Here\'s the Powerpoint for the BETTER LISTENING OUTCOMES talk.

1. Understanding the way the world learns English
Better Listening outcomes
or
Recognising that you may already do a lot to help
listening which you take for granted!
Hugh Dellar
Heinle Cengage / The University of Wesminster

2. Understanding the way the world learns English
• What’s the difference between listening and
hearing?
• What do you do to improve students’ ability to
hear?
• What do you do to improve listening skills?
A quick warmer

3. Understanding the way the world learns English
Students do listen! The problem is:
• They can’t hear words because they don’t
know them.
• They can’t hear words because they can’t
distinguish sounds.
• They can hear the words, but they can’t group
words appropriately.
• They can hear the words (and even
expressions) but can’t process meaning fast
enough.
You’re not listening!

4. Understanding the way the world learns English
Listening activities include:
• Listening to public announcements
• Listening to media
• Listening as a member of a live audience
• Listening to overheard conversations, etc.
In each case, the user may be listening for:
• Gist
• Specific information
• Detailed understanding
• Implications
(from CEF, p65, CUP)
‘Doing’ a listening . . .

5. Understanding the way the world learns English
Getting students to predict content:
• from pictures
• from the situation
• based on what they know already
Any others?
Top-down processing

6. Understanding the way the world learns English
For complex social and psychological reasons, learners
are less sure they have grasped the topic being spoken
of, the opinion being expressed about it, and the
reasons for the speaker wanting to talk about it. They
are less sure of the relevance of their own experience in
helping them to arrive at an interpretation. On top of all
that they are less sure of the forms of the language …
for all these reasons learners are less able to bring to
bear top down processing in forming an interpretation
and hence are more reliant on bottom up processing.
Brown quoted in Jenkins, 2001 OUP
The spanner in the works!

7. Understanding the way the world learns English
1. Is everyone having a starter?
2. The seared salmon on a bed of fennel sounds
nice.
3. We should’ve left the car at home.
4. Yesterday the cat talked in the sea..
5. Do lator has sonned dun ofer by canobac.

8. Understanding the way the world learns English
Listening activities include:
• Listen to public announcements
• Listening to media
• Listening as a member of a live audience
• Listening to overheard conversations, etc.
In each case, the user may be listening for:
• Gist
• Specific information
• Detailed understanding
• Implications
Hearing, memory and listening

9. Understanding the way the world learns English
• Listening is also part of speaking and
interaction.
• Range of automaticity, related to the
frequency / typicality of the exchange
(greetings, buying/selling conversations about
jobs, etc.) Also chunks.
• May allow to fill in gaps we don’t hear, but
more importantly help process meaning
quicker.
Listening and listenership

10. Understanding the way the world learns English
• Know nearly all - if not all - of the words
they’re listening to.
• Process words in chunks
• Hear the words when they listen to
them
• Understand words / chunks they hear
automatically as a result of repeated
over-learning
Good listeners . . .

11. Understanding the way the world learns English
• We need to teach more of the language they
are likely to hear / use and that includes using
listening activities as an opportunity to teach
language.
• Teach language in context all the time! And
help students recognise / hear words in
chunks.
• Help with problem sounds (working back from
the chunk)
• Make sure words/chunks, exchanges,
conversations get recycled
Some principles

12. Understanding the way the world learns English
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Hugh Dellar and Andrew Walkley
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