A.Maghsoudi- Listening

Introduction

Nowadays the importance of listening is obvious for all of us. As human beings we use our senses to learn what occurs around us. Listening to second language has been regarded as the most used language skill in lifetime. It allows us understand and interpret spoken messages. Many years ago it has been considered as a passive skill and has had no place in teaching second language. The patterns that emphasized listening were changing over the past decades. Some important approaches are described below:

1. Listening within an environmentalist approach

In 1960s, listening was neglected and viewed as a passive skill. This assumption stemmed from the environmentalist approach. The researchers in this approach said that the learning is a mechanical process and it is according to stimulus-response theory. And according to their assumption the main purpose of listening was recognizing the words in the sentence. They said that learning occurs by repeating, imitating and memorizing. The ALM method was according to this approach and the cognitive aspects were not given importance in this approach.

2. Listening within an innatist approach

By the end of 1960s, the definition of listening was changed, and the status of it changed from mechanical process of habit formation to dynamic and mentalistic process. Chomsky said that there is an innate ability in the children that allows them to learn the complex processes of language. The main emphasize was on the mental and cognitive processes, and the listening skill was considered as the primary canal of understanding and learning the second language. They claimed that reception should precede production. The Natural approach was based on this

assumption. In NA the students listen carefully at first and then enter the production process. The researchers said that the listening is the promoter of the language.

3. Listening within an interactionist approach

By the end of 1970s, the process of the innatists` approach changed to interaction, which means the adaption with the environment, culture and society. The researchers in this approach said that in listening the listener emphasizes on the whole piece of discourse rather than to focus it little by little and from the structural point of view. They emphasized purposeful listening.

Schemata theory proposed by Rumelhart, focused on reading comprehension and was extended to listening skill. This theory is based on background knowledge, and has two types: content schemata which are involved cultural knowledge and a special experience, and formal schemata which include knowledge about discourse forms and structures of the sentence.

Apart from the influence of psycholinguistic aspects, the social and cultural aspects helped to understanding the language, and we must understand the body language of each country and recognize the context of it. So listening is a complex, social and interactive process in which the listener is actively engaged in making meaning from variety of contexts.

Teaching listening within a communicative competence framework

Hymes influenced the second L2 language teaching in the 1970s, and it was in contrast of Chomsky`s assumption. He introduced communicative competence which not only involved the internal aspects but also the social contexts. And it gave a primacy of listening for language learning. The communicative competence involved five parts in a framework which listening is positioned in its core.

1. Discourse competence

This kind of competence is in the core of the framework. It implies an understanding of how language operates at the level above the sentence. In this competence the listener as an important role, and is able to know how different parts of a context relate to each other and what they mean.

2. Linguistic competence

Linguistic competence includes all elements of linguistic system such as grammar, psychology and vocabulary. The listeners become master in phonological system and learn grammatical knowledge and all different aspects of rhythm, stress and so on. This competence emphasizes that one of the unique features of listening includes “the presence of reach prosody”. And also the word and lexicon knowledge is very important.

3. Pragmatic competence

Pragmatic competence includes illocutionary force of spoken utterance and understanding the function. In order to understand the meaning of the utterance we should be aware of the situational and interpretation of the listener. The listener is aware of the situational and participant variables and also the contextual setting. And the status and social distance have important rule in the interpretation of the listener. The listener is aware of the level of discourse.

4. Intercultural competence

Intercultural competence means having cultural and nonverbal knowledge for interpreting spoken text. The background knowledge of the people in their culture helps them to distinguish their own culture and the other cultures and the knowledge of nonverbal means of communication such as facial expression and body language.

5. Strategic competence

Strategic competence includes mastery of both communication and learning strategies, and helps people to make meaning from oral input in listening.

Activity

The activities in the classroom include:

- Pre-listening

- Listening

- Post-listening

The pre-listening phase which is the most important aspect of any listening activity begins with activating the linguistic knowledge and background information. There are four factors which increase students` motivation. Students should be interested in the content; they should have a definite purpose in mind as they listen, they should have a specific task to accomplish and they need to feel that they have the ability necessary for completing the assignment without any difficulty.

Listening comprehension activities may involve at least four different types of activities the listeners are exposed to:

- Spontaneous free speech (family or social gatherings).

- Deliberate free speech (interviews and discussions).

- Oral presentations of written texts (news and lectures).

- Oral presentations of fixed rehearsed scripts.

In post-listening activities, the materials should be designed in such a way that the learner be able to discuss, take a position, and make arguments about the content of the materials. Post-listening activities complete the sequence began in the pre-listening preparatory phase.

Listening comprehension happens through the following stages:

1- Discrimination: the ability to distinguish all the sounds, intonation patterns, and voice qualities in the second language and to discriminate between them and similar sounds in the native tongue.

2- Perception: the perception of an entire message produced by the speaker.

3- Retention: the ability to hold the message in one`s auditory memory until it can be processed.

4- Comprehension: the listener processes that the speaker has said to comprehend the meaning.

Conclusion

A close look at the development of the different approaches discussed above indicates that there have been significant changes in learning theory and linguistic theory. In the 1950`s and 60`s the focus was mainly on teaching and teacher centered classes and was the age of the environmentalists and innatists. Since the early 70`s, the focus has been on learning and learner-centered class with the emphasis on language functions and communication. And the comprehension and communicative approaches listening, which was referred to as a passive skill, gained prominence and came to be known as one of the most important skills in language learning. It is now treated as an active process and research studies are being conducted to understand the nature of listening comprehension