Listening

Listening

 

■ "It is unlikely that we ever achieve an exact match between intention and interpretation, and we probably would not know it if we did. We arrive at the degree of convergence necessary for interaction and no more. Comprehension is never complete: it is always only approximate, and relative to purpose." (Widdowson, 1990:108) 



■ When people listen, they are listening to a stretch of discourse. Listening is the most frequently used language skill in everyday life. 



■ Top-down listening processes involve the activation of schematic knowledge and contextual knowledge. Schematic knowledge is generally thought of as two types of prior knowledge :

(1) content schemata: background information on the topic, etc
(2) formal schemata:

 which consist of knowledge about how discourse is organized concerning different genres, different topics, or different purposes: transactional versus interactional, including relevant sociocultural knowledge

- Contextual knowledge involves an understanding of the specific listening situation at hand.

- Pragmatic knowledge to assist in the processing of oral discourse. 



■ The bottom-up level of the listening process involves prior knowledge of the language system (i.e., phonology, grammar, vocabulary). Knowledge of the phonological system allows the listener to segment the acoustic signals as sounds that form words, words, and phrases that form clauses or utterances unified by intonation contours having some key prominent element. Knowledge of vocabulary allows the listeners to recognize words within phrases, and knowledge of grammar allows for the recognition of inflections on words and the phrases or clauses that function as parts of cohesive and coherent instances of text. Thus all types of language analysis can come into play at the level of discourse when listening is being done.



■ The bottom-up processing of oral discourse is where the physical signals or clues come from; however, it is generally acknowledged that this level cannot operate with any accuracy or efficiency on its own and that it requires the benefit of and interaction with top-down information to make discourse comprehensible to the listener. 



■ For native and skilled L2 speakers, bottom-up processing is assumed to be automatic, whereas it is not automatic and can be the source of severe problems for beginning and more petite than expert L2 learners. For example, a university lecturer said "commonest" in one segment of her lecture, and one of the L2 listeners in the class wrote "Communist" in his notes, thus indicating that he had misunderstood in a fundamental way that segment of the lecture (Harada, 1998).



■ To help compensate for less than automatic bottom-up processing, learners need to use listening strategies and metacognition.
(a) extract an essential detail from ongoing speech;
(b) identify the gist of a segment;
(c) predict what will come next in a segment. 



■ Mendelsohn (1995, 1998) outlines how to teach strategy-based L2 listening: 

1. Raise learner awareness of the power and value of using strategies 
2. Use pre-listening activities to activate learners' background knowledge
3. Make clear to learners what they are going to listen to and why 
4. Provide guided listening activities designed to provide much practice in using a particular strategy (e.g., listening for names or dates) using simplified data initially, if needed 
5. Practice the strategy using accurate data with a focus on content and meaning 
6. Use what has been comprehended: take notes on a lecture to prepare a summary, fill in a form to gather data, and so forth 
7. Allow for self-evaluation so that learners can assess how accurate and complete their listening has been (Vandergrift, in press) 



■ Metacognition is also a strategy that learners can use to enhance L2 listening. Metacognition involves the planning, regulating, monitoring, and management of listening and thus is related to several of the listening strategies listed, in particular 1, 2, 3, and 7. Metacognitive strategies give learners an overview of the listening process. They allow for prediction, monitoring errors or breakdowns, and evaluation (Vandergriſt, 1997).