Teenagers and adults
Teaching listening comprehension: a systematic approach
Ginny Rowlands
typical of ELT coursebooks due to the  massive mismatch
Approaches to teaching listening comprehension
between the characteristics of the discourse we normally listen
have developed since the early days of ELT,
to and those of the language which the student normally hears
reflecting new views on language teaching
in the ELT classroom (1981: 38-39). They listed thirteen
(Communicative Language Teaching and more
features typical of these coursebook scripts including
recently Task Based Learning) and new
over-enunciation of words, minimal assimilation and elision, a
understandings of the listening process. Most
uniform slow pace, unnatural explicitness and distinct turn-
published courses, however, continue to practise
taking where participants wait for the person speaking to finish
listening rather than teach the skill, raising
before beginning their utterance. All of this results in  neat
concerns that  the material is found to test rather
rather short well-formed discrete sentences very different from
than teach (Sheerin 1987:126) and the typical
the  natural sequences of loosely connected clauses (op cit: 38)
listening lesson  simply adds yet another text to
laced with colloquialism and cultural references so typical of
the listener's experience and does little or
the spoken language of the  real world . Their concern was that
nothing to improve the effectiveness of their exposure to  tidied up language would not prepare
learners for communication with native speakers.
listening or to address their shortcomings as
listeners . (Field 1998: 111).
Why use samples of authentic spoken language in the
classroom?
So why is this? It seems that teaching methodology has not yet
If students ultimately want to communicate in English, giving
caught up with the theory which has been able to define the
them  easified versions to listen to all the time will not help
skills and sub-skills involved in the complex listening process
them become better listeners - rather it will give them a false
and identify useful strategies that contribute to effective
security. Rost puts forward strong arguments for using
listening. Many language courses still consider
authentic texts in the classroom, referring to  the long-term
listening as a mysterious  black box
effects of habitually making things easier for learners so that
and prefer to devote time to other
they are  spared the necessity of - and also deprived of the
more tangible and measurable
rewards of - undertaking difficult and uncertain means of trying
aspects of language learning,
to make sense of what they hear (1990: 162). Using extracts
namely speaking and writing.
of natural speech in the classroom, he believes, gives teachers
Close examination of popular
opportunities to train learners in the very strategies they need
language materials reveals a
to deploy  for addressing non-understandings and
number of deficiencies,
misunderstandings that occur (op cit: 154) when much of the
particularly with
language they need to interpret is beyond what they already
regard to the type
know. Clearly without the challenge of authentic texts such
of listening texts
strategies may never be brought into play. Rost also argues
on offer and in
that simplification results in diluted texts that provide a
the development of
distorted view of the culture they are supposed to represent.
skills and
strategies
Helping learners become skilled listeners
Problems
Just as learners need to listen to spoken texts that
with
approximate or replicate natural speech, likewise they need to
coursebook
interpret and respond to the language they hear in ways that
listening texts
reflect normal language use and develop effective listening
Over 20 years ago,
skills and strategies.
Porter and Roberts
(1981) raised concerns about using
The complexity of listening, involving  bottom-up processing
simplified and scripted listening data
(while listeners attend to incoming language) and  top-down
24 IN ENGLISH! Winter 2005
processing (as listeners use
Background knowledge Top-down processing
background knowledge and
" Factual
expectations to create meaning)
" Sociocultural Schematic knowledge
simultaneously, requires learners
Procedural knowledge
to tap knowledge from various
" How language is used in discourse
sources. (See fig 1)
Knowledge of situation
To help learners cope with the
" Physical setting, participants etc
demands this processing poses,
Knowledge of co-text Context
teachers have long been aware " What has been/will be said (written)
of the importance of providing
Knowledge of the language system

 adequate preparation, adequate
" Semantic
Systemic
support and the provision of
" Syntactic
knowledge
appropriate tasks (Sheerin
" Phonological
Bottom-up processing
1987:126) when designing
Fig 1 Information sources in listening comprehension (adapted from Anderson & Lynch 1988: 13)
listening tasks.
Developing skills and strategies
A skills-based approach should combine teaching of sub-skills,
Preparing to listen
e.g. inferring meaning and attitude from context, and  remedial
Preparation, before listening, helps learners activate schematic
practice in the sub-skills involved when understanding has
knowledge: of content, of interactional rules and  scripts of the
broken down (Field 2000: 189) with a strategic approach  to
speakers, their relationships and intentions  to limit the range
enable learners to compensate for gaps in understanding
of possible utterances they are about to hear (Sheerin
(op cit: 189).
1987:126) and is a common feature of
most published materials these days.
Brainstorming the topic, answering Teaching learners to monitor their listening
topic-related questions, discussion performance
and speculation of visuals are helpful, A course of this kind would therefore include
particularly when they also provide a  monitoring tasks to enable learners
purpose for the listening, for example to keep a check on their
for the learners to check what they performance as they listen.
hear against their predictions. However, 1. A good example of this could
their value has been questioned recently use a common listening
by those designing programmes to technique, note-taking, but with a
actually  teach the skill of listening, change of emphasis from getting the
notably Field, who advises information listed in the answer key to
re-thinking the conventional examining differences between the students notes and
coursebook lessons which he feels then comparing them with an  ideal or native speaker s
are  top heavy (Field 1998:112), version to uncover areas of difficulty. The teacher could
devoting too much time to listening then use this  inside information to plan remedial
preparation and not enough to work - for example, to help learners pick out key words in
exploring misunderstandings while listening. He believes rapid connected speech by recognising sentence stress
listening instruction should reflect real-life encounters with and changes in pitch.
spoken language more closely and recommends that teachers 2. The  dictogloss technique, first described by Wajnryb
instruct learners in  the formation and testing of informed (1990), has great potential for helping learners to monitor
guesses as they listen so that they  come to accept it as their listening as it encourages them to deal with spoken
normal and not as a mark of their inadequacy (Field 1998:116). language in ways which make sense to them as individuals
25 IN ENGLISH! W 2005
COMPREHENSION





Teenagers and adults
(noting down key words or advice + acceptance of advice
phrases) but also encourages 3. Re-stating, in a coherent way, extracts
comparison with peers as which contain a lot of repetition, hesitation,
they share their combined fillers or false starts typical of spoken
understandings to construct a language
sensible representation of the 4. Focussing students attention on elided
text. The emphasis is not on forms so common in natural speech e.g.
accuracy but on  Been out lately? where  Have you.. is
agreement about the omitted under time pressure and also
speaker s intended because the speaker knows the
meaning. listener will understand the
3. Another useful  while question without formulating it
listening task which fully. These can be underlined and students
helps students asked to decide what's missing and, once
evaluate their ability to understand key content is to get students know what they are looking for,
them to predict what they will probably hear using visuals, a searched for in other texts to underline
title etc and then, while they are listening, get them to themselves.
shout out  Stop!! when they hear something that matches 5. The same process is useful also for incomplete sentences
their predictions. This technique can also be used to raise where the speaker has changed direction mid-phrase or
learners awareness of how discourse markers, signalling, simply doesn t finish the phrase because he/she knows the
for example, new or contrasting information, are helpful listener has already understood the message.
when we listen as they aid prediction of what will come 6. Tapescripts are also very useful for pronunciation work - to
next. So students can shout out when they hear words like mark stressed words, notice weak vowel sounds and locate
and, but, because, so. Using a variation on this technique, falling pitch. Short extracts are best used for this to avoid
teachers could pause the tape after a discourse marker and overload.
get the students to predict the end of the sentence.
Raising learners awareness of the listening process
Remedial practice If a course is to have a significant effect on learners ability to
Field recommends,  a lengthy listening session, with several interpret spoken language it makes sense to create an
re-plays for learners to re-listen and check their answers (Field awareness of and foster the acquisition of metacognitive
strategies, i.e. thinking about the learning
Tapescripts are also very useful for
process including self-evaluation. Using and
having instruction in listening strategies
pronunciation work.
can help learners to understand what they
1998:112) with the aim of remedying problems encountered hear and manage their approach to listening and there
while listening and developing effective listening strategies. can be significant improvements in student affect and
For these tasks, written transcripts of the conversations they motivation.
have heard can be invaluable and can be used in a number of
ways: Vandergrift suggests  ESL/EFL teachers can discuss the
1. Gapping part of the text for students to decide on what's concept of strategy in class and help their students to discover
missing, using cues from the grammar and discourse to the kind of strategies they use to understand spoken English
help them, or to match the phrases that have been cut out (1999:171). He recommends activities which sensitise students to
to the spaces the cues they can use to guess meaning and guide them through
2. Reordering the transcript which has been cut up into parts mental processes of planning, monitoring and evaluation crucial
which reflect its generic structure, e.g. stating the problem to listening success. To this end, in addition to listening activities
+ giving advice + negative response to advice + alternative to accompany the process (see my suggestions for monitoring
26 IN ENGLISH! Winter 2005
tasks above), he emphasises the parallel importance of teachers listening process for learners. I believe with a systematic
encouraging self-evaluation and reflection through  Group or approach we can reduce some of the anxieties and
class discussions on the approach taken by different students and frustrations students feel when they are faced with interpreting
sharing  individual routes to success, such as how someone and responding to authentic spoken language and so help
guessed (inference) the meaning of a certain word or how them become more active and effective communicators.
someone modified a strategy (op cit:173).
This can be done in the following ways:
1. Giving students detailed performance checklists to use Ginny Rowlands is a Senior Teacher at the British Council Lisbon.
before and after listening enables them to identify their
strengths and weaknesses as well as knowledge and skills References
gaps. Using such questions as Field, J. (1998) Skills and Strategies: towards a new methodology
 Did I concentrate on listening for what we had predicted? for listening ELTJ 52/2 Oxford OUP
 Did listening for stressed words help me? Field, J. (2000)  Not waving but drowning a reply to Tony Ridgway
 How did my knowledge of (the topic) help me? ELTJ 54/2 Oxford OUP
 What was difficult? Goh, C. (1997) Metacognitive awareness and second language
 What will I do next time? listeners ELTJ 51/4 Oxford OUP
2. Also useful is encouraging learners to keep  listening diaries Porter, D. and Roberts, J. (1981) Authentic Listening Activities
to  reflect on their listening and also share their strategies, ELTJ 36/1 Oxford OUP
beliefs and attitudes with others (Goh 1997 : 367). These Rost, M. (1990) Listening in Language Learning London
are particularly helpful as they are long-term and so Longman
learners would get a sense of progression if they look back Rost, M. (2000) Listening in The Cambridge Guide to Teaching
at the end of a term. Goh found that her learners were able English to Speakers of Other Languages (Nunan & Carter (eds.))
to articulate detailed perceptions of their listening Sheerin, S. (1987) Listening Comprehension: teaching or testing?
performance as well as insights into the demands, ELTJ 41/2 Oxford OUP
procedures and strategies of second language listening. Vandergrift, L. (1999) Facilitating second language listening
Comprehension: acquiring successful strategies ELTJ 53/3
I believe that elements of such learner training should form Oxford OUP
an integral part of any course to Wajnryb, R. (1990) Grammar Dictation
teach listening as it not only Oxford OUP
helps learners understand the
process better, but also guides
teachers in their selection of
input and procedures to
achieve improved
listening performance.
Breaking into
the  black box
I hope my ideas
will inspire
teachers to have a go
at a different
approach to listening
in their classrooms
and have some effect
on demystifying the
27 IN ENGLISH! Winter 2005