Essay:Listening and speaking

Why is listening taught in isolation?
It seems very strange to me that 'listening' is taught in the classroom at all and this is probably why it is often not given the attention it deserves. After all, what is the purpose of listening? This article is an attempt to develop some ideas I had when preparing an LSA lesson for my DELTA. I hope, through this article, to stimulate discussion and develop my ideas further. I don't know if it is the done thing but I will include my name and email address at the end so that anyone stimulated by the debate can take it further.

Why do we listen?
It seems to me that the present method of teaching listening misses the primary point of listening and it is worthwhile to examine why we listen. I maintain that listening is one half of the coin called 'communication'. We listen so that we can gather information to instruct the opinions which we will eventually produce, normally in spoken language. Therefore, to teach people to 'listen better' we also need to raise awareness of the relationship between listening and speaking.

This connection means that effective listeners can think about what they have heard and comment on it in a meaningful way. Too much of what we do in the classroom simply requires learners to 'understand' what they have heard but not to process it. How can this be effective?

Mechanics of Speech
One of the major complaints I'm sure we all receive when teaching listening is 'that part sounds like 'blahblahblah'. We, as teachers, know that this is caused by the vagaries of connected speech and I for one often try to explain this and analyse why a section was difficult to understand. However, what use is there teaching someone to reproduce something that they cannot produce themselves?

Therefore, I strongly feel that the only way learners can better understand connected speech is to be better able to produce it. In short, better listening begins with better speaking.

Discourse
Well,... A native speaker knows why I did that (assuming this was a spoken conversation) and is prepared for what is coming next (probably a longish explanation of something). How many of your learners, even at higher levels have that level of discourse knowledge? Without this knowledge of how we use specific words (discourse markers) to organise our speech, and the probable meaning of these words, is it any wonder that learners have trouble with listening? Native speakers use these words as cues to anticipate what the speaker will say, thus making it easier to follow. Without this implicit knowledge, following complex speech becomes extremely difficult.

Again, the key to achievement in this area lies in the production of discourse markers. Only if learners implicitly understand the function of these items and can reproduce them frequently, do they have any chance of using them to help their listening. Therefore, frequent practice of these items is required. I usually begin this at pre-intermediate, it's never too early.

Never say 'Today we're going to do some listening'.
This is meaningless as learners listen as soon as they walk in the room. Instead, try to explain that everything you say is 'listening practice' and help learners to recognise the link between commenting on something you or a classmate says and 'listening comprehension'.

Reject "listening exercises"
These, in my experience, are graded below learners' ability and offer little challenge. Speakers also speak so unnaturally that most elements of connected speech are lost. Therefore, these activities represent a 'false friend' because they are so far removed from real conversation. Instead, teachers should

Use authentic listening material, even with the lowest levels
Learners learn because they want to converse in real situations