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Interpretive listening

This document discusses best practices for teaching interpretive listening skills in a foreign language classroom using authentic materials and 21st century technology. It provides guidance on developing students' listening strategies, selecting appropriate top-down and bottom-up strategies for tasks, and incorporating comprehension checks. Examples of potential authentic listening activities and resources are also presented, including videos, audio recordings, websites and music. The goal is to help students function in real-life communication situations in the target language.

Education◦
New Generation Language Standards (Interpretative-Listening) & 21st Century Technology When: January 18, 2012 Time: 4:30-7:30 p.m. Where: ESC Room 224
Interpretive Listening Standard: The student will be able to understand and interpret information, concepts, and ideas orally from a variety of culturally authentic sources on a variety of topics in the target language.
Remember:  According to research in Second Language Acquisition; Language learning takes place in stages. Interpretive skills (listening, reading) develop much more quickly than expressive skills (speaking, writing) Question: How much opportunity is there for interpretive listening in your classroom?
 Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. It has been estimated that adults spend almost half their communication time listening.  Listening and Speaking go hand in hand!  Often, however, language learners do not recognize the level of effort that goes into developing listening ability.
Two-Way Communication  In 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 that follow
Authentic two-way communication Teacher as Teacher  T: Hello, Sam! We missed you in class yesterday. What happened?  S: I go to doctor for my tooth.  T: Oh, you WENT to the DENTIST? A doctor for teeth is called a dentist.  S:Yes, dentist.  T: What happened at the dentist?  S: He have to take out tooth. After my mouse hurt too bad.  T: Oh, he HAD to take out your tooth? Remember, the past of "have" is "had." And it wasn't your mouse that hurt, it was your mouth. Is this how we communicate in the “real world?” How would a student feel after having this conversation?
Authentic two-way communication Teacher as Authentic Listener  T: Hello, Sam! We missed you in class yesterday. What happened?  S: I go to doctor for my tooth.  T: For your tooth? Did you have a problem with your teeth?  S:Yes, the doctor have to take out tooth. After my mouse hurt too bad.  T:Your mouse . . . oh, your mouth hurt. Does it hurt now? Will you be okay in class today?  S: No, not hurt now. Well, maybe a little.  T: Okay, well, if it hurts too much and you need to leave, just tell me.
Goals for Interpretive listening:  We want to produce students who can fend for themselves in communication situations, even if they do not have complete control of the grammar.
What “Real Life” Situations Might a student find themselves in?
To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather than on its product.
Best Practices in Teaching Listening:  Teachers 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.  They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using authentic listening tasks.  They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener rather than as a teacher.  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.  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.  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.  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.
Listening for Meaning  To extract meaning from a listening text, students need to follow four basic steps:
Step 1-What is the Purpose?  Figure out the purpose for listening. Activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate listening strategies. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6fcjum_8-U&feature=player_detailpage
Importance of Background Knowledge
Step 2: Selective  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.  Example: listening to see what to wear tomorrow versus listening for weather in specific location for sightseeing purposes
Step 3: Select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the listening task Select Strategy Top-down strategies Bottom-up strategies  Top-down strategies are listener based; the  Bottom-up strategies are text based; listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or the listener relies on the context, the type of text, and the language in the message, that language. This background knowledge is, the combination of sounds, activates a set of expectations that help words, and grammar that creates the listener to interpret what is heard and meaning. Bottom-up strategies anticipate what will come next. Top- include down strategies include  listening for specific details  listening for the main idea  recognizing cognates  predicting  recognizing word-order patterns  drawing inferences  summarizing
Step 4: Comprehension Checks •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 if necessary.
Let’s Plan a Listening activity about weather Novice Mid: Demonstrate understanding of simple information supported by visuals through a variety of media. Novice High: Demonstrate understanding of key points on familiar topics presented through a variety of media. Intermediate Low: Identify key points and essential details on familiar topics presented in a variety of media. Intermediate Mid: Identify essential information and supporting details on familiar topics presented through a variety of media. Intermediate High: Confirm understanding of the message and purpose of a variety of authentic sources found in the target culture such as TV, radio, podcasts, and videos. Advanced Low: Demonstrate understanding of information obtained from authentic sources such as TV, radio, interviews, podcasts, and videos in order to function for personal needs within the target culture.
Step 1: Activate Background Knowledge/Purpose May include: •looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs •Watching something similar in native language •reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures •reading something relevant •constructing graphic organizers •predicting the content of the listening text •going over the directions or instructions for the activity •doing guided practice
Step 2: Selective Listening Sample while-listening activities •listening with visuals •filling in graphs and charts •following a route on a map •checking off items in a list •listening for the gist •searching for specific clues to meaning •completing cloze (fill-in) exercises •distinguishing between formal and informal registers
Step 3: Strategies
Step 4: Comprehension Checks In order to provide authentic assessment of students' listening proficiency, a post-listening activity must reflect the real-life uses to which students might put information they have gained through listening. •It must have a purpose other than assessment •It must require students to demonstrate their level of listening comprehension by completing some task.
Authentic Materials
Brainstorm Ideas for Authentic Listening Experiences What could you use and for what purpose?
Web 2.0 and Listening Activities Spanish Proficiency Exercises is a compilation of brief video clips in which native speakers of Spanish from various locations throughout Latin America and Spain demonstrate various language tasks. Estudio.net - http://www.esaudio.net/recordings/ MerlotWorld Languages Portal: http://worldlanguages.merlot.org/ http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/lm_collection.html Youtube!!! www.youtube.com Example: MacDonald’s Commercial Spanish, French , German Google in target language (Ex.Trailers, ads) Music!
Resources National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC). (n.d.). The essentials of language teaching. Retrieved January 18, 2012 from http://nclrc.org/essentials.