1. Listening then and now I order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, fis ‘neceseary that al likewise sould learn to hear it Sarmue! Johnson (1709-1784), British lexicographer 11 Barly days nthe early days of English Language Teaching (ELT), seingchiely served as a means of inteoducng new grammar chrough motel da logues, Commentators have sometimes implied that it was nor ent the Tare 1970 and the advent of commenictve approaches thatthe sill sas Sis aight ints on sight This version of evens is no ectly teu. langage school in Brin, tenn praciefestared ite re tary ia course programas fom the late sie onwards, dhoogh the ‘materials available were elaively fe and on tape rather than case ne ofthe fist listening courses (Abbs, Cook and Underwood) came fut in 1968, and Mary Underwood's now-lasic authentic ineeviews foal naratves date fom 1971 and 1976 (though, admit, they rere ahead of thir tm in terms of recorded content el, is ser ‘ng to rflec shat i was only Irom 1970 that stoning eomponene ‘eared in the Cambridge Fast Certcate exam, and that ul 1984 islistening eats consisted of passages of ween prose which were read slows.” “The lesion format used by many teachers in dose eaely days was a relatively rigid one which rflcted the structurale orthodoxy f the tame (gee Table 1) ‘Some features of his cv lesson format are worth noting +The three stage. The lesson provided for 3 preliminary stage when Teachers prepared leeners forthe listening eerie and fora fal Stage daring which che listening experience Was reviewed. DUE pre- Tistening, tescherstrainonally presented the new items oF seab lary tha lenners were about socacounie in dhe recording a post: listening, they checked the answere ro comprehension questions and explored che language ofthe recoding. * ply (1990) ess he enrol ening tt 8g the Beda Aura et, eaopdy Bea ite 98Background Table 11 Early format fora listening lesson Pretistening ‘reeact vocabulary to ensure masini understanding Listening ‘Extensive listening followed by general questions on context, Intensive listening followed hy dealed compehersion questions Poselisening "Teach any new vocabulary Analyse language (Why did se speaker nse the Present Perfect here) Pause ply. Stent ten and repeat + Listening at to levels. A procedure developed wharchy learners ate fist asked to listen to the Fecoeding generally in orler to gaia some ‘es as to who the speakers are and what they ace speaking about This phase of extensive listening serve iar parpoeto seni 2 seating ext I ensues some familar withthe Sonent and ase allows the istener to establish the “geography” ofthe eecrding in the orm of what information is peovided sere. The sind of question that the teacher might ask at ths stage is extemal general Who tare the peopler What are they talking about? and lone | personally favour) How ave they feline angry? hoppy? dispoornted? During the second and subsequent plas, the ltenets ow ailiar with the general content of etext, ate ale to inten for deta a to respond to more focused quessions This central part ofthe stening excel wos raitionally ered to as intnsive listening. + pela. The formar cece the oson hth anes might benefit from several plays of she latning passage during intense listening The thinking tthe ine (wih ts emphasion oem ater ‘ham meaning) was that repeated lseing enable the teacher fo fons by degrees on he language ofthe recording and habitated hc eamet ‘othe hythms and intonation paterns of the age nue, “These three characterises have proved semarkably robust and co tinue to feeare in peesneday practice, The overall format of pe lisening ~ istening ~ poslstening has formed the base foe many sccounts of listening methodology (eg. Underwood, 1989; Wilson, 2008), though there are serious questions to be nddesed about the “Listening then and now relative timing and importance accorded ro each part and about what “onsite appropiate preparation” and Yllow-ap. "The concinued use ofan ‘extent listening” phase might perhaps be questioned onthe argument that, in real Ife ster does nt have ‘Be oppostunity to listen rice, That nay be, bur in eal fea istener ‘tually asthe advantage of visual cues which ctablsh both the context ‘ofthe conversation and he respective roles ofthe participants. Ina hotel ‘helen encounter, we would sce hotel foyer, 4 gues with wtase Standing on one sale oft desk and s receptions (posi in unfoern) Standing on he other. Our understanding ofthe conversation might also [beconsiderably assed by facial expressions and gestre, None ofthis is available when s lari listening to an audio Feording. Recopnsing the sue, listening teschers increasingly make use of| visual materia on DVD or video. One asl argue that, when is kind ‘of information is avaiable, the case fora extensive listening phase ies convincing. But we also have to ear in mind that the aston of ‘sting and listening toa recording ina classroom isa highly arial tne. Ae Brown and Yale (1983): 82 poe out, eavesdropping on some- Body elas dilogue rather shan paripating in its nt a conventional Tieng activi Ie wal very well to axpre to reat conden, but t reall conversation would provide the steer with eh possiblity of intezrupting the spesker and asking fora canfication of anything that tad not been understood. ‘On these grounds, mos teaches canine fo favour fs heating which enables leaner to exablish a general iden of what acing on In point of fact the eatensve listening pase does much more than Compenate fr the imitations of an sudo recording, Ie also saves an linportane futon forthe weaker Tstenecs in he clas. They may have {derstood very hile the es time round, but the answers given thee peers provide them wth few poe upon which to hang ideas wen they Freon span nde any shearing ofthe recorded materi asi allmenbersof| the clase to extend there understanding of i A case can be ade not jusc for keeping the exesivelatensive tation ba alo for employing Imulspe replays troughour the ening lesson. The original inking tras tha replaying the recording alloed axention to be given to the Foams of language, butt ow zecogised that repeated teningenables the lamer to buld increasingly on the information that i erated [fet hearing of a forcign language passage may produce a pari Lindereanding which can Be deepened only by subsequent exposie and by increasingly demanding questions onthe pat ofthe teacher, “The convention of multiple play thus embodies prinile which shapes mmc texehased work in language teaching ~ the idea of 1sBackground 1 1 Fue 1 Narowing i ‘nazrowing in” sce Figure 1.1). The lesson starts with geneel notions and focuses on more deal asthe learner bose neresingl fama ‘vith the ee So:much for the features ofthis ealy leon format that have survived, Buta general ets of che format that twas inflexible and tat tie sequence of actives became highly predstable, Over tine, + mimbr of other aspects ofthe approach were alo called into question + Tewas not corset and smacked of nannying) assume tha students «ould handle a listening exes ony if they knew mus ral ofthe ‘ccabulary ini + Intensive fseing took place withoue any clea am, Stents were not asked questions unt afer they had heard the asses so they Aid noc know what hey were listening fr. Ther sucess answering depended on memory as mich son steing skill + The convention of drawing attention to exanplesofsrammar was & tele of she idea thatthe stening lesson should sve to demonstate recently taught language in everyday we, Inthe en, lessons ofa ‘tte me on dca he fnguge ofthe calgon Ot practising latning + Pause play could lad eo “parotng. ts cits argued thc students could repeatasretch of sound without necessarily understanding what 1.2 Current practice ver he years, he original model hasbeen mode. Thelen son thar one encounters in good ELT practice today hs a ater deca 16 LRstoning hen ae now ible 1.2. Current format fora listening lesson Prestning Esablish context reste motivation fr listening Preach oni critcal voeabulary Extensive listening ‘General questions on context and atte of speakers Iocensive istening Preset questions Then stening ‘Ghesking answers to quetions Pos stening optional unctonal languaae in Histening passage Lemersinfer the meaning of anknown words fom the setenss i hich they appear Final pay eamer Took at tans structure, which includes rome or most ofthe elements shown in Table 1, Lets consider the rationale behind the changes 1.21 Prestoning + Preseoching vocabulary, There are a number of eeasons fer not preteaching all the uoknown vocabulary in a recording. Wt takes Eine = tne orich is much bere spear seing. Very import, {tla leaves sraens prepared for what happens in ral lis {ening encour wher neta, die wil be words nbc hey do rot know and have to work out for dherselves. Acie ensieration Theellect upon the sening proces. By preseachingallthe new words ina recording. regasdleu of their importance, the eacher encourages the lene often ou for hose word, Result dearer’ arenon Js focused upon the language ofthe text eather than ts meaning. Tt ‘nay alo be misircred o parts ofthe recording which are not ttly ‘elvan co the main argues “The corent ple to proteach only eral words. “Crit is taken to mean those words without whch the recording could not be “inferstod or example n'a passage about jogging, we woule want {orbe sure tha lamers knew the veth #9 jog). ln any give lige ”Background text there should be very few such cca items ~ x most, foue of five + Establishing context. As aeeady note, its immportare to compensate for the limations of using an audio cassece by gving students § ‘eneral idea of what shey are going to eat. Ina walle sitaaton, they would usualy be amare of who the speakers were, wheve they were and so on. It ison fait xo provide some of hit information tote the listening exercise, However, the information doesnot aoe toe etensive. Infact there i comiderable danger ia expounding too much onthe context of te lining passage, The more we tll he Lerma the es ey wl need to listen to the recoeding to exeac the snwers they need, The entesion shouldbe wht would the ltener lead know i rel Ife before the speech event began? Here ace typical pices of contextualistion from the Cambridge Fist (Cera (FCE) exam You wl oar par of ado programme in which 0 women, Mary and atl alk aout thei interes bed am ame ado operat, radio ha (Paper 103, Pare 3) Yow will ear ama olbing about bow be jogs ~ ras —jnorder hee le (Paper 103, aee2) “These intoductons serve thre different pr-tisening parpose 1. They establish ‘conext including the sation the topic and the gence of he reording b. Thay inraduce ees! vocab: ‘©. They mension names which hep the Kistner 0 Label the speakers. A teacher might aio include ater proper nouns (ea. samen of ei) whic wonld noe be regarded a fae game ot parvo uy leanne ormal vocabulary bese. + Creating motiotion. Theis an impostant goal of preistening and fone thats sometimes neglected, We need co give liners 9 purpose for tinting The quality aad depth of listening it vo enormously enhanced when the listener has the right mental set in other word, wien she has given some frechouge to wha he Tntening passage Tike to conan “Hove ocreate motivation? One ways to write atilefor the listening pssage on the board and then ask the leaner o predic what 8Listening then and now hey will hear (se panel below). Once they have created a sx of Expectations the goal of the extensielistening phase ito check which tthe predicons prove to be cnerct and which nt. The processcan ren be competitive [Anne thnks there wil be something about noise pollution: Envigue doesn't agre. Ler soe who right. Now by fhe way, tha the interaction exemplified im the pans does mare than june ceste mena sel als performs the presiseningfanctins of Dating context and introducing teal Yoeabalay. ‘Crating motivation for Bening "Ty You'te going to hear somsbody taking abour camels He's a ‘oologst who'sssdied them. What do you think ell about? Si: Doser. [TE Yesshe might mention deers frites DESERT om boar). Any thing ee? 2; Weer. Water onthe camels back {Tr Me might mention what the camel has oats back, Its hump. The sword is‘himp” tes UMP]. Any other ideas? 3: Hot emperstue Si: Walking. Lng dance, ‘Tr He might tall about the Beat ince destt [writes HEAT). How do we measure that st: Degree, 1, Yes in degrees Anything else) ‘4: Walking Camels walla Tong distance, carry people. TF Yeu, he. might menoon ow far the camel walks [ents DISTANCE}. Or... Very slowly, ow fat ithe camel "Yess now fst he camel wales frites SPEED}. {Other poral tie explored), ‘Wels some of you gassed correcly and some of you are wrong. Lev linen and see who as ght Fae A similae guessing activity kes advantage of the Lack of rea: lige contexe in am ataio recording by playing shore context ised exact and asking leaner co work out what is haprening ‘This is dome to great effect by Maley and Dull (1978) with passages toch as the one below. Contig interpretations lead to anmated 1Background dlscassin inthe classroom and (ost nportanl) eo some very cate {nl listening and relistening to jas the conlasions that have besa reached CContexsalambigisy ‘A: You know wha his, Pm sue B: Ur Ob, tigers. A: Yes thought you might like something frie B: Obyyes ‘A Is fanny, ito mea Jong time to gto ket © on | A: Bus ow I'm very fond oft... OF courses nothing special B: Ob no, i’s. very good A Ethoughe you'd hike it (Maley and Duff, 1974 82). 1.22 During toning The gouls of extensive listening remain unchanged ~ forthe reasons cuted above. However, the approach to intensive Hstening has be ready restructured. + Preset questions. questions age not asked untae the records ing has been hear, eames lite in'a very untaneted way, They are unclear about whete to die ther actenton sl hit ality answer depends upon which parts ofthe recording they happen woke aid spec heed to. Their sponses also become eal depend 'upon memory and dee recall becomes unreable ashe vescher ask mote and more questions and ss time eos Oy. A poly of sting questions before ctu pey ofthe css ensures hat earner knowin avance what they ae lenin for, They an write nots of thee answers during isting ad thee ait respond wil not be dependent up she ability to ezemiber wha ag Sail; Note che convention in both teaching and toy Ue conventon ‘hatas arly been questioned} whereby he queton follow the same order a the passage. * Pasi nlanations A Backed x msl fo 0 irs Fen oe A ae ju eyed snoring eve hey lee of casa ones 20Listening then ard now Checking answers. The teacher allows leaenes time to writeup ‘eit Sowers ar then checks them with the cass ab 2 whole. This i Sometimes 2 difule phase ofthe stern lesson. Leamers may be Slow to respond ~ pay beuse they need to switch peycholog=lly from the recepive role of hiner the sei on of cass pare pant trvoften bectuse of ack of confidence n thei epics. Some eames reibute thet insecurity to the fact that they do no asin ean fave te ent before them in order to double-check before they commit themselves to an answer. One way of overcoming reluctance for ifr Some never pin Before suming em whale clase 25 Postistening Functional language, The practice of replaying 2 listening pasage fonder to reinforce recely aught gramamar has been abandoned, long with other sastaralist nions. However, many of the dias Togues which festre in published stening materials represent 2m mmo types of human interaction. They therefore afford seful and trellcontextusised examples of language fuetions such 2 ets Tpologsing thretening,ollering, ee. These funtons are relairely ‘Tice co feach in soaton, Iris worthwhile drawing attention to Soy which feature peominentiy in Uisteaing passage, and even pau ing rio practise them ‘Drawing atention functional language ‘What did George say about the damage? He wanted to pay Da you remember the words Geonge used? i pay the damage Yess pay forthe damage” So what was he doing? He promised [Not qite promising. ic He ollered ‘Thats ight: He olfeced to pay forthe damage. He offered. (Offer eo carey my ba. 2 [pone] ee your bag “Tf topos the lees, 51M post he eter eeBackground + Inferring vocabulary. only rim vocabulary is pre-taugh, tens shave to lear to cope wit unkown words the pases, Hee, {hey ae gaining experince of exactly the kind of grocss that occur ‘natalie encounter, where there no teacher or detonary on hand to explain every word in an utterance, Ie usally assumed (perhapa hhyanalogy with L2 reading) hae the way in which» L2 Iter de ‘with an unknown word eto ork out fs meaning ro the co in which i oecur- If one aczepesthe assumption, iis appropiate sve listeners some controlled practi in the proces of ier word ‘meaning smile tothe practice given o reader, The teaches dei &number of useful words in the cording which tay be new to ‘lass and whose meanings are relatively clearly lsat bythe cont text (ne or two Sentences) within which they wut The each the ‘writes the words onthe board nd replys the steno the hstening Passage which contain them. Sadent suggest possible meanings, That ithe principe; ny experience is hic fen dows not dt ay into practice. Although many teachers resgns the valu of his Kind of inering activi they ae eelscane ro engage nie The season is simples even with a counter onthe case Cl player, ican be suite complicated and imesconsuming to locate 4 unter of short eves of text Infact, the Solution is simple se wel le ito pee second the target sentences on to a Separate cance or CD50 that they ae ‘easly reieved forthe infesting exercise, aused play. Paased play has generally been dropped. I was often ned aay of practising inonaton patterns = and Was ths pe ff the unsacsactry mixing of lnguage and steng goals which bas aleady been commented one war als critic onthe ground ‘that leseners could repeat what they heard without scessany under sanding aything the kind of parrotingasecated ih haut deilinge My personal belief that paused pay car stil sere some of cin hee ae dd op de to recognise tha i dos noe Bin wel wih erent communicate Spprosches + Final play. Theres sometimes «al play daring which forthe ise time, the students are given a transcript of he Uatning passage This isa valuable activity, since allows learners on an India! Basi clasfysetons of the recording which hey have nots fa suceeded ‘scoding ray aso enable thm to otic, for example te psoas of short weak-qualty fonction words which they would lherwie| have overlooked 2Lisoning then aed noe (ne of the strengths of ealy approaches so Kstening was che mss sence separating the spoken and the writen word. However, here [Sto reson shy the lner shold not be uroduced ata ate sg the lesson in the form ofa transcript hat assists Word cognition eis Important that learners ake away with hem some kind of permenent record of what they have covered inthe litening lesson ~and no ust [necho in ther heads of the voice ofthe speaker. Inadditon othe above two otermsjr developments have cared its itas been recogeied that ti very dificult to check ndersand ing accurately through seus of conventionl comprehension questions. swering such questions often involves agree deal of reading or wrt gy and i leamer gives a wrong answer, may nor be due toa failure fot istening at al It may be beatae huh has aot undestoed the 3s son propery (a reading problem) or bacause helse lack the language fro formulate a writen anewer (a wet problem). here has thenfore zen a move towards checking undersanding by setng tasks eather ion questions (se, e, Blundell and Stokes, 1981). Thee ase can x gore simples Many involve the completion of simple gids, Otbers vole filing in forms Ifthe liening passage i a calogue beeween Js stoner and a travel agen, then the task might require che lexmer ro complete the kind of foes hat he agent would be axing (ee gure fr2) The advantage of his Kind of acy i ot hat reduces the amount and complesity of reading (and indeed writing) that has 0 be doe. also sigs the purposes and proceses of listening more chsely wih what occureinrealfe encounters. “Tesebased activities compare favourably with the practice of ask- ing whole class comprehension questions, where the srong listens are en keen to respond while the weaker ones mask ther late of under standing behind bright sil, Alclae members ave co patipat and ther tangle outcome inthe form of a completed form orchekist fahch can beatles and marked “Secondly there fas been # nove towards ving authentic recordings wherever pose, The em ‘authentic svaly refers to Ustening items originally intended for the ears of ative lsteer rather than spally prepared for langage leners. The arguments fr sing sch mauris Srethr they expose earners tothe real sound of the language inciding the hestations of poneancous speech) and chat they provide alsin experience mor ie tht of rea ie, where students donot know every word and have to make gueses fli gapsin understanding Authentic material are dincased in Chapeer 14 of tis book “To summacae, the changes that have taken place elec thee deve opments in che way Uatening is viewed. Fis, ther hasbeen 2 shit 2Background — Lemming Travel Ltd et nye SCs et na canyy. TAYR, TH U0 gare 1.2 Example of fon fling as ek, 1985: 73), BEBE -Listening then ad noe perspective so that Henig as sil takes psirity over deals of guage content Secondly, there hasbeen 2 wis to telat the mtore ening practised in the classroom tothe Kid of sting that kes fc nea ie This elected nthe way the teacher provides conte al backgroud gives practic in ifersng he meaning of new words, res reordings which are sient sn ongin and uses simulated aks her than focmal exereses. Thirdly, we have become aware of the ance of providing motivation sn focus for Henig. The hs 7's encouraged to develop expectations st to what wil be Heard he recording then so chek them against what is acialy sid. By reaetcing questions and tasks ee ensue that lamers are cer from tur sbour the purpose ofthe isteningexeese and wil ot have iy heavily on memory .3 Conclusion 1 purpose behind this review of changing practice has ben to highlight | ofthe peinipes which gave nee to prsenrday approaches tthe ing of isening,lrmay sen curious that de dacs shouldhave ered thee importa ideas in the biel space ofa sil chapter ther extending ter over the major pat ofthe Book, But the overview reveted ete i intended to serve simply a5 point of departure. My im nok co provide a detsled exposition of curent practice thet es (Ue, 1984, Underwood, 1989, Wilson, 2008) already de that emprchensvely fin eather dierent waye fom che hiro angle red ere lsted, isto challenge many ofthe received ideas hich dere our views of Secon langwage stein and the methods ha we ploy in practhingtin te clasvoom le wil be argued that our present prchension-based methodology i awed. A case wil be mace for ‘ical rethinking ofthe way in eich we approach listening the snd langung lac shat cam moreclosly address the eds i eocerns of the lear.