Updating L2 Listening Comprehension Instruction

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso

Facultad de Filosofía y Educación

Instituto de Literatura y Ciencias del Lenguaje

Updating L2 Listening Comprehension Instruction: Transitioning from Audio-Only Materials to Video-Mediated

Materials.

TRABAJO DE TITULACIÓN

Para optar al título de Profesor de Inglés

y al grado de Licenciado en Educación.

Alumno: Daniel Riquelme Calderón

Profesora Guía: Mónica S. Cárdenas-Claros

Primer Semestre 2015

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Table of Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………2

Introduction……………………………………………………………………..3

Theoretical framework…………………………………………………………5

L2 listening comprehension………………………………………………...5

Bottom-up and top-down processing……………………………………….7

The role of media in listening comprehension……………………………..7

Audio-only listening instruction………………………………………...9

Visuals in L2 listening……………………………………………….….9

Video-mediated listening instruction……………………………….….10

Listening strategies…………………………………………………….….11

Metacognition…………………………………………………………….12

Pedagogical proposal……………………………………………………….…13

Objectives.......…………………………………………………………..…14

Assessment………………………………………………………….……. 15

Sample lessons…………………………………………………………....16

Unit 1: The speech of music……………………………………….…17

Unit 2: Being part of a virtual world……………………………..…...22

Unit 3: Listening behind the big screen…………………………..…...26

Unit 4: Getting into the content…………………………………..…...32

Unit 5: Making connections………………………………………......35

References……………………………………………………………….…....38

Appendices……………………………………………………………….…...39

Appendix A: Questionnaire……………………………………………….39

Appendix B: Needs Analysis…………………………………………..….42

Appendix C: Rubric……………………………………………………….47

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Abstract

In Chile, listening comprehension instruction has been rooted on audio-only listening

materials. This methodology prevents the development of listening strategies, and contrasts

the objectives of the EFL Chilean Program of preparing the students for real life

communicative situations. This proposal seeks to integrate, in an elective course intended

for eighth graders in a semi-private school, the metacognitive sequence and the transition

between the different types of materials; audio-only, still-image, and video-mediated

materials, which provide more authenticity. Also, metacognitive strategies will guide the

students to become autonomous learners.

Keywords: Listening comprehension, metacognition, role of visuals, semi-private school

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Introduction

Video-mediated listening materials have been gradually entering the language classroom.

They are presented as facilitating resources as listeners are provided with cues that assist

comprehension (Çakir, 2006). Also, they are stimulating teaching resources as listeners do

not only listen to an aural text, but they can benefit from the paralinguistic features of the

language such as body language, gestures, and postures of the speaker (Suvorov, 2009)

along with contextual clues that help listeners predict what the text is about even before

perceiving the first aural signal. With all those benefits (Lynch, 2009), one wonders why is

it necessary to transit listeners from audio-only materials to video-mediated ones. The

answers is simple; this is because not all visuals help, some researchers, in fact, agree that

they can be distracting and add cognitive overloads to the listening task. (Suvorov, 2009).

For this reason, it is important to train the learner on how to use the beneficial features of

visuals in order to become more proficient listeners. One characteristic of proficient

listeners is the ability of choosing appropriated strategies to accomplish a listening task,

this capability makes the listening process more appealing to the listener (Vandergrift and

Goh, 2012), and consequently the listener performs better. The incorporation of this

methodology in our country would be the answer to tackle one of the main problems of

listening comprehension instruction; children are not being trained on how to approach an

aural text.

According to the last results of the SIMCE examination, the average scores showed that

tenth graders reached only A1 level of English on the Common European Framework of

Reference (CEFR) which is way below the B2 level that the National Curriculum expects

of them. In listening this can be related to the fact that listening instruction in Chile has

been mainly focused on audio-only materials. This methodology private students to

develop a variety of listening strategies; and secondly it does not expose learners to more

realistic interaction where not only the auditory channels are used in listening

comprehension (Buck, 2001). This problem should be tackled by an early incorporation of

listening strategy training in our classrooms. This will enhance the possibility of reaching

the government long term goal (2014-2030) to make Chile a bilingual country.

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In that way, this proposal seeks to fill that void by the students’ immersion on different

types of resources provided by a multimedia learning environment. Multimedia learning

environments allow students to transit between audio-only, still-image, and video-mediated

listening materials. The inclusion of text and visuals in multimedia instruction fosters the

learning process because they appeal to the dual-channel assumption which refers the two

perceptual channels learners learn through: seeing and hearing (Mayer, 2009:13,57). This

transition meets a key objective of the guidelines: “students have to be able to comprehend

general and specific information presented explicitly in simple non-authentic, authentic,

literary or non-literary texts presented in a variety of audio-visual formats about different

topics aiming the language functions of the year” (Bases Curriculares 2015:262) .

Also, the inclusion of metacognitive strategies provides instances of planning, monitoring,

and evaluating listening comprehension processes. This enhances the development of

strategies making the students more autonomous in their comprehension process.

For this reason, this project seeks to help 8th grade students to gradually transit between

audio-only materials to video mediated materials, learning how to approach these materials

by using strategies in order to benefit from the visual cues.

The current graduation project is structured in three main sections: Firstly, the Literature

Review, in which the theoretical framework gives support to this pedagogical proposal

providing the methodologies to implement in our context. Secondly, the Syllabus Design,

which will set this proposal under a skill-based syllabus. An thirdly, the Pedagogical

Proposal, which will be presented as a course focused on the development of the listening

skill by the gradual transition from audio-only materials to video-mediated ones.

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Theoretical Framework

This literature review comprehends the theoretical base to understand how listening

comprehension can be define as a multitask skill. When listening, our brains process the

information in three different areas- linguistic, situational and cognitive- which interact to

convey meaning. The language, the context, and the content provide significance to the text

allowing listeners to modify their schemata. The different types of materials will clarify

how learners can develop in a better way the listening skills transiting from audio-only to

video-mediated listening activities.

L2 listening comprehension

For this project, we adopt Bejar, Douglas, Jamieson, Nissan, Turner (2000) definition of

listening in which a listening situation is understood as the process in which an aural signal

is perceived and mentally structured by an individual who, in real time, processes the

information interacting with linguistic, situational, and cognitive features of the language.

Throughout the years, perspectives on listening comprehension have raised the importance

of this skill. Learner are generally taught how to approach reading and writing, and even

speaking, but there is few instruction on how to approach listening (Vandergrift and Goh,

2012:4). Listening was thought to be a passive skill, even developed naturally for the

learner without any help, this, considering listening as a non-teachable skill (Oxford, 1993

in Osada, 2004:53). This Audio-lingual method focused on the improvement of the skill by

the continuous exposure to the language.

More recent research positioned listening as “an active skill that involves many processes”

(Osada, 2004:56). While previous conceptions of listening focused on reproducing intact

meaning, the active conceptions positions listening as a complex task of interpreting

meaning provided from the participants interaction and the context (Lynch and Mendelsohn,

2002; as cited Nation and Newton, 2009:39)

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Through the last five decades, teaching L2 listening orientations have focused on three

main areas: Text-oriented listening instruction, communication-oriented listening

instruction, and learner-oriented listening instruction (Vandergrift and Goh, 2012:6).

Text-oriented instruction based its methodology on decoding skills. Repetition,

discrimination and textual comprehension put the learners on the situation of demonstrating

how well they understood what they have just heard, so accuracy of their comprehension

was the main criterion when testing listening. This was the critical point on text-oriented

instruction, instead of teaching how to listen to spoken language for better understanding; it

fell on a test tendency which is still present in many classrooms (Vandergrift and Goh,

2012).

Communication-oriented instruction took place after the recognition of listening as a

complex skill which is divided into sub-skills. Listening was no longer perceived as a

naturally developed skill, but was viewed as a central factor of communication, particularly

in the construction of meaning. Technology provided the opportunity of including authentic

material into the classroom presented in themed units which provided background

knowledge in the service of the development of other skills or language focus (p.8).

Learner-oriented instruction focused on the idea that all learners perform differently, and

some of them are more successful at learning a foreign language than others. Listeners

developed several strategies in order “to cover individual language skills”. This approach

encourages metacognitive reflections that allow the learner to interact with the material

applying “an specific technique to a learning task” (Vandergrift and Goh, 2012:10).

Mendelsohn (1998) stated that this strategic approach trains the learner on how to apply

different strategies depending on the listening task.

This project will be focused on learner-oriented instruction regarding its objectives of

developing listening strategies that allow students to be autonomous in their comprehension

process. That is achieved by the implementation of metacognitive strategies.

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Bottom-UP and Top-Down processing

The dynamic characteristic of listening, as Celse-Murcia stated (2001), is due to the

interpretative role of the listeners while facing spoken language, in which the learner

interprets according their own purposes and their own background knowledge (p.72). “It is

hypothesized that two different modes work together in a cooperative process”, one of them

works externally; bottom-up, and the other works internally; top-down (p.74).

Bottom-up processing, also known as decoding process, occurs when the listener construct

meaning segmenting the sound stream into segmentals and suprasegmentals units of

meaning of the target language. For instance, the learner can get the meaning of a single

phoneme to a larger unit of meaning, such as sentences and chunks. The learner primarily

relies on the linguistic knowledge which comprehends the phonological knowledge, the

lexical knowledge, and the syntactic knowledge (Vandergrift and Goh, 2012:18). Also,

Celse-Murcia (2001) refers to the bottom-up process as “the part of the aural

comprehension process in which the understanding of the ‘heard’ language is worked out

proceeding from sounds to words to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings.

On the other hand, top-down processing refers to the learners’ capability of making

connections between the text and the contextual elements reflected on their own prior

knowledge. These connections activate the conceptual framework of the learners

(schemata), which is located in the listeners’ long-term memory, for better understanding of

the text (Vandergrift and Goh, 2012). The use of these internal resources allow the listener

to make predictions about the incoming text, filling in advance the expectations of the

listeners, helping them to hierarchize the incoming information (Celse-Murcia, 2001:74)

The role of media in listening comprehension

The development of media in the last decades has widened the access to spoken language.

Even though technology has not offered remarkable changes in the way of presenting the

target language, nowadays technology is accessible for the vast majority of people,

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allowing learners to experience the target language practically anywhere they want (Lynch,

2009:7)

Rather than replacing existing methodologies, new technologies have tended to

complement them. The gradual progression between the text, in form of transcripts, to the

computer-based listening activity, shows how new technologies “increase the amount of

help available to the listener in understanding spoken language” (Lynch, 2009:8)

Table 1 Relationship between media in listening comprehension (Lynch, 2009)

Text Audio Video Computer

Text/Transcript

shows…

The soundtrack

adds…

The video image

adds…

The computer adds…

Words spoken

‘stage directions’

-accompanying actions

-emotion in the voice

Voices

Prosodic elements

-intonation

-pitch

-stress

-accent

Audible context

-sounds off

-‘atmosphere’

Speakers’ bodies

-gestures

-facial expressions

Visible context

-general setting

-actions/movement

-deictic reference

Learner control

-precision of replay

-flexibility of support

-choice of media

Support options

-subtitles

-hotlinks to word glosses

-slower rate

Online hyperlinks to

-dictionary

-encyclopedia

-corpora

The use of media in listening, especially in computer assisted language learning (CALL),

offers to the learner greater control over the process of learning, learners are able to choose

and adapt listening materials to their own learning need and learning style (Lynch, 2009:9)

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Audio-only listening instruction

The milestone of media in listening instruction was the invention of the phonograph

(Hulstijn, 2003 in Vandergrift and Goh, 2012), this one and many other recording devices

opened the doors to develop listening instruction.

Previous definitions of listening focused only on the listener ability of perceiving an aural

stimulus with a communicative purpose, in which the process of decoding was mainly

based in the understanding of linguistic signals. The audio-lingual method based its roots in

the development of the aural fluency. The continuous drilling after listening to recorded

materials allowed the student to develop listening comprehension, pronunciation, grammar

and vocabulary (Flowerdew and Miller, 2005).

Visuals in L2 listening.

Many researchers agree on the important role of visuals in language learning (Schiver,

1997; Bejar et al, 2000; Suvorov, 2009), that is why they are vastly used in learning

environments. However, not all the visuals belong to the same category, and, as expected,

their effects on listening instruction vary depending on their function.

In order to summarize the importance of visuals in listening comprehension, the following

table shows what researchers, in Suvorov, presented as the four main advantages of visuals

(2009:54)

Table 3. Advantages of visuals in listening comprehension

1. Seeing the situation and the participants increases situational and interactional authenticity, which in some cases may aid comprehension (Buck, 2001; Wagner, 2007).

2. Body language, facial expressions, and gestures of the speaker can provide additional information (Buck, 2001; Coniam, 2001; Ockey, 2007; Rubin, 1995).

3. With visual input, the listener can more easily identify the role of the speaker and the context of the situation (Baltova, 1994; Gruba, 1997; Rubin, 1995).

4. Visual elements can activate the listener’s background knowledge (Ockey, 2007; Rubin, 1995).

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Visuals can be differentiated between two types: context and content visuals. Context

visuals provide information about the context in which the verbal exchange occurs,

including information such as the participants involved in the communicative situation, the

setting and the text type (Bejar et al, 2000). The main purposes of context visuals are “to set

the scene for the verbal exchange and to indicate a change of speaker in a conversation”

(Ginther, 2002 in Suvorov, 2009:10)

On the other hand, content visuals are related to the content mentioned in the verbal

interaction, this can be through still photos, diagrams, pictures, drawings, etc. Bejar et al

establish a categorization of content visuals which divide them into four groups: content

visuals that replicate the audio stimulus, content visuals that illustrate the audio stimulus,

content visuals that organize information in the audio stimulus, and content visuals that

supplements the audio stimulus (Bejar et al, 2000 in Suvorov, 2009:10) Even though

overall pictures seem to be beneficial for listeners because pictures are easily memorized,

apparently more than words, Schriver also acknowledges that pictures can be distracting if

they just decorate the text providing no significant and meaningful information.

Table 2 Integration of textual and visual information (Schiver, 1997 in Suvorov, 2009:12)

1 Redundant When words and pictures convey identical content.

2 Complementary When word and pictures provide different content, with both modes being necessary to understand the main idea.

3 Supplementary When word and pictures provide different content, with one mode presenting the main idea and the other mode supplementing it.

4 Juxtapositional When word and pictures provide different content, with both modes presenting the ideas that clash; the main idea can be inferred only when both modes are presented simultaneously.

5 Stage-setting When word and pictures provide different content, with one mode providing the content and the other mode giving the main idea

Video-mediated listening instruction

During the 1980s, instructional frameworks changed paying more attention on the

advantages that multimedia has. Field (2008) considered facial expressions and visual clues

as important providers of meaning which can be incorporated in listening instruction by the

use of media. Moreover, Wagner (2006), claimed that “the presence of visual support

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would allow L2 listeners to make more valid inferences, and this could lead to improved L2

listening performance”

The additional information that listener can get through visuals meet two key aspects of

face-to-face interaction; non-verbal elements and visual clues (Lynch, 2009:19). In first

place, the listener is exposed to a wide variety of expressive devices that contribute in the

process of decoding the meaning of an aural signal. Stress, volume, and pitch are devices

that highlight some parts of the speech which can be accompanied by non-linguistic cues;

for instance, gestures and body language.

Even though visuals “lack the semantic referential precision of the verbal component, in

pragmatic and relational terms they are generally far more important” (Riley, 1981 in

Lynch, 2009:19). Moreover, Riley presented five basic functions of visual information:

Deictic; pointing to the objects nearby the speakers, Interactional; interactions and

turn taking between the participants,

Modal; supporting the mood and commitment of the speakers,

Indexical; indicators of self,

Linguistic; replacement of certain verbal expressions.

The presence of context presented in video-mediated listening, also in other visual supports,

offers a link between bottom-up and top-down information. Rarely, a listener is exposed to

an aural communicative situation without contextual background information. It is highly

probable that at the time of the first aural signal the listener already have information such

as by whom, when, and where the text is being produced (Lynch, 2009:44,45).

Listening strategies

In contrast to previous conceptions on listening skill as a natural and unteachable skill, now

researchers agreed that teaching and applying listening strategies facilitates the

development of the listening skill. Field (2004; 314) defines strategy as a “technique used

by a listener to compensate for gaps in decoding or understanding”.

Lynch (2009) identifies three categories for listening strategies:

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Cognitive; encourage the listener to make connections between their background

knowledge and the current input in order to “make sense of what they heard”(Lynch,

2009; 79)

Metacognitive; reflect learners thinking and problem solving strategies that follow a

monitoring process over one’s own comprehension.

Socio-affective; encourage the learner to follow cooperative learning strategies.

Metacognition

According to Vandergrift and Goh, metacognition is defined as “our ability to think about

our own thinking” (2012; 83). This term was firstly coined by Flavell who described it as

“one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive processes and… active monitoring and

consequent regulation and orchestration of these processes in relation to the cognitive

objects or data on which they bear, usually in the service of some concrete goal or objective”

(Flavell, 1976; 232, as cited Vandergrift and Goh, 2012; 84).

Metacognitive instruction guides the learner through a process of autonomous learning. The

appropriate use of strategies facilitates the learning process making it “easier, faster, more

enjoyable, more self-regulated, more effective, or more transferable to new situations”

(Vandergrift and Goh, 2012; 89)

The metacognitive instruction is based in the development of a metacognitive sequence

which compiles the learner’s appropriation of three main strategies.

Strategies for L2 listening. (Vandergrift and Goh, 2012; Appendix A)

Planning: Developing awareness of what needs to be done to accomplish a listening task,

developing an appropriate action plan and/or appropriate contingency plans to overcome

difficulties that may interfere with successful completion of a task.

Monitoring: Checking, verifying, or correcting one’s comprehension or performance in the

course of a task.

Evaluating : Checking the outcomes of listening comprehension or a listening plan against

an internal or an external measure of completeness, reasonableness, and accuracy.

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Pedagogical Proposal

Since syllabus design should be negotiated between teachers and students, in order to reach

students’ need, wants, and lacks, this syllabus is constructed after the results of a needs

analysis that was taken with thirty-two eighth graders from CarloMagno School. A high

percentage of them (66%) showed interest on developing their listening skill by taking an

elective course.

As the objective points out the development of listening skill, this proposal is based on

Hutchinson and Waters’ skill and strategy-based syllabus, which integrates the use of

strategies in the process of developing a specific skill.

The results of the needs analysis, as shown in appendix (n), provided important information

which influenced decisions in three main areas:

a. The selection of the skill: Listening Skill

b. The selection of the topics: Music, video games, and cinema.

c. The selection of resources: Audio-materials, still-image materials, and video-

mediated materials.

Elective course: “Listening: More than hearing”

This course has five units which allow students to gradually transit from audio-only listening materials to video-mediated materials. Accordingly, students are trained to use metacognitive strategies in order to develop autonomy in the listening process making them capable to follow the mental processes that facilitate comprehension of L2 texts. Even though all metacognitive stages are developed in every unit, each unit will be focused on one of the three stages.

Audience: 12 students Level: 8th graders Place: Language laboratory Duration: 15 lessons (30 pedagogical hours) Syllabus: 5 Units, three lessons each. Class hours: Once a week, 90-minutes classes. Teacher: Daniel Riquelme Calderón (e-mail) [email protected]

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Unit 1: Introduce the students to the communicative situation. This unit presents the principal elements in a communicative setting and how students can use some strategies to plan in advance the listening process.

Unit 2: This unit includes visuals in the listening process. The incorporation of still-images in audio-only listening materials will introduce the students to the importance of visual clues in comprehension of L2 texts. This unit encourages the students to monitor their own listening process.

Unit 3: This unit integrates context visuals in video-mediated material which allow students to work with visual clues that facilitate comprehension of L2 texts. Students plan and monitor their process.

Unit 4: This unit content visuals in video-mediated materials which allow students to work with content visual clues that support and illustrate the content topics of the texts.

Unit 5: Encourages the students to evaluate the different types of support presented throughout the course. Students are able to acknowledge the facilitative functions of some types of support in their own learning process.

Objectives

Unit Objectives Materials Metacognitive strategy

Unit 1: “The speech of music” Topic: Music

To recognize key elements on a communicative situation.

To analyze text genres to anticipate the organization of the ideas.

To use background knowledge about the topic to predict ideas, vocabulary that may appear in a text.

To distinguish listening focuses according the task.

Audio-only materials and textual support.

Planning

Unit 2: “Being part of a virtual world” Topic: Video games

To identify visual elements in listening tasks supported by images.

To use visual support to facilitate comprehension

To verify predictions made in the planning section.

Still-images in audio-only materials.

Planning, Monitoring

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Unit 3: “Listening behind the big screen” Topic: Movies

To make inferences and deductions from context visuals.

To create listening focuses to fill gaps of information.

Context visuals in video-mediated materials

Monitoring

Unit 4: “Getting into the content”

To identify content visual support.

To facilitate understanding by complementing the aural signal with content visuals.

Content visuals in video-mediated materials.

Monitoring

Unit 5: “Making connections”

To use metacognitive sequences to follow up the comprehension process.

To acknowledge the process of understanding by appropriate strategies of evaluating types of support.

All visual supports Evaluating

Assessment

The assessment for this course will be based on three evaluative instances:

Reflection diary (25%) After each lesson students have to submit a written reflection on the development of strategies, and the advantages, and difficulties they have encountered in the lesson. The focus will be on the content rather than language accuracy.

Class work (25%) The teacher will monitor the completion of all activities done during each class. Written register is needed.

Oral presentation (50%) Students are expected to present in front of the class the results of the application of a metacognitive sequence to an extensive listening. They must show comprehension of the topic, and how was the process of understanding, including strategies used to achieve the task. (appendix C)

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Sample lessons

The following sample lessons correspond to a selection of five lessons part of the elective course “listening more than hearing”. One lesson of each unit will be presented in order to show the transition from audio-only to video-mediated materials and the development of the metacognitive sequence.

Conventions

Individual work.

Group work.

Listening Activity.

Listening activity with video.

(To access the listening passages click on the respective icons: or )

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Lecture time! a. Take notes as you listen to your teacher’s explanation about the

communicative situation.

b. Write the definition of the following concepts using your own words.

1 The speech of music

Lesson 1. Objectives:

Students are able to identify key elements of a communicative situation. Students are able to analyze text genres to predict text organization. Students are able to use background knowledge to anticipate information.

Communicative situation Message Speaker Listener Decoding Genre

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Brain storming!

c. Think for a minute about radio programs. What genres could you identify there?

d. Share your answers with a classmate. Discuss if they are wrong or right and complete your cloud.

Advertisements

a. You are about to listen to a radio advertisement about a public event. What would you expect to be mentioned in the text? Write 3 ideas and share with the class.

Radio Programs

Interviews Advertisements

1.

2.

3.

**In the last two activities, you were using your background knowledge. That means that you were recalling things you already knew.

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b. Listen and read the following transcript of a radio advertisement. Then in your copybook answer the questions.

1. What elements of the previous text show you that this is an advertisement?

2. What’s the purpose of it?

3. Were your predictions right?

c. You are about to listen to a set of radio adverts. What key elements of the communicative situation should you pay more attention to?

d. Listen to the radio adverts and complete the following chart with the prompts given in the box.

Track Speaker Message Purpose A new album

Sneakers ad

New tour

Go Green this Sunday and celebrate all things Irish! The City of Vincent and the Irish Families in Perth presents the 2014 Saint Patrick’s Festival WA Parade and family fun day. Join the parade from 10 am. Through the streets of Leederville followed by a huge festival of Irish culture at the Medibank stadium with award-winning musicians, and a kid zone, Gaelic games , stores and more. Entry is free. See you at Leederville this Sunday 10 am. More info at saintpratricksfestivalwa.com

Male radio host A famous Singer(Demi Lovato) Male radio host

Sneakers that fit your personality Buy the new album! Don’t miss the concert

Convince the listener Promote an event Sell a product

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Interviews

a. Now you are going to listen to a radio interview. The guest is a famous singer. Make an outline of the elements that may appear on the interview.

b. Listen to the interview and complete the chart.

Speaker(s)

Context

Purpose

Main ideas

To get the main ideas of a text, try to find the parts that answer the questions Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why in the text.

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Checking my progress.

a. What strategies did I learn in this lesson? Mark the check list

Analyze text genres to predict text organization Use background knowledge to anticipate information Focusing listening for a specific purpose

b. How did you feel while listening to these texts?

Fill up the thermometer. Circle the number accordingly your feeling.

c. What aspects made you feel uncomfortable?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

d. What aspects helped you to tackle the listening activity?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1 3

10 6

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Getting information from images

a. Look at the pictures and predict what the topic of the text is.

b. Share your ideas with the class. As a group make a list in the board with your predictions.

2 Being part of a virtual world


Students are able to identify visual clues from still-images to help the comprehension of a L2 text.

Students are able to monitor their comprehension process.

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c. Listen to the audio passage “The history of video games” and take notes about the main ideas.

d. Now check if your predictions were correct.

e. Did you have difficulties to understand the audio? If the answer is yes, can you mention them?

f. Look at the following pictures and choose which ones would have helped you to get more information before listening to the text.

1.

2.

3.

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g. Discuss your reasons with a partner.

More than a picture! a. Situation: Before listening to a text on technology your teacher

shows you an image.

b. Now look at the images and with a classmate plan how to approach the following listening task. Identify strategies to predict and understand as much information as possible.

c. Now, listen to the audio and write down the main ideas.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

d. Check if your predictions were right. Listen again if necessary.

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e. Decide which strategies were more useful.


a. What have I learnt today? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ b. How did you feel while listening to these texts?

Fill up the thermometer. Circle the number accordingly your feeling.


________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1 3

10 6

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3 Listening behind the big screen


Students are able to identify contextual elements of the communicative situation using visual support.

Students are able to monitor their comprehension process.

Remember! Last class you learnt different movie genres, for example: Horror, drama, epic movies, science fiction, comedy, romance, among others. Each movie has a plot that explains the main events of the story.

Plot: When aliens misinterpret video feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war, they attack the Earth in the form of the video games.

In movies industry, a good and catchy poster is an important tool to get people attention. They must show clues about what is the movie about.

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Reading an image.

a. Look at the movie posters. What can they tell you about the movie? Can you guess their genre and their main plot?

b. Share your answers with a classmate.

Contextual elements a. Pair work. Discuss with a classmate and list the contextual

elements you can identify in a movie trailer.

Genre:

Plot:

Genre:

Plot:

Genre:

Plot:

Genre:

Plot:

Sharing your answers with a partner will

help you monitor your comprehension

process.

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b. Watch the “Jurasic World” movie trailer. Then complete the chart indicating contextual elements.

SSetting CCharacters MMain events

c. Choose a part of the trailer in which people express some kind of emotion. Complete the box.

Scene:

Emotion:

Reason:

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d. Find a partner who has worked in the same scene and compare the answers.

1. Were there differences in your answers?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Which elements help you to agree on a final answer?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Listening Activity

a. Group work. You are going to watch an interview to the protagonist of “Jurassic World”.

Make and outline of what you expect to hear in the interview.

The monitoring process helps you check how much have you understood so far of a listening passage. In this process you can change the listening focus

according your necessities.

30

b. Watch the video and follow the steps bellow. Once finished check it on the list.

Check your predictions

Identify the following elements

- Speakers - Context - Main ideas

Write down unknown words (you can ask your teacher)

c. With your classmates present a short description of the interview. Include the elements of the check list and add the emotions expressed by the actor that emphasized his speech.

If you do not know a word… Don’t worry! If you pay attention to the general idea

you will be able to get the meaning of the word from its context.

Now try to get the meaning or at least

an idea of the unknown words you

wrote.

31


a. What strategies did I learn in this lesson? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

b. How did you feel while listening to these texts? Fill up the thermometer. Circle the number accordingly your feeling.


____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1 3

10 6

32

Can video games make you smarter?

a. Think about the title of this activity.

b. According on what you already know. Can video games make you smarter?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

c. What should it be your listening focus when listening to the text?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 Getting into the content.


The students are able to identify content visual support in video-mediated listening tasks.

The students are able to use the visual support to get a better understanding of specific information.

What topics may be related to it?

What vocabulary may be related to it?

33

d. Now listen to the audio of the video and write down the main ideas in the box.

e. Now watch the video and complete your ideas.

f. Was it more helpful to have visual support to understand the listening passage? Why?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

g. Is there any disadvantage of having content visuals while listening?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

h. With your notes, and if it is necessary watching the video again, try to define the following concepts.

Cognitive functions:

Gray matter:

Attention skills:

Brain aging:

Remember las class you learnt that content

visuals can replicate, illustrate, and organize

the information presented in a text.

34

i. Compare your definitions with a classmate.

How I am doing it?

a. How much did I understand from the text? Circle the percentage.

-Just with the audio

-With the video

Checking my progress. a. How did you feel while listening to these texts?

Fill up the thermometer. Circle the number accordingly your feelings.

b. What aspects made you feel uncomfortable?

c. How did content visuals affect the listening process?

1 3

10 6

10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

What strategies did I use to tackle the listening passage?

Which ones were more useful?

What can I do next time to improve my listening skill?

35

Now is your turn!

a. Before doing the listening activity, plan your work. Remember you can use strategies regarding to predictions and the use of background knowledge. Prepare your action plan for each time you will listen to the audio. Share with a classmate each stage and monitor your work.

Listening time Listening focus Strategy 1st time

2nd time

3rd time

5 Making connections


Students are able to follow a complete metacognitive sequence. Students are able to evaluate the strategies used to complete a listening task.

Your action plan reflects what you are going to do next to solve some problems you encountered listening to a text.

36

Listening activity a. Pre listening. Have you ever wondered how a video game is made?

Look at the steps mentioned in the list and try to order the process.

____ Drawing the characters.

____ Programming the game.

____ Writing the story.

____ Animation of the characters and background design.

____ Selling the final product.

b. While listening. Now watch the video and answer the questions.

1. What is the purpose of the video?

2. Mention the stages of the video game making process

3. Define important concepts mentioned in the video.

37

c. Evaluating your progress. Complete the chart after each time you listen to the text.

FFirst time SSecond time LLast time SStrategy

LListening focus

DDifficulties

AAction plan

PPercentage of ccomprehension

d. Checking my work

1.I was able to use appropriate strategies

2.I was able to change the listening focus when necessary

3.Planning the activity helped me to get information easily

4.Checking my progress between listening times clarified the

comprehension process

38

References

Agencia de la Calidad de la Educación (2012). Informe Nacional de Resultados SIMCE 2012. Santiago: Ministerio de Educación.

Bejar, I., Douglas, D., Jamieson, J., Nissan, S., & Turner, J. (2000). TOEFL 2000 Listening Framework: A Working Paper. TOEFL Monograph Series.

Buck, G. (2001). Assessing listening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Çakir, İ. (2006) The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology – TOJET October 2006 ISSN: 1303-6521 volume 5 Issue 4 Article 9

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Alliance for Childhood, & Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment (2012). Facing the Screen Dilemma: Young children, technology and early education. Boston, MA: Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood; New York, NY: Alliance for Childhood.

Celce-Murcia, M. (2001). Teaching English as a Foreign language. Boston: Heinle Cencage Learning.

Field, J. (2008). Listening in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Flowerdew, J., & Miller, L. (2005). Second Language Listening: Theory and Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Lynch, T. (2009). Teaching second language listening. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Mayer, R. (2009). Multimedia Learning (2nd ed., p. 13, 57). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Nation, I.S.P. & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. New York, NY: Routledge.

Osada, N. (2004). Listening Comprehension Research: A Brief Review of the Past Thirty Years. Dialogue, 53-66.

Suvorov, R. (2009). Context Visuals in L2 Listening Tests: The Effects of Photographs and Video vs. Audio-Only Format. Developing and Evaluating Language Learning Materials, 53-68.

Vandergrift, L., & Goh, C. (2012). Teaching and Learning Second Language Listening: Metacognition in Action. New York: Routledge.

Vanderplank, R. (2009). Déjà vu? A decade of research on language laboratories, television and video in language learning. Language Teaching, 43, pp 1-37.

39

Appendices

Appendix A: Questionnaire

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso Pedagogía en Inglés Proyecto de Titulación 2015 Needs Analysis

Comprensión auditiva en situaciones auténticas: Transición del audio al video. Objetivo:

Obtener información sobre el nivel de inglés de los estudiantes de 8° básico focalizado en la comprensión auditiva.

Conocer la experiencia de los estudiantes con actividades de comprensión auditiva tanto en el aula como fuera de esta.

Identificar las preferencias de los estudiantes con respecto a actividades de comprensión auditiva.

Instrucciones:

1. Por favor lee y responde TODO el cuestionario. 2. Responde con información personal. No hay respuestas buenas o malas, no cambies tus

respuestas si ves a otros responder de forma diferente.

Sección I: Información personal Género: ____ Masculino ____ Femenino Sección II: Experiencias previas 1. ¿Te gusta la clase de inglés? Sí ________ No _______ 2. ¿Desde qué curso has tenido inglés? _______________________________ 3. De las 4 habilidades del inglés, ¿Cuál desarrollas con mayor facilidad? Enumera del 1 al 4 siendo 1 la más fácil y 4 la más difícil. ____ Comprensión Lectora ____ Comprensión Auditiva ____ Producción Escrita ____ Producción Oral

40

4. Con respecto a las habilidades del idioma Enumera del 1 al 4 las habilidades del idioma, siendo 1 la más practicada y 4 la menos practicada. ____ Comprensión Lectora ____ Comprensión Auditiva ____ Producción Escrita ____ Producción Oral 5. En tus clases de inglés Siempre Casi siempre Algunas veces Nunca a. Se utiliza material

sólo de audio.

b. Se utiliza material que facilita la comprensión del contenido del audio.

c. Se utiliza material que facilita la comprensión del contexto en el que se desarrolla el dialogo.

d. Se utilizan imágenes para complementar el audio.

e. Se utiliza video para complementar el audio.

f. El profesor determina las veces que puedo escuchar el audio.

g. Tengo acceso a la transcripción del audio.

6. ¿Te expones al idioma inglés fuera del horario de clases? Sí ____ No____ 7. Si respondiste Sí, marca con una X las actividades que realices con regularidad, dos o más veces por semana, fuera del horario de clases. ____ Veo videos en inglés en sitios como Youtube ____ Veo series/ películas con audio en inglés sin subtítulos ____ Veo series/ películas con audio en inglés con subtítulos

41

____ Escucho música en inglés ____ Veo videos musicales en inglés ____ Escucho programas de radio en inglés ____ Chateo por webcam con amigos en inglés Sección III: Preferencias de aprendizaje. 8. Selecciona el tipo de recurso que preferirías usar en cada tipo de actividad Solo audio Video

a. Comprender mejor la situación/ contexto. b. Identificar a los participantes. c. Mantener la concentración. d. Comprender la idea principal del texto. e. Identificar información específica. f. Dar opiniones respecto al texto. g. Organizar las ideas de un texto.

9. ¿Sobre cuáles de estos temas te gustaría escuchar en una clase de inglés? (marca 3) ____Deportes ____Video juegos ____ Series de

televisión ____ Arte ____Historia

____Moda ____Espectáculos ____Tecnología y Ciencia

____Cine ____Cultura

____Música ____Redes Sociales

____Dibujos animados

____Ciencia ____Naturaleza

10. ¿Tomarías un curso electivo para mejorar la habilidad de comprensión auditiva (listening)? Sí _______ No _______

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Appendix B: Needs Analysis

This needs analysis was conducted in a group of thirty-two eight graders from CarloMagno

School, within the group thirteen students are male and nineteen female. CarloMagno

School is a mixed gender, semi-private school located in Quilpué.

The questionnaire was presented in students’ mother tongue in order to prevent

misunderstandings regarding the mixture of levels in language proficiency within the group.

It was taken on paper and it took between fifteen to twenty minutes to be answered.

The instrument was structured in three main sections which provided data about personal

information, previous experiences and learning preferences of the students. The

questionnaire was divided in ten items of closed questions in the form of Yes-No questions,

multiple choice, and frequency scale.

The data collected from this needs analysis showed the following results:

Figures 1-2

A high percentage of the students, 87%, stated that they like the English class. An

important fact is that all the students have been taught English since elementary school, or

even from pre-school. At least a 75% of them have been taught English more than six years.

Regarding the development of the four skills of the language the results of the items II.3

and II.4 showed the following:

43

Figures 3-4

Reading skill is mainly considered by the students as an intermediate-difficulty task (60%),

only a 9% of them believe that reading is the most difficult skill, 25% of them considered

that reading is the most practiced skill in the English class.

Figures 5-6

Writing skill is considered one of the most difficult skills of the language (31%), even

though only a 13% of the students believe that it is the less practiced skill in the classroom.

44

Figures 7-8

Listening skill is considered as a medium-difficulty skill. But it is important to mention that

44% of the students perceive that listening skill is less practiced than the other skills.

Figures 9-10

Finally, Speaking is also considered as a medium-difficulty skill. 28% of the students

believe that speaking is the most practiced skill, obtaining the higher percentage on this

item.

Figure 11

This item showed that in ESL classrooms a variety of materials are used to develop the

listening skill. Audio-only, images, and video mediated materials are regularly presented to

the students being images the more recurrent material used to support the aural signal. Also,

45

25 9

24 28 21

2 7

a b c d e f g

II.7 Formas de exposición

II. 7

students recognize that given materials help them to convey meaning through the

clarification of context. Even though they are being taught and trained on listening skill,

teacher-controlled exposure is still a continuous setting, giving the students few control on

their own learning process.

Figure 12- 13

Corroborating the idea that today almost all students have access to the language outside

the classroom, 87% of the group affirmed that they regularly are exposed to English outside

the classroom. Technology allows them to have access to many sources of input, being

listening to music and watching videos on YouTube the most recurrent activities students

do at home.

Figure 14

Even though the numbers are very equitable, students showed a preference for video-

mediated materials in almost every statement. The major difference was related to

contextual features where the situation and participation of the speakers were clearly related

with visual elements reflected on the students’ preference for video-mediated materials.

87%

13%

II. 6 Exposicion al idioma fuera del aula

Sí No

10 9 13 16 14 12 14

20 21 18 15 18 18 16

a b c d e f g

III. 8 Preferencia de tipo de recurso

Audio-Only Video mediated

46

Figure 15

Students’ interest showed that music, video games and cinema are topics that motivate

students in their learning process. This data is useful to decide the topic presented in each

unit of this proposal.

Figure 16

Even though students recognize the difficulty implied in developing listening skill, the vast

majority (66%) showed interest on taking an elective course in order to develop listening

skill.

05

1015202530

III.9 Tópicos

Cantidad

66% 28%

6%

III.10 Incorporación a un curso electivo

III.10 Sí No Sin respuesta

47

Appendix C

Oral Presentation Rubric : Final presentation

Teacher Name: Daniel Riquelme

Student Name: ________________________________________

CATEGORY 4 3 2 1 Comprehension Student is able to

accurately recount the content of the audio

Student is able to accurately recount most of the content of the audio.

Student is able to accurately recount few pieces of content of the audio.

Student is unable to accurately recount the content of the video.

Metacognitive sequence

Student shows the metacognitive sequence clearly. Identifying the three stages: Planning, monitoring, and evaluating

Student shows the metacognitive sequence with minor problems.

Student struggles to follow the metacognitive sequence. Skipping steps or confusing the strategies.

Student is unable to follow the metacognitive sequence. Metacognition is not presented.

Identifiying/ solving problems

Student identifies problems and challenges in the comprehension process. In the same way presents the action plan he/she followed to solve them. Uses a variety of strategies.

Student identifies problems and challenges in the comprehension process. Presents solutions to all of them but sometimes they are not appropriated.

Student identifies few problems and challenges in the comprehension process. Hardly presents the action plan to solve the problems. Some remain unsolved.

Student is unable to identify problems and challenges in the comprehension process. If identified, the action plan doesn't aim to a solution.

Documents

Updating L2 Listening Comprehension Instruction