LIN8002 Module 2: Listening

Activity 1: What have you discovered about the 'listening' process?

Listening is thought to be both a top-down and a bottom-up process. Top-down proccesing allows us to sample aural input and apply meaning based on existing our existing knowledge and experience. Bottom-up processing relates to constructing meaning by decoding the aural input stream as it occurs

Although listening seems to occur as a single, isolated event, it is a sequential or serial process of steps that occur so rapidly as to appear a single event. Aural input is stored, or received, and then organised into constituents. The constituents are refined into propositions, and hence propositional meaning, and the original stored input is then forgotten, or superceded by the propositional meaning.

Listening comprehension is described in part in terms of schemata - existing individual knowledge, memory and experience - and scripts - knowledge of probable squences of events in familiar situations.

How significant is listening in developing language comprehension?

Listening as a process includes elements essential to comprehension, including top-down and bottom-up processing, and the necessity to apply predeveloped schemata and the context-appropriate selection of scripts. Without these elements, language comprehension would not occur, so listening is a critical factor in developing language comprehension.

Activity 2: How do you develop a learner's ability to 'get the gist' of language input while listening?

Oxford and Crookall (1989) contend that 'getting the gist' of meaning (p. 410) before looking up new words in a dictionary is a success strategy for language learning. Loewen (2005) posits that learners "do not necessarily need to understand every word and morpheme to get the gist of an utterance" (p. 364). Hence, learners are probably more successful when the teacher uses strategies to develop 'gist', perhaps over and above strategies for grammar-competence and vocabulary. 'Gist' developing activities such as pre-listening and pre-reading, which provide context and possibly increased learner motivation, prepare the learner for what they are about to encounter.

Authentic listening for doing - what are the essentials of how to listen for a purpose?

Listening for purpose requires sets of listening skills that are determined by the purposes. Using Nunan's (2002, p. 239) examples, listening to a news broadcast for interest and knowledge of local knowledge requires different listening strategies than listening to a briefing on using an unfamiliar piece of machinery. However a common three-point strategy is to listen for gist, then listen for broader concepts, and then listen again for specific details.

References

Loewen, S. (2005) Incidental focus on form and second language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27(3), 361-386.  Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/S0272263105050163.

Nunan, D. (2002). Listening in language learning. In J. Richards & W. Renandya (Eds.) Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice, 238-241. Cambridge University Press.

Oxford, R. and Crookall, D. (1989), Research on Language Learning Strategies: Methods, Findings, and Instructional Issues. The Modern Language Journal, 73, 404–419. Wiley Online Library. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4781.1989.tb05321.x