Teaching Listening Skills In The Classroom English Language Essay

Introduction

Because of requiring quality for teaching students, especially teaching listening skills in the classroom, assorted schools, colleges, and universities have tried to look for good strategies (Teaching listening skills), for this area is the most complicated to teach students, and then this issue has developed into a good subject for teachers and those institutions to be concerned about. On the other hand, these concerns are dealt with many books and journal articles with new strategies for teaching listening skills in the classroom these days. In online publication date: 29 July 2010 article written by Dorothy R. and Sid T. states “Most teachers are aware that students’ listening skills are not what they once were. Our classrooms are filled with students who either do not listen or listen with their ears but not with their brains”. (Dorothy R.& Sid T. (2010, july 29). 56, 310-311). Instead, many more authors or writers in numerous books and journal articles can respond to this issue without any hesitation.

In order to answer this issue, authors and other teachers assert that copious strategies in abundant books and articles are much better than only one.Penny contends that in principle, the objective of listening comprehension in the classroom is that students should learn to function successfully in real-life listening is(Penny 1996, p 105).Moreover, a statement states that there is no one way of doing a listening skills lesson- it depends on such factors as the aim, the text type, the level of the students, etc.(Roger, Diane,& Steve 1983, p89).

Hence, studies of the strategies for teaching listening skills in the classroom according to various references- both books and journal articles- embrace a variety of techniques and strategies. I, however, now extract one of those to outline this. Depending on the journal article written by Dorothy R. and Sid T., it reveals that there are several ways of teaching listening skills in the classroom effectively (Dorothy R.& Sid T. (2010, july 29). 56, 310-311). First, Call attention to careful listening will heighten children’s awareness of the importance of the skill. An oral check of student responses will call immediate attention to errors and eliminate paper checking for the teachers. Second, Taped selections can be played to students, followed by questions about their content. Questions that encourage beneficial listening skills include those that ask about cause and effect, sequence, main ideas, terminology, drawing conclusion, and the names of the main characters. In addition, Mrs. King – a third-grade teacher in the Huntsville, Texas public school system – starts the school year by telling the students that her very quiet voice is her teaching voice. She does not yell, and she insists on politeness – speaking only with permission and not talking when others are speaking. As a result of this and other techniques, the noise level in her classroom is always low. Finally, exercises in careful listening habits are being learned by our television- oriented young people (Dorothy R. King (2010, july 29). 56, 310-311). These diverse approaches have been applied to peruse good strategies for teaching listening skills in the classroom, and how much the students understand those. This proof is shown that most of the students in listening class demand many strategies for improving their listening skills.

Only studies, nevertheless, of Dorothy R. & Sid T. are not sufficient for teaching listening skills in the classroom, for one skill requires a variety of strategies or techniques in order that instructors are convenient to impart knowledge to students effectively. Therefore, Roger, Diane, and Steve state that there is no one way of doing a listening skills lesson – it depends on such factors as the aim, the text type, and the level of the students, etc.( Roger, Diane, and Steve 1983).

Besides, the shortage of searching more information related to the strategies for teaching listening skills in the classroom is deplorable because it is advantageous to our skills (Teaching as career). Not only do you believe in one author’s documents, but you also try to search the work of arts of others in order to have new ideas or techniques to teach the students both effectively and successfully.

In conclusion, this study attempted to donate the knowledge base related to teaching listening skills by probing as many strategies for teaching listening skills in the classroom as possible to make sure that students are contented to accept those effectively. In order to apprehend this research clearly, you are asked a few questions as follows:

1. What are the strategies for teaching listening skills in the classroom?

2. With what benefits do they provide you?

3. How do these strategies respond to the students in the classroom and the real world?

Annotated Bibliography

1. ƒ˜ King, D. R & Womack, S. T. (2010, july 29). Strategies for Teaching Listening Skills.

The Clearing House: A Journal Of Education Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 56, 310-

311.

Dorothy R and Sid T., in this journal article, show off teachers’ difficulty in teaching students’ listening skills because theirs are not what they once were, and the classrooms are filled with the students who do not pay attention to teachers’ explanation (Teaching listening skills). When listening, they use only their ears but not the brains. Therefore, the purpose of this article is focused on several strategies which can help teachers teach listening skills in the classroom successfully. Even though this article is not the most perfect one, it can provide good methods for dealing with this issue and my research, especially the strategies for teaching listening skills in the classroom, and then this tool is used to conduct the next one in general classes. Finally it is also able to help me to apply all the strategies in my study in order to improve the skills as teacher of English in the future.

2.ƒ˜ Scrivener, J. (1994). Tearning Teaching. Great Britain: Macmillan

Jim, in this book, offers several procedures and strategies that can help students improve their listening skills, such as task-based listening, the task feedback circle, how we listen, and listening ideas, which are effective to upgrade students’ listening skills in the classroom; also, it is really significant to the study because this research (Teaching listening skills in the classroom) is applied to the real world. This book also provides a great deal of information related to teaching listening skills for research, particularly the key points. Moreover these strategies can help many researchers and learners create more methods to conduct next research effectively. Last of all, they do assist me to use the key concepts of these strategies in my study successfully, and I also have a good opportunity to upgrade my knowledge – teaching as career.

3.ƒ˜ Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based Language Learning and Teaching. China: Oxford University Press.

In this book (tasks, listening comprehension & SLA), Rod shows that this chapter based on listening tasks has contributed to theory (as it concerns both listening and language acquisition), research methodology, and language pedagogy. These three key terms are really crucial to the research related to teaching listening skills; for example, Academic listening task research has shown that when learners lack relevant schemata their ability to take notes and comprehend a lecture suffers. Thus Rod offers a promising tool for investigating the micro processes involved in comprehending and language acquisition. These strategies are very much valuable for the study since it not only focuses on the classroom teaching but also concentrates on learners in general, and this task too is very useful to my study because it is the guideline to achieve either the next new research or the teaching listening skills in the classroom.

4. ƒ˜ Ur, P. (1996). A Course in Language Teaching. Great Britain: Cambridge

University Press

Penny, in this book (Chapter 8: Teaching listening, Unit one), teaches about Real-life listening in the classroom. In the unit, he indicates three main steps to teach listening skills, such as Guidelines, Practical classroom application, and Implementing the guidelines: some specific practical implications. These key points are very essential, for they can make teaching listening in the classroom effective and beneficial. Furthermore it is able to provide a lot of information and new strategies to my study, which relates to the teaching listening research. Therefore this research can be applied not only in my classroom but also in the real world.

5. ƒ˜ Pearse, E. & Davies, P. (2000). Success in English Teaching. New York, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

In this book, Paul and Eric provide the strategies for teaching listening skills; that is, the strategies generally recommended are: pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening, which are absolutely useful to draw students’ attention on teaching listening class effectively. In addition this book classifies listening text in terms of learner control and some more activities that can help both teachers and learners achieve the objectives during their processes. All the strategies can be applied to all teaching listening classrooms – not only one class as they are absolutely practical to all learners, in particular they are very crucial to my research study, for my topic is related to this area, and it can assist me to apply the strategies in the real classroom teaching.

6. ƒ˜ Gower, R., Phillips, D., & Walters, S. (1983). Teaching Practice Handbook. China: Macmillian,Heinemann.

Roger, Diane, and Steve, in this book, raise good strategies related to the skills – how to improve students’ listening skills, which help the students find it easier to embrace this area. In addition they say that there is no one way of doing listening skills lesson – it depends on such factors as the aim, the text type, and the level of the students, etc. and they also give the example involving in guidelines on one way of conducting a listening skills lesson which is divided into three sections – before listening, first listening, and second listening; i.e. all these are included with its feedback too. These strategies are applied to implement classroom teaching, in particular these key points used to do the survey on students’ understanding of listening skills effectively. They will also help me to conduct the authentic research on my field- teaching as career successfully.

7. ƒ˜ Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. China: Oxford University Press.

In this book, Tricia tells a lot about the strategies related to teaching listening skills in the classroom. First he talks about the role of listening in the ELT curriculum, such as pre-listening task and listening & note taking, which can be assumed that listening ability will develop automatically through exposure to the language and through practice of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Next he shows what we know about listening process – bottom-up processes and top-down processes in listening, which can be applied with real knowledge of learners. Furthermore he also indicates the purpose of listening; i.e. it refers to conversation of a personal kind in which the listening is reciprocal or participatory and so on, especially designing listening activities for the classroom, which is really vital to the academic course because I need this for my teaching listening classroom. All these key strategies will make my research study more and more advanced as teacher of English.

8. ƒ˜ Peterson, P. W. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. (M. C. Murcia, Ed.)

the USA.

Pat W., in this book, indicates a few prompts related to the strategies for listening skills. First he shows the types of strategies specific to listening comprehension, such as categories of metacognitive, cognitive, and socioaffective strategies, which are very important to the study because each has a various function in teaching listening methods. Next, he spots a development view of listening skills. In this section he focuses on profile of the beginning, intermediate, and advanced-level student in listening – good strategies which can be segregated for teaching in each class. Moreover he sets the goals for them – Bottom-up and Top-down processing, Goals and exercise types, and beginning, Intermediate, & advanced-level learners which can make teachers easy to teach them successfully. All these strategies are valuable to the study, for they are classified differently. I hope that these will not only help me teach my students in the class but also be helpful to my MA research program.

9. ƒ˜ Hadfiekd, Jill & Charles. (2008). introduction to teaching English. Portugal: Oxford University

Press.

In this book, Jill and Charles show the explanation to the stages of a listening lesson set up as follows: First he talks about before a listening – Lead-in method engages learners’ interest, introduce the topic and context, activate learners’ background knowledge, help the learners to predict what the speakers might say, and introduce some key words and expression; also, Language focus introduces some key vocabulary, and other words. Second it is about during a listening lesson; that is, Tasks show that you should aim to repeat the listening several times with a series of listening tasks. Finally it is about after a listening lesson; i.e. Language focus concentrates on some of the language in the text, such as new vocabulary, and Transfer uses the listening and the language work as the basis for work in a different skill. These strategies are really practical to the study. Even though they are not the perfect ones, they show off good advantages to teachers in order to implement these techniques in the classroom successfully. Also they will be useful to me because I become a teacher of English and I have to use these as my teaching tools.

10. ƒ˜ Fernandez-Toro, M. (2005). The role of paired Listening in L2 listening instruction. Language Learning Journal, 31, 3-8.

Maria, in this journal article, mentions much of the difficulty related to the fact that listening processes cannot be easily observed and shown because they all take place inside t he listener’s mind. She, however, indicates that paired listening offers a number of potential benefits, both as a diagnostic tool and as a valid learning exercise in itself. Moreover, this research is also profitable for the study, for the writer shows not only the problem to the skills but also the good methods applied to deal with its issues. Thus, this article is really useful to my research because I can use these strategies to operationalize all good points in my own study.