Listening

Communication Implies at least 2 people: One to create a meaningful message and one to recreate the message.

Listener needs 2 factors to comprehend a message: World Knowledge Language Knowledge

4 skills components of listening: Distinguish the sounds, intonation … in L2. Perception of an entire message. Hold it in auditory memory until it is processed. Comprehension of the meaning of the message.

Richards (1983) identifies 3 interrelated levels of processing activated in comprehending Lg: Identifying propositions Interpreting illocutionary Activating real-world knowledge

Note Listeners construct propositions by chucking the elements of the message into segments that show the meaning relationships of the message. Exp) Whether the sentence received is: *The dog bit the man or *the man was bitten by the dog, the meaning chuck are *dog, *bites, *man.

Listeners use their knowledge of the world and of the language to construct the propositions: (Richard, 1983). Propositional meaning: What the speaker says. Illocutionary meaning: What the speaker means.

Exp) Do you have the time? Yes, >>>>>>>> Propositional meaning It’s 5 o’clock >>>>>>>> Illocutionary meaning

Phatic talk: Refers to routine Lg formulae that speakers use to open, maintain and close a conversation.

Referential talk: Refers to those parts of the conversation which the speaker activate referent (knowledge of the world) to create the message.

How to provide comprehensible input in initial stages of Lg learning without resorting to the Ss’ native language (Krashen & Teller). Focus on key lexical items Uses appropriate gestures Uses context to help them understand

Talk about physical characteristics and clothing Talk about color, size, shape Using magazine to introduce new vocab or grammar.

Note Pre-listening activities as giving students necessary background, guidance and direction to achieve the objectives of the activity, are the most important aspect of any listening sequence.

Pre-listening activities: Linguistic knowledge Background knowledge Interest Motivation Purpose Task assigning

Note In real Lg situations the inability to pronounce a sound correctly rarely interferes with communication and even if some momentary confusion occurs, the listener normally adjusts rapidly.

Richard’s 8 types of listening comprehension: Matching: Ss choose a written or oral response to what has heard. Transferring: Ss receive info orally and transfer it to written form Transcribing: Ss listen to sth and write it down on paper. Label extending: Ss listen to a story or… and try to provide the missing parts.

Answering: Listen to a passage and answer the Qs about it. Predicting: Practice listening to a conversation or… and guess about cause and effect or outcome. Scanning: Ss listen to a specific information. Condensing: Listen to sth and write the pain points.

Difficulty level of materials: To precisely measure the difficulty level of listening comprehension materials meaning.

To view complexity in terms of grammatical structures, vocabulary and sentence complexity. To consider medium factors such as reduced forms, rate of delivery, ungrammatical form pausing and speech errors. To compare the type of language found in the 4 models of oral presentation.

Reading

is a receptive skill, that is, the reader is receiving a message from a writer. thinking guided by print

Note Listening to someone else reads is not a very stimulating activating and Ss become bored even at the elementary school level. Reading aloud is one of the least liked activities. But in advanced classes, the Ss may benefit from reading aloud as a play, a poem …

Schema theory it assumes that readers use their background knowledge to interact with reading. They use a process of semantic constructivism.

Types of reading: Scanning: find the most important info Skimming: rapid reading for getting main idea from a passage. Extensive: reading to gain a general understanding of what is read. Intensive: reading in a lower speed and requires higher understanding and attention.

Note Byrnes states that the act of comprehending is essentially meaning- driven, holistic, and top-down behavior that is highly selective in the features it incorporates.

Krashen and Terrell (1983) outline the following communicative reading strategy: Read the meaning Don’t look up every word Predict meaning Use context

Purpose of pre-reading As pre-listening activities are to motivate the Ss to read the text. As) “tomorrow’s reading is really interesting. Read the whole story and answer the questions on page 39.”

Purpose of post-reading: Clarify the meaning of any particular unclear passages. Ss should be encouraged to ask any Q that they may have about the reading at this point about in the classroom.

Anderson (1984) introduces 3 reading levels for native speakers: Independent: 90 to 100 percent comprehension. Instructr[ion]al: 75 to 89 percent comprehension Frustration: less than 50 percent comprehension

Nonverbal communication includes: Para language: pitch, rate, intensity and quality of speech Kinesics: individual movement and actions Proxemics: reactions to context and environment including the use of space