Dr Philida Schellekens Nationaal Congres Engels 25 March 2011

Take the learners’ perspective to look at: Learning to understand spoken English

 Work in small groups  Brainstorm how you teach listening skills ◦ techniques ◦ activities ◦ feedback

 Comprehension  Processing the stream of sound

 Drink a cup of tea  Take it to the bank  Wrap it in a scarf  Put it in a big envelope and hide it under the bed Origin unknown

 Drin ka cu p e tea  Ta ki t e th e bank  Ra pi ti n e scaf  Pu ti ti n e bi genvelope e n[h]i di tund e th e bed Origin unknown

 We teach the rules of grammar. Why?  Should we consider teaching the rules of spoken English?  I suggest we should but what are the rules?

 recognise word boundaries  understand how words are linked in English  how stress and rhythm work and influence pronunciation How can you help learners to understand spoken language?

 Natural pause every 12 syllables in spoken English  Often no indication of where words start and end  Learners scan for words they already know How much are they worth? How much work?

written assounds likephonetic notation one apple two apples three apples four apples q Michael Vaughan-Rees (2010) Rhymes and Rhythm Garnet 2 nd edition Linking consonant & vowel

written assounds likephonetic notation one applewa napplewvYY YYnapxl two applestwo wapplestu: waplz three applesthree yappleshri:J japlz four applesfour rapplesfO: raplz q Linking consonant & vowel Michael Vaughan-Rees (2010) Rhymes and Rhythm Garnet 2 nd edition

ten people ten cars that boy that girl good play good cause this shirt those shoes right you are did you go? Field, J ‘Promoting perception: lexical segmentation in L2 listening.’ English Language Teaching Journal 57/3. Linking consonant to consonant

ten people tem people ten cars teng cars that boythap boy that girlthak girl good playgoo play good causegoo cause this shirtthi shirt those shoestho shoes right you arerye chew are did you go?di dja go?

 Skill of identifying words in a stream of sound  In English stress is the most important factor  Principles of lexical segmentation vary across languages

 Anne Cutler research: 90% of words in English have stress on first syllable!  How can you use the information on lexical segmentation to understand English better? Anne Cutler 1990 Exploiting prosodic possibilities in speech segmentation in Cognitive models of processing MIT

How it's written Billy ate an apple, a nice ripe apple Lucy ate an ice cream a nice creamy ice cream Chloe ate an egg, A nice brown egg Flo ate an olive a nice Greek olive Michael Vaughan-Rees p 16

How it's written Billy ate an apple, a nice ripe apple Lucy ate an ice cream a nice creamy ice cream Chloe ate an egg, A nice brown egg Flo ate an olive a nice Greek olive How it sounds Billy yate a napple, a nice ri papple Lucy yate a ni scream, A nigh screamy yi scream Chloe yate a negg, A nice brow negg Flo wa ta nolive A ni scree colive Michael Vaughan-Rees p 16

What shall we do now? /wo? Sxl wi du: n3/ What do you want todo now? /wo dZu: wonx du: n3/ Don’t think about it

 Dictation

 If you gave the Mercury text as a dictation to intermediate level learners, how well would they manage the task?  What would you anticipate they can/cannot do?

B are duty A who will A allocation D elecated C The council made recomadation A Fans B Funds of B D made ………… for the spend of the money B made D cost All students write deprived accurately Mercury Wednesday 8 th February 2006

 Teach stress, rhythm and linking explicitly ◦ The impact on listening is a priority, especially for beginners ◦ Helping the learners improve speaking makes them more intelligible  Help the learners notice through dictation ◦ Dictation can be done at all levels, including beginner levels

 Any questions, feedback?  Any other suggestions on how to promote listening?  If we have time, what makes Dutch speakers of English hard to understand?  And OUP discount on my book!

Some of Philida’s recent publications:  Oxford ESOL Handbook. Oxford University press (2007)  ESOL - case studies of provision, learners’ needs and resources NRDC (2005)  Language in Construction (2005)  EFL and ES(O)L: Common learning needs, common teaching goals? IATEFL Conference Proceedings; ed Alan Pulverness (2005)  English as a Barrier to Employment, Education & Training (2001)