After reading Exploring L2 listening instruction: examinations of practice written by Joseph Siegel

葉娜 駱玉

【Abstract】This paper is a response to Exploring L2 listening instruction： examinations of practice written by Joseph Siegel.

【Key words】Listening skill; techniques

【作者簡介】葉娜，駱玉，河北女子職業技術學院。

1. Text

In order to fill the gap of systematic research on listening instruction， Siegel examined 30 authentic listening lessons given by 10 EFL instructors from 5 different universities in Japan to investigate how they actually did in teaching listening， whose results revealed that comprehension questions were used most frequently， and lest frequently was teacher modeling.

2. Text-to-Text

According to Siegel， there are many techniques that can be applied in listening class besides comprehension approach， such as bottom-up activities， prediction， metacognitive listening strategies， and teacher modeling， whose theoretical underpinnings are in accordance with the metacognitive pedagogical sequence（ Vandergrift， 2007）. A lot of tasks can also be conducted to fully take the advantage of the techniques， which include one-way listening tasks and interactive listening tasks whose function is to improve students core skills for listening comprehension.

3. Text-to-Self

I always feel puzzled， frustrated and reluctant when asked to teach listening class， for I think it is very difficult to make students motivated and concentrated. I have no idea about what they are doing and what they are thinking while listening. So， teaching listening is my least choice. However， I find it is totally my fault. I always follow the steps of the textbook， where there are often some comprehension questions. I always ask the students to listen to the material for several times， finish the exercises and then check the answers without providing enough scaffolding， let alone other techniques. Just as Siegel proved， comprehension questions have occupied a large amount of my listening class. What I have done is not to improve their listening competence but to evaluate their listening performance.

I have seriously considered about the reason why comprehension questions have occupied my class. Firstly， I am lack in the professional knowledge， such as the related theoretical basis and practical pedagogy. So to a large extent I am dependent on “listen， answer， check” pattern in my class. Secondly， perhaps as an English teacher in a vocational college where students are of low language proficiency， I have not fully recognized the communicative function of English as a second language. I always have such a discrimination that my students are so poor in English that it could be impossible for them to communicate in English. What I have to do is to finish the syllabus required by the curriculum. Thirdly， in my college， the only way to evaluate students language performance is through standardized test. So my emphasis is on how to help students pass the exam instead of improving their listening competence. Therefore， I am in urgent need of self-reflection.

4. Text-to-World

It could be better for me to discuss with my colleagues the most appropriate approaches that can be used in our own context. We should be aroused the awareness of incorporation of multiple approaches rather than dominant comprehension questions.

Most of my students are of low language proficiency. They have quite a lot of difficulties in word recognition and parsing. So bottom-up activities could be incorporated so that students attention can be drawn to the phonology and syntax which are essential for understanding the semantic meaning of the speakers. Some simple tasks can increase students confidence at the very beginning， for example， students can be asked to record the key words or content words they can figure out during the listening. Prediction can also be incorporated to activate students schema. If they have difficulties in expressing in English， Chinese can be allowed in the procedure. At the same time， some expressions concerning the topic can be written on the blackboard as scaffolding to help their comprehension. Teacher modeling may be a good way to demonstrate what the teachers do in listening and help students emulate the cognitive process.

5. Conclusion

Listening skill is the most challenging for both learners to learn and teachers to teach （Vandergrift 2007; Field 2008）. So I must update myself to be equipped with the necessary theories and pedagogies.

References：

[1]Field， J. Listening in the Language Classroom[M]. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press，2008.