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Listening
skill The Challenge of Teaching Listening SkillsFrom Kenneth
Beare, Teaching listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any ESL teacher. This is because successful listening skills are acquired over time and with lots of practice. It's frustrating for students because there are no rules as in grammar teaching. Speaking and writing also have very specific exercises that can lead to improved skills. This is not to say that there are not ways of improving listening skills, however they are difficult to quantify. One of the largest inhibitors for students is often mental block. While listening, a student suddenly decides that he or she doesn't understand what is being said. At this point, many students just tune out or get caught up in an internal dialogue trying translate a specific word. Some students convince themselves that they are not able to understand spoken English well and create problems for themselves. They key to helping students improve their listening skills is to convince them that not understanding is OK. This is more of an attitude adjustment than anything else, and it is easier for some students to accept than others. Another important point that I try to teach my students (with differing amounts of success) is that they need to listen to English as often as possible, but for short periods of time. I like to use this analogy: Imagine you want to get in shape. You decide to begin jogging. The very first day you go out and jog seven miles. If you are lucky, you might even be able to jog the seven miles. However, chances are good that you will not soon go out jogging again. Fitness trainers have taught us that we must begin with little steps. Begin jogging short distances and walk some as well, over time you can build up the distance. Using this approach, you'll be much more likely to continue jogging and get fit. Students need to apply the same approach to listening skills. Encourage them to get a film, or listen to an English radio station, but not to watch an entire film or listen for two hours. Students should often listen, but they should listen for short periods - five to ten minutes. This should happen four or five times a week. Even if they don't understand anything, five to ten minutes is a minor investement. However, for this strategy to work, students must not expect improved understanding too quickly. The brain is capable of amazing things if given time, students must have the patience to wait for results. If a student continues this exercise over two to three months their listening comprehension skills will greatly improve. Improving Listening SkillsFrom Kenneth
Beare, Listening TipsDoes this situation seem familiar to you? Your English is progressing well, the grammar is now familiar, the reading comprehension is no problem, you are communicating quite fluently, but: Listening is STILL a problem! First of all, remember that you are not alone. Listening comprehension is probably the most difficult task (noun=exercise, job) for almost all learners of English as a foreign language. So, now you know you are not alone....! OK. The most important thing is to listen, and that means as often as possible. The next step is to find listening resources. This is where the Internet really comes in handy (idiom = to be useful) as a tool for English students. First you need to:
The RealPlayer allows you to listen to RealAudio and use the Internet like a radio station. Many sites now also provide listening using the Windows Media Player - or even have their own players on the site. Once you have the RealPlayer you can begin to listen to English as it is used in everyday life. The possibilities are almost unlimited. You can:
StrategiesOnce you have begun to listen on a regular basis, you might still be frustrated (adjective=upset) by limited understanding. What should you do? Here is some of the advice I give my students:
I remember the problems I had in understanding spoken
German when I first went to Translating creates a barrier between yourself and the person who is speaking While you are listening to another person speaking a foreign language (English in this case), the temptation is to immediately translate into your native language. This temptation becomes much stronger when you hear a word you don't understand. This is only natural as we want to understand everything that is said. However, when you translate into your native language, you are taking the focusof your attention away from the speaker and concentrating on the translation process taking place in your brain. This would be fine if you could put the speaker on hold (phrasal verb=to make a person wait). In real life however, the person continues talking while you translate. This situation obviously leads to less -not more- understanding. I have discovered that translation leads to a kind of block (noun=no movement or activity ) in my brain which sometimes doesn't allow me to understand anything at all! Most people repeat themselves Think for a moment about your friends, family and colleagues. When they speak in your native tongue, do they repeat themselves? I don't mean literally (adverb=word for word), I mean the general idea. If they are like most people I have met, they probably do. That means that whenever you listen to someone speaking, it is very likely (adjective=probable) that he/she will repeat the information, giving you a second, third or even fourth chance to understand what has been said. By remaining calm, allowing yourself to notunderstand, and not translating while listening, your brain is free to concentrate on the most important thing: Understanding English in English. Tips
Probably the greatest advantage about using the Internet to improve your listening skills is that you can choose what you would like to listen to and how many and times you would like to listen to it. By listening to something you enjoy, you are also likely to know a lot more of the vocabulary required!
Use keywords (noun=principal words) or keyphrases to help
you understand the general ideas. If you understand "
Let's imagine that your English speaking friend says "...I bought this great tunerat JR's. It was really cheap and now I can finally listen to National Public Radio broadcasts." You don't understand what a tuneris. If you focus on the word tuneryou might become frustrated. However, if you think in context (noun=the situation explained during the conversation) you probably will understand. For example; bought is the past of buy, listen is no problem and radio is obvious. Now you understand: He bought something - the tuner- to listen to the radio. A tunermust be a kind of radio! This is a simple example but it demonstrates what you need to focus on: Not the word that you don't understand, but the words you dounderstand. SummaryIt might seem to you that my ideas on how to listen encourage you to not understand everything. This is absolutely correct. One hundred percent understanding is something to work towards(phrasal verb=to have as a goal, a plan for the future) and not to expect of yourself now. Listening needs a great amount of practice and patience. Allow yourself the luxury of not becoming nervous when you do not understand, and you will be surprised by how quickly you dobegin to understand. Listening often is the most important way to improve your listening skills. Enjoy the listening possibilities offered by the Internet and remember relax...... Intonation and Stress: Key to
Understanding and Being Understood Try this short exercise
From Kenneth
Beare, I
believe that speaking cannot be separated from listening in order to hold a
communicative communication. According to the first article, it shows that
teaching listening skill is not as easy as it looks. Not all students will
have the same respond and to listening activity. Some may like it, and some don’t.
One of the reasons they don’t like it is may simply because they cannot
understand the recording. This is teacher’s responsibility to motivate
his/her students if they face this problem. According to the first article, teacher
may say it is okay to say to the students if they don’t understand it. But,
they process doesn’t stop here. Teacher should keep motivating the students to
practice more and the important thing is convince the students that they will
understand it gradually. Students will learn from the simple one to the more
complicated. Besides, there are some interesting ways to teach listening
skill. It can be through songs, movies, listening to the radio (English session),
etc. In
the second article, we can find some strategies when we are listening to a
recording. First of all we must accept the fact that we don’t understand the
recording and keep calm. We should not translate the words into our native
language. We just need to get the main idea from the recording. After we get
the main idea, we concentrate on detail things. There are also some tips to
improve listening skill. First, we listen to what enjoy. Second, we listen
for keywords. The last is we listen for context. The
third article is the same with the article is Speaking Skill part. We have to
listen to the intonation (stress). As I said I Speaking Skill part, English
is stressed language. A sentence may have some different meanings if we put
the stress in different words. If we cannot identify it, we may have
different perception of an utterance. I
believe that many people may find this problem (do not understand the
recording) when they first deal with listening activity. Moreover, if the recording
is in target language (in this case is English). In my opinion, improving students’
listening skill is not only teacher’s responsibility. Students also have to realize
that it is their responsibility too. Therefore, we need a lot of practice
outside the class because teacher cannot supervise us every time. We can practice
it through some interesting ways such as songs, movies, radio programs, etc. take
for example, If we like to listen to songs, we can listen to English songs
that we like. Listening
is very important in communication. When we are speaking, we want other people
listen to us. Therefore, we have to listen to other people when they are
speaking. This will make them feel that we respect them. Another reason is
when we really listen to other people, we are able to give proper respond or
comment and we will have meaningful conversation. This is what is called as
communicative communication (meaningful conversation). |
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