Partial transcription: a tool for improving L2 listening?

1. Partial transcription: a tool for improving L2 listening? LIU Ngar Fun Hong Kong Institute of Education nfliu@ied.edu.hk • Outline • What is partial transcription? • What does it reveal about L2 listeners’ processing problems? • Why use it? • How to use it?

2. What is partial transcription? Video topic: Data smog Presenter: A few years ago Schank began to realize that all the information technology has put at our disposal was losing its value. David Schank: On a personal level, we're made anxious by it. We (we) become jittery. We think we should be doing too many things at once (1)_____________________________. Presenter: Worried about techno overload? Not to worry. Dr. Dominic Purpura, a world renowned neuroscientist and Dean of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, says that (2) _____________________________________. Dominic Purpura: The brain isn't gonna change now if it hasn't changed over the past 300,000 years. The circuits are in there. The (the) (the) relationships and the hormonal activities are in. Everything's there. I think the question the brain keeps asking is: (3) ____________________________________? Because I've got the circuitry for it. Presenter: (4) _______________________________________? Where our brain doesn't shut down, but it says I'm processing this stuff but forget it, pal.

3. Over-reliance on acoustic-phonetic cues 1 because everything is moving so fast because everything has moved too bad 2 Einstein could have handled it and so can you I try strong to handle and show to you our couldn’t handle it and … new … hand over and so do you 3 What’s the next thing I can do while I’ve got time What exact things I can do or … time

4. Mean rates of successful transcription and schema use by proficiency groups (Text 1) ( ) = no significant difference between the bracketed group and the one above it at .05 level

5. Mean rates of successful transcription and schema use by proficiency groups (Text 2) ( ) = no significant difference between the bracketed group and the one above it at .05 level

6. Scoring partial transcription • One full mark for each word identified and spelt within the visual peripheral field (not necessarily correctly). Examples from Text 1: • No mark for undecipherable spelling or words not in original scripts

7. What is successful compensatory schema use? Successful compensatory schema use is defined as transcription errors whose meaning fits into the context (global or local), even though it may not be the meaning intended by the speaker. Examples: The rate of successful compensatory schema use is derived from making the number of instances of such schema use a percentage of the number of errors. If a student has 20 errors and 2 instances of successful compensatory schema use, the rate of success will be 2/20 x 100% = 10%.

8. Over-reliance on acoustic-phonetic cues A : I didn’t understand the let cars. What do you mean with this? B : Let [let] cars? Three red [red] cars (very slowly). A : Ah, red. B : Red. A : Now I understand. I understood car to hire, to let. Ah, red, yeah I see. (Jenkins, 2000:81) “Table is surrounded by chess”

9. Why use partial transcription? • Transcription errors as learning opportunities • Awareness and analysis of errors could encourage use of: • linguistic schemas (knowledge of co-text and • context) E.g., Do the words make sense in the • context of what the speaker is saying? • extra-linguistic schemas (knowledge that lies • outside the text) E.g., Am I relying too much on • speech sounds and neglecting what my common • sense tells me?

10. “Imagine” by John Lennon Imagine there’s no heaven- It’s easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there’s no country- It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for and no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say that I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. I hope some day you’ll join us. And the world will be as one.

11. number of words sentential position of the phrase/word group linguistic features of the phrase/word group Criteria for selecting deletions Examples of linguistic features: Familiar words in blurred speech We need to be skeptical of all information coming into our lives, of all technology coming into our lives. Unfamiliar words Knowledge is information that has been processed and enriched by a human mind.

12. Acknowledgments • Professor William Littlewood • Dr Martin Warren • Teachers and students at CUHK, HKBU, HKCU, HKPolyU and HKU • David Nunan, Shir-Ming Shen, Paul Fletcher, Alan Davies, Liz Hamp-Lyons, Bernard Anderson, Alan Hirvela, Sam Wong, Michael Tsang, Bennie Bai, Teresa Tong, Yim-Fai Luk, Anne Storey, Monica Hill, Robin Corcos, Kung-Sau Ip, Geoff Smith, Liz Samson, David Coniam, Winnie Wong, George Braine, Joseph Boyle, Benji Leung, Eva Lai, Jose Lai, Christine Yu, Frances Yau, Barley Mak, Angela Ng, Ann Cutler, Anne Jensen, John Field, Michael Rost, Paul Gruba, Desmond Allison, Steve Tauroza, Keven Kasten, Mike Turnbull, Grahame Bilbow, Winnie Cheng, John Gilleard, Barry O’Sullivan, John Sutton, Bruce Morrison, Alice Tse, Venny Lai, Freeman Chan, Julia Chen, Sue Reddel, Victoria Chan, Paul McGuinness, Richard and Polly Young, Vincent Poon, Alexander Vlantis, Anne King, Katie Burd, Jenny Burd, Hannah Collier, Brenda Rose Guerrero, Lai Lai Kwan, Kathy Leung Kit Yu, Bernadette Stoneman, Aishah Jantan, Wang Jing Jing, Bonnie Zhang, David and Andrew Burd