Ôèëîëîãè÷åñêèå íàóêè/7. ßçûê,
ðå÷ü, ðå÷åâàÿ êîììóíèêàöèÿ Grechok L.M., Sikaliyk A.I. Chernigov State Institute of economics and
management
LISTENING
SKILLS FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS
Listening remains one of the
least understood processes in language learning despite the recognition of the
critical role it plays both in communication and in language acquisition.
According to W.M. Rivers' findings through the normal course of a day,
listening is used nearly twice as much as speaking and four to five times as
much as reading and writing [1, p.71].
The
question of how to help learners to develop effective listening skills brings
attention to the methods the teachers are using and the type of materials that
are introduced to learners. The aim of all listening lessons is to allow
learners a great degree of independence when they are dealing with listening of
the foreign language in a real world context, and that means using authentic
texts. Authentic texts are any spoken texts which have not been specially
prepared for language learners, and they are often delivered via technologies
like radio, television/video, and the Internet or CD-ROM. Students should have possibility to listen to
different situations with representatives of English-speaking culture.
For
example, a video course “Opportunities in Britain” gives
teachers the possibility to demonstrate customs and traditions of British,
stimulating communication skills, to compare a way of life in Great Britain and in our country. The
similar courses are “Cuttingedge”, “Headway Video“ and others.
We should mention that listening exercises can be
divided into three main parts: Pre-listening, While-listening,
Post-listening activities. This format
allows learners to do other things with the information that they have
listened to. For instance, a teacher can initiate a short discussion with the
learners at the prelistening stage asking of the topic before listening to the
text (activating world and personal knowledge). Then the learners
collect some information from a text to have an extended discussion at
the post-listening stage.
Let’s consider
authentic materials of a video film “Opportunities in Britain” which
includes sections: Introduction to Britain, Multicultural Britain, Food, Festivals, Education, Leisure and Entertainment. This
material promotes intensity of communicative activity of each student in a practical training class.
We’re considering two steps of activities. The first
stage (understanding) provides acquaintance to the dictionary, watching a video
film and doing exercises on understanding actions and events. The second
stage stimulates students’ active communicative activity using the watched video - material (a role-playing game, discussion, a
round table, dramatisation, writing “Summary” and others.
Therefore, at the first stage of video watching there
is an acquaintance of students with the name
of a film and a separate fragment (Introduction to Britain), and giving of
unfamiliar language units.
For example:
You are going to watch the episode which is called “Introduction to Britain”, judging by the title what do you think the film is about? The
teacher provokes necessary questions,
and students will search for answers (for example, explanations of
words and word combinations: multicultural, the Gaelic language, high street) and
others.
It is possible to offer following tasks:
Define behaviour of characters and compare their
welfare features.
The role-playing games:
Ukraine and India are talking about differences between Britain and their own country.
What do you think these differences in cultures will be? Write the
electronic letter (e-mail) to the
friend who lives in a city of Great Britain.
Many younger learners wish to learn or use their computer
skills nowadays, so the prospect of developing computer skills along with
developing their language skills may seem attractive to these learners. With an
advanced group of learners we might consider having extended critical and
creative discussion about the news:
Stage I: Pre-Listening Task. Tomorrow
in class we will have some discussion about what's in the news. In order to do
this I would like you do access at least two of the following websites:
http://www.bbc.co.uk. http://ww-w.avoa. gov or http://npr.org (National Public
Radio) and listen to different versions of the main stories.
Once you are in the website you can
choose audio or video presentations. You can also look for related items. Just
surf around until you feel you have collected enough information for our
discussion in class.
Stage 2:
While-Listening Task. Students may either work at home or in a
lab at university to collect the information they
require.
Stage 3: Post-Listening Task (the next class).
First I would like you to sit in groups
according to one of the websites you visited. So let's have 3 group of
BBC listeners viewers, one of VOA, and one of NPR to begin with. In your groups
what the main news stories were. Only exchange information at this stage. Now
change groups and have one person for each website in groups of three. Explain
to the other members in your group the main stories in the order they were
presented on the Web. Then discuss your reaction to these stories. Above mentioned listening activities allow to enrich knowledge of the
history, culture, customs, language and learning styles. They are
interesting first of all that they can include many forms of the educational, search, research and other
kinds of activities defining modern competence of the future expert. The
special attention is to be given to the communicative competence. Thus
formation of communicative competence is the primary goal at learning of
foreign languages at high schools.
References
1. Rivers, W.M. Teaching
Foreign Language Skills/ W.M.Rivers. – 2nd ed. – Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1981. – 160 p.
2. Buck, G. Assessing
Listening/ G. Buck. – Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. -274 p.