A Blended Learning Approach to Listening

1. A Blended Learning Approach to Listening Aoyama Gakuin University, English Department Joseph Dias and Gregory Strong

2. Overview of the IEP • Evaluations of the IE Listening Course • Surveys and Focus Groups • Active Listening: Blueprint for Change • New Curricular Components & Sample Tasks • a) Interactions • b) Presentations • c) Self-directed listening using vetted websites • d) Monitored self-access to listening material • 6. Evaluating the Changes • 7. Managing the New • 8. Questions and Answers

3. Integrated English Program

4. T H E M E S

5. IE I Themes: Childhood, Urban Life Food and Health T A S K S IE LISTENING TASKS Idioms, phrases, context, mood, Listening genres: news, drama, documentaries, music IE CORE TASKS Small group discussion, book report, journaling, reading genres and skills IE WRITING TASKS (Paragraphs) Topic sentences transitions, genres, use of examples, details

7. IE PROGRAM EVALUATION Cummings (1999) • program evaluation through discussion with • teachers and course writers, and class observations. • Weaknesses in the IE Listening course: • * pre-listening and post-listening activities • underutilized • * multiple choice format in the lessons • encouraged teachers to teach lessons as tests

8. LISTENING SURVEY Kikuchi (2001) needs analysis of the IE Listening course, interviewing 15 students, 9 teachers, the 2 IEP coordinators; using two versions of a questionnaire (open-ended and close-response) administered to 585 students and 9 teachers. • The questionnaires asked about the learners’ (1) target tasks, (2) problems, (3) priorities, (4) abilities, (5) problems, (6) attitudes, (7) solutions. • More use of practical English conversational skills • Introducing more varied videos from film and TV • Reviewing the scripts in class • Providing student copies of the tapes for extra listening • Using English for all classroom instruction • Providing listening Homework • (Kikuchi, 2001: p.45)

9. IE Learners’ Difficulties in Listening

10. IE Learners’ Complaints, Problems in class

11. REVISED LISTENING MATERIALS 2001- 2008 Documentaries, films, TV dramas, pop songs: Pre-Listening: vocabulary lists, questions While Listening: multiple choice, matching, T/F, guessing idioms, ordering sequences of events Post-Listening: evaluative & summative tasks: discussions, writing, role play :

12. Focus Groups and Classroom Observations: Dias and Kikuchi (2006 & 2008) • students very passive in class; sometimes bored • little improvement in skills over the semester • listening material seemed outdated • teachers often omitted pre and post listening tasks • very limited opportunities for self-access • students sought more opportunities for conversation • many students could not remember anything about the course one year after completing it

13. Incremental changes that were made a few years before the major makeover… • All the video materials were converted to DVD (most “chapters” no more than 5 minutes); new units on music and news added • Better articulated pre- and post-listening tasks were included to stimulate discussion through information gaps and Internet searches on topics related to student interest • At teachers’ orientations, instructors were strongly encouraged to include pair and group work as class activities • Students became required to access listening content through the Internet as homework and submitted regular reports • Transcripts were provided for all of the in-class listening materials at the request of teachers and students Why stop there?

14. What more was needed? More purposeful classroom activities and real world tasks based on short bits of listening material. Boredom and the perception that time is wasted or not well utilized. to solve problem of…

15. What else was needed? Evaluation system favoring students who had good listening comprehension skills at the outset. Rewarding hard work by monitoring the use of self-access materials. solves the problem of… The various levels of IE Listening becoming a blur in the minds of students and insufficient challenges for the higher level students. Greater differentiation of the 3 skill levels in terms of content and task difficulty.

16. Need for listening content that appealed more to students and corresponded better with their learning goals. To solve the problem of… The perception that the materials are not varied enough and do not “connect” with them.

17. Cha-cha-cha-changes IE Listening  IE Active Listening

18. IE 3 Active Listening

19. IN-CLASS Summit TV: listening to streeters and news documentaries

20. STUDENT PROJECTS: INTERACTIONS Watching Videos Interacting Leaders are Moving

21. INTERACTIONS on Relationships/Psychology Choose one of the topics at <http://www.videojug.com>. e.g.,How to be the Perfect Girlfriend/Boyfriend How to Chat Someone up on the Train, Bus, or Tube How to Feel Better About Your Body How to Write a Love Letter Prepare Pre-listening Questions (for your partners) • Teach 5 vocabulary words, idioms or expressions used in the video Prepare While-listening Questions • From the video, make 5 cloze, ordering, and true/false questions Prepare 5 Post-listening Questions  • Offer your partners several statements from the video and ask them to explain why they would agree or disagree with them

24. Movie Trailers for student INTERACTIONS

25. New MoonI. Pre-Listening Questions This is the second Twilight movie. What was the other? Can you name any of the characters? Where is the story set? What is the love story in the film? II. While-Listening Questions What does Bella ask for? What’s the special occasion?

26. III. Order the actions and dialogue as on the movie trailer. • a) BELLA: Oh, it’s like cake that could feed fifty…You guys don’t • even eat. • b) (ALICEgives BELLA a gift. BELLAcuts her finger opening a gift.) c) ALICE: Happy birthday, Bella. Let’s open your presents. • d) BELLA: Oh, paper cut. • e) ALICE: There’s a cake, too. • f) (ALICE leads BELLA into the living room.) • g) ALICE: Come on, it’s time. • h) (Crazed by the sight of blood, JASPER, • leaps at BELLA.)

27. IV. Fill in the missing words. • BELLA: What happened with Jasper _______1________. • EDWARD: Nothing compared to what ________2_______. • EDWARD: I promise never to put you through _______3_______. again. This is the last time you’ll ever ________4_______.

28. New Moon Trailer

29. New Moon Trailer Spoof

30. STUDENT PROJECTS: PRESENTATIONS • PRESENTATION on the Environment: • In groups, choose an environmental problem from a website: • 1. Ecologist, a British ecological magazine <http>//thecologist.org/pages/ • media.asp> • Green Channel. part of Discovery Network, has videos on ecological • themes <http>//planetgreen.discovery.com/video/ > • Greenpeace International website <http//www.greenpeace.org • international/press/video-process • 4. National Geographic has videos as well • <http//video.nationalgeographic.com//player/places/index.html> • 5. 101 East is a program about Asia, including environmental problems. • <http//www.english.aljazeera.net/programmes/101east> • Summarize the problem and present it to the class. You should present it like an “environmental brief,” stating the problem clearly and the action needed to solve the problem.

32. Coordinating Presentations & Interactions • Sign-Up Sheet THEME DATE NAME WEEK GROUP

35. A Presentation in Action

36. TEACHER MONITORED SELF-ACCESS • Self-access through assessment tests and computer-generated learning paths • Individually-paced • Geared to improving student performance • The time that students spend working on self- access is logged, so that it can form part of their grade.

37. reallyenglish.com :

39. :

40. SELF-DIRECTED LISTENING

41. Self-directed listening reports • Students access language learning websites that have been vetted by the course coordinators. • Ones that are either expressly intended for EFL/ESL listening practice or ones that possess features that support language learning by offering learning aids, quizzes, closed captions, or transcripts. • Working outside of class, students select content from the recommended sites and produce 5 or 6 log entries, summarizing the content and listing new words and phrases they learned from it.

44. Self-directed listening reports Initially, students are assigned a site to access, explore and report on to their classmates

45. SELF-DIRECTED LISTENING REPORT SHEET Citation of source Description of content Reflections List of new vocab items & definitions

46. Assessment of self-directed listening reports • An exemplary log entry • -- free of plagiarism • -- offer a critique of the site’s listening content and associated exercises. • A teacher’s feedback on the students’ reports might include comments about the choice of material and the use that the student has made of it.

47. Evaluation of the IE Active Listening program Through periodic needs analysis involving … • Surveys • focus groups • individual interviews • specially-invited outside consultants • classroom observations. How is it monitored?

48. Evaluation of the IE Active Listening program • end-of-semester course evaluations -- provide both quantitative and qualitative (open-ended response) data. • using surveymonkey online surveys, we quickly create, administer, and process questionnaires, and act upon them. • eliciting teacher feedback at occasional lunchtime meetings and at an annual orientation. How is it monitored?

49. Let’s look at… How the teachers view the changes And… How the students view the changes -- Interactions / Presentations -- Listening Reports -- Reallyenglish

50. Teacher Survey SurveyMonkey survey administered in July 2009, just after the first semester that the new listening curriculum was offered. 6 NS teachers and 9 Japanese IE AL teachers were questioned. • Views on Interactions: • They went well. However, the group size was too big. I divided the class into groups of 6, but 4 would be better. • Some students appeared to feel nervous, but I think they got a good experience. • More models, both of the written form and of an Interaction, would help. Also, we have to allow more time for them.