Lecture 14

Lecture 13:Listening

By the end of this lecture, students will be able to:

a- Understand steps on how to teach vocabulary.
b- Prepare an evaluative account on the methods discussed.
c- Create a sample lesson plan about “vocabulary”.

Teaching Listening

Listening is defined as “a physiological, psycholinguistic and social activity” (Badger, 2021, p216). It is regarded as one of the receptive skills that helps learners’ detect meaning and knowledge. Not only it involves understanding, but it also bridges between listening for gist and listening for details.

Given the importance of listening, teachers play an essential role in selecting relevant listening materials accompanied with structured, well designed tasks. Additionally, authenticity in listening is likely to affect the genuine conversational learning quality of learners. Ultimately, teaching the listening skills is already an awareness that is not a hearing task solely but a highly sophisticated cognitive ability that requires clear approach and tolerating feedback.

1- Listening as a process

At this phase, listening is technically perceived rather than the final outcome only.

a- Developing students’ awareness by incorporating tasks which make them think and reflect.

b- In class, there is an opportunity to open rooms for newer strategies that align with learners’ abilities.

c- Encouraging continuity through assignment that are closely related to the session’s beginning steps.

d- Listening for the sake of practising the target language through situational auditory excerpts.

Sample of Pre-Listening Activities

a- Presenting visual stimuli: the use of visual aids such as: pictures, illustrations, graphs, charts, maps can stimulate learners’ attention and prediction. It is an anticipatory stage that is useful for prior engagement and readiness.

b- Reviewing lexical / grammatical structures: Prior to the listening stage, it is likely convenient to recall back previous content that may be needed during listening. Though, it ought to be selective and purposeful.

c- Reading to increase familiarity: It serves as a grounding supportive intervention to increase learners’ readiness and engagement.

d- Activating prior knowledge (Mindmap): Before listening begins the teacher can activate a mind map building which combines related words and serve as a semantic reminder.

e- Giving instruction / directions: The teacher should well clarify and direct his / her learners towards the required tasks to accomplish before listening.

f- Following guided practice: this is a concretised step supported by tasks that foster strategic understanding.

While-Listening Activities

a- Listening with visual aids: The use of these visual aids serve necessarily as a double input (visual and auditory). Learners can consequently connect between concrete demonstration available by the aid and the pre-disposed embedded information.

b- Checking off items in a list: Through listening, learners can orient the received information towards picking up only required words needed for the task. This activity reinforces listening for details.

c- Listening for the gist: Learners based on this type of activity seek to possess a generalized understanding instead of being distracted by received unknown words.

d- Searching for specific items: Students are not only trained to search for general information. However, looking for specific items increases pragmatic awareness, keywords recognition and markers related to the context.

e- Completing cloze (Fill in gaps): Learners’ phonological decoding can be well enhanced when this activity takes place. It mainly provides reference to words in a discourse context.

Overall, while listening activities aim at reaching multiple pre-designed objectives of a listening task. It is worth noting that they need to be carefully selected and applied.

Types of Classroom Listening Performance

(Brown, 2001, p255, 257–258)

1- Re-active: This type of listening focuses mainly on repetition and imitation of the words, expressions, sentences or even passages heard. It enhances accuracy and pronunciation.

2- Intensive listening: It gathers a closer focus on linguistic patterns like grammar, vocabulary or phonological aspects. It is simply a micro-level enhancement.

3- Responsive: It involves a connection to the speaking skills since it allows learners to provide shorter replies. It can be seen as “Communication Support”.

4- Selective: While listening, learners can only detect required words or information without paying sizable care to all details. It is a scanning technique in a purely listening task.

5- Extensive: It goes beyond scanning; it targets the overall comprehension. It is a step towards more real-based listening situations. Extensive listening promotes the improvement of learners’ top-down processes.

6- Interactive: It is synonymous to a real-time listening performance that can be realized exchangeably. Though, it is less guided, it develops learners’ competence in communication and meaning sharing.

Post Listening:

Post listening phase usually demonstrates closely teachers efforts in terms of consolidating, clarifying misunderstanding or simply integrating the listening outcomes with other skills. Having able to elicit shortcomings bridge both correction, improvement and self-reflection. The answers gathered from the while-listening stage creates an opportunity for learning and critical thinking. In doing so, Listening encompasses metacognitive growth, mainly “Integrating good thinking skills in teaching has proved to be beneficial for academic learning, personal development and social relation” (Li, 2020, p3). Aligned with the previous thoughts, “Listening is a full understanding of spoken Language” (Thornbury, 2006 p133) though, the teachers’ main task is to provide the required input so that listening can be exercised and not to guarantee full understandings in all circumstances. To say it differently, Listening Comprehension is prone to previous learners’ experience, Knowledge back ground and other neurological factors. Listening remains one of the initial medium of understanding in order to keep up the communication going if it is about “a realistic context”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

University Centre of Maghnia
Institute of Letters and Languages
Department of English

Lecturer: Dr. Ikram YOUCEF                                                 Time Duration: 1h30 

Lecture 14:Culture

By the end of this lecture, students will be able to:

a- Understand steps on how to teach vocabulary.
b- Prepare an evaluative account on the methods discussed.
c- Create a sample lesson plan about “vocabulary”.

Teaching Culture

Culture is one of the fundamental elements that gives meaning, significance, and shapes social behavior within the context of a target language. It encompasses the beliefs, values, customs, and traditions that define a community and inform its ways of thinking and interacting. These cultural components are reflected not only in formal language but also in everyday expressions, body language, taboos, and rituals. For instance, the same gesture or phrase can have vastly different meanings across cultures, and understanding these variations is crucial for avoiding misunderstandings.

From a didactic perspective, developing cultural competence enables learners to grasp meanings that extend far beyond the literal interpretation of words, enriching both communication and understanding. Students who engage with the cultural aspects of language can interpret idioms, humour, gestures, and social norms more accurately, enabling more authentic and effective interactions. For example, humour often relies on cultural references, shared experiences, or wordplay that may not translate directly. By exploring these dimensions, learners not only expand their linguistic abilities but also become more attuned to the subtleties of the target culture.

Moreover, cultural competence fosters empathy and respect for diversity, helping learners navigate real-world situations with greater sensitivity and awareness. It encourages open-mindedness and curiosity, qualities that are essential in our increasingly globalized world. Ultimately, integrating culture into language learning prepares students to become global citizens who can appreciate, adapt to, and thrive in multicultural environments.

Kramsch (1993, p.1) indicates that “Culture in language learning is not an expendable fifth skill tacked on, so to speak, to the speaking, listening, reading and writing.”

Pulverness (2013, p.48) adds that “Cultural awareness becomes not the fifth skill, but the first skill, informing every step of the language learning process, right from day one.”

Culture and language are inseparable; for learners to communicate effectively and understand subtle nuances, they must acquire essential intercultural competence. This competence involves not only knowledge of cultural facts but also the ability to interpret and respond appropriately to cultural cues. It requires developing strategies for managing situations where cultural expectations differ and for adapting language use to various social contexts. For instance, politeness conventions, forms of address, and conversational norms can vary widely between cultures, and being aware of these can prevent unintended offense or awkwardness.

Integrating culture teaching into language education reduces the risk of pragmatic failure, minimizes culture shock, and prepares learners to interact appropriately and confidently in diverse social contexts. Teachers can employ a variety of methods to embed cultural content, such as project-based learning, cultural simulations, role-plays, and discussions of current events. Through exposure to authentic materials, such as films, literature, and real-life dialogues, learners gain insights into the values, beliefs, and behavior patterns of speakers of the target language. This holistic approach helps to bridge cultural gaps and enables learners to participate meaningfully in conversations, negotiations, and social exchanges across cultures.

Furthermore, fostering intercultural competence supports lifelong learning by encouraging students to reflect on their own cultural assumptions and develop greater self-awareness. In this way, language education becomes not just a means of acquiring communicative skills, but also a transformative process that shapes learners' attitudes and worldviews.