Methodology in Language Learning: Listen!

 

In non-formal contexts learners are encouraged to monitor and self-correct or peer-correct whenever they can. The best learning takes place when the learner is aware that the error has been made, to make this process more effective the learners may use some strategies:

ü     listening to the news I weather forecast I sports report I

ü     announcements etc. on the radio

ü     discussing work I current problems with family or colleagues

ü     making arrangements I exchanging news etc. with acquaintances

ü     making arrangements I exchanging news etc. over the telephone

ü     chatting at a party I other social gathering

ü     hearing announcements over the loudspeaker (at a railway

ü     station, for example, or airport)

ü     receiving instructions on how to do something I get somewhere

ü     attending a lesson I seminar

ü     being interviewed I interviewing

ü     watching a film I theatre show I television programme

ü     hearing a speech I lecture

ü     listening to recorded I broadcast songs

ü     attending a formal occasion (wedding I prize-giving I other ceremony)

ü     getting professional advice (from a doctor, for example) being tested orally in a subject of study

 

Heard discourse which corresponds closely to what the listener expects and needs to hear is far more likely to be accurately perceived and understood than that which is unexpected, irrelevant or unhelpful. Thus it would seem a good idea when presenting a listening passage in class to give the students some information about the content, situation and speaker(s) before they actually start listening. Provision of universal basic education became a reality. Working conditions were improved alongside social benefits for the poor, sick and underprivileged. By the second half of the century, widespread travel for work and leisure became the norm. With greater life expectancy, even people in the third-age were able to travel in a way that had been denied them in their youth.

 

Learners, too, must acknowledge that theirs is the more active role; they have to do the learning! They need to be aware of their own learning style and be willing to adapt and expand their learning strategies. There are as many teaching styles as there are teachers and likewise as many learning styles as there are learners! The most important resource that teachers and learners bring into the language learning environment is themselves. From now onwards we shall refer to facilitators and learners as this best describes their roles in our context. As one may imagine,  many classroom listening comprehension exercises demand no response until the end of fairly long stretches of speech, so that when it comes this response is very largely a test of memory rather than of comprehension. Occasional exercises like these, and others that demand no overt response at all certainly have their place. Another characteristic of real-life listening is the shortness of the chunks into which heard discourse is usually divided. The usual pattern is a short period of listening, followed by listener response (not necessarily verbal), followed by a further brief spell of listening with further response, and so on. In other cases, stretches of heard speech are broken up by being spoken by different people from different directions. Even when there are long periods of seemingly uninterrupted discourse - talks, instructions, anecdotes, guided tours, nagging and so on – these are often broken down into smaller units by the physical

movement of the speaker, pause, audience reaction, changing environmental clues. More formal stretches of speech -lectures, ceremonial recitation, broadcast reports- are, however, usually less interrupted. But it all involves learning styles.  

 

Learning styles are partly innate and partly learnt. We are all born with abilities and aptitudes and then we are exposed to education in all its forms, at home, in society, in formal education and in non-formal education. The biggest influences will probably be home and formal education. In the family we are patterned into the childhood role assigned to us – ‘eldest’ ‘youngest’ ‘only’ ‘late’ ‘difficult’ ‘wilful’ ‘beautiful’ ‘ugly’ ‘sporting’ ‘gifted’ ‘lazy’ and so on. In school we imbibe the learning norms of our cultural context. We will learn to respect, obey, fear, hate, question or rebel against authority. Authority comes in the form of teachers and School hierarchies.

 

Most learning situations (that is, any context with teachers and learners) include a clear concept of errors and error-correction. At its most extreme errors can be seen as crimes and error correction as punishment!

 

Teachers are trained to monitor learning and apply correctional procedures. Teachers know, learners don’t so they make mistakes and have to be corrected! Error correction in language learning has a long history of debate with clearly defined and justified pedagogical reasons for one methodology or another. Errors will always occur in language learning. Learning is done by trial and error. You try something, if it achieves the outcome you need, it is considered correct and if it doesn’t, it’s obviously incorrect! If you ask for a newspaper when you need a ticket, you will get a newspaper. You will then realize your mistake and try to remedy it. If you are lucky, there will be someone around who can tell you that the word you need is ticket.

 

This trial and error approach, being adventurous, not being afraid to take risks and appear stupid are essential ingredients for language learning in a non-formal context.

 

 

If we reflect on our language learning experiences, error correcting by teachers has usually occurred during tests which usually reveal how much we haven’t learnt during lessons, which just shows us how silly we are.

 

 

 

Bibliography:

 

1.    Brown, H.D. (2000): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. White Plains, NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Gass,

2.    S.M. I L. Selinker. (2008): Second Language Acquisition. An Introductory Course. New York: Routledge. VanPatten,

3.    Leaver, B.L; Ehrman, M; Shekhtman, B. (2005): Achieving Success in Second Language Acquisition. CUP

4.    B. i J. Williams. (red.) 2007: Theories in Second Language Acquisition. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publisher

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