Listening Strategies for ESL students Marijke Wertheim (marijke.wertheim@utoronto.ca) SCS/University of Toronto

Developed by M.Wertheim Agenda The listening process Strategies and activities Conclusions Q & A 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim The listening process The “Cinderella skill” (Nunan, 2002) “An interactive, multi-level process of meaning creation” (Peterson, 2001) Top-down & bottom-up processing 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim Strategy training Coping with real-life listening Transferability: internal & external “…vital that students be given practice in dealing with texts where they understand only part of what is said.” (Field, 2002) 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim Using prior knowledge Activate schemata: a. content & formal b. before & during Make predictions: a. before (type of information & register) b. during (linguistic cues) Recognize expected information blahblah 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim Activities Titanic: what do you know? History channel documentary vs. interview with James Cameron What will they say next? What was expected (checklist), new, unexpected, contradictory? 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Purposes for listening Different purposes require different processes and strategies Counter negative expectations: provide purpose, make tasks achievable Don’t confirm inability to understand. 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim Activities Recognizing non-verbal cues: a. gesture, expression & posture b. intonation & stress What language do the signals introduce? What can you deduce about the speaker’s attitude or opinion? Recognizing linguistic cues: patterns of organization What type of information will follow? Connection to writing Used in predicting during listening 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim Activities - cont. Listening for key words: a. hearing stressed words b. content words Recreate talk from key words (paper) Long listening to note key words, then recreate talk from notes Tolerate ambiguity Listening for detail: a. focus on specific information b. know what you need to hear Steps in a process Specific questions that focus on key points and help filter inessential information 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim Real-life listening Lam (2002): time-creating (stallers, fillers), facilitation (simplify, ellipsis, stock phrases), & compensation (redundancy, reformulation, rephrasing) devices Brown (2001): clustering; reductions; colloquialisms; speed; stress, rhythm & intonation; interaction 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim Activities Recognizing reductions: a. start on paper b. use tapescript Listening for linking: a. start on paper b. transcribe exactly as heard, then separate (incorporates reductions) Listening for main ideas: - filter distractions: fillers (checklist), id false starts on tapescript, listen for signals & note rephrase/repetition Paraphrasing: a. start on paper b. pairwork consolidates variety of strategies/skills 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim Pulling it together Present in “natural” groupings Recycle & repeat Consolidate at regular intervals 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim Conclusions Give lots of practice time Use varied texts Combine strategies in different ways Encourage use of listening logs Start with listening strategy questionnaire Use meta-language; be explicit 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim

Developed by M.Wertheim References Brown, H.Douglas (2001). Teaching by principles, An interactive approach to language pedagogy. NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Field, J. (2002). The changing face of listening. In Jack C. Richards & W.A. Renandya (eds.). Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lam, Wendy Y.K. (2002). Raising students’ awareness of the features of real-world listening. In Jack C. Richards & W.A. Renandya (eds.). Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nunan, D. (2002). Listening in language learning. In Jack C. Richards & W.A. Renandya (eds.). Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Peterson, P.W. (2001). Skills and strategies for proficient listening. In Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed.), M. Celce-Murcia (ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle. 11/18/2018 Developed by M.Wertheim