In-Depth Notes on Teaching Listening and Speaking Skills

Introduction

• Listening and speaking skills are essential in language programs globally.
• Rising demand for English fluency emphasizes teaching effectiveness.
• Review of teaching practices and assumptions about these skills.
• Shifts in understanding around listening and speaking, leading to updated teaching methods.

Teaching Listening

• Listening is now recognized as a core language proficiency component.
• University exams increasingly include listening components to reflect its importance.

Historical Perspectives on Listening

• Earlier views: listening as mastery of discrete skills (e.g., recognizing words, cohesive devices).
• Later perspectives integrated cognitive psychology concepts:
  • Bottom-up and top-down processing.
  • Listener's active role and strategies in comprehension.

Characteristics of Spoken Discourse

• Spoken discourse is instantaneous and often unplanned.
• Fast speech rates vary by context (e.g., radio vs. conversation).
• Features of spoken discourse:
  • Linear structure vs. written discourse hierarchical structure.
  • Context-dependency and reliance on shared knowledge.

Understanding Spoken Discourse

Bottom-Up Processing

• Definition: Understanding based on incoming speech data processed incrementally.
• Steps:
  1. Receive and hold a phonological representation in memory.
  2. Organize and identify constituents, building propositions.
  3. Retain meaning while purging the phonological details.
• Example: "The guy I sat next to on the bus…"
  • Core meaning: Conversations are chunked for processing (e.g., talking about a restaurant).

Teaching Bottom-Up Processing

• Focus on vocabulary and sentence structure.
• Classroom activities:
  • Identifying pronoun referents, positive/negative statements, and sequence markers.

Top-Down Processing

• Definition: Understanding using background knowledge or schema.
• Example: Recognizing words related to familiar contexts (e.g., news of an earthquake activates related questions).
• Importance: Without top-down processing, comprehension may fail.

Teaching Top-Down Processing

• Activities to develop:
  • Predicting discourse content and inferring details.
  • Comparing expected information with actual discourse.

Integrating Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing

• Real-world listening requires a blend of both processing types.
• Lesson structure:
  • Pre-Listening: Activate prior knowledge, make predictions.
  • While-Listening: Comprehension through selective attention.
  • Post-Listening: Reflect and analyze the text.

Listening Strategies

• Cognitive Strategies: Comprehension and memory management.
• Metacognitive Strategies: Executive functions in listening management.
• Goh (1997/1998) Framework:
  • Planning: Set objectives and preview content.
  • Monitoring: Check comprehension and progress.
  • Evaluating: Assess effectiveness post-task.

Listening as Acquisition

• Concept: Listening not only helps comprehension but also language acquisition.
• Important distinction: Input vs. Intake (noticing vs. passive listening).
• Activities for enhancement include:
  • Noticing (comparison tasks) and restructuring (productive use of language).

Practical Classroom Applications

• Phase 1: Activities focused on comprehension (e.g., understanding dialogues).
• Phase 2: Transition to acquisition using the same texts for interactive speaking tasks.

Conclusion

• Combining listening with speaking tasks facilitates greater language acquisition.
• Noticing and restructuring activities enrich the learning experience, enhancing both comprehension and active language use.