Approaches to Teaching Listening Skills

Approaches to Teaching Listening Skills Among the other four skills, listening is the one that has been most forgotten and neglected in second language classrooms. So teachers dont pay much attention to this skill and teach it carelessly. In the field of language teaching and learning proficiency has tended to be viewed as the ability of speaking and writing in language in question. Listening and reading skills are in the second position. One reason for this situation might be the demanding characteristic of the listening skill. Listening has gained a new importance in language classrooms after spreading IT technology based information in society in Iran. Moreover it should be mentioned that most of the students class time is devoted to the listening. Despite this, we often take importance of listening for granted, and it is the most overlooked skill among other skills. In natural order of learning any language, listening stands at first rank. Without any reception one can not produce anything. Though, if a teacher wants t o have fluent and productive students, he/she should pay much and necessary attention to teaching listening skill. Listening Some of the teachers believe that speaking should be actively discouraged. One of the reasons of emphasizing listening and delaying speaking is based on an opinion. Those who give importance to speaking view the language as a product and think that language is a behavior and speaking is the manifestation of this learning or happening. On the contrary, there are approaches that gave more importance to listening Nation, Newton (2009). in this approach of language learning , listening is at the center. All of the information necessary for building up the knowledge for using language comes from receptive skills: listening, and reading. When the knowledge of language in this regard is built the learner can write and speak. In other words, with out any input, the outcome or output should be nothing. Gray and Gray (1981) described the benefits of delaying speaking and concentrating on listening. These benefits include the following: 1. The learner is not overloaded by having to focus on two or more skills at the same time-a cognitive benefit. 2. Speed of coverage -receptive knowledge grows faster than productive knowledge. 3. It is easy to move very quickly to realistic communicative listening activities. 4. L earners will not feel shy or worried about their language classes. Having to speak a foreign language, particularly when you know very little, can be a frightening experience. 5. Listening activities are well studied to independent learning through listening to readings. Critics believe that producing a language is not sufficient for learning. In language learning substantial quantities of receptive activity should be included in the mind for future use. To speak communicatively and to convey and understand the meaning, one should have a previous language knowledge and information in his/her mind. Models of listening Traditionally listening was viewed as a passive skill through which the listener or hearer received information sent by message senders. More recently listening is viewed as an active and interpretive process by which the message is not fixed but is made or created by participants. (Newton,Nation.2009) Types of listening According to Nation and Newton (2009) there are two types of listening: 1. One-way listening-typically associated with the transfer of information. 2. Two-listening- typically associated with maintaining social relations. As it is understood, in the first type of listening one can listen to monologues which are one way productions without any pause and stop to clarification. While in two-way listening both sides of interaction are active in a natural sounding dialogues. Listening process One of the listening processes is bottom-up one. In this process the message goes from the parts to the whole by piece. In this process the listener uses information which is already present in data. The other process in listening is top -down process. As Nation and Newton (2009) state this process involves the listener in inferencing. The listener goes from whole to parts. Listeners previous knowledge or information and his /her content of schemata help him/her to predict what the message will be. According to the above mentioned processes, listening is not a single skill but as a variety of sub-skills (Nation, Newton, 2009). So listening comprehension is a top-down approach which focuses on meaning and need much care and attention. Problems with traditional model There are a lot of problems with traditional models of teaching listening skills. In old methods of teaching the responsibility of learning were not upon the shoulders of the students. Teachers set goals. Chose material and control the equipments. There were little room for students preferences. the fact that the teacher still tends to choose the material becomes even harder to justify now that a wide range of spoken language is available to students outside the language classroom through a satellite TV and the internet (Goodith White, 2006). some of the teachers of this model , and learners are regarded as passive over-hearers rather than active participants in the listening process. They are often listening to audio or video tape which they can not stop. In order to clarify and solve the comprehension problems, it is necessary for them to integrate or interact with the speakers. In real life situations, listeners play an active and important role in dialogues and speech acts. They show interest, ask questions, ask for repetitions, and cause the speakers to modify some parts. Some ways of improving the teaching of listening It seems clear that the way of teaching listening needs to be modified and changed. In order to engage the students in the subject and make them active in the learning process some of the traditional problems of regarding models of teaching listening should be avoided. It is better to allow students to: 1.choose what they listen to 2. make their own listening text 3. control their equipment 4. give the instructions 5. design their own listening task 6. reflect on their problems in listening(White,2006). Goals for teaching and learning listening White (1998) states the listening skill goals as: -understanding short utterances on a literal semantic level -understanding interactive discourse -understanding the functional/illocutionary force of an utterance -interpreting utterances in terms of the situation -resolving comprehension problems by seeking help from the speaker -remembering input, monitoring, and evaluating how well one is understanding. Conclusion I tried to persuade the readers through these pages that the methodology for teaching listening needs to be changed. All aspects of listening skills should be covered and lead to true competence in listening with in a communicative competence framework. Suggestion is to deal with the listening in a more task based area of attention and authenticity of listening materials needs to be at the center of attention. Students and listeners should be encouraged to take more responsibility for developing their listening ability.

Public Smoking Ban In The UK

Smoking is a major income to the government; it brings in about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10 billion pounds annually. The government has proceeded to raise the tax rate of tobacco above the inflation rate from 1993 to the present day, this was implemented to help reduce consumption further. This policy has resulted that tax on tobacco in the UK is amongst the highest in the world and far ahead of any of those in other EU member states. For example the price of a typical pack of cigarettes in the UK is currently à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½5.54, whilst in Belgium the price is about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2.70 and in Latvia they retail at a mere 42p. The cost to the NHS of smoking related illnesses is generally not believed to outweigh the income the government makes out of tobacco sales. The government is being very hypocritical of themselves because a large amount of public money comes from the tax of cigarettes but at the same time the government is trying to stop people form smoking by banning people to smoke in public places and also with adverts on television urging people to stop smoking. There has been a lot of opposition to the smoking ban of which the arguments have been that the ban will be disastrous to small pubs that rely on smokers to keep their business afloat. Small pub landlords have said that they will loose vital trade from people who normally go out to the pub to have a smoke and a pint who now will stay at home instead and smoke and drink there. A knock on effect of the economic down turn is perceived to be a loss of jobs across the industry and rising pub prices as landlords would have no choice but to subsidise their loss of business by increasing prices. The closure of pubs would ultimately result in a lack of choice for the customer. People who are still against the ban argue alternative methods of how to reduce the health impact of passive smoking. The introduction of the use of ventilation is regarded by some as an adequate solution on its own. Some respondents are strongly of the opinion that ventilation removes all the harmful effects of smoking from the air. Designated smoking areas in public places are have previously been used before the smoking ban came into effect in various shopping malls, restaurants and clubs. People did not complain about these smoking areas, of which people who wanted to smoke could do so inside out of the way of other people who did not want to smoke. People against the smoking ban argue that separate designated smoking areas with good ventilation is a better alternative then banning smoking in public places altogether. The government doesn't want to stop there with banning smoking. They have almost banned the rights of people to smoke in their own car. The law now states that if the driver is smoking and does not have full control of the vehicle the driver can be prosecuted for smoking while driving. This is an extension of the current law which is that the driver must have full control of the vehicle at all times. What I do not understand is that why the government feels that they now have to have a separate law to cover smoking while driving, does that not also come under the law that states that the driver must have full control of the vehicle at all times? There have now also been talks that a law is trying to be passed to stop adults smoking in their own vehicle while a child is present, is this just saying to the nation that they cannot look after their own children? Ibi from Birmingham thinks that banning smoking is a way for the government to take all of our fun away. â€Å"This seems ok but doesnt anybody else worry about this being a slippery slope. First, no smoking in public places, then no smoking at all, then no drinking, no shouting, no laughing, no talking and no fun. And once this is all done they will find something else to ban. And im a non smoker.† Howard John Dell from Chelmsford agrees that the money made by the government from smokers is too high to ignore the rights of one of its biggest money makers. â€Å"I do not agree with a total ban on smoking. It is my right to smoke and the government make a considerable amount of money from my smoking through taxes which easily pays for any health cost tot he NHS.† Colin McEwan from Edinburgh agrees that the smoking ban could have bigger economic consequences than we think. â€Å"The Scottish government is drafting its own regulations regarding smoking and seems to be bent on a total ban. This, in my view is a step too far at this time. I work in Ireland where such a ban has, I believe, reduced pub sales substantially in some areas and has cost many jobs. I have no issue with the argument that people must not be subjected to passive smoking. But the alternatives, such as designated smoking areas with proper ventilation have not been properly considered. Sure it will be difficult to implement properly but the ‘Ban it everywhere' brigade does not seem to be interested in the logic †¦ only the principle.† The smoking ban seams to be supported by many more non-smokers than smokers. I think that because smokers are a minority here, the majority have won their case outright. There seams to be more suitable alternative methods than the banning of smoking in public places completely. I think that the banning of smoking in public places was a policy set up by the government to try and win the votes of the majority of people because people had lost faith in the current government because of the currently unsuccessful invasion of Iraq.

Strategies to Learn Morse Code

Traditional Cherokee Medicine And The American Culture

Traditional Cherokee medicine primarily focuses on the purity and well-being of the soul. To maintain good health and a harmonious balance with nature, the Cherokee practice various sacred prayers, herbal remedies, and rituals. The foundation of the Cherokee medical system stems from their native traditions, values, theories, and cultural politics, and their acclimation to biomedicine of modern-American society. Although Native Americans are reluctant to learn and conform to many of the European-American societal norms and Western medicine practices; federal government agencies, traditional healers, and trained biomedical practitioners are currently collaborating together to improve the general health status of the Native American population. Balance is the core value of the Cherokee Indian, not only for their vitalistic theories, but to uphold their Native American traditional culture. The Cherokee tribe combines many traditional Native American healing rituals including, prayer, he rbs, smudging, chanting, massaging, counseling, harmonizing with nature, taking hallucinogens and ceremony (Lewis, n.d.). The combination of multiple healing techniques illustrates the Cherokee’s philosophy of treating an illness does not result solely from ingesting the plant or medicine, but from the delivery of the ritual of the medicine man who activates the medicine (Frazier, Goad, Wolyniak, 2013). As the resistance of pathogens to artificial compounds grow, the desires for all-naturalShow MoreRelatedThe Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians1175 Words   |  5 Pages The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are indigenous of parts of the Southeastern United States. They have members all the way south as Georgia and are spread out across the Appalachian mountain trail in both North and South Carolina and stretching across into Tennessee. 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