Study Guide 4
Study Guide 4
0 10-July-2020
Module No. 4
MODULE OVERVIEW
Enumerated below are topics that you need to study in this module.
a) select differentiated learning tasks in teaching listening to suit learners’ gender, needs, strengths
interests, and experiences.
b) demonstrate how to provide timely, accurate, and constructive feedback to improve learner performance
in the different tasks in listening through simulations.
c) craft a learning plan according to the English curricula that is developed from research-based knowledge
and principles of listening and the theoretical bases, principles, methods, and strategies in teaching these
components; and
d) conduct a teaching demonstration of the assigned learning competencies in listening.
LEARNING CONTENTS
Nature of LISTENING
Listening is the cognitive process whereby we attach meanings to aural signals. It is the active
intellectual process of decoding, interpreting, understanding, and evaluating messages. It is a mode of
communicationust as important as the other modes like speaking, reading, and writing. It is sad to note,
however, that this mode has been observed to be the most neglected area in teaching English towards
communicative competence. This is lamentable considering that we spend most of our waking hours
communicating the greatest portion of which is spent in listening. In today’s world, which is fast turning into
a global village and where communication is highly developed, the demand to sharpen our listening power
is high.
the speaker is discussing. The “active” element involves taking steps to draw out details that might not
otherwise be shared.
o Active listening is a helpful skill for any worker to develop. It helps you truly understand what people are
saying in conversations and meetings (and not just what you want to hear, or think you hear).
o Active listening is a particularly useful tool to use during job interviews, since it can help you build positive
rapport with your interviewer.
Like critical thinking and problem-solving skills, active listening is a soft skill that’s held in high regard
by employers. When interviewing for jobs, using active listening techniques can show the interviewer how
your interpersonal skills can draw people out.
Active listening redirects your focus from what is going on inside of your head to the needs of your
prospective employer or interviewer. This technique can help reduce your nervousness during an interview.
By placing your focus, through active listening, squarely upon the interviewer, you prove that you:
o Are interested in the organization’s challenges and successes
o Are ready to help them solve work issues
o Are a team player, as opposed to being nothing more than a self-absorbed job candidate.
It’s important to not interrupt, or worse, try to answer the question before you know what the interviewer
is asking.
Purposes of Listening
B. Critical Listening
Also called evaluative listening, critical listening involves both listening for information and listening
to evaluate the content of the message. One cannot analyze or evaluate something without first
comprehending it. Listeners involved in critical listening may question the validity of the information and form
sound judgments. Critical listening does not necessarily mean criticizing the speaker’s ideas or knowledge
or the way the information was presented. In the case of persuasive speeches, critical listeners may ask
whether the information is convincing enough to be accepted as fact or at least accommodated as part of
their belief system or way of thinking. Critical listening is also important especially when we are subjected to
manipulative persuasion, such as advertisements trying to convince us to buy their products.
C. Empathic Listening
Empathy refers to the ability to understand and feel what the other person is feeling or experiencing.
When we engage in empathic listening, we listen to provide help, advice, or emotional support to a person
in need or someone experiencing problems. Aside from the purpose of helping, empathic listening also
develops and strengthens relationships. Friends and family members use empathic listening to help someone
experiencing a dilemma; counselors and therapists listen empathically to people experiencing difficulties;
and even radio personalities nowadays demonstrate this type of listening to callers who want to share their
problems on air.
D. Appreciative Listening
Compared to the previously discussed types of listening, appreciative listening or listening for
pleasure or enjoyment does not require much focus or attention. When we listen to songs or entertaining
speeches, when we attend musical plays or concerts, and when we listen to friends share amusing stories,
we are listening appreciatively. When we listen for pleasure, we do not have to organize, evaluate, remember,
or retain information.
E. Discrimination Listening
Listening to discriminate sounds and other paralinguistic symbols such as pitch, intonation, and
volume is essential when we attempt to comprehend the meaning of the message beyond the use of
language. For instance, detectives listen to discriminate whether or not an individual is telling the truth by
finding meaning in one’s rate of speaking or change of tone.
Skills Description
Listening for details Listening for specific information (key words and numbers)
Listening for gist Listening for main ideas or for the big picture; called global listening as
the listener listens to get a general idea; most frequently employed skill
Drawing inferences Ability to fill in gaps in the input; listening between the lines
Listening selectively To listen only to specific parts of the input which depends on the purpose
of listening; helps listeners to listen in a more relaxed manner; may lead
to ineffective understanding if the listener`s purpose is colored with
prejudice and bias
Making prediction The ability to anticipate before and during listening what one is going to
hear; clues for making predictions include context, co-texts and visual
input; listeners tend to listen more purposefully and attentively when they
make predictions because they want to find out if they have predicted
correctly
COGNITIVE STRATEGIES: Mental activities related to comprehending and storing input in working memory
or long-term memory for later retrieval.
1. Inferencing (filling in missing information)
use contextual clues
use information from familiar content words
draw on knowledge of the world
apply knowledge about the target language
use visual clues
2. Elaboration (embellishing an initial interpretation)
draw on knowledge of the world
draw on knowledge about the target language
3. Prediction (anticipating the contents of a text)
anticipate global contents (global)
anticipate details while listening (local)
4. Contextualization (relating new information to a wider context)
place input in a meaningful context (social, linguistic)
find related information on hearing a key word
relate one part of a text to another
5. Visualization (forming a mental picture of what is heard)
imagine scenes, events, objects, etc. (being described)
mentally display the shape (spelling) of words
6. Reconstruction (using words heard to create meaning)
reconstruct meaning from words heard
reconstruct meaning from notes taken
SOCIAL AFFECTIVE STRATEGIES: “activities consciously chosen by learners forth purpose of regulating
their own language learning (Griffiths, 2010)
1. Interpersonal Activities
One effective and nonthreatening way for students to develop stronger listening skills is through
interpersonal activities, such as mock interviews and storytelling. Assign the students to small groups of two
or three, and then give them a particular listening activity to accomplish. For example, you may have one
student interview another for a job with a company or for an article in a newspaper. Even a storytelling activity,
such as one that answers the question "What was your favorite movie from last year?" can give students the
opportunity to ask one another questions and then to practice active listening skills.
2. Group Activities
Larger group activities also serve as a helpful method for teaching listening skills to students. You
can begin with a simple group activity. For the first part, divide students into groups of five or larger and
instruct them to learn one hobby or interest of at least two other group members. Encourage them to ask
clarifying questions during the activity, and you may allow them to take notes if helpful. However, as time
passes and their skills grow, you should limit students to only writing notes after the completion of the first
part of the group activity. For the second part, have the students sit in a large circle, and then have each
individual student share the name and the hobby or interest of the group members that she or he met. This
second part of the group activity can also lend itself to additional listening exercises. For example, you may
ask students to name a number of the hobbies and interests identified during the sharing session.
3. Audio Segments/songs
You can also teach listening skills through audio segments of radio programs, online podcast,
instructional lectures and other audio messages. You should model this interactive listening process in class
with your students, and then instruct them to repeat the exercise on their own. First, instruct students to
prepare for listening by considering anything that they will want to learn from the content of the audio
segment. Once they have written down or shared these ideas, then play the audio segment, allowing the
students to take notes if helpful. Once they have gained confidence and experience, repeat this activity but
instruct students to not take notes until the completion of the audio segment. You can use shorter or longer
audio segments, and you can choose more accessible or more challenging material for this type of exercise.
4. Video Segments
Another helpful resource for teaching listening skills are video segments, including short sketches,
news programs, documentary films, interview segments, and dramatic and comedic material. As with audio
segments, select the portion and length of the video segment based on the skill level of your students. With
your students, first watch the segment without any sound and discuss it together. Encourage the students to
identify what they think will be the content of the segment. Then, watch the segment again, this time with
sound, allowing students to take notes if helpful for their skill level. After the completion of the video segment,
you can have students write a brief summary of the segment, or you can take time to discuss as a group how
the segment compares with the students' expectations.
Other examples of common top-down listening activities include putting a series of pictures or
sequence of events in order, listening to conversations and identifying where they take place, reading
information about a topic then listening to find whether or not the same points are mentioned, or inferring the
relationships between the people involved.
The following procedure for developing bottom-up listening skills draws on dictogloss and is designed
to help learners recognize the divisions between words, an important bottom-up listening skill. The teacher
reads out a number of sentences and asks learners to write down how many words there would be in the
written form. While the task might sound easy, for learners the weak forms in normal connected speech can
make it problematic, so it is very important for the teacher to say the sentences in a very natural way, rather
than dictating them word-by-word.
2. Weather Forecasts
Allow students to listen to a radio weather forecast. This will challenge them to understand content
without visual clues. Apply this information by planning activities for the day or choosing what clothing to
wear.
3. Songs
Present students with an incomplete set of lyrics to a popular song. Play the song for the students
challenging them to fill in the blanks of the missing lyrics. You can play the song multiple times. This
challenges students to guess at missing information in what they hear. Of course, once their lyrics are
complete play the song again and give them the opportunity to sing along.
4. Radio Commercials
Radio Commercials can be used for a variety of activities. They are especially useful if they are by local
and nonprofessional radio personalities. These texts will give students exposure to realistic pronunciation,
intonation and speed. You can play a selection of commercials for them and ask them to write down particular
information, or you can ask them to match various commercials with pictures of the people who recorded
them.
5. Conversations
Take your students into situations where many groups of people are talking at the same time, a party or
cafeteria for example. Ask your students to “eavesdrop” on four conversations just enough to note the topic
of conversation. Ask students to comment on if they would like to join in each of the conversations. What
would they say? This will expose students to varieties in style and also challenge them to guess at missing
information in the conversations.
Supplementary learning material on different types of listening materials can be access in this link,
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6454119.pdf
The listening stimuli should represent typical oral language, and not consist of simply the oral reading
of passages designed to be written material. The material should model the language that students might
typically be expected to hear in the classroom, in various media, or in conversations. Since listening
performance is strongly influenced by motivation and memory, the passages should be interesting and
relatively short. To ensure fairness, topics should be grounded in experience common to all students,
irrespective of sex and geographic, socioeconomic, or racial/ethnic background.
In regard to questions, multiple-choice items should focus on the most important aspects of the
passage -- not trivial details -- and should measure skills from a particular domain. Answers designated as
correct should be derived from the passage, without reliance on the student's prior knowledge or experience.
Questions and response choices should meet accepted psychometric standards for multiple-choice
questions.
An alternative to the multiple-choice test is a performance test that requires students to select a
picture or actually perform a task based on oral instruction. For example, students might hear a description
of several geometric figures and choose pictures that match the description, or they might be given a map
and instructed to trace a route that is described orally.
The testing environment for listening assessment should be free of external distractions. If stimuli
are presented from a tape, the sound quality should be excellent. If stimuli are presented by a test
administrator, the material should be presented clearly, with appropriate volume and rate of speaking.
What are some tips to help teachers develop students’ listening skills?
An effective teacher is aware that students are not always able to develop oral comprehension skills
on their own; without additional supports listening, by itself, is not enough to develop better listening skills.
Here are several activities a teacher can employ to facilitate the development of listening skills
1) Promote active listening: giving the students something to listen for ensures that they are involved
in the task. Exercise sheets are another tool that promotes active listening.
2) Identify listening strategies: give the students tools to guide their listening; such as, looking for
specific information, identifying predictable words or phrases, or discussing what they expect in
certain forms of speech; such as, newscasts or advertisements.
3) Selecting the most appropriate strategy for presenting the lesson; for example, using a top
down (general meaning, summarizing) or bottom up (cognates, specific words, word order patterns)
approach.
4) Allow the students to hear as much of the target language as possible while using a variety
of teaching methods; for example, sometimes using visual cues, at other times not.
5) Use authentic materials; for example, a lecture or a radio announcement in the target language, to
help students become accustomed to different accents and to a realistic pace of speech.
6) Ensure the students know the goals of the listening task: is the goal to understand what’s being
said, to decide whether to keep listening or to obtain specific information?
7) Provide opportunities for reflection and discussion. So, students can share what was heard,
what was learned and methods they employed to better understand what was said.
8) Organize pre-listening activities, such as providing students with relevant vocabulary, reading a
related text, looking at a related image or clarifying necessary cultural information etc.
9) Be sure to check level of the listening exercise beforehand to ensure it is an appropriate level
for the students.
LEARNING ACTIVITY 1
Note: Upon submitting your activity, follow this name format: SG4_Learning Activity 1
Instructions: Discuss some ideas by answering the following questions. Explain and/or give examples. Be
guide by the rubric below. 5 points will be given for each item.
1. Do you think asking questions help students prepare for listening? Why?
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2. What will you do with students who still don't get anything from a listening passage after listening multiple
times?
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3. Some tips to help teachers develop students’ listening skills were introduced above. Which one do you
think is the most useful? Why?
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4. As a future educator, to what extent do you think you can utilize group work in doing Listening activities?
How do you envision this? Explain.
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LEARNING ACTIVITY 2
Note: Upon submitting your activity, follow this name format: SG4_Learning Activity 2
Learning Activity: Pair Making Learning Plan in Teaching Listening (focusing on Completeness,
Appropriate Approach Used, and Facilitative Process). Focusing on the Listening Comprehension, identify
a Grade Level (from 6-12) and construct a learning plan. Be guided with the English Curriculum Guide and
MELCs provided below.
https://dcpnhs.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/English-MELCs.pdf
www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/English-CG.pdf
REFERENCES
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/listening-top-down-and-bottom
https://www.scribd.com/document/537957103/Chapter-IV-The-receptive-macro-skills