Melisa Valdez Salazar Heriberto Sanchez Susana Barrientos Jennie Bautista

DEVELOPING AND PRACTICING LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

Objectives
- reflect on the benefits of using computers

for listening and speaking - learn techniques and guidelines for supporting and developing student listening and speaking skills

overview of listening and speaking skills in language learning

to speak and listen fluently and accurately in a second language, language learners need to be able to comprehend and produce, in a native-like fashion, stress, intonation, rhythm, pacing, gestures, and body language, and they need both linguistic and sociolinguistic competence.

 Many educators commonly assume that

although computer software and the internet can support student reading and writing effectively, they cannot support student listening.

 Skills tools specifically for language learner

listening and speaking take a variety of forms. Like reading and writing skills tools, they are the most commonly drill based.

Listening and speaking around the computer.

Learners can work around the computer with

learners at their own level to obtain and practice basic skills.

 To listen to the audio, students may have to

download a helper program such as Real Player or Quick Time, but these listening pages provide for how to do so.

 More advanced students can listen to news

stories and read the text at the same time at the National Public Radio site (http://www.npr.org/) or practice with idioms, pronunciation, spoken grammar and more at Adam Rados English Learning Fun Site (ELFS) (http://www.elfs.com/)

 These sites benefit students by providing

content that enables them to interact with one another. In other words, the listening and speaking that students do around the computer when they talk about the listening and speaking exercises reinforces and provides practice for the concepts under study.

listening and speaking through the computer

Learners can use the computer as a conduit

to native speakers and more advanced second language learners around the world. Voice chat and audio email can be modified to work efficiently and effectively for a wide range of classrooms that have access.

 Learners can practice speaking and listening

through the computer by recording audio segments in book-making software or in presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint , and they can even trade suggestions for essay revision on versions of Microsoft Word that have audio commenting capabilities.

Listening and speaking with the computer

Opportunities for learners to work

interactively with the computer on listening and speaking are relatively rare because the computer cannot respond creatively or provide individualized feedback.

 Dictation software packages allow users to

speak into a microphone and watch the software type their speech onto a page. Watching the software interpret the learners speech provides feedback in the mistakes that it reveals in his or her pronunciation and grammar.

 Using the computer as tool provides learners

with numerous opportunities to improve their target language listening and speaking skills.

Support Listening and Speaking

The following two Instructional techniques,

which are fundamental to language learning, support listening and speaking: 1. provide opportunities for students to notice. 2. include pragmatics in lessons.

1. Provide opportunities for students to notice

Noticing is important during reading and

writing but to produce fluent and comprehensible speech and to react appropriately to the others speech, students also need to notice their own linguistic errors.

2. Include pragmatics in lessons

Teachers can use any of the language modes

to teach norms of social appropriateness in the target language culture if they make noticing these features a lesson objective.

Tips for designing opportunities for skill development

Teachers can help students learn to listen by

giving them time to talk to each other everyday. Peer interaction provides practice in listening, speaking and negotiating that learners otherwise might not get.

 Learners can develop speaking, listening, and

oral grammar skills through direct instruction or by participating in content or whole tasks, but the most important is that learners have opportunities to practice in a variety of authentic ways.

Technologies for listening and speaking

Florez (1999) provides a framework for

listening and speaking lessons by noting that such lessons can flow the usual pattern of preparation, presentation, evaluation, and extension.

 These steps include telling the students what

the goals of the activity are, making sure that they have skills necessary to perform it, working with the target skill or form, noting learner progress, and the following up.

Example
Word document 1

While working on this lesson learners are encountering and practicing both pragmatic and linguistic features of the target language. They are meeting learning conditions such as authentic social interaction and production and using technology as a learning tool.

Conclusion
Depending on your learners and your goals,

contexts, and needs, computer technologies area available to enhance skills and practice lessons of all kinds.

Fin.