Bojana Petric: The effect of listening instruction on the development of listening skills of university studtents of English

novELTy Volume 7, Number 3

Importance of Teaching listening in various models and methods

Krashen & Terrell, 1983 : Emphasize the importance of reading and listening to the foreign language Richards & Rodgers, 1986 : Relevance of listening input at the beginning stages

Different views on how to approach the teaching of listening

Indirect way: Learners unconsciously develop their listening- and other language skills (Krashen & Terrell, 1983) Direct/ Systematic way: In order for learners to benefit from practising listening it is necessary (Rost, 1990, 1994; Ur, 1984)

Factors that determine the efficiency of listening activities

1.

Listening materials : examine genre, level of authencity, complexity, density of information, length, speed of delivery, variety/ dialect of English

2.

Listening tasks: various classifications, for example distinguishing open- and closed tasks (Rost, 1990); or according to the factor of time, differentiate prospectivesimultanous- and retrospective tasks (Rost, 1990)

A third type of classification is based on the quantity of response required- from no response required to extended responses (Ur, 1996)

3.

The procedure for organising listening activites: Most methodologies divide listening activities into the stages of pre- listening, listening and post- listening

Problem:

The neglect of listening skills in the teaching of English in Yugoslavia

Method of research:
Empirical: Comparing the development of listening skills in two groups of first- year university students of English (In the winter term of 1995/ 1996):
One receiving systematic listening

instruction And one attending English language instruction without the listening component

Aim of this research:

To provide an overview about teaching listening Describe this experiment, and examine the implications of its main findings for the teaching English at tertiary level.

Hypothesis:

All students listening skills would improve during the semester, but the improvement would be greater in the case of students who receive listening instruction

Participants:

Construction:

Both the experimental and the control groups listening skills were tested at the beginningand at the end of the semester. During the 9 weeks, both group attended the same type and number of classes, followed the same syllabus, were taught by the same instructors. But the experimental group received tasks on developing listening skills in 25 mini-sessions during their speaking and grammar classes

Results:

Conclusion:

The hypothesis was confirmed (Listening skills of students will develop to a greater extent as a result of explicit instruction) The results indicate the value of listening instruction at tertiary level of teaching English and suggest that listening practice should be an integral part of language development instruction at university level.