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TOPIC
2
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DEVELOPING
LISTENING & SPEAKING SKILLS
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2.1 SYNOPSIS
This topic aims to help
course participants to identify and relate listening and speaking skillls in
the Malaysian primary school syllabus, enhance their knowledge on developing
listening and speaking skills and explore the techniques in the teaching of
listening and speaking skills. It consists of information on listening and
speaking skills and some ‘reflect and review’ sections. Some exercises are
included for further reinforcement on the topic. Some suggested useful websites
addresses are provided at the end of the module to give additional support to
course participants.
2.2 LEARNING OUTCOMES
By
the end of Topic 2,
you will be able to:
- A. Identify and interpret listening and speaking
skills in the primary school syllabus
- B. Integrate and develop listening and speaking
skills
·
C. Engage the techniques for teaching
listening and speaking skills
2.3 CONTENT
A. IDENTIFYING AND INTERPRETING LISTENING AND
SPEAKING SKILLS IN THE PRIMARY
SCHOOL SYLLABUS
Introduction
Learning to speak is the first form of language most
of us learn, but we are probably unaware of how we learnt it, or the level and
types of skills we possess. When we speak, our mind would be processing lots of
information, and this happens in great speed and agility. The processes are
dynamic and constantly change as new meanings arise in a conversation. This is
largely unconscious and we rarely reflect on what it involves.
This process is the main challenge in teaching
speaking and listening. However, we can all
improve our speaking and listening, and developing greater
self-awareness is the key to improving our ability in this area. Explicit
teaching of speaking and listening provides an opportunity to use interesting and
innovative approaches that learners will enjoy.
Let us look
at a comparison between the KBSR and KSSR to identify and understand the role
of Listening and Speaking in our Primary school syllabus.
A comparison of KBSR and KSSR
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KBSR
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KSSR
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Aims
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The syllabus for primary school aims to
equip learners with basic skills and knowledge of the subjects so as to
enable them to communicate, both orally and in writing, in and out of school.
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The English Language Curriculum for Primary
Schools aims to equip pupils with basic language skills to enable them to communicate effectively in a variety of
contexts that is appropriate to the pupils’ level of development.
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Main
focus
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— 3M : Reading, Writing, Counting
— Skills : speak, listen, read, write & basic numerical skills (add,
subtract, multiply, divide)
— Values : Islamic Studies & Moral Education
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·
The new
curriculum emphasises on holistic development of the students which
encompasses new elements such as grooming of creativity and innovation,
entrepreneurship, and integration of Information and Communication Technology
(ICT).
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Objectives
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By the end of the
primary school, learners should be able to
— i. listen to and understand simple spoken English
in certain given contexts;
— ii. ask and answer questions, speak and express
themselves clearly to others using simple language;
— iii. acquire good reading habits to understand,
enjoy and extract information from a variety of texts;
— iv. write legibly and express ideas in simple
language;
— v. show an awareness and appreciation of moral
values as well as love for the nation.
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By the end of the
primary school, learners should be able to
— i. communicate with peers and adults confidently
and appropriately in formal and informal situations;
— ii. Read and comprehend a range of English texts
for information and enjoyment;
— iii. Write a range of texts using appropriate
language, style and form through a variety of media;
— iv. Appreciate and demonstrate understanding of
English language literary or creative
works for enjoyment; and
— v. use correct and appropriate rules of grammar in
speech and writing.
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Principles of KBSR
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— Overall
development(JERIS)
— Acquiring
basic skills
— Inculcation
of good moral values
— Student-centred
teaching and learning
— Flexible
principle
— General
education
— Lifelong
education
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The new curriculum emphasises on holistic
development of the students which encompasses new elements such as grooming
of creativity and innovation, entrepreneurship, and integration of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
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KSSR:
Curriculum content for Year 1,2 and 3
Presently, the Standard Documents by CDC unit of KPM
(Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia) lays out the English language curriculum for
Year 1,2 and 3. The curriculum content is organised in terms of Content Standards and Learning Standards.
Content
Standards specify the essential knowledge, skills,
understandings and strategies that
pupils need to learn.
Learning
Standards describe in detail the degree or quality of
proficiency that pupils need to display in relation to the Content Standard for
a particular year.
In the initial stages of learning English, pupils will
have the opportunity to listen to meaningful English input, in the form of
stories or oral descriptions by teachers based on graphic texts. Through
listening, pupils become familiar with words that willl be introduced in their
early reading and writing lessons. The emphasis in the initial stages willl be
on vocabulary acquisition.
Listening
and Speaking Component
The curriculum content for Year 1,2 and 3 encompasses
listening and speaking, reading, writing, language arts, grammar and word list.
In KSSR, the listening and speaking component is taught simultaneously as one
component. Let us look into the details of this content in the listening and
speaking component.
By end of Year 2, the component on listening and speaking
aims at developing pupils’ ability to listen and respond to stimulus with guidance,
participate in daily conversations, listen and demonstrate understanding of
text, talk about stories heard; and listen and follow simple instructions. The
learning standards for listening and speaking range from the discrete sound,
word and phrase recognition to an understading of chunks of heard texts.
Listening and speaking are seen as core skills of early literacy. Pupils should be taught how to listen carefully as well as
feel encouraged to speak from the basic level of sound, word, phrase and move
on to structural sentences in various situational contexts. At every stage, the
stress, rhythm and intonation patterns need to be used correctly. In addition pupils are also encouraged to recognise,
understand and use verbal and non-verbal communication. Oral communcation
practice by means of repeating, responding, understanding and applying what pupils
have heard sensitises their senses to be ready for communiction.
Relationship are established through the ability to
communicate by listening first then speaking thoughts, ideas an feelings. It is
hoped by the end of primary school, pupils should become confident speakers who
can communicate clearly, appropriately and coherently in any given context.
Pupils need to listen carefully and respond to what others say and think about
the needs of their listeners. Social conventions in listening and speaking such
as turn taking, politeness and courtesy need to be observed. These are crucial
especially in group discussions where viewpoints and opinions are exchanged.
The use of various text types is
recommended; ranging from teacher stimulated texts to media broadcasts and
authentic dialogues.
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Exercise 1
Analyse both the KBSR & KSSR
syllabus items for
LISTENING
& SPEAKING Skills.
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Present your analysis in the
form of a chart/ table.
— Compare the syllabus items from Year 1- Year 6 to
locate common traits pertaining to the KSSR English Syllabus
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Reflect & Review
Look through the KBSR
and the KSSR English language Syllabus for Year 1 and Year 2.
Give your review based on the following questions:
a. What are the
skills focused in the syllabus?
b. What do you think of the syllabus?
c. What method/approach is emphasized/ preferred? (look at the topic, activity, and objectives)
d. If you are given a choice, which of the syllabus would you choose?
b. What do you think of the syllabus?
c. What method/approach is emphasized/ preferred? (look at the topic, activity, and objectives)
d. If you are given a choice, which of the syllabus would you choose?
Compare your views and opinions with your coursemates.
B. INTEGRATE
AND DEVELOP LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS
Before we learn how to integrate listening and speaking
skills in our teaching and learning process in a Primary ESL classroom, it is
essential to understand how listening and speaking are developed in a child.
·
Reflect
& Review
a.
How
are listening skills acquired in childhood?
b.
How
do babies participate in ‘conversations’ with parents?
c.
How
do they learn to listen to their own class discussion?
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Exercise 2
Read the narrative below
carefully and identify the top-down and bottom-up processes in listening. Refer
to Brown (2001) for more exercises.
— Sally first tried setting loose a team of gophers. The plan backfired
when a dog chased them away. She then entertained a group of teenagers and
was delighted when they brought their motorcycles. Unfortunately, she failed
to find a Peeping Tom listed in the Yellow Pages. Furthermore, stereo system
was not loud enough. The crabgrass might have worked but she didn’t have a
fan that was sufficiently powerful.
The obscene phone calls gave her
hope until the number was changed. She thought about calling a door-to-door
salesman but decided to hang up a clothesline instead. It was the
installation of blinking neon lights across the street that did the trick.
She eventually framed the ad from the classified section.
Questions to ponder:
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Was the narrative comprehensible?
What happens when the topic is given?
“Getting rid of
a troublesome neighbour”.
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What process do you think
is involved when you read the above passage?
When do you use the top-down processing? When do you use the bottom-up processing?
Read the definition of
the top-down and bottom-up processing below.
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Definition
of Top-down and Bottom-up Process
What is meant by
...
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Top-down
processing ?
Refers to the use of background knowledge in
understanding the meaning of a message.
·
Bottom-up
processing ?
Refers to the use of incoming data as a
source of information about the meaning of a message (decode)
(Richards, 1990)
Micro-skills
of Listening Comprehension
— Listening Strategies
— Looking for key words
— Looking for
non-verbal cues to meaning
— Predicting a
speaker’s purpose by the context of the spoken discourse
— Associating
information with one’s existing cognitive structure (activating background
knowledge)
— Guessing at meanings
— Seeking clarification
— Listening for the
general list
— Various test-taking
strategies for listening comprehension
C. TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS
TEACHING OF LISTENING
Types
of Listening Activities
Reference:
Penny Ur (1996: p112-114)
i.
No overt response: Students do not need to do
anything in response to the listening, however, facial expression and body
language often show if they are following or not.
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Stories
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Songs
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Entertainment: films, theatre, video
ii.
Short responses
-Obeying
instructions
-Ticking
off items
-True/
False
-Detectiing
mistakes
-Cloze
-Guessing
information
-Skimming
and scanning
iii. Longer
responses
-Answering questions
-Note-taking
-Paraphrasing
and translating
-Summarizing
iv. Extended responses
-Problem-solving
-Interpretation
Criteria
for selection of activities
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Nature of listening task requirement
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Response- no overt response, short, long or
extended response
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Blank interval in the case of cloze
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Difficulty level of task
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Vocabulary level
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Nature of the recorded material
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Students’ proficiency level
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Students’ interest
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Authentic/ non-authentic
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Number of speakers
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Speed of delivery
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Content of reference
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Complexity of thought and ideas
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Style of utterance- formal, colloquial
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Accent and degree of disturbance
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Complexity of communication situation
Selection
of teaching techniques
The selection of teaching
techniques and strategies in the
classroom used for beginners, intermediate and advanced students will highly
depend on the characteristics of the students. Teachers should be aware of the
employment of different teaching strategies for students of different level,
who differ in many aspects of learning. To enable teachers to make the right
decision in choosing the most appropriate techniques in the teaching of
listening and speaking skills, it is essential to do a need analysis of pupils.
Let us look at the
characteristics of the pupils in your class! Are they beginners, intermediate or advance learners?
a.
Beginners
Characteristics of pupils:
They cannot distinguish English speech sounds from noises in the environment or
sounds of other languages. Pupils have no idea of the rules of English
pronunciation or grammar.
b.
Intermediate
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Characteristics of pupils: They have fairly
good grasp of the phonemic system but have difficulty with authentic texts.
Pupils cannot handle features eg hesitations,, false starts, noise etc.
However, they can remember longer phrases & sentences.
c. Advanced
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Characteristics of pupils: They are very
proficient in the language and can process language. Pupils can pay attention
to language content. They have interpersonal relations with speakers and can
engage in intellectual discussion. They are also capable of using compensatory strategies eg infer,predict etc.
Suggested
teaching-learning strategies
Before you prepare either a
listening lesson or a listening and speaking lesson, you will need to consider
the four main aspects as follows:
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A. Length of input-( 1- 3 minutes maximum)
for listening texts
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B. Type of input- (use educated/ acceptable
Malaysian variety)
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C. Speed of delivery
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D. Outcome of listening / listening and
speaking
What kinds of listening tasks are appropriate?
There are numerous activities to choose from for developing listening skills. Lund (1990) has categorised them according to nine responses that can be observed as comprehension checks:
- Doing: the listener responds physically such
as in Total PhysicalResponse (TPR);
- Choosing: the listener selects from
alternatives such as pictures, objects, texts, or actions;
- Transferring: the listener transforms the
message such as drawing a route on map, or filling in a chart;
- Answering: the listener answers questions
about the text;
- Condensing: the listener takes notes or makes
an outline;
- Extending: the listener goes beyond the text
by continuing the story or solving a problem;
- Duplicating: the listener simply repeats or
translates the message;
- Modeling: the listener performs a similar
task, e.g. gives instructions to a coworker after listening to a model or;
- Conversing: the listener is an active
participant in a face-to-face conversation.
(Carol Van Dozer, Center for Applied Linguistics)
Reflect
and Review
Read
the following activities and decide which of the following activities are most
suitable for beginners, intermediate and advanced students?
a. Interactive
Activities
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listening to a word and brainstorming related
words, listening to a list and categorizing the words, following directions
b.
Top-down Activities
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identifying emotions, understanding meaning
of sentences, recognizing the topic
c.
Bottom-up Activities
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discriminating between intonation contours, phonemes,
or selective listening for different morphological endings, word or sentence
recognition, listening for word order
Principles for Designing Listening
techniques
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Use techniques that are intrinsically
motivating
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Use authentic language and contexts
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Carefully consider the form of listeners’
responses
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Encourage the development of listening
strategies
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Include bottom-up and top-down listening
techniques
Successful Listening Activities
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Purpose for Listening
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A form of response (doing, choosing, answering,
transferring, condensing, duplicating, extending, conversing)
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Repetition depends on objectives and
students’ level
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A motivating listening text is authentic and
relates to students’ interests and needs
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Have the skills integrated at the different stages
of the lesson : Pre-task While-task,
Post-task
Listening
Strategies
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Teach student how to listen
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Looking for keywords
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Looking for nonverbal cues to meaning
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Predicting a speaker’s purpose by the context
of the spoken discourse
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Associating information with one’s existing
background knowledge (activating schema)
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Guessing meanings
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Seeking clarification
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Listening for the general gist
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For tests of listening comprehension, various
test-taking strategies
a.
Easy to plan Pre Listening Activity
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Brainstorming
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Think-Pair-Share
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Mind Mapping
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Team Interview
b. Easy to plan Listening Task
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Agree
or disagree (with explanation)
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Create
Venn diagrams
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List
characteristics, qualities, or features
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Strip
story (sequencing game)
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Match
speech to visuals
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Compare
and contrast to another speech or text
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Give advice
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Compare
and contrast to your own experience
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Create
your own version of the missing section
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Plan
a solution to the problem
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Share
reactions
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Create
a visual
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Reenact
your own version
c.
Easy to plan Post Listening Activity
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Guess the meaning of unknown vocabulary
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Analyze the speaker’s intentions
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List the number of people involved and their
function in the script
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Analyze the success of communication in the
script
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Brainstorm alternative ways of expression
TEACHING
OF SPEAKING
a.
What make speaking difficult?
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Clustering
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Redundancy
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Reduced forms
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Performance variables
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Colloquial language
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Rate of delivery
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Stress, rhythm & intonation
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Interaction
b.
Tips for Teaching Speaking
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Use a range of techniques
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Capitalize on intrinsic motivation
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Use authentic language in meaningful contexts
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Give feedback and be careful with corrections
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Teach it in conjunction with listening
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Allow students to initiate communication
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Encourage speaking strategies
c. Principles of Teaching Speaking to
- beginners
:
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Provide something for the learners to talk
about
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Create opportunities for students to interact
by using groupwork or pairwork
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Manipulate physical arrangements to promote
speaking practice
- intermediate / advanced:
•
Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation
for meaning
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Design both transactional and interpersonal
speaking activities
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Personalize the speaking activities whenever
possible
d.
Some examples of Tasks and Materials:
- Conversations,
guided conversations & interviews
- Information
gap & jigsaw activities
- Scripted
dialogues, drama, & role-play
- Logic
puzzles
- Picture-based
activities
- Physical
actions in speaking lessons
- Extemporaneous
speaking
e. Communicative Tasks
· Motivation is to
achieve some outcome using the language
· Activity takes place
in real time
· Achieving the outcome
requires participants to interact
·
No
restriction on language used
Some examples of communicative tasks are
:
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Information
gaps
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Jigsaw
activities
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Info
gap race
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Surveys
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Guessing
games
References
Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken language.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brown, H.D. (1994). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching english as a second or foreign language (2nd ed.) (pp. 81-106). Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Nunan, D., & Miller, L. (Eds.). (1995). New Ways in Teaching Listening. Alexandria, VA:
Brown, H.D. (1994). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching english as a second or foreign language (2nd ed.) (pp. 81-106). Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Nunan, D., & Miller, L. (Eds.). (1995). New Ways in Teaching Listening. Alexandria, VA:
Penny Ur.
(1996) Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge University Press.
Further
Readings
Websites
Click on the links below
for more information:
Teaching of Speaking : http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/speaking/developspeak.htm
Teaching of Listening: http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/liindex.htm
Teaching of Listening and
Speaking :