A Word From A Techie
A Word From A Techie
A Word From A Techie
by Galina Kavaliauskienė
Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania
Galina_Kavaliauskiene @ yahoo.com
Abstract
Skills of listening in learning a foreign language have been neglected in spite of being most
needed ability in everyday communication. Ability to follow a speaker and respond
appropriately needs to be taught like all other language skills.
An innovative approach to teaching listening skills has emerged due to audio
publishing online. It is known as ‘podcasting’ and has become very popular because it offers
language learners extra listening practice both inside and outside of the classroom. Moreover,
podcasting as online communication technology is a new way to inspire learning: it provides
an exciting way for students and educators to explore and discover educational
content. Applicability of podcasting to teaching English needs researching.
This paper describes research into learners’ perceptions of online listening to podcasts,
self-evaluation of their own performance in individual listening practice and reflections on
ways of improving listening skills. The findings give insights into a practice of developing
listening competence. Some implications of research are described including a
recommendation for blended learning, i.e. combination of multiple approaches to learning by
harmonizing online listening with classroom audition activities in teaching / learning English.
Introduction
Listening skills in language teaching have been neglected and shifted to a secondary position
after speaking and writing. This is a surprising fact given that it is the skill that is most often
used in communication. It is thought that about forty percent of our daily communication is
spent on listening, thirty-five percent on speaking, sixteen percent on reading, and only nine
percent on writing. Yet, in spite of its critical role in communication and language acquisition,
listening comprehension remains one of the least understood processes in language learning.
By now language practitioners have accepted that listening skills have to be taught like any
other language skills.
An innovative approach to teaching listening skills has emerged due to the hi-tech
developments. One of them is a so called ‘podcasting’ (a portemanteau of the words iPod and
broadcasting), which has recently become very popular. The term ‘podcast’ was first coined
in 2004, and it means the publishing of audio via the Internet. Audio recording is designed to
be downloaded and listened to on a portable MP3 player of any type, or on a personal
computer. Listening to audio is nothing new to the Internet. Audio files available for
downloading and other means of online listening have been around for some time. Podcasting
differs from other ways of delivering audio online by the idea of automatically downloaded
content. Podcasting offers language teachers and students a wide range of possibilities for
extra listening practice both inside and outside of the classroom. Moreover, podcasts enable
students to practice listening in a self-directed manner and at their own pace. By 2005, the
concept of ‘podcasting’ reached its top point: thousands of podcasts were created, and The
New Oxford American Dictionary named a ‘podcast’ its official ‘Word of the Year’.
The aims of research are 1) to examine the challenges that students face in listening to
various authentic English podcasts, and 2) analyze learners’ self-assessment data on various
ways of improving listening skills. The research methods include 1) the survey of students’
self-evaluation of their performance in listening to podcasts, and 2) students’ reflections on
their experience of online listening and listening activities in the class. The intended outcome
of research is to formulate the tips for good practice in improving learners’ listening skills.
The participants in this study are students of different specializations who study English for
Specific Purposes at the Faculty of Social Policy, Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania.
Review of literature
Although once labelled a passive skill, listening is an active and demanding process of
selecting and interpreting information from auditory and visual clues. What is known about
the listening process basically emerges from research on developments in native language. In
listening, there are several major steps that may occur sequentially or simultaneously, in rapid
succession, or backward and forward. The major points include determining a reason for
listening, predicting information, attempting to organize information, assigning a meaning to
the message, and transferring information from short-term memory to long-term memory.
Earlier research into listening processes by V. M. Rivers (1992:18) suggests that
“listening involves active cognitive processing – the construction of a message from phonic
material”. Three stages in the aural reception of a message are distinguished: 1) “listeners
must recognize in phonic substance sound patterns in bounded segments related to phrase
structure. At this stage students are dependent on echoic memory, which is very fleeting. 2)
Listeners must immediately begin processing, identifying the groupings detected according to
the content of our central information system. 3) Listeners recycle the material they organized
through immediate memory, thus building up an auditory memory which helps to retain the
segments listeners are processing”. An important feature of the listening process is that much
of processing of incoming information takes place during the pauses in speech. Pauses in
natural speech allow students to gain processing time. Moreover, much of comprehension
involves drawing inferences. A characteristic feature of listening is a creation of mental
messages which are stored by learners. This phenomenon is known as a false recognition
memory (Rivers, 1992).
According to V. Cook (1996:69), restrictions on learner’s ability to understand the L2
speech are caused just as much by difficulties of the language as by memory limits. All
comprehension depends on the storing and processing of information by the mind.
Interestingly, the human mind is less efficient in L2 whatever it is doing, in other words, “L2
learners have cognitive deficits with listening that are not caused by lack of language ability
but by difficulties with processing information in the second language”.
The role of vocabulary knowledge and its recognition in listening affects
comprehension of information. The term ‘listenability’ as an oral equivalent of ‘readability’
was coined by J. Read (2000:11). The simple readability idea focuses on two variables: the
frequency of the complex vocabulary and the length of the sentences. The number of long
words (three syllables or longer) and the number of words in a sentence define
comprehensibility of a text. Lexical density is a variable showing the percentage of content
words. A vocabulary measure may provide an indication of how easy it will be for learners to
understand a spoken text. In listening, it is not just the relative frequency of the content words
that affects comprehension but also how concentrated they are in the text.
The important issue in comprehension is authenticity of listening materials. The exact
meaning of authenticity has often been unclear (Dudley-Evans and Jo St John, 1998:27):
“many have used it with reference to genuine (not simplified) texts that were originally
written for purposes other than language teaching”. According to H. Douglas Brown
(2004:28), “authenticity is a concept that is a little slippery to define, especially within the art
and science of evaluating designing tests” Authenticity may be present in the following way:
the language is as natural as possible, items are contextualized rather than isolated topics are
meaningful (relevant and interesting for the learners), tasks represent real-world tasks. In
other words, authenticity implies real language, which is the hardest to understand, because
no concessions are made to non-native speakers - language is unlikely to be simplified or
spoken slowly. For learners, authenticity often means negative expectations, i.e. listening is
bound to be too difficult. When learners listen to unfamiliar speech they hear an almost
continuous chain of sounds. Inexperienced learners do not actually hear the boundaries of
words. For this reason, they describe the speech as too fast. Experienced learners are able to
break down this chain into separate words in their heads because they are familiar with the
sounds and can create meaningful words with them.
The role of intonation and pronunciation is crucial. Intonation is the ability to vary the
pitch and tune of speech. Stressing words and phrases correctly is vital if emphasis is to be
given to the important parts of messages. Different turns are signaled by the rise and fall in
pitch. People hear certain accented words as prominent because of intonation. Knowing the
language well, there is no need to hear every single sound in every single word to know what
is said, because one’s mind is able to fill in the gaps and to determine where one word ends
and the other begins. Intonation is interrelated with pronunciation. The aspect of
pronunciation is crucial to listening. Major problems that occur in learning pronunciation are
students’ great difficulty in hearing pronunciation features, in intonation – ‘tunes’ or
identifying the different patterns of rising and falling tones.
One of the most difficult tasks for any teacher is to teach the skills of listening,
because successful listening skills are acquired over time and with lots of practice (Rivers,
1992). Learning listening skills is frustrating for students because there are no rules as in
grammar teaching. Listening skills are difficult to quantify. One of the largest inhibitors for
students is often mental block. While listening students suddenly decide they do not
understand. At this point, many students just tune out – some students convince themselves
they are not able to understand spoken English well and create problems for themselves.
Top-down, bottom-up, and interactive models have been extensively used over the
past decades to teach listening. In top-down processing the listener gets a general view of the
listening passage. In bottom-up processing, the listener focuses on individual words and
phrases, and achieves understanding by combining the details together to build up the whole
content (Harmer, 2001). It is also useful to see the activity of listening as interactions between
top-down and bottom-up processing. However, J. Flowerdew & L. Miller (2005:24) believe
that “these models do not cater to the complexities of the listening process and attempt to
introduce a pedagogical model for second language listening that encompasses individual,
cultural, social, contextualized, affective, strategic, intertextual, and critical dimensions.
In a guide to using computers in language teaching, J. Szendeffy (2005) argues that
computers provide students and teachers with great access and integration of material than
tape recorders or videocassettes. This guide monograph gives useful information how to
digitalize materials and easily create recordings for class activities as well as good suggestions
for finding online broadcasts, TV materials, and prepare students’ own recorded speeches.
The substantial contribution into the problem of listening comprehension in the CALL
environment has been paid by the Special issue on Technology and Listening Comprehension
of the Language Learning and Technology Journal (Volume 11, Number 1, February 2007).
R. Robin (2007) argues that “off-the-shelf technology is not ready for interactive oral-aural
instruction…, but it is ideal for use by the strategically independent learner to acquire and
improve receptive skills in an authentic environment”. R. Robin suggests reexamining the
value of pre-packaged listening comprehension materials in which L2 listeners are guided in
listening strategies but are not encouraged to make use of technological innovations that
native listeners are coming to use on a regular basis. On the other hand, M. Rost (2007)
claims that teachers have to plan interventions that develop students’ skill at making the input
comprehensible: “Helpful interventions in teaching listening promote the listener’s motivation
by advancing the listener’s goals for listening”. In M. Rost’s opinion, the interruptions in the
listening process can lead to a desire to listen more closely and with heightened curiosity.
Therefore, providing targeted interventions that focus on the component processes of listening
can allow learners to get more out of each listening encounter.
Having examined the available sources on developing learners’ listening skills in
language classes, it is easier to understand why Internet audio has suddenly become popular
now. Although Internet audio and video files have been around for many years, recent
technical innovations allow subscribers with portable MP3 players to use technology for
downloading podcasts and to listen to files at one’s own convenience. This opens up new
educational potential of using unproductive time for learning (McCarty, 2005).
Research into the student reaction to podcasting is still in progress but early
indications from student feedback collected so far and analysis of course tracking suggest that
the podcasts were highly appreciated and extensively used by students. The podcasts were
frequently downloaded, and students reported listening to each several times over both for the
listening practice they provided as well as for their entertainment or informational value
(http://www.elanguages.ac.uk/podcast/index.html).
Various research projects are investigating the use of podcasting in education. Details
of these can be found on the website of the IMPALA Project
(http://www.impala.ac.uk/index.html), a Higher Education Academy research project into
podcasting. Current plans on e-languages podcasting include introducing a podcast strand to
all academic skill courses being delivered online.
The BBC world service website published the survey on the users of podcasts.
It appeared that out of 285 responses there were 31% of females of various ages: 2% - under
20, about 15% aged 20 to 30, 6% aged 30 to 40, 8% - 40 to 50. There were 69 % of male
users: 6% - under 20, 21% - aged 20 to 30, 17% - aged 30 to 40, 15% - aged 40 to 50, 10% -
aged 50 plus. It shows that men are more active in downloading podcasts – 69% versus 31%.
The age range of English learners is from 20 to 50 plus.
A brief overview of how podcasting can be used in English Language Teaching is
provided by T. N. Robb (http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/~trobb/podcasting2.html), who
suggests that there are three basic modes of activities for podcasting: 1) students as
consumers, and teachers create material for students or assign them to listen to one of the
many available ESL podcast sites; 2) students as producers or publishers, and teachers have
students create material for others to listen to; 3) students practice through various exercises.
Table 1. Self-evaluation of listening to podcasts skills. (Data provided by the1st year students, 2008).
References
Brown, H. D. (2004). Language Assessment. Principles and Classroom Practices. White Plains, NY: Pearson
Education.
Constantine, P. (2007). Podcasts: another source for listening input. The Internet TESL Journal. 13 (1).
Retrieved 29th January 2007 from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Constantine-PodcastListening.html.
Cook, V. (1996). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. London: Arnold.
Dudley-Evans, T. and St John, M. J. (1998). Developments in English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Flowerdew, J., and Miller, L. (2005). Second Language Listening: Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Lynch, T. (2007). Learning from transcripts of an oral communication task. ELT Journal, 61 (4), 311-320.
Kavaliauskienė, G. (2008). Teaching listening skills at tertiary level. ESP-World, 7/2 (18), Retrieved September
2008 from http://www.esp-
world.info/Articles_18/TEACHING_LISTENING_SKILLS_AT_TERTIARY_LEVEL.htm.
McCarty, S. (2005). Spoken Internet to go: popularization through podcasting. The JALT CALL Journal, 1 (2).
67-74. Retrieved 7 July 2008 from http://jaltcall.org/journal/articles/1_2_McCarty.pdf.
Rivers, V. M. (1992). Communicating Naturally in a Second Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Robb, T. N. Podcasting for ELT - What, Why and How? Retrieved June 2007 from http://www.cc.kyoto-
su.ac.jp/~trobb/podcasting2.html.
Robin, R. (2007). Commentary: learner-based listening and technological authenticity. Language Learning and
Technology. 11 (1), 109-115.
Rost, M. (2007). Commentary: I’m only trying to help: a role for interventions in teaching listening. Language
Learning and Technology. 11 (1), 102-108.
Salmon, G. (2006). Informal mobile podcasting and learning adaptation project (IMPALA Project).Retrieved 3
June 2008 from http://www.impala.ac.uk/outputs/index.html.
Survey of podcast users. Retrieved 10 June 2007 from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1720_ten_years/page8.shtml
Sharma, P., and B. Barrett. (2007). Blended Learning. Using Technology In and Beyond the Classroom. London:
Macmillan.
Szendeffy, J. (2005). A Practical Guide to Using Computers in Language Teaching. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press.
Vandergrift, L. (2006). Second language listening: ability or language proficiency? The Modern Language
Journal. 90, 6-18.
Appendix. Learners’ reflections on listening in class, podcasting, and listening outside class.
The excerpts from 1 to 13 refer to the reflections of students who study psychology, 14-16 – the ones of law and
penitentiary activities.
1) http://iavinaite.blogspot.com/
Listening activities in class: Sometimes it was hard for me to follow the text. I performed quite good when doing
these tasks, and my weakest point is filling the gaps while listening. And I perform worse if the question I have
to answer has 2 or more answers and I have to choose one, the most suitable.
Listening to podcasts: It was not hard for me to listen to podcasts, for I have chosen the ones, which had
interesting theme. My vocabulary is good enough to understand everything I hear. Also there was a text written
which helped a lot.
Listening outside the class: it was quite difficult to hear and understand foreigners speaking English, for they
have different dialects and pronounce some words differently. However, I lived with them and listened to them
speaking for quite long period of time and managed to understand everything.
2) http://dbesagirskaite.blogspot.com/
To watch films or to listen to the radio outside class gave me a lot of profit, so listening activities in class became
easier and I think, I did it quite well. Of course, then listening task is more difficult, to listen is more
complicated, so I think I need more difficult listening tasks. Also, it is quite complicated to understand when
people speak with accent or not so clearly.
3) http://adambrauskaite.blogspot.com/
Listening activity is the most difficult for me. I think that my listening skills are not good and I should improve
it. I think that my performance in listening activities in the class is quite bad, because I can not hear the main
facts. However, I have really enjoyed listening to podcasts.
4) http://kgasinska.blogspot.com/
Listening activities in class. My performance on this task hasn't changed a lot this term. It was quite good before
too.
Listening to podcasts. It was quite a difficult task. I had to listen to podcast for several times in order to
understand it all. I think that my skills on this task became better.
Listening outside the class. In order to improve my listening skills I've tried to listen to BBC radio programs and
also to watch English movies without reading subtitles. It’s not easy.
5) http://jzenkova.blogspot.com/
Listening activities in class were not very difficult, almost every time we were listening twice, so it helped to
understand as better as possible. I found it not very difficult.
Listening to podcasts was more difficult than listening in class. I found much more easier to listen about
interesting topic than about politics or something like this.
Listening outside class: I had a lot of opportunities to listen and use English language outside the class, and again
I persuade myself that I can understand quite well, but need to improve my vocabulary and practice more.
6) http://grudzinskaiteb.blogspot.com/
Listening activities in class were the most difficult tasks for me. In my view, I could perform better. I need more
practice because sometimes I miss some words. Listening to podcasts was a new task. It was difficult for me to
do this. I need to listen to podcasts as much as I can if I want to get more practice and perform better.
7) http://vgruzdyte.blogspot.com/
Listening activities in class: I think I performed satisfactorily in listening. It is difficult for me to understand
some certain word when they are taped and said by foreigners , but usually I can understand the main idea of the
speech, so I think I just need to have wider vocabulary and to listen to foreign speakers more often.
Listening to podcasts: my performance was satisfactory. It was difficult to understand certain ideas, but the main
idea of the speech was clear to me.
8) http://ijankauskaite.blogspot.com/
Listening activities in class: my skill is sometimes better and sometimes worse. This is unaccountable thing. Of
course sometimes the task ir harder and sometimes easier but maybe it depends on introversion and the quality of
record.
Listening to podcasts. Interesting task but the stories are sometimes very boring and when you are listening to
them you feel asleep, but my performance wasn't bad and I'm happy.
Listening outside class. Sometimes I watch English channels and try to understand what they are talking about. If
the words aren't specific I can understand the point. Although this term I had a lot of practice in speaking and
listening because I went to the USA embassy and I needed to have a conversation with the USA embassy
employee. Everything was good and I understood everything what they have said to me.
9) http://ikazlauskaite.blogspot.com/
Listening activities in class: my listening improved because the texts which we listened were quite easy so it was
not so hard to plug in the text.
Listening to podcasts. This task was good because I could read the text of podcasts and translate the words I did
not know. Listening outside class: I watch movies in English. It helps me to improve the understanding of this
language and also it helps me to cream off what is the most important.
10) http://atiskute.blogspot.com/
I am quite good at listening during listening activities in our classes; however I still make comprehension
mistakes, even though the number of them has decreased clearly in comparison to the previous term. I was
pleasantly astonished when I have found that I can easily understand a native English podcasts and listen to the
BBC or CNN news.
11) http://gturskyte.blogspot.com/
The most intensive are listening activities in class. It was always one of the most difficult tasks to me, but I'm
happy now. It's a rare success to make an exercise without mistakes, but I feel like I'm a step forward. I've
listened to podcasts just once, so it's difficult to evaluate my skills objectively. And I should admit I have never
practiced listening outside the class.
12) http://tvasilevskyte.blogspot.com/
Listening activities in class: Help to practice and improve my comprehension, however I need more practice.
Listening to podcasts: It is very useful and interesting , helped me to improve not just listening but also other
skills.
Listening outside class: it is easier to understand and usually the comprehension is better because the speech is
not so formal.
13) http://izamaraite.blogspot.com/
My skills of listening in classes are satisfactory. Performance in listening tasks vary and sometimes the results
are good, although sometimes the results are quite poor. I think I need more practice in listening, especially at
advanced level listening and doing some comprehension tasks. As for homework task, which was listening to
podcasts, I think I performed well, it was not a difficult task for me. Still I have some problems in understanding
and trying to interpret new words, phrases.
14) http://gsakalauskiteg.blogspot.com/ Listening activities in class usually are not very easy for me, because we
listen to authentic English and it is hard to understand everything clearly. Listening to podcasts was much harder,
but more interesting. I have learned a lot of new words and improved my listening skills. I listen to English
outside class too, but it is usually English music and films, but I think it helps to find out new things, especially
new words.
15) http://imsarkauskaite-inga.blogspot.com/ In my point of you, usually I haven't no problems with listening
activities in class. It is not difficult to understand the text if it isn't in authentic English. Mostly, I can understand
listening text and do exercises, especially when I hear the text twice. However, when I have to listen to podcasts
it is more difficult, because speakers talk very fast, there are many unknown words and I can't understand mane
ideas. I think, that I should practice more and everything will be good.
16) http://rzekaite.blogspot.com/ Listening activities in class are very difficult for me because I cannot
understand what is said in recordings. I need simple records. In addition to this, listening to podcasts is difficult
for me, too, perhaps I need to listen more in order to improve listening skills.