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Listening Strategies for ESL students. Marijke Wertheim (marijke.wertheim@utoronto.ca) SCS/University of Toronto. Agenda. The listening process Strategies and activities Conclusions Q & A. The listening process. The “Cinderella skill” (Nunan, 2002)
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Listening Strategies for ESL students Marijke Wertheim (marijke.wertheim@utoronto.ca) SCS/University of Toronto
Agenda • The listening process • Strategies and activities • Conclusions • Q & A Developed by M.Wertheim
The listening process • The “Cinderella skill” (Nunan, 2002) • “An interactive, multi-level process of meaning creation” (Peterson, 2001) • Top-down & bottom-up processing Developed by M.Wertheim
Strategy training • Coping with real-life listening • Transferability: internal & external • “…vital that students be given practice in dealing with texts where they understand only part of what is said.” (Field, 2002) Developed by M.Wertheim
Using prior knowledge • Activate schemata:a. content & formalb. before & during • Make predictions: a. before (type of information & register)b. during (linguistic cues) • Recognize expected information Developed by M.Wertheim
Activities • Titanic: what do you know? • History channel documentary vs. interview with James Cameron • What will they say next? • What was expected (checklist), new, unexpected, contradictory? Developed by M.Wertheim
Purposes for listening • Different purposes require different processes and strategies • Counter negative expectations: provide purpose, make tasks achievable • Don’t confirm inability to understand. Developed by M.Wertheim
Recognizing non-verbal cues:a. gesture, expression & postureb. intonation & stress What language do the signals introduce? What can you deduce about the speaker’s attitude or opinion? Recognizing linguistic cues: patterns of organization What type of information will follow? Connection to writing Used in predicting during listening Activities Developed by M.Wertheim
Listening for key words:a. hearing stressed wordsb. content words Recreate talk from key words (paper) Long listening to note key words, then recreate talk from notes Tolerate ambiguity Listening for detail:a. focus on specific informationb. know what you need to hear Steps in a process Specific questions that focus on key points and help filter inessential information Activities - cont. Developed by M.Wertheim
Lam (2002): time-creating (stallers, fillers), facilitation (simplify, ellipsis, stock phrases), & compensation (redundancy, reformulation, rephrasing) devices Brown (2001): clustering; reductions; colloquialisms; speed; stress, rhythm & intonation; interaction Real-life listening Developed by M.Wertheim
Recognizing reductions:a. start on paperb. use tapescript Listening for linking:a. start on paperb. transcribe exactly as heard, then separate (incorporates reductions) Listening for main ideas:- filter distractions: fillers (checklist), id false starts on tapescript, listen for signals & note rephrase/repetition Paraphrasing:a. start on paperb. pairwork consolidates variety of strategies/skills Activities Developed by M.Wertheim
Pulling it together • Present in “natural” groupings • Recycle & repeat • Consolidate at regular intervals Developed by M.Wertheim
Conclusions • Give lots of practice time • Use varied texts • Combine strategies in different ways • Encourage use of listening logs • Start with listening strategy questionnaire • Use meta-language; be explicit Developed by M.Wertheim
References • Brown, H.Douglas (2001). Teaching by principles, An interactive approach to language pedagogy. NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. • Field, J. (2002). The changing face of listening. In Jack C. Richards & W.A. Renandya (eds.). Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Lam, Wendy Y.K. (2002). Raising students’ awareness of the features of real-world listening. In Jack C. Richards & W.A. Renandya (eds.). Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Nunan, D. (2002). Listening in language learning. In Jack C. Richards & W.A. Renandya (eds.). Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Peterson, P.W. (2001). Skills and strategies for proficient listening. In Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed.), M. Celce-Murcia (ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. Developed by M.Wertheim