Chapter 1

1. Chapter 1 What is listening? Helgesen, M. & Brown, S. (2007). Listening [w/CD]. McGraw-Hill: New York.

2. Daily Listening • What have you listened to today? • Alarm • Radio/TV/MP3 player • Bus/Subway announcements • Overheard other’s conversation • Participated in a conversation with peers, superiors, parents, brothers/sisters, workers… • Other?

3. Definitions • Which definition do you prefer (p.3) and why? • Which characteristics are most important? • Write your own definition of what listening is, but don’t copy any of the existing ones. • Continue to refine this throughout the semester. • It might be a question on the final.

4. Listening vs. Hearing • What is the difference between listening and hearing? Is there one? • Do the action activity on p. 4 • The position of the authors is that listening is an active (rather than passive) skill. • It is still considered a receptive skill (like reading). • The reaction to and use of listening require active skills (writing or speaking)

5. Reciprocal Listening • Talking at you or with you? • Non-reciprocal listening is done when you (as the listener) are not responding to the input. • Radio, TV, language cassettes, podcasts, lectures (in many cases) • Reciprocal listening is interactive. • You listen and respond, which alters the next stage. You shape the interaction and, thus, the listening required.

6. Processing • Two general ways to consider the listening process: bottom-up and top-down. • Bottom-up processing builds comprehension by processing the pieces of language: sounds, syllables, words, phrases, sentences, grammar, stress, and so forth. • Top-down processing builds comprehension by comparing incoming signals to schema • Content schema: Your general knowledge of the world. • Textual schema: knowledge of language use and requirements in particular situations. • A mix is always used by listeners, though the nature of the mix differs significantly based on proficiency.

7. Teaching Listening • A typical lesson has three parts: pre-listening, listening, and post-listening • Pre-Listening • Motivation • Schema activation • Topics, vocabulary, structures, etc… • Readings, pictures, discussions, performances…. • What kind of pre-listening ideas can you think of for the following listening text?

8. Listening Task • Listening Task • Problems with the listen and report approach. • Little resemblance to “real” listening tasks. • The comprehension activities don’t inform the teacher or learner as to where success and failures are caused. • Is the problem with listening comprehension or the inability to formulate a response? • Tasks are listening for a purpose. • Global Listening: listening for gist, for the overall main idea(s) • Listening for specific information • Making inferences • What listening tasks can you think of for this listening?

9. Post-Listening • Post-Listening • Checking of answers • Comparing answers with peers • Further discussion of the topic of the listening • Use the language involved • Motivation • What post-listening tasks can you think of for this listening?

10. Assessing Listening • Assessment • Action and feedback on that action • Types: self, peer, teacher, automated • Formal assessment(testing) • These are assessments that are planned and attempt to measure classroom learning • Four key concepts • Validity • Reliability • Practicality • Washback

11. Validity • The test measures what it intends to measure. • This concept has many components, including: face and content validity (as well as predictive, concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity) • The important thing to remember for your class is that your test should measure classroom learning, not writing, presentation skills, conversational skills, and so forth.

12. Reliability • The test outcomes should be consistent • Similar scores for similar performances. • Example of scores from the first performances should be similarly scored as those from the last performances. • What is important for your class is that you should design assessments that can be consistently scored. • Some ways to help this are: • Rubrics • Benchmarks • Training (practice doing it before you do it for the real class)

13. Practicality • Another term for practical is realistic. • The assessment should be something that can be done in your situation. • Ex, It may not be realistic to assess each of your students’ communication skills by hiring a native speaking interviewer. • You likely have too many students and too little funding and time to do this.

14. Washback • What appears on the test is likely to appear in instruction. • This is particularly important in the Korean context. • If it’s not part of the college entrance exam, it is de-valued. • Think about these issues when answering the Reflection questions on page 19

15. Testing Techniques • Discrete-item Tests • Multiple choice • Integrative Tests • Summarizing, fill-in-the-blank, dictation • Communicative Tests • Completion of a communicative task: writing, spoken, peformance • Interview Tests • Self-Assessment • Scoring based on criteria or holistic score of performance • Portfolio Assessment • Ongoing assessment (including any of the above) that focuses on the entirety of the learning experience and the display of growth based on artifacts.

16. Assessment Wrap Up • What kinds of assessment would you use to test student comprehension of this listening?