Neurogial Processes

Listening is a process involving a continuum of active processes, which are under the
control of the listener, and passive processes, which are not.

1.1 Hearing

A suitable starting point for an exploration of listening in language teaching and

research is to consider the physical and cognitive systems and processes that are involved.

Hearing is the primary physiological system that allows for reception and conversion
of sound waves that surround the listener. These converted electrical pulses are transmitted
through the inner ear to the auditory cortex of the brain.

But beyond thus passive conversion process, hearing is the sense that is often identified with
our experience of participating in events. Haering unlike our other sense, has unique
observational and monitoring characterisristics that can be equated with perception of life’s
rhytms, with the real time tempo of human interaction, and with the feel of human contact
and communication.

How then is hearing different from listening? The terms hearing and listening are often used
interchangeably, but there are important differences between them, although both hearing and
listening involve sound perception, the difference in terms reflects a degree of intention.

1.2 Consciousness

Consciousness is the most fundamental concept when we consider listening to be an

active process. We may think of ordinary consciousness as unfolding when two cognitive
procedures intersect : (1) The brain encodes an outside object or event as consisting of
independent properties and (2) the brain sets up the listener as the central agent who
experiences this object or event. Consciousness is the phenomenon of experiencing this
integration.

Consciousness involves the activation of portions of the listener’s model of the

surrounding world: a model which is necessarily self-centred. The portions of this model that
are activated which are involved in understanding the current encounter. Viewed technically,
this active portion of the model is constructed from perceptual contact with and subjective
reactions to the external event.

1.3 Attention

Attention is the focussing of consciousness on an object or train of thought. Attention

can be directed either externally or internally. Attention is the beginning of involvement,
which is the essential differentiation between simply hearing and listening.

Attention is seen as a timed process requiring three neurological elements: arousal,

orientation and focus.
Linguistic Processing

1. Perceiving speech

2. Recognising words

3. Employing phonotactic rules

4. Applying grammatical rules

5. Managing spoken language

6. Utilising prosodic features

7. Integrating non-verbal cues

Listening development and language acquisition

1. First language (L1) development of perception

2. L1 contextualised input

3. L1 cognitive restructuring

4. L2 acquistin: the role of listening

5. L2 listening acquisting: comprehensible input

6. L2 listening development: phonological and lexical processing

7. L2 listening development: syntactic processing

8. L2 listening success or failure: context for learning

Approaches to teaching listening

1.1 Principles of instructional design

Some methodologist will challenge this view, calming that language leraning is unique
and requires unique teaching methodologies. Indeed, over the past century, a number of very
specific language-teaching methodologies have emerged, including Total Physical Response,
Suggestopedia. The principles that can be derived from these theories provide ways to
achieve greater balance of the four approaches to teaching listening we outlined: receptive,
constructive, responsive and transformative.

These theories are concerned with intentions o instruction:

1. Apitude specific instruction:

2. Cognitive flexibility

3. Coordination of teaching and learning

4. Modes of learning

5. Positive climate for learning

6. Anchored instruction

7. Course structures

8. Spiral learning

9. Elaborative sequencing

10. Criterion referencing

Influences from second language learning research

This section outlines some key influences on the teaching of listening that are derived
directly from language acquisting research.

1. Affective filter hypothesis

2. Input hypothesis

3. Interaction hypothesis

4. Procedural hypothesis

5. Learning strategies and communication strategies

6. Processability hypothesis

7. Social distance hypothesis

Instructional design

1. Intensive listening

Intensive listening refers to listening for precise sounds, words, phrases, grammatical units
and pragmatic units. Although listening intensively is no ogten called for in everyday
situations, the ability to listen intensively whenever required is an essential component of
listening proficiency.

2. Selective listening
Selective listening tasks encourage learners to approach genuine spoken texts by adopting a
strategy of focusing of specific information rather than trying to understand and recall
everything. Reconstruction of the spoken material based on selective listening tasks can help
students link selective listening to global listening.