Active Listening

Interpretive ListeningNew Generation Language Standards (Interpretative-Listening) & 21st Century Technology When: January 18, 2012 Time: 4:30-7:30 p.m. Where: ESC Room 224

Interpretive Listening Standard:

The student will be able to understand and interpret information, concepts, and ideas orally from a variety of culturally authentic sources on a variety of topics in the target language.

Remember:According to research in Second Language Acquisition;Language learning takes place in stages. Interpretive skills (listening, reading) develop much more quickly than expressive skills (speaking, writing)

Question: How much opportunity is there for interpretive listening in your classroom?Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. It has been estimated that adults spend almost half their communication time listening.Listening and Speaking go hand in hand! Often, however, language learners do not recognize the level of effort that goes into developing listening ability.

Two-Way Communication

In authentic two-way communication, the listener focuses on the speaker's meaning rather than the speaker's language. The focus shifts to language only when meaning is not clear. Note the difference between the teacher as teacher and the teacher as authentic listener in the dialogues that follow

Authentic two-way communication Teacher as Teacher T: Hello, Sam! We missed you in class yesterday. What happened? S: I go to doctor for my tooth. T: Oh, you WENT to the DENTIST? A doctor for teeth is called a dentist. S: Yes, dentist. T: What happened at the dentist? S: He have to take out tooth. After my mouse hurt too bad. T: Oh, he HAD to take out your tooth? Remember, the past of "have" is "had." And it wasn't your mouse that hurt, it was your mouth.

Is this how we communicate in the real world? How would a student feel after having this conversation?Authentic two-way communication Teacher as Authentic Listener

T: Hello, Sam! We missed you in class yesterday. What happened? S: I go to doctor for my tooth. T: For your tooth? Did you have a problem with your teeth? S: Yes, the doctor have to take out tooth. After my mouse hurt too bad. T: Your mouse . . . oh, your mouth hurt. Does it hurt now? Will you be okay in class today? S: No, not hurt now. Well, maybe a little. T: Okay, well, if it hurts too much and you need to leave, just tell me.

Goals for Interpretive listening:We want to produce students who can fend for themselves in communication situations, even if they do not have complete control of the grammar.

What Real Life Situations Might a student find themselves in?

Focus: The Listening Process

To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather than on its product.

Best Practices in Teaching Listening:Teachers develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they listen in their native language.

They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using authentic listening tasks.

They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener rather than as a teacher.

When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the listening purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.

They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their listening assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete listening tape assignments.

They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use immediately after completing an assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.

They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies by using the target language to conduct classroom business: making announcements, assigning homework, describing the content and format of tests.

Listening for Meaning To extract meaning from a listening text, students need to follow four basic steps:

Step 1-What is the Purpose?Figure out the purpose for listening. Activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate listening strategies.Weather Report listening activity.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6fcjum_8-U&feature=player_detailpageImportance of Background Knowledge

Step 2: SelectiveAttend to the parts of the listening input that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to hold in short-term memory in order to recognize it.Example: listening to see what to wear tomorrow versus listening for weather in specific location for sightseeing purposes

Step 3: Select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the listening task Select Strategy Top-down strategiesBottom-up strategiesTop-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next. Top-down strategies include listening for the main ideapredictingdrawing inferencessummarizing

Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning. Bottom-up strategies include listening for specific detailsrecognizing cognatesrecognizing word-order patterns

Step 4: Comprehension ChecksCheck comprehension while listening and when the listening task is over.

Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures, directing them to use alternate strategies if necessary.18Lets Plan a Listening activity about weather

Novice Mid: Demonstrate understanding of simple information supported by visuals through a variety of media.

Novice High: Demonstrate understanding of key points on familiar topics presented through a variety of media.

Intermediate Low: Identify key points and essential details on familiar topics presented in a variety of media.

Intermediate Mid: Identify essential information and supporting details on familiar topics presented through a variety of media.

Intermediate High: Confirm understanding of the message and purpose of a variety of authentic sources found in the target culture such as TV, radio, podcasts, and videos. Advanced Low: Demonstrate understanding of information obtained from authentic sources such as TV, radio, interviews, podcasts, and videos in order to function for personal needs within the target culture.

Step 1: Activate Background Knowledge/PurposeMay include: looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphsWatching something similar in native languagereviewing vocabulary or grammatical structuresreading something relevantconstructing graphic organizerspredicting the content of the listening textgoing over the directions or instructions for the activitydoing guided practice

What pre-listening activities would you do?How would students participate in this process?What is the PURPOSE of this listening activity?Step 2: Selective ListeningWhat would you want students to Focus on? How will you help them focus on these key topics and ignore the rest?Sample while-listening activities listening with visualsfilling in graphs and chartsfollowing a route on a mapchecking off items in a listlistening for the gistsearching for specific clues to meaningcompleting cloze (fill-in) exercisesdistinguishing between formal and informal registers

Step 3: StrategiesWhat top-down or bottom-up strategies would you recommend students use?Step 4: Comprehension ChecksIn order to provide authentic assessment of students' listening proficiency, a post-listening activity must reflect the real-life uses to which students might put information they have gained through listening.

It must have a purpose other than assessmentIt must require students to demonstrate their level of listening comprehension by completing some task.

Example Task: Pack a suitcase withappropriate clothing for the weather.Authentic MaterialsWhat do the standards mean when they sayauthentic materials?In pairs, Come up with a Definition of authenticBrainstorm Ideas for Authentic Listening Experiences

What could you use and for what purpose?Web 2.0 and Listening Activities Spanish Proficiency Exercises is a compilation of brief video clips in which native speakers of Spanish from various locations throughout Latin America and Spain demonstrate various language tasks.

Estudio.net - http://www.esaudio.net/recordings/

Merlot World Languages Portal: http://worldlanguages.merlot.org/ http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/lm_collection.html

Youtube!!! www.youtube.com Example: MacDonalds Commercial Spanish, French , German

Google in target language (Ex. Trailers, ads)

Music!

ResourcesNational Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC). (n.d.). The essentials of language teaching. Retrieved January 18, 2012 from http://nclrc.org/essentials.