Listening: theory and practice in modern

foreign language competence

Author: Larry Vandergrift

© Prof. Larry Vandergrift

Abstract

Second language (L2) listening comprehension is a complex process, crucial in the development of

second language competence. Listeners use both bottom-up processers (linguistic knowledge) and top-

down processes (prior knowledge) to comprehend. Knowing the context of a listening text and the

purpose for listening greatly reduces the burden of comprehension. Teachers can help students develop

sound strategies for comprehension through a process approach to teaching L2 listening. This will help

students learn how to listen and develop the metacognitive knowledge and strategies crucial to success

in listening comprehension.

Table of contents
• Introduction and definition

• Listening processes

• Listening in language learning and teaching

• Teaching listening

• Conclusions

• Bibliography

• Related links

Introduction and definition

Research has demonstrated that adults spend 40-50% of communication time listening (Gilman & Moody

1984), but the importance of listening in language learning has only been recognized relatively recently

(Oxford 1993). Since the role of listening comprehension in language learning was taken for granted, it

merited little research and pedagogical attention. Although listening played an important role in audio-

lingual methods, students only listened to repeat and develop a better pronunciation (for speaking).
Beginning in the early 70's, work by Asher, Postovsky, Winitz and, later, Krashen, brought attention to the

role of listening as a tool for understanding and a key factor in facilitating language learning. Listening has

emerged as an important component in the process of second language acquisition (Feyten, 1991). This

research base provides support for the pre-eminence of listening comprehension in instructional methods,

especially in the early stages of language learning.

Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe. Listeners must discriminate

between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain

and interpret this within the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance (Wipf,

1984). (Rost, 2002) defines listening, in its broadest sense, as a process of receiving what the speaker

actually says (receptive orientation); constructing and representing meaning (constructive orientation);

negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding (collaborative orientation); and, creating meaning

through involvement, imagination and empathy (transformative orientation). Listening is a complex, active

process of interpretation in which listeners match what they hear with what they already know.

Listening processes
There are two distinct processes involved in listening comprehension. Listeners use 'top-down' processes

when they use prior knowledge to understand the meaning of a message. Prior knowledge can be

knowledge of the topic, the listening context, the text-type, the culture or other information stored in long-

term memory as schemata (typical sequences or common situations around which world knowledge is

organized). Listeners use content words and contextual clues to form hypotheses in an exploratory

fashion. On the other hand, listeners also use 'bottom-up' processes when they use linguistic knowledge

to understand the meaning of a message. They build meaning from lower level sounds to words to

grammatical relationships to lexical meanings in order to arrive at the final message. Listening

comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up processing, but an interactive, interpretive process

where listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages. The

degree to which listeners use the one process or the other will depend on their knowledge of the

language, familiarity with the topic or the purpose for listening. For example, listening for gist involves

primarily top-down processing, whereas listening for specific information, as in a weather broadcast,

involves primarily bottom-up processing to comprehend all the desired details.

Context

Research from cognitive psychology has shown that listening comprehension is more than extracting

meaning from incoming speech. It is a process of matching speech with what listeners already know

about the topic. Therefore, when listeners know the context of a text or an utterance, the process is

facilitated considerably because listeners can activate prior knowledge and make the appropriate

inferences essential to comprehending the message (Byrnes, 1984). Therefore, teachers need to help

students organize their thoughts, to activate appropriate background knowledge for understanding and to

make predictions, to prepare for listening. This significantly reduces the burden of comprehension for the

listener.
Purpose

Listeners do not pay attention to everything; they listen selectively, according to the purpose of the task.

This, in turn, determines the type of listening required and the way in which listeners will approach a task.

(Richards, 1990) differentiates between an interactional and a transactional purpose for

communication.Interactional use of language is socially oriented, existing largely to satisfy the social

needs of the participants; e.g., small talk and casual conversations. Therefore, interactional listening is

highly contextualized and two-way, involving interaction with a speaker. A transactional use of language,

on the other hand, is more message-oriented and is used primarily to communicate information ; e.g.,

news broadcasts and lectures. In contrast with interactional listening, transactional listening requires

accurate comprehension of a message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker (one-way

listening). Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance will help the listener determine what

to listen for and, therefore, which processes to activate. As with the advantages of knowing the context,

knowing the purpose for listening also greatly reduces the burden of comprehension since listeners know

that they need to listen for something very specific, instead of trying to understand every word.

Listening in language learning and teaching

Listeners use metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies to facilitate comprehension and to

make their learning more effective. Metacognitive strategies are important because they oversee,

regulate or direct the language learning process. Cognitive strategies manipulate the material to be

learned or apply a specific technique to a listening task. Socio-affective strategies describe the

techniques listeners use to collaborate with others, to verify understanding or to lower anxiety. Research
shows that skilled listeners use more metacognitive strategies than their less-skilled counterparts

(O'Malley & Chamot, 1990, Vandergrift, 1997a).When listeners know how to

1. analyse the requirements of a listening task;

2. activate the appropriate listening processes required;

3. make appropriate predictions;

4. monitor their comprehension;

and

5. evaluate the success of their approach,

they are using metacognitive knowledge for successful listening comprehension. This is critical to the

development of self-regulated learning (Wenden, 1998).

Teaching listening
(Mendelsohn, 1998) notes a gap between the interests of listening researchers and classroom

practitioners in that classroom materials do very little to develop metacognitive knowledge through raising

learners' consciousness of listening processes. It is imperative to teach students how to listen. This shifts

the emphasis of listening practice from product to process and the responsibility of learning from the

teacher to the student, thereby helping students become self-regulated learners.

The following pedagogical sequence (Vandergrift, 1999) can develop an awareness of the process of

(one-way) listening and help students acquire the metacognitive knowledge critical to success in listening

comprehension. A pedagogical sequence for development of two-way listening skills used largely in

interaction with another speaker can be found in (Ross & Rost, 1991) or (Vandergrift, 1997b).
Planning for the successful completion of a listening task

Pre-listening activities help students make decisions about what to listen for and, subsequently, to focus

attention on meaning while listening. During this critical phase of the listening process, teachers prepare

students for what they will hear and what they are expected to do. First, students need to bring to

consciousness their knowledge of the topic, their knowledge of how information is organized in different

texts and any relevant cultural information. Second, a purpose for listening must be established so that

students know the specific information they need to listen for and/or the degree of detail required. Using

all the available information, students can make predictions to anticipate what they might hear.

Monitoring comprehension during a listening task

During the listening activity itself, students monitor their comprehension and make decisions about

strategy use. Students need to evaluate continually what they are comprehending and check:

1. consistency with their predictions, and

2. internal consistency; i.e., the ongoing interpretation of the oral text or

interaction.

Teacher intervention during this phase is virtually impossible because of the ephemeral nature of

listening. Periodic practice in decision-making skills and strategy use can sharpen inferencing skills and

help students to monitor more effectively.

Evaluating the approach and outcomes of a listening task

Students need to evaluate the results of decisions made during a listening task. The teacher can

encourage self-evaluation and reflection by asking students to assess the effectiveness of strategies

used. Group or class discussions on the approach taken by different students can also stimulate

reflection and worthwhile evaluation. Students are encouraged to share individual routes leading to

success; e.g. how someone guessed (inference) the meaning of a certain word or how someone modified

a particular strategy.

In order to help students consciously focus on planning, monitoring and evaluation before and after the

completion of listening tasks, teachers can develop performance checklists (see, for

example, Vandergrift, 1999, 2002 ).Instruments such as these help students prepare for a listening task

and evaluate their performance.

Conclusions
L2 listening competence is a complex skill that needs to be developed consciously. It can best be

developed with practice when students reflect on the process of listening without the threat of evaluation.

Using listening activities to only test comprehension leads to anxiety which debilitates the development of

metacognitve strategies. Strategy use positively impacts self-concept, attitudes, about learning and

attributional beliefs about personal control (Borkowski et. al., 1990). Guiding students through the process

of listening not only provides them with the knowledge by which they can successfully complete a

listening task; it also motivates them and puts them in control of their learning (Vandergrift, 2002).
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