Peoples Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Badji Mokhtar Annaba University
Faculty of Letters, Social and Human Sciences
Department of English

Domain: Foreign Languages

Branch: English Language
Major: Language Sciences

The Listening Skill between Theory and Practice in EFL

Classrooms
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree of Master in
Language Sciences

Submitted by :

Supervised by:

BEN HAMED Afrah

Dr. GHAOUAR Nesrine

Board of Examiners:
President: Dr. GRINE Nadia, Badji Mokhtar University - Annaba
Supervisor: Dr. GHAOUAR Nesrine- Badji Mokhtar University - Annaba
Examiner: MelleNEDJEH Hana, Badji Mokhtar University - Annaba

June 2015

DEDICATION
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful Alhamdulillah, all praises to
Allah for helping me to accomplish this humble work
I would like to dedicate this dissertation
To my beloved parents who have always provided me with the necessary support to succeed
To my sister Rima, her husband Mohamed, and my brother Salah Eddine for their
continuousencouragement
To all my friends who helped me whenever I needed help
To Mr. Rachedi who helped me with his valuable advice throughout my dissertation
To Mr. Frioukh who has always been my moral support
To my new born nephew Ilin

II

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my infinite thanks to my supervisor Miss Ghaouar. Without her
advice, patience, guidance, knowledge and support, I would not have been able to complete my
dissertation.
Besides, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all my teachers and the jury members:
Dr. Ghaouar, Dr. Grine, and Miss Nedjeh for reading and evaluating my work.

III

ABSTRACT
The listening skill is one of the four pillars on which language learning stands.
Nevertheless, it has long been neglected and perceived as a passive skill. However, recently,
certain studies have revealed its importance in language learning and have proven that it is not
passive but rather active. Thus, this research sheds light on the importance of listening in
language learning and teaching situations. Therefore, it attempts to provide answers for three
main questions: 1) Is listening a simple or a complex skill? 2) To what extent is the listening
skill important in the teaching/ learning process? And 3) how to teach the listening skill in the
EFL classrooms?As a result, this work shows that listening is not a simple skill to be taken for
granted but rather it is a complex one that needs investigation from different stand points: its
physiology, psychology and types. Besides, this mmoire emphasizes the different approaches
that learners use in order to reach comprehension. Moreover, some studies show that listening
does not play a major roleonlyin daily communication, but also in language learning. Hence, a
comparison has been made between first and foreign language listening and the main
difficulties learners encounter were highlighted. Finally, this work demonstrates that teaching
the listening skill can be effectively achieved through following the three lesson planning steps
and through applying certain strategies that may develop learners listening comprehension.
Furthermore, it suggests some sample listening lessons and tests along with some games that
teachers can play with their learners in order to develop their listening comprehension.

IV

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Results of the studies conducted on the time spent in listening...20
Table 2: Cognitivelistening strategies...24
Table 3: Metacognitive listening strategies....26
Table 4: Socio- affective listening strategies......27
Table 5: Heard vs. not heard words or phrases...45
Table 6: Monu ....48

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Wernickes and Brocas areas....5

Figure 2: The listening process..6
Figure 3: Human ear..7
Figure 4: Time spent in communication..20

VI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION......I
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT....II
ABSTRACT........... III
LIST OF TABLES.....IV
LIST OF FIGURES.............V

General introduction
1. Statement of the problem......1
2. Aim of the study...1
3. Research questions..1
3. Division of the dissertation.......2

Chapter one: An Overview on the Listening Skill

Introduction.....3
1. Listening definitions......3
2. Historical background on the listening skill......4
3. Listening physiology........5
4. Listening psychology....6
5. The listening process.....6
5.1. Receiving...............7
5.2. Understanding................................................................................................................8

VII

5.3. Remembering.................................................................................................................8
5.4. Evaluating......................................................................................................................9
5.5. Responding.....9
6. Listening types...................................................................................................................9
6.1. Informative listening....................................................................................................10
6.2. Evaluative listening..10
6.3. Discriminative listening...11
6.4. Empathetic listening.....11
7. Extensive vs. intensive listening skills....12
7.1. Extensive listening..12
7.2. Intensive listening...13
8. Active vs. passive listening.................................................................................................14
9. Listening comprehension.15
9.1. Listening comprehension approaches..15
9.1.1. The top down approach....16
9.1.2. The bottom up approach...............................................................................17
9.1.3. The interactive approach.......17
Conclusion .....18

Chapter two: Teaching and Learning Listening

Introduction...19
1. Listening and communication.....19
2. The listening skill and language development....21
3. Teachers roles in listening instruction...22

VIII

4. Listening strategies developing learners comprehension.......23

4.1. Cognitive listening strategies...................................................................................23
4.2 Metacognitive listening strategies..24
4.3. Socio- affective listening strategies...26
5. First language vs. foreign languagelistening..27
6. Key elements of listening comprehension......27
6.1. Phonology..27
6.2. Syntax........................................................................................................................28
6.3. Semantics...28
6.4. Text structure ............................................................................................................28
7. Foreign language listening difficulties......29
7.1. Pronunciation problems...29
7.2. Speech speed......30
7.3. Repetition problems.......30
7.4. Vocabulary problems..30
7.5. Concentration problems..........................................................................................30
7.6. Interpretation problems..........................................................................................31
7.7. Physical conditions.....................................................................................................31
8. Criteria of listening techniques and activities selection..31
8.1. Relevance of the content........................................................................................32
8.2. Listening materials authenticity..32
8.3 Inclusion of bottom- up and top- down processes ...32
8.4 Development of learners listening strategies.......32
8.5 Focusing on teaching rather than test....33
9. Planning for a listening lesson.....33

IX

9.1. Pre-listening stage...33

9.2 While listening stage....34
9.3 Post listening stage...35
10. Listening skill assessment.....35
Conclusion .....36

Chapter three: Listening Instruction in Practice

Introduction.......38

1. Listening lessons promoting the top down approach..38

1.1. Sample lesson1: A fun day....38
1.2. Sample lesson 2: The intelligent dog.....40
2. Listening lessons promoting the bottom up approach....41
2.1. Sample lesson one: Word stress...................................................................................41
2.2. Sample lesson 2: Final s pronunciation.....42
3. Listening lessons promoting the interactive approach....43
3.1. Sample lesson 1: Looking for a new job....43
3.2. Sample lesson 2: The right job..44
4. Sample listening tests..46
4.1. Sample test one.....46
4.2. Sample test two 50
4. Games that improve the listening skill....53
5.1. The telephone game...54
5.2. Guess what game...54
5.3. Simon says game...54

5.4. I spy game......55

Conclusion..55

General conclusion..56
Bibliography....58
Webography....64

1. Statement of the problem

One of the key elements to foreign language learning is the listening skill which is
referred to as the Cinderella skill. Despite the fact that the latter plays a major role in
language learning, in general, and in foreign language learning, in particular; it has been
noticed that it is neglected throughout learners academic track, and that the focus is often
on the improvement of the other language skills: speaking, reading and writing. Hence, this
situation raised our curiosity to know more about this complex receptive skill that has long
been considered as passive.

2. Aim of the study

This dissertation mainly aims at providing a deeper understanding of listening as a
language skill. Therefore, it highlights some facts related to listening such as clarifying the
listening process; listening psychology, listening types, listening skills, listening
comprehension and its approaches. Besides, it emphasizes its role in language learning.
Moreover, it provides certain insights and illustrations of how to effectively teach the
listening skills.

3. Research questions

This dissertation attempts to answer the following questions:

1. Is listening a simple or a complex skill?

2. To what extent is the listening skill important in the teaching/ learning process?

3. How to teach the listening skill in the EFL classrooms?

3. Dissertation division
This dissertation consists of three chapters. The first one is an overview on the
listening skill. It provides details related to the physiology and the psychology of listening.
It also stresses the main steps through which the listening process passes. Besides, it
emphasizes the difference between active and passive listening. Moreover, it sheds light on
the listening types and skills. Furthermore, it spots listening comprehension and its
processes.

The second chapter reveals the importance of the listening skill in communication and
in language learning. In addition, it deals with the listening skill as part of the teaching
learning process by providing some strategies which may assist learners to develop their
listening skills. Chapter two also discusses some difficulties encountered by learners while
listening and some standards that should be taken into account by teachers while selecting
listening activities and techniques. Another important point that this chapter stresses is how
to plan for a listening lesson and how to assess this skill.
The third chapter, unlike the first and the second chapters, is somehow practical. It
provides illustrations of listening lessons which promote different comprehension processes
involving the top- down approach, the bottom up approach and the interactive approach; and
some listening tests. Besides, this chapter suggests some listening games which teachers
may play with their learners (especially, young ones) in order to train them and help them
improve their listening skills.

Introduction
Listening is generally regarded as simply decoding an aural input. However, the fact
is that it is much more complex than that. Therefore, having a closer look at it would
certainly clarify the image and would reveal why it is not that simple. This chapter provides
an overview on the listening skill through which one can discover some hidden details
which may serve him/her to deeply understand listening. Thus, this chapter introduces
listening in various ways by different experts. Besides, it deals with both listening
physiology and listening psychology along with the listening process and the different types
of listening. Moreover, it clarifies listening comprehension which learners can reach
through different approaches.

1. Listening definitions
Various definitions were given to listening from different perspectives, and at different
periods of time. However, no definition is accepted as the best. According to Hedahl (2001,
p. 11), listening was defined in the early part of the 20th century, as: the ability to
understand spoken language. She adds that in the mid-20th century listening was defined as:
the process of hearing, identifying, understanding, and interpreting a spoken language
(Hedahl 2001, p.11). Downs (2008, p.1) defines listening simply as making an effort to
hear something. A more detailed definition was given by the International Listening
association (1996) (as cited in Collins book Interpersonal Communication Listening and
Responding 2006, p. 7), it states that listening is: the process of receiving, constructing
meaning from and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages. A similar definition
was given by Rost (2002, p. 279) in which he states that listening is a mental process of
constructing meaning from spoken input. Moreover, Rubin and Mendelshon (1995, p. 7),
explain that listening is conceived of as an active process in which listeners select and

interpret information which comes from auditory and visual clues in order to define what is
going on and what the speakers are trying to express. Therefore, from the previous
definitions, one may deduce that listening is a complex active process that passes through a
set of sub-processes starting with hearing and ending with responding.

2. Historical background of the listening skill

The history of language skills is dense. There are several sources which address the
importance of speaking, reading, and writing skills (Montgomery, 2008, p. 4). However, a
closer look demonstrates that there is a lack of focus on the listening skill since it has been
considered less important than speaking, this may be due to the traditional wrong perception
of the latter as a passive skill and due to the belief that learners will develop their listening
skill by osmosis and without help (Mendenson; 1984, P. 133).

Considering language teaching methods, the direct method is the first teaching method
that took into account the importance of the listening skill. Learners were immersed in the
target language that was the language of instruction. Therefore, listening played a major role
(Flowerdew and Miller, 2005, p. 6).The audio lingual method, as well, relied on the listening
skill. The listener was required to recognize and practice utterances and then create similar
utterances after the ones s/he was listening to. In fact, developing the listening skill was not
the focus of this method, but rather it was used as a medium to learn grammatical and lexical
structures. Similarly, the communicative approach assumed the listening skill, real- life
listening was a basic principle in this approach but still no direct instruction of the latter was
given (Flowerdew and Miller, 2005, p. 12)
Recently, however, many psycholinguists and foreign language educators have
addressed the importance of the listening skill, starting with the pioneering work of Rankin

(1930) who found that listening is the most frequently used skill in communication amongst
humans.

3. Listening physiology
During communication, the listener receives a verbal/ non- verbal message. The
auditory reception of the verbal vocal message is an auditory logical process that relies on
the hearing mechanism. Problems with the latter impede this receptive process (Wolvin,
2010).

The physiology of listening extends to the neurology of the process (Goss, 1995 as
cited in Listening and human communication in the 21st century by Wolvin, 2010). Once
the auditory and or visual receptors receive the stimulus, that stimulus is stored in the brain.
Thus, the Wernickes area which is one of the cerebral cortex parts that is included in
spoken and written language production (Traxler, 2012), and Brocas area which is an area
in the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere with functions related to speech production
(Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo, 2006), is activated in response to auditory stimuli. Therefore,
brain damage can influence and interrupt the processing of messages (Wolvin 2010).

Fig.1- Wernickes and Brocas areas (Nevid, 2012, p.71)

4. Listening psychology
After receiving the message through the auditory and visual channels, it will be stored
either in short term memory or long term memory according to the amount of attention
given to the message that is influenced not only by the listeners working memory, but also
by his/her perceptual filter which is made up by the listeners background, experience and
mental and physical states. Once the message has been received by the listener, it must be
interpreted. Therefore, this step includes fitting the verbal message into the relevant
linguistic category stored in the brain and then constructing the meaning of the message
(Wolvin, 2010)

5. The listening process

Listening is a highly complex, interactive process by which spoken language is
converted to meaning in the mind (Cohen and Cowen, 2008, p. 330). This process passes
through a set of sub- processes summarized by (Devito 1997 as cited by Flojo) as follows
(see figure 2):

Fig.2- The listening process (Flojo, 2009, p.11)

5.1. Receiving
It is the first sub- process of the listening process. According to Devito (1997), it
consists of two stages which are hearing and attending.

First, at the hearing phase, the listener receives sound waves that come from the
outside environment and stimulate the sensory receptors of the ear. Many parts of the latter
work together to convert those sound waves into information that the brain transform into
sounds. Scientifically speaking, sound waves enter the outer ear and go through the ear canal
where the waves make the eardrum vibrates (see figure 3). Eardrum is: a thin, cone-shaped
membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear (Wikipedia, 2015). Then,
those vibrations are transmitted to the middle ear bones making them vibrate too. Finally,
those vibrations go to the innermost part of the ear, which is the cochlea in which there are
tiny hair cells surrounded by fluid. When the latter reacts to the vibrations transmitted from
the middle ear, the tiny cells send signals to the auditory nerve that transmits information to
the brain which interprets those signals into meaningful sounds (Kalat, 2011, p. 113).

Fig.3- Human ear (Starr et al., 2009, p.578)

Second, attending is the listeners intention to focus on hearing (Public Speaking:

Practice and Ethics, 2012). It is the process of accurately classifying specific sounds as
words. In other words; attending is paying attention to some sounds and filtering out the
others. Attending is considered as a psychological process (unlike hearing which is a
physiological one) as the listener decides whether to focus on what is being said or not
according to his/her interests, relevance of what is being said, and its duration (Davey,
Sterling, and Field, 2008, p. 173)

5.2. Understanding
The listener, at this phase, tries to decode the speakers message by constructing
meaning from the stream of sounds s/he receives (Osborne, 2005, p. 78). In the listening
process, understanding and interpreting a speakers message is an important stage because it
allows the listener to assess its meaning for correctness and validity (Steinberg, 2006 p. 71).
Although there is no explanation of how understanding occurs, it is evident that past
experiences play a major role (Livingston, 2010, p.187); therefore, the listeners previous
knowledge will help him/her to better understand what is being said.

5.3. Remembering
The listener, at this phase, stores what was said for future use. Therefore,
remembering is the process of storing the meanings that have been received so that they
may be recalled later (Steinberg, 1994, p.77). It is a very important step in the listening
process since it means that the listener did not only receive and decode the speakers
message but also added it to the minds storage bank.

5.4. Evaluating
The listener, at this stage, judges the ideas of the speaker in the light of what s/he
knows about the topic (Flojo, 2009, p. 12). Therefore, evaluating is the process of critically
analyzing information to determine how truthful, authentic, or believable (Solomon,
Theiss, 2013, p. 211). Besides, at this stage, the listener tries to infer the speakers message
and looks for accuracy and evidence of this message (Prentice Hall of India, 2004, p.82).

5.5. Responding
At this stage the listener provides a kind of feedback to the speaker which can be
verbal or non- verbal (Steinberg, 1994, 71). Responding is the only means through which the
speaker can measure the degree of success in transmitting his/her message. Furthermore, it is
considered as a turning point in the listening process since by responding the listener
becomes a speaker and the speaker becomes a listener.

6. Listening types
Listening types vary according to the listeners purpose of listening. We may listen to
get a particular piece of information (informative listening), as we may listen to make
judgments about the speakers message (evaluative listening). We may also listen to
discriminate sounds (discriminative listening), and we may listen to show the speaker that
we are interested in his/her message (empathetic listening). For better understanding, an
explanation and a description of each type is provided bellow:

10

6.1. Informative listening

The listener, in this type, listens to obtain information that is why s/he has to
concentrate on the message rather than on its source (Ober, 2007, p.82). Besides,
Informative listening is common in teaching and learning contexts ranging from a student
listening to an informative speech to an out-of-towner listening to directions to the nearest
gas station (Public Speaking: Practice and Ethics, 2012). More examples of informative
listening may include listening to instructions, descriptions, news, weather, news reports,
and voice mail. Successful Informative listening is based on three variables, namely, rich
vocabulary, concentration, and memory (Dawood, 2010, p.71).

6.2. Evaluative and critical listening

This type of listening is used when the listener listens with the aim of analyzing or
assessing a speakers message (Morreale, Spitzberg, Barge, 2007, p. 140). According to
Metcalfe (2010, p. 69), evaluative listening is the listeners response to a persuasive
message. Besides, the listener, in this type of listening, makes judgments and evaluates what
is being said, i.e. s/he tends to assess the speakers message against his/her beliefs and
values. Evaluative listening occurs when the speaker is trying to convince the listener to
change his/her behavior and even to change his/her beliefs (Straker, 2010). It is the most
complicated type since the listener has to understand in order to make judgments and
evaluations about the content of the speakers message. Hence, evaluative listening requires
high cognitive efforts from the part of the listener as s/he is going to analyze what is being
said and relates it to his/her knowledge and rules ( Ibid).

11

6.3. Discriminative listening

This type of listening entails listening with the aim of discriminating sounds. According
to Hedahl (2001, p. 48), discriminative listening is listening to distinguish auditory and/or
visual stimuli. It is when the listener engages in listening to scan and monitor his/her
surroundings in order to isolate particular auditory or visual stimuli (A Primer in
Communication Studies, 2012). Moreover, according to Purdy and Borisoff (1991, p. 129),
discriminative listening relies on completely understanding and remembering the content of
a message. Metcalfe (2013, P. 68) adds: It can occur in formal settings such as in class, at
work, or in a business meetingdiscriminative listening also occurs informally in the
process of daily conversation.

When talking about discriminative listening, three elements should be taken into
account: first, the ability to hear, if one is not able to hear, s/he will not be able to
discriminate between sounds. Second, awareness of sounds, if the listener is not a native
speaker s/he may find it difficult to recognize sounds for example: a native speaker says: this
handle, however, a non-native speaker, may hear it this sandal. Third, the ability of
understanding non-verbal clues (Kline, 1996, p .42).

6.4. Empathetic listening

This type of listening entails listening with the aim of offering attention and then
responding appropriately. In other words, it is listening driven by the value of empathy
(Egan, 2002, p. 82). Moreover, Berman (2004, p. 111) clarifies:

12

Empathetic listening allows speakers to speak and writers to write

without interruption, interrogation, or disproval. Empathetic listening
implies neither boredom nor lack of interest; on the contrary, it
shows the highest respect, for it demonstrates that nothing is more
important than hearing the otherEmpathetic listening promotes
reciprocity: we listen carefully and sensitively to others so that they
will listen carefully and sensitively to us.

Therefore, from the previous quote, empathetic listening can be defined as listening
with empathy, showing the speaker respect, importance, and interest so that s/he will do the
same.

7. Extensive vs. intensive listening skills

Extensive and intensive listening are two important listening skills. The two are
complementary in that one is focused on quality while the other is focused on quantity (Li
and Ruan, 2014, p.523). Besides, extensive listening is not necessarily under the teachers
guidance while intensive listening is under his/her control. Extensive and intensive listening
can be explained separately as follows:

7.1. Extensive listening

Extensive listening is one of the major listening skills. According to Rost (2002),
extensive listening refers to listening for an extended period of time focusing on meaning.
It can also involve extended periods of listening in the target language usually outside of
classroom settings in the learners home, car, or on personal stereos. The teacher, in this type
of listening, encourages his/her learners to choose for themselves what to listen to and to do

13

so for pleasure and general language improvement. Rost adds that for extensive listening to
be successful, the learner has to have access to an input that is comprehensible.

Extensive listening is certainly a useful way that highly contributes in improving the
learners listening skill. In this context, Brown et al. (2008, p. 195) state that: extensive
listening is also valuable for building confidence and simply enjoying listening in the target
language (cited by Rost, 2002, p. 195). Moreover, Broughton (1980, p. 69) claimed that
extensive listening can be used for two distinct aims. The first one is the re- presentation of
already known material in a new environment. The second one is letting learners listen to
vocabulary items and structures which are not familiar for them. Renandya and Farrell
(2011) argue that extensive listening facilitates language acquisition even at low levels by
providing the opportunity of listening to meaningful, enjoyable and comprehensible, spoken
texts

7.2. Intensive Listening

Intensive listening refers to listening closely for precise sounds, words, phrases,
grammatical units and pragmatic units, i.e., listening for particular details. Intensive
listening involves: dictation, elicited repetition, word spotting, and grammar processing and
so on. In other words, it focuses learners attention on language form.

Moreover, Harmer (2001, p. 229) sees that teachers, heavily rely on taped materials, as
intensive listening means. However, on one hand, these taped materials have advantages
including the fact that they are available, not expensive and portable. On the other hand,
they have some disadvantages involving, the fact that not all students are able to listen at the
same rate, besides, in large classes, it is often difficult to ensure that all students can hear
equally well. Therefore, intensive listening is very demanding either for learners or even for

14

teachers who have to play different roles including machine operators and organizers (Ibid,
p.231-232).

8. Active vs. passive listening

A clear distinction should be made between active and passive listening. Listening is
considered, on one side, passive if the listener is present while the speaker is speaking, but
no evidence that the listener is listening. Listening is considered, on the other side, as active
when the listener demonstrates through a particular behavior as asking questions that s/he is
listening (Hope, 2010, p. 55-56). Knapp (1990, p. 58) states that passive listening implies
just taking in a piece of information while active listening implies taking part in a
conversation.

Similarly, Keith and Lundberg (2014, p. 67) state that passive listening is like watching
television or a movie letting words and ideas wash over leaving whatever impact on the
listener. They add that passive listening is like zoning out from a conversation. However,
they see active listening as listening attentively looking for meaning and the appropriateness
of what is being said.
Kasser and Lytle (2005, p. 65) view passive listening as listening without saying
anything while they regard active listening as indicating to the speaker that hearing took
place, this can be done through paraphrasing, questioning, clarifying. Moreover, Grikscheit,
Cash, and Young (1993, p. 58), clarify that a passive listener is the one who only listens to
what is being said while an active is one who takes the initiative in extending the content of
a conversation.

15

9. Listening comprehension
Whenever we talk about listening, we talk about comprehension; therefore, the
relationship between them is very tight since the main aim of listening is to comprehend a
speakers message. Thus, listening comprehension is defined as: The understanding of the
implications and explicit meanings of words and sentences of spoken language (Borkowski
and Martin, 2014, p. 17). Besides, (Hamouda, 2013, p. 117) explains that:

Listening comprehension is highly cognitive process in which

listeners are involved in a dynamic construction of meaning.
Listeners understand the aural input from sound discrimination, prior
knowledge of vocabulary, grammatical structures, stress and
intonation, as well as others use linguistic, paralinguistic, or even
non-linguistic clues in contextual utterance.

The definition of listening comprehension, therefore, may be summarized simply as

ones ability not only to hear what is being said but also to understand it. Furthermore, being
able to comprehend a speakers message requires from the listener to have some command
over key elements of the speakers language, namely, phonology, syntax, semantics, and text
structure (Pearson and Fielding, 1983, p. 3).

9.1. Listening comprehension processes

While listening, listeners process the aural input in two ways; they either use the topdown processing or bottom up processing. The former relies on the listeners background
knowledge, which is referred to as schema, whereas the latter requires from the listener to
focus on different parts to construct meaning.

16

A combination between these two approaches is needed while listening. Sometimes, it

is the individual details that help the listener to understand the speakers message, and other
times, it is the listeners schema that enables him/her to process details. In other words, the
top down approach and the bottom up approach are equally important for language learners
to be good listeners.

9.1.1. The top down approach

The listener, in a top down processing, proceeds from what s/he already knows about
the subject and the lexical knowledge s/he possesses. Besides, s/he activates his/ her
background knowledge to predict and to understand the meaning of the speakers message.
This knowledge is called schema, it can be content schema (general knowledge based on life
experience and previous learning) or textual schema (language and content knowledge used
in a particular situation) (Helgesen and Brown, 2007, p. 6).
Shafaei (2010, p. 218) adds that the top-down approach emphasizes the listeners use of
his/her existing knowledge about the topic and the relevant context in forming hypotheses
about the speakers intended meaning. According to Carroll (1992, p. 56), in a top down
approach, information at the higher levels may affect processing at the lower levels. For
instance, a sentence context may affect meanings of words.

9.1.2. The bottom up approach

The listener, in this approach, tries to make sense of the input s/he receives by focusing
on different parts: vocabulary, grammar, and sounds. It is then a process of decoding sounds,
from the smallest meaningful units to complex texts (Lengyel and Navracsics, 2007, p. 61)
starting by phonemes moving to individual words, then to the syntactic level followed by the
semantic content analysis to finally reach understanding of the literal meaning.

17

Richards (1990, p.50) explains the bottom- up processing as follows: Bottom up

processing refers to the use of incoming data as a source of information about the meaning
of a message. From his perspective, the process of comprehension begins with the message
received, which is analyzed at successive levels of organization- sounds, words, clauses, and
sentences- until the intended meaning is arrived at.
Flowerdew and Miller (2005, p .24) also provided a clear explanation of the bottom
up approach, he stated that:

Listeners build understanding by starting with the smallest units of

the acoustic message, individual sounds or phonemes. These are then
combined into words, which, in turn, together make up phrases,
clauses, and sentences. Finally, individual sentences combine
together to create ideas and concepts and relationships between
them.

9.1.3. The interactive approach

This approach combines both the top- down and the bottom up approaches. It was
developed by Rumelhart (1980). The interactive approach suggests that listening
comprehension is an interaction between the aural input, different types of linguistic
knowledge, details, background knowledge, context and so forth (Gilakjani and Ahmadi,
2011). In other words, bottom up is based on linguistic knowledge while top-down is built on
background knowledge, therefore, if one is missing, the other would compensate it. Besides,
according to Flowerdew and Miller (2005, p. 2), the main advantage of this approach lies on
the fact that it admits the individual variation in linguistic processing i.e. it takes into account
different learning styles.

18

Conclusion
Listening is a highly complex process that passes through a set of sub- processes
namely receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding. As a language
skill, listening needs to be developed in both ways: extensively and intensively. Besides, it is
out of doubt that listeners listen for different aims, they may listen to get a particular piece
of information, to make judgments about the speakers message, to discriminate sounds, or
to show the speaker empathy. Moreover, in order to comprehend the aural input, listeners
use either the top- down approach or the bottom- up approach. However, it has been
demonstrated that a third approach may be more effective, it is called the interactive
approach; the latter involves the use of both the top- down and the bottom- up approaches
simultaneously.

19

Introduction
Humans are given two ears and only one mouth, so that they might hear more than
they speak. Therefore, listening plays a major role in human life. As a language skill,
listening has long been neglected; however, recently, it started to gain attention due to the
amount of studies that have demonstrated its great importance not only in communication
but also in language learning. Hence, this chapter sheds light on the importance of the
listening skill in communication and its role in language learning. Besides, it emphasizes the
different roles that a foreign language teacher plays in listening instruction. Moreover, it
provides an insight into the listening strategies that develop learners' comprehension.
Furthermore, it involves a comparison between listening in first language and listening in
foreign language. In addition, it stresses the key element of listening comprehension and the
main difficulties that foreign language learners encounter while listening. Finally, it
highlights some standards that should be taken into account when teaching listening.

1. Listening and communication

Many studies were conducted to find out the importance of the listening skill in foreign
language learning. Hence, table 1 summarizes results of the studies conducted on the time
spent in listening while communicating compared to the other language skills. These studies
were conducted in the United States of America.

Research on the listening skill began with the pioneering work of Rankin (1930) who
found that the time spent in listening is about 42% while speaking takes 32% followed by
reading which takes about 15%, and finally writing which takes the least percentage about
11%. Brieter, as well, conducted a study on homemakers in 1972; he found that listening
takes about 48%, speaking about 35%, reading about 10% and writing about 7%. Barker et.

20

al conducted a study on U.S. college students in 1980. They found that students spend 53%
in listening, 16% in speaking, 17% in reading, and 14% in writing. Bohlkens study, in 1999
on U.S. College Students too, demonstrates that they spend 53% in listening, 22% in
speaking, 13% in reading and 12% in writing (Janusik, 2009, p. 106).
Study

Year

Population

Listening

Speaking

Reading

Writing

Rakin

1930

Varied

42%

32%

15%

11%

Brieter

1972

Homemakers

48%

35%

10%

7%

Barker

1980

U.S. college

53%

16%

17%

14%

53%

22%

13%

12%

students
Bohlken

1999

U.S. college
students

Table 1: Results of the studies conducted on the time spent in listening

(Janusik, 2009, p. 106)
Furthermore, according to Adler (2001), adults spend an average of 70% of their time
engaged in some kind of communication; of this an average of 45% is spent listening
compared to 30% speaking, 16% reading and writing 9% (Eddolls, 2014, p. 57). (See figure
4)

Figure 4- Time spent in communication (Adler et al. 2001)

21

The previous results of the previous studies, conducted on the listening skill and
communication, show that the listening skill takes the lions share. Therefore, it is a
prerequisite for effective communication in everyday life. Several studies have confirmed
that listening skills are identified as more important than speaking, and writing skills.
Furthermore, in a foreign language learning situation, listening instruction helps learners to
communicate effectively using the target language in a real-life situation.

2. The listening skill and language development

The listening skill is referred to as the Cinderella skill in foreign language learning
(Nuan, 1989, p. 47). Therefore, it is out of doubt that listening instruction affects to a large
extent the development of the listening skill as well as the other language skills (speaking,
reading, and writing). Research has confirmed the major role which the listening skill plays
in language learning by providing the necessary comprehensible input. Therefore, it has
been proven that improvements in the listening skill affect positively the development of the
other language skills.
Morris and Leavey (2006) conducted a study on preschoolers phonological
development. The study has demonstrated that listening instruction ameliorates
preschoolers phonological awareness. Another study was conducted, at Qingdao University
of Science and Technology in China, to reveal the correlation between listening instruction
and speaking ability. Results of the study has confirmed that introducing relevant listening
materials to oral English classes lead to better learning results. Therefore, these studies have
proven that listening instruction improves students speaking ability. (Zhang 2009, p. 201)
Similarly, two other studies revealed that listening instruction helps middle school
students to improve their reading comprehension (Badian, 1999; Bergman, 1999). Besides,
results of Bergmans (1999) study have shown that listening and reading stories at the same

22

time lead participants to ameliorate their reading comprehension performance. In addition, a

study reported by Berninger (2000) demonstrates that listening instruction improves
participants spelling.
Bozorgian (2012, p. 661) has also conducted a study in Tehran, the capital of Iran, to
reveal that listening improvement leads to the efficiency of second and foreign language
learning. He found that, in the International English Language Testing System, which is a
test that provides a profile of a candidates ability to use English, the correlation between
listening and reading is stronger than listening and speaking due to the common features
between listening and reading. Results also show that the correlation between listening and
writing is very close to the correlation between listening and speaking.

Listening instruction does not have effects only on the other language skills but also
on the listening skill itself. Petric (2000) conducted a study at the English Department,
University of Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, to confirm the hypothesis that listening instruction
leads to listening skill improvement. Results demonstrate that the experimental group
achieved greater scores than the control group in the post-test of the study. Therefore, this
study demonstrates the significance of listening instruction, and that it should be an integral
part of language development instruction.

3. Teachers roles in listening instruction

The teacher is the one who facilitates and helps his/her learners to improve their
listening skills. Therefore, s/he teacher plays different roles in listening instruction. These
roles include organizer, machine operator, feedback organize and prompter (Harmer, 2001,
p. 231).

23

Playing the role of organizer, the teacher has to inform his/her learners about their
listening aim. Besides, s/he has to give them instructions about how to achieve it. Moreover,
s/he is in charge of building his/her learners confidence by giving them tasks that are
achievable and inputs that are comprehensible (Ibid). As a machine operator, the teacher has
to be efficient in using tape players. Besides, s/he should be able to play and replay the tape.
Therefore, the teacher is supposed to try the material before coming to the class (Ibid). As a
Feedback organizer, the teacher has to conduct a feedback session when students have
completed the task. S/he can make them compare their answers. When performing this role,
the teacher has to be supportive in order not to sustain their motivation (Ibid). Playing the
role of prompter, the teacher plays the role of prompter when s/he replays the tape in order
to draw learners attention to particular language features (Ibid).

4. Listening Strategies that develop learners comprehension

One of the most useful ways to develop learners listening skills is teaching them
listening strategies. Vandergrift (1999, p. 176) claims Strategy development is important
for listening training because strategies are conscious means by which learners can guide
and evaluate their own comprehension and responses. O Malley & Chamot (1990) claimed
three types of strategies: cognitive, meta-cognitive and socio-affective strategies, namely,
cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective listening comprehension strategies.

4.1. Cognitive listening strategies

These strategies are used to decode linguistic input and to obtain information. For
instance, learners sometimes do not recognize words meanings, so they try to guess them
from the context. The cognitive strategies are related to understanding and adding input to
short term memory or long-term memory for later use. Here are some illustrations of

24

cognitive strategies are provided in table 2 along with the role of the teacher and the role of
the learner in each one.

Strategy
Linguistic
inferencing

Summarization

Transfer

Note taking

Deduction/
induction

Imagery

Role the learner

Role of the teacher
Guessing the meaning of unknown
Before a listening task, the
words by linking them to known words. teacher writes some difficult
vocabulary on the board so as to
draw attention to these words.
He, then plays the tape and asks
students to
listen to the new vocabulary and
to guess the meaning from
their understanding of the
whole text.
Learners make a mental or written
The teacher asks the learners to
summary of what they hear.
give an oral summary to each
other, or to write one sentence to
summarize what they have
listened to.
Learners use knowledge about their
The teacher could draw students
first language to facilitate listening to
attention to words in the L2 that
the second language
are similar to words in the L1
Learners write notes as they follow
The teacher assists the learners in
some spoken text.
making notes that will help them
comprehend the message.
Learners apply rules they have learned The teacher either explains the
or have developed themselves to follow rules of a particular part of
a text
speech or has learners guess
what the rules are by listening to
a text.
Learners use mental imagery to create a The teacher asks learners to keep
picture of what is happening.
their eyes closed while listening
to a story and try to picture what
is happening.

Table 2- cognitive listening strategies (Boulfelfel, 2014, p. 105-107)

4.2. Metacognitive listening strategies
Learners, in these strategies, know when they have to listen to the text cautiously. This
method deals with learning how to plan, monitor and evaluate the collected data (Holden,
2004). Oxford (1990) states that the conscious use of metacognitive strategies assists

25

learners get their attention back when they lose it. Vandergrift (2003) claimed that advanced
listeners use twice as many metacognitive strategies as elementary listeners use.
Metacognition can be defined as thinking about ones own thinking. For instance, if a
student knows s/he encounters difficulties in finding the link between important concepts
within a story. s/he is uses a graphic organizer, such as a concept map, to identify the main
concepts and links them together using lines, similar to a spider web, then that student has
used metacognition to complete the task (Nelson & Conner, 2008).

Hence, using

metacognitive instruction in teaching listening enhances learners confidence, motivation

and ability to complete the given tasks. Table 3 demonstrates some illustrations of

metacognitive strategies.

26

Strategy
Directed attention

Role of the learner

Learners must pay attention
to the main points in a
listening task to get a general
understanding of what is said.

Role of the teacher

In setting up a listening task, the
teacher has to ask his/her learners
what type of information they
would expect to hear. You are
listening to the news. What would
you hear at the beginning of the
news?

Selective attention

Learners pay attention to

details in the listening task.

Comprehension
Monitoring

Checking ones
understanding

Before listeners listen a second

time, to a recording, set specific
types of information for them to
listen for.
Listen again to the tape and find
out what type of relationship the
speakers have.
The teacher sets up a task that
requires listeners to understand one
part of the task at a time
The teacher can use a variety of
techniques to get students to judge
their individual performance. For
instance: Raise your hand if you
think that you understood 100%;
75%; 50%.

Performance
evaluation

Learners judge how well they

perform a task

Table 3- Metacognitive listening strategies (Boulfelfel, 2014, p. 104-105)

4.3. Socio-affective listening strategies
These strategies ensure and promote positive emotional reactions and perspective of
language learning. Vandergrift (2003) defined socio-affective strategies as the techniques
listeners use to collaborate with others, to check understanding, or to decrease anxiety.
Wilson states that the socio-affective strategies are related to the learners interaction with

27

other speakers and their attitude towards learning. Some illustrations of socio- affective
listening strategies are summarized in table 4.

Strategy
Cooperation

Lowering anxiety

Self- encouragement

Roles of learners

Roles of teachers

Learners work together to The

teacher
asks
pool their
learners to work in pairs
Comprehension
or groups to discuss
what they heard and find
out from each other what
they understand about
the text.
Learners try to relax The teacher has the
before listening to
learners close their eyes
the message.
for one minute before
beginning the listening
task and asks them to
think of something that
makes them feel happy.
Learners
develop
a Attitude toward the task
positive attitude toward and believe that it is
the task and believe that it possible for them to
is possible for them to understand what they
understand what they will will hear. The teacher
hear.
asks the learners to set
themselves a personal
standard for the listening
task .

Table 4- Socio-affective listening strategies (Boulfelfel, 2014, p. 107-108)

5. Listening to a first language vs. listening to a foreign language
Listening to and learning a foreign language in the classroom differs from listening to
a first language. According to Swabrik (2002, p. 62), being aware of these differences would
reveal some reasons behind the difficulties that foreign language learners encounter. She
adds, listening to a foreign language is more difficult than listening to a first language
because listening is decontextualized i.e., it does not take place in a restaurant or in a bus

28

station. Besides, she sees that foreign language learners often are not able to interact or
discuss meaning with a tape. Moreover, time devoted to listening is very limited.
Furthermore, learners are unfamiliar with cultural norms (Ibid, p. 63).

Besides, Swabrik (Ibid, p.63) states that listening in a foreign language situation is
much more demanding than listening in first language situation. This may be due to the fact
that listening in the first language is often social and informal, besides, the context is
common. However, in case of foreign language learning, the listening is usually informative
and the context is formal, therefore, learners have to focus on the actual words used by
teachers.

6. Key elements of listening comprehension

Being able to comprehend an aural input is based on some key elements involving
phonology, syntax, semantics and text structure:

6.1. Phonology
At the phonological level, the listener has to be able to distinguish between sounds.
Pearson and Fielding (1983, p. 3), provided an illustration, a speaker of English knows that
/bat/ differs from /vat/ but a speaker of Spanish along the Rio Grande does not "know" that
same distinction. Besides, the listener has to know intonation patterns which provide cues
that help him/her to understand whether the speakers statement is command, a request, a
question a declaration and so forth Moreover, the listener has to know stress patterns
because this would tell him/her on what part the focus should be (Ibid p. 4).

29

6.2. Syntax
At the syntactic level, the listener should be able to know paraphrase, as in (1) and
(2); and recognize cues regarding form class (inflections like -ed or -ing for verbs, -er and est for adjectives, etc., as well as sentence position cues like subject, verb, and object slots)
(Ibid, p. 4).

(1) John thanked Susan.

(2) Susan was thanked by John.

6.3. Semantics
At the semantic level, the listener should be able to recognize words meanings.
Fielding and Pearson illustrated: a dog is an animal that barks, has a sloppy tongue, and
fetches newspapers (Ibid, p. 5).

6.4. Text structure

At this level, the listener should know how things such as stories are typically
organized in their culture (in Western society characters have problems, goals and conflicts
that elicit actions designed to resolve problems, overcome the conflicts and achieve the
goals).When listeners can orchestrate all these kinds of knowledge and apply them to
achieve a satisfactory interpretation of a text (an interpretation that makes listeners feel like
they have experienced "the click of comprehension i.e., it makes sense to them) we can say
that they have experienced listening comprehension (Ibid, p. 5).

30

7. Foreign language listening comprehension difficulties

Foreign language learners while listening to the target language encounter some
difficulties that may impede the listening comprehension process. These difficulties may
include: pronunciation problems, speakers speech speed, repetition problems, vocabulary
problems, concentration problems, interpretation problems.

7.1. Pronunciation problems

One of the most common difficulties that foreign language learners can meet while
listening is the pronunciation of English words. According to Rixon (1986, p. 38)
pronunciation of English can cause students problems in recognition, and therefore in
comprehension. These problems may include the fact that some English words are not
pronounced the same way they are written (Machkov, 2009, p. 13), for instance, the word
enough is pronounced /nf/, therefore, the letters ou are pronounced / / and the letters
gh are pronounced / f /. Another pronunciation problem that may impede listening for
foreign language learners is the fact that some vowel sounds are weakened in connected
speech, for example, the word to in isolation is pronounced /tu: /, however in connected
speech it is pronounced /t/. Moreover, assimilation can also cause a listening
comprehension problem for foreign language learners. According to Skandera and Burleigh
(2011, p. 89), assimilation occurs when the articulation of one sound is influenced by a
neighboring sound in that a speech organ either prolongs a distinctive feature of a preceding
sound or anticipates a distinctive feature of a following sound. For instance ten pigs is
pronounced / tem pigz / (Skandera and Burleigh, 2011, p. 89).

31

7.2. Speakers speech speed

Foreign language listeners encounter difficulties related to the speakers speech speed.
This problem is referred to the fact that while listening, unlike while reading, the speakers
speed of speech is out of the listeners control, especially, in academic situation. Hence,
foreign language learners may miss an important piece of information while concentrating
on another (Underwood, 1989).

7.3. Repetition problems

One of the major problems that face foreign language listeners is that they cannot
always ask the speaker to repeat. If the listener is allowed to control the recordings, s/he can
replay them again and again. However, if they are under the teachers control, s/he is the
only one who decides whether to replay them or not (Ibid).

7.4. Vocabulary problems

Another listening problem may be the amount of vocabulary that the foreign language
learner possesses in the target language. Therefore, having a very limited vocabulary
certainly impedes listening comprehension (Ibid). In other words, the more vocabulary the
listener has, the more comprehension takes place.

7.5. Concentration problems

These problems occur due to many factors including the fact that if the learners are not
interested in a particular topic or they do not like it, they will not be able to concentrate, and
thus, listening comprehension is going to be difficult for them. Another factor which is
related to concentration is the length of the listening passages the longer is the passage, the

32

more learners lose their concentration, and the more likely listening comprehension
problems occur (Ibid).

7.6. Interpretation problems

These problems occur because of the listeners unfamiliarity with the speakers
background knowledge and context. Considering a foreign language learner who is listening
to a native speaker, the former is not familiar with the latters background knowledge nor
with his/her habits, religion and so forth. Hence, the foreign language listener may encounter
a difficulty in interpreting the native speakers message. However, this may also occur for
people who speak the same language and share the same background knowledge (Ibid).

7.7. Physical conditions

Sometimes

inappropriateness

of

classrooms

influences

students

listening

comprehension. Students who are sitting on the back rows in large classrooms may not hear
the recording the same way as students sitting in front. Besides, students who sit next to the
windows are influenced by the outside noise. As a teacher we have to take into account all
this conditions in a body. The size of the classroom as well impedes teachers management
of the all class in group activity or to get feedback from students (Bingol et al. 2014, p. 4).

8. Criteria of listening techniques and activities selections

Selection of listening techniques and activities is based on a set of standards which the
teacher has to take in to account. These standards include relevance of the content,
authenticity of the listening materials, inclusion of both bottom-up and top- down processes,
development of learners listening strategies, and focusing on teaching rather than testing.
(they have been adapted from a variety of sources including Brod (1996), Brown (1994),

33

Dunkel (1991), Mendelsohn (1994), Morley (1991), Peterson (1991), Richards (1983), and
Rost (1991) as cited by Duzer, 1997).

8.1. Relevance of the content

One of the most prominent standards that the teacher has to take into consideration is
the relevance of the content which his/her learners are going to listen to. In other words, s/he
has to select topics that interest them and increase their motivation. Therefore, the teacher
has to account for his learners aims and interests.

8.2. Listening materials Authenticity

Materials authenticity is a prerequisite in listening instruction; it involves both the
language and the task. The language, on one hand, should reflect real discourse, including
hesitations, rephrasing, and a variety of accents. The task, on the other hand, should be
authentic and should reflect real life situations.

8.3. Bottom- up and top- down processes

The teacher has to offer opportunities to develop both the bottom- up and the top- down
processes. S/he should provide top-down oriented activities in order to encourage the
learners to discuss what they already know about a topic. Besides, s/he has to provide
bottom-up activities in order to give confidence in accurate hearing and comprehension of

the language components (sounds, words, intonation, and grammatical structures).

8.4. Development of learners listening strategies

Predicting, asking for clarification, inferencing, note taking, and using non-verbal cues
are examples of strategies that increase opportunities for successful listening. For instance,

34

using video can help learners develop cognitive strategies. As they view a segment with the
sound off, learners can be asked to make predictions about what is happening by answering
questions about setting, action, and interaction; viewing the segment again with the sound on
allows them to confirm or modify their hypothesis (Rubin, 1995). Therefore the teacher has
to expose his/her learners to listening activities that elicit the use of those strategies.

8.5. Focusing on teaching rather than testing

Teachers should not use activities that are based on memory rather than on the process
of listening or that simply focus on practicing rather than helping learners develop listening
ability. For instance, having the learners listen to a passage followed by true/false questions
might reveal the degree of memorization rather than helping them to develop their listening
skills such as extracting the main idea and specific details. Pre- and post-listening task
activities would help the learners to focus attention on what to listen for, to assess how
accurately they succeeded, and to transfer the listening skill to the world beyond the
classroom.

9. Planning for a listening lesson

Lesson planning is one of the most important steps in language teaching. Pemberton
Toogood and Barfield (2009, p. 118) claim that: lesson planning is an activity all language
teachers have been trained to carry out and something which many teachers perform on a
daily basis. Therefore, in a listening lesson as well, planning is vital and it passes through
three main stages:

35

9.1. Pre-listening stage

The starting point for any successful listening lesson is introducing the topic or the
type of activity which the learners are going to work on because in real life, most of the time
people know or at least expect what they are going to listen to. This pre-listening support
builds their confidence and success. This stage includes outlining the setting and giving
background information, however, teachers should not tell students too many details
otherwise the whole listening will be useless. Besides, at this stage, teachers can ask their
students to anticipate missing information or the context. Underwood claims that prelistening task can consist of a variety of activities, which can help the teacher to focus the
students minds on the topic by narrowing down the things that the learners anticipate to
hear and stimulating relevant previous knowledge and already known language. Moreover,
Yagang provides some tasks for pre-listening stage that can help students to gain the needed
knowledge for the listening task. These tasks may include opening discussions about the
topic at hand, brainstorming and guiding questions. Furthermore, other aspects of prelistening activities may include authenticity of materials, in other words, things that can
imitate the real life situations; giving the students direct instructions so that they know what
to do. For instance, if they are asked to answer a question, teachers have to specify whether
they can use yes or no answers or more complex answers (Machkov, 2009, p. 23-26).

9.2. While listening stage

This stage involves activities done by the students during the listening passage. The
main goal of these activities is helping the students to obtain the main meaning of the text to
have enough information in order to interpret the text. Teachers have to spotlight the idea
that at this stage students should not worry about interpreting long and difficult questions
and subsequent production of complex answers, they should rather be concerned with

36

revealing the important information (Rixon, 1986). Besides, one of the main functions of
while-listening activities is to expose students to the sound of the target language which
enables them to improve their listening comprehension skills. Furthermore, when selecting a
while-listening activity, teachers have to take into account some criteria. First of all, they
should select an activity which is interesting and challenging at the same time. Other criteria
that should be considered are selecting a while-listening activity short enough and doing
various types of listening exercises because it would be annoying to do the same activity
over and over again. Moreover, knowledge based exercises should not be included since
such activities are time consuming and students who have some knowledge can lose their
interest. Another criterion is the level of difficulty, a difficult or too easy listening text can
be demotivating for the learners. Furthermore, graded tasks should be taken into account. In
other words, the learners start with listening to the main gist and then move to more and
more complex listening activities (Machkov, 2009, p. 27).

9.3. Post- listening stage

During this stage, students use their knowledge obtained during the previous stage for
completing the exercises. There are many reasons behind the integration of follow-up
activities into the lesson plans. Checking if the learners have understood the listening
passage or whether they completed the task successfully may be a good reason. Another
reason for a follow-up activity may be reflecting on why some students have failed or have
missed some parts of the text. Besides, there are several activities which can be used in the
follow-up stage such as: Problem solving and decision-making tasks in which students try to
find out a solution for a problem from the recording. Moreover, role- play in which students
are asked to try out newly acquired things. Furthermore, summarizing where students can be
asked to summarize what they heard (Machkov, 2009, p. 28).

37

10. Listening skill assessment

Listening comprehension is considered as the first step of language learning.
Consequently, students generally have greater listening comprehension than ability to
produce the appropriate word (Gottlieb, 2006). Therefore, it is necessary for the teacher to
assess his/her learners listening comprehension in order to have an idea about the extent to
which his/her learners can listen to and correctly understand the oral language. Hence, Mead
and Rubin (1985) highlight that there are some elements that should be taken into account
by the teacher including measurements of assessment such as reliability, validity and
fairness along with some other elements such as assessment stimuli, the questions, and the
environment. They further clarify that assessment stimuli are supposed to represent typical
oral language and to model the language that learners expect to hear in the classroom, in
media, or in conversations. Besides, the passages should be interesting and not too long nor
too short. Moreover, topics should be selected according to experiences common to all
students regardless their sex, social, economic, geographic and ethnic differences. In
addition, assessment questions should not be very easy or very difficult; thus, difficulty level
should be relevant to the learners level so that balance is maintained. Furthermore,
assessment environment should be free of external distractions; therefore, the sound quality
should be high and the material should be clearly presented with relevant volume and speech
speed (Idem).

Conclusion
Listening is an important language skill that plays a major role not only in
communication but also in foreign language learning. Therefore, many studies were
conducted to find out its importance and its effect over the other language skills. Results of
these studies have revealed that listening takes the lions share in communication and that it

38

improves the other language skills, namely, speaking, reading, and writing. Besides,
listening instruction is a challenging task for language teachers as they have to play different
roles at the same time and they have to introduce some strategies that develop learners
listening comprehension involving cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective strategies.
Furthermore, Learners, while listening, encounter many difficulties that impede their
comprehension such as pronunciation problems, speech speed, and vocabulary problems and
so forth. Hence, teachers have to take into account some standards when selecting listening
activities and techniques including relevance of the topics, authenticity of materials and so
on, in order to minimize these difficulties. Finally, as lesson planning plays a major role in
the success of a listening lesson, being aware of its main stages is necessary for effective
listening instruction.

39

Introduction
Despite of the fact that the listening skill plays a critical role in language learning,
teachers often neglect it. This may be due to the fact that they find it difficult or time
consuming to teach listening or maybe they do not know how to do so. However, neglecting
this skill leads learners to have poor listening skills because they were not trained enough.
For this reason, this chapter provides some illustrations of listening lessons that promote
different approaches to comprehension (the top- down approach, the bottom up approach,
and the interactive approach). Besides, it suggests some games that can be helpful in
improving learners listening skills, especially, young learners

1.

Listening lessons promoting the top down approach

The following two listening lessons illustrate the top down approach. The first one (a

fun day) is taken from Randalls ESL cyber listening lab (1998) and the second one is taken
from Johns ESL community (2000).

1.1 Sample lesson 1: A fun day.

A/ Pre- listening stage
At this stage the teacher activates learners prior knowledge by asking them if they
were children where they would ask their parents to take them on their day off (e.g.,
amusement park, zoo, swimming pool, a park, etc.).

B/While listening stage

At this phase, the teacher asks his/her students to listen to a conversation (see
appendix 1) then answer the following questions:

40

1. Where does the young girl want to go with her father?

A. To the park
B. To the movies
C. To the swimming pool
2. Who are they going with?
A. The girl's mother
B. The girl's best friend
C. The girl's older brother
3. Based on the conversation, what time will they most likely leave?
A. 9:30 AM
B. 12:45 PM
C. 2:00 PM
4. What does the girl want to do later?
A. She wants to walk to the ice cream store.
B. She wants to swim at the park.
C. She wants to go down to the beach.
5. What does the father suggest they do at the end of the day?
A. Go to a restaurant
B. Watch a fireworks display
C. Play a board game

C/ Post- listening stage

At this phase, the teacher asks his/her students to compare their answers. After that s/he
asks them to answer the following question: What things did you do together with your
family when you were growing up?

41

1.2. Sample lesson 2: The intelligent dog

A/ Pre listening stage

At this stage, the teacher informs his/her students that they will have an opportunity to
listen to a story called "The Intelligent Dog." Before they listen, however, s/he asks them to
take a moment and try to guess the answers to the following questions:
-

When did the young woman go to the theater?

Describe the woman's dog.

What movie theater did the woman go to?

How many tickets did the woman buy?

Why was this special case?

Who tried to stop the woman from entering the theater?

Why the woman was finally permitted to take her dog into the theater?

Describe the manager's reaction at the end of the movie.

B/ While listening stage

At this phase, the teacher asks his/her students to listen to the tape and to change their
answers when needed.

C/ Post- listening

At this stage, the teacher provides his/her learners with the tapescript (see appendix 2)
and asks them how many correct answers they got. If they still have problems in
understanding s/he has to give them the correct answers by playing the part of the record
which contains the answer.

42

2. Listening lessons promoting the bottom- up approach

To illustrate the bottom up approach, two sample listening lessons are provided. The
first one is taken from Emilys Pronunciation Class (1999) and the second one is taken from
Richards et al. s book Interchange (2005, p. 9).

2.1. Sample lesson 1: Word stress

A/ Pre- listening stage
At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher draws learners attention to the differences
between a stressed and an unstressed syllable. S/he explains that a stressed syllable should
be pronounced louder, longer, full, and with a high pitch).

B/ While listening stage

At this stage, the teacher asks his/her students to listen to the words in each pair ( see
appendix 3), and then decide whether the two words in each pair have the same stress
pattern by choosing S for the same or D for different.

C/ Post- listening stage

At this stage, the teacher provides learners with word stress pattern rules including; the
use of suffixes to predict stress for example: stress on the suffix itself as Chinese, the use of
parts of speech to predict stress such as for certain two-syllable words used as both nouns
and verbs, stress nouns on the first syllable, and verbs on the second syllable.

43

2.2. Sample lesson 2: Final s pronunciation

A/ Pre- listening stage
At this phase, the teacher explains that plural s endings can be pronounced in three
different ways: /S/, /Z/, /IZ/ according to the sounds that precede the final s of plural. Then
s/he gives the rules for the pronunciation of each one.

B/ While listening stage

At this stage, the teacher asks students to listen and practice the following examples:

S=/Z/

1) a-Telephone

b- telephones

2) a- Camera

b- cameras

3) a-Bookbag

b- bookbags

S=/S/

1) a-Desk

b- desks

2) a- map

b- maps

3) a- basket

b- baskets

S= /IZ/

1) a- sentence

b- sentences

2) a- exercise

b- exercises

3) a- watch

b- watches

44

C/ Post listening stage

At this stage the teacher asks his/her students to say the plural form of the following
nouns, and then complete the chart (see appendix 4). After that, the teacher asks them to
listen and check their answers.

3. Listening lessons promoting the interactive approach

Here are two sample listening lessons that illustrate the interactive approach. The first
one is provided by miller (2009) and the second one is provided by Machkov (2009,
p.38).

3.1. Sample lesson 1: Looking for a new job

A/ Pre- listening stage

At this stage, the teacher introduces the topic of the lesson by asking his/her students to
make a list of the ways they use when looking for a new job. Therefore, through this
activity, their prior knowledge is activated.
B/ While listening stage
At this stage, the teacher provides a bottom up listening task and a top- down listening
task. In the bottom up listening task, students are asked to listen to a tape in which two
interlocutors are talking about a job (see appendix 5), and to check words/ phrases they hear
(by putting either or X see table 5) and then compare their answers with each other.
However, in the top- down listening task, students are asked to listen to the dialogue
again and then answer the following questions:
-

Where are these two people?

What jobs do they talk about?

45

Which job does the man prefer?

Heard

Not heard

Part- time job

Lawyer

Find a job

Weekends

Sell

Check that one out

Sure!

Cruise ship

Listed on the internet

Working long hours

Door- to- door salesperson

At sea

Good at

Pay

Buy

Phone

Table 5- Heard vs. not heard words or phrases (Miller, 2009)

C/ Post- listening stage

At this stage, students are asked to discuss the following questions:

With your major/degree/diploma, can you get a good-paying job?

Do you mind working long hours if the pay is good?

Have you ever found a job listed on the Internet?

How many people in your family work full-time? Part-time?

Do you know anyone who works on weekends?

3.2. Sample lesson 2: The right job

Materials used in this lesson included CD, handouts, CD player and pictures. It is
assumed that students will not recognize some key words even though they possess enough

46

knowledge. This lesson aims at helping students to use the appropriate listening strategies
and preparing them for the first certificate in English (CFE) listening paper; therefore, this
type of activity, students are asked to listen for specific words or phrases and to provide
written answers.

A/ Pre- listening stage

At this stage, the teacher introduces the topic showing the students a set of pictures.
Then, s/he asks them to identify the jobs: a window cleaner, a vet, a detective, a plumber, a
singer, a dentist, a surgeon, a chef and an astronaut. Besides, at this stage, students are asked
to brainstorm as many words as they can about these jobs while the teacher writes their
ideas, this can be considered as a revision of words related to these jobs. Moreover, students
are asked to discuss the following questions in groups: How do you feel about each job?
Would you be interested in doing this kind of job? Why/ Why not? Finally, the teacher has
to pre- teach the vocabulary which s/he expects his/her leaners do not know (

B/ While listening stage

At this stage, students are going to listen to a part of a radio interview with a woman
whose name is Christine Whitelaw talking about her job ( see appendix 6). The students fist
task is to read the article (see appendix 6), and try to predict the possible answers. Then,
they listen to the women and complete the sentences, after the listening they compare their
answers with their partners and discuss them. After that, they listen again to the women and
fill in the rest and check their answers. Finally, they listen again with the tapescript.

47

C/ Post listening stage

At this stage, the teacher asks his/her students what job they do, whether they enjoy it
or not, if they are not working, the teacher asks them about their free time or weekend jobs
or what they would like to do after finishing their studies. S/he can also ask them which
factors they consider as the most important when looking for a new job.

4.

Sample listening tests

Assessment is very important in the teaching/ learning process in order to check

learners progress or to identify their levels. Two sample listening tests are provided bellow
to demonstrate how the listening skill can be assessed. These two tests are taken from
Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and Listening Skills in English (2012, p. 10-20).

4.1. Sample test 1

Part one

First, students are going to listen to a tape about a police announcement (see appendix
7), and then they are asked to select the picture that corresponds to the criminal described in
the tape. Second, students are asked to listen to another tape about the garden of Suresh
see appendix 8), then they have to select the appropriate sign from the given signs that
Suresh should put. Third, students are going to listen to a tape in which Monu describes
himself (see appendix 9), after that they have to fill in table 6. Forth, the teacher plays a tape
which contains a dialogue between Amit and Anand (see appendix 9) who have just
completed their studies, and they are talking about organizations that offer scholarships for
students for different purposes; then, the teacher asks his/her learners which organization
will Amit opt for. Fifth, students listen to a short passage in which a description of a house

48

that joy wants to live in, is provided (see appendix 11); after that students are asked to select
one of the pictures that correspond to the house that joy wants.

Age
Nationality
Table 6- Monu (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and Listening Skills
in English, 2012, p. 9)
Part two

The students, in this part are going to listen to a talk by Dr. Praveen Chawla on healthy
foods (see appendix 12). The teacher, then, explains that there are three questions to be
answered.

A/Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word or phrase

1. are rich in Vitamin D and help in good hearing.
2. ..mood regulating chemical can make you feel happy.
3. Broccoli keeps away

B/Tick the most appropriate answer choices given below:

4. The food containing lycopene which reduces heart attack risk is
A. grape
B. tomato
C. cheese

49

5. In the talk, Dr. is advising people to

A. eat a balanced diet
B. be happy; live healthy
C. live close to nature
D. eat healthy food

Part three

The teacher explains to his/her learners that in this part they are going to listen to a
speech about joint families. Then, they have one of the three given options for each
question.

1. A joint family consists of

a. husband, wife and children.
b. immediate family and extended family.
c. immediate family with grandparents.
2. People prefer nuclear families because
a. there is more freedom.
b. there are fewer members.
c. it is the latest trend in many countries.
3. According to the speaker, young people dont listen to elders because they
a. dont want to be restricted.
b. think they know better.
c. learn from their mistakes.
4. In a joint family, you dont have to ask for help from outsiders as
a. you are smart enough to make decisions.
b. your children are able to take care of themselves

50

c. your family are there to support you.

5. Burglary cases decrease when
a. everyone has enough money for their needs.
b. stronger family values
c. there is always someone at home.
6. Joint families follow the concept of sharing as
a. the clothes are shared among family members.
b. all family members are collectively responsible.
c. the finances are distributed equally.
7. Joint families do not depend on outside help for children because
a. grandparents take care of them.
b. mothers stay at home.
c. children care for each other.
8. The best way to create a good joint family is to
a. be open to differences in opinion.
b. listen to elders all the time.
c. not voicing your views on anything
9. The foundation of a Joint Family gets strengthens when
a. the members are like minded
b. the members have selfless moral values
c. the members work for each other
10. In a joint family we become wiser and better persons because we get
a. guidance from elder
b. benefitted from the presence of elders
c. money from elders

51

3.2. Sample test 2

At the beginning of the test, the teacher explains that the test consists of ten questions
and that they have to answer them while listening. S/he, further, adds that they are going to
listen to four extracts.

Part one

1. Extract one (see appendix 13) states that:

a. There was an explosion before the crash
b. The crash was a consequence of collision with a cliff
c. There have been several air crashes in the recent past
d. Indians always die in the air crashes in and around Nepal
2. According to extract two (see appendix 14), what option do you think the speaker would
not opt for?

a. e-mail
b. air mail
c. postal department
d. surface mail
3. Complete the following statement according to extract three (see appendix 15)
The speaker advocates the use of now.

a. cars
b. buses
c. bicycles
d. metros
4. According to the extract (see appendix 16), what is the news report is about?

52

a. invention of Curiosity
b. landing of Curiosity
c. happiness at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
d. possibility of living on Mars
5. According to the extract (see appendix 17), what does the V- chip do?

a. It allows the cable company to monitor what TV programs you watch

b. It turns your TV into a "virtual reality" computer.
c. It allows parents to block out certain programs, so their children cannot watch them.
d. It reduces the use of the remote control device

Part two

At this part the teacher informs his/her students that they are going to listen to a long
text about tigers (see appendix 18) and asks them to read the questions before they listen.
Then, they do the following tasks:
1. State whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F)
a. Peoples fascination with the tigers is causing them harm.
b. Wildlife tourism should be banned.
c. Tigers tourists are destroying their living places.

Part three

At this part, the teacher explains to his/her learners that they are going to listen to a
lecture about libraries and that they are asked to choose one of the three given options.

1. The speaker thinks that librarians

53

a. are very important for libraries.

b. fulfil many functions in a library.
c. are more useful today than previously.
2. The speaker says that libraries have an obvious effect on
a. schools.
b. cities.
c. business
3. According to the speaker, there are not enough libraries in the world because
a. it is hard to build libraries in some areas.
b. libraries are very expensive.
c. there is a lack of interest in books.
4. According to the speaker, students are using libraries less because the internet
a. makes research easier for them.
b. has more up-to-date information.
c. given them answers to exam questions.
5. Today, students do not read books because they have no
a. interest.
b. money to buy books.
c. motivation.
6. The speaker says that the demand for fiction books is
a. decreasing with young audiences.
b. being replaced by exam books.
c. focused on non-Indian authors.

54

7. The speaker believes that film and radio can

a. be a good alternative to reading.
b. encourage people to read more.
c. teach us about famous people.
8. What example does the speaker give of a way to increase interest in reading?
a. good books.
b. famous people.
c. historical films.
9. The speaker feels that it is possible to encourage interest in reading if
a. we spend more time on the internet.
b. we think about how to use electronic media.
c. we visit the library more

10. Young people can use the library more if they

a. stop buying books.
b. take interest in electronic media, films and internet.
c. have an access to it.

5. Games improving listening skills

One of the most motivating ways to learn is playing games. Here are four listening
games, namely, the telephone game, guess what game, Simon says game, and I spy game.
Teachers can play these games with their learners in order to motivate them help them to
ameliorate their listening abilities.

55

5.1. Telephone game

The teacher, in this game, asks his/her students to make a circle. Then, s/he whispers a
statement to a student sitting next to him/her. After that, that student transmits the teachers
statement to another student sitting next to him/ her. This process goes all around the circle
till it returns to the teacher. Invariably, this statement gets jumbled somewhere along the
way. Therefore, the teacher tells his/her students that they are going to play this game again
but this time they can repeat the sentence to the one who gave it to them. At the end of the
game, s/he explains that the game worked better in the second time because each one has the
opportunity to make sure that s/he heard correctly (Tummers, 2011, p. 45).

5.2. Guess what game

This game works better with children. Learners, in this game, listen, for example, to
six audio segments about pets. For each segment, there are three pictures. There will be a
question about the pictures and the learners are asked to choose the picture that answers the
question. If they answer correctly they move forward, if not they listen again (Gerngross and
Puchta, 2004 p. 107)

5.3. Simon says game

This is a good listening game, especially, for kids. Simon is someone who tells
everyone what to do. The aim of this game is to make the learners follow some directions.
However, if the teacher gives the directions without saying Simon says and the learners
follow them, they will be out (Root, 2010, p. 13).

56

5.4. I spy game

The teacher, in this game, finds an object within view and starts describing it (as
shown in the following example). Then, the learners must listen to all the attributes carefully
and figure out what the item is (Edwards, 1999, p. 60).
I spy something beginning with
I spy something round and soft
I spy something we write with

Conclusion
The listening skill, undoubtedly, plays a major role in language learning. Therefore,
giving it some attention becomes a necessity. This attention does not include only the theory
but should also involve practice. Hence, listening instruction should be included in language
learning programs. Besides, teachers have to provide their learners with listening lessons that
require from them to process the aural input using different approaches to comprehension
involving the top- down approach, the bottom approach and the interactive approach as
illustrated in this chapter. Furthermore, in order to have better outcomes teachers may play
with their learners some listening games that would improve their listening skill such as the
telephone game, guess what game, Simon says game and I spy game.

57

General conclusion
Listening is a highly complex process that consists of receiving, understanding,
remembering, and responding. As a language skill, listening is defined as a receptive decoding
skill in the oral mode. This skill has long been neglected and thought of as a passive skill that
does not need to be taught. Hence, this work attempts to provide a deep understanding of
listening by shedding light on its physiology, its psychology, the different listening types, and
the main approaches to attain comprehension. It, further, reveals the importance of the
listening skill and its effect on the development of the other language skills in addition to the
main problems that learners face and some strategies that may help them to overcome these
problems. Besides, it explains how to plan for a listening lesson and how to assess it.
Furthermore, it provides sample listening lessons and tests and suggests listening games which
may be useful for the development of learners listening skills.
The listening skill is an important language skill that should be taken into account by
language teachers. Therefore, this dissertation attempts to provide answers for the following
questions: 1) Is listening a complex or a simple skill? 2). To what extent is the listening skill
important in the teaching/ learning process? 3) How to teach the listening skill in EFL
classrooms?
Having a closer look at the listening skill demonstrates that it is a complex skill. Its
complexity lies on the fact that it requires the learners to go through certain steps to finally
reach comprehension. Besides, it requires them to use different mental processes (the top
down processing, the bottom up processing, and the interactive processing) in order to
construct meaning from the received aural input.
The listening skill is important to a large extent in the teaching/ learning process since it
is the first step to language learning and studies have shown that it positively affects the

58

development of the other language skills as most of learning comes through it. Therefore,
learners are in need of this skill. Hence teaching it should be included in all language
curricula.
Teachers can effectively teach listening through considering some criteria including the
choice of topics, the length of the audio passages, and the level of difficulty and so on.
Besides, lesson planning is the key of successful teaching, therefore, following the steps of
lesson planning is of great usefulness.
The limitation of this research lies in its theoretical nature. Hence, no hypotheses were
proposed because there is no practical part due to time constraints. Classroom observation or
experimental study in addition to teachers /learners questionnaire would be effective tools to
investigate this topic in the department of English, Badji Mokhtar University.

59

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John's ESL Community, (n.d.). John's ESL Community. [online] Available at:
http://www.johnsesl.com/ [Accessed 10 May 2015]
Petric, B. (2000). The effect of listening instruction on the development of listening skills of
university students of English. novELTy. [online] Available at:
http://deal.elte.hu/pages/novelty/htm2/vol73/bojana.htm [Accessed 13 Apr. 2015].

66

Public Speaking: Practice and Ethics. (2012). 1st ed. [ebook] Available at:
http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/public-speaking-practice-and-ethics/index.html
[Accessed 10 Apr. 2014].

General introduction

General introduction
1. Statement of the problem
2. Aim of the study
3. Research questions
4. Dissertation division

Chapter one:
An Overview on the
Listening Skill

Chapter one: an Overview on the Listening Skill

Introduction
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

6.

7.
8.

9.

Listening definitions
Historical background of the listening skill
Listening physiology
Listening psychology
The listening process
5.1. Receiving
5.2. Understanding
5.3. Remembering
5.4. Evaluating
5.5. Responding
Listening types
6.1. Informative listening
6.2. Evaluative listening
6.3. Discriminative listening
6.4. Empathetic listening
Active vs. passive listening
Extensive vs. intensive listening skills
8.1. Extensive listening
8.2. Intensive listening
Listening comprehension
9.1. Listening comprehension approaches
9.1.1 The top down approach
9.1.2 The bottom up approach
9.1.3 The interactive approach

Conclusion

Chapter two:
Teaching and
Learning Listening

Chapter two: Teaching and Learning Listening

Introduction
1.
2.
3.
4.

Listening and communication

The listening skill and language development
Teachers roles in listening instruction
Listening strategies developing comprehension
4.1 Cognitive strategy
4.2 Metacognitive strategy
4.3 Socio- affective strategy
5. First language vs. foreign language listening
6. Key elements of listening comprehension
6.1 Phonology
6.2 Syntax
6.3 Semantics
6.4 Text structure
7. Foreign language listening difficulties
7.1 Pronunciation problems
7.2 Speech speed
7.3 Repetition problems
7.4 Vocabulary problems
7.5 Concentration problems
7.6 Interpretation problems
7.7 Physical conditions
8. Standards of listening activities and techniques selection
8.1 Relevance of the content
8.2 Listening materials authenticity
8.3 Inclusion of bottom- up and top- down processes
8.4 Development of learners listening strategies
8.5 Focusing on teaching rather than test
9. Planning for a listening lesson
9.1 Pre-listening stage
9.2 While listening stage
9.3 post listening stage
10. Listening skill assessment
Conclusion

Chapter Three:
Listening Instruction
in Practice

Chapter three: listening instruction in practice

Introduction
1. Listening lessons promoting the top down approach
1.1. Sample lesson 1: A fun day
1.2 Sample lesson 2: The intelligent dog
2. Listening lessons promoting the bottom up approach
2.1. Sample lesson 1: Word stress
2.2. Sample lesson 2: Final s pronunciation
3. Listening lessons promoting the interactive process
3.1. Sample lesson 1: Looking for a new job
3.2. Sample lesson 2: The right job
4. Sample listening assessments
4.1. Sample test 1
4.2. Sample test 2
5. Games improving listening skills
5.1. The telephone game
5.2. Guess what game
5.3. Simon says game
5.4. I spy game
Conclusion

Appendices

Appendices
1. A fun day
2. The intelligent dog
3. Word stress
4. The final s
5. I need a job
6. The right job
7. Police announcement
8. The right sign board
9. Monu
10. Amit and Anand
11. Joys dream home
12. Healthy foods
13. The nuclear family
14. Officer comment to his colleagues
15. Report news
16. Bicycles
17. Landing of curiosity
18. AV- chip
19. Tigers
20. Libraries

Appendix 1- A fun day tapescript (Randalls ESL cyber listening lab, 1998)

Appendix 2- The intelligent dog (Johns ESL community, 2000)

Appendix 3- Word stress (Emilys Pronunciation Class, 1999)

Appendix 4- The final s pronunciation (Richards, 2004, p. 9)

Appendix 5- I need a job tapescript (Richards, 2005, p. 64)

Appendix 6: The right job (Machkov, 2009, p. 63)

Appendix 7 police announcement (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking

and Listening Skills in English, 2012, p. 9)

Appendix 8- The right sign board (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and

Listening Skills in English, 2012, p. 9 -10)

Appendix 9- Monu (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and Listening

Skills in English, 2012, p. 10)

Appendix 10- Amit and Anand (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and

Listening Skills in English, 2012, p. 10)

Appendix 11- Joys dream home (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and

Listening Skills in English, 2012, p. 11)

Appendix 12- Healthy foods (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and

Listening Skills in English, 2012, p. 12)

Appendix 13- The nuclear family (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and

Listening Skills in English, 2012, p. 13)

Appendix 14- Report news (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and

Listening Skills in English, 2012, p. 16)

Appendix 15- Officer comment to his colleague (Introduction: Assessment of

Speaking and Listening Skills in English, 2012, p. 16)

Appendix 16- Bicycles (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and Listening

Skills in English, 2012, p. 16)

Appendix 17- Landing of curiosity (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and

Listening Skills in English, 2012, p. 17 )

Appendix 18- AV- chip (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and Listening

Skills in English, 2012, p. 17)

Appendix 19- Tigers (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and Listening

Skills in English, 2012, p. 18)

Appendix 20- Libraries (Introduction: Assessment of Speaking and Listening

Skills in English, 2012, p. 19)

Rsum
La comptence d'coute est l'une des quatre piliers sur lesquels l'apprentissage des
langues se tient. Nanmoins, elle a t longtemps nglige et perue comme une comptence
passive. Toutefois, rcemment, certaines tudes ont rvl son importance dans
l'apprentissage des langues et ont prouv quelle nest pas passive mais plutt active. Ainsi,
cette tude fait la lumire sur l'importance de l'coute dans des situations d'apprentissage et
denseignement des langues. Par consquent, ce mmoire tente de fournir des rponses trois
questions principales: 1) est ce que l'coute est une comptence simple ou complexe? 2) A
quel point la comptence d'coute est importante dans le processus d'enseignement /
apprentissage? Et 3) comment enseigner la comptence d'coute dans des classes dALE
(lAnglais comme une langue trangre) ? Ce travail montre donc que l'coute nest pas une
comptence simple mais plutt une comptence complexe qui doit tre examine partir de
diffrents points: sa physiologie, sa psychologie et ses types. En outre, ce mmoire souligne
les diffrentes approches que les apprenants utilisent pour parvenir la comprhension.
Certaines tudes montrent que l'coute joue

un grand rle non seulement dans la

communication quotidienne, mais aussi dans l'apprentissage des langues. Ainsi, une
comparaison a t faite entre l'coute dans une premire langue et lcoute dans une langue
trangre,

de plus les difficults

principales

que les apprenants

rencontrent ont t

soulignes. Enfin, ce travail montre que l'enseignement de la comptence d'coute peut tre
atteint de manire efficace en suivant les trois tapes de la planification de la leon et en
appliquant certaines stratgies qui peuvent dvelopper la comprhension de l'coute des
apprenants. En outre, il suggre des exemples de leons dcoute et des tests et aussi quelques
jeux que les enseignants peuvent pratiquer avec leurs apprenants afin de dvelopper leur
comprhension orale.


,
,
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:

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.

General conclusion