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Aural Comprehension Instruction:Principles and Practices

JOAN MORLEY

In “Aural Comprehension Instruction: Principles and Practices,” Morley first traces the changingpatterns of second language listening instruction, outlines four generic instructional models, anddiscusses some of the psycho-social dimensions of listening. She then goes on to present suggestionsfor developing activities and materials for coursework, including detailed guidelines for developing aself-access self-study listening program.

INTRODUCTIONDuring the past thirty years, theory and practicein language learning and language teachinghave changed in some fundamental ways. Inretrospect, the four themes that dominated theSecond AILA (International Association ofApplied linguistics) Conference in 1969(Cambridge, England) seem to have beenprophetic in pointing the way toward trends insecond/foreign language (S/FL) educationduring the last quarter of the twentieth century.They heralded new views on the importance of

1. individual learners and the individuality oflearning;

2. listening and reading as nonpassive and very.complex receptive processes;

3. listening comprehension’s being recognizedas a fundamental skill;

4. real language used for real communicationas a viable classroom model.

Every facet of language study has beeninfluenced by these trends, but none more dramatically than listening comprehension. In the1970s, the status of listening began to changefrom one of neglect to one of increasing importance. Instructional programs expanded theirfocus on pragmatic skills to include listening as

well as reading, writing, and speaking. Duringthe 1980s special attention to listening was incorporated into new instructional frameworks.Prominent among these were formats that featured functional language and communicativeapproaches. Throughout the 1990s, attentionto listening in language instruction increaseddramatically. Aural comprehension in S/FLacquisition became an important area of study.

Although aural comprehension is now wellrecognized as an important facet of languagelearning, much work remains to be done in boththeory and practice. Unfortunately, as Brown(1987) observed, a significant number of published courses on listening comprehension andclassroom practices in many schools in manycountries continues to demonstrate that listening is still regarded as the least important skill.

The first three parts of this chapter discussgeneral aspects of listening and language learning. (See Peterson’s chapter in this volume foradditional information.) The last three sectionsoutline principles and guidelines for developingand/or adapting listening comprehension activities and materials. Lesson suggestions are givenfor class, small-group, and pair work and for individualized self-study using equipment in the classroom, at home, or in a language laboratorysetting.

Morley, J. (2002). Aural Comprehension Instruction: Principles and Practices. In M.Celce-Murcia. TeachingEnglish as a Second or Foreign Language 3rd Edition. Boston, MA: Longman.

TRACING THE HISTORY:LISTENING AND LANGUAGELEARNINGToday the centrality of listening in languagelearning is well established. An appropriateaural comprehension program that targetslearner listening at all levels of instruction is anessential for second language competence.Aural comprehension establishes a base for thedevelopment of oral language within the“speech chain” of listening and speaking (Denesand Pinson 1963, p. 1). It is important to notethat multiple benefits accrue to the learnerbeyond the obvious improvements in listeningskills. In particular, listening comprehensionlessons are a vehicle for teaching elements ofgrammatical structure and allow new vocabularyitems to be contextualized within a body of communicative discourse.

Making the Case: The Importanceof Listening in Language LearningIt has taken many years to bring the languageteaching profession around to realizing theimportance of listening in second and foreignlanguage learning. As observed by Rivers, long anadvocate for listening comprehension, “Speakingdoes not of itself constitute communicationunless what is said is comprehended by anotherperson. . . . Teaching the comprehension of spo-.ken speech is therefore of primary importance ifthe communication aim is to be reached” (1966,

pp. 196, 204). The reasons for the nearly totalneglect of listening are difficult to assess, but asMorley notes, “Perhaps an assumption that listening is a reflex, a little like breathing—listening seldom receives overt teaching attention inone’s native language—has masked the importance and complexity of listening with understanding in a non-native language” (1972, p. vii).

In reality, listening is used far more thanany other single language skill in normal dailylife. On average, we can expect to listen twice asmuch as we speak, four times more than weread, and five times more than we write (Rivers1981; Weaver 1972).

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Emerging Recognition of theImportance of Listening inSecond/Foreign Language StudyIt is easy for us to take listening for granted,often with little conscious awareness of our performance as listeners. Weaver commented onthe elusiveness of our listening awareness: “Afterall, listening is neither so dramatic nor so noisyas talking. The talker is the center of attention forall listeners. His behavior is overt and vocal, andhe hears and notices his own behavior, whereaslistening activity often seems like merely being—doing nothing” (1972, pp. 12—13).

Much of the language teaching field alsohas taken listening for granted until relativelyrecent times (but see Gouin 1880; Nida 1953;Palmer 1917; Sweet 1899). Modern-day arguments for listening comprehension began to bevoiced in the mid-i 960s and early 1970s by Rivers(1966) and others. Newmark and Diller underscored “the need for the systematic developmentof listening comprehension not only as a foundation for speaking, but also as a skill in its ownright . . .“ (1964, p. 20). Belasco expressed hisconcerns as follows: “I was rudely jolted by therealization that it is possible to develop so-called‘speaking ability’ and yet be so virtually incompetent in understanding the spoken language.[Students] were learning to audio-comprehendcertain specific dialogues and drills, but couldnot understand [the language] out of themouths of native speakers” (1971, pp. 4—5).Morley decried the fact that “virtually no specialized textbook materials exist in the area of intermediate and advanced listening” (1972, p. vii),and Blair (1982) observed that special attentionto listening just didn’t “sell” until recent times.

Four Perspectives—Four Models ofListening and Language InstructionIn the English language teaching programs ofthe 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, neither the BritishSituational Approach to language teaching northe American Audiolingual Approach paidmuch attention to listening beyond its role in

Unit II A Language SkiNs/Listening

grammar and pronunciation drills and learners’imitation of dialogues. The language learningtheories of those times attributed little importance to listening beyond the sound discrimination associated with pronunciation learning.Listening, along with reading, was regarded as a“passive” skill and was simply taken for granted.

However, slowly and steadily, more attention has been given to listening comprehension.Today, the role of listening and the purpose oflistening comprehension instruction in theS/FL curriculum, can be one of four differentperspectives. A generic instructional model foreach perspective that reflects underlying beliefsabout language learning theory and pedagogy isoutlined below.

Model # I Listening and RepeatingLearner Goals To pattern-match; to listen andimitate; to memorize.

Instructional material: Features audiolingualstyle exercises and/or dialogue memorization; based on a hearing-and-pattern-matching model.Procedure: Asks students to (a) listen to aword, phrase, or sentence pattern; (b) repeatit (imitate it); and (c) memorize it (often, butnot always, a part of the procedure).Value: Enables students to do pattern drills,to repeat dialogues, and to use memorizedprefabricated patterns in conversation;enables them to imitate pronunciation patterns. Higher level cognitive processing anduse of propositional language structuringare not necessarily an intentional focus.

Model # 2 Listening and AnsweringComprehension Questions

Learner Goals To process discrete-point information; to listen and answer comprehensionquestions.

Instructional material: Features a studentresponse pattern based on a listening-and-question-answering model with occasionalinnovative variations on this theme.

Procedure: Asks students to (a) listen to anoral text along a continuum from sentencelength to lecture length and (b) answer primarily factual questions. Utilizes familiartypes of questions adapted from traditionalreading comprehension exercises; has beencalled a quiz-show format of teaching.

• Value: Enables students to manipulate discrete pieces of information, hopefully withincreasing speed and accuracy of recall.Can increase students’ stock of vocabularyunits and grammar constructions. Does notrequire students to make use of the information for any real communicative purposebeyond answering the questions; is notinteractive two-way communication.

Model # 3 Task ListeningLearner Goals To process spoken discourse forfunctional purposes; to listen and do somethingwith the information, that is, carry out real tasksusing the information received.• Instructional material: Features activities that

require a student response pattern based ona listening-and-using (i.e., “Listen-and-Do”)model. Students listen, then immediately dosomething with the information received:follow the directions given, complete a task,solve a problem, transmit the gist of theinformation orally or in writing, listen andtake lecture notes, etc.

• Procedure: Asks students to (a) listen andprocess information and (b) use the orallytransmitted language input immediately tocomplete a task which is mediated throughlanguage in a context in which successis judged in terms of whether the task isperformed.

• Value: The focus is on instruction that istask-oriented, not question-oriented. Thepurpose is to engage learners in using theinformational content presented in thespoken discourse, not just in answeringquestions about it. Two types of tasks are(a) language use tasks, designed to give students practice in listening to get meaningfrom the input with the express purpose of

Auraf Comprehension Instruction: Principles and Practices 71

making functional use of it immediatelyand (b) language analysis tasks, designedto help learners develop cognitive andmetacognitive language learning strategies(i.e., to guide them toward personal intellectual involvement in their own learning).The latter features consciousness raisingabout language and language learning.

Model # 4 Interactive ListeningLearner Goals To develop aural/oral skills insemiformal interactive academic communication; to. develop critical listening, critical thinking, and effective speaking abilities.

Instructional material. Features the real-time/real-life give-and-take of academic communication. Provides a variety of student presentation and discussion activities, both individualand small-group panel reports, that includefollow-up audience participation in question/answer sessions as an integral part of thework. Follows an interactive listening-thinking-speaking model with bidirectional (two-way) listening/speaking. Includes attentionto group bonding and classroom discourserules (e.g., taking the floor, yielding thefloor, turn taking, interrupting, comprehension checks, topic shifting, agreeing, questioning, challenging, etc.). (See Morley 1992and 1995.)

• Procedure: Asks students to participate in discussion activities that enable them to develop all three phases of the speech act: speechdecoding, critical thinking, and speechencoding. These phases involve (a) continuous on-line decoding of spoken discourse,(b) simultaneous cognitive reacting/actingupon the information received (i.e., criticalanalysis and synthesis), and (c) instant-response encoding (i.e., producing personalpropositional language responses appropriate to the situation).

• Value: The focus here is instruction that iscommunicative/competence-oriented aswell as task oriented. Learners have opportunities to engage in and develop the complexarray of communicative skills in the four

competency areas: linguistic competence,discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence (Canaleand Swain 1980).

SOME PSYCHOSOCIALDIMENSIONS OF LANGUAGEAND THE LISTENING ACT

The Dynamic Process ofCommunicative Listening:Active, Not PassiveListening, along with reading, has been labeleda “passive” skill. Nothing could be further fromthe truth. Anderson and Lynch (1988) reject aconceptualization of listening as a passive act,calling it a “listener-as-tape-recorder” explanation. They argue that such a perspective fails toaccount for the interpretations listeners make asthey hear the spoken text according to their ownpurposes for listening and their own store ofbackground knowledge.

Implications for Instruction One of the obvious implications for instruction is to bring students to an understanding that listening is not apassive skill, but an active receptive skill whichneeds special attention in language study. Thisgoal can be accomplished gradually as a part oflistening skill-building activities. Learners can beguided to realize that achieving skill in listeningrequires as much work as does becoming skilledin reading, writing, and speaking in a secondlanguage.

Listening in Three Modes:Bidirectional, Unidirectional,and AutodirectionalIf we consider the roles we play in our listeninginteractions, we can identifi three specific communicative listening modes: bidirectional, unidirectional, and autodirectional.

72 Unit II A Language Skills/Listening

Bidirectional Listening Mode The obviousmode is two-way or bidirectional communicativelistening. Here the reciprocal speech chain ofspeaker/listener is easily observed (Denes andPinson 1963). Two (or more) participants taketurns exchanging speaker role and listener role asthey engage in face-to-face or telephone verbalinteraction.Unidirectional Listening Mode A second modeis one-way or unidirectional communicative listening. Auditory input surrounds us as we movethrough the day. The input comes froma variety of sources: overheard conversations,public address announcements, recorded messages (including those on telephone answeringmachines), the media (e.g., radio, television,films), instructional situations of all kinds, andpublic performances (e.g., lectures, religiousservices, plays, operas, musicals, concerts). As wehear speakers but are unable to interact, we oftentalk to ourselves in a reactive or self-dialoguemanner as we analyze what we hear. We may sub-vocalize or even vocalize these responses.Autodirectional Listening Mode The thirdcommunicative listening mode is autodirectional.We can think of this as self-dialogue communicationin which we may not be aware of our internalroles as both speaker and listener/reactor inour own thought processes. Sometimes we re-createlanguage internally and “listen again” as we retelland relive communicative interludes. Sometimeswe simply attend to our own internal languagewhich we produce as we think through alternatives, plan strategies, and make decisions—all bytalking to ourselves and listening to ourselves.

In all of these communicative listeningmodes, notice that listening is not a passive experience. Each listening mode is a highly active,clearly participatory, verbal experience.Implications for Instruction S/FL learners needto have instruction and practice in both the bidirectional communicative listening mode and inthe unidirectionalmode. In addition, self-dialogue inthe autodirectional communicative listening modeshould not be iguored. It is an important feature oflanguage behavior which should be discussedwith students. Autodirectional “talk” is somethingwhich learners should be led to develop as a skill

in its own right, as well as a tool to be used inconnection with bidirectional and unidirectionallistening.

Psychosocial Functions of Listening:Transactional Listening andInteractional ListeningBrown and Yule (1983a) suggest dividing languagefunctions into two major divisions: language fortransactional purposes and language for interactional purposes. They note that transactionallanguage corresponds to Halliday’s notion ofideational, while interactional language correspondsto his term interpersonal (Halliday 1970, p. 143).Transactional Language Function Transactionallanguage is message oriented and can be viewed as“business-type” talk with the focus on content andconveying factual or propositional information.Transactional language is used for giving instructions, explaining, describing, giving directions,ordering, inquiring, requesting, relating, checkingon the correctness of details, and verifying understanding. The premium is on message clarity andprecision. Speakers often use confirmation checksto make sure what they are saying is clear; they mayeven contradict the listener if he or she appears tohave misunderstood.Interactional Language Function The mostimportant difference between the two types oflanguage use is that interactional language is“social-type” talk; it is person oriented more thanmessage oriented. Its objective is the establishment and maintenance of cordial social relationships. Brown and Yule comment that a greatdeal of casual conversation contains phrases orechoes of phrases which appear to be intendedmore as contributions to a conversation than asinstancs of information giving. Important features of interactional language are those of identifying with the other person’s concerns, beingnice to the other person, and maintaining andrespecting “face.”Implications for Instruction Teachers need toprovide practice experiences in both transactionaltalk and interactional talk. While the contrast

Aural Comprehension Instruction: Principles and Practices 73

between the two types of talk is usually clear,sometimes it is not so obvious in an interactionwhere the two functions may be intertwined.Students need instruction and listening practiceto help them recognize when one of the two

functions is operating and how they can respondappropriately.

Psychological Processes: Bottom-Upand Top-Down Listening Schemata

In accounting for the complex nature of listeningto understand spoken language, it is hypothesized that two different modes work together in acooperative process. One is the externally basedbottom-up mode while the other is the internallybased top-down mode. (See Peterson’s chapter inthis volume for more information.)

Bottom-Up Processing The bottom-up mode oflanguage processing involves the listener playingclose attention to every detail of the languageinput. Bottom-up refers to that part of the auralcomprehension process in which the understanding of the “heard” language is worked outproceeding from sounds to words to grammaticalrelationships to lexical meanings. That is, themeaning of the message is arrived at, bottom totop, based on the incoming language data.

Top-Down Processing On the other hand, thetop-down facet of listening involves the listener’sability to bring prior information to bear on thetask of understanding the “heard” language.This internal resource includes a bank of priorknowledge and global expectations about language and the world. It is used by the listenerto make predictions about what the incomingmessage is expected to be at any point, and howthe pieces fit into the whole. Chaudron andRichards (1986) note, “Top-down processinginvolves prediction and inferencing on the basisof hierarchies of facts, propositions, and expectations, and it enables the listener or the readerto bypass some aspects of bottom-up processing”(pp. 114-115).

Implications for Instruction Teachers need toprovide students with practice in both kinds oflanguage processing. Many published materialsfocus heavily on one or another of these processes, without necessarily labeling them as top-down or bottom-up.

Taking dual perspectives into account,Richards (1990) proposes a model of materialsdesign for second or foreign language listeningcomprehension that combines language functions(interactional and transactional) and languageprocesses (top-down and bottom-up). He observesthat the extent to which one or the other processdominates is determined by (a) whether the purpose for listening is transactional or interactional,(b) what kind of background knowledge can beapplied to the task, and (c) what degree of familiarity listeners have with the topic. He concludes:

Too often, listening texts require students to adopt a single approach in listening, one which demands a detailedunderstanding of the content of a discourse and the recognition of everyword and structure that occurs in atext. Students should not be requiredto respond to interactional discourseas if it were being used for a transactional purpose, nor should they beexpected to use a bottom-up approachto an aural text if a top-down one ismore appropriate (p. 83).

Richards’s Functions/Processes Chart Richardscombines the functions and the processes into thefollowing very useful chart. It provides teacherswith a way to construct a listening lesson which canbe cross-classified according to the demands ofboth the listening function involved and the listening process which can be expected to be mostprominently involved.

INTERACTIONAL

BOTTOM-UP TOP-DOWN

TRANSACTIONAL

74 Unit H A Language SkIIs/Listening

Richards gives an example for each of thefour cells as follows.

In the bottom-up mode:Cell #1: Listening closely to ajoke (interac

tional) in order to know when tolaugh.

Cell #3: Listening closely to instructions(transactional) during a first driving lesson.

In the top-down mode:Cell #2: Listening casually to cocktail party

talk (interactional).Cell #4: Experienced air traveler listening

casually to verbal air safety instructions (transactional) which havebeen heard many times before.

Other examples of transactional uses areinstructions, descriptions, lectures, and newsbroadcasts. Other examples of interactional usesare greetings, small talk,jokes, and compliments.Richards notes that in many situations both interactional and transactional purposes are involvedand suggests that effective classroom participation requires both.

1. Interactional—to interact with the teacherand other students while accomplishing classtasks (i.e., “classroom” talk).

2. Transactional—to assimilate new information, construct new concepts, and acquirenew skills.

AFFECT AND ATTITUDESIn developing activities and materials for listeninginstruction, it is essential to consider the affectivedomain, which includes attitudes, emotions, andfeelings. Here the focus is on (1) the ways attitudinal and emotional information may be conveyed, both linguistically and nonlinguistically, and(2) some of the attitudinal language functionsthat second language learners need to experience via instructional listening materials.

Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Cuesto AffectAs the old saying goes, it’s not what you say, it’show you say it! But how can ESL and EFL listeners learn to recognize and interpret aspects ofthe how as well as the what in two-way and one-way oral communication? How can they becomeskilled at processing both nonlinguistic and linguistic affective information?

In bidirectional interactive communication, messages are conveyed in at least threeways: linguistic (i.e., the words and their meanings), paralinguistic (i.e., vocal meaning) andextralinguistic (i.e. the meaning transmittedthrough various aspects of body language). Inunidirectional communication, the visual cuesof extralinguistic information may be missing,and the listener must then rely on only the linguistic and paralinguistic information

Linguistic Messages (the Words) Meaningsbegin in people. But sometimes meanings don’tcome acrossclearly, and we hear speakers protest,“But that’s not what I meant.” In an attempt toconvey an intended meaning, speakers choosewords and arrange them into sentences or partialsentences, groups of sentences, and larger piecesof monologue or dialogue discourse.

Both the words chosen, and their intrasentential and intersentential arrangements, mapaffrct (i.e., feelings) onto the linguistic information. As speakers do this, they may or may not beconscious of either the nature or the strength ofthe affective coloring; on the other hand, theymay use it deliberately, with careful design.

Examples:That was an (interesting/excellent/good/fair/so-so/terrible) movie.I like him a lot but.Even though she’s my best friend,I must tell you that.

Clearly, affective interpretation must be apart of listening comprehension activities. Thismeans that instructional experiences must be contextualized and must reflect real-world situationsand feelings.


Paralinguistic Messages (Vocally Transmitted

Meaning) The very way the voice is used in

speaking transmits meaning. That is, the way

words, sentences, and groups of sentences in

spoken language are programmed vocally enables

them to carry information about how they are to

be interpreted. Although the speaker may not

be aware of it, the speaker’s attitude toward what

he or she is saying is transmitted by vocal

features. In the important realm of intonation,

the work by Brazil, Coulthard, and Johns (1980)

and Brown, Currie, and Kenworthy (1980) has

explored a variety of aspects of intonational

meaning in oral discourse. The vocal elements

that map affective information onto the linguistic

message are those beyond the neutral patterns of

basic stress, rhythm, and intonation. Nuances of

meaning can be transmitted by subtle changes in

tone quality, rate, rhythm, stress, and many other

features.

Extralinguistic Messages (Meaning Transmitted

through Body Language) Speakers also convey

meaning through body language. That is, simul

taneous physical messages are being transmitted

with the words and vocal information and must

be interpreted by the listener. Once again, the

speaker may or may not be fully aware of this

aspect of his or her communication. Elements

involved include body postures, body movements,

body and hand gestures, facial expressions, facial

gestures, eye contact, and use of space by the

communicators. It is important to help students

learn the meanings of specific features of body

language in the second language; they also need

to recognize that body language differs greatly

between languages and between cultures.

Intellectual, Emotional,and Moral AttitudesAs noted above, an important part of communi

cation is the expression and comprehension of

attitudes. Van Ek (1976) lists six basic language

functions, including three which are attitudinal:

intellectual, emotional, and moral attitudes.

Intellectual Attitudes These include expression

and comprehension of agreement/disagreement;

confirming/denying; accepting/declining; forgetting/remembering; possibility/impossibility;

capability/incapability; uncertainty; obligation,permission; and more (pp. 45-47).

Emotional Attitudes Included in this area areexpressing pleasure/displeasure; interest/lackof interest; surprise; hope; fear; worry; satisfaction/dissatisfaction; disappointment; preference; gratitude; sympathy; intention; wants and desires; andmore (pp. 47—48).

Moral Attitudes Moral attitudes are expressedin the language of apologizing; expressingapproval/disapproval; appreciation; indifference; regret; and more (p. 48). (For additionalinformation see Munby 1978; Wilkins 1976).

DEVELOPING LISTENINGCOMPREHENSION ACTIVITIESAND MATERIALSThis second section focuses on instructional

considerations, while keeping in mind the following three important points about listening

as a language act.

1. Information Processing Listening compre

hension is an act of information processing

in which the listener is involved in bidirectional

communication, or unidirectional communication, and/or autodirectional communication.

2. Linguistic Functions Broadly speaking, real-

world spoken communication can be viewed asserving two linguistic functions: interactional andtransactional.

3. Dimensions of Cognitive Processing Thecognitive processing of spoken language appearsto involve simultaneous activation of both top-down and bottom-up engagement in order for listeners to construct what they believe to be theintended meaning of the spoken message.

With these features of listening as a language act in mind, we begin with a discussion ofthree important principles of materials development. Next, we outline six kinds of communicative outcomes, with lesson suggestions for each.In the final section we present some suggestions

I

76Unit II A Language Skills/Listening

for creating a self-access, self-study listeningcenter. Central to the underlying belief systemreflected in this chapter is a communicative language teaching perspective which values meaningful tasks and communicative activities. (SeeSavignon’s chapter in this volume.)

PrinciplesIn order to get learners’ attention, to keep themactively and purposefully engaged in the taskat hand, and to maximize the effectiveness oflistening/language-learning experiences, threematerials development principles are suggested:relevance, transferability/applicability, and task orientation. These three principles are important inmaking choices about both language content(i.e., the information presented) and languageoutcome(s) (i.e., the way the information is putto use).

I. RelevanceBoth the listening lesson content (i.e., the informadon) and the outcome (i.e., the nature of the use ofthe information) need to be as relevant as possibleto the learner. This is essential for getting andholding learner attention and provides a genuinemotivational incentive. Lessons need to featurecontent and outcomes that have “face validity” forstudents. The more that lessons focus on thingswith real-life relevance, the more they appeal tostudents, and the better the chance of havinglearners’ wanting to listen. And if students reallywant to listen, we have accomplished at least partof the task which Strevens (1988) calls encouragingthe intention to learn.

Relevance is easy to control in self-createdclassroom listening activities. However, whenusing published materials, it is necessary tochoose those lessons with topics that are relevantto one’s students. It may be necessary to modifrboth the way the material is presented and theway students are asked to use the information.Richards suggests some ways to adapt materials,including modifying the objectives; addingprelistening activities; changing the teachingprocedures for class presentation; and devisingpostlistening activities (1983, pp. 237—238).

2. Transferability/ApplicabilityWhatever is relevant is also likely to have potentialfor transferability. Insofar as possible, at either thecontent level or the outcome level, or both, listeninglessons need to have transferability/applicabilityvalue, internally (i.e., can be used in other classes),externally (i.e., can be used in out-of-school situadons), or both. In order to foster transfer of training, the best listening lessons present in-classactivities that mirror real life. For example, the useof radio or television news broadcasts in adultclasses can provide not only a real experience inlistening comprehension, but such lessons alsocontain content that can be applicable outside ofclass as a source of conversation topics.

3. Task OrientationIn formal language classes for teenage and adultstudents and in language activity lessons for children, it is productive to combine two differentkinds of focus: (1) language use tasks and (2)language analysis activities.

Notions of task have developed out of communicative teaching and materials production.Johnson defines task-oriented teaching as teaching which provides “actual meaning” by focusingon tasks to be mediated though language, and inwhich success is judged in terms of whether thetasks are performed (Brumfit andJohnson 1979,

p. 200). Maley and Moulding focus on instruction which is task-oriented not question-oriented,providing learners with tasks which use the information in the aural text, rather than asking learners to “prove” their understanding of the text byanswering questions (1979, p. 102). Candlin andMurphy note, “The central process we are concerned with is language learning, and tasks present this in the form of a problem-solvingnegotiation between knowledge that the learnerholds and new knowledge. This activity is conducted through language in use, which may,itself, be seen as a negotiation of meaning”(1987, p. 1).

3a. Language Use Tasks The purpose here isto give students practice in listening for information and then immediately doing something


with it. This kind of lesson features specific Listen-and-Do communicative outcomes such as these:

Listening and performing actions (e.g.,command games and songs such as “Do theHokey Pokey,” “May I?” “Simon Says”).Listening and performing operations (e.g.,listening and constructing a figure, drawinga map).Listening and solving problems (e.g., riddles,intellectual or logic puzzles, real-life numerical, spatial, or chronological problems).Listening and transcribing (e.g., takingtelephone messages, writing notes).Listening and summarizing information(e.g., outlining, giving the gist of a messageeither verbally or in writing).Interactive listening and negotiating ofmeaning through questioning/answeringroutines (e.g., questions for repetition ofinformation, questions for verification,questions for clarification, questions forelaboration).

These listening and language use tasks helpstudents to build the following two things:

(i) A Base of Content Experiences This willhelp them to develop expectancies, increase theirvocabulary, and build a repertoire of familiar top-down networks of background knowledge in thesecond language. This, in turn, increases predictive power for future communicative situations,including schemata (i.e., the larger-order mentalframeworks of knowledge) and scripts (i.e., thesituation-specific mental frameworks that allowus to predict actors, events, action sequences,and alternative outcomes). These include formulaic speech routines and assumed elements in thephysical setting.(ii) A Base of Operational Experiences Thiswill help learners to acquire a repertoire offamiliar information-handling operations in thesecond language that are applicable to futurecommunicative encounters in that language.

3b. Language Analysis Tasks The purposehere is to give students opportunities to analyzeselected aspects of both language structure (i.e.,form) and language use (i.e., function) and todevelop some personal strategies to facilitate

learning. (See Peterson’s chapter in this volume.) The goal is consciousness raising aboutlanguage, which can be accomplished throughwhat Wendin and Rubin (1987) term awareness-raising tasks. Some language analysis tasks can bedesigned to help students become knowledgeable about how language works. Activities canfocus on one or two points at a time and caninclude attention to a variety of features of grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and discourse aswell as sociolinguistic and strategic features(Canale and Swain 1980). Specific activities caninclude:

Analysis of some features of “fast speech”;tasks can help students learn to deal withthe rapid patterns of contextualized speech.Analysis of phrasing and pause points;attention to the ways the grouping ofwordsinto functional units (ones that “follow”grammar) can be used to facilitate listening; “chunking” the input into units forinterpretation.Analysis of both monologues and dialogueexchanges, with attention to discourseorganizational structures.Describing and analyzing sociolinguisticdimensions, including participants andtheir roles and relationships, settings, purpose of the communicative episodes, andexpected outcomes.Describing and analyzing communicativestrategies used by speakers to deal with mis-communication, communication breakdowns, distractions, etc.

Recordings of real-life conversations, talks,and discussions can be used to introduce listening analysis tasks. (See Morley 1984 and 1985.)Lynch (1983), Ur (1984), Davis and Rinvolucri(1988), and Mendelsohn (1995) all give a varietyof language analysis tasks.

Communicative Outcomes:

It is clear by now that a Listen-and-Do format—ithat is, information gathering and informationusing—is recommended for listening instructional

An Organizing Framework

78 Unit II A Language Skills/Listening

activities in the ESL or EFL curriculum. Listeningcomprehension in today’s language curriculummust go far beyond a 20-minute tape a day or aparagraph or two read aloud followed by a series of“test” questions about the factual content.

Listen-and-Do in the listening comprehension context implies an outcome “objective.” Thepurpose of oral communication in the real worldis to achieve a genuine outcome; it may be verysimple (e.g., enjoying sociable conversation) or itmay be very complex (e.g., understanding intricate instructions), but an outcome is achieved.This same attention to outcome must be a part ofany listening comprehension activity planned foruse in the second language learning context.

Minimum requirements for two-way oralcommunication are two active participants andan outcome. Participants alternate roles ofspeaker-sender and listener-receiver. One-waycommunication requires one active participant(a listener-receiver), one long-distance participant (a speaker-sender), either “live” or recorded,and an outcome.

What is an outcome? According to Sinclair(1984), an outcome is a realistic task that peoplecan envision themselves doing and accomplishingsomething. An outcome is an essential componentin both two-way and one-way communication listening comprehension activities.

Six broad categories of outcome are discussed below. Each, of course, can be subdividedinto more narrowly focused specific outcomes,which can be modified to suit a given studentgroup. Lesson outcomes can be graded towardgradual expansion of difficulty, complexity; andincreasing performance expectations for students.

A lesson may contain more than one outcome, although too many outcomes for a givenactivity may be overwhelming. Any outcome canbe used at any age, as long as it is a part of a taskthat is appropriate to the age, interests, and language proficiency level of the learners.

There is overlap between some outcomecategories, and no attempt is made here to makethem mutually exclusive. They are presented asan organizing framework for consideration byteachers in developing class or listening librarymaterials.

Outcome 1. Listening andPerforming Actions and OperationsThis category includes responses to things suchas directions, instructions, and descriptions in avariety of contexts. Examples include listening and• Drawing a picture, figure, or design.• Locating routes of specific points on a map.• Selecting a picture of a person, place, or

thing from description.• Identifying a person, place, or thing from

description.• Performing hand or body movements as in

songs and games such as “Simon Says” or“Do the Hokey Pokey.”

• Operating a piece of equipment such as acamera, a recorder, a microwave oven, or apencil sharpener.

• Carrying out steps in a process such as amath problem, a science experiment, or acooking sequence.

Outcome 2. Listening andTransferring InformationTwo kinds of information transfer are featured:spoken-to-written (i.e., hearing information andwriting it) and spoken-to-spoken (i.e. hearing information and transmitting it in speech).

Spoken-to-written The following are some activities for spoken-to-written practice.

• Listening and taking a message (in personor by telephone) by transcribing the entiremessage word for word if it is very short orby writing down a list of the importantitems if it is long; the purpose is to giveanother person a clear sense of the message.

• Listening and filling in blanks in a gappedstory game in order to complete the story.

• Listening and completing a form or chart inorder to use the information for a later purpose, such as making a decision or solving aproblem.

• Listening and summarizing the gist of ashort story, report, or talk in order to reportit to a third person.


Listening to a “how to” talk and writing anoutline of the steps in the sequence (e.g.,how to cook something, how to use a pieceof equipment, how to play a game) in orderto carry out the action.Listening to a talk or lecture and takingnotes in order to use the information laterfor some a purpose.

A popular activity called jigsaw listening issuggested by Geddes and Sturtridge (1979). Inone form ofjigsaw listening, small groups of students listen to different parts of a set of information and write down the important points oftheir portions. Then they share their information with other groups so that a story or asequence of actions can be completed, a problem solved, or a decision made.

Spoken-to-spoken Jigsaw listening also can beused with a spoken-to-spoken transfer of information. Other activities in this mode are thefollowing:

Listening to directions, then passing themalong to a third person who must use theinformation to carry out a task.Listening to part of a story and repeating itto others.

(For examples see Davis and Rinvolucri 1988,pp. 29—30 and Morley 1984, pp. 68—69.)

Outcome 3. Listening andSolving ProblemsMany kinds of activities for either groups or individuals can be developed in this category. One isgames and puzzles:• Word games in which the answers must be

derived from verbal clues.• Number games and “story” arithmetic

problems.• Asking questions in order to identify some

thing, as in “Twenty Questions” or “Animal,Vegetable, or Mineral.”

• Classroom versions of “Password,”“Jeopardy,” or “Twenty Questions” in whichcareful listening is critical to the successfulcompletion of the game.

Minute mysteries in which students, listening to the teacher or a tape, read a veryshort mystery story; this can be followed bysmall group work in which students formulate solutions.

• Ajigsaw mystery in which each group listensto a tape which provides one of the clues.Groups then share information with everyone in order to solve the mystery.

More demanding varieties of problem solvingare found in riddles, logic puzzles, and otherintellectual problem-solving activities.

Real-world problems can include:Comparison shopping tasks using recordedconversations for practice (e.g., asking forprices from several rental car agencies,florist shops, or barber shops, then choosing the best bargain), followed by similarfield trips.

• Short descriptions of court cases, with listeners asked to make a decision and defend it.

Field trips can be assigned in which pairs of students go out to do comparison shopping forproducts or services, then report back to theentire class.

Outcome 4. Listening, Evaluating,and Manipulating InformationThese outcomes are intellectually challengingones in which the listener evaluates and/ormanipulates the information received in somemanner. Lesson activities for individuals, pairs,or small groups can take many directions,including the following:• Writing information received and review

ing it in order to answer questions or solvea problem.

• Evaluating information and reviewing it inorder to make a decision or develop a planof action.

• Evaluating arguments in order to take aposition.

• Evaluating cause-and-effect information.• Making predictions from information

received.

80 Unit II A Language SkiIs/Listening

Summarizing or giving the gist of information received.Evaluating and combining or condensinginformation.

S Evaluating and elaborating or extendinginformation.

S Organizing unordered information into apattern of orderly relationships: chronological sequencing, spatial relationships,cause-and-effect, or problem-solution.

Field trips are challenging and useful forintermediate and advanced learners. Students canbe assigned fact-finding, information-gatheringtasks for panel presentations or use in a project. Atmore advanced levels, preparing for and carryingout a debate or discussion assignment on current local, national, or international issues canuse both aural and written information andinvolves the student in evaluating and manipulating information.

Outcome 5. Interactive Listening-and-Speaking: Negotiating Meaningthrough Questioning/AnsweringRoutinesHere the focus of the outcome is on both theproduct of transmitting information and theprocess of negotiating meaning in interactivereciprocal listener/speaker exchanges. Initially,in small groups, (i.e., four to ten students), onestudent can give a brief presentation such as ashort set of locally relevant announcements, afive-minute “how-to” talk, a personal story oranecdote, or an explanatory talk using visualaids. (See Morley 1992.)

Either during or immediately after the presentation, each listener is required to ask at leastione question in a questioning/answering rout1ne. At first listeners can be given a card listing aquestion type and assigned the responsibilityfor asking that kind of question. The listener-questioner must continue with follow-up questions as necessary until both participants aresatisfied that clear meaning has been negotiated.This means that the speaker is also a listener and

must keep questioning the listener-questioner tomake sure of the nature and intent of the his orher questions. Videotape or audio recordings ofthese class sessions with subsequent viewing anddiscussion of selected segments quickly demonstrates the importance of negotiation of meaningand how much time and energy must sometimesbe expended in order to arrive at a consensus onmeaning.

A wide variety of question types can be usedin this kind of activity, but for each lesson it isuseful to have only a limited number of questiontypes used. Some examples are the following:

S Repetition—questions asking only for verbatim repetition of information (“Couldyou repeat the part about xx?”).

S Paraphrase—questions asking only forrestatement in different words, often wordsthat are simpler and easier to understand(“Could you say that again?” “I don’t understand what you mean by xx.”).

S Verification—questions seeking confirmation that the information was understoodcorrectly by the listener (“Did I understandyou to say that xx?” “In other words, youmean xx.” “Do you mean xx?”).

S Clarification—questions seeking moredetails or an explanation of an item(“Could you tell me what you mean by xx?”“Could you explain xx?” “Could you give usan example of xx?”).

S Elaboration—questions that ask for additional information on a point introducedin the presentation (“Could you tell usmore about xx?”).

S Extension—questions that ask for information on a new point, one that was not introduced in the presentation (“What aboutxx?” “How is this related to xx?”).

S Challenge—questions that challengepoints given or conclusions drawn (“Whatdid you base xx on?” “How did you reachthe conclusion of xx?” “How did you xx?”“Why did you xx?”).

Aural Comprehension instruction: Principles and Practices 8

Outcome 6. Listening forEnjoyment, Pleasure, and Sociability

Tasks with this outcome can include listening tosongs, stories, plays, poems, jokes, anecdotes, or,as suggested by Ur, “general interesting chatimprovised by the teacher” (1984, p. 29). Some ofthe activities in this category come under theheading of interactional listening, different fromthe previous outcome categories, which by andlarge are focused on transactional outcomes.

For these tasks, Ur notes that setting anyoutcome other than enjoying, for instance, maybecome superfluous or even harmful to thecompletion of the outcome ofjust enjoying.

Ur makes an especially good case for informal “teacher-chat” as an excellent source of listening material and observes that it serves as arelaxing break from more intensive work. She suggests “teacher-talk” on personal topics (e.g., yourfavorite hobby, plans for the future, your opinionson topical or local issues) (pp. 62—63). She notesthat this, in turn, may lead naturally to “student-talk” on similar subjects for loosely structured andcomfortable communicative classroom interludes,ones that afford student “practice” opportunitiesin both listening and speaking.

SELF-ACCESS/SELF-STUDYLISTENING AND LANGUAGELEARNINGThe purpose of a self-access/self-study resource is toprovide an inviting listening center within a conventional language laboratory or a broader language resource center. This self-study facility needsto offer a wide choice of appealing audio and videomaterials on a variety of topics and at a range of proficiency levels. Books to accompany tapes are useful, of course. However, in addition to (or in placeof) commercial hooks, a library of listening materials might also include carefully designed worksheetmaterials that present listening tasks for self-study,pair-study, or small-group study, both on the schoolpremises and for checkout and home use.

Materials for free-listening time (like free-reading time) can be provided and students can begiven a chance to self-select from a listening

library that includes stories and poems, talks andlectures, plays and literary classics, participatorygames, puzzles, riddles, and read-along or sing-along stories, songs, and games. Commercialaudio- and videotapes can easily be adapted for listening library use. More innovatively, a collectionof local audio or video recordings of conversations, songs, music events, lectures, or panel discussions can be compiled. Home videos can be anappealing addition to a listening library. Suchlocally produced auditory materials have a specialrelevance and applicability potential that commercialmaterials lack.

Setting Up a Self-.Access/Self-StudyListening Resource CenterA self-access/self-study listening resource centercan be started with a modest listening library ofaudio and video recorded material and theteacher-time needed to put materials into self-studypackets or modules.

Ideally, listening materials can be made available to students in a special language learning center or multipurpose study room that also featuresreading and writing materials and has a teacher ormonitor present at all times to guide students inthe selection and use of materials and equipment.

Alternatively, self-access self-study materialscan be used in a more conventional language laboratory setting. Whatever the setting, the mostimportant point is that the individual learner hascomplete personal control over the materials. It isessential that students be able to control thesource of input so that they can pace it—stop it,start it, replay it—at will. Such control allows students to regulate their own schedules of study,rather than having a rate and volume of auditoryinput imposed on them. This helps reduce theanxiety and pressure that many students, particularly beginners, seem to experience when listening in the second or foreign language. Somematerials might be made available for checkoutand home study. However, a study facility often hasfewer distractions than a home or dormitory environment, and its atmosphere is usually more conductive to the self-discipline necessary forconcentrated listening in the second or foreignlanguage.

82 Unit II A Language Skilts/Listening

The procedures for using self-access self-study materials might be organized in the following way:

1. Students check out a listening packet ormodule that contains the audio- or videotape, prelistening introductory material,worksheets (and perhaps some visuals),answer key (and perhaps a script), instructions, and postlistening tasks.

2. Students play the tape on their own scheduleof starting, stopping, and replaying.

3. Students check their work themselves forverification of comprehension.

4. Students consult the teacher or monitorwhen necessary.

Self-access listening materials can be organized into self-study packets or modules of manageable lengths. They can be cross-referencedin a variety of ways to meet the needs of individual students or groups of students (i.e., contentor topical groups, notional categories, functional categories, situational or activity categories,level-of-difficulty groupings, specific listening-task groupings, English for Specific Purposesgroupings).

Modules that feature up-to-date, locally relevant, authentic aural texts are especially effectiveand are recommended wherever possible. In addilion, segments from selected commercial listeningmaterials can be adapted to fit into this format.

Guidelines for DevelopingSelf-Access/Self-StudyListening MaterialsIn addition to relevance, transferability, task onentation, and the communicative outcomesframework, the following guidelines are suggestedas a reference in preparing self-access self-studylistening practice materials:

1. A focus on listening as an active processwith instant or only slightly delayed manipulation of the information received.

2. A focus on purposeful listening (a) in orderto process information and immediately dosomething with the information, by performing a task of some nature, and (b) in orderto analyze particular features of the message(i.e., linguistic features, sociolinguistic features, discourse features, strategic features),and (c) in order to build a base of contentexperiences and outcomes experiences.

3. A focus on a variety of practice materials thatincludes a mix of authentic, semi-authentic,and simulated language activities.

4. A focus on internal communicative interaction, as the listener receives language input(aurally and visually), restructures it, andmakes a response that is either a reformulation of some of the information or ananalysis of some of its features.

5. A focus on providing learners with verification of comprehension (i.e., immediate oronly slightly delayed feedback) with self-check answer keys or scripts as needed.

6. A focus on encouraging guessing and following “hunches” when in doubt.

7. A focus on selective listening, ignoringirrelevant material, and learning to tolerateless than total understanding.

8. A focus on seWinvolvement with an emphasison self-study and taking responsibility for one’sown work and pride in one’s accomplishments.

9. A focus on providing learners with lessthreatening listening/learning experiences;a self-study listening mode where studentshave the freedom to regulate their own workand can stop the tape, rewind, and replay asthey wish.

10. A focus on integrating auditory and visuallanguage by combining listening, reading,and writing, and observing relationshipsbetween spoken forms and written forms.

11. A focus on gradually increasing expectationsfor levels of comprehension (i.e., encouraging students to challenge themselves and tomove themselves along toward increasinglydemanding expectations).

12. A focus on the fun of listening!


FINAL COMMENTSSince the 1960s, the importance of listeningcomprehension in language learning and language teaching has moved from a status of incidental and peripheral importance to a status ofsignificant and central importance. Whereasonly a few instructional materials were availablein the 1970s, today there are many texts and tapeprograms to choose from and, in general, materials are becoming more carefully principled,with serious attention to theoretical considerations. Each year more diverse materials are developed, and many now focus on the narrowlyspecified listening needs of particular groups oflearners, including English for Specific Purposes.

Finally, it is important to emphasize thatthe S/FL listening curriculum cannot focus onlyon buying the right books and tapes. Skill building in listening comprehension is not somethingthat can be accomplished in a half-hour lessonthree times a week, nor can attention to listening be limited to language laboratory tapes.Listening, the language skill used most in life,needs to be a central focus—all day, every day—limited only by the availability of the target language in the school, the community, and themedia. Listening instruction needs to includeboth two-way interactive listening activities andtasks and one-way reactive Listen-and-Do activities and tasks. Materials developers should paycareful attention to principles of design, communicative outcomes, language functions, language processes, and affective considerations.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS1. Characterize each of the three communi

cative listening modes: bidirectional, unidirectional, and autodirectional. From your ownpersonal experience, give examples of each ofthese three kinds of communicative listening.

2. Discuss why listening has been called “theneglected skill” of language teaching.

3. For three days, keep a record of how muchtime you spend each day in each of the fourskill areas: listening, speaking, reading, andwriting. In small groups, make a composite

of the times recorded for each of the fourlanguage skills.

4. Review the three principles of materialsdevelopment discussed in this chapter. Giveexamples of ways they can be implementedin listening lessons.

5. Discuss the differences between interactionallanguage use and transactional language use.Give examples from your personal experienceand compare them with those given by othersin your class.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES1. Ask permission to observe two or three ESL

or foreign language classes. Observe thenature of the interactions in the class. Notethe amount of time in which students areengaged in listening and the amount of timethey are engaged in speaking, reading, orwriting.

2. Write a lesson plan that focuses on two orthree ways to include specific listening opportunities in a class where the central focus is onanother aspect of language learning.

3. Working in pairs, use the Richards matrix(Richards 1990) and come up with two orthree examples for each of the four cells.

FURTHER READING

Anderson, A., and T. Lynch. 1988. Listening. Oxford:Oxford University Press.This book stands back from the surface detail ofcomprehension materials and provides an overall perspective on listening as a communicativeactivity and as a language learning activity. Itincludes a research design focus.

Brown, G., and G. Yule. 1983. Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Using an approach based on the analysis of conversational English, this book examines thenature of spoken language and presents principles and techniques for teaching spoken production and listening comprehension.

84 Unit II A Language SkiIIs/Lstening

Nunan, D., and L. Miller. 1995. New Ways in TeachingListening Comprehension. Alexandna, VA: TESOL.A very useful compendium of activities for plan-fling language lessons with a listening focus.

Mendelsohn, D., and J. Rubin. 1995. A Guide forTeaching Second Language Listening San Diego,CA: Dominie Press.An excellent collection of diverse topics in teaching second language listening, Contains maypractical examples and suggestions for lessondevelopment.

Morley, J. 1999. Current Perspectives on ImprovingAural Comprehension. ESLMagazine 2 (1): 15—19.This is an easy-to-read article for the beginningTESL/TEFL student. It presents current perspectives in the area ofESL/EFL aural comprehensioninstruction.

Ur, P. 1984. Teaching Listening Comprehension.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Analyzes real-life listening characteristics and theproblems encountered by language learners.Presents a wide range of exercise types, rangingfrom elementary to advanced, and appropriatefor both adults and children.

Special periodical issues devoted to listeningcomprehension:

Applied Linguistics 7 (2), Summer 1986.ELT Documents Special, “The Teaching of Listening

Comprehension,” 1981.ForeiguLanguageAnnals 17 (4), September 1984.JALTNewsletterl9 (4), 1982.TESOLNewsletterl9 (6), December 1985.
