Introduction

The following diploma paper is devoted to the topic Developing Listening in

Language Education as a part of Discourse Competence at the Intermediate
Level and regards the field of methods of teaching English as a foreign language.
The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood.
The best way to understand people is to listen to them. Listening is the most
common communicative activity in daily life. We can expect to listen twice as
much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we
write. Listening is generally neglected, as it is believed that this skill can be mastered
automatically by accepting the environmental influence. However, listening is taught
integratively with speaking as both relate to each other in the process of
communication. Though the listening function in language use can be isolated, it is
typically linked to speaking in normal patterns of vocal interchange, with regular
shifts or roles in oral discourse between speaker and hearer. Certainly role shifts are a
typical feature of language use, and one that is particularly applicable to language
education. The order in which language skills are acquired by native speakers, and
frequently assumed as most appropriate for second language learners, is first
listening and then speaking, with reading and writing coming later, usually as
part of a formal educational program. In teaching practice we encounter several
difficulties such as classes contain more students that it would be ideal for teaching
languages, and this leads into another problem that in these large classes are learners
with lots of different learning styles and diverse needs. As listening plays a primary
role in accomplishing English as a second language, there should be proposed
methods and techniques that will fit individual learning styles and will accelerate the
process of speaking.

The aim of our work is to identify and to prove the contribution of listening to
the development of the discourse competence.
The main objectives are:
- to present the core peculiarities of teaching listening from the methodological
point of view studying various methodological works;
- to describe the stages of listening and the modern methods and techniques used
at each stage;
- to point out the difficulties that students encounter during listening activities;
- to carry out an experiment in school concerning listening activities;
- to reveal the most effective listening techniques that encourage and facilitate
discourses for students at the intermediate level.
To achieve all objectives, the following methods of investigation have been
used:
- contrastive analysis;
- generalization;
- description;
- comparison;
- experimental analysis.
The diploma paper consists of: Introduction, three Chapters, Conclusions,
Bibliography and Appendix.
In the Introduction the aim, the objectives, the methods of the research and the
experiment carried out in Spiru Haret lyceum are stated.
2

Chapter I centers on listening as a complex methodological process that

mandatory implies principles, strategies, ways of avoiding difficulties and stages.
This part of our work also proves the importance of listening in our lives and gives
hints to an effective lesson planning.
Chapter II is focused on teaching listening and provides activities for teaching
listening. In the practical part we will also deal with three main hypotheses. Firstly,
we know that the majority of the students are visual learners and due to this fact we
will use pictures as a visual support in the lessons. Secondly, the students need a lot
of language support and because of their need we will provide them with key
vocabulary before each listening activity. Thirdly, we would like to help students
learn good learning strategies.
Chapter III regards an experiment conducted in Spiru Haret lyceum in the 9 th
grade, whose purpose is to apply into practice some of the activities mentioned in
Chapter II. According to it, we will be able to come to some results and to make
certain conclusions.
Conclusions based on the given information and the experiment carried out in
Spiru Haret lyceum answer many questions related to our topic and serve as hint
information in the development of the discourse competence in foreign language
teaching.
Bibliography comprises all sources of information used to study the topic from
its ground in order to give accurate knowledge and to come to relevant conclusions.
Appendix shows several examples which are not presented in the research.
Since listening comprehension belongs among the most difficult skills it is crucial
for teachers to help their students learn effective listening strategies because without
proper understanding people cannot contribute to various discussions moreover that
listening provides exposure to the target language.
3

Chapter I. The Core Peculiarities of Teaching Listening as one of

the Modern Methods of Teaching
1.1. Defining Listening and its importance in Language Learning
Listening is not merely not talkingit means taking a vigorous human interest in
what is being told to us. You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendid auditorium
where every sound comes back fuller and richer.
Alice Duer Miller
The quotation above suggests that listening can be done in a narrow and limited
way, or it can be done in a way that enriches communication. [50, pag.20]
Listening is a skill in a sense that it is a related but distinct process than hearing,
which involves merely perceiving sound in a passive way, while listening occupies
an active and immediate analysis of the streams of sounds. This correlation is like
that between seeing and reading. Seeing is a very ordinary and passive state, while
reading is a focused process requiring reader's instrumental approach.
Listening has a "volitional component". The desire to listen, as well as the
capability to listen (comprehension) must be present with the listener for the
successful recognition and analysis of the sound. [42, pag.31]

In other words, listening is the ability to identify and understand what others
are saying. This involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, his
grammar and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning. An able listener is capable of
doing these four things simultaneously. [26, pag.23] Besides, listening comprises
some component skills which are: between sounds, recognizing words, identifying
grammatical groupings of words, identifying expressions and sets of utterances that
act to create meaning, connecting linguistic cues to non-linguistic and paralinguistic
cues, using background knowledge to predict and later to confirm meaning and
recalling important words and ideas. [37, pag.110]
We spend a great deal of time in our everyday lives listening in different
situations: not only to the television or radio, to people we live with, colleagues at
work, and family on the phone; we also listen to the recorded voice as we top up our
mobile, the lady in the shop, and the couple behind us on the bus. As native speakers
of whatever language, all these situations are normal and usually go by without us
consciously thinking about them as listening situations at all. Not so for second
language learners. Each of these can be a trial, challenge, disaster, or achievement.
Many learners find themselves in the second language community at some stage: they
may be studying, working, or seeking employment, or they may be just travelling. In
any event, they are surrounded by far more opportunities for development than the
classroom could ever offer. [22, pag.307] But opportunity is not enough: listening is
an active process, requiring both conscious attention and involvement, and
therefore motivation. [37, pag.16]
In reality, listening is used far more than any other single language skill in
normal daily life. On average, we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak,
four times more than we read, and five times more than we write. [32, pag.5]
Listening is assuming greater and greater importance in many foreign language
contexts, which have until relatively recently focused their efforts on the
development of writing skills. This growing importance is reflected in the
proliferation of commercial listening courses. [25, pag.5]
5

It is important to note that multiple benefits accrue to the learner beyond the obvious
improvements in listening skills. In particular, listening comprehension lessons are
a vehicle for teaching elements of grammatical structure and allow new
vocabulary items to be contextualized within a body of communicative
discourse. [30, pag.12]
Teachers who want to provide the most effective classroom experience for their
second language students should consider this: no other type of language input is as
easy to process as spoken language, received through listening. At the beginning
stages of language study, before students have learned to read well, it is by listening
that they can have the most direct connection to meaning in the new language.
Through listening, learners can build an awareness of the interworking of
language systems at various levels and thus establish a base for more fluent
productive skills. At the intermediate level, when students are refining their
understanding of the grammatical systems of their second or foreign language,
listening can be used to stimulate awareness of detail and to promote accuracy. At
advanced levels, when students are able readers and written language has become a
viable source of input, listening should still occupy a central place in their language
use. A regular program of listening can extend learners vocabulary and use of idioms
and build their appreciation for cultural nuances. Moreover, successful academic
study in English requires a mastery of the listening demands in formal lectures as
well as in the interactive exchanges which are common to seminar settings and
conversational lecture styles. [19, pag.11]
Definitely we have to admit that language learning depends on listening as we
respond only after listening to something. Listening provides the aural input that
serves as the stimuli for language acquisition and makes the learners interact in
spoken communication. So, effective and ideal language teachers should help
learners be introduced with native speaking, be respondent to that both cognitively
and orally. In order to do so, first, they should show students how they can adjust

their listening behavior to deal with variety of situations, types of input, and listening
purposes.

1.2. Difficulties in real life Listening Situations

In real life, even though listening may be a major activity in a particular situation,
the listener is usually expected to perform more than one language skill situation.
Figure 1. shows some important factors affecting the real-life listening situations.

Fig.1. Factors affecting the listening situations

Situations
1 station, airport
announcements

Aids
Difficulties
1 visual back-up, notice boards 1 no possibility of asking the
2 you can ask a member of staff
speaker for clarification
for help
2 distorted speech
2 listening to the possibility of some background1 no possibility of asking the
radio
knowledge, e.g. the news
speaker for clarification
2 no visual clues
3 participating in 1 possibility of getting
the need to plan your next
a conversation
clarification from the speaker contribution to the conversation
face-to-face
2 visual clues speakers
while you are listening
expression, gestures
3 the context of the situation
4 film, play or TV 1 visual clues speakers
no possibility of asking speakers
expression, gestures
to clarify (and unacceptable to
2 the context of the situation
ask other members of audience
for too much help!)
5 meeting or
1 background knowledge of
the need to plan your
seminar
subject matter
contribution while listening
2 possibility of asking for
Clarification
6 taking part in a 1 the teacher should be trying to 1 the possibility of being called
lesson
make himself comprehensible
on to answer unexpectedly
2 visual clues blackboard
2 understanding the
work, provided by teacher
contribution of other students
7 talk or lecture
1 probability of some
1 frequently the need to take
background knowledge or
notes, involving selecting
expectations
important information and
7

2 visual clues board work,

provided by speaker
8 eavesdropping

motivation (curiosity!)

9 telephone
conversation

possibility
of
clarification

writing, at the same time as

listening
2 interrupting for clarification
not usually encouraged
you start by knowing nothing of
what the conversation is about;
you need to tune in
for1 no visual clues
2 distorted speech

asking

Taking part in a conversation is an obvious case. Here, people need both to

speak and to listen. They need to plan what to say next while they are listening, and
to adjust what they say according to what other people have said. This is a very
complex and demanding process. Another example is listening to a talk or lecture,
which often requires the taking of notes. This requires the listener not only to
understand what is being said, but to select only the important, relevant information
and reduce it to a form that can quickly be taken down in writing and remain
understandable later another complex combination of skills. [4, pag.13-16]
Non-native speakers of English will face additional problems when listening, due
to their limited experience of the language. These difficulties affecting learners of
English are summarized in Figure 2. [38, pag.40]
Figure 2. Difficulties specific to learners of English
Difficulties specific to language learners
A text linguistically difficult:
- words in stream of speech hard for learner to
recognize
- certain structures unknown to learner
- certain words unknown to learner

Strategies learners should try

Referring outside: e.g. using the
dictionary, asking for an explanation,
repetition, etc.

Holding doubtful sections of what is

heard in suspense and hoping that
clarification will come later
Listener is unfamiliar with how certain types ofMastering all pre-knowledge or
spoken text are presented and organized in theexpectations before listening starts
foreign culture
Being alert to all the clues in the
8

context or situation
Listening skills are highly important to teach students, as listening itself is very
important in life. Those who don't know how to listen aren't able to listen to their
friends and family, understand what they are saying or take directions when given.
Listening is important in social situations, but can be crucial in a situation where
people must hear and comprehend what is going on around them to survive, such as
an emergency. Although listening skills are vital for these reasons, not all children
have them and all students must be taught how to refine the skills they have. There
are several difficulties in teaching listening skills that all teachers have to overcome
at some point. [21, pag.268]
We can come across some problems in listening as ones caused by:
-

Trying to understand every word

Despite the fact that we can cope with missing whole chunks of speech having a

conversation on a noisy street in our own language, many people don't seem to be
able to transfer that skill easily to a second language. One method of tackling this is
to show them how to identify the important words that they need to listen out for. In
English this is shown in an easy-to-spot way by which words in the sentence are
stressed (spoken louder and longer). Another is to give them one very easy task that
you know they can do even if they don't get 90% of what is being said to build up
their confidence, such as identifying the name of a famous person or spotting
something that is mentioned many times. [40, pag.56]
-

The lack of control over a speakers speech speed

Many students feel that one of the greatest difficulties they have to deal with

during listening exercises in comparison with reading exercises is the lack of

9

possibility how to control the speed of speakers speech. Students believe that during
the listening they can miss important information and in contrast to reading they
cannot re-listen to it. Some students can be busy with the meaning of certain words
from the first part that they miss important information from the second part or they
can stop listening as they are not able to select the correct information so quickly. [40,
pag.56]

Listeners limited word stock

Doing vocabulary pre-teaching before each listening as a short term solution and

working on the skill of guessing vocabulary from context can help, but we need to
make sure that we practice this with words that can actually be guessed from context
(a weakness of many textbooks) and that we work on that with reading texts for a
while to build up to the much more difficult skill of guessing vocabulary and
listening at the same time. The other solution is simply to build up their vocabulary
and teach them how they can do the same in their own time with vocabulary lists,
graded readers, monolingual dictionary use etc. [47, pag.20]
- Different accents
Apart from just being too busy thinking about other things and missing a word,
common reasons why students might not recognize a word include not distinguishing
between different sounds in English (e.g. // and // in "thread" and "though") or
conversely trying to listen for differences that do not exist (e.g. not knowing words
like there, their and they're, which are homophones). Other reasons are problems with
word stress, sentence stress, and sound changes when words are spoken together in
natural speech such as weak forms. What all this boils down to is that sometimes
pronunciation work is the most important part of listening comprehension skills
10

building. In a modern textbook, students have to not only deal with a variety of
British, American and Australian accents, but might also have Indian or French
thrown in. While this is theoretically useful if or when they get a job in a
multinational company, it might not be the additional challenge they need right now
especially if they studied exclusively American English at school. Possibilities for
making a particular listening with a tricky accent easier include rerecording it with
some other teachers before class, reading all or part of the tape-script out in our
(hopefully more familiar and therefore easier) accent, and giving them a listening task
where the written questions help out like gap fills. If it is an accent they particularly
need to understand, e.g., if they are sorting out the outsourcing to India, the teacher
could actually spend part of a lesson on the characteristics of that accent. In order to
build up their ability to deal with different accents in the longer term, the best way is
just to get them listening to a lot of English, e.g. TV without dubbing or BBC World
Service Radio. The teacher might also want to think about concentrating her
pronunciation work on sounds that they need to understand many different accents
rather than one, and on concentrating on listening with accents that are relevant for
that particular group of students, e.g. the nationality of their head office.
[11, pag.34-36]
- Failure to concentrate
The first thing a teacher needs to bear in mind is to build up the length of the texts
she uses (or the lengths between pauses) over the course in exactly the same way as
she builds up the difficulty of the texts and tasks. She can make the first time they
listen to a longer text a success and therefore a confidence booster by doing it in a
part of the lesson and part of the day when they are most alert, by not overloading
their brains with new language beforehand, and by giving them a break or easy
activity before they start. She can build up their stamina by also making the speaking
tasks longer and longer during the term, and they can practice the same thing outside

11

class by watching an English movie with subtitles and taking the subtitles off for
longer and longer periods each time. [11, pag.37]
- A mental block
This could be not just a case of a student having struggled with badly graded
listening texts in school, exams or self-study materials, but even of a whole national
myth that people from their country find listening to English difficult. Whatever the
reason is, before the teacher can build up their skills, they need their confidence back.
The easiest solution is just to use much easier texts, perhaps using them mainly as a
prompt to discussion or grammar presentations to stop them feeling patronized. The
teacher can disguise other easy listening comprehension tasks as pronunciation work
on linked speech etc. in the same way. [11, pag.38]
- Background noise
Being able to cope with background noise is another skill that does not easily
transfer from L1 and builds up along with students' listening and general language
skills. As well as making sure the tape doesn't have lots of hiss or worse (e.g. by
recording tape to tape at normal speed not double speed, by using the original or by
adjusting the bass and treble) and choosing a recording with no street noise etc, the
teacher also needs to cut down on noise inside and outside the classroom. The teacher
has to plan listening activities when she knows it will be quiet outside, e.g. not at
lunchtime or when the class next door is also doing listening. It is to cut down on
noise inside the classroom by doing the first task with books closed and pens down.
Their confidence can be boosted by letting them do the same listening on headphones
and showing them how much easier it is. Finally, when they start to get used to it,
they can be given an additional challenge by using a recording with background noise
such as a cocktail party conversation. [34, pag.115]
- The lack of visual support
12

Young people nowadays can't cope without multimedia! Most students find a
particular difficulty in a foreign language not having body language and other cues to
help. Setting the scene with some photos of the people speaking can help, especially
tasks where they put the pictures in order as they listen, and using video instead
makes a nice change and is a good way of making skills such as guessing vocabulary
from context easier and more natural. [52, pag.16]
- Hearing problems
As well as people such as older students who have general difficulty in hearing
and need to be sat close to the cassette, there might be also students who have
problems hearing particular frequencies or who have particular problems with
background noise. As well as playing around with the graphic equalizer and doing the
other tips above for background noise, the teacher can also try setting most listening
tasks as homework and/or letting one or more students read from the tape-script as
they listen. [52, pag.16]
These common problems which students have to experience in listening
comprehension when learning a foreign language should somehow be overcome.
Based on the fact and figure, a number of strategies are suggested by the teacher to
improve their listening. They should, of course, spend much more time practicing.
They should listen to a variety of topics in order to get familiar with them. Hence, the
background knowledge will be enriched as well as the skill. In addition, students
ought to know to apply suitable strategies to each kind of listening text in order to get
the best result. However, the skill of students will not be improved the best without
teachers. Teachers play such a significant in building up their skill. By each lesson,
teachers show their students the ways in each stage of listening comprehension.

1.3. Listening One of the Components of the Discourse

Sub-competence

13

Since listening might take the biggest portion of language learning activities,
there should be created communicative tasks that can help students improve both
their language performance and competence. One of the main activities done at a
language lesson is listening and it cannot be denied that effective listening is
interwoven with the other language skills so that good communication can be
established.
When an ESL student listens effectively, he will do communicative listening. He
is not just a passive listener, but he actively takes part in the interaction as well. He
would try to interpret what he has heard based on his background knowledge and
his purpose in listening. Therefore, he would do the process of decoding in his
mind. What is stored in his mind is the meaning, rather than the linguistic form, of
the information or message he has heard. Therefore, to be able to decide what
communicative listening tasks to be given to students, a teacher should know how the
listening skill is related to the four components of communicative competence:
grammatical competence, strategic competence, sociolinguistic competence and
discourse competence. [5, pag.80]
Discourse competence can be defined as the ability to use (produce and
recognize) coherent and cohesive texts in an oral or written form.
[7, pag.26-38]
Initially discourse competence was viewed as part of sociolinguistic competence,
which was believed to be composed of both socio-cultural rules of use and rules of
discourse. An ESL listener should have discourse competence in order to grasp
correctly the speakers idea. Discourse competence deals with the ability to
communicate above sentence level; thus, a listener having the discourse competence
would apply the rules of cohesion and coherence in communication so that he is able
to catch the idea of what is being spoken or to predict what will be spoken next.
Because of the discourse competence, a listener would become an active listener who
would always relate parts of communication to get the right meaning. Besides being
14

closely related to the four aspects of communicative competence, an interactive

listening, especially listening to authentic materials, can improve students other
language skills and elements. In order to grasp the correct meaning of what has been
heard, ESL listeners should be able to catch the accurate English sounds that might
not be found in their native language. Though it cannot be denied that the demand of
the listeners mastery of the English sounds, stress and intonation might become
his difficulties, at the same time, it would also cause the improvement of his
pronunciation and speaking skill. [52, pag.28]
However, ESL students often feel bored because they only do monotonous
activities. The teacher should make a lively atmosphere at the lesson through
interactive listening; that is by creating communicative tasks for students. Through
this communicative listening tasks, students will not only listen, but also interact with
either the teacher or the other students so that they feel as if they do the real life
listening. These communicative listening tasks will also help students improve both
their proficiency in language components (vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar)
and in language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing).

1.4. Principles of Teaching Listening

In order to get learners attention, to keep them actively and purposefully engaged
in the task at hand, and to maximize the effectiveness of listening in languagelearning experiences, some material development principles are suggested:
a) Relevance

Both the listening lesson content (i.e. information) and the outcome (i.e. the nature of
use of the information) need to be as relevant as possible to the learner. This is
essential for getting and holding learners attention and provides a genuine
motivational incentive. Lessons need to feature content and outcome that have face
validity for students. The more the lessons focus on things with real-life relevance,

15

the more they appeal to students, and the better the chance of having learners
wanting to listen. [30, pag.58]
b) Transferability/Applicability

Whatever is relevant is also likely to have potential for transferability. Insofar as

possible, at either the content level or the outcome level, or both, listening lessons
need to have transferable/applicable value, internally (i.e. can be used in other
classes), externally (i.e. can be used in out-of-school situations), or both. In order to
foster transfer of training, the best listening lessons present in-class activities that
mirror real life. For example, the use of radio or television news broadcasts in adult
classes can provide not only a real experience in listening comprehension, but such
lessons also contain content that can be applicable outside of class as a source of
conversation. [30, pag.58]
c) Task Orientation

Task-oriented teaching provides learners with tasks which use the information in the
aural text, rather than asking learners to prove their understanding of the text by
answering questions. [49, pag.42]
d) Increase the amount of listening time in the second language class.

One has to make listening the primary channel for learning new material in the
classroom. The input must be interesting, comprehensible, supported by extralinguistic materials, and keyed to language lesson. [30, pag.62]
e) Use listening before other activities.

At the beginning and low-intermediate levels, the teacher should have students listen
to material before they are required to speak, read, or write about it. [30, pag.64]
f) Include both global and selective listening.

Global listening encourages students to get the gist, main idea, topic, situation, or
setting. Selective listening points students attention to details of form and encourages
accuracy. [30, pag.65]
g) Activate top-level skills.

16

The teacher should give advance organizers, script, activators, or discussions which
call up students background knowledge. This should be done before students listen.
It is important to encourage top-down processing at every proficiency level. [30,
pag.79]
h) Develop conscious listening strategies.

The teacher should raise students awareness of text features and of their own
comprehension processes. They should be encouraged to notice how their processing
operations interact with the text. Promoting flexibility in many strategies allows them
to understand the language. [30, pag.88]

i) Provide appropriate feedback and correction.

In most EFL situations, students are totally dependent on the teacher for useful
linguistic feedback. In ESL situations, they may get such feedback out there
beyond the classroom, but even then the teacher is in a position to be of great benefit.
It is important to take advantage of knowledge of English to inject the kinds of
corrective feedback that are appropriate for the moment. [15, pag.120]
Teachers sometimes incorrectly assume that the input provided in the classroom
will always be converted into intake. Students tend to assimilate the given
information but often the quantity and the quality of it depends much on the
principles to which the teachers attention was drawn. They are of a great help
considering the fact that they yield teachers from different impediments or mistakes
during the lesson. Principles harmonize the process of teaching and make students
comprehension untroubled.

1.5. The classification of learners Listening Strategies

17

When learners are first faced with the task of understanding natural English
speech at a normal speed, they often appear shocked I couldnt understand
anything! is a frequent complain.
However, if learners are presented with clear strategies to help manage the faster
pace of authentic input, they can begin to respond more positively and naturally. They
begin to pick out words and build up an understanding, using their own knowledge. A
key concept underlying this approach is that even native speakers often are forced to
listen in this manner, picking out the words they can hear and understand, and
creating the meaning from their knowledge of the context and topic. [35, pag.8]
In this section we will attempt to present some of the most important listening
strategies identified by different researchers in the recent didactic literature.
Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the
comprehension and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified
by how the listener processes the input. [43, pag.15]
Top-down strategies are listener-based; the listener taps into background
knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language.
This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to
interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next. [31, pag.275]
Top-down strategies include: listening for the main idea; predicting; drawing;
inferences; summarizing. A top-down strategy focuses on content. Students can
predict the content of listening activity beforehand and use various materials such as
pictures and key words to understand the meaning. This strategy is more broad
approach than bottom-up and related with daily lives. When we match drama or
movie, we usually focus on whole meaning, not structure or forms. Likewise, we
listen to news programs to grasp overall content and music by understanding the
whole meaning. The materials that can be used in the top-down are prevalent.
[39, pag.34]

18

Bottom-up strategies are text-based; the listener relies on the language aspects
(sounds, vocabulary, grammar). In other words, a bottom-up strategy is a process of
decoding the sounds we hear from the smallest units to complete texts. [31, pag.275]
Bottom-up strategies include: listening for specific details; recognizing cognates;
recognizing word-order patterns. A bottom-up strategy is known due to details and
segments that it requires. It concentrates on forms and structure. English learning
students use this activity to enhance their listening ability. Dictation and listening
tasks are included in this. In class, fill in the blanks activity can increase students
awareness of forms. However, a bottom-up strategy doesnt mean that it excludes all
authentic things. When we need deep concentration on details, we use this activity.
For example, weather forecast, phone number and advertisement having implied
meaning need special focus on details to understand. Besides, tongue twisters can be
a good exercise for students to notice subtle difference in various English forms and
pronunciation. [9, pag.61]
Murphy analyzed the listening strategies of ESL college students. His analysis
is based on think-loud protocols. He had students interact with the listening texts
and talk about what they were doing and thinking, and how they were going about
their listening. He came up with twelve strategies in four broad strategy groupings.
His four strategy groupings, in order of their frequency of occurrence are Recalling,
Speculating, Probing, and Introspecting.
Recalling involves paraphrasing textual information by the learners, putting what
they have heard into their own words. This indicates that learners are attempting to
recall what they heard as exactly as they can. Murphy identifies three recalling
strategies:
a) Paraphrasing rephrasing the information.
b) Revising learners are changing their minds and correcting
themselves concerning some information they may have misunderstood the
first time they heard it.

19

c) Checking checking when recalling information in order to support or

verify something they had already introduced in their own comments.
[27, pag.13-14]
Speculating involves introducing listener-based information it goes well beyond
recalling. Listeners are using their imagination to help them in their listening.
Murphy identifies four speculating strategies:
a) Inferring listening between the lines, pulling separate pieces of
textual information together or synthesizing.
b) Connecting drawing associations between what they hear and
what they already know (note the importance of prior knowledge).
c) Personalizing listeners personalize their responses they make a
connection with what they already know as with connecting, but here they
draw connections from their private lives or personal world view, whereas
with connecting, the information would be commonly available as general
knowledge. For example, the text is about nervous personality types, and one
of the informants connects what he hears to his mothers boss and the mans
behavior.
d) Anticipating listeners attempt to predict information that might be
introduced at some future point in time. [27, pag.15-17]
Probing involves going beneath the surface of the information presented. Murphy
identifies three probing strategies:
a) Analyzing the topics trying to find out more information than has been
presented to them by such means as asking questions.
b) Analyzing the conventions of language focusing on specific features of the
linguistic system such as definitions of words, pronunciation, and cohesive
ties.
c) Evaluating the topics listeners make comments which are judgments or
20

critical assessments concerning the information they have heard, for example
contesting what they heard, based on what they knew to be the case. One
informant challenged what was said in the text about the epidemic proportions
of heart disease, by relating it to a different reality in his home country.
[27, pag.17-19]
Introspecting involves listeners focusing their attention inward and reflecting on
their own experiences as listeners to the selections. Murphy identifies two
introspective strategies:
a) Self-evaluating comments that show that learners are trying to keep track of
how well they are doing while engaged in listening, e.g. I understand that
completely, but I think I already knew the most of it before she explained it
or This is really too hard for me.
b) Self-describing students explain something about how they listen or what
they are trying to do as they listen, e.g. I said to myself, Well I missed this
the first time but now I remember or It all came back to me on my way
home. [27, pag.19-20]
Willing sees learning strategies as a means of information control a means
of learners avoiding becoming overloaded and overwhelmed. The strategies of
this type that Willing identifies, which specifically relate to listening, are as follows:
a) Selectively attending involves focusing on the main points according to

different criteria, which results in a reduction of information load. This is an

essential strategy if listeners are to avoid becoming overwhelmed.
b) Associating is a very cognitive process: keeping together items sharing a

semantic field such as words all related to marriage; or features that share an
effective tone such as anger tones. As Willing states, This strategy takes
information in and merges it with what has already been internalizedin this
way the person places the information under his control. This process of
21

association relates directly to the notion of activating prior knowledge when

listening.
c) Recognizing patterns involves recognizing, matching and reproducing patterns.

Willing is referring mainly to syntactic patterns. By recognizing patterns when

listening, learners are able to make analogies which will assist in the guessing
meaning.
d) Analyzing involves the extraction of particular features from a given context.

Here learners perceive a particular part of a patter which can be moved or

manipulated through categorizing or inferencing.
e) Categorizing is based on analyzing the extracted features are used to form

concepts and groups.

f) Inferencing consists of discovering a solution by deriving it from what is

already known. This involves bringing together different parts of the known
plus prior knowledge, enabling learners to understand that which is inferred.
Take, for example, the following dialogue between a parent and a child:
Parent: How did you do in the History test?
Child: Ms. Panzerottis tests are always unfair.
Competent listeners know that the inference is that the child did poorly.
[50, pag.271-273]
Successful listening depends on the ability to combine these strategies.
Activities which work on each strategy separately should help students become
more effective listeners in real-life situations or longer classroom listening. By
raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active engagement,
and by explicitly teaching listening strategies, teachers assist students develop
both the ability and the confidence to handle communication situations they may
encounter beyond the classroom. In this way they give their students the
foundation for communicative competence in the new language.

1.6. The stages of a Listening Lesson

22

Students do not have an innate understanding of what effective listeners do;

therefore, it is the responsibility of teachers to share that knowledge with them.
Perhaps the most valuable way to teach listening skills is for teachers to model them
themselves, creating an environment, which encourages listening. Teachers can create
such an environment by positive interaction, actively listening to all students and
responding in an open and appropriate manner. Teachers should avoid responding
either condescendingly or sarcastically. As much as possible, they should minimize
distractions and interruptions. When a teacher provides numerous opportunities for
students to practice listening the subsequent phases are mandatory: pre-listening,
while-listening, and post-listening.

Pre-listening
Pre-listening is the preparation stage for while-listening. The main purpose of the
pre-listening stage is to prepare the learners for what they are going to hear by:
activating existing prior knowledge, introducing necessary schematic knowledge or
introducing the language which students will encounter. The most important thing is
to provide sufficient context to match what would be available in real life and to
create motivation. This can be realized by helping learners become conscious of the
purpose of the upcoming listening input. As some researchers claim, listening is
always with a purpose or some reason, because listeners are limited processors.
Therefore, teachers should help listeners narrow down their attention for the
upcoming input and focus their attention on the relevant part so as to lessen the load
of listening. [4, pag.58]
Pre-listening techniques are the following: brainstorming, setting the scene,
question/answer, analyzing, predicting, pre-teaching vocabulary, paraphrase, etc.

23

a) Brainstorming a technique where students randomly generate ideas based

around a topic.
b) Setting the scene a technique that provides the background information to

activate students' schema, so they are better prepared to understand the text
they will hear.
c) Question/Answer a technique where students answer to a set of questions to

get the idea of what they are going to listen.

d) Analyzing a technique where students are to analyze a diagram, chart,

pictures, schemes etc.

e) Predicting a technique used before listening to a text, where students predict

what they are going to hear. This gives them a reason to listen attentively, as
they confirm or reject their predictions.
f) Pre-teaching vocabulary a technique meant to make students acquainted

with the words they might not know during while-listening.

g) Paraphrase a technique consisting in the reproduction of spoken material in

a different form that is, using different words of the same language to express
the same ideas. Long passages can be broken down into short bits and each
bit paraphrased as it is heard. [12, pag.129-133]
This stage should be restricted to a few minutes. Excessive discussion of the
topic may mean that too much of the content of the listening passage has been
anticipated. Concerning pre-teaching vocabulary, it may only be necessary for the
teacher to present two or three key words without which understanding of the text
would be impossible. This will match real life situation, where learners cannot expect
to have unknown words explained in advance. Another important function of prelistening is to give full play to learners initiatives by activating their background
knowledge. Learners are not passive in their listening, rather, they are active mental
builders, always ready to draw inferences and make predictions with the help of
their internal resources. Teachers can divide learners into groups to discuss and
predict what they are going to listen to with certain clues. In doing so, learners can be
24

motivated and activated to take part in the classroom activities and consequently can
stand more chance of becoming active and successful listeners. [1, pag.64]

While-listening
While-listening is the stage at which listening is accompanied by carefully
designed activities and experience the pleasure of success. The core purpose of this
stage is to help learners understand the text, to involve them in an authentic purpose
for listening and encourage them to attend to the text more intensively. Task-based
activities are encouraged. Learners are required to finish some tasks with the
information they have extracted from the text. While-listening techniques are the
following: labeling, listening for gist, listening for specific information, listening for
pronunciation, gap-filling, matching, true/false, sequencing, ticking off items, jigsaw
listening, detecting mistakes, naming features, note-taking, question/answer,
multiple-choice, cloze, agreeing/disagreeing, etc.
a) Labeling a technique that consists in marking, distinguishing or pointing out

of some parts of an object, information, pictures or paragraphs etc. [24, pag.59]

b) Listening for the gist a technique where students scan a passage and then

are asked one or two questions that focus on the main idea or the tone or mood
of the whole passage. It enables students to gather broad information, and then
use it to discuss, debate, and support opinions. [24, pag.60]
c) Listening for specific information a technique where students listen only to

some specific details and ignore the rest of the message. [24, pag.61]
d) Listening for pronunciation a technique where students listen to a passage

and punctuate it according to the way it is read, demonstrating how non-verbal

signals in spoken language can be reflected in punctuation. [33, pag.41]
e) Gap-filling a technique where students are asked to fill in missing words,

phrases or sentences using hints given before and after the gap. [33, pag.42]

25

f) Matching a technique where students have to match two the items which

have the same or opposite meaning as those the students hear, or matching the
pictures with the descriptions heard. [49, pag.142]
g) True/False a technique in which students are presented with a statement and

are asked to say or mark whether it is true or false. This kind of activity is very
usefully exploited to check their understanding of the recorded text or to revise
the material learned in the class. [49, pag.77]
h) Sequencing a technique where students use a series of pictures, headlines,

paragraphs, events etc. They are asked to identify them, either naming or
numbering them, in the order in which they were mentioned by the taperecorder. [49, pag.96]
i) Ticking off items a technique based on a list of words which the student

listens to and ticks off or categorizes as he hears them. [49, pag.74]

j) Jigsaw listening a technique performed by groups of students who listen to

different but connected passages, each of which supplies some part of what
they need to know. They then come together to exchange and pool their
information and are thereby enabled to reconstruct a complete picture of a
situation, or perform another task. [49, pag.152]
k) Detecting mistakes a technique where students are to detect and correct the

mistakes they come across during while-listening stage. Mistakes of grammar

are not used and only the mistakes of meaning and comprehension are. Wrong
can be an erroneous detail in the recorded text; or it may be a mistake in terms
of reality; or it may just be a word or a phrase that does not go with what was
said before. [49, pag.80]
l) Naming features a technique where students are given a map. Students are

to identify, listening to the tape-script, the name of various regions and their
features. [49, pag.101]
m) Note-taking a technique centered on taking down some necessary or

requested information. [12, pag.128]

26

n) Question/Answer a technique where students answer to a set of questions to

be checked their comprehension of the recorded text. [12, pag.133]

o) Multiple-Choice a technique where students are to choose one correct

variant out of many to prove his understanding about the listening text.
[12, pag.137]
p) Cloze a technique based on a written text in which some words are left out

and blanks are inserted. Cloze paragraphs are often used to assess listening or
reading comprehension because the word choices students make provide the
teacher with an opportunity to evaluate their understanding of the meaning of
the text. Based on observation of students oral reading or running records, the
teacher is able to identify students who are not using cross-checking of
phonological and meaning cues.
q) Agreeing/Disagreeing a technique of expressing and justifying opinions.

[17, pag.231-232]
Such task-based activities can encourage students to use different kinds of
listening skills and strategies to achieve understanding in an active way. Taskbased activities of this kind reflect much more closely the type of response that might
be given to a listening experience in real life. They also provide a more reliable way
of checking understanding and the task of filling forms, labeling diagrams on making
choices oblige every learner to try to make something of what they are hearing.
Afterwards teachers should provide necessary clues such as contextual information of
speakers, of the relationship among speakers, etc. to help learners cope with their
problems they come across in the process of listening. While-listening is not only a
stage to encourage listeners to demonstrate their comprehension and to make their
problems plain to the teacher rather than hide them, but also a stage for teachers to
teach and help learners build up their listening skills and strategies so as to increase
listeners chances of success in listening tasks. [28, pag.160]

27

Post-listening
Post listening aims to help students connect what they have heard with their own
ideas and experience and also move easily from listening to another skill. Postlistening techniques are the following: problem solving, summarizing, discussion,
guessing, transformation, writing, etc.
a) Problem solving a technique where students after listening to all the

information relevant to a particular problem try to save it by themselves.

[49, pag.145]
b) Summarizing a technique where students make a summary using the notes,

which they have made during the while-listening stage, to be checked their
comprehension of the recorded text. [49, pag.146]
c) Discussion a technique in the form of debates, interviews, role-plays,

simulations or dramatization. The questions of this activity encourage the

exchange of knowledge that is often possible with students that are different
and have things to tell about. The questions or statements provided will
broaden their cognitive framework after they have listened to an audio text.
[40, pag.31]
d) Guessing a technique where students try to guess what recorded text will be

about. The teacher can define or describe something (having told students in
advance what the nature of the thing is). Better is a set of pictures like a
cartoon-strip, where students really have to listen carefully to identify which
picture is meant. [49, pag.87]
e) Transformation a technique that consists in practicing grammar tenses.

[49, pag.76]
f) Writing dialogues, letters, telegrams, postcards, messages etc., as a follow-

up to listening activities.[49, pag.77]

Instead of spending time examining the grammar of the listening text, we take
post-listening as a means of reinforcing recently learned material. If necessary,
the teacher can play the while text again and ask the students to compare their
28

understanding of it in pairs or in groups, encourage them to disagree with each other,

and increase their motivation for a second listening. After playing the text for the
second time, students can revise their views. Instead of telling them who is right and
who is wrong, the teacher can ask students to provide evidence to support their views.
In this way listening becomes a much more interactive activity. We can also take the
chance to let students practice speaking and writing. First they can have discussion
and presentation, which at the same time can serve as a pre-writing activity. After
sharing ideas, they can write something related to the passage. [48, pag.13]
At the end of the stage, teachers should make sure that necessary feedback to
learners performance is offered and received. Learners problems are summarized
and tackled by reviewing the difficult parts, and newly taught skills and strategies
will be reinforced by encouraging learners to apply them in their out-of-class
listening practice. [42, pag.22]
In teaching listening, there are many things that need to be explored. Teaching
listening is more than just playing tapes and testing students comprehension. We
must fulfill the ultimate goal of teaching of listening that is to help our students to
become competent listeners. And the new approach with a combination of prelistening, while-listening and post-listening can contribute to such a goal. Therefore,
introduction of such an approach with the three as integrated parts should be made
into our listening class. In doing so, our students develop their listening competence
along with other abilities to become effective and successful listeners both in and out
of the classroom.

29

Chapter II. Listening Practical Activities used to develop the

Discourse Competence at the Intermediate Level
2.1. Intermediate Level One of the Seven English Language
Proficiency Levels
In the previous chapter we have provided the theoretical data on what steps to
follow, what strategies to use, what principles to take in consideration when teaching
listening, what and how can affect students comprehension in the classroom and real
life situations. However, this information is of no value, if not applied into practice.
Consequently, in this chapter we will study and exemplify activities provided for prelistening, while-listening and post-listening stages considering the level, the
principles and the strategies initially mentioned.
English, as any other foreign language, can be gradually improved. Based on the
degree of English language proficiency, we distinguish the sequent levels:
30

Beginning/Preproduction,

Pre-Intermediate,

Intermediate,

Upper-Intermediate,

Advanced, Limited-English Proficient/Now Fully-English Proficient, Fully-English

Proficient/Never Limited-English Proficient.
Level 1 is also called entering. A student shall be classified to this level if he does
not understand or speak English with the exception of a few isolated words or
expressions. A student shall be classified to level 2 if all of the following criteria are
met: he understands and speaks conversational and academic English with hesitancy
and difficulty; he understands parts of lessons and simple directions; he is at a preemergent or emergent level of reading and writing in English, significantly below
grade level. Level 3 is also called developing. Here the student must understand
and speak conversational and academic English with decreasing hesitancy and
difficulty; be post-emergent in developing reading comprehension and writing skills
in English; his English literacy skills must allow him to demonstrate academic
knowledge in content areas with assistance. Level 4, also called expanding, can be
characterized by the students ability to understand and speak conversational English
without apparent difficulty, but to understand and speak academic English with some
hesitancy; here he continues to acquire reading and writing skills in content areas
needed to achieve grade level expectations with assistance. Level 5 or bridging,
refers to the student who understands and speaks conversational and academic
English well, who is nearly proficient in reading, writing, and content area skills
needed to meet grade level expectations which requires occasional support. The
student shall be classified to level 6 if he was formerly limited-English proficient and
is now fully English proficient; he reads, writes, speaks and comprehends English
within academic classroom settings. The student, whose level of English is 7, is the
one who was never classified as limited-English proficient and does not fit the
definition of a limited-English proficient student outlined in either state of federal
law.
Students of intermediate level have their own discrepancy in reading, listening,
writing, spoken interaction and production. For instance, when listening they can
31

understand the main points of clear standard speech on familiar matters regularly
encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. or the main point of many radio or TV
programs on current affairs or topics of personal or professional interest when the
delivery is relatively slow and clear. As regards the reading activity, students can
understand texts that consist mainly of high frequency, everyday or job-related
language, or they can catch the description of events, feelings and wishes in personal
letters. In spoken interaction he deals with most situations likely to arise while
travelling in an area where the language is spoken. He is able to enter unprepared into
conversation on topics that are familiar, of personal interest or pertinent to everyday
life (e.g. family, hobbies, work, travel and current events). Spoken production denotes
his ability to connect phrases in a simple way in order to describe experiences and
events, dreams, hopes and ambitions. He can briefly give reasons and explanations
for opinions and plans. He can narrate a story or relate the plot of a book or film and
describe his reactions. The writing ability of the intermediate level outlines that the
student can write simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal
interest. Personal letters describing experiences and impressions are not giving him a
hard time either. When we listen to an intermediate level student we will hear
mistakes and sometimes the verb tenses and forms get a bit confused. That is because
their vocabulary is fairly correct and they use basic grammar. The tone and style are
not refined yet but there is an awareness of pronunciation and what it entitles.
We cant but mention that different educational systems from other countries have
their own syllabus adjusted to their interpretation about the levels of English.
Nevertheless, students are to study from books that satisfy their knowledge of
English. Knowing the level of proficiency in any language is very important
as we outflank such problems as students misunderstanding, students
disappointment of not being able to catch up or students failure.

2.2. Pre-listening Activities

32

Listening is often associated with tape recorders, videos, DVDs, with the back-up
of gist questions, comprehension questions and scripts. However, listening takes
place all the time in the classroom whether students listen to a recorded speech, to the
teacher or each other. Students themselves are perhaps one of the best sources of
listening material but they may be reluctant to listen to each other unless given a
specific task which is challenging and purposeful. These activities do not only rely on
technology, but also exploit teacher-student or student-student listening and employ a
range of features to produce activities that are enjoyable and effective. A welldesigned listening activity should be broken down into carefully sequenced "phases"
that build on each other. The initial pre-listening stage should prepare students by
helping them activate their background knowledge and clarify their expectations
and assumptions about the text. An ideal pre-listening task is one in which the
teacher, through carefully constructed questions, helps the students to activate the
background information and language components needed to comprehend the text
without giving this information to the students.In the theorectical chapter, we have
mentioned a range of elicitation techniques for each of the listening stage. Now, we
provide some tips, which will make them even more effective, and some activities to
exemplify each technique.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming technique generates new, useful ideas and promotes creative thinking.
The use of this technique helps to: tap into prior knowledge; give all students a
chance to express their ideas; eliminate fear of failures; show respect for each other;
try something without fear; tap into individuality and creativity; eliminate the fear of
risk-taking. Once the brainstorming activity is done, we have a great deal of
information on where to take the next topic. Here are some basic rules to follow when
conducting a brainstorm in the classroom with a small or whole group of students:
there are no wrong answers; get as many ideas as possible; record all ideas; do not
express your evaluation on any idea presented. Prior to starting a new topic or
33

concept, the brainstorm technique provides the teacher a great deal of information
regarding what the student may or may not know.
Activity 1. We can divide the needs of human beings into two categories physical
and psychological/social. What needs do you think all people must satisfy
in order to live happily? Put your ideas in order of importance under the
two headings in the chart. Some may be equally important. Next, get into
groups to discuss similarities and differences in your charts.
See app.1 [46, pag.15]
Activity 2. The situation with the child and the bad drawing is not difficult to decide.
However, most ethical dilemmas are not so clear and simple. In the word
of business, ethical decisions are constantly being made. Look at the
following situations and write what you would do. Give reasons. When
you finish, discuss your answer in small groups. See app.2 [46, pag.38-39]
Activity 3. Think about an accident or near-accident you had when you were a child.
Write notes below. When you are ready, exchange the stories with a
partner. [3, pag.36]
Setting the scene
As we have mentioned in the previous chapter, listening to passages in the classroom
can be more difficult than in real life because of the lack of contest or visual support,
or background noise. So by setting the scene we can help students at proving the
background information in order to activate students schema. This way they will be
better prepared to understand what they hear.
Activity 1. Look at the following pictures, posters and CD-s. To whom are they
related? [45, pag.11]
Activity 2. Look at the labels. Can you tell what a persons identity is? [45, pag.13]
Question/Answer

34

Asking and answering questions is a form of active learning that has a place within
any classroom format. Questions asked by the teacher or activities used involving
such technique can involve students more fully in a lecture, leading to deeper
understanding of course material. When we use this technique we look for activities,
which are whether for the pre-listening or while-listening stage, that have open-ended
and not just close-ended questions. A close ended question can usually be answered
with yes or no, or a short, often factual answer. An open-ended question leaves the
form of the answer up to the responder and usually elicits more information and
thinking. Such questions may intrigue the student and make him be aware of the upcoming task. Close-ended questions are more appropriate to check whether students
remember specific information, to check procedural steps or to get their attention.

Activity 1. Answer the following questions:

a. What are the students like who study English in the United States? Are

they undergraduate or graduate students? What are their majors?

b. In Intensive English programs in the United States, where do you think

most students are from?

c. What do you think most students in these programs have as their major?

[18, pag.13]
Activity 2. Answer the questions:
a. Do you take any form of regular, physical exercise? If so, what, and

why? If not, why not?

b. How important is a good health to you? What are the best ways of

keeping fit and healthy? Do you have any tips?

c. Have you ever bought a book of keep fit exercise? If so, why, and do

you still use it? [42, pag.12]

35

Gap-filling
Gap-filling activities are useful because they are very meaningful; all students are
involved in the process equally and they are all moving towards a specific purpose.
Each student has the task of finding out certain information, and therefore must find a
way in which to ask for this information. Motivation is usually quite high in these
activities. These activities help move the students from working in a more structured
environment into a more communicative environment; they are hopefully using lots
of the target language, and in the process discovering where they have gaps. Knowing
where these gaps are gives them a direction in which to improve.
Activity 1. Check your schedule. How well do you manage time? Look at the
following schedule and spend at least 3 minutes filling it out. Include your
work, school, travel and study time. Dont forget to write your leisure
time! See app.3 [46, pag.2]
Activity 2. Fill in the spidergrams with the food in the pictures (1-5) according to the
way they can be cooked. See app.4 [14, pag.27]
Activity 3. Complete the information about yourself by finishing the sentences.
See app.5 [41, pag.4]
Analyzing
This technique prepares or gives the students a hint what the lesson is going to be
about. It can be regarded as a catching-hook technique as it intrigues or motivates the
student. It develops their awareness of the context; their critical thinking skills
conceptual learning techniques, particularly in regards to visual images and also
enhances their observation and interpretive skills.
Activity 1. What kind of living situation does each picture show? [39, pag.26]
Activity 2. Look at these diagrams. Study them carefully, and then do exercise 5.
See app.6 [42, pag.13]
Activity 3. Here is a palm print of one of the authors of this book. Compare it with
36

your own hand. Can you find the same lines on your hand? Do they look
the same? Are they stronger, weaker, longer, shorter? [44, pag.31]
Predicting
Predicting involves thinking ahead and anticipating information or events. The
strategy of making predictions actively engages students and connects them to the
text by asking them what they think might occur in the story. After making
predictions, students can listen to the text and refine, revise, and verify their
predictions. Making predictions activates students' prior knowledge about the text
and helps them make connections between new information and what they already
know.
Activity 1. You are going to hear a story about a young girl. Look at the picture. What
do you think has happened? See app.7 [3, pag.34]
Activity 2. Work in pairs. Look at three titles in the box below and predict the
contents of the texts. When you are ready, join another pair and compare
your predictions and the clues that helped you to make the predictions.
See app.8 [45, pag.19]
Pre-teaching vocabulary
The pre-teaching of unfamiliar words before listening is very important. Listening to
the tape without pre-teaching vocabulary makes the process of understanding the
words even more difficult because students cant see them as in reading. Our goal is
to determine, define and discuss which words in the text are unfamiliar to them. We
must go into full detail about the meanings behind the words. This helps the students
understand their connotations and direct meanings. Building up vocabulary helps
ensure that they come across as smart and focused in future conversations. Preteaching vocabulary has its place, especially with low-level learners. Elementary, pre-

37

intermediate and sometimes intermediate level students should be taught some tricky
vocabulary before a reading, listening or speaking activity so they have words to
work with and understand. Its vital for students to understand at this framework to
keep high levels of autonomous learning and intrinsic motivation, with that little extra
help from us.
Activity 1. Practice reading and saying aloud these vocabulary words. How many of
the words do you already know? Read the explanation given to them.
[46, pag.21]
Activity 2. Before you listen to the tape, practice the pronunciation of the following
key words with your teacher. Notice the syllable in each word with the
most important stress. [18, pag.14]

Paraphrase
Describing information that students have already heard using their own words is
paraphrasing. When a text has been well paraphrased, all of the details in the original
text should be retained and should have the same meaning. It is much longer than a
summary, which contains only the most important information. When a student learns
something new, he builds on existing knowledge. When a student is asked to
paraphrase he uses his own words, synonyms or synonym phrases. He also changes
the order of the information, changes the grammar and sentence structure which
makes him practice all that continuously. He tends to keep the meaning, as well as the
emphasis on and relationships between main and supporting points the same and
moreover he references the original text when paraphrasing written or listening
material.
Activity 1. Write down or say out aloud how you might paraphrase these examples.

38

See app.9 [44, pag.36]

Activity 2. Paraphrase the headlines give below. [44, pag.37]
Pre-listening activities are of a great value because they prepare the students for
listening activity. Activities like question/answer, analyzing, predicting, brainstorming, awaken their motivation and awareness of what they are going to listen to.
In real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance something which is
going to be said, who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about. The prelistening stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the
necessary background information. We suggest introducing some preliminary
discussion though asking questions in which students can talk together about their
expectations and make predictions about what they are going to hear. The abilities of
predicting what others are going to talk about help at using one's own knowledge of
the subject. These skills contribute to building feedback for the whole exercise. When
doing exercises in the classroom, we also advise asking students to guess what they
are going to hear next, which will keep the class actively involved. And probably the
most indispensable one is pre-teaching vocabulary. The lack of understanding of what
the tape-script evokes can be a failure experience for most intermediate level
students.

2.3. While-listening Activities

In while-listening activities students can check their comprehension of what they
expected/predicted and what they actually hear. Students may focus on the content:
what the topics are; how the topics are related to each other; or on the speakers use
of language: what words the speakers use to introduce a new idea; how they change
the topic; how they express uncertainty; how their intonation changes during the text.
The nature of these activities is to help learners to listen for the meaning that is to

39

elicit a message from spoken language. That means that students should focus their
attention on listening itself, rather than on worrying about reading, writing, grammar
or spelling. At he while-listening stage students should not worry about interpreting
long questions or giving full answers, but they should concentrate on comprehension,
whether they have understood important information from the passage. Whilelistening activities may also prompt students reactions to the ideas in the listening
text; for example, students may ask themselves questions like: Do I agree with what
they say? Is there another side to what they say?.
Labeling
Labeling or marking is one of the most popular exercises during while-listening. This
is a very simple exercise, but it should not be rejected by teachers due to its apparent
simplicity. The aim here is not to test students' abilities to make correct sentences
based on the listening passage but to assist concentration on the text. This type of
activity is good for helping learners to focus their minds on listening itself as they do
not have to write down words.
Activity 1. Read the following sentences and underline the words you think should be
stressed. Mark the parts of the words with if the pitch is higher than
normal and if the pitch is lower than normal. Than listen to the
recording and check your answers, correcting them if necessary.
[46, pag.27]
Activity 2. You are going to hear about an ancient calculator called abacus. You
will hear a definition of what an abacus is and then will label its parts.
See app.10 [12, pag.59]
Activity 3. Listen to four people saying what they did last night. Who said these lines?
Write a number 1-4. [45, pag.24]
Activity 4. Listen to Sylvia, Steven and Pam talking about how they get home from
their school. Mark the routes on the map and write the children's names in

40

their houses. See app.11 [44, pag.49]

Listening for the gist
It is very important to give students practice in this area, because in real life, they will
not be able to listen to something several times. Therefore, it will be impossible for
them to catch all the details, so they need to be comfortable with some ambiguity in
listening and realize that they can still learn even when they dont understand every
single word. Listening for gist is similar to the concept of skimming a passage in
reading. The key is to ask students one or two questions that focus on the main idea
or the tone or mood of the whole passage. We should mention that students can
answer the gist questions even though they do not understand every word or phrase in
the passage. If the passage is recorded well, students will be able to guess the answer
simply from the tone of voices of speakers.
Activity 1. Listen for the main idea. Then get in pairs and provide each other one or
two sentence summary of what you have heard. [10, pag.42]
Activity 2. Listen for general comprehension. Then share what you have understood
with the classroom. [10, pag.42]
Listening for specific information
There are situations in real life where we listen only for some specific details and
ignore the rest of the entire message. For instance, when we listen to the weather
report on TV, we are only interested in the temperature in the city where we live or
where we plan to go on the weekend, or when we are sitting in a train station or an
airport, we do not listen to the details of all the announcements. It is important to
expose our students to a variety of types of listening texts for a variety of purposes so
that they will develop a great many strategies to use for different situations.
Activity 1. Jane has left a telephone message on Kates answering machine. Shes
coming to visit Kate. What specific information is important to Kate?
See app.12 [10, pag.43]
Activity 2. Billy and Splodge are in a spaceship. They are visiting lots of colourful
41

planets. What strange creatures do Billy and Splodge find on the planets?
[45, pag.16]
Listening for pronunciation
Developing accurate pronunciation at our students might be challenging if they listen
only to our speech. Teachers who are not native speakers of English somehow have
their own accent when speaking it. We have to provide as many listening activities as
possible so that the students are able to understand different dialects of English.
Pronunciation is difficult to teach without some drills on sounds. The trick to working
with drills is not to work on individual sounds for more than a few minutes a time
because they become boring and demotivating. It is important to combine drilling
pronunciation exercises with more meaningful exercises whatever aspect of
pronunciation is the focus for the lesson.
Activity 1. Listen and practice. Notice that the t in final position in shouldnt is not
strongly pronounced. [6, pag.21]
Activity 2. Listen and practice. Notice the different pronunciations of th. See app.13
[6, pag.45]
Activity 3. Listen and practice. Notice the pronunciation of vowel sounds followed
by r. See app.14 [6, pag.49]
Gap-filling
Activity 1. Listen to the tape. The first time, listen for vocabulary from the Academic
Word List. Then fill in the blanks in the column with the words you hear.
[46, pag.25]
Activity 2. Listen to the story again. Then complete the summary of the story using
the numbers in the box. See app.15 [3, pag.30]
Activity 3. Listen to the dialogues and complete the Function File. [16, pag.102]
Activity 4. Listen and complete Bs responses. Practice the conversation with a
partner. See app.16. [49, pag.142]
42

Activity 5. Watch Jude and Garys Evening In and complete the dialogue.
See app.17 [14, pag.32]
Matching
Matching, as true/false and ticking off items activities, are easy and not stressing
exercises. Students may match vocabulary words, parts of sentences, pictures, etc.
Activity 1. Listen to the tape. The first time, listen for vocabulary from the Academic
Word List. Then match the statements from column A with those from
column B. [46, pag.25]
Activity 2. Match parts of the sentences. The words in bold are from the Academic
Word List you just studied. The first one has been done for you.
[46, pag.50]
Activity 3. Listen and match the pictures with the dialogues. [16, pag.102]

True/False
This is a very simple and well-known exercise, in which the students are presented
with a statement and asked to say whether it is true or false. Almost any type of
written or spoken discourse or visual aid can serve as a basis for them, so can be
known facts or stories. True/false exercises are very usefully exploited to revise
material learnt in the class. They help students train their memory and check how
they have caught the specific information and not only the main idea.
Activity 1. Listen to each statement. Is the statement true? Write T on the blank line.
Is the statement false? Write F on the blank line. [12, pag.3]
Activity 2. Use your notes to decide whether each of the following statements is true
or false. If the statement is false, underline the information that is
incorrect. Change this information so that the statement will be true,
43

according to the lecture. Circle T for true and F for false.

See app. 18 [18, pag.18]
Activity 3. Listen again. Are the statements true or false? Tick the correct answers.
See app.19 [6, pag.23]
Sequencing
Sequencing activities simply involve students putting a sequence of steps in a process
or events in the correct order. Sequencing activities not only assist students to
remember the order in cases where this is important, but give them a language to talk
about the text they have listened to. They can involve text instructions, pictures or
diagrams, or combinations of these. If used in groups or pairs then, in order to
promote cooperation and discussion, the set of instructions are cut into strips for
students in pairs or groups, to assemble correctly. Sequencing activities have a
number of benefits they: assist students remember the text; help students learn the
names of the events in the text; encourage students to use the language associated
with the text; promote student sharing of their understanding if used with pairs or
small groups.
Activity 1. Before you listen again, try to number the pictures in the order the events
happened. Then listen and check your work. See app.20 [3, pag.35]
Activity 2. Listen to the announcement of the order of games at sports meeting. Mark
the following games with numbers 1-7 according to the order they are
played. [45, pag.17]
Ticking off items
Ticking off items activities are simple and not demanding at all. Their advantage goes
hand in hand with predicting the right answer by seeing in front the variants. Even if
the student is not sure about the answer he can easily pick up one by eliminating the
most irrelevant or unsuitable variant.
Activity 1. Using the rules on the previous page, listen to sentences and number the
44

words a or b in the order that you hear them. Then tick S if the meaning of
the words is similar or D if their meaning is different. [46, pag.48]
Activity 2. Listen to the story. Then tick the best headline. [3, pag.35]
Activity 3. Listen. Some people are talking about their living situations. What bothers
them about where they live? See app.21 [39, pag.26]
Jigsaw listening
Such activities develop the skill of concentrating on more than one task at the same
time. Students listen to a text, speak on it and listen to others to reconstruct the
information in the text. Managing a jigsaw listening exercise is more challenging as it
requires multiple tape recorders, enough space to listen without disturbing other
groups, and time. As this is a demanding task the texts should not be too difficult. All
that should be done is to put students in groups of three, facing each other, and give
each an equally long part of a story or text. They read their parts aloud
simultaneously, while trying to listen to just one of the other texts, for example,
student A listens to B, B listens to C and C listens to A. When they have finished,
without looking at the texts, they should decide on the order and give a summary of
the part that they have just listened to.
Activity 1. Get into small groups of three. Listen to the song. Each group has to write
down one verse. Do it in a cycling manner. Then play together the entire
song. See app.22 [44, pag.57]
Activity 2. Work in groups. Make three groups and receive one of the following texts
with the title: Connecting dots, Love and Loss, Death. Each group
has to read the text and then retell it to the others. [44, pag.57]
Detecting mistakes
Such exercises train students memory, grammar and vocabulary. They help students
exercise their listening comprehension, make them sensitive to detecting errors in

45

their own speech or their interlocutors and make them take chances in correcting
them on word.
Activity 1. Listen again. Look at the brochure for Camp Star. Correct the five
mistakes. [39, pag.27]
Activity 2. Listen to a travel writer and find eight mistakes in the interview below.
[16, pag.10]
Activity 3. You are given a description of the room in the picture. Correct the
mistakes that the author has made when describing it.
See app.23 [49, pag.81]
Activity 4. Listen to a brief report about a tidal wave that struck Japan several years
ago. Like all news reports, this report is full of factual information.
Factual information contains the names of places, dates, numbers, or
happenings. After you listen to the report, you will read five statements
about the tidal wave. You have to check the accuracy of some statements
made about the event by catching the error and correcting the sentence.
[12, pag.51]
Naming features
This activity is a mixture to labeling and listening for specific information activity.
We may use it to make the lesson more interesting as visuals are compulsory implied.
Activity 1. Here is the Island which has only been resettled, and the map-maker wants
to know from one of the settlers how he should name the various regions
and features. Listen to the tape and pay attention to the map.
See app.24 [49, pag.104]
Activity 2. Listen to the tape. Jacky is telling about her fresh decorated room. After
you finish listening, describe it with as many details as you remember.
[20, pag.54]
Note-taking
46

Activity 1. Listen to the tape on the importance of time management. As you listen the
first time, write down the most important information you hear. Then listen
a second time and fill in any information you might have missed. When
you finish, compare your notes with those of a classmate. [46, pag.3]
Activity 2. Listen to the tape about being a good note-taker. Then take notes on the
information using one of the note-taking strategies you just studied:
outline, map, Cornell, key word, paragraph. [46, pag.8]
Activity 3. Listen to three people talking about first time they fell in love. Take notes
and complete the chart. See app.25 [45, pag.28]
Question/Answer
Activity 1. Do you think Kevin and Cathy will go to Camp Star? Why or why not?
Would you go to Camp Star? Why or why not? [39, pag.27]
Activity 2. Listen to the radio program about Marek Kaminski and answer the
questions. [16, pag.17]

Multiple-choice
Multiple-choice activities show students comprehension of messages. They are quite
difficult activities requiring from students not only certain listening abilities but also
reading, writing and memory skills as the learners listen and read (or understand) the
questions, write down the answers and must remember what was said before they
come up with the answer. They should comprise up to 25% of overall activities in
one listening lesson.
Activity 1. Listen to some short conversations and circle the answers that give the
meaning for the time expressions you hear. See app.26 [46, pag.18]
Activity 2. Read through these statements before you listen to the tape. As you listen
to the lecture for the first time, listen for the main ideas. Circle the letter of

47

the best answer. See app.27 [18, pag.15]

Cloze
Close activities provide an opportunity to teach English vocabulary and reading
decoding skills in a meaningful context. They are especially valuable because they
can be adapted to specific needs and language levels of students. Cloze sentences can
demonstrate to students that they dont have to be able to read every word to
understand the meaning. The context of the sentence, in combination with phonetic
and syntax cues, is very helpful in supporting the student in the identification of
unknown words.
Activity 1. Complete the text with the words that are given below.
See app.28 [30, pag.28]
Activity 2. Choose the verb for each space and put it into the present passive.
See app.29 [14, pag.32]

Agreeing/Disagreeing
This activity is a good base for motivating students to talk and/or make a debate.
Activity 1. Listen to three people talking about their rules for life. Discuss their ideas.
Are they optimists or pessimists? Do you agree or disagree?
See app.30 [45, pag.33]
Activity 2. Work with your partner. Share your answers from exercise A. Which
qualities do you agree are important? See app.31 [6, pag.17]
Activity 3. Look at the scene from a university class. Read the statements. Circle the
ones you agree with. See app.32 [6, pag.18]

Depending on the listening text we want to use, the skills of listening we want to
focus on, the level of our students and their interests, we can select while-listening
48

tasks that best fit the students needs. The best option is not to many of these
activities in one while-listening stage. While-listening exercises should be interesting
and challenging, they should guide the students to handle the information and
messages from the listening text.

2.4. Post-listening Activities

The post-listening stage comprises all the exercises which are done after listening
to the text. Some of these activities may be the extensions of those carried out at preand while-listening work but some may not be related to them at all and present a
totally independent part of the listening session. Post-listening activities allow the
learners to 'reflect' on the language from the passage; on sound, grammar and
vocabulary as they last longer than while-listening activities so the students have time
to think, discuss or write. If we have listened to a TV program presenting a certain
point of view regarding health care, for example, we can ask the students to do some
research and identify some opposing views to present them in class. Alternatively, we
may want to engage the students in a discussion of the merits of the views that were
expressed in the listening segment. Like post-reading activities, post-listening
activities allow for recycling and further activation of vocabulary and structures as
long as they are interesting and engaging and are carefully thought out. Post-listening
exercises should be interesting and motivating. Before a teacher chooses a certain
activity he must consider how much language work they wish to do with the
particular listening passage. How much time they will need to do a particular postlistening task; whether the post-listening stage will include speaking (discussion),
writing (dialogues or essays) and whether they want students to work individually, in
pairs or in groups.

Problem solving
49

Problem solving activities are the activities during which students hear all the
information relevant to a particular problem and then try to solve it by themselves. If
the learners find it difficult to remember the story we suggest a while-listening 'chartfilling' exercise so that students have a kind of 'summary' to refer to during the postlistening work.
Activity 1. You have listened to a problem that needs to be solved. Look at the
picture and discuss the problem with a partner to be sure you both
understand the nature of it. Then, work together to try to solve the
problem. See app.33 [12, pag.29]
Activity 2. Work in groups. Think about how you will solve the problem of stray
animals. [20, pag.67]
Summarizing
Summarizing is generally used when we want our students to refer to ideas
contained in the listening text. Summarizing enables them to reduce the author's ideas
to key points in an outline of the discussion or argument by omitting unnecessary
details and examples. We shall play the tape at least for one more time so that the
students rehear the unknown words taught in the pre-listening stage. Using their
notes they can identify the key words and think about the attitude of the author.
In their summary they may use synonyms, phrases or even the new vocabulary words
so these come in practice. Only so they can check that they have retained the meaning
and attitude of the original text.
Activity 1. To help you remember the information in your notes, turn back to the notetaking guide page. Write one paragraph summary of the important
information on a separate piece of paper. [18, pag.18]
Activity 2. Write a summary to the text Climbing up the leader, including the most
important points, using your own words. [20, pag.72]

50

Discussion
Discussion is not only speaking on the topic but also practicing grammar, vocabulary
and brainstorming of the existing knowledge.
Activity 1. What did you do last night? Discuss in small groups. [45, pag.24]
Activity 2. Listen to three conversations again. After each one discuss these questions:
a.

What is the problem?

b.

What is the advice?

c.

Do you agree with it? Give your advice if its different.

See app.34 [45, pag.31]

Activity 3. Discuss as a class. Which family member is the closest person to
you? [45, pag.52]
Guessing
Guessing can be as entertaining as all games taken together. It is important to perform
guessing activities in post-listening stage because if we do it during pre-listening our
students will become distracted. It is an advantage to this stage as it makes tired
students more refreshed. Such activities can usefully serve to practice or revise
vocabulary the students have been recently taught.
Activity 1. In teams, take turns choosing a job. Describe what this job involves or
what qualities are needed. The other team has two chances to guess what
the job is. Each correct guess gets one point. Team with the most points
wins. [14, pag.11]
Activity 2. Work with your partner. Can you guess the answers to the Science Trivia
Quiz? Circle your guesses. See app.35 [6, pag.42]
Activity 3. Work with your partner. Student B, turn to page 78. Dont show your page
to your classmates! Read the trivia questions and try to guess the missing
answers. See app.36 [6, pag.45]
Transformation
51

Grammar drills are good exercises that help students in speaking, writing and
listening. Transformation exercises help students have a deeper understanding of how
structures are formed and how they are used. If a listening text has one or the other
grammar structure in use, then we should encourage students to practice it widely on
their own. This way they reconstruct their audio memory and practice it.
Activity 1. Put the following sentences into the Passive Voice.
See app.37 [20, pag.30]
Activity 2. Join each pair of sentences using a Relative Pronoun, making only one
sentence. See app.38 [20, pag.48]
Activity 3. Present Perfect Simple or Continuous? Select the correct answer.
See app.39 [20, pag.19]
Writing
This writing is merely grammar drills or discussing in written form what the student
has read or listened to. It is the revision of grammar, vocabulary; an exercise for
students memory. This activity may require more time than the other activities so a
teacher shall make sure he can manage to monitor and check all students answers.
Activity 1. Use words from the box or any ideas of your own to form questions an
interviewer/interviewee could ask at a job interview.
See app.40 [14, pag.9]
Activity 2. Using encyclopedias and the Internet, find out about the environmental
organizations in the pictures. In what ways do they act to protect the
environment? Make a poster showing each organizations activities.
Alternatively, you can make a poster for a similar organization in your
country. [14, pag.21]
Activity 3. Write a list of the advantages of department stores, and another list of the
disadvantages. Show your lists to two other students and discuss the
difference between all your lists. [42, pag.45]
52

Activity 4. Make up an ending for each story. Write it down in one or two sentences.
Then show what you have written to another student. [44, pag.63]
If we are to top off the above-mentioned material, we come to some
significant results. At all stages a teacher should use listening techniques and keep
students active because listening is no way a waste of time. There should be trained
selective listening skills that focus on form, sounds, grammar, details of contents. The
teacher is to teach vocabulary in the pre-listening stage not to create
misunderstandings later. All the listening texts need to be played in normal speed and
sometimes with pauses depending on the activity. Teachers must be aware that
comprehension at the beginning stage is not total, but pupils can find the gist.
Students have to learn how to listen just as they have to learn how to speak, and
therefore they should be exposed frequently, from the earliest stages of language
learning, to listening comprehension activities. We claim that listening does not only
create the right conditions for language development, but it can also provide
enjoyment and stimulate cultural interests. Via movies, radio, TV, songs, etc. students
may somehow 'participate' in the target culture, appreciate the beauty of the language
sayings, proverbs, colloquial expressions. However, teachers need to prepare
learners psychologically for the listening activity, telling them that they will not be
able to understand everything they hear, and that they should not panic because of
this. Students need to listen to prepare themselves for their future listening. They
need to listen in order to know how to produce. The better students understand
what they hear, the better they will take part in spoken interactions.

53

Chapter III. Experimental Analysis of the Theoretical Approach and

its Contribution to the Listening Comprehension
This chapter is devoted to an experiment conveyed with the purpose of
evaluating the scientific and practical value of the material presented in Chapter I and
Chapter II. The experiment was carried out in Spiru Haret Lyceum with the 9 th
grade pupils, whose level of English is intermediate. The material used during this
investigation was selected from the following books: Active Listening 3 by Brown
S., Smith D. and Total English: Students Book. Intermediate by Wilson J., Clare A.
In this chapter we will evaluate the veracity of principles of teaching listening and
will compare the two kinds of strategies, top-down and bottom-up, mentioned in
Chapter I.
Our core question to investigate is: How do top-down and bottom-up strategies
influence the development of the discourse competence and contribute to the discard
of real life listening difficulties?.
Our hypothesis is that if we use bottom-up strategies, which are text-based and
imply the sound, vocabulary and grammar aspects of the English language, then
students will become more aware of mistakes; they will not be desperate when
coming across difficulties; they will get to practice these aspects at the listening
stage; because bottom-up strategies point out: listening for specific information, preteaching vocabulary, detecting mistakes, transformation, cloze, listening for
pronunciation, labelling, naming features, discussion, gap-filling, brainstorming
exercises, which contribute to their listening comprehension and to the development
of their communicative competence.

3.1. The Description of the Experiment

54

The pedagogical practice took place at Spiru Haret Lyceum and consisted in
giving English classes to the 9th grade students. The experiment, which is mandatory
for the Diploma Paper, was carried out in two groups each estimated to 10 pupils.
Group 1 was taught the listening stage following top-down strategy and had to
get familiar with the topic Superstitions. Group 2 had to work on the same topic
but the activities given to them were selected according to bottom-up strategy.
Before performing the listening activities, every pupil was given a chart to complete
presented in Figure 1. They had to tick the most difficult item that gives them a hard
time at the listening stage, as they hadnt come across real life listening situations yet.
The purpose of this inquiry was to find out where pupils encounter more difficulties,
so that we would provide activities that they would be more successful at.
Fig.1. Difficulties at the listening stage
Difficulties in listening
The presence of unknown structures
Not being able to catch every single word
No possibility to ask for clarification while
the tape is running
No visuals (subtitles, video, pictures, etc.)
Distorted speech
Other
.

Tick the most difficult

The results of this inquiry are shown in Figure 2.

Fig.2. Difficulties in listening encountered by pupils and their percentage

55

As shown in the diagram, 28% of pupils encounter difficulties at catching every

word. At this point they should be encouraged to give-up the habit of catching the
meaning of every word because they become distracted and fail to succeed in one or
the other listening activity. Less than that, consider that peoples speech played by
the tape-recorder is hard to understand. In real life listening situations pupils
might come across people who speak their own dialect of English or speak the
language with an accent. Moreover, some of the pupils listed background noise as
another obstacle during the listening activity. They make up only 6 % of the total
and are to become familiar with it as there can be situations as talking on the
phone, at the bus or train station, in a disco or restaurant where the background noise
is a common thing. 18% need clarification of some words which is needed
sometimes when they have to listen to a dialog or a long speech. No visuals cause
12% of the pupils discomfort as they understand better when they follow the
tape-script or watch the movie. Visuals surround us almost every time we are
abroad. We see things and we can understand more from peoples non-verbal way of
communication rather than just listening to the tape. Same 12 % refer to unknown
structures, mostly grammar, idiomatic or slang structures, which make their listening
comprehension trivial.

56

Both groups took part in the experiment in different days. Each experiment lasted
up to 30 minutes of the entire lesson. Initially we will present the layout of the
listening lesson performed with group 1, which was prone to top-down strategies.
The first type of strategy examined during this experiment was top-down. This
strategy focuses on the listener rather than on the text and comprises activities like:
predicting, summarizing, listening for the main idea, gap-filling, ticking off items,
analyzing, discussion, paraphrasing, setting the scene. The procedure was the
following:
1st Stage Pre-listening
Pre-listening is the stage that prepares pupils for what they are going to hear. The
most important thing is to draw them into the subject or topic so that they dont find
themselves in a difficult situation later. For this the text book provides the following
activity:
Activity 1 Analyzing
Pupils are presented pictures of objects that have different meaning in different
cultures. They have to analyze them and mark which ones Same, Different or have
No special meaning in his/her own culture. See app.41 [6, pag.28]
Activity 2 Predicting
The teacher divides the class into three groups. Each group receives pictures and is
asked to predict why the gifts on the pictures are considered bad ones and what
superstition can be related to them. See app.42 [51, pag.47]

2nd Stage While-listening

57

While-listening stage helps pupils understand the text, to involve them in an

authentic purpose for listening and encourage them to attend to the text more
intensively. For this the text book provides the following activity:
Activity 1 Ticking off items
Pupils listen to the text where people talk about their beliefs. Then they have to
answer the question what the superstitions are and check/tick off the correct answers.
See app.43 [6, pag.30]
Activity 2 Gap-filling
Pupils listen again and complete the sentences with the reasons for the superstitions.
See app.44 [6, pag.30]
3rd Stage Post-listening
Post-listening is the stage of revision, of collecting the main ideas and
information of the overall listening activity, or the stage of fixing the forms and the
new vocabulary in the pupils mind.
Activity 1 Discussion
Pupils look at the game board. There are some questions they have to discuss.
See app.45 [6, pag.31]
Activity 2 Summarizing
Pupils are asked to summarize the information regarding the superstitions around the
world in four to six sentences. [6, pag.31]

The second strategy applied into practice was bottom-up. Group 2 was given
activities that satisfy this strategy and those were namely: brainstorming, pre-teaching
58

vocabulary, detecting mistakes, transformations, labeling, listening for specific

information, listening for pronunciation, gap-filling, writing.
1st Stage Pre-listening
Activity 1 Brainstorming
Pupils have to work in pairs. They have to think of three superstitions and share them
with the class. [51, pag.47]
Activity 2 Pre-teaching vocabulary
Pupils look at the column A and try to explain the words in their own way. Then they
have to match the words with their equivalents in column B. See app.46 [51, pag.46]
2nd Stage While-listening
Activity 1 Gap filling
Pupils listen to the tape-recorder. They have to complete the gaps with missing
information: the countries that have those superstitions and their meaning in those
countries. See app.47 [6, pag.29]
Activity 2 Detecting mistakes
Pupils listen again and cross the incorrect answers. See app.48 [6, pag.29]
Activity 3 Listening for pronunciation
Pupils listen and practice. They also have to note the regular rhythm of the stressed
words. See app.49 [6, pag.31]
Activity 4 Labelling
Pupils underline the stressed words and then listen and check their answers.
See app.50 [6, pag.31]
3rd Stage Post-listening

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Activity 1 Transformation
Pupils are given a chart to revise the form and use of the passive voice. Then, they
have to rewrite the sentences using passives and the verb in bold.
[51, pag.54] See app.51
Activity 2 Writing
Pupils are asked to write an essay of 150-200 words on the topic Superstition: a
myth or truth using the words and the grammar structures taught at the lesson.
[51, pag.55]
After all the assignments, the teacher analyses the overall efficiency of the lessons
and makes conclusions by answering the following questions:
1.

Was the input appropriate for their level?

2.

Was global listening involved?

3.

Was selective listening involved?

4.

Did pupils encounter any listening difficulties?

5.

How well did the activities motivate pupils to practice speaking?

The experiment was an attempt to compare the top-down and bottom-up

strategies using activities that would make students aware and awaken their curiosity.
The activities were selected according to their level and were able to fit perfectly the
time limit set by the teacher. The teacher used a variety of patterns of classroom
interaction and followed the principles of teaching English as a foreign language.
There were no impediments for an unsuccessful flow of the experiment.

3.2. The Results of the Experiment

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Throughout the experiment we have analyzed and come to certain conclusions. As

mentioned above, we were eager to find out which strategy, top-down or bottom-up,
is more effective in teaching listening comprehension. By effective we mean its
ability to make students speak and understand, because listening is merely
understanding in real life situations. We cant understand a foreign speech if we dont
speak the language and we can provide appropriate feed-back if we dont understand.
We answered to the questions presented above which were a part of our lesson
observation and came to the following conclusions:
1. Our hypothesis was proved and so the bottom-up strategy really contributes to

the development of listening comprehension as well as to the discourse

competence;
2. When using top-down strategy students come across difficulties like: sound

recognition (obviously a student will be unable to make any sense at all of

what he hears if he cannot recognize the distinctive sounds) or recognizing and
identifying the different intonation patterns or shortened grammatical
structures Fig.3, while when using bottom-up strategy they have those already
explained and can feel a little confused only of the speakers accent Fig.4.
3. When using bottom-up strategy in listening we also draw students into the
main idea, as top-down does, but through the procedure of listening for details,
presenting the vocabulary and grammar aspects of the topic.
4. Even if we want to use top-down strategy the tasks should be short and used

with a topic that is more general or both strategies may be used in parallel.
5. Of course, global listening is effective when one listens to a song or watches a

movie, but we have to take in consideration that students may be exposed to

more demanding listening situations (a foreign university lecture, a conference,

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an interview with a foreign employer, a visit to a doctor or an officers inquiry,

etc.) where without selective listening ability they are going to fail.
Fig.3. Success achieved in listening with top-down strategy by Group 1

Fig.4. Success achieved in listening with bottom-up strategy by Group 2

As follows, the two strategies are welcome to be implemented into practice on

condition that they complete or succeed each other continuously. This definitely
states the principle Include both global and selective listening! and so teachers
should take it in consideration.

Conclusions
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The present research project was an attempt to examine the purpose and
importance of the listening activity, to point out principles and strategies that will
lead to an effective listening lesson, to reveal the difficulties of real life listening
situation and some tips to eliminate them, to characterize the stages of teaching and
exemplify the activities that influence listening comprehension at the intermediate
level. As a result, we have come to the following conclusions of our investigation:
1. The ability to speak fluently a language and to communicate in general

depends merely on the motivation and perfection of mastering the listening

ability. The teachers aim is to motivate, integrate, guide and correct students
during the whole lesson, not only the listening stage, because listening is
always present no matter if that is reading, speaking or writing.
2. There are a great many materials and visual aids that contain various activities

for mastering listening comprehension. The thing is to follow the principles

and to try to make listening a harmony by helping students overcome the
difficulties. And of course this implies the choice of the strategies we use. It is
important to know to choose not only one single strategy but to combine some,
because each strategy is based on its own purpose that another might not have.
3. In the pre-listening stage, it is compulsory to evade all kinds of transparency

and to activate students awareness of the topic. This is considered the most
vital stage because there can be no understanding later if we dont pre-teach
vocabulary, draw the students into the subject or provide information that they
might not know at all.
4. Students need to evaluate the results of decisions made during a listening task.

The teacher can encourage self-evaluation and reflection by asking students to

assess the effectiveness of strategies used. Group or class discussions on the
approach taken by different students can also stimulate reflection and
worthwhile evaluation. Students are encouraged to share individual routes

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leading to success; e.g. how someone guessed (inference) the meaning of a

certain word or how someone modified a particular strategy.
5. When we listen in our everyday lives, we hear language within its natural

environment, and that environment gives us a huge amount of information

about the linguistic content we are likely to hear. Listening to a tape recording
in a classroom is a very unnatural process. The text has been taken from its
original environment and we need to design tasks that will help students to
contextualize the listening and access their existing knowledge and
expectations to help them understand the text. There can be specific vocabulary
or expressions that students will need. It's vital that we cover this before they
start to listen as we want the challenge within the lesson to be an act of
listening, not of understanding what they have to do. Students too need a
reason to listen that will focus their attention. Sometimes a single question at
the while-listening stage will be enough, not putting the students under too
much pressure. We have to make sure though that the task doesn't demand too
much of a response. Writing long responses as they listen can be very
demanding and is a separate skill in itself, so we should keep the tasks to single
words, ticking or some sort of graphical response.
6. The chance not only to have a break from the listening, but also to check their

understanding with a peer is post-listening. The tasks at this stage can be based
on the reactions to the content of the text, and analysis of the linguistic features
used to express the content. So we check again their comprehension and also
practice either: grammar, writing, vocabulary or pronunciation.
This rich material can serve right to studying the other aspects of language as
well as a clue to eliminating issues in teaching listening and improving students
speaking ability. Moreover, it will help teachers use widely a range of different
listening activities to make the lesson vivid, interesting and productive.

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