Abstract:

It has long been acknowledged that exposure to comprehensible listening materials is one of the greatest, and most often neglected needs of students of English (Wright, 2006). This poster session describes how a group of university teachers in Japan created an online, open access series of listening activities using sound and video files available free of charge on the Internet from sites such as youtube, NPR, and the BBC and self-created activities. The presenters explain the process of selecting activities and materials to ensure that students are presented with a variety of listening tasks requiring different listening skills. The creation and selection of these skills was based on the research of Dunkel (1986), Mendelsohn (1994), Morley (1991), and Rubin (1995). The skills included in the activities ranged from general comprehension, listening for details, to note taking and applying analytical thinking skills. The poster session also describes the piloting of these activities and the process of combining out of classroom self access study while ensuring that the students were held accountable for their work and encouraged to increase their own listening study. The presenters explain the design of the website and the relative merits of paper based activities versus online activities. Following the research of Canale and Swain (1980), students were given a pre-test to determine their level before the listening flood project was initiated and a post test to gauge whether their listening skills improved, one of the key goals of the project. The presenters will explain the results of the tests and how the results will affect making improvements to the site and the project.


References:
Canale, M & Swain, M. 1980. Theoretical bases of communicative approach to second language teaching and testing.Applied Linguistics, 1 (1), 1-47.
Dunkel, P. (1986). Developing listening fluency in L2: Theoretical principles and pedagogical considerations. Modern Language Journal 70 (2), 99-106.
Mendelsohn, D. (1994). Learning to listen: A strategy-based approach for the second language learner. San Diego, CA: Dominie Press.
Morley, J. (1991). Listening comprehension in second/foreign language instruction. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching english as a second or foreign language (2nd ed.) (pp. 81-106). Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Rubin, J. (1995). The contribution of video to the development of competence in listening. In D. Mendelsohn & J. Rubin (Eds.). A guide for the teaching of second language listening (pp. 151-165). San Diego: Dominie Press.
White, G. (2006). Listening. New York: Oxford University Press.

Keywords:

Self access learning, computer aided learning, listening.