2. Communication
What should be the main goal of an English
language cousre?
To focus on developing students’ mastery of the
the language form
OR
To focus on developing students’ ability to
effectively communicate for study, work or leisure
3. Features of using language for
communication
We communicate because we want to or need to,
NOT just to practise the language
Focus is on what we are communicating NOT on
how we are communicating (ideas vs. language)
The language that is used is VARİED in grammar
and vocabulary, NOT made of a single structure or a
few structures and NOT normally repeated over and
over again
4. Communication in the Classroom
If you want to encourage real communication in
the classroom you need to
Establish English as the main classroom
language
Try to use interesting topics and stimulating
activities, which take the learners’ minds off
the language
Real life events ( weather, the students’ cloths, their
health and mood, pictures and realia brought to
class)
Events in the world outside ( new films, a circus in
town, national sports victory, the students’ families,
etc.)
5. Focus on fluency vs. accuracy
Support and encourage listeners in their
efforts to communicate their ideas
Don’t try to control what they say
Don’t interrupt learners everytime they make a
language mistake to correct them.
6. Listening Skills
Listening is not a ‘passive” skill but a
“receptive” skill. It requires as much attention
and mental activity as speaking.
That of the time an individual is engaged in
communication, approximately 9 per cent is
devoted to writing, 16 per cent to reading, 30
per cent to speaking, and 45 per cent to
listening.
7. Debates concerning the development
of listening skills
Debates focusing on the nature of listening input
Whether or not listening should be made
comprehensible for learners through simplification?
Debates focusing on the role of listening in the
early ELT curriculum
Whether teachers should stress the importance of
learners haing a “silent period” in the early stages of
learning and wait for “readiness” to produce the
language
8. Debates concerning the development
of listening skills
Debates on the role of listening for
comprehension and development of oracy (the
ability to understand and participate in spoken
communication)
How can classroom practice rehearse the kinds of
listening purposes and situations that learners will
experience outside the classroom?
How can we help learners build confidence in dealing
with authentic spoken English?
What kind of classroom procedures will develop
listening ability?
9. What do we know about the listening
process?
There are two types of listening processes
Bottom-up process
Top-down process
Bottom-up:
We use our knowledge of language and our ability to
process acoustic signals to make sense of the sounds that
speech presents to us
Top-down
We infer meaning from contextual clues and from making
links between the spoken message and various types of
prior knowledge which we hold.
10. What learners need to be able to
do in order to listen effectively
Bottom-up processes
Retain input while it is being processed
Recognize word divisions
Recognize key words in utterances
Recognize key transitions in a discourse
Another interesting development was…
One of theproblems was.. / In contrast…
Recognize grammatical relations between key elements in
sentences
Recognize the function of word stress in sentences
Recognize the function of intonation in sentences
11. What learners need to be able to
do in order to listen effectively
Top-down processes
Use key words to construct the schema of discourse
Infer the role of the participants in a situation
Infer the topic of a discourse
Infer the outcome of an event
Infer the cause and effect of an event
Infer unstated details of a situation
Infer the sequence of a series of events
Infer comparisons
Distinguish between facts and opinions
12. Types of Listening
Participatory Listening
Interactional (for the purpose of engaging in social rituals)
Transactional (for the purpose exchanging information)
İdentification of specific details
Non-Participatory
Listening to live conversations without taking part
Listening to announcements to extract info.
Listening to or watching films, plays, radio and songs
where purpose is enjoyment
Following instructions in orderto carry out a talk efficiently
Attending a lecture or following a lesson
Liistening someon egive a public address
13. What are the implications for the
English Language Classroom?
Creating reasons for listening (motivate students)
Teachers need to ensure that learners experience a range
of listening purposes, especially those that might be
immediately relevant to their lives outside the classroom.
What purpose might there be for listening to this particular
text?
Is thatpurpose similar to the purpose a listener might have
in real life?
Does the task given to the learner encourage that listening
purpose?
14. Which is more authentic?
Asking learners to listen to a short airport
announcement to obtain information about a
particular flight, as a passenger ?
OR
Asking learners to listen for the details of four
different flights ?
Skills that are practised
Listening for key words
Picking out relevant information
Retaining significant details
15. Designing listening activities
for the classroom
The standard procedure used for listening
activities are
Pre-listening stage
While-Listening stage
Post-listening stage
16. Pre-Listening stage
The purpose of the pre-listening stage is to
Prepare the learners for what they are going to hear
by
activating existing prior knowledge
introducing necessary schematic knowledge
Introducing the language which students will encounter
Objectives
Contextualize the text
Provide any information to help learners appreciate the
setting and the role relationships between particiapnts
17. Activity types for the pre-listening
stage
Predicting content from the title of a talk
Talking about a picture which relates to the text
Discuss relevant experiences
Discussing the topic
Answering a set of questions about the topic
Agreeing or disagreeing with opinions about the
topic
Associate vocabulary about the yopic
Predict info. about the topic
Write questions about the topic
18. While-Listening Stage
Purpose of While-listening stage is
TO HELP learners understand the text
While learners listen they need to be involved in
an authentic purpose for listening and
encouraged to attend to the text more intensively
19. While-Listening activities
Ticking multiple-choice items
Filling in a chart
Complete a table, map or picture
Matching pictures with the text
Making notes
Answer questions
Complete sentences
20. Post-Listening Activities
The purpose of post-listening activities is to
help learbners connect what they have heard
with their own ideas and experienxe.
Helps learners to move easily from listening
to another skill.
21. Post-listening Activities
Give opinions
Relate similar experiences
Role-play a similar interaction
Write a brief report
Write a similar text
Debate the topic