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Challenges and Opportunities in

Listening Instruction
Listening Comprehension

The bottom-up processing


a process of decoding the sounds that one hears in a linear
fashion
The top-down processing
a reconstruction process; the listener actively constructs the
original meaning of the speaker using incoming sounds as
clues

It is generally recognized that both bottom-up and top-down


strategies are necessary.
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Challenges and Dilemmas
In L2 listening Instruction
Introduction: Dilemma I
Listening skill = Cinderella skill?

Speaking Listening
/ Writing
Introduction: Dilemma II

We still tend to test


listening rather than
teach it!!
The key to solving the problem
Metacognition: the act of thinking about thinking; the
ability of learners controlling their thoughts and
regulating their own learning
Learners are seldom taught how to listen, how to manage
the listening input.

Pre-listening
- More than Background knowledge!
- Learners are just primed to listen to a specific piece of text
While-listening
- No guidance on strategic listening
Listening instruction: overview
Text-oriented instruction (Dilemma I & II)
Recognizing and understanding different components of a
listening input

Communication-oriented instruction (Dilemma I & II)


Listening in the service of something other than itself

Learner-oriented instruction (Solution)


Developing learners awareness of the process
Text-oriented instruction
A heavy emphasis on decoding skills (1950s~1960s)
the accuracy of learners comprehension

A quiz show format (Morley, 1999)


discriminating sounds
taking dictation of the written passage
comprehension questions (multiple-choice)
testing rather than teaching listening

The dominance of the written language


heavy cognitive demands made on working memory
relevant to corpus studies
Communication-oriented instruction
Complex communicative skills
Taxonomies of listening skills
Munbys (1978) communicative syllabus design
Richards (1983) taxonomy

Authentic listening materials


A variety of classroom interaction/ learner
response

Sleeping partner in CLT methodology


emphasis on the speaking component
information gap activity
Learner-oriented Instruction
Research on good language learners (GLL)
Instructions on listening strategies
Mendelsohns socio-cognitive paradigm (1998)
Developing learners awareness of the process
(OMalley & Chamot, 1990)

Strategy type Strategy


Metacognitive strategies Selective attention, Self-monitoring,
problem identification
Cognitive strategies Note taking, summarizing, elaboration,
inferencing, transfer
Social/affective strategies Cooperation
Strategies-based Instruction
Think-aloud (Chamot, 1995)

Teacher Modeling

Demonstration (Field, 1998) Pre-communication activities


(Buck, 1995)
Strategy use in L2 listening
Vandergrift and Goh (2012)

Planning Focusing attention


Contexualization
Monitoring Evaluation
Inferencing
Reorganizing
Using linguistic and learning resources
Cooperation
Managing emotions Prediction
Elaboration
Challenges in the three instructions
Text-oriented instruction
Current course textbooks which requires learners
comprehension-based techniques alone (a quiz show
mode)
Communication-oriented instruction
A focus on the product of listening
A disguised form of testing (Sheerin, 1987)
Learner-oriented instruction
Intangible!
A lack in a variety of structural support
Conclusion
The intrinsic challenges within the three types of listening
instruction can be addressed by teaching within a
metacognitive framework.
No testing any more!!
Better learners? Or More effective learners?

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