Ear this!

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Ear this!

• By Paul Selingson

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Do we teach our students to listen or do we test
them in each listening practice?

• What do you ask your students to do while they
  are listening?
• which cognitive processes interact as we
  construct meaning?
• Which elements of the spoken language do you ask
  your students to pay attention to?
• do your students feel relaxed during a listening
  practice?

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The acoustic blur and how to decipher it!

• Focus on both what is said (messages).
• How it is said (language).
• How it is expressed (pronunciation).
• We have to raise students awareness of their own
  comprehension process and encourage them to
  notice how they have come to understand.

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Give them tips on how to listen.

• Tuning in to the topic.
• Hanging in there regardless! (gist)
• Coping with the unknown!
• Imagining/Reading body language.
• Filling in the gaps in understanding and asking
  for clarification.
• Bottom up or Top down processing.

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Five strategies to put into practice.

• predicting
• monitoring
• inferencing
• clarifying
• and responding

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Talk to your colleagues and discuss if we could
do more in any of these topics to help our
students to listen

• Teacher models natural speech (weak forms,
  stress, intonation, good rhythm, natural linking,
  etc). Teacher talking time.
• Respond naturally to thier on-going feedback.
  (reformulate, add, improvise, react)
• Live listening, pair work, learners anecdotes,
  guest speakers.

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In class

• Watch the class as they listen.
• Train students to relax.
• Set a simple task first, teach them to tolerate
  ambiguity.
• Arouse interest, activate key vocabulary.
• Aim success.
• Break up longer texts ask students to listen to
  different sections in different ways.
• Do pleanty of pronunciation work.
• Use listening as aural wallpaper in class.

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Bibliography

• Streaming Speech Advanced Listening and
  Pronunciation for Learnes of English
• Cauldwell Birmingham UK 2002 also
  www.speechinaction.com
• Listening in Language Learning
• Rost, Pearson 1990
• Helping Students to Speak
• Selingson, Richmond 1997
• Listening
• White, OUP, 1998
  seligson04_at_yahoo.co.uk