Two kinds of processing
- Bottom-up: discriminating sounds, finding word boundaries and building sentence meaning, practised through dictation, minimal pairs and intonation tasks.
- Top-down: using knowledge of setting, speakers and topic to predict and infer, practised through gist and inference tasks.
- Interactive: in real listening both run at once and compensate for each other.
Features of speech
Listeners cannot reread or control speed. Contractions, Korean sound changes such as liaison and nasalisation, hesitations and ellipsis mean words known in writing may not be recognised by ear.
Pre-, while- and post-listening
Before listening, predict from pictures and titles and learn key words. While listening, first get the gist (who, where, what), then listen again for details. Afterwards, connect to speaking and writing and compare missed parts with the transcript.
Metacognitive strategies
Vandergrift and Goh argue that teaching planning, monitoring and evaluation improves listening and confidence. Field recommends diagnosing and practising the listening process rather than only checking answers.
Relation to reading
The same models apply to reading instruction, but listening is real-time and heavier on working memory.
References
- Field, J. (2008). Listening in the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press.
- Vandergrift, L., & Goh, C. C. M. (2012). Teaching and Learning Second Language Listening: Metacognition in Action. Routledge.
- Rost, M. (2011). Teaching and Researching Listening (2nd ed.). Pearson Longman.