Importance of Developing Analytical Listening Skills While Teaching English Learning Community: Vol.

2:1 April 2011

Importance of Developing Analytical Listening Skills While Teaching English as a Second Language to A Mixed Ability Class
Meenakshi Singhal and Shalini Vohra
Centre for Communication, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehradun, India Email: shalinivohra@ddn.upes.ac.in

Abstract There are two different kinds of languages. Our first language or native language is the language we are born into. The second kind of language is called a second language or a foreign language. Mixed ability classes are a fact of not only language classes but of all courses. Since no two students can be the same in terms of language background, learning speed, learning ability and motivation, it is a utopian view to think that our classes could be homogeneous in terms of these aspects; no matter where we live in the world or at which school we teach. Therefore, the language teachers should be aware of the problems of mixed ability classes and their solutions to identify the source of troubles in their classes and to cure them. Keywords: Mixed ability, challenge, analytical listening, consciousness There are two different kinds of languages. Our first language or native language is the language we are born into. This is the language our parents or family speak. This is the earliest language we learn. This language is acquired through life experiences. The second kind of language is called a second language or a foreign language. This language is typically learnt in the classroom from a teacher. There are some crucial differences between these two types of languages. The first language is learnt unconsciously. Therefore, it is imbibed at a very early age. There is no need to apply our self consciously to attain the rudiments of this language. However, the second language is the result of a conscious learning process. It does not come naturally. This explains why almost all people face some amount of difficulty while they handle a foreign language. Of course, they may perfect the foreign language in due course. But, this requires some amount of hardwork. As far as Indian students of English are concerned, there are several difficulties. So, teachers of English do face some tough challenges when they teach English as a foreign language. The first of these is pronunciation. English has certain characteristics in pronunciation that is absent in other languages. Examples are the aspirated P that comes in words like Pen, the way the is pronounced with a friction or the difference in the pronunciation between V and W. Native speakers of the language do not need to think about these features. But when you teach English as a second language, teachers have to explain and teach these minute differences to their students. Keep in mind that most of the students who take up English as a
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second language are adults with well defined language habits that make it difficult for them to accept these differences completely. Another difficulty teacher often face when they teach English as a second language is grammar. For nonnative speakers of the language, some aspects of English grammar are hard to decipher. This is true of any language that is imbibed as a second or third language. Grammar is always the tricky part. Many people cannot make out the difference between some of the tenses in English, simply because these may not exist in their own languages. One of the biggest challenges faced by people who teach English as a second language is to make their students think in English. Most non-native speakers make mistakes in English because they automatically think in their native language and translate the thought into English. Thus, they make use of usages that are non-existent in native English. When a student learns to think in the second language, it can be said that he or she has acquired the highest degree of proficiency in that language. There are four basic facets of learning a language i.e. reading, writing, speaking and listening. The listening and reading skills are called receptive skills. The speaking and writing skills are called productive skills. Sometimes the listening and reading skills are called passive skills, and the other pair, speaking and writing, are called active skills. Whichever way we wish to sub-classify the language skills, one cannot deny the fact that all the four are distinct from one another, while they all function together in an integrated manner. The language teacher deals with each skill separately, identifying the errors committed by the students and suggesting possible remedies. In reality, we look for successful communication, and successful communication means that all the four language skills are seamlessly integrated in language use. Spelling mistakes, inability to choose from a variety of possible synonyms to express the exact meaning, inability to communicate in a simple and an elegant manner what is intended to be communicated, problems of articulation, problems of sentence construction are all created when the listening skills are not properly developed. Teachers need to understand that the problems their students face in reading, speaking, and writing may be related to the inadequate listening skill of their students. Listening skill functions as a base for the development of all the other language skills. Further Listening also has different stages. At Stage One, the students go through a process of marginal listening or casual listening. At Stage Two, the students go through a process of attentive listening and cross over to the level of focused listening. From this level they ultimately cross into the level of analytical listening. The teacher has the responsibility to help his students to proceed from the stage of marginal listening to the level of analytical listening. The teacher has the responsibility to help his students to proceed from the stage of marginal listening to the level of analytical listening, using various methods. Students may slowly develop their listening skill as they move from one age group to another. Their attention is much greater when they begin to settle down in an educational system. On the other hand, these stages may be identified even within the teaching of a single lesson, irrespective of the age group of the students. When a teacher begins to teach a lesson in a class, the students may be at the first of stage of listening: marginal or casual listening. One of the reasons why students are usually at the marginal level of listening at the beginning of a lesson is that there may be several features in the lesson (starting from the sounds, meaning, structure of the sentences to the concepts) that are new to the students. Such new expressions are simply a background noise for what they recognize and understand. Before the students cross over to the level of focused listening from the former levels of marginal and attentive listening, they will experience a series of processes such as guessing, anticipating, comparing, interpreting, checking, and finalizing an approximation of what they were listening to. This they do with the help of the knowledge of the language they already have. These processes are usually a part of the attentive listening level. During the attentive listening stage, students may decide on the meaning,
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pronunciation, and other aspects of language use. They compare their inference with that of the teacher and make progress towards focused listening. At the level of focused listening, students are more definitive and decisive about the language use and the content. Once the students are sure about what they have heard, they switch over to the next stage of listening called the analytical listening. Analytical listening is perhaps the most important aspect of listening and more difficult than the other aspects of listening, because at this stage the students individual capacities of all sorts will be employed. The students will analyze and evaluate each and every feature of the language and relate these features to the content expressed through the language. New insights are gained when language is carefully and deliberately used to express the content. In many walks of life, we arrive at new ideas when we attempt to re-state the content in different ways, and all these re-statements are made possible by the innovative use of linguistic elements. Analytical listening is the threshold for creative thinking and subsequent creative writing. How can the teachers help and guide their students to reach the stage of analytical listening? And what are the negative factors that may come in the way of achieving the desired goal? It is important for the teachers to know the level of achievement of their students. If they know where their students are at in relation to various types of listening, they can organize their lessons, interactions, and tests to help the students move forward. Some Suggestions The teacher should never use high standard forms that are not frequently used in ordinary day-to-day use of the language. If at all the teacher has to use such forms, the teacher should always give an explanation, and illustrate how such forms are used in sentences and in transactions. If a form that is from the high dialect is not explained and illustrations given for its use, the students will ignore such forms and may even develop a strong negative attitude to the use of such forms. The teacher should be aware that the students couldnt focus their attention and concentrate upon a particular point for more than two to three minutes. The best thing to do is to break down the teaching point into smaller points, with illustrations for each of these smaller points, and go from one to the other as if these are all distinct elements. Give ample examples to illustrate the points. Use small anecdotes wherever possible. Use interesting jokes. Use small relevant stories to illustrate a point. Ask several questions in order to elicit the students experience related to the content being focused upon. While asking the questions, the teachers should remember the knowledge level of each student in the class. There is no point in asking a hard question to a student who has already shown himself to be struggling hard to cope up with the class. Ask him a simpler question so that he can succeed. Encourage him if he falters, with cues so that he can pick up the thread. Do not allow yourself to be led by the bright students of the class. It is true that the quick and correct responses gladden the hearts of the teachers and make their spirits soar high, but, alas, it is not our feeling good experience in the class that should take precedence over the goal of enabling every student in the class understand as much as they can in their own pace. Language learning is not that easy. Some accomplish it easily, but most always have some problem or another. When a student feels that he does not have an opportunity to learn in the class, he can easily shut himself out. No learning takes place. His performance in the language may not improve. He will just wait for the course to be completed. He will leave the course with severe listening errors.

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Language Teacher and Listening Skil As a language teacher our goal is to improve the language skills of our students in the language we teach. We also aim to enable our students to express the content they wish to communicate in as simple as possible in an acceptable language. We are not there in our class to exhibit our knowledge of the language. We are there to model the language in such a way that our students are able to learn how to use it naturally. Sometimes it will be a great help if the questions are put to a team of students, who together will frame the answer for the question asked. Use illustrations, examples, stories, etc., in the class with the objective of explaining some teaching points. Pointless and excessive deviations from the teaching point through jokes not connected with the matter under discussion should be avoided. Teaching Strategies Various situations may demand various teaching strategies. Listening to a speech from a platform demands a strategy that does not always insist upon following every word said. On the other hand, interpersonal conversation requires that the participants in a conversation show mutual respect to each other by listening carefully to what is being said. Attention to details may be required here. In a drama, the progress of the story will be understood even if not all the conversations are properly listened to and interpreted. However, at times, the story will depend entirely upon a single sentence, phrase or word. If the student misses this particular aspect, he will have a lot of difficulty in understanding and enjoying the story. The characters may have adopted different speech styles that reveal their social and professional backgrounds. If the student is not able to decipher the social and professional backgrounds of the characters from the variety of speech they use, he will have difficulty in following and enjoying the story. Specific situations demand specific strategies. The teachers should list the situations, identify the specific language use in terms of words, sentences, phrases, and other linguistic variables and expose the students to the variety one by one in some hierarchically organized listening processes. Probing Questions Probing questions are always very effective to develop the skill of analytical listening among the students. Whenever there is an opening to raise inquisitive questions, the teachers should ask questions that have either direct or indirect link with the teaching point. Such questions should elicit information from the students from their environment. The answers will be given by the students based on the experience they have. For example, if the content of the lesson is about a national leader, some probing such as the following may be asked. Do you know any other leader who has similar ideas like the person about whom we are presently studying? Do you know any body in your town or school who may have similar ideas like those of the person about whom we are presently studying? Probing questions can be framed easily but the teachers should think over the questions and restrict these to the most relevant items of the lesson. Teachers usually start the lesson with some probing questions. Mixed Ability Classroom and Listening Skills The students in the Indian classrooms in any city usually constitute a mixed ability class. In addition, there is often some linguistic heterogeneity. Students come from different mother tongue, dialect, cultural, social, economic and family backgrounds. While caste in itself is no contributing factor to the performance of students, the socio-economic status of the caste and the history of education in the family certainly contribute to the performance of the students. Do not think that such factors influence the performance of students only in subjects such as mathematics and science. Language learning is also affected by such factors. While
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every one will agree to the statement that English language learning is affected in such conditions, it is also seen that the learning of the skills in mother tongue are also affected under these contexts. In the past it has been assumed that students hailing from disadvantaged family, caste and regional backgrounds performed well in their mother tongue, but they did poorly in English and other subjects. This was an assumption borne out of certain pre-conceived political notions. Use of Non-Verbal Communication Strategies in Listening The teachers should always keep in mind the importance and the contribution of the gestures and other supra segmental features while teaching the listening skills to their students. Several new words and their meanings may be made comprehensible to the students with the help of non-verbal communicative strategies. Also, the use of supra segmental features such as intonation, pitch, and stress focusing on certain points and concepts help the students to be attentive to what is being taught. Teachers may ask the students to observe the movement of the speech organs such as lips, teeth, and tongue when they pronounce a new word or sentence. When a sentence is uttered, students should observe the possible accompanying gestures, and voice inflection. The teachers can exaggerate the gestures in order to draw the attention of the students. If the students imitate the voice inflection, then they will be able to utter the sentences in the language they learn in a natural manner. For the mother tongue learners, such activities or suggestions may seem superfluous, but an effective speaker always needs the help of such props even in his own mother tongue. The flow of the language is facilitated by the gestures in some manner. Both in the mother tongue and second language learning classes it is a good strategy to expose the students to speech styles recorded on the tapes. Listening to radio speeches including drama is a great way to expose students to a variety of styles. Moreover, because the radio drama lacks the visual help, the script uses a variety of props to bring out the context of the situation in a dialogue. There may be birds chirping, or background voices and noise that indicate the locale. Or there may be cues in the verbal communication that indicates the day or the mood or the intent of the conversation, etc. All these become proper subjects for listening. In fact, the audiotapes are an excellent aid to develop analytical listening. Sometimes I think that the audiotapes are far superior to the videotapes for the purpose of listening. However, each has its own merit, and we need to use both. I would suggest some ranking between the two to be done by the teacher taking into account the level of the class. Show the videotape for a class that is not yet fully geared to use the analytical listening. Use the audiotapes for the advanced class. This is only a suggestion. An individual teacher has to decide what is best for the particular class. Students are challenged to make guesses more often when you use the audiotapes. Lack of visual cues challenges the students to work out mental images and provide the answers for the analytical questions asked. There is so much social and cultural information linked to the voice inflection and this comes to the fore in the audiotapes. The assumptions of the participants in a dialogue have to be deciphered without any visual cue, using only the audio cues. Conclusion English language acquisition is hard and can be very stressful. So in order to maintain the greatest amount of learners success teachers must ensure that their learners are not threatened with the process and keep it positive and productive experience. The teachers job is not only to provide English language knowledge and practice. It also incorporates a therapeutic component. Changing negative remarks in positive way is vital for a cooperative teacher-student relationship. It provides favorable environment among English learners. Teaching positively may shape students behavior over a long time. Praising learners achievement may inspire their full potential to acquire English language knowledge.
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