This presentation discusses improving listening skills from the intermediate to advanced level in Arabic. It notes that while teachers try to prepare intermediate students, taking them to an advanced level poses bigger challenges. Some issues that affect higher-level listening comprehension include variable speech rates, cultural references, reduced/extended structures, and different verb forms/dialects. The presentation recommends practicing listening strategies, using authentic materials at appropriate levels, activating background knowledge, and creating an immersive environment to help students improve. Motivation is key, as is reminding students that Arabic is a rich, living language capable of engaging learners.

1. This speech/presentation is authorized by the Defense Language Institute Foreign
Language Center and the Department of Defense. Contents of this presentation are
not necessarily the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government, DoD,
Department of the Army, or DLIFLC.
“Improving Listening Skills from the
Intermediate to Advanced Level,
What Does it Take?”
Assistant Professor Bushra Alshakhly
Instructor of Arabic Language and Iraqi Dialect
LLC Offutt, Nebraska
Arabic LEARN
7-9 September, 2011 CO

2. Introduction
Teachers as Authentic Native Speakers
For a long time, realizing that I am the only native
speaker, unfortunately, that my students can listen
and converse with, I have thought of the
authenticity of my discourse with my students. I am
concerned about this because my students, mostly
at the intermediate level, can understand me and
carry out a successful conversation with me, yet,
they stumble on translating or discussing most
listening segments from Aljazeera and any other
sites that we use on a daily basis. I have decided to
focus my observation on the delivery of my
instruction first, then focusing on the difficulties
shown by my students. This presentation is based
on my personal observation for my students and
myself.

3. Authentic or not Authentic
Introduction
Well, I guess, three things I, intentionally do wrong:
Three things I intentionally do wrong while teaching:
Speed
• Control the speed rate of my speech
with the students
Vocab
• Control the quality and quantity of my
vocab words and phrases
Structure
• Choose the structure that I know my
students can handle
Introduction
Teachers as Authentic Native Speakers

4. Introduction
Teachers as Authentic Native Speakers
Skills of listening and listening comprehension have
been a big concern for instructors, especially of the
Arabic language. We teachers of Arabic put a lot of effort
into bringing students of the basic level of Arabic into the
intermediate, and we think that is a problem. However,
preparing students to go to a higher level of listening
comprehension seems to cause a bigger problem, a
challenge. But, thinking about what it took to make
native speakers of foreign language, such as most of us,
to be comfortable and competent in the English
language, and sometimes to the level of teaching it, here,
we find the role model. Although different, our life and
learning experiences and cultural backgrounds become
of our students’.

5. Introduction
About Listening Comprehension
Second language listening comprehension, in spite of
being a complex process, is crucial in the development
of second language competence. Students at the
intermediate level may feel that they have learned
enough vocabulary and grammar knowledge to help
them understand authentic reading passages, and even
analyze it. However, their vocabulary, grammar, and
pronunciation learning are limited to knowledge
appropriation and incompetent toward answering
content questions or drawing a conclusion from an
authentic audio cut. Achieving language fluency, then
is a big challenge, let alone that a near-native language
level has to be reached.

6. Introduction
About Listening Comprehension
No matter how we try to put it in another
way, our students use listening more than
any other skills in the classroom. According
to Miller (2003), more than forty percent of
our daily communication is spent on
listening, thirty-five percent on speaking,
about sixteen percent on reading, and only
nine percent on writing. Therefore,
according to Dornyei (2005), it is our
responsibility, as teachers, to motivate,
enhance, and improve students’ level of
listening comprehension.

7. Challenges Affecting Listening
Comprehension
Speaker is
not clear:
The
message &
delivery
Language
level is too
high: Poor
Approach
Environment
is not
helping :
Distraction
Not
interested
enough:
Motivation
What am I
focusing
on? Need
instruction

8. Challenges Affecting Listening
Comprehension: What can we do?
1. The Message:
 Provide authentic materials with the suitable level
 Design engaging task-oriented exercises
 Provide necessary input and instruction
2. The Speaker :
 Implement practices for variety forms of speed rate, native accents and
dialects, colloquialism, and redundancy
3. The Students (Listeners):
 Stimulate motivation, activate background knowledge, generate
complex grammatical exercises and colloquial expressions
 Prompt positive feedback, modify listening strategies
4. The Environment:
 Create pleasant classroom condition and eliminate distractions
 Check quality of equipment

9. Challenges Affecting Listening Comprehension
Typical Listening Activity Plan
• Plan for the listening task
• Prepare students by stating the purpose or background
knowledge needed
• Determine whether to approach the cut from the top down or
from the bottom up
Before
Listening
• Monitor comprehension
• Verify prediction and check for accuracy
• Point out elements important for the task
During
Listening
• Evaluate comprehension in a particular area
• Assess overall progress of the task. Keep records of it
• Evaluate strategies used in listening to give feedback about
their appropriateness , or modify them if necessary
After
Listening

10. Challenges Affecting Listening
Comprehension
of Arabic Authentic Audios
Listening involves
too much cultural
references.
Listening involves
variable rates of
delivery:
news, street
talk, TV
shows, speakers
It involves
numerous
uses, conjugations
, and measures
for each Arabic
verb or word
It involves reduced,
extended, or spoken
Arabic forms:
different dialects
and different
accents

11. Examples of Challenges Affecting Higher Level
Listening Comprehension of Arabic Authentic
Audios
• Twitters, Facebook, and youtube are now
news resources.
Question: In your opinion, using this segment, what affects
you from writing a reliable report about facts and attitudes
related to this event?

12. Examples of Challenges Affecting Higher Level
Listening Comprehension of Arabic Authentic
Audios
• Arabic sentences, sometimes, seem to have
reduced or extended structures.
.
Question: According to this news item from the BBC,
how have listeners’ impressions of Saif Alislam been
affected about his new position?

13. Examples of Challenges Affecting Higher Level
Listening Comprehension of Arabic Authentic
Audios
• Arabic news and interview use “flowery” expressions
may affect the main point.
_:
Question: According to the BBC Arabic interview,
what is alKarabuli’s point in comparing an election
campaign to a contest between knights?

14. Examples of Challenges Affecting Higher Level
Listening Comprehension of Arabic Authentic
Audios
• Arabic texts and audios are interfered by their cultural
references, and they are hard to be analyzed
separately.
Question: According to this cut from Aljazeera about who is
responsible for the “Kuwait Fire”, reading through this minister’s
sentiment about the event, what is the position of the Kuwaiti
government in relation to the Kuwait fire?

15. Examples of Challenges Affecting Higher Level
Listening Comprehension of Arabic Authentic
Audios
• Arabic verbs come in many different sizes, shapes, and
patterns, even with background knowledge about the Arabic
measures and roots. Notice the verbs underlined
Question: according to the clip from CNN Arabic, how will Dubai
face the world economy recession in relation to Khalifa City project?
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16. Examples of Challenges Affecting Higher Level
Listening Comprehension of Arabic Authentic
Audios
Some MSA sentences and phrases inside an audio that
students usually are baffled with:
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17. Examples of Challenges Affecting Higher Level
Listening Comprehension of Arabic Authentic
Audios
Some Arabic Terms and phrases that make statements
negative or comparative , students are baffled with when
translating and analyzing a spoken text.
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18. Challenges Affecting Higher Level Listening
Comprehension of Arabic Authentic Audios
Teaching Listening
• Practice is not enough. Listening strategies should be taught, monitored,
and modified. Their learning strategies and ours are not the same.
• Grammatical uses and Arabic ten measures are not bad ideas for teaching
and reminding students of now and then.
• First day assessment for the short-session classes are necessary to
acknowledge students’ learning styles and level of competence.
• Encourage analyzing spoken texts rather than translating them word by
word. Themes and messages of spoken Arabic are often hidden
• Always activate the students’ conscious learning to help think as their
target language not their native one.
• Arabic language is a cultural phenomenon; Arabic and culture (beliefs,
rituals, and ideologies) can not be separated. Immersion is a “canon”.
• Artificial repetition for colloquial and grammatical expression are effective
for developing the students’ auditory memory.

19. Three Recommended Standard
Listening Modes
Listening effectively takes
three modes depending on
the level of the students
and tasks:
1. Passive: We ask for main
ideas
2. Active: We ask for message
behind the speech
3. Combative: We ask
students to negotiate and
debate
Passive/
Attentive
Active/
Reflective
Competitive
/Combative

20. 10 Standard Learning Strategies We
Have to Teach
• Looking for key words (basic). Taking notes.
• Looking for non-verbal cues to meaning
• Predicting speaker’s purposes by the context of the spoken
discourse
• listening for general gist (as an initial task)
• Guessing at meanings (for main ideas)
• Relating information by activating schemata (comparing and
contrasting)
• Seeking clarifications, support with evidences
• Determining which technique to use: bottom-up or top-down
listening technique according to task.
• Achieving the required task: evaluating, describing, criticizing,
modifying, supporting, producing, and etc.
• Altering learning strategy with ease when necessary

21. “Improving Listening Skills from the Intermediate
to Advanced Level,
What Does it Take?”
The specific information supplied here are
mostly based on my personal observation
and students’ feedback in my teaching
intermediate students striving to push them
to the higher level . Key factor here, is
motivation. Arabic language is a very living
and wealthy language that is capable to perk
up no matter how tired they were. Although
we teachers, as I stated before, are not full
authentic for students but mini immersion
activities can work on helping our students
to learn, as they say, through osmosis to
unlock their potentials.

22. “Improving Listening Skills from the Intermediate to
Advanced Level,
What Does it Take?”