Listening comprehension in English language teaching

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Ivan Franko Lviv National University

English department

Listening comprehension in English language teaching

A course-paper

presented

by I. Lutsak

a 4th-year student

Consulted

by C. Lototska

Associate Professor

Lviv - 2003

Plan

Introduction

I. The principles of teaching listening comprehension

1. Reasons for teaching listening comprehension

2. What is listening.

3. Principles for developing listening ability

4. The purpose and nature of the listening comprehension programme

II. The structure of listening comprehension and types of activities

1.Organisation of listening comprehension

2. Activities and procedures

3. Listening as a stimulus to other activities

4. Interactive listening

5. Listening material

6. Listening comprehension tests

Conclusions

Bibliography

Summary

Процес історичного розвитку методів вивчення іноземної мови зумовив зростання ролі усного мовлення як невід’ємного компоненту програми вивчення англійської мови. Сприймаючи усний матеріал, учні підсвідомо засвоюють граматичні структури мови, збагачують словниковий запас, звертають увагу на особливості фонетичної системи мови. Усне мовлення надає можливість взаємодії учасників навчального процесу, внаслідок якої вони впливають один на одного.

Різноманітні вправи з відповідним матеріалом забезпечують прогресивний розвиток слухових здібностей і навиків їх використання у мовних ситуаціях. Вдало підібраний усний матеріал на аудіо і відеокасетах, а також безпосереднє спілкування з носіями англійської мови сприяють підвищенню рівня знань учнів та їх комунікативних можливостей. Наявність матеріалу, що включає різні зразки розмовної мови, сприяє вивченню різновидів англійської мови, а також способів викладу певної інформації.

Introduction

Foreign languages have been taught formally for centuriesand records of language teaching materials have been around for over 500 years [8,p.139]. However, teaching listening comprehension as a part of teaching a foreign or second language is a relatively recent development whose history lies mostly in the last thirty years. In the earliest of teaching methods known, the grammar-translation method, learners focused exclusively on the analysis of written texts. Listening was used solely to accompany these texts and to provide models for oral reading. It was not until the late 1800s that listening was used in language instruction as a means of developing oral communication [8,p.139]. It was assumed that students would simply acquire the ability to understand the spoken form of the language if they occasionally heard their teacher speak it or listened to a tape of it being spoken. It was quickly demonstrated that this approach was simply not working.

This led to the development of the direct method in which oral presentations and aural comprehension were emphasized. The target language was exclusively used in the classroom and translation was proscribed. Second language learning was intended to proceed largely as first languages were learned - moving from tangible situations to more abstract ones. Initially, only everyday, concrete vocabulary and sentences were taught. Oral communication was initiated by the teacher through question-answer exchanges with the learners. All new language was taught through demonstrations, objects and pictures, much the way that a child is immersed in visual contexts and oral language.

The direct method, which was initially designed for small group teaching, was eventually adapted for use with larger groups and for teaching the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing). This new style of teaching, which emanated from England, was later dubbed the oral approach because all lessons started with oral presentations [8,p.140]. Dialogues in which new grammar patterns and vocabulary were introduced were modelled by the teacher. The learners repeated chorally, trying to imitate the teacher’s pronunciation. Oral drills, based on the dialogues, were devised to reinforce these new language points, initially through a listening mode. Eventually, learners were given reading and writing assignments using the structures and words they had practiced.

At about the same time that the oral approach was being developed in Europe, American linguists began to propagate a somewhat more extreme approach called the audio-lingual method [8,p.140]. In this approach also, the emphasis was on oral presentation and oral drills. The purpose of this method was to retain learners to think in the new language by helping them to form new habits, a view that was obviously driven by the behavioural psychology that was popular at the time.

Although these oral-aural methods helped many pupils learn second languages, there has been a gradual decline in their popularity. Starting in the 1970s, there was a worldwide rethinking of the principles involved in second language teaching. The result of this came to be known as communicative language teaching , a movement that emphasized not just the importance of oral language in language acquisition, but the use of realist

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