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Using online tutorials and collaborative learning tasks to enhance academic listening skills

This paper discusses the use of online tutorials and collaborative learning tasks to enhance academic listening skills. It explores the challenges students face in different academic contexts and the importance of linguistic knowledge and subject-specific familiarity. The use of Xerte online tutorials and collaborative learning tasks is examined, highlighting their advantages and their role in preparing students for lectures and developing advanced listening skills. The paper also suggests ways to select online lectures for collaborative tasks and provides a selected bibliography for further reading.

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Using online tutorials and collaborative learning tasks to enhance academic listening skills

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  1. Using online tutorials and collaborative learning tasks to enhance academic listening skills Ruth Winter Languages for Specific Purposes in HE 2015, Manchester

  2. Overview • LSP courses at Bristol • Academic listening skills: challenges • Xerte online tutorials • Collaborative learning tasks • Questions?

  3. LSP courses at Bristol University • French, German, Italian and Spanish • Approx. 100-120 2nd year students • Approx. 50% on Study in Continental Europe programme • Two levels: post-beginners (A2+) and advanced(B1+/B2)

  4. LSP courses at Bristol University • Blended learning approach • Academic skills and language competence in students’ specialist area (e.g. subject-specific presentation and written project; listening for note-taking; describing and interpreting graphs) • Science, Social Sciences and Engineering students • Languages for Medical Students and for Business and Professional Purposes

  5. Academic listening skills • Autonomous language learners • Different academic contexts • Culture shock, anxiety, confidence affected by (in)ability to interpret what they hear

  6. Academic listening skills • Listening: complex process in which learners have to activate prior linguistic, cultural, subject-specific knowledge and match what they hear with what they already know. • Chazal (2014) “A lecture can present many linguistic challenges. These include speed of delivery, accent, academic and specialist vocabulary. There is also grammatical complexity such as false starts, long sentences, and complex noun phrases.”

  7. How difficult was it for you to understand lectures at the beginning of your year abroad? • 1= very easy, 5 = very difficult

  8. What were the main challenges for you in academic listening contexts?

  9. Teaching academic listening skills • Advanced linguistic knowledge, familiarity with subject-specific topics and academic contexts • Teaching material which is authentic, relevant to students from different fields of study, prepares students for new learning environment • Guest lectures versus online lectures

  10. Xerte online tutorials • Package of online materials focusing on practising & enhancing advanced listening skills • Reinforce academic language and linguistic structures related to presentations, text structure and cohesion • Teach skills for structuring and processing information from listening

  11. Xerte online tutorials • Free, open source content creation tool • Developed by University of Nottingham • Browser based, wide range of templates for presenting content and interactive tasks

  12. Xerte online tutorial – example 1 • Preparing yourself for attending a lecture • Using the Cornell system of note-taking • Noting down new vocabulary • Using abbreviations and symbols in German

  13. Advantages of Xerte • Attractive interface • Table of contents • Easy navigation • Templates for embedding images, audios, videos, etc. • Glossary

  14. Xerte online tutorial – example 2 • Embedded video tutorial by FU Berlin • Introduction to different modes of learning and assessment at university • Includes interactive tasks • Engagement with video content in an innovative way • Supports consolidation and revision

  15. Collaborative learning tasks - aims • Apply skills reinforced in online tutorials • Familiarisation with content, style and speed of delivery of subject-specific lectures • Learn both independently and in collaboration with other students

  16. Further study tasks • Search for information about programmes of study and find relevant lectures • Select online lecture and share with learning partner using Google Docs or VideoNot.es in Google Drive • Prepare for lecture • Watch lecture and keep notes • Compile a vocabulary list together (Wiki or Google Doc) • Write a summary together, using comments (Google Doc)

  17. Advantages of collaborative learning tasks • Practice of passive listening skills combined with active learning experiences • Collaboration with students from own discipline • More autonomous learners • Practical advantages (e.g. collaboration with students from other universities)

  18. Questions? Comments? Thoughts?

  19. Selecting online lectures for collaborative tasks • Check websites of partner universities for programmes of study • Ask former Erasmus students • Websites with collection of free lectures (e.g. www.online-vorlesungen.de) • MOOCS (e.g.OpenUpEd or MOOC List)

  20. Selected bibliography • De Chazal, Edward. Prepare English language students for academic listening. Web blog post. Voices. British Council, 24 February 2014. http://www.britishcouncil.org/blog/prepare-english-language-students-academic-listening [accessed 1 May 2015] • Rösler, Dietmar. Studienbegleitender Deutschunterricht in naturwissenschaftlich-technischen Studiengängen an Universitäten außerhalb des deutschsprachigen Raums. Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht. Didaktik und Methodik im Bereich Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Jahrgang 20, Nummer 1, April 2015. Web. http://tujournals.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/index.php/zif [accessed 17 June 2015] • Vandergrift, Larry. Listening: theory and practice in modern foreign language competence. Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies Guide to Good Practice. [without date] https://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/67 [accessed 30 April 2015]

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