Walter Alexis Portillo Guevara

Academic Writing 1

June 6th, 2019

MATERIALS AND STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP STUDENTS’ LISTENING SKILLS

Listening is an important area of a language to communicate with others. To

succeed in this area of communication, teachers have different ways to help students

to improve their skills. There are two types of strategies and materials most

educators should use in order to effectively develop listening in a second language.

Extensive listening is one of the strategies that students do for pleasure to

become better listener. For example, listening to music and watching online videos

are the two most favorite activities within extensive listening to improve students’

skills. In regard listening to music, students almost always repeat a big number of

words through singing. It does not matter if they are listening to it in the car, in the

school, or in the house; students will try to memorize the lyrics of the songs in order

to repeat them. By applying repetition, they get familiar with both vocabulary and

pronunciation. According to Wilson (2008), “songs help students to focus on aspects

of pronunciation such as stress patterns. Also, songs tend to contain some usefully

predictable elements: the use rhymes for example, often helps the listener to predict

vocabulary” (p. 50). Ultimately, identifying vocabulary with its right pronunciation on

songs will offer students a better understanding in their listening abilities. In regard

online videos, students develop listening skills that they mostly need in spoken

conversation. Through videos, they are not just listening to people talking, but they

are also paying attention to the way speakers express themselves through body
language. To support the previous claim, Wilson (2008) highlights that “video is

dynamic in that it presents moving images - a major bonus for students with short

attention spans - and for those who cannot read or write well it provides a ready -

made context” (p. 48). In a face to face conversation, a second language learner

might not be able to understand the message the other person wants to

communicate. However, the association between body language with listening

learned on television will be a key factor to figure out part of the information because

of the meaning body language carries. Even though students do not realize the

benefits gotten by listening to music and watching online videos, they unconsciously

apply language acquired through them.

Intensive listening is the second strategy mostly developed to directly focus

on English listening skills. Intensive listening such as listening for gist and listening

for detailed information can also help teachers to work on students’ skills. Firstly,

listening for gist allows students to have an idea of what is going to be talked about

on any listening exercise in the class. The previously mentioned is supported by

Wilson (2008) who states the following:

"On the first encounter with a passage in the classroom students usually listen for gist - the

main idea, before they can develop any discussion of themes, analyze language used,

examine features of pronunciation, etc, the students need to have grasped the overall

commutative intention of the speaker” (p.82).

Basically, students cannot be asked for specific information during a listening

exercise since the very beginning of their learning process. They first need to be able

to understand the general message that the speaker wants to deliver. To succeed
with students' general understanding, teachers have to come up with the most

suitable exercises by encouraging students to mainly focus on what, why, when, who

of what is being said on the listening (Wilson, 2008). Once students are able to

comprehend information in a general way, teachers should start getting into more

details. Secondly and lastly, listening for details helps students to acquire extra

information which will provide them with a more complete version of what the

speaker intends to convey. Wilson (2008) supports the previous statement on

listening for details when he claims the following:

"It refers to the type of listening we do when, for example, we need to find errors or determine

differences between one passage and another. We cannot afford to to ignore anything

because, unlike listening to a list of delayed trains, we don't know exactly what information

will helps us to achieve our task" (p. 10).

It means that students do not have to leave details out, but they need to pay

attention to them. Listening for details will help them to point out the differences of

the things which have been discussed on any listening exercise. To differentiate

information, they should focus on times, dates, numbers, and descriptions. Overall,

both listening for gist and listening to detailed information will definitively contribute

to the development of students’ skills. Along with the strategies previously mentioned

to help students with their listening, adapted and authentic materials also play an

important role to work on students' listening skills.

On the one hand, adapted listening materials are those that have been

scripted before being spoken with the purpose of helping students in an early stage

with their listening progress. Adapted materials involve videotaped materials and
textbook recordings to favor listening skills. Videotaped materials as digital video

discs (DVDs) and clips on videos give the opportunity to improve students' ability to

listen through visual aids. "videotaped materials can be especially useful at the lower

ranges of proficiency because of the visual contextual support they provide, as long

as students know that they are not expected to understand every single word"

(Hadley, 1993, p. 170). The claim above provides information on how students who

do not have a good domain of the listening area can enhance their abilities by a

combination of listening and visuals. Listening to a plain audio can sometimes be

difficult or boring for learners; therefore, it is necessary to engage students through

images. For example, if students are asked to watch a video clip on a certain topic,

they will be able to make out some of the information they could not understand by

remembering the images that appeared on the video. Aside from videotaped

materials, textbook recordings contribute to the enhancement of listening because

of the benefits it offers. Wilson (2008) supports the contribution textbooks have on

listening as follows "textbooks provide listening sequences - exploitation material

that gives students a 'way in ' to the recording, guides them through its difficulties

and provides discussion points at the end" (p. 47). The previous statement points

out the benefits of textbook recordings for students to have an overview, to identify

their areas of opportunities, and to check their understanding on the listening

exercises. For example, prior to the listening students get an idea of what it is going

to be discussed by looking at the information in their textbooks. During the listening,

they are able to look at the questions in order to focus on the information they need

to answer. After the listening, they can check how well they did on the exercises by

looking at the answers or scripts that most of the textbooks have. All in all, adapted
listening materials such as videotaped materials and textbook recordings help lower

proficiency students to develop their listening skills.

On the other hand, authentic listening materials are not scripted prior to be

delivered because they are of a more natural approach. For instance, live listening

and stories in authentic listening materials benefit students to keep developing their

abilities. Regarding live listening, it benefits students' listening skills by putting into

practice what they have learned in the classroom when interacting with people from

different places. Wilson (2008) supports the above-mentioned claim as “live listening

is a type of bridge between the real, outside world and the world of the classroom”

(p. 46). This statement claims that by having a native speaker or another person who

already uses English as a second language in the classroom students get sense of

the reality that they may face in the world outside. They will have the chance to

observe the way people communicate in the professional field without having to use

a textbook. Unlike scripted materials that allows to know what the whole listening will

be about; live listening stimulates the ability to answer spontaneously because the

other person will not wait until the replies are written or thought before their delivery.

In short, teachers should bring other guest speakers to the classroom, so students

have the opportunity to interact with them in order to strengthen their abilities to listen

to live people. Regarding stories, they help students to develop listening abilities

through mental interpretations and new vocabulary. “Stories are useful as teaching

tools because they comprise complete imaginary worlds in which listeners can get

immersed. Another feature is the richness of the vocabulary. Adjectives come thick

and fast to describe the characters” (Wilson, 2008, p. 130). It means that stories
make students to picture the context of them which is really helpful to better

understand the intended message to be conveyed. Plus, stories help students to

enrich their vocabulary because of the variety of words they contain. By having more

vocabulary, it will be easier for students to understand listening. All in all, the two

types of authentic listening materials above mentioned require students to develop

skills they will mainly need in everyday life situations.

In conclusion, there are two types of strategies and materials to improve

students´ listening skills. Concerning the strategies, adapted listening as listening to

music or watching online videos expose students to practice their listening skills

while they are doing activities they enjoy. Intensive listening such as listening for

main ideas and details contribute to work on English listening skills in the classroom.

Concerning the materials, adapted listening materials such as videotaped materials

and textbook recording favor the development of students’ abilities in an early stage.

Authentic listening materials such as live listening and stories lead students to

enhance real time skills that will be useful once they face the outside world. Both the

strategies and materials previously mentioned are the most appropriate resources

to teach listening in a second language.

References

Hadley, A. O. (1993). Teaching language in context (2nd ed.). Boston,

Massachusetts: Heinle and Heinle.

Wilson, J. (2008). How to teach listening. Essex, UK: Pearson Education Limited.