Peterson - "Skills and Strategies for Proficient Listening"

In “Skills and Strategies for Proficient Listening”, Pat Wilcox Peterson discusses different theories surrounding language comprehension. She also describes the developmental view of listening skills. She believes there are three different levels of listeners: beginning, intermediate, and advanced.

Introduction: The importance of Listening in Language Learning. (p. 87)

“No other type of language input is as easy to process as spoken language, received through listening.” (p. 87) Initially, second language learners use listening to build awareness of the new language system. Intermediate level students who are starting to understand grammar use listening to become more aware of detail and increase their accuracy of speaking. Advance students who are able to read and write in the second language uses listening to build their understanding of cultural nuances. It is important to understand that at each of these levels there are different listening skills needed to be successful. Teachers need to promote listening activities and tasks to help their second language learners.

Theories of Language Comprehension (p.87-91)

Listening Is the Primary channel for Language Input and Acquisition (p. 87-88)

This is the concept that an individual can learn a second language by only listening to it. For instance, a child with a parent from Japan and a parent from Mexico will be able to learn both languages if the parents only speak to him/her in Japanese and Spanish. After the child is able to recognize the language, he/she will try to speak it. “Learning to speak a language is very largely a task of learning to hear it”. (p. 87) The prespeech (silent) period can range in length depending on the age of the second language learner: a baby taking 6 months to speak, an adult only waiting a few hours to speak, etc.

Listening Comprehension Is a Multilevel, Interactive Process of Meaning Creation (p. 88-89)

There are a number of processes happening when a person tries to speak. The higher level processes are top-down. Top-down processes are "driven by listeners’ expectation and understandings of the context, the topic, the nature of text, and the nature of the world”. (p. 88) The lower level processes are called bottom-up. Bottom-up processes “are triggered by the sounds, words, and phrases which the listener hears as he or she attempts to decode speech and assign meaning.” (p.88)

Models of the Comprehension Process (p.89)

There are three different models that are associated with comprehension process.

1. The second language learner is able to reproduce the meaning of what he/she is listening to inside his/her own mind. (Clark and Clark)

2. In this model, conprehensiton is both active and passive. Comprehenstion/meaning can change depending on context, purpose for listening, and the second language learners’ prior knowledge. (Rost)

3. Nagle and Sanders views comprehension processing as depending upon the listener. It can be a controlled or automatic process.

Principles for Listening Comprehension in the Classroom (p. 89)

• Increase the amount of listening time in the second language class.

• Use listening before other activities

• Include both global and selective listening.

• Activate top-level skills.

• Work towards automaticity in processing.

• Develop conscious listening strategies

Skills and Strategies (p. 89-90)

Listening processes are simultaneous, interactive, operations, which help in successful comprehension. (p. 90) Listening skills make up listening processes. Listening skills can become automatic if they are practiced enough e.i. “chunking input into syllables, recognizing words, recalling relevant schemata,” etc. (p. 90) When the automatic skills break down, the listener begins to strategize on how to fix them. Listening strategies are controlled by the listener.

Types of Strategies (p. 90-91)

There are three types of strategies: metacognitive, cognitive, and socioaffective. Metacognitive involve planning, monitoring, and evaluating comprehension. Cognitive involves manipulating information. (p. 90) Socioaffective involves strategies that are used when in a conversation or when a person questions someone else. All people use strategies, but not always the correct ones. Thus, second language listeners need to be taught when to use different strategies.

A Developmental View of Listening Skills

Beginning Level Listeners (p. 91-94)

Beginner listeners do not yet know linguistic categories, thus they lack bottom-up processing skills. They cannot distinguish words. The second language is a new code that needs to be broken. Phonological rules are not yet understood.

Intermediate Level Listeners (p. 94-96)

Intermediate listeners are beginning to understand phonological rules, but their understanding is still relatively small. They use listening as a way to increase vocabulary and help with structural understanding of the second language. Although intermediate listeners have moved on from short phrases they still need work on word recognition and grammar. They do not fully understand differences in emotional overtones.

Advanced Level Listeners (p. 96-98)

Advanced level listeners are able to fully use the second language. They are able to acquire knowledge in the second language. They are able to listen academically and learn content in the second language. Their vocabulary is large, including culture, history, social studies, etc. Advanced listeners have not yet acquired cultural jokes or slang.

Tasks:

-What are your thoughts about the different theories? Do you agree/disagree with one or more?

-Looking back on your own education, do you remember being taught metacognitive, cognitive, or socioaffective strategies?

-Do you remember a time when you had to reevaluate a skill that you were using, because it was not working?

-How would you, as a teacher, try to evaluate your second language learner into a beginner, intermediate, or advance level listener?

-Describe why you think listening is important.

-Describe why we should be teaching listening strategies to our second language learners.