Elvis WagnerDepartment of Teaching and Learningelvis@temple.edu

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Introduction

Elvis Wagner, Associate Professor of TESOL

Introduce yourself: Your name What/where you teach Your opinion of Philadelphia The best thing you’ve done since you’ve

gotten here

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Introduction

Second Language Listening ability--the “forgotten skill” in L2 teaching and research.

Why?

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Introduction

Why was it neglected in L2 research? It’s hard to research Traditionally been seen as part of speaking Traditionally been seen as the oral equivalent

to reading It’s not particularly suited to teaching

grammar (usually involves semantic rather than syntactic processing)

Questions about whether you can even “teach” listening.

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Questions Addressed in the Presentation1. How do you define “L2 listening”?

2. Why is listening in an L2 so hard?

3. What is authenticity in relation to the teaching and testing of L2 listening?

4. How are written texts different from spoken texts?

5. How do you choose texts for L2 listening classes (or L2 listening tests)?

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Defining L2 Listening

How would you define L2 listening? In pairs, come up with a formal definition of what it means to be able to listen in a second language (3 minutes).

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Buck’s (2001, p. 114) Def. of L2 Listening

L2 listening involves the ability: To process extended samples of realistic

spoken language, automatically and in real time,

To understand the linguistic information that is unequivocally included in the text,

To make whatever inferences are unambiguously implicated by the content of the passage

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Teaching L2 Listening

Who studied a foreign language for many years in their home country, and then, only after many years of study, went to a country where that language was spoken?

What happened?

The “I studied French for 3 years in high school, and 2 years in college, but when I got to Paris, I couldn’t understand a word anybody said” phenomenon.

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Teaching L2 Listening

Why do we spend (many) years studying a language, and then we go to actually use that language in a real world context, we can’t?

How does this happen? Why does this happen? As language teachers, what are we doing wrong?

Discuss these questions in your groups (3 minutes)

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Teaching L2 Listening

As language teachers, what are we doing wrong?

Too much focus on grammar Learning about the language, rather than

actually using the language to learn The artificial nature of much of the (spoken)

input that FL learners receive in the classroom

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Why is listening in an L2 difficult?Think about your own L2 learning experiences.

In groups, take 3 minutes to create a list of answers to the following questions:

Why is listening in an L2 so hard? What are some of the specific aspects of L2

listening that make it difficult for learners?

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Why is listening in an L2 difficult? It is ephemeral. It happens in real time, with (usually) no physical

record The rate of delivery of the input stream is out of the listener’s

control (to some extent) Imperfect oral input stream It is anxiety-inducing Interactive nature of speaking/listening (very cognitively

demanding) The L2 listener often lacks the background/cultural knowledge

that the speaker assumes the listener has The L2 listener often lacks target language textual knowledge Real world L2 listening often different from the types of listening

L2 learners experience in the classroom

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Why is listening in an L2 difficult?Lots of things make L2 listening difficult.

And it is exactly those things that make L2 listening difficult that we should focus on in our teaching.

We need to focus on those language characteristics that are unique to listening, and those things that make L2 listening difficult.

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Spoken texts are on-line and ephemeral Unlike with reading, the listener cannot go

back and peruse the text again No record of the text

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How to address it in teaching?

Spoken texts are ephemeral, in real time, with (usually) no physical record. How to address it?

Practice, practice, practice Promote learners’ ability to do bottom-up

processing automatically

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Rate of delivery of input is out of the listener’s control

Unlike with reading, to a large extent, the listener is unable to dictate the pace of the text; the rate of delivery of the input stream is out of the listener’s control (to some extent).

How to address it? Aim for automatization (practice, practice,

practice) Communication strategies (“Could you repeat

that?”, “Could you say that again more slowly?”)

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Imperfect oral input stream

L2 listeners have to deal with background noise, other people speaking, and other less than perfect aural input.

In addition, the speaker might be speaking too quietly, or unclearly, with an accent, etc.

How to address it in teaching? Include authentic texts (with authentic

background noise) Provide lots of listening practice so learners

can do it more automatically

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Anxiety-inducing

Because of the real-time, on-line nature of listening (and speaking), it can be frustrating and anxiety-inducing.

Anxiety takes attentional resources.

How to address it in teaching? Give them strategies for reducing anxiety Practice, practice, practice

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Interactive Speaking/Listening Cognitively Demanding

Interactive speaking and listening is very cognitively demanding, but the L2 listener has finite attentional resources; s/he is a limited capacity processor.

S/he has to listen to use his/her senses to perceive the spoken input, parse it, decode it, interpret it, and figure out how to respond to it (all at the same time!).

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How to address it in teaching?

Create communicative speaking and listening tasks that are characteristic of authentic communicative interactions—tasks that require the listener to listen to and respond to the speaker

Practice, practice, practice

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Not what EFL learners experienceReal world L2 listening is often different from L2

classroom listening. Classroom learners often: Are expected to listen to a text without being

provided any context as to what the text is about

Are expected to be “overhearers” (eavesdroppers) of conversations, rather than participate in them

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Not what EFL learners experienceThis is a real text from an old sample TOEFL

listening text:

Introduction: Listen to the following text, and then answer the question.

Male Speaker: “It certainly is a windy day.”

Female Speaker: “Yes. Thank goodness it isn’t a rainy day.”

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How to address it in teaching?

ALWAYS provide a context for a listening text and task. Always explain what the situation is, what the context is.

Vary the types of listening texts and genres for classroom tasks. Have the classroom listeners do more than “eavesdropping”.

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Reading vs. Listening; Written texts vs. Spoken textsAgain, in groups, take 4 minutes to create a

second list.

Compare L2 listening to L2 reading, and compare spoken texts with written texts:

How do they differ? What characteristics of spoken texts are different from written texts?

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How are written texts different from spoken texts? The non-verbal components of spoken

language More variation in spoken language than

written language Unplanned spoken discourse much different

from planned written (or spoken) texts

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Non-verbal components of spoken languageThe non-verbal components of spoken

language: The contextual information provided by the

physical setting The contextual information provided by the

physical appearance of the speakers Body language (including posture and

interpersonal distance)

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Non-verbal components of spoken language Facial expressions Lip movements Gaze Body movements Gestures

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Non-verbal components of spoken language

How to address it in teaching? Use video!!! Make learners aware of the non-verbal

components of the videotexts (e.g., have them view the videotext with the sound off, and have them guess what the text is about)

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More Variation in Spoken LanguageThere is more variation in spoken language than

written language: Accents and dialects Colloquial language and slang

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More Variation in Spoken LanguageHow to address it in teaching? Use texts with speakers with various dialects

and accents (including L2 accents, “Outer/Expanding circle” accents)

Use texts with colloquial language and slang Teach students that there is no single

“correct” version of English

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More Variation in Spoken LanguageQuick activity—choose the accent. Are you good

at recognizing accented English?

You will hear 8 speech samples, from the following speakers:

Brazilian Portuguese, German, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Australian, American, British

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More Variation in Spoken LanguageBrazilian Portuguese, German, Chinese, Japanese,

Spanish, Australian, American, British

1. http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=148

2. http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=277

3. http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=283

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

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More Variation in Spoken LanguageBrazilian Portuguese, German, Chinese,

Japanese, Spanish, Australian, American, British

1. Australian

2. Polish

3. Brazilian Portuguese

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

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Unplanned Spoken Texts

Many of the “difficulties” of L2 listening are related to the nature of spoken texts.

But many (almost all) of the texts that are used in L2 listening instruction and testing involve texts that are written, revised, edited, polished, and then read aloud, often by specially trained actors that speak slowly and over-enunciate.

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Continuum of “Orality” of Spoken Texts Tannen (1982a, 1982b): spoken texts range

on a continuum from oral to literate; from texts with distinctly oral features, to texts that are planned and written and then read aloud

Brown (1995): spoken texts have varying degrees of “orality”

McCarthy and Carter (1995): a continuum of texts from “speakerly” to “writerly” (p. 216)

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Continuum of “Orality” of Spoken Texts

Unplanned, unrehearsed spontaneous

oral presentation

Semi-planned oral

presentation, with minimal

notes

Prepared academic lecture

delivered with extensive notes and rehearsal

Formal academic

paper read aloud

Oral “Speakerly”

Literate “Writerly”

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Scripted Texts Versus Unscripted Texts

Scripted texts (“Textbook texts”)—texts that are written, revised, edited, polished, and then read aloud, often slowly and overly-ennunciated, by a native speaker of a prestige variety

Unscripted texts—texts that are composed and uttered by the speaker more or less simultaneously (rather than being planned, rehearsed, and then spoken); unplanned spoken discourse

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Scripted Texts Versus Unscripted Texts

Scripted texts and unscripted texts differ in three major ways (Wagner, 2014):

1. Hesitation phenomena

2. Organizational and lexico-grammatical characteristics

3. Phonological characteristics

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Hesitation Phenomena

“Hesitation phenomena” (Griffith, 1991)—numerous silent pauses, filled pauses, hesitations, redundancies, and false starts characteristic of unplanned spoken discourse.

Texts with these hesitation phenomena seem to be more difficult for L2 learners to comprehend (Freedle & Kostin, 1999; Griffith; 1991; Voss, 1979).

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Organizational and Lexico-Grammatical Characteristics

Unplanned spoken discourse tends to be less logically organized than planned texts, because of the time constraints imposed by the real time nature of conversational interaction (Chafe, 1982).

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Organizational and Lexico-Grammatical Characteristics

Because of the nature of most speaking events (with obvious exceptions), planning what is going to be said is usually done on-line. This results in texts that are less logically and systematically organized.

Most spoken texts are “first draft”, and unedited, and messy.

Most written texts are edited, revised, polished.

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Organizational and Lexico-Grammatical Characteristics

Compared to written language, unplanned spoken discourse tends to have:

more redundancies than planned discourse (Haviland & Clark, 1974)

less complex syntax (Chafe, 1982, 1985) shorter idea units (Chafe, 1982; Halliday, 1985) fewer embedded clauses (Chafe, 1985) more slang and colloquial language (Brown,

1995; Chafe, 1985)

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Organizational and Lexico-Grammatical Characteristics

Spoken language is often different from written language, and has “different grammatical norms”. Spoken language often has:

Run-on sentences More grammatical “mistakes” Shorter idea units Ellipsis

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Phonological Characteristics

The phonological characteristics of unscripted, spontaneous texts also tend to be very different from the phonological characteristics of scripted texts that are written and read aloud.

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Phonological modification in speechUnplanned spoken discourse usually has

“connected speech”: Linking Assimilation Deletion Epenthesis Reduction

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Connected speech

Old sample TOEFL listening text:

Male Speaker: “It certainly is a windy day.”

Female Speaker: “Yes. Thank goodness it isn’t a rainy day.”

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The need to segment the aural inputSegmenting is HARD.

You’ve had the experience in an L2 where all of the oral input seemed like an unbroken stream of sounds.

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The need to segment the aural input

L2listenershavedifficultysegmentingtheauralinput

L2 listeners have difficulty segmenting the aural input

Oral texts have no “white space”.

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The need to segment the aural inputus poke can cent off n contains men e words

knot in ten did two bee herd.

A spoken sentence often contains many words not intended to be heard (Cole & Jakimik, 1980).

It’s been estimated that 90% of all multi-syllabic words in English have smaller words embedded within them. “Spoken” has “spoke”, “poke”, “Ken”, “can”.

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The need to segment the aural inputThe listener has to rely on knowledge of the: Context Co-text Real world knowledge Expectancy grammar Textual knowledge Discourse competence Pragmatic competence Non-verbal communication

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So what does it all mean?

Why spend so much time dwelling on why/how L2 listening is so difficult?

We need to use this information about what makes L2 listening difficult to inform how we teach L2 listening.

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Teaching the “Difficulties” of L2 listening

We can devise tasks that address those difficult aspects of L2 listening in order to improve L2 listeners’ ability to do the skill involved, and ultimately they will become better listeners.

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Teaching the “Difficulties” of L2 listening

So let’s go back and look at the differences between scripted and unscripted spoken texts, and try to think of activities/tasks/lessons that can address these difficulties.

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Teaching the “Difficulties” of L2 listening

In groups of 4, discuss some ways you can create classroom listening tasks that address these “difficulties” of comprehending unscripted spoken texts:

1. Hesitation phenomena

2. Organizational and lexico-grammatical characteristics

3. Phonological characteristics

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Hesitation phenomena—How to teach this?

Provide unplanned spoken texts that have silent pauses, filled pauses, hesitations, redundancies, and false starts

Explicitly teach what filled pauses (“um”, “you know…”, “uh…”) sound like, and have students listen for them

Transcribe texts with pauses, hesitations, false starts, etc.

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Organizational Differences—How to teach this?

Most spoken texts lack the organizational planning found in most spoken texts.

How to address it? Expose students to authentic spoken texts Have students read and analyze transcripts of

spoken discourse Have students “re-write” an authentic spoken

text, and make it a well-organized written text

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Lexico-Grammatical Differences—How to teach this?

Teach students that written language and spoken language are very different, and have different “rules”. Have students:

Record and transcribe their own L1 speech Read transcripts of unplanned discourse,

and have them discover examples of run-on sentences, grammatical mistakes, ellipsis, deixis, etc.

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Lexico-Grammatical Differences—How to teach this?

Compare a true transcript of unplanned discourse with a “cleaned up” version (or have them “clean it up” themselves)

Critically examine published spoken texts used for L2 teaching

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Connected speech—How to teach this?

Real spoken language has connected speech. How to address it in teaching?

Use authentic texts involving unplanned discourse that includes the characteristics of real spoken texts

Explicitly draw learners’ attention to these characteristics. Have them listen for them, identify them, transcribe them

Use transcripts to visually demonstrate the phenomena

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Connected speech—How to teach this?

Have students read transcripts while listening to a text

Watch videos with subtitles Practice, practice, practice (authentic texts)

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Connected speech—How to teach this?

L2 listeners need to segment the aural input.

How to address it? Have students: Listen for stressed words (lower ability

students) Listen for unstressed words (higher ability

students) Do dictations Do listening cloze exercises Do dictoglosses

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Why No Unscripted Spoken Texts?

(Wagner, 2014) argues that the publishing and testing industries are reluctant to incorporate unscripted texts because:

they might sound unprofessional the difficulty in creating learning and testing

tasks for these types of texts little empirical evidence investigating how L2

listeners might differ in their ability to comprehend scripted versus unscripted texts.

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Creating learning tasks for an unscripted spoken text

www.elllo.org is a great resource for finding unplanned spoken texts.

Here’s an example:

http://elllo.org/english/0901/T928-Naomi-FreeTime.htm

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Creating learning tasks for an unscripted spoken text

Now, in your groups, take 10 minutes to create a teaching task using this audio text. First describe who your learners are (age, ability level, etc.), then create a task or tasks using this audio text.

Be ready to share your task with the class.

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Positive Washback

Using unscripted texts in L2 listening classes can have a positive washback on students, curricula, tests, SLA research.

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Positive Washback

Washback on Teaching and Curricula

“The ‘I studied French for 3 years in high school and 2 years in college, and when I got to Paris, I couldn’t understand a word people said’ phenomenon.”

Perhaps a “chicken or the egg” problem between teachers and testers.

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“Takeaways” for Teaching L2 listeningIf you “take away” nothing else from this

lecture, remember this: Use unplanned, authentic texts in the L2

classroom; use texts that include the characteristics of real spoken language

Make learners aware of the characteristics of unplanned, authentic spoken texts

Texts created by publishers are useful, but almost always are NOT representative of unplanned spoken discourse

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“Takeaways” for Teaching and Testing L2 listening

When creating or choosing texts for teaching or testing L2 listening, there are a number of things to consider.

Obviously, you need to consider the learning needs of your students:

What sort of listening do they need to be able to do?

What ability level are they? What types of texts will be accessible for them?

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“Takeaways” for Teaching and Testing L2 listening

As a teacher or tester, you can do two different things to make L2 listening texts the “appropriate” level for your students. You can:

Choose or modify a text of the appropriate level for your students (e.g., graded texts)

Modify the task demands so that your students can accomplish the task

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“Takeaways” for Teaching and Testing L2 listening

Things to consider when creating or choosing texts and tasks:

Degree of “Orality” of the texts Speed of the input Use of pauses Repetition and redundancy

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“Takeaways” for Teaching and Testing L2 listening

Things to consider when creating or choosing texts and tasks:

Syntactic complexity of the texts Use of rhetorical organizers or

macromarkers Speakers’ accents and perceived status Don’t ask L2 listeners to “multi-task” Use videotexts

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Thank You

elvis@temple.edu