EXTENSIVE LISTENING AND COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN EFL CONTEXT

Extensive Listening and Communicative Language Teaching in EFL Context

Abir Kassab

University of Balamand, Lebanon

Abstract

Underwood, M. (1989) discusses the difficulties EFL learners often face when they attempt

to listen to English and the effort they make in order to comprehend oral language. This could

be partially due to the way listening was presented as sentences out of context or through

taped dialogs (Cook, 2001). Another reason might be the lack of chances for extensive

listening to natural and authentic conversations in real life situations (Larsen-Freeman, 1986).

Communicative Language Teaching is an approach that developed in the west as a post-war

need for conversation in foreign language resulting from the dissatisfaction with the audio-

lingual and grammar translation methods that were used in teaching foreign languages. EFL

teachers are now exploring CTL and encouraging extensive listening. How do

Communicative Approach and Extensive Listening help in improving EFL learners’

communicative competence in countries where English is not used as a main language of

communication?

Introduction

“There are rules of use without which the rules of grammar would be useless.” (Hymes,

1972)
EXTENSIVE LISTENING AND COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN EFL CONTEXT

Modern teaching methodologies of foreign language reject the old belief that second

language is taught by building language skills competence of the learners before they can

communicate in that language. Advocates of Communicative Language Teaching claim that

second language is learned best by communicating in that language. According to Rost

(1990), CLT is based on listening as a first step of communication. This research paper will

examine listening features of the communicative teaching approach and try to explore ways

extensive listening can be useful to EFL students in countries where English is not the main

language of communication.

Communicative Language Teaching:

Definition

Richards, Platt and Platt (1992) give the following definition to communicative language

teaching also known as the communicative approach:

“An approach to foreign or second language teaching which emphasizes that the goal of

language learning is communicative competence.”.

Communicative competence, as defined by Hymes (1972) is knowing “when and when

not to speak, what to talk about with whom, when, where and in what manner”

Background

Richards and Rodgers (1986) trace the origins of CLT and discover that its first notions

have developed in the late 1960s simultaneously in Britain as a reaction to the Situational

Language Teaching , in the United States with the falling beliefs of the Audio-lingual method

and in Europe as a need to teach the major languages of the European Common Market to

adults, and as a cultural and educational interest of the Council of Europe to develop

communicative syllabuses for language teaching across European countries.

EXTENSIVE LISTENING AND COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN EFL CONTEXT

Swan (1985) views CLT as a response to dissatisfaction with previous practices in

language teaching with audio-lingual and grammar translation which focus on the language

structure rather than the appropriate use of language in communicating meaning. In arguing

the need for language learning to be effective in communicating appropriate meaning, Swan

(1985) refers to Newmark’s experiment when a ‘structurally competent student’ was given

the task to “ask for a light from a stranger”, the attempted responses were: “Have you fire?”,

“Do you have illumination?” and “Are you a match’s owner?”. These three sentences are

grammatically accurate but fail to convey a comprehensive meaning. Swan (1985) refers to

Widdowson in defining the comprehensive skill: to ‘listen’ and ‘interpret’ messages as

instances of ‘use’. Listening to native speakers’ conversation becomes a base model for L2

learners to follow in producing comprehensive and natural language while knowing the

grammar and syntax of a second language does not enable students to produce meaning.

Listening to English as a foreign language

Definition of listening

Underwood (1989) defines listening as ‘the activity of paying attention to and trying to get

meaning from something we hear’. She explains that listening to someone does not make us

understand the message just by knowing the meaning of each word they use, but

understanding the context and the situation in which the words are used. She also expected

potential problems to arise in learning to listen to English as a foreign language.

Listening to a foreign language

While Listening is viewed by Anderson (1988) as taken ‘for granted’, it only becomes

remarkable when we are ‘listening to a language in which we have limited proficiency’. On

listening comprehension, she believes that it is a reciprocated skill and that problems occur
EXTENSIVE LISTENING AND COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN EFL CONTEXT

when we are listening to a foreign language because the listener ‘may not hear adequately’

due to background noise and unfamiliarity with the accent or because the listener is unable to

understand the syntax or semantics of the foreign language.

Vandergrift (2006) contradicts the belief that listening to a foreign language is problematic;

he examines strategies used by L2 learners to prevent L2 listening problems. He believes in a

transfer of L1 listening comprehension skills to L2 and discusses its effects in improving L2

proficiency. Vandergrift (2006) demonstrates that L1 listening comprehension ability plays a

big role in L2 learning through his study of 75 foreign language learners as participants in a

specifically designed listening comprehension test to discover whether L1 listening strategies

affected L2 language comprehension. The participants had to listen to authentic dialogs in L2

and answer comprehension questions. Results analysis proved that the participants who have

been trained in their L1 listening practices to use both top-down skills and bottom-up skills in

order to comprehend the oral message performed better than the ones who had poor L1

listening comprehension skills. The first set of skills helped the participants to use both

context and guessing strategies of the words’ meaning in order to comprehend the L2

listening passage and the latter skills helped the listeners to develop fast word recognition in

L2.

Features of Listening in CLT

Rost (1990), on the role of listening in CLT, explains that listening is given a new role in

language learning in CLT: communicative approach views listening as an interactive

functional basic mode of communication rather than a skill to be learned and tested. CLT

emphasises the use of extensive listening to material taken from ‘authentic’ L1 situations
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where listeners are expected to select the language they need to use in order to perform

language tasks.

Swan (1985) agrees with Rost (1990) on this role of listening in CLT and refers to

Widdowson’s definition of comprehensive skill as “to ‘listen’ and ‘interpret’ messages as

instances of ‘use’”.

Larsen-Freeman (1986) suggests that the main role of listening in CLT is to trigger

conversation as the listener needs to negotiate meaning through simulation games and role-

play. Communication will happen more naturally and the learners are given a chance to use

the language they are learning in a more realistic social and cultural situation.

Based on these definitions, we can deduct that listening in CLT appears to take two major

roles. The first role, as viewed by Rost (1990) and Swan (1985), could be enabling the

listeners to select a function of language from the presented listening model and to apply it in

communication activities. The second role, suggested by Larsen-Freeman (1986), seems to be

stimulating communication by creating the need for social interaction through simulation of

real-life situations.

In order to better understand how these new roles of extensive listening in CLT can be

used in EFL teaching, we need to examine what features of extensive listening are used in

this context.

Features of extensive listening in CLT used by EFL teachers:

Thompson (1996) believes that CLT is the ‘dominant theoretical model’ of English

language teaching around the world and that CLT principles have become accepted and used

in teacher training programs. Even in EFL context where learners do not have the chance to
EXTENSIVE LISTENING AND COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN EFL CONTEXT

interact with the language outside the classroom, CLT practices enable the learners to use the

language in a realistic setting through simulation and role-play in a similar way they would

communicate in real-life situations.

Although, according to Rost (1990), CLT is not a listening based method, “it overlaps

with interest in listening-based learning”. CLT regards listening as a procedure in language

learning not as a target of learning by itself. In order to gain better understanding of the role

of listening as a procedure in CLT, Rost (1990) suggests examining some commonly used

activities in CLT like information-gap, opinion-gap and reasoning-gap tasks in which

listening plays an interactive function. Learners use listening to seek clarification and check

their understanding. Listening is not a formal input in these activities and is not part of an

intensive listening program that teaches listening comprehension skills but a model to use

language in communication. Language drills and implicit grammar are replaced by language

games in order to learn how to use English language through applying the selected language

functions in communication.

Extensive listening is also basic to simulation games and role play which are used in CLT.

According to Richards and Rodgers (1986), the objective of these activities is to ‘use’

English language in order to ‘learn it’ through social interaction as opposed to previous

audio-lingual practices of retaining language through repetition and memorisation. They

suggest presenting the learners with ‘authentic’ language in the form of taped videos, dialogs

or interviews. The learners are then expected to take different roles like TV reporter,

interviewer, company owner, school teacher or sales representative...etc and try to question

and communicate their opinions and beliefs in a similar way they would use in a real-life

situations.
EXTENSIVE LISTENING AND COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING IN EFL CONTEXT

Crawford (2002) suggests that TV trivia games, quiz shows and board games should be

incorporated in the CLT classroom as new models for simulation. He argues that “trivia

content helps to focus learners’ attention on meaning... learners will momentarily forget they

are in a language class. They will listen carefully to understand the meaning of the trivia

questions, and they will try hard to supply the correct answer. When this occurs, they will be

using language in the same way they use it outside the classroom.”

Outside the classroom: Chances of extensive listening in EFL context

Savignon (1987) states that: “The strength of a foreign or second-language curriculum

depends ultimately on the extent to which it reaches out to the world around it”. She believes

that when learners live in the country where the second language is used, they have a better

chance to interact with the language. However, for EFL learners who live in countries where

the second language is not used, she suggests that special field trips can be arranged or guests

should be invited to visit the classroom. Teachers can also suggest places or events to the

learners where English language is used like poetry reading sessions or a nearby theatre

staging a play in English. Native speakers can be invited to give a lecture or a presentation in

English about a topic that may interest the learners.

Telephone conversation, radio and television are also mentioned by Savignon (1987) as ways

to extend listening to English language. Many companies now offer after-sale services by

phone and English is offered among other choices in the conversation where instruction or

direction can be given in English. Listening to an interview, a song, or even the news and

weather forecast on the radio can present interesting topics for classroom discussion.
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Warschauer and Meskill (2000) suggest the use of technology as a new resource that has

developed since the 1980s. Technology can be used in long-distance project exchange.

Communication with long-distance partners on the world web internet offers both listening

and interaction between EFL learners and native speakers in an authentic, natural and social

situation.

Conclusion:

Communicative approach, although now faced with criticism and rejection in countries

where it has first originated a good 60 years ago or so, is still gaining popularity in EFL

teaching. CLT is explored as a new approach to English language teaching in countries where

English is not likely to be used in communication. Modern technology has offered new

resources and also created new needs for communication in English language. While

extensive listening chances were poor in such countries, the learners are now presented with a

range of oral media like TV, radio, telephone and a world-wide internet network that offers

an unlimited choice of extensive listening material in English language.

My recommendations would be to suggest more studies in the area of CLT extensive use

of modern technology in communication and its effects on English language learning from a

social and cultural view.

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