How can the clarification of listening tasks facilitate listening comprehension in ESL class

1. Introduction

The teaching of listening has been put a greater level of importance nowadays than it did in the past， as many examinations in China usually conclude a listening section， acknowledging the central component of listening skills. According to this point， devoting to improve the efficiency of teaching listening seems to be necessary for teachers.

This paper is going to discuss teaching listening in the ESL class， which starts by setting out the review of theoretical background about the format of teaching listening before introducing come guidelines of teaching listening. Subsequently， by applying these guidelines to English teaching， this paper will focus on explaining how can the clarification of listening tasks facilitate listening comprehension in the consideration of students level. Through discussing， this paper also attempts to remind teachers to notice the importance and necessity of the clarification of the listening tasks.

2. Theoretical background

In terms of second language acquisition， many researchers acknowledge that the listening teaching should not only to improve the learners listening comprehension but also to facilitate language learning. In recent years， the views of listening emphasis the prime significant roles of learners as the active participants of the listening and teachers which providing scaffolding and instructions for learners through the listening process.

Based on different tasks and purposes， the procedures of teaching listening vary from situation to situation. According to Field （1998）， the format of a relatively standard listening class usually contains three parts including pre-listening， listening and post-listening related to different listening strategies. A similar view from Richards， J. C. （2008） lend weight to this， stating that by using the current teaching materials， a typical class also consists of the same three parts connecting with various activities following the top-down and bottom-up listening processes.

As Field （1998） has demonstrated， pre-listening involves not only the vocabulary learning， but also setting context and creating motivation. Richards， J.C.（2008） describes the pre-listening as a preparation process which consists of various activities， such as activating background knowledge and making predictions， etc. A similar view from Brown， S. （2006） states that the activation of prior knowledge is the main purpose of pre-listening activities， according to the cognitive psychology of listening processing. According to Scrivener， J. （2005）， the background knowledge about the world， the specific topic and the genre seem to shape the listening text and benefit the listeners before listening.

3. Teaching listening in ESL class

3.1 Some guidelines for teaching listening

In order to improve or support the listening comprehension， the clarification of the listening tasks seems indispensable. According to Scrivener， J. （2005）， the clarification could be explained as the “question first” technique which is often described as “task before audio”. If the learners listen to the text without any clarification or scaffoldings provided by teachers， just like skipping the pre-listening process in the format of teaching listening， the listening process would be more likely to a memory test， in order to complete the comprehension or detail questions in the post-listening part. The listeners would struggle to memorize all the information provided in the listening text， and in consequence remember very limited （Scrivener， J. 2005）. Without the clarification before the task， the role of the teacher acted in the listening process seems much like presenting the difficulties and pressures to learners rather than helping them to realize achieving the goal is possible although the difficulties.

As Brown， S. （2006） has demonstrated， to improve the listening comprehension of learners， the activation of previous knowledge is indispensable， which means the ability to contextualize the understanding and take advantage of the prior knowledge when listening. The main task of teachers is to acknowledge and understand the difficulties of learners and then try to find out a way to provide the clarification and scaffoldings which consist of activating prior knowledge of listeners （Brown， S. 2006）. According to Scrivener， J. （2005） the prior knowledge could also be regarded as the background information including the general knowledge， the specific topic and the genre. In order to activate the prior knowledge or background information， the instructor should try to avoid letting the listener start with “zero” and provide sufficient clarifications， such as make prediction of the topic or content， which will help them make a good preparation of the coming listening task.

3.2 Questions before task

Providing the questions before listening task does not equal to providing all the information related before the task， especially the printed text of the listening. In order to avoid the listening process falls into a memory test， some instructors offer the transcript of the listening as scaffoldings before listening， the whole task would then turn into a reading process rather than a listening one， since the information input came through reading （eyes） instead of listening （ears）. The listening process regarded as a stimulation-reflection process， means the stimulation need to come though ears and then process in mind. However， to do some certain exercises， like sequencing or correcting， presenting some of the printed text of listening tasks or the whole one in the while-listening or post-listening part might be reasonable.

4. Conclusion

As it shows above， it has explained the clarification of listening tasks in pre-listening process could facilitate the listening comprehension. The main function the “question first” technique is to clarify the aim or purpose of listening， to make the learners keep in mind that what information they would search for or pay attention to， which will help listeners become more effectively. If the listeners know what they are listening for， they might become more focused and selective to the listening task.

References：

[1]Field，John（1998）.The changing face of listening.English teaching Professional 6：12-14.

[2]Richards，J.C.（2008）.Teaching listening and speaking from theory to practice.Cambridge：Cambridge University Press.

[3]Brown，S.（2006）.Teaching Listening.Cambridge：Cambridge University Press.

[4]Scrivener，J.（2005）.Learning Teaching.Oxford：MacMillan.

【作者簡介】冯勋（1990- ），长春理工大学光电信息学院，硕士研究生，研究方向：英语语言学及教学法。