LISTENING: SUB-SKILLING THE SKILL “Nature gave us two ears but only one tongue, which is a gentle hint that we should listen more than we talk” “I never learned anything while I was talking”

Let's give it a thought... ●

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Why is listening such an issue?

Listening comes before speaking. Progress in listening is the basis for other skills. Work out meanings, intentions, and occasions. Subconscious acquisition of language. Numbers: Listening represents. ● 20% of school hours ● 50% of waking hours ● 80% of classroom hours

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Do teachers or students disregard the importance of listening? – – –

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Awareness of the relevance. Avoid the responsibility. What is NOT enough?

Who deals with a greater level of frustration? Students or teachers? – – –

Time consuming No rules Difficult to quantify

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Why do teachers and students fail to cope with listening appropriately? – – –

Unsuitable material (linguistic competence) Mental block Translation

MYTH BUSTERS

In learning a second language reading, writing, speaking, and listening happen at the same time. ●

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Learning a second language is not that different from learning the first. Listening precedes speaking, and reading precedes writing. Why is that? Listening and Reading – Listening and reading are both receptive skills. Students are passively receiving and processing information. Krashen,1985

MYTH BUSTERS ●

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How well you speak depends on how well you listen. For better speaking proficiency the focus of attention in classroom should be primarily on listening comprehension activities rather than on activities which force the learners to speak without presenting enough amount of input which will automatically result in speaking performance ( Dunkel, 1991; Rubin, 1994; Call, 1985)

MYTH BUSTERS ● ●

Listening skills can be taught Teachers confronted with the task of teaching listening skills should realize that competence in listening is acquired by knowing and doing and is evidenced by appropriate feedback or response. (Alice Ridge 1984)

MYTH BUSTERS ●

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Learner's receptivity is greater than his productivity. A student’s receptive skills are going to be much better than his/her productive skills. A student will be able to understand a wellstructured speech but be unable to produce one.

( Fourcin,1975)

Sub-skills Acquisition Hierarchy ● Receptive - Productive ● Simple – complex ● Oracy – literacy Example: When it comes to reading... ●

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Skimming Scanning Gist Inference Reference Context and meaning Background

SUB-SKILLS

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“Divide and you shall conquer” The language skills are often divided into sub-skills, which are specific behaviours that language users do in order to be effective in each of the skills. – Supporting: ● Understand ● Remember – Complementary ● Deal with the tone ● Deal with the intention – Constructive ● Analyze - Restate ● Infer - Reflect ● Discriminate - Summarize ● Associate

Sample Exercises

Sub-Skill: Associate

Sample Exercises ●

Listen to six descriptions of various pets that people like to have. Guess the correct pet by choosing the picture that matches the audio.

Sub-Skill: Discriminate

Sample Exercises ●

Listen and decide which of the 4 sentences has the same meaning

A. Bob departed for Montreal this afternoon B. Bob left Montreal this afternoon C. Bob is going to Montreal this afternoon D. Bob will leave for Montreal this afternoon Sub-Skill: Restate

Sample Exercises ●

You are going to hear someone from a radio station interviewing the director of an international food festival. 31.a. Friday b. Saturday c. Sunday 32.a.9 a.m. b.10 a.m. c.11 a.m. Sub-Skill: Remember

Sample Exercises ●

Listen to the following exclamations and tag questions. Decide whether they are the same or not.

1. How well can Pamela ski? 2. I didn't know Phil was a law student. 3. The sunset is beautiful Sub-Skill: Deal with the tone

Sample Exercises

Sub-Skill: Analyze-Discriminate

Sample Exercises Imagine you are listening to a radio interview. you are going to hear someone from a radio station interviewing a woman who organizes musical concerts to raise money to help people. ● You will hear the interview in several parts. After each part, you will hear 2 – 5 questions. There are 2 answer choices for each question. The choices are: A) If the answer to the question would be “Yes, that’s true,” B) If the answer to the question would be “No, that’s not true.” ●

Sub-Skill: Analyze - summarize

Sample Exercises The clerk is giving the man the instructions to get to Clark’s Bicycle Hire. Label the map ●

Woods road

PARK

(1)

(2)

O a k S t r e e t

(3)

(4)

(5)

Sub-Skill: Analyze

Sample Exercises Name of mark's friend: _______________________________________ Physical description of mark's friend: __________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Time of arrival: _____________________________________________ Airport: ___________________________________________________ Flight number: _____________________________________________ Gate number: ______________________________________________

Sub-Skill: Remember - Discriminate

Sample Exercises You will hear an extended lecture 5. A. An improved toothbrush B. Recent development in genetics C. New uses for bacteria D. A means of fighting tooth decay ●

6. A. They have many side effects. B. They occur naturally in people's mouth C. They attack one type of bacteria D. They cause tooth decay Sub-Skill: Analyze-restate-reflect

ALL IN ALL! ● ● ●

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The input is the foundation of acquisition. Solid listening implies solid acquisition. Sub-skilling is an approach to cope with listening difficulties. Different listening purposes involve different sub-skills Sub-skills help students to develop a sense of why they listen and what skills to use to listen better. Sub-skills help students to acquire listening competence rather than merely help teachers test it.

...the comprehensible input seems to play the basic

role in second language acquisition in all respects. The awareness of the importance of the input on second language performance will direct second language teacher's attention to finding ways of getting more input to classroom. The more input is transferred the more output will be obtained in the form of productive skills (Pica et al., 1989; Long, 1990; Liming, 1990; Gass, 1994).