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PARVIZ MAFTOON, HAMID REZA KARGOZARI

AND MARYAM AZARNOOSH

7. SOME GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING


LISTENING MATERIALS

INTRODUCTION

Listening as a receptive skill is considered the oral skill which is the primary ability
developed in first language acquisition. However, until recently listening was
ignored in the second language context. Nunan (1999) states that listening is the
Cinderella skill in the second language context because it is overlooked by its elder
sister, speaking. Moreover, Nunan (2002) adds that EFL students spend a lot of class
time for listening, but it is the most unnoticed of the four skills in EFL contexts.
Traditionally, speaking was emphasized more than listening. However, with the
emergence of Comprehension Approach and Natural Approach more attention
was paid to listening. These approaches put their emphasis on oral perception than
production; in this way, listening acquired its deserved significance. Krashen (1985)
stresses the importance of comprehensible input before language production. This
view bolds the role of listening in second and foreign language situations. Nord
(1980) claims that some people believe language learning is not just learning to
speak, but it is learning to build a mental map of meaning. Cognitive maps are, in
fact, built through listening but not speaking.
Like listening practice, developing listening materials has been marginally dealt
with in instructional materials. Until recently, little attention was paid to develop
appropriate listening materials. Most listening materials were based on audio files
used for developing oral production. To open new horizons to develop listening
materials in this technology era, this chapter tries to introduce different listening
activities and technologies used for the development of listening materials.

TYPES OF LISTENING PRACTICE

Different classifications have been developed for listening practice. Nation


and Newton (2009) distinguish two broad types of listening: one-way listening and
two-way listening. They consider one-way listening as transactional listening and
two-way listening as interactional listening. On the other hand, this classification
makes a distinction between conventional and contemporary views of listening.
Traditionally, the aim of listening, according to Brown and Newton, was to transfer
information through one-way listening; for this reason the use of monologues was

M. Azarnoosh et al. (Eds.), Issues in Materials Development, 75–81.


© 2016 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
P. MAFTOON ET AL.

in vogue in traditional listening materials. However, more contemporary views


of listening favor two-way listening similar to every day interactions. As a result,
recent materials focus on dialogues for their dynamicity and their interactive nature.
Brown (2001) and Rost (2011) propose more detailed classifications. These two
classifications have many similar points in common. Brown (2001) suggests six
types of classroom listening performances:
• Reactive
• Intensive
• Responsive
• Selective
• Extensive
• Interactive
Rost’s (2011) classification, very similar to that proposed by Brown (2001),
consists of:
• Intensive listening
• Selective listening
• Interactive listening
• Extensive listening
• Responsive listening
• Autonomous listening
Intensive listening focuses on such elements as phonology, syntax, and lexis.
Rost goes on to define intensive listening as “listening to a text closely, with the
intention to decode the input for purposes of analysis” (p. 184). This analysis may
happen at the level of sounds, words, and grammatical, as well as pragmatic, units.
Nation and Newton (2009) propose four strands of language acquisition including
meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language focused learning and
becoming fluent in four skills. Intensive listening is considered as a good vehicle to
practice language–focused learning. It involves deliberate learning of pronunciation,
vocabulary, grammar, and discourse.
Rost (2011) further suggests different activities for intensive listening, such as
dictation, elicited repetition, error spotting, and simultaneous interpretation. Brown
(2001) considers all these techniques as bottom-up skills that play an important role
at all language proficiency levels.
Selective listening, as Brown asserts refers to scanning the audio materials
selectively to gather certain information. Rost (2011) considers selective learning
as listening with a planned purpose in mind. That is, selective “listening is used to
refer to attending to only what you want to hear and turning out everything else”
(p. 187). Morley (1972) states that selective listening is a sin qua non for more
extended and more complex listening activities that learners come across in academic
contexts. Brown (2001) believes one major difference between selective listening
and intensive listening is that the discourse used in selective listening is relatively

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SOME GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING LISTENING MATERIALS

lengthier than that used in intensive listening. It is more based on “the discourse used
in speeches, media broadcast, stories and anecdotes” (p. 257).
Brown further asserts that to foster selective listening skills, language learners
should be asked to listen for:
• People’s names
• Dates
• Certain facts and events—location, situation, context, etc.
• Main ideas and/or conclusion (p. 257).
Interactive listening refers to conversational interactions between listeners and
speakers. The listener receives the message and provides the speaker with feedback.
Collaborative conversation is considered vital for interactive listening. Rost (2011)
mentions that collaborative conversation forces both comprehensible output and
negotiation. Such conversations improve interactions among learners.
To promote interaction, according to Rost, learners should be involved in
collaborative tasks because such tasks require negotiation and meaning clarification
in order to arrive at an outcome. Lynch (1996) claims that communicative tasks
promote such skills as regulating turn- taking and seeking feedback through
clarification and confirmation checks.
Extensive listening aims to develop global understanding of spoken language
(Brown, 2001). However, Rost (2011) refers to extensive listening as meaning-
focused listening activities for an extended period of time. Learners are expected to
reach full comprehension during extensive listening by listening to lengthy lectures,
conversations, and broadcasts. Waring (2010) claims that extensive listening
is appropriate for all learners at intermediate and advanced levels of language
proficiency. Some extensive listening activities include:
• Watching Movies
• Listening to Radio Programs
• Watching Vodcasts (video on demand multicasting technology)
• Listening to Podcasts(digital audio files)
• Listening to songs
• Listening to interviews and lectures
Responsive listening is a classroom listening activity used to elicit immediate
response. As a result, the goal of this activity is the listener’s response. Some
examples include:
• Asking questions
• Giving commands
• Seeking clarification
• Checking comprehension (Brown, 2001).
Autonomous listening refers to independent and self-directed listening in which
the teacher plays no role. It is believed that all types of natural language acquisition

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P. MAFTOON ET AL.

such as acquisition of first language by children or second language acquisition in


real contexts are considered autonomous listening because all aspects of listening
are decided by listeners themselves (Rost, 2011). Benson (2010) believes that the
heart of autonomy is the idea of control. In this way, learners have the responsibility
for the type of learning such as implicit or explicit, the type of feedback, and the
type of monitoring. All types of above-mentioned listening skills, such as intensive,
selective, or responsive, can be included in autonomous listening.

LISTENING PROCESS

Foreign language learners, as well as their teachers, believe that listening is a difficult
skill to master. This is because of different processes, such as cognitive, affective,
social, and physiological processes, are involved in listening comprehension
(Field, 2002; Lynch, 2002). Two main cognitive processes are distinguished in L2
listening instruction. They include bottom-up and top-down processes (Lynch, 2002;
Mendelsohn, 1998).
Bottom-up processing is used to combine increasingly larger units of meaning. It
proceeds from phoneme-level units to discourse-level units, from sounds to words
and from words to longer lexical items (Vandergrift, 2004). Bottom-up techniques
typically focus on sounds, words, intonation, grammatical structures, and other
components of spoken language (Brown, 2001).
On the other hand, as Nation and Newton (2009) state, top-down processing
moves from the whole to the parts. Top-down processing happens when listeners
bring their background knowledge and their rhetorical schemata to the text. This
type of processing is used to predict the content of the message. It is the influence
of larger units to identify smaller units. Inferencing is the key concept of this
processing. Field (2008) also states that top-down processing serves two different
functions. First, ignoring the details and focusing on general issues can compensate
for gaps in understanding. Moreover, top-down processing may also enrich a fully
decoded and elaborated message.
These two types of processing are used to represent the directions of processing
(Field, 1999). Comprehension may be built from smaller units of language, such as
phones or words to longer units, such as phrases or clauses. This direction may be
the other way around, starting from context or co-text to words. These directions are
associated with decoding and meaning building. Sometimes they are considered as
synonymous with input and context (Field, 2008). Research in L2 listening suggests
that these two processes serve different purposes (Vandergrift, 2004). For example,
bottom-up processing is used to recognize the details of the message, but top-down
processing may be used to understand the general ideas. Both of these processes
are also used in real-life listening to satisfy different purposes (Mendelsohn, 2001).
Furthermore, Brown (2001) believes that L2 learners should operate from both
directions because both of them aid determining the meaning of spoken discourse.
Supporting Brown’s proposal, Flowerdew and Miller (2005) remark that these two

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SOME GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING LISTENING MATERIALS

types of processes work together in an interactive model. As a result listeners use


both linguistic information in the text, as well as prior knowledge, to comprehend
spoken language.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE LISTENING MATERIALS

Baleghizadeh (2012) suggests four features for effective listening materials. The
first feature of effective listening materials is incorporating both bottom-up and top-
down processing. Real-world listening is based on both bottom-up and top-down
processing. As a result, listening materials in the second language context should
incorporate both processes. Moreover, listening materials should provide exposures
to different types of listening. Depending on learners’ language proficiency level,
materials may expose learners to intensive, selective, interactive, extensive,
responsive, and autonomous listening. Furthermore, listening materials should be
based on authentic recordings. It means listening materials used in language classes
should match the spoken discourses used by native speakers. Finally, listening
materials should improve learners’ listening comprehension, not testing it.

Authentic Materials
One goal of listening instruction is to help learners to understand real life language.
It refers to providing learners with authentic texts. Underwood (1989) refers to
authentic audio materials as recordings of natural speech which are present in every
day sources. Morrow (1977) also defines authentic materials as stretches of real
language that are produced by real speakers/writers to convey a real message to real
audiences. Vandergrift and Goh (2012) believe authentic materials are inherently
interesting. It is so because such materials involve current topics, and current topics
are interesting to learners at all ages and backgrounds.
Vandergrift and Goh further suggest a number of sources for one-way listening
“such as videos, radio, and television broadcast, songs, audio recordings, CD ROM,
the internet and situations in which speech is performed such as drama and poetry
recitals” (p. 175). Some authentic materials have spontaneity, but some are more
controlled (Field, 2008). Such materials as news broadcasts, dramas, train and plane
announcements, advertisements, and documentaries are good examples for more
controlled presentations.

Listening Activity Types


Van Olphen, Hofer, and Harris (2011) suggest listening activity types should be based
on the standards suggested by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages (ACTFL). The standards are supposed to satisfy five main reasons of
foreign language learning. These reasons that are known as the five C’s of foreign
language education include communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and

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communities. These activities are based on either interpersonal mode or interpretive


mode. Interpersonal mode refers to two-way oral communication which involves
active negotiation of meaning. The interpretive mode, on the contrary, refers to
appropriate interpretation of meaning. Listeners have no opportunities for meaning
negotiation in one-way communication.
Moreover, van Olphen et al. further state that listening activities employ
different competences, such as grammatical competence, discourse competence,
sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. For example, some activities
may be designed to improve linguistic knowledge of learners, to practice cohesion
and coherence, to familiarize learners with different helpful strategies used in
communication or to involve them in different contexts of use. As a result these
activities need the interplay of various types of knowledge. In this way, they suggest
seven listening activity types including:
• Listen to a conversation: conversations may be from a textbook supplement,
radio broadcast, guest speakers, or skit. The possible technologies suggested for
this type of listening include CD, Web audio site, and audio conferencing.
• Listen to teacher’s prompts: prompts may be teacher’s questions, game prompts,
or assignment directions. Podcasts and recorded audio materials are considered
appropriate technologies for this type of listening.
• Listen to a broadcast: the broadcasts may be from radio, television, the news, or
performance by applying Web radio or podcasts.
• Listen to Poem/Song: poems and songs may be live or recorded from CD, Web,
or Podcasts.
• Listen to an audio recording: recordings may be either teacher-made or student-
made in the form of podcasts or Web audio sites.
• Listen to presentation: presentations may be live or recorded by using presentation
software or Video/ audio conference.
• Listening to stories: stories may be audio books, CDs, Web, and podcasts.

CONCLUSION

The advent of new technologies requires materials developers to revise traditional


methods of developing and designing language materials, in general, and listening
materials, in particular. Therefore, computer and the Internet-based technologies
provide variety of facilities for developers and teachers to involve different types of
listening activities to cover all learning styles and based on learners’ interests. If so,
listening skill becomes more favorable in EFL and ESL contexts and it acquires the
statues it deserves.

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SOME GUIDELINES FOR DEVELOPING LISTENING MATERIALS

REFERENCES
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starting _extensive_listening.htm

Parviz Maftoon
Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Iran

Hamid Reza Kargozari


Tabaran Institute of Higher Education, Iran

Maryam Azarnoosh
Islamic Azad University, Semnan Branch, Iran

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