Related+Questions+&+Answers+of+Teaching+Listening


 * Teaching Listening and Speaking **

Butler-Pascoe, M.E. & Wiburg, K.M (2003). //Technology and Teaching English Language Learners //. Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 4: //Using Technology to Teach Oral Communication Skills//, pages 81 to 96: //Developing Listening Skills// 
 * Listening activities **

1. The aqcuisition/learning hypothesis states that language skills can be developed through two means:  (a) __**Aquisition:**__ the process used by children to acquire their native langauge. (b) __**Learning:**__ the conscious and explicit knowing about the langauge. Acquisition is subconscious, whereas learning is consciously developed by instruction and aided by error correction.  2. How does technology provide comprehensible input?  Technology assists students in acquiring langauge skills indirectly by acting as a major motivator and stimulus for language development. It provides students with incentives to communicate orally as they work collaboratively on tasks and communicative projects. 

3. In what whays can technology assist inc reating a nonthreatening lanuage learning environment? <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Technology can aid teachers in creating a supportive, nonthreatening learning environment in which 2nd langauge learners feel secure enough to practice the target language and to make and correct their own errors without embarrassment or anxiety. The computer can be programmed to present material at different difficulty levels with adjustment in speed of delivery according to individual learner needs. The unbtiring, nonjudgemental nature of the computer gives students the autonomy to review any part of the lesson as many times as they wish and recieve immediate feedback and additional aassistence as needed. By reducing stress and anxiety, learners are able to negotiate meaning and convert the raw message they hear into comprehensible input. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #0b00ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 4. What kinds of processing stragegies are involed in listening? Describe each one and give examples: <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">. There are two main processes which are classed 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' which are the two central aspects to listening comprehention. Richards ( 1990 ) gives these examples to elaborate on this type of process 2: Segmenting the stream of speech into constintuents - for example: in order to recognise that "abookofmine" consists of four words. 3: Using phonological cues to identify the information focus in an utterance 4: Using grammatical cues to organize the input into constituents - for example: in order to recognise that in "the book which i lent you" [the book]and [which I lent you ] are the major constituents rather than [the book which I] and [lent you]. (ph 50-51) - several computer programes provide students listening practice with bottom-up processing skills in which they develop their lexical, phonological, and grammatical knowledge. e.g. if, for instance, a friend tells you "i forgot to buy the candels at the grocery store", you prior knowledge will determine the type of candle you assign to the statement. If you already know that today is he birthday of your driend's daughter, you will probably assume your friend needs to buy small, birthday candles. etc. Therefore, it has a broader connotation when taking into an account the top-down processing. It's more the basis of the purpose and the neccessity of the subject being taken into account. 5. **<span style="font-size: 7pt; color: #0b00ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #0b00ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">How does technology assist students in demonstrating their background and linguistic knowledge? <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Computers allow students to demonstate their knowledge and competencies in a variety of ways, For instance, in Mrs. Temores's sheltered sixth - grade social science class, students were to work in greoups to research and doa timeline on the life of great American inventors. Here it shows a great way for students to be active with the computers and at the same time learn about a variety of historical aspects that have influenced our life as time progresses. Other similar types of programes have also helped with the background and linguistic knowledge of students. Firsthand Acess, students listen to a dictation and fill in cloze exercise by clicking and dragging the words they hear to their correct position within the sentences. With many similar software programes, teachers can use a text they select or the writing of their students to create their own oral dictations and geneerate close exercises. <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #0b00ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 6. How can technology assist students in: <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">1. **interactional communication:** A particular website offers interactional speaking practice through dialogues centered on topics such as making friends, going to a party, and dating. In these exercises, students can elect to listen to the entire dialog or access individual sentences. 2. **transactional communication:** Students listen intently to the lecture for transactional purposes as they attempted to determine the key points of the talk for later use in their debate on the topic. Other programes give more guided practice in listening for transactional purpose. Working with the software, for instance Engage, students first listen to a dialog for the key words. They then identify these words and place them on their computer notepads.
 * __Bottom -up processing:__** focus is placed on individual components of oral discourse. Comprehention is viewed as a process of decoding messages proceeding from phonemes to words, to phrases and clauses and other grammatical elements, to sentences.
 * __e.g.__** 1: scaning the input to identity lexical items
 * __Top-down processing strategies:__** take into account the macro-features of discourse such as the speaker's purpose and the discource topic. Comprehenstion is seen as a process of activating the listener's background information and schemata for a global understanding of the message.
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