How to Teach Listening

To fulfill reading task of semester 5created by group 6 of G class in English Education of IAIN Surakarta

Nur Insiyah                                       123221225

Nuril Latifah                                     123221227

Nurul Munfaridah                             123221228

Rizki Rakhmawati                            123221256

Rizki Sabilla Ramadhani                  123221257



A.    METHOD
1.      WHY TEACHING LISTENING? 1. to develop speaking and listening skill 2. to acquire the language from different sources=> SL environment is more beneficial to students than FL environment2.      KINDS OF LISTENINGa.       “Casual listening” => occurring in informal settings e.g. at home at school => usually without much effort or attentionb.      “Focused listening” => listening for a particular purpose e.g. in class => usually with a lot of effort and attention3.      TEACHING METHODSa.       Use of a cassette recorder (Teach English, p.204)1)      Advantages
a)      listening to conversations with different voices of different roles
b)      acquiring different accents
c)      saving T’s energy
d)     playing and replaying the same text with stable sound quality
2)      Disadvantagesa)      no non-verbal cuesb)      unchanged speedc)      T’s time-consuming preparationd)     dependence on power or batterye)      Teacher’s preparation:  locating the tape & learning to use the machineb.      Teaching stepsà pre-listening:1)      provide background information2)      pre-teach key words / structures3)      explain what to do (TASK 1 )
TOP-DOWN
TOP-DOWN TOP-DOWNà while-listening:
1)   play the tape (without stopping => 1st time)2)   play the tape again (with pauses if necessary)3)   explain what to do (TASK 2)
BOTTOM-UP
BOTTOM-UP
BOTTOM-UPà post-listening:1)   correct students’ answers2)   follow-up activities (to develop other skills)c.       Listening tasks1)      guided questions (true-false statements, comprehension questions, multiple choice, …)2)      doing a task (completing a table, chart, ordering, matching, …)EXAMPLES OF LISTENING TASK TYPESa.       ordering / numbering itemsb.      multiple choice (for main ideas)c.       completion (fill-in-the-blank)d.      matchinge.       multiple choice (for specific information)f.       note-taking (for specific information)B.     INDICATOR
The indicators of teaching listening are:1.      To develop student’s ability to listen English carefully.
2.      To make student’s habit in making meaning while they listen a language.
3.      To give student the ability to speak from what they hear and listen.
C.     Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening
Instructors want to produce students who, even if they do not have complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In the case of listening, this means producing students who can use listening strategies to maximize their comprehension of aural input, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.Focus: The Listening ProcessTo accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather than on its product.            Goal of teaching listening:1.      They develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they listen in their native language.
2.      They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using authentic listening tasks.
3.      They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener rather than as a teacher.
4.      When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the listening purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.
5.      They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their listening assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete listening tape assignments.
6.      They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use immediately after completing an assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.
7.      They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies by using the target language to conduct classroom business: making announcements, assigning homework, describing the content and format of tests.
8.      They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of listening task or with another skill.
By raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active engagement, and by explicitly teaching listening strategies, instructors help their students develop both the ability and the   confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom. In this way they give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new language.a.      Integrating Metacognitive Strategies
Before listening: Plan for the listening task1)        Set a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for
2)        Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed
3)        Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)
During and after listening: Monitor comprehension1.      Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses
2.      Decide what is and is not important to understand
3.      Listen/view again to check comprehension
4.      Ask for help
After listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use1.      Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area
2.      Evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of listening tasks
3.      Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task
4.      Modify strategies if necessary
Using Authentic Materials and SituationsAuthentic materials and situations prepare students for the types of listening they will need to do when using the language outside the classroom.One-Way CommunicationMaterials:1.      Radio and television programs
2.      Public address announcements (airports, train/bus stations, stores)
3.      Speeches and lectures
4.      Telephone customer service recordings
Procedure:1.      Help students identify the listening goal: to obtain specific information; to decide whether to continue listening; to understand most or all of the message
2.      Help students outline predictable sequences in which information may be presented: who-what-when-where (news stories); who-flight number-arriving/departing-gate number (airport announcements); "for [function], press [number]" (telephone recordings)
3.      Help students identify key words/phrases to listen for
Two-Way CommunicationIn authentic two-way communication, the listener focuses on the speaker's meaning rather than the speaker's language. The focus shifts to language only when meaning is not clear. Note the difference between the teacher as teacher and the teacher as authentic listener in the dialogues in the popup screens.Strategies for Developing Listening SkillsLanguage learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication. Effective language instructors show students how they can adjust their listening behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and listening purposes. They help students develop a set of listening strategies and match appropriate strategies to each listening situation.Listening StrategiesListening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the input.Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next. Top-down strategies include

1. listening for the main idea

1. predicting

1. drawing inferences

1. summarizing

Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning. Bottom-up strategies include

1. listening for specific details

1. recognizing cognates

1. recognizing word-order patterns

Strategic listeners also use metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate their listening.

1. They plan by deciding which listening strategies will serve best in a particular situation.

1. They monitor their comprehension and the effectiveness of the selected strategies.

1. They evaluate by determining whether they have achieved their listening comprehension goals and whether the combination of listening strategies selected was an effective one.

Listening for MeaningTo extract meaning from a listening text, students need to follow four basic steps:

1. Figure out the purpose for listening. Activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate listening strategies.

1. Attend to the parts of the listening input that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to hold in short-term memory in order to recognize it.

1. Select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the listening task and use them flexibly and interactively. Students' comprehension improves and their confidence increases when they use top-down and bottom-up strategies simultaneously to construct meaning.

1. Check comprehension while listening and when the listening task is over. Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures, directing them to use alternate strategies.

Developing Listening ActivitiesAs you design listening tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the information in an aural text is an unrealistic expectation to which even native speakers are not usually held. Listening exercises that are meant to train should be success-oriented and build up students' confidence in their listening ability.Construct the listening activity around a contextualized task.Contextualized listening activities approximate real-life tasks and give the listener an idea of the type of information to expect and what to do with it in advance of the actual listening. A beginning level task would be locating places on a map (one way) or exchanging name and address information (two way). At an intermediate level students could follow directions for assembling something (one way) or work in pairs to create a story to tell to the rest of the class (two way).Define the activity's instructional goal and type of response.Each activity should have as its goal the improvement of one or more specific listening skills. A listening activity may have more than one goal or outcome, but be careful not to overburden the attention of beginning or intermediate listeners.
Recognizing the goal(s) of listening comprehension   in each listening situation will help students select appropriate listening strategies.

1. Identification: Recognizing or discriminating specific aspects of the message, such as sounds, categories of words, morphological distinctions

1. Orientation: Determining the major facts about a message, such as topic, text type, setting

1. Main idea comprehension: Identifying the higher-order ideas

1. Detail comprehension: Identifying supporting details

1. Replication: Reproducing the message orally or in writing

Check the level of difficulty of the listening text.The factors listed below can help you judge the relative ease or difficulty of a listening text for a particular purpose and a particular group of students.How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or instruction conform to familiar expectations? Texts in which the events are presented in natural chronological order, which have an informative title, and which present the information following an obvious   organization (main ideas first, details and examples second) are easier to follow.
How familiar are the students with the topic? Remember that misapplication of background knowledge due to cultural differences can create major comprehension difficulties.
Does the text contain redundancy? At the lower levels of proficiency, listeners may find short, simple messages easier to process, but students with higher proficiency benefit from the natural redundancy of the language.
Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly differentiated? It is easier to understand a text with a doctor and a patient than one with two doctors, and it is even easier if they are of the opposite sex. In other words, the more marked the differences, the easier the comprehension.
Does the text offer visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the listeners hear? Visual aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images in a video help contextualize the listening input and provide clues to meaning.
Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view.The activities chosen during pre-listening may serve as preparation for listening in several ways. During pre-listening the teacher may

1. assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text

1. provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their comprehension of the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge that the students possess

1. clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage

1. make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening

1. provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or class discussion activities

Sample pre-listening activities:

1. looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs

1. reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures

1. reading something relevant

1. constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing how they are related)

1. predicting the content of the listening text

1. going over the directions or instructions for the activity

1. doing guided practice

Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose, and students' proficiency level.While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them do during or immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these points in mind when planning while-listening activities:If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow them to read through it before listening. Students need to devote all their attention to the listening task. Be sure they understand the instructions for the written task before listening begins so that they are not distracted by the need to figure out what to do.
Keep writing to a minimum during listening. Remember that the primary goal is comprehension, not production. Having to write while listening may distract students from this primary goal. If a written response is to be given after listening, the task can be more demanding.
Organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text. Combine global activities such as getting the main idea, topic, and setting with selective listening activities that focus on details of content and form.
Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of the whole. Before the listening activity begins, have students review questions they will answer orally or in writing after listening.   Listening for the answers will help students recognize the crucial parts of the message.
Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen. Do a predicting activity before listening, and remind students to review what they are hearing to see if it makes sense in the context of their prior knowledge and what they already know of the topic or events of the passage.
Give immediate feedback whenever possible. Encourage students to examine how or why their responses were incorrect.
Sample while-listening activities1.      listening with visuals
2.      filling in graphs and charts
3.      following a route on a map
4.      checking off items in a list
5.      listening for the gist
6.      searching for specific clues to meaning
7.      completing cloze (fill-in) exercises
8.      distinguishing between formal and informal registers
D.     Testing and Assessment for Listening Project
Children in one classroom will be given direct instruction in listening skills, with particular attention being paid to the instructional environment.  They will be given signals, rewards, role playing opportunities, modeling and opportunities to give their own feedback. They will be constantly given time to formulate questions and strategies to use if they do not understand the information being given verbally.PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATAIntroductionThe purpose of this study was to determine if students who demonstrate problems with listening skills, focusing attention and have low academic achievement can be effectively taught listening skills during the pre-referral period to avoid formal referral to the Child Study TeamIt is the stated position of this study that students who experience direct teaching of listening skills will improve their ability to attend to oral presentations and show improvement in their academic performance.  This improvement will he noted in anecdotal records, weekly and quarterly grades, in addition to being shown in the ability to maintain focus, a decrease in distractibility, ability to answer comprehension questions and repeat and follow two and three-step directions. Procedures used to obtain this data were teacher checklists, an inventory of directions and an informal reading inventory passage.  Teachers who volunteered were asked to complete a Listening Observations Checklist in narrative form (Brigance, 1983) to record anecdotal information; excerpts from the Listening Checklist (Hammill andEartel, 1990);and a modified Pre-Referral Checklist (McCarney,1988) which rated the child's listening behavior in the categories as occurring "sometimes" 'always' or 'never'.  In addition to the teachers' input, each child was given a pre-test.  This test was a primer level selected passage from the Basi Reading Inventory ( Johns, 1994) read aloud to the child, who was asked to first , retell the story; then, answer ten comprehension questions, which had been modified to elicit only factual information.After examination of the data, the statement can be made that  a child who  receives organized, consistent instruction in listening skills can develop and show enough improvement to be abl to avoid being referred for a full Child Study Team assessment  for placement  in special education services. Other services, such as basic skills/remedial assistance or even retention may be needed in order to maintain and enhance the level of performance gained by the acquisition of affective listening skills, if the entire academic performance is not on grade level. In addition to improved listening skills, there was an overall reporting of academic achievement in math; but alow, although improved, performance in reading and in language.Data presented consistently showed that a child can use specific listening skills in other learning situations, other environments, with other teachers successfully.RETELLING; "In a retelling strategy, the teacher invites the student to tell everything about the passage that has just been read." Retelling scores measured the total number of ideas recalled.Ouestion scores measured the percent of questions correct. Ten (10) questions equal 100%.REPEATING: The child repeats the directions verbatim, without omissions, substitutions or reversals.PERFORMTNG: The child performs the directions accurately, without omissions, substitutions or reversals.Scores are reported in whole percents (number correct/total number  of directions - N/12).T - Student transferred before the end of the study.Anecdotal records and checklists from the teachers who assisted in this  study helped establish whether the resulting data supported or refuted the hypothesis.The first research question asked it a child could be taught to listen effectively and show enough improvement in the prereferral period to avoid a full Child Study Team evaluation.The second research question asked if a child could be taught to concentrate and focus on a speaker.  Children who have their names called prior to an oral presentation were able to focus better and concentrate better and longer. In order to continue producing positive responses, children need rewards in the form of praise for good listening and being used as the example o a good listener.  Children who are taught to establish and maintain eye contact, look directly at the speaker and set any distractions aside before the oral presentation begins, also establish  proper mental set by being given specific listening tasks or expectations.The third research question asked if a  child could develop strategies to handle distractions and remain on task. The study demonstrated that staying on task could be enhanced by calling the student's name, having them repeat directions and even by giving praise; however, the students showed that a specific set of strategies must be taught in order for them to handle distractions. They must be taught exactly what to when distracted and exactly how to return to a task or an activity without numerous reminders from the teacher.The fourth research question asked if a child can use specific listening skills in other learning situations and environments successfully.  The students were able to adjust well to the several different teaching methods utilized by their special area teachers, within their classrooms or inanother room.  They followed directions, answered questions and performed assigned tasks with a minimum of reminders because they were able to focus on the teacher and also concentrate on the oral presentation longer.After the learning process, the teacher should develop their student’s understanding b implementing testing and assessment. The test for listening may include several factors below:1.      Multiple choice
2.      Essay
3.      Matching
a)      Multiple Choice
In listening testing, teacher should attend several factors below:1.      Accuracy   : The exactness answer that relate to the questions.
2.      Spelling      : The exactness letter in student’s writing.
3.      Validity      : The correct answer while student fill in the blank or match the vocabulary.