Computer Assisted Language Learning and Teaching

Instructor: Chi-Fen Emily Chen  陳其芬

Department of English

National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

Unit 5.  Using Technology to Teach Listening Skills

5.1   The Role of Listening in SLA

-  The Comprehension Approach

-  Krashen's Monitor Model

5.2   Approaches to the Teaching of Listening Skills

5.2.1  The Natural Approach

5.2.2  The Total Physical Response (TPR)

5.3   Listening Processes

5.4   Listening Purposes

5.1  The Role of Listening in SLA (second language acquisition)

1. Listening was first recognized as a major component of language learning and teaching in the late 1970s. At that time, research suggested that language instruction should focus on the learner's listening comprehension in the early stages of acquisition, while delaying oral production until the learner was more familiar with the new language.

2. This school of thought manifested itself in the form of the comprehension approach which proposed the following:

1. Comprehension abilities precede productive skills in language learning.

2. The teaching of speaking should be delayed until comprehension skills are established.

3. Skills acquired through listening transfer to other skills.

4. Teaching should emphasize meaning rather than form.

5. Teaching should minimize learner stress.

3. The comprehension approach was supported by Krashen's Monitor Model of second language acquisition. This model consists of five hypotheses:

1. Acquisition-learning hypothesis (Acquisition is subconscious, whereas learning is consciously developed by instruction and aided by error correction).

2. Monitor hypothesis (Conscious learning is limited to use as a monitor that can edit and make corrections in the learner's output before s/he writes or speakes, but language fluency relies on acquisition).

3. Natural order hypothesis (Learners acquire linguistic structures in a predictable order in L1 and a similar order is present in L2 acquisition).

4. Input hypothesis (Learners acquire language by exposure to comprehensible input: "i +1". Learning is first focused on meaning and structure is learned as a consequence of understanding the message).

5. Affective filter hypothesis (Depending on the learner’s state of mind, the affective filter limits what is noticed and what is acquired. The presence of an affective filter could act as a mental block if a poor affective state existed)

5.2   Approaches to the Teaching of Listening Skills

Two approaches to the teaching of listening skills, the natural approach and the total physical response (TPR), are supported by Krashen's Monitor Model of SLA and grouped within the broader comprehension approach umbrella.

5.2.1  The Natural Approach

The natural approach, developed by Krashen and Terrell (1983), focuses on comprehensible input and the optimum affective state of the learner.

1. Principles and Pedagogical Implications (i.e., application to classroom practices):

* Discussion Questions:

1. Is it really good for L2 learners to delay their oral production?

2. Does the natural approach attend to learners' output? Can comprehensible input alone lead to learners' comprehensible output?

2. The Use of Computers in Teaching Listening Skills with the Natural Approach:

* Discussion Questions:

1. According to your language learning experience with computers, do you think those CALL programs always provide comprehensible input, particularly in listening?

2. Do you think the feedback from the computer is sufficient for language learners to develop their listening skills ?

5.2.2  Total Physical Response (TPR)

Total physical response, developed by Asher (1977), is frequently used as a technique within a variety of teaching approaches and methods rather than strictly as an approach unto itself. It focuses on psychomotor associations and lowering of the affective filter.

1. Principles and Pedagogical Implications:

2. The Use of Computers in Teaching Listening Skills with the TPR:

 Examples:

- TPR Games (program description from TPR World Website)

- Live Action English Interactive (program description and demo)

- Review of Live Action Spanish Interactive (from Language Learning and Technology, Vol. 8, No. 3, September 2004, pp. 40-43)

* Discussion Questions:

1. TPR is usually used in the face-to-face classroom. Is there anything missing when TPR is used on a computer?

2. Please read the program descriptions of "Live Action English Interactive" and "Live Action Spanish Interactive" and a review of the Spanish one. Both programs use the principles of TPR to design for beginning and intermediate adult learners. However, TPR is usually used to teach languages to younger learners. Do you think "TPR-on-a-computer" is good for adults to learn languages? Why or why not?

5.3   Listening Processes

Two types of processes, bottom-up and top-down, have been identified as central to listening comprehension.

1. Principles of Bottom-up and Top-down Processing:

* Note:  "Schemata" is defined as "plans about the overall structure of events and the relationships between them" that are stored in the listener's long-term memory (Richards, 1990). These schemata relate to our real-world experiences and how we expect people to behave and events to occur.

2. Bottom-up Activities and Top-down Activities in Teaching Listening Skills: