Spoken Communication Skills Developing Listening and Speaking Skills.
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Transcript of Spoken Communication Skills Developing Listening and Speaking Skills.
Spoken Communication Skills
Developing Listening and Speaking Skills
Communication
What should be the main goal of an English language cousre? To focus on developing students’ mastery of the
the language form OR
To focus on developing students’ ability to effectively communicate for study, work or leisure
Features of using language for communication
We communicate because we want to or need to, NOT just to practise the language
Focus is on what we are communicating NOT on how we are communicating (ideas vs. language)
The language that is used is VARİED in grammar and vocabulary, NOT made of a single structure or a few structures and NOT normally repeated over and over again
Communication in the Classroom If you want to encourage real communication in
the classroom you need to Establish English as the main classroom
language Try to use interesting topics and stimulating
activities, which take the learners’ minds off the language Real life events ( weather, the students’ cloths, their
health and mood, pictures and realia brought to class)
Events in the world outside ( new films, a circus in town, national sports victory, the students’ families, etc.)
Focus on fluency vs. accuracy
Support and encourage listeners in their efforts to communicate their ideas
Don’t try to control what they say Don’t interrupt learners everytime they make a
language mistake to correct them.
Listening Skills
Listening is not a ‘passive” skill but a “receptive” skill. It requires as much attention and mental activity as speaking.
That of the time an individual is engaged in communication, approximately 9 per cent is devoted to writing, 16 per cent to reading, 30 per cent to speaking, and 45 per cent to listening.
Debates concerning the development of listening skills
Debates focusing on the nature of listening input Whether or not listening should be made
comprehensible for learners through simplification?
Debates focusing on the role of listening in the early ELT curriculum Whether teachers should stress the importance of
learners haing a “silent period” in the early stages of learning and wait for “readiness” to produce the language
Debates concerning the development of listening skills
Debates on the role of listening for comprehension and development of oracy (the ability to understand and participate in spoken communication) How can classroom practice rehearse the kinds of
listening purposes and situations that learners will experience outside the classroom?
How can we help learners build confidence in dealing with authentic spoken English?
What kind of classroom procedures will develop listening ability?
What do we know about the listening process?
There are two types of listening processes Bottom-up process Top-down process
Bottom-up: We use our knowledge of language and our ability to
process acoustic signals to make sense of the sounds that speech presents to us
Top-down We infer meaning from contextual clues and from making
links between the spoken message and various types of prior knowledge which we hold.
What learners need to be able to do in order to listen effectively
Bottom-up processes Retain input while it is being processed Recognize word divisions Recognize key words in utterances Recognize key transitions in a discourse
Another interesting development was… One of theproblems was.. / In contrast…
Recognize grammatical relations between key elements in sentences
Recognize the function of word stress in sentences Recognize the function of intonation in sentences
What learners need to be able to do in order to listen effectively
Top-down processes Use key words to construct the schema of discourse Infer the role of the participants in a situation Infer the topic of a discourse Infer the outcome of an event Infer the cause and effect of an event Infer unstated details of a situation Infer the sequence of a series of events Infer comparisons Distinguish between facts and opinions
Types of Listening Participatory Listening
Interactional (for the purpose of engaging in social rituals) Transactional (for the purpose exchanging information)
İdentification of specific details Non-Participatory
Listening to live conversations without taking part Listening to announcements to extract info. Listening to or watching films, plays, radio and songs
where purpose is enjoyment Following instructions in orderto carry out a talk efficiently Attending a lecture or following a lesson Liistening someon egive a public address
What are the implications for the English Language Classroom?
Creating reasons for listening (motivate students) Teachers need to ensure that learners experience a range
of listening purposes, especially those that might be immediately relevant to their lives outside the classroom. What purpose might there be for listening to this particular
text? Is thatpurpose similar to the purpose a listener might have
in real life? Does the task given to the learner encourage that listening
purpose?
Which is more authentic? Asking learners to listen to a short airport
announcement to obtain information about a particular flight, as a passenger ?
OR Asking learners to listen for the details of four
different flights ?
Skills that are practised Listening for key words Picking out relevant information Retaining significant details
Designing listening activities for the classroom
The standard procedure used for listening activities are Pre-listening stage While-Listening stage Post-listening stage
Pre-Listening stage
The purpose of the pre-listening stage is to Prepare the learners for what they are going to hear
by activating existing prior knowledge introducing necessary schematic knowledge Introducing the language which students will encounter
Objectives Contextualize the text Provide any information to help learners appreciate the
setting and the role relationships between particiapnts
Activity types for the pre-listening stage
Predicting content from the title of a talk Talking about a picture which relates to the text Discuss relevant experiences Discussing the topic Answering a set of questions about the topic Agreeing or disagreeing with opinions about the
topic Associate vocabulary about the yopic Predict info. about the topic Write questions about the topic
While-Listening Stage
Purpose of While-listening stage is TO HELP learners understand the text While learners listen they need to be involved in
an authentic purpose for listening and encouraged to attend to the text more intensively
While-Listening activities
Ticking multiple-choice items Filling in a chart Complete a table, map or picture Matching pictures with the text Making notes Answer questions Complete sentences
Post-Listening Activities
The purpose of post-listening activities is to help learbners connect what they have heard with their own ideas and experienxe.
Helps learners to move easily from listening to another skill.
Post-listening Activities
Give opinions Relate similar experiences Role-play a similar interaction Write a brief report Write a similar text Debate the topic