Using authentic materials to motivate students to listen to english

In Ha Long High School for Gifted Students, English major students here are exposed to a variety of listening materials.. - Designing activities for a sample 45-minute listening lesson u

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

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

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

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

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

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:

- 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?

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,

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

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?

an unusual place? Where?

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

8 Visit me if you love musems.

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?

Here are some suggestions:

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

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

1 They burn and

2 But we all know it's doing harm

3 There's no place

4 Monkeys rush from tree to

5 Calling out for

e Reordering the sentences/ phrases

Listen to the last part and number the sentences in the correct order