Tài liệu Using authentic materials to motivate students to listen to english

TÊN CHUYÊN ĐỀ: USING AUTHENTIC MATERIALS TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS TO LISTEN TO ENGLISH PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE Of the four major areas of communication skills and language development listening, speaking, reading, and writing - the one that is the most basic is listening. When students first learn a language, they generally have to listen to the words several times before they are able to recognize and pronounce those words. Listening can also help students build vocabulary, develop language proficiency, and improve language usage. Not only are listening skills the basis for the development of all other skills, they are also the main channel through which students make initial contact with the target language and its culture. In Ha Long High School for Gifted Students, English major students here are exposed to a variety of listening materials. However, most of these materials are graded listening materials or materials that are specifically designed for testing purpose. These materials may help students boost their scores in listening exams like IELTS or TOEFL but not prepare them for the real life communication challenges. To solve this problem, one effective way is to apply real listening materials in the classroom. With the growing availability of podcasts and audio materials on the Internet, both teachers and students have easy access to a broad range of authentic listening materials. However, many teachers feel that such recordings are too difficult to be exploited for listening activities in the classroom. Therefore, in this paper, I would like to suggest some ways to devise activities which will help motivate English language learners to listen and achieve a satisfying understanding Page 1 of 28 of authentic listening texts. These activities are particularly helpful for English major students, whose English proficiency is around B2 level and above. 2. AIMS OF THE STUDY The study aims at - Giving a brief overview of authentic materials and sources from which authentic materials can be obtained. - Designing activities for a sample 45-minute listening lesson using authentic materials. - Suggesting several ways for motivating English language learners to listen and develop their listening skills with authentic materials. 3. TIME AND PLACE OF THE STUDY This study results from my own experience of incorporating authentic listening materials into my teaching at Ha Long High School for Gifted Students during school year 2013 - 2014. I use these materials in selective lessons, which is once a week in my class. My students are in grade 11, all majoring in English and having language competence around B2 level. I also use authentic listening materials as a kind of listening practice for the selective group of excellent students who take part in the Provincial or National Contest for Excellent Students. 4. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY So far there have been a number of studies on developing students' listening skills using authentic materials. However, these studies often focus on students at tertiary level as their main subject, and not much attention has been paid to high school students. This is certainly a disadvantage against high school students when they come into contact with native speakers. By suggesting some ways to incorporate authentic listening materials in the teaching curriculum, the study will be helpful to acquaint high school students with real-life communicative situations. Accordingly, their language competence will certainly improve. Page 2 of 28 The study would like to suggest several sources from which aural materials can be adapted. Thus, it may serve as a useful guideline for teachers who wish to explore the use of authentic materials in their everyday teaching. PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. THEREOTICAL BACKGROUND 1.1. Definition of Authentic Listening Materials In the literature on second language acquisition and learning, the term "authentic listening materials" has been defined in a different ways. The most common definition is by Nunan (1999), who defines authentic listening materials as "spoken language data that has been produced in the course of genuine communication, and not specifically made for purposes of language teaching and learning." Gebhard (1996) clarifies the above definition by giving examples of authentic materials that teachers have used in teaching foreign languages. Some of his examples, which may serve as source material for lesson planning, are: TV commercials, quiz shows, cartoons, news clips, comedy shows, movies, soap operas, professionally audio, taped short stories and novels, radio ads, songs, documentaries, and sales pitches. 1.2. Advantages of using authentic listening materials in classroom The use of authentic materials in the classroom has become common practice during the last 20 years, and the need for and usefulness of authentic materials have been increasingly acknowledged. In fact, using authentic listening materials has several advantages. According to Brinton (1991), authentic listening materials can reinforce for students the direct relationship between the language classroom and the outside world. Gebhard (1996) sees authentic listening materials as a way to "contextualize" language learning. When lessons are centered on comprehending a Page 3 of 28 menu or a TV weather report, students tend to focus more on content and meaning rather than the language itself. This offers students a valuable source of language input, so that they are not being exposed only to the language presented by the text and the teacher. Also, there are some researchers who point out that more authentic listening materials are needed in the classroom because of the wide disparity that is often found between materials developed specifically for English language teaching and authentic conversation. Porter and Roberts (1981) show several differences between authentic materials and non-authentic materials in terms of spoken language. For example, conversations recorded for language texts often have a slow pace, have particular structures which recur with obtrusive frequency, and have very distinct turn-taking of speakers. Also, hesitations (such as “uh’s” and “mm’s”) are often missing, and sentences are very well - formed with few if any mistakes. In other words, what the language learners hear in class is different from the language in the real world. In many cases, the language heard in classrooms is a stilted use of spoken language, and authenticity is lost because of a need to teach specific language points in a way that some teachers feel would be more understandable for learners. Brosnan et al. (1984) justify the importance of the use of authentic listening in the classroom in this way: a. Language is natural. Authentic language offers students the chance to deal with a small amount of material which, at the same time, contains complete and meaningful messages. b. Students need to be able to see the immediate relevance of what they do in the classroom to what they need to do outside it, and real-life material treated realistically makes the connection obvious. Page 4 of 28 2. PRACTICAL BACKGROUND In Vietnam, English is the most popular foreign language and a compulsory school subject. However, English teaching and learning have, for a long time, been influenced by traditional methods with a great focus on grammar and vocabulary. The implementation of new English textbooks for high school students since the school-year 2006 – 2007 has created a shift toward communicative teaching and learning. Listening has gained much more attention, and different ways to enhance students’ listening ability have been sought and implemented. However, most listening materials are test-based with not so natural recordings and may be a hindrance for students when they come into contact with native speakers. Moreover, some students, especially excellent ones, are keen on self-study listening activities; they want to explore the authentic materials themselves but have no clue how to begin and where to find appropriate materials. It is necessary that teachers act as an instructor to guide them through the process of self-study so that their listening skills will be enhanced. Therefore, I would like to give some suggestions as to how authentic listening materials can be used and how teachers can help students in their self-studying process in this study. Page 5 of 28 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 1. REAL SITUATION As indicated above, the use of authentic listening materials in teaching English is quite limited in the scenario of high schools in Vietnam. At Ha Long High School for Gifted Students, English major students may listen to a lot of listening sources, but not many of them are exposed to real - life situations. Therefore, the fact that some students get high score in listening exam does not necessarily mean that they will do well in actual communication. This calls for the adoption of more authentic teaching materials into everyday teaching. As a matter of fact, teachers of English at my school are enthusiastic about applying authentic materials into their everyday teaching. However, the exploitation of real-life listening is, to some extent, a process of experimenting to see what is appropriate and what is not, and sharing hands-on experience. This situation demands a more systematically designed materials with a view to enhancing students' listening skills as much as possible. Therefore, I would like to suggest several solutions to these problems from my own experience. 2. SOLUTIONS In this part, I am going to describe briefly some of the ways that I have adopted to devise listening activities for my students. All in all, I have exploited the following sources of authentic materials in my teaching: - Radio podcasts - Video clips - Songs - TV programs/ movies Each of these materials and how to exploit them is described as follows. 2.1. Using radio podcasts In order to make a radio podcast suitable for classroom teaching, I usually go through several steps: Page 6 of 28 - Select the recording - Prepare pre - listening activities - Prepare while - listening activities - Prepare post - listening activities 2.1.1. Select the recording To prepare for a lesson of 45 minutes centred on an authentic audio recording, I usually search for a radio programme that would either interest my students or be topically related to the unit or lesson I am currently teaching. The recording may vary in length, and it is best to find one from which I can extract about 5- 8 minutes of listening. For example, I choose a recording from BBC Radio 4 programme called Excess Baggage. This recording is about Daniel Everett, a linguist at Illinois State University, who has spent much of the past three decades living in the remote and little understood Amazonian tribe of the Pirahas. The reason for this choice of recording is that I find it very interesting and can help students acquire some useful knowledge about life of some tribes in the Amazon Jungle. The recording can be obtained from this online source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f8zp7 2.1.2. Prepare pre-listening activities In this step, I introduce the topic and activate background knowledge of what students are about to hear. I provide students with a picture which can trigger general discussion around the topic. A. Look at the photos and discuss with a partner: What can you guess about Dan Everett and life in the Amazon? Page 7 of 28 Then I also provide them with a short reading text which gives some general background information. The reading text could include, for example, some information about the programme which answers some of the following questions: Is it an interview or discussion? Was it recorded in the studio or outside? What about the speakers - how many there are? Where are they from? How do they feel about the topic? The reading text could also contain key, new or potentially problematic vocabulary and or phrases from the text. B. You are going to listen to part of a BBC radio programme called Excess Baggage. Read the information about the programme and write T (True) or NG (Not Given) next to the sentence 1 - 3. Excess Baggage is a weekly BBC Radio 4 programme on which people who have spent time travelling are interviewed about the places they have been to and things they have learnt. In this programme Dan Everett, who now works at Illinois State University in the United States, talks about his experience with the Piraha tribe in the Amazon jungle. He has spent much of the past thirty years living with them, studying their language and culture. 1. Excess Baggage is a holiday programme. 2. Dan Everett wasn't working at the university when he first went to visit the Piraha. 3. Dan Everett teaches the Piraha language. 2.1.3. Preparing while-listening activities The activities designed at this stage are largely determined by the content of the recordings. The activities may be in the form of multiple choice questions, Page 8 of 28 open questions, ticking True or False, ordering the statement etc. When I devise an activity, I always turn to the audio script highlight precisely what a listener needs to be able to understand to successfully complete the task. At this point, I might modify the wording of questions and information in the activity to adjust the difficulty level of the task according to the level of my students. In this BBC radio interview, Dan Everett told the presenter about the first time he travelled to an area of the Amazon jungle where a certain tribe he went to meet lived. The three different activities below are based on the second and third part taken from the programme. C. Listen to the next part of the interview and answer questions 1 - 4. 1. What does Dan say about travelling in the Amazon jungle? A. It's better to travel overland. B. It's better to travel by plane. C. It's better to travel as a group. 2. When Dan and his family arrived, how did the Piraha react? A. They were friendly. B. They wanted presents. C. The asked him lots of questions. 3. How did the Piraha react to Dan learning their language? A. They thought he was silly B. They were surprised he understood them C. They thought it was interesting 4. What travelling experiences had Dan had before he went to the Amazon? A. He'd travelled from Southern California to Mexico B. He'd travelled a lot in Southern California C. He's travelled around Mexico D. Listen again and put the phrases a - d in the order you hear them. a. a sort of highly - trained parrot Page 9 of 28 b. in the early days c. a really tough expedition d. your little tribe E. Listen to the third part of the interview and answer questions 1 - 4. 1. When is Dan planning on going back to visit the Piraha? 2. What does he take them when he visits? 3. Why wasn't the Piraha man interested in seeing the president of Brazil? 4. When can you listen to "Don't sleep, there are snakes" on Radio 4's "Books of the week"? Before listening, I usually work on how the words in the phrases are linked in fast speech, thus helping students recognise them in context when they listen. In the third exercise, the wording of the questions closely resembles the actual words used by the speakers, so making it easier for students to more easily locate the information they need to listen closely for. The level of challenge increases in the second and third exercise. Some of the questions demand that students listen for synonyms and antonyms or paraphrased sentences. 2.1.4. Prepare post-listening activities To finish the listening lesson off, I think it is a good idea to give students the opportunity to talk more generally around a topic. The task below provides examples of the kinds if questions students could talk about, which provide further opportunity to indirectly review the listening experience, and help them remember features of authentic speech. F. Work in pairs or small groups and discuss questions 1 - 3 below 1. What else do you think Dan learnt on his visits? _______________________________________________ 2. Would you like to read Dan Everret's book or listen to the Radio 4 Book of the week programme? Why or Why not? _______________________________________________ 3. What's the most unusual place you've ever visited? Would you like to visit an unusual place? Where? Page 10 of 28 ________________________________________________ 2.2. Using video clips/ movies Many creative approaches for using videos in the classroom are given by Stempleski and Tomalin (1990). With movies, students still get visual input, but the speech will be more natural than the language used on news programs. In addition, there are characters with accents, which will most likely be a difficult challenge for students. An entire movie may be too long both for class periods, so I usually limit my selection to choose part of a movie or short clips of about ten minutes. There are several ways to devise activities for listening purpose. One approach would be for students to watch the beginning only of a video clip, and then they must predict what will happen next. Also, teachers could present a video clip through split viewing: half of the class sits with their back to the screen; half can see the screen; and both groups can hear. Pairs then come together after the split viewing, and create a story about what happened. Another activity is that after watching a video two times, the teacher may ask students to write a summary of what happened in the scene. Below is a worksheet that I created for classroom use, basing on the clip about New York City which I downloaded from Youtube. The transcript of the clip can be found in Appendix 1. NEW YORK CITY TRAVEL GUIDE 1. Who am I? Read the sentences and find out which city is being described. 1. I am an apple. 2. I’m multicultural. 3. I’m famous for my theatres. 4. I love shopping. 5. And old lady welcomes you. 6. Yellow is my word. 7. I’m an island. 8. Visit me if you love musems. Page 11 of 28 9. Look up! 10. Film, film, films. 2. Watch the video, listen to the text and try to fill in the gaps. New Yorkers like to think their 1 ______________________ is the centre of the world. And who can blame them? Home to over 8 million people, the city is 2 ______________________ and fast, and posed with energy. America’s biggest city can be overwhelming for 3 ______________________ but you’ll find the street names make navigation 4 ______________________And those yellow cabs are a great way to get around. Manhattan is the 5______________________and soul of the Big Apple. And within its neighbourhoods, there’s a distinct 6 ______________________ and pace. Lower Manhattan, the city’s 7 ______________________disctrict bustles from Monday to Friday. The 8 ______________________ of Time Square and Broadway burns bright in Midtown. While dominating the Upper East End West sides are Central Park, 9 ______________________ boutiques and those 10 ______________________ brown-stone homes. 3. Based on the text, answer the questions: 1. If you want to do some shopping where would you go? _______________________________________________ 2. If you are interested in arts which museums can you visit? _______________________________________________ 3. How can you get to Liberty Island? _______________________________________________ 4. Why is the Statue of Liberty important to immigrants? _______________________________________________ 5. Where can you find street art? _______________________________________________ 6. How about music? What kind of music can you hear at different parts of 4. the city? _______________________________________________ Imagine that you are travelling to New York! Prepare a wish-list, what you would like to visit and why. Here are some suggestions: Page 12 of 28 2.3. Using English songs Songs have become an integral part of the language experience, and if used in coordination with a language lesson they can be of great value. Fortunately, with the expanding prevalence of the Internet and specifically the World Wide Web into both the classrooms and lives of students, access to music and lyrics has been made easier. Saricoban and Metin (2000) have found that songs can develop the four skill areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Lo and Li (1998) offer similar suggestions, writing that songs provide a break from classroom routine, and that learning English through songs develops a non-threatening classroom atmosphere in which the four language skills can be enhanced. Songs can be exploited in many ways. For example, when teaching a unit concerning the topic of "nature conservation", I had my students listen to the song "The rainforest song" by J.P Taylor. This song directly answers to the topic of the lesson with meaningful lyrics and beautiful melody. The song has several parts, and each part can be adapted to become a listening task for students. The tasks I devised are as follows. a. Cross out the words that are not in the listening Listen to the first paragraph and cross out the words that you do not hear. Here’s our beautiful song about a place, That’s threatened by the entirely human race. Want to let you and me know We Want to let you know b. Choose the correct option Page 13 of 28 Listen to the second paragraph and choose the correct option Tropical PAIN/RAIN falls on tropical trees, Tropical rainforest, won’t you PLEASE/ SEE, Help us SAY/SAVE it now, Help us save it NOW/KNOW. c. Gap filling Listen to the chorus and fill in the blank Oooh! it gives us ____________ to breathe. Oooh! the animals call it ________________. Oooh! its ______________help you and me. Oooh! ______________ us save it before it’s gone. d. Matching Listen to the fourth paragraph and match a half in A with a half in B A B 1. They burn and a. for their family 2. But we all know it's doing harm b. to go 3. There's no place c. somehow 4. Monkeys rush from tree to d. cut it down to farm 5. Calling out for e. coming now 6. Fire is f. to the animals 7. Must escape g. tree e. Reordering the sentences/ phrases Listen to the last part and number the sentences in the correct order Here’s what we must do ___________ Page 14 of 28 To let the forest just burn away ________ Got to say it proud __________ All the birds in all the trees ________ Got to say it loud ____________ Every insect and every leaf is important, too __________ 2.4. Using English movies/ TV programs at home As a matter of fact, many language learners watch English TV programs, including movies outside of class time, but few of them consider this as an opportunity to develop their listening skills. Teachers, however, in the language classroom, can give some recommendations about the English movies/ TV programs that students should watch to develop their listening skills. For example, in classroom, I sometimes assign students to watch a movie on a specific channel as homework: "This weekend there is an English movie on TV. Does anyone know what it is? What time is it on? Which channel is it on? Please write the name, time and channel down as this is your homework task." I then clarify what students have to focus on by giving out some orientating questions: "I would like you to watch the movie this weekend, or try to watch as much as you can. Focus on listening to the movie instead of reading the subtitles. Try to collect the following information: kind of movie (comedy, romance, action, horror), names of the main characters (male, female, animal), where does the movie take place (inside, outside, on land, at sea, country), what is the main idea in the movie?" When the next lesson comes, I collect students' ideas on the task. "Who watched the movie last weekend? What can you tell us about it?" then the whole class can have a friendly discussion on the plot of the film. 2.5. Where to obtain authentic listening materials? Page 15 of 28 There are some great places to look for ESL listening material. From my own experience of using authentic materials, these are some choices for sites that offer authentic listening material that is ideal for English Major Students. - BBC (Online): http://www.bbc.co.uk/ The news broadcasting site offers a lot news articles and reports. Both teachers and students may take full advantage of the BBC’s World News TV service, with hundreds of short videos and programs to watch. The video page has one-minute world news reports, plus plenty of other short videos on business, science and entertainment. - BBC (Radio): http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/ BBC Radio is a separate service that allows users to listen to radio programs online. There are countless radio programs to choose from, but I recommend starting with the categories page. There students will be able to choose from news, sports, entertainment or documentary programs to listen to. - CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/ Like its British counterpart, CNN provides an excellent video channel, on which teachers and students are able to catch the latest news. CNN also offers a podcasting service with shows for a wide variety of interests. CNN offers transcripts for some of these shows, giving students an additional resource to improve listening skills with. - Earthwatch Radio: http://ewradio.org/ Earthwatch Radio was produced at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by staff and students at the Sea Grant Institute and the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. The stories covered a wide range of subjects concerning science and the environment, with special attention to global climate change, the Great Lakes, and the oceans. Recordings from this websites are effective in both developing listening skills and providing students with a wide range of scientific Page 16 of 28 terms. Regarding educational purpose, the extracts also help students become aware of protecting the environment. - Repeat After Us: http://www.repeatafterus.com/ Repeat After Us was created by a high school student with a true love of literature. Here, students will find a variety of recorded texts, classified into three categories: beginner, intermediate and advanced. There is a lot of original material in this site, so for listening practice, students should go to recorded texts, and from there choose poetry, drama, prose or even children’s short stories if the previous categories prove to be too difficult. - CBC Podcasts: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/podcasts/ The Canadian broadcasting company has an astounding variety of news, sports, and entertainment programs – and a whole lot more. Teachers and students may download the MP3 file or subscribe via iTunes so they won’t miss any of their favorites. - NPR: http://www.npr.org/ National Public Radio offers 24-hour Program Stream or Hourly News summaries which may be suitable for students. Additionally, it offers podcasts on topics that range from animals to world news. - The British Council: http://www.britishcouncil.org/ There are some great podcasts that can be downloaded from the British Council’s website. All of which feature native speakers and come with a script that can be exploited by both teachers and students. - Newsy: http://www.newsy.com/ Of all of the websites that offer news reports on video, Newsy is my favorite because they offer the transcript directly below the video, a big plus for ESL students. Still, students may choose to display the transcript or keep it hidden for more challenging listening practice. - The Weather Channel: http://www.weather.com/video/ Page 17 of 28 The Weather Channel provides a lot more than just the weather forecast on video. The clips are short and the audio that is difficult to hear due to weather conditions is subtitled. - Schackne Online: http://www.schackne.com/ For additional sources of authentic listening material, students may visit Schackne Online. This website offers a very comprehensive list of listening resources, including links to video sites, like YouTube and UStream, and podcasts, like CBS Radio Mystery Theater, a show that students who enjoy a good mystery will enjoy. Schackne Online also lists podcast directories like Podbean. The number of video sites and podcasts is staggering. 3. OUTCOMES OF THE STUDY After one year applying authentic listening materials into my teaching, I have achieved some preliminary success. The first notable change is in students' motivation. Authentic listening materials, especially ones such as clips from media, deal with topics that are familiar to students and relevant to their personal experience. Some even capture the interest and stimulate their imagination. Therefore, most of my students found them appealing and they are more motivated to learn. The second thing is the authentic listening materials that I choose contain quite an amount of information covering almost every field of human life. Therefore, the use of such materials provided students opportunities to accumulate their knowledge about the world. They can also widen their vocabulary range, especially words concerning technology, sociology, politics and environment. Above all, the most remarkable success is the improvement of students' listening skills. Initially most of my students had reservations about whether or not they would be able to understand the radio podcasts or a clip, but gradually they gain confidence as their listening skills accumulate. Authentic listening materials have, in fact, narrowed the distance between the learners and the actual social Page 18 of 28 reality. There is still a long way to go, but as long as students find these materials effective and necessary for their learning, I also feel motivated to explore more. 4. SOME RECOMMENDATIONS From my own teaching, I have accumulated some experience that needs to be taken into consideration when selecting authentic listening materials as follows: - Teachers should always bear in mind the language proficiency level of their students and choose appropriate materials. For example, the materials chosen should neither too difficult nor too easy, should not contain vocabulary and structures that are too challenging. The materials may cause students a little difficulty, but overall it must be comprehensible to them. - Learner’s interest is another important factor that should be taken into consideration when selecting authentic listening materials. The materials chosen should respond to students' interest, or familiar to them. So it is necessary for teachers to know students’ likes and dislikes on listening materials and it may be wise for them to make a survey among students before the selection. Some topics that most students find interesting are: music, movies, environment, education, jobs, tourism etc. - Teachers should consider whether the material chosen is culturally appropriate. A material that can potentially cause cultural offence should be avoided. Also, if there is some element of culture that is not familiar to students, teachers may clarify or explain to the students before they listen. - There is a variety of ways to devise listening activities from authentic materials. It depends on the teacher's choice to choose this way but not the other, provided that the teacher feels it is effective for their own teaching. However, teachers should not too rigid in their choice of listening activities. For some part of the listening, multiple choice questions may be helpful, whereas in others, Page 19 of 28 answering questions or reordering sentences is effective. In a lesson, they should begin with very simple tasks, and progress to the tasks that are more demanding. - Teachers should play the role of helpful instructor. Not all students are familiar to listening to authentic materials in the first place. It may take time and effort to help students establish their listening habit. PART 3: CONCLUSION The study has shown that listening, compared with speaking, reading, and writing, is the most frequently used language skill in both the classroom and daily communication. In a language class, comprehension of aural input plays a critical role in second-language acquisition and learning. It is, therefore, important that listening be emphasized and given priority. The study has also indicated that listening comprehension in ESL students appeared to have improved after they had experienced authentic listening materials in class. Besides, the application of authentic listening materials also triggers students' interests in learning English, Page 20 of 28