how they will learn, and why they will learn in that way, and it just helps us off to a great start. Of course, I don't go into very technical details but the most general ideas. They all do a pretty good job at giving examples and reflecting on their own learning proceses. I support this 100%. :)
It's very impressive this phrase.
Eliminar"delay of oral practice in the early stages of language learning is an important factor in reducing task overload and proficiency in listening comprehension"!!
Your point about visual aids is true, because they help students store new vocabulary in their LTM. Also important for this process is repetition since a word will not be sent from the STM to the LTM unless it is heard several times. Of course, as the reading states, meaning is also key because after being heard, the word is retrieved and then assigned it correspondent meaning.
EliminarDeyanira your point about having to hear a word several times is right on target. I read once that you need to see a word 7 times in order for it to be stored in your long term memory. So review and repetition is key. With my students I really enjoy short stories. So for example this week we read ch.1 Gone fishing. Next week, I will have brought them a match exercising on the vocab seen in ch.1 then we read ch.2 then the following week I bring them a vocab exercise on ch.1 AND ch.2. So, everyweek they review the previous vocab. Sometimes I do it in the form of a matching, other times I make a puzzle or wordsearch for them on the internet and then print it out. And if I have more time I made flashcards for them of the vocabulary words. This keeps them in constant contact with words already viewed. And yes visual aids are of great assistance as students tend to identify or remember words when a visual aid has been provided. Often times we will see picture dictionaries, flashcards, and other material sold since this method has been proven in aiding and associating new words with images.
EliminarHello everyone
ResponderEliminarAs the author said at the begining of the article the listener should be motivated to work on an active process by using different types of knowledge which i agree with these statement since the listner by applying all of his/ previous knowledge woulld be able understand better the meaning of what was heard eventhough if what he/ she heard was not the complete or the whole text.
it si true that listening sometimes can difficult and can aquire more time, but as Laura stated i do believe it can be taught in an integrated but not as specific (depending) on the level of the Ss.
Also to have into consideration different activites is very usefull, because that can help them to loose themselves and gain confidence during the learning process.
Several of my collegues at the university and I participated in a workshop on the development of listening strategies and authentic materials. The experienced helped me understand the different types of activities one can introduce to a class according to what listening text and strategy we are working to develop. The development of activities is necessary to continue helping students comprehension skills.
EliminarYey that type of workshops are really helpful due to the fact that most of the time when we participate in a workshop the type of materials shown are for improving the speaking skills leaving aside that we are lacking of material for improving listening.
EliminarYes. As you said, listening is difficult.
EliminarAlso, speaking and writing,reading all of these things have same difficulties. Listening requires time and efforts and patience. If we are exposed in English environment, we can grow up!!
Listening requires a lot of time of preparation, but at the same time if we are sure about our objetive, it could be a successful activity in order to explote our students' ability and proir knowledge during classes.
EliminarExactly, listening requires preparation and time. I feel as though it is something that sometimes teachers do to fill in the time before the bell rings. That is completely missing the point and the losing the benefits of the exercise. Just as we need to practice our reading, our speaking skills and our writing we must not forget our listening skills.
EliminarHello guys,
ResponderEliminarFirst of all, I have to admit it was a little bit overwhelming trying to fully understand all the terms mentioned in the reading. Throughout our major, we listen to those terms hundreds of times and we read about them even more. Terms like schemata, perception, linguistics, input, output, bottom-up/ top-down, LTM/STM, etc. I am not afraid to guess that some of these terms may be still confusing for a lot of teachers as at least are still confusing to me. Confusion manifests not only when trying to differentiate them properly, but also when trying to incorporate them as we plan our listening activities in our classes with our students. To fully understand these cognitive processes behind listening comprehension of a foreign language is to become a better professional- a teacher who really cares about comprehending his/her occupation. As the reading mentioned, those who may believe listening is the easiest of the skills to acquire are probably not putting the necessary thought behind it. Students of any foreign language deserve to have the appropriate preparation prior encountering listening materials. That’s what’s maybe lacking for those students who fear and reject these materials and prefer written texts…. Better preparation, better explanations. I mean- how important is to really explain the purpose behind certain listening activity to our students before putting it? How important is for them to discuss what they heard, what they understood, what they liked and disliked about it? Feedback! As the reading stated, is a key in listening comprehension. I am talking about engaging students to these materials so they stop rejecting them and take full advantage of these precious resources.
What you say about the importance of preparation before encountering the listening material is interesting because sometimes we have an idea in mind and when we put it to practice it doesn't work. This just happened to me with the incorporation of a sitcom in my oral communication class. Most of the students really liked the idea and they loved to study the new vocabulary. However, a girl from Taiwan wrote me a message and confessed she didn't like the program because she didn't understand it. Here I'm facing two problem, one is that she has a lower level of English than her classmates and the other is the cultural differences that form a barrier for understanding the show.
EliminarIt is true that sometimes the preparation before encountering the listening material may not end as it was expected for the student,but that is way teachers must have students interests in to account and adapt them.
EliminarWell Mitzy, as Natalia mentioned, that tends to happen. Sometimes we fail in accomplish our goal with some activities, especially when we want to involve this ability, the variety of activities that teachers apply are very few and inefficient.
EliminarYes Mitzy I agree feedback is an essential part of the learning process. With my students in Turrialba when they have a speaking evaluation I sit with each and every one and we go over their grade, their performance and strengths and weaknesses. I like to go over their strengths, I do not want them to become discouraged if they had a low grade. Usually it will take me between 1.5-2.0 hours to talk to each student and give them some individual attention. However it is well worth it and the preparation involved is also worth it. When I refer to preparation in terms of feedback it is because I take notes so that our meeting can be as beneficial as possible and hopefully they can get something out of it. If my evaluation is a written evaluation I check it as a whole with the class. As a class we answer any possible doubts. However, I do believe this time is key and to the benefit of the learner. As for key words that may have been new, that's part of the learning process. Many teachers as you stated do not know these terms so this is nothing to feel down about. They are new words and important to know and we all learned something from this reading, myself included.
EliminarMental processes are very difficult to study because their is really no concrete evidence of how they work. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to learn about the processes involved in reading, writing, listening, and speaking and the topic is fascinating. What I studied is basically what is stated on page 25 by McDonough & Shaw. However, there was another step according to the text I studied (Cuetos,F., Psicología de la Lectura), which is that after processing the sound, and before processing the meaning, the listener has to match the utterance heard with one in a special "listening file" that is stored in the LTM. Every skill has a different "file" so it makes sense that students have more competence in listening than in speaking, or maybe in reading than in writing. So as I commented in Melissa's post, if we want our students to gain comprehension, we need to make sure that a lot of vocabulary goes into that "listening file" and afterwards it can be copied to the "speaking file".
ResponderEliminarWell Deyanira thank you so much!!! this brief explanation help me a lot. I have to admit that it was difficult for me to understand this reading. Let me tell you that I read it twice like we mentioned last week. I like this thing about the files!!
EliminarGreat summary thanks!
EliminarHi Deyanira. The analogy of what you are mentioning about the files has to do indeed with the silent period. Acording to Krashen, during the silent period the students are going to receive all that amount of input (vocabulary and phrases) that they are going to use in the production process later on. Amazing analogy! Thanks to share it.
EliminarYes, this could be considered about the silent period but it is also valid for everyday learning whether in a native language or in a new one. The book I mentioned is actually about dyslexia and how the mental paths of reading can be altered in dyslexics. Like I said, it´s really really interesting and we could discuss it some day because it would help us understand better how we read, write, produce and listen.
EliminarHello everyone Happy independence day!!!! It was interesting to read about the theories exposed in the article. Because I was not familiar with them. While I was reading I wondering and trying to remembers how this process of learning a second language occurred to myself
ResponderEliminarI have to say that I agree that having listening practice before speaking or reading it’s a benefit in order to acquire a second language. Because I have seen it with my students. Listening stimulation before prepares to fulfill the task.
Regarding the listening comprehension process it involves many elements, mental processes, previous knowledge, new information, “schemas” short term memory, long term memory meanings, and interpretation.
Again skills, in this case listening skills, play an important part in the whole process. One is the processing sound in which the listener has to receives, interpretates and responses to all the information he she is receiving. We are talking about an auditory identification in which students must recognize the parts of the language sounds, words, intonation etc. and the processing meaning that it the whole process of incoming and out coming data
Language comprehension is prior than language production. In order to hold a simple conversation an person must know more listening than the others
Recognition knowledge is prior
Speaking and listening are complementary
Regarding to the listening materials teachers must take advantage of what students like and what they want to know and focus on their interest
When speaking give extra practice to students they have to get used to the different kinds of intonation, speed, speaker etc.
Also feedback and linguistic knowledge are very important for the listener; work on developing memory methods (training the STM and LTM)
As the reading mantioned, listening is an ablility that involves almost the rest of skills. This ability provides some different contexts, imagination, creativity. At the same time, it could be mixed with other skills, such as speakiang and writing.
EliminarI would like to start my comment with this phrase:“Listening comprehension is an active and conscious process in which the listener constructs meaning by using cues from contextual information and existing knowledge, while relying upon multiple strategic resources to fulfill the task requirement” (O’Malley, J. M. & Chamot, A. U., 1989, p. 420). If we take this sentence as a starting point, we can provide that listening is the most used but at the same time the most difficult to develop for our students. This because it involves a serious aspects; such as speaking and reading. But beyond take notes and communicate them, this part of having a good conversation. There is nothing more pleasant to talk to someone who really you getting all the attention in the world, that you can guide, can give opinions, and to have a good time to share experiences.As a piece of phrase says, Listening is full of context, which gives us the possibility of developing concepts, ideas from the imagination of how says. Personally I think that the exploration of this skill requiring much concentration, unlimited use of vocabulary and imaginative capacity is fully valid.
ResponderEliminarHi Jason. I share your idea about turning the listening process into an active one. The student is not only the receiver of all the information but also, the teacher has to leave some responsability on him/her when doing a task. The student will construct his/her own interpretation from the pieces or key phrases that he stored during the process.
EliminarJason,
EliminarI like what you say about sharing a nice conversation with someone who really listens. It is rewarding, positive and meaningful. The most important thing to have in the conversation is someone who listen and who then can give you feedback on your points of view, if it is for a debate of a sharing of knowledge. And from this point I can conclude that we enjoy the possibility to be able to understand what we can listen to .
Good Afternoon Classmates and professor,
ResponderEliminarI would like to announce that the wiki created by Mitzy, Maria Fernanda and myself is finished. I am going to provide the link and access information for you to enter and hopefully enjoy our work put into creating this wikispace.
To view our wiki, please visit: http://www.wikispaces.com/t/c/77ZkXQU4vytI6isbHbTvJ5
Username: EnglishPronunciation2012
Password: listening
Enjoy!
Mitzy, Maria Fernanda and Jennifer
Thanks
EliminarHello classmates and teacher,
ResponderEliminarHere is the link to Natalia, Jenny and Laura´s wiki.
We hope you like it!
http://listeningnspeaking.wikispaces.com/
Thank you. Can you send us the user and password here, please?
EliminarHi everybody,our wiki on Listening Strategies is the following:
ResponderEliminarhttp://listeningtips.wikispaces.com/
Melissa, Jason an Deyanira
The two monthat say "monitor de red" are mine. I don't know why that happened.
ResponderEliminarBye