About Listening

本文由[i]A Course in English Language Teaching[/i] 即《英语教学法教程》王蔷 主编 高等教育出版社 2000年7月 以及 《新东方英语》2004年7月号 [i]Skills and Strategies for Listening[/i] 一文（作者：Nick Stirk）加工而成。

[b]Why does listening seem so difficult?[/b]
Among the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), foreign language learners often complain that listening is the most difficult to acquire.
One major reason for students’ poor listening skill is that listening is often neglected in language teaching for various reasons, such as:
1) Lack of teaching materials (audio and video tapes);
2) Lack of equipment (tape players, VCRs, VCDs, computers)
3) Lack of training in how to use the equipment;
4) Listening is not included on many important tests;
5) Lack of real-life situations where language learners need to understand spoken English;
6) Lessons tend to test rather than to train students’ listening skills.
However, even if listening were not neglected, it could not be guaranteed that students would have no problem in listening. In foreign language learning, both listening and reading are receptive skills, but listening can be more difficult than reading because:
1) Different speakers produce the same sounds in different ways, e.g. different dialects and accents, stresses, rhythms intonations, mispronunciations, etc;
2) The listener has little or no control over the speed of the input of spoken materials;
3) Spoken material is often heard only once. In most cases, we cannot go back and listen again as we can when we read;
4) The listener cannot pause to work out the meaning of the heard material while he can do it when reading;
5) Speech is more likely to be distorted by background noise or the media that transmit sounds;
6) The listener sometimes has to deal simultaneously with another task while listening, such as formal note-taking, writing down directions or messages from telephone calls, or operating equipment while listening to instructions.

[b]What do we listen to in everyday life?[/b]
One reason for students’ unsatisfactory listening ability is that there is not enough [b]variety[/b] in the materials that they listen to. In most cases, the listening materials are daily conversations or stories. But in reality we listen to far more things, regardless of which language is used.

telephone conversations about business radio news in English
lessons or lectures given in English conversations with foreigners
instructions in English watching television in English
watching films in English shop assistant who sells goods to foreigners
deal with tourists international trade fairs
socialize with foreigners negotiations with foreign businesses
listening to English songs hotel and restaurant service

[b]Characteristics of the listening process[/b]
It is important to understand the characteristics or processes behind these listening situations so that learners could develop effective listening habits and strategies according to appropriate activities.
[b]Spontaneity[/b]—Some of the things that we listen to are rehearsed, e.g. radio news, TV news and shows, films theatre, and some formal lectures, but most of the time we listen to people speaking spontaneously and informally without rehearsing what they are going to say ahead of time.
[b]Context[/b]—The context of listening is usually known in real life. In other words, we know the relationship between the listener and the speaker. Therefore, the situation helps us to predict what we are going to hear.
[b]Visual clues[/b]—Most of the time we can see the person we are listening to. This means we can see their facial expressions, gestures and other body languages as well as the surrounding environment, which is relevant when, for example, people point at objects or in certain directions. These visual clues help us understand and predict what we hear. Of cause there are situations where we cannot see the speaker, such as when listen to the radio or use the telephone.
[b]Listener’s response[/b]—Most of the Listening in daily life allows the listener to respond to the speaker, such as in a conversation. This means we can interrupt the speakers and ask for repetition or clarification.
[b]Speaker’s adjustment[/b]—In most cases, the speaker is talking directly to the listener, so he or she can adjust the way of speaking according to the listener’s reactions. For example, if the listener indicates that he or she does not understand what is being said, the speaker may rephrase or elaborate.
[Ur, P. (1996) [i]A Course in Language teaching: Practice and Theory[/i]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]

[b]Principles for learning listening[/b]
[b]Focus on process[/b]—The skill of listening and reading are often thought of as passive skills. However, in reality, they are not at all passive. First people have to hear what is being said, and then they have to pay attention, and construct a meaningful message in their mind by relating what they hear to what they already know.
[b]Combine listening and speaking[/b]—Most of the time in real life these two skills are needed at the same time, so it is also important to develop speaking and listening skills together.
[b]Focus on comprehending meaning[/b]—One problem with many listening exercises in traditional textbook is that they test students’ memory, not their listening comprehension. But there are many details that they wouldn’t even remember in their native language. In fact, psycholinguistic studies have shown that people don’t remember what they hear word for word, rather, they remember the meaning. The original message is transferred in the brain to a form where the meaning is preserved, but the original surface detail is forgotten.

[b]Listening skills and strategies in reality[/b]
[b]Predicting/Anticipating[/b]
[b]Guessing unknown words or phrases in context[/b] (too or two; hear or here, etc)
[b]Listening for the gist[/b]—Is the conversation about sport, family classes or something else? Is the lecture about management, economics or law? Is the news about the USA, the UK or China? Once you know what the subject is, then that prepares you for following it more closely.
[b]Listening for specific information[/b]—Imagining your teacher is talking about the term exam, you will want to know specific information, such as: When will the exam take place? Where will the exam be? What kind of exam will it be? Theses are specific pieces of information that you need to listen for. Usually in listening for specific information, you will be answering the following questions-[b]When, Where, What, Who, Why and How?[/b]
[b]Listening for detailed information[/b]
[b]Listening for inference [/b](the relations, the physical settings, speaker’s intent etc)
[b]Understanding different intonation patterns and uses of stress[/b]
[b]Keeping the relevant point[/b] (note taking)
[b]Using one of you background subject[/b]
[b]Understanding nonverbal information[/b]—Nonverbal information comes from facial expressions, eye contact, body posture and hand movements. If a person is smiling or laughing, he may be telling a joke. If a person is yawning, then he may be tired of the conversation.
[b]Listening for transition words[/b]—Transition words indicate movement from one event or idea to the next. For example, thus, while or as soon as.
[b]Comprehending language in a variety of genres (=styles)[/b]—We all speak differently in different ways at times and when listening we need to be aware of these differences. For example, we don’t speak in the same way to our teacher, boss, or supervisor as we do to our friends or classmates.
[b]Asking for repetition[/b] of something not understood (‘Pardon?’ or ‘Could you please say that again?’ But don’t say, ‘Repeat.’)
[b]Asking for clarification [/b]of something partially understood or something said is not clear to you. (‘Pardon me?/Excuse me?’ ‘I’m sorry, but I didn’t catch that.’ ‘What does X mean?’ ‘Could you spell your last name?’…)
[b]Verification[/b]—When talking with a native English speaker and you want to confirm something then you can say something like, ‘Do you agree?’ or ‘That’s right, isn’t it?’
[b]Calming[/b]—Everyone gets anxious about lack of understanding at times, and especially in a foreign language context. This is normal and natural. Accept it when it happens to you as a normal reaction. But then try to calm yourself. Don’t lose your cool and temper. Take a deep breath, tell the speaker there is something you don’t understand and could he explain it in a different way.
[b]Be confident[/b]—Positive thinking leads to positive understanding. If you take a positive attitude towards your listening comprehension then your understanding will increase.