TEACHING LISTENING

Decoding: the nitty

gritty of listening
Annie McDonald describes an approach to teaching listening.

M ost of us have experienced

mishearing song lyrics. For
example, in Bob Dylan’s song, instead
“Dictation
of ‘the false belief that continuous practice
in coping (the hope-to-cope listening
comprehension method) is the only
of The answer my friend is blowin’ in activities, which way to teach listening’. A quick survey of
the wind, we might hear The ants are listening activities in a random selection
my friends, they’re blowin’ in the wind. It involve delivering of teaching materials spanning the last 33
should come as no surprise that, in our
listening classes, what our listeners hear
a text in chunks years evidences Cauldwell’s observation,
we still ‘teach’ listening by offering students
is often similarly surreal! And yet many or word clusters, scaffolding in the form of pre-listening
such mishearings probably go unnoticed. activities, we advise them to use short-cut
After all, we cannot see into the listener’s provide the work-around compensation strategies
minds. If they choose the right answer such as listening for key words and, by
in the listening task, we assume they’ve opportunity to raise implication, to ignore small function words
decoded everything correctly. If they
don’t, we rarely discover why. How
awareness to and like pronouns, articles and prepositions.

can we ever teach listening if we never show how words Following the seminal works of John
diagnose the learner’s problems? We will Field (2008), in which he challenges the
be condemned to simply testing it over blend together and orthodox approach to teaching listening,
and over again instead. and Richard Cauldwell’s work, concerned
create features with nudging teachers to add a decoding
In this article, I will give a very brief
history of the teaching of listening and
of connected dimension to their teaching, I gradually
changed my classroom approach from
then outline a simple procedure I use speech.” testing to teaching listening by investing
to get to the nitty gritty of my students’ more in developing students’ decoding
listening difficulties: dictation. I will skills. In other words, I began to spend
briefly explain how this traditional, which begins: ‘Listening comprehension more time focusing my students’ attention
time-honoured classroom activity can lessons are all too often a series of more on, for example, how phonemes,
be repurposed to focus on developing listening tests in which tapes are played, syllables and chunks of language sounded
students’ decoding skills. I will then go comprehension exercises are attempted in various acoustic contexts.
on to present some real examples from by the learners, and feedback is given in
my students’ transcriptions, and outline the form of the “right” answer. In lessons
some insights that can be gleaned about such as this, listening is not taught but
Dictation as a window
the listening processes. Finally, I offer a tested’ (Sheerin, 1987: 126). Now, some
into the listener’s mind
summary of some of the advantages of 33 years on, we might update Sheerin’s Sheppard & Butler (2017: 81) observe,
using dictation in the listening lesson. description of the teaching of listening ‘greater knowledge about what learners
by simply replacing the word ‘tape’ with perceive when they listen could help
the word ‘audio’ (in this case, a catch-all language teachers better tailor their
A brief history of the term for various forms of aural input): the instruction to student needs’, with
teaching of listening statement still holds water in many face- dictation being one method which can
Much has been said about testing versus to-face and online classrooms today. provide access to what students believe
the teaching of listening. Indeed, if we they heard. There are various ways of
venture back more than 30 years ago, to Cauldwell, (2018a, and 31 years after carrying out dictation activities, for
1987, we will find an article in the ELTJ Sheeran’s claim) refers to the phenomenon example we can: divide a short text into

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 TEACHING LISTENING

a series of small chunks or tone groups, said transcribed as

read the text ourselves and pause for
students to write what they think was 1 gets on well get some well
said; pause audios periodically for 2 that, in short, is what that, insure it’s was
students to write the last four or five
words they heard; insert pauses, say after 3 a lot smaller than lots more than
every four or five words, using an audio 4 we’re not short of when not sort of
editing tool such as Audacity, again for
5 we’ll be will be
students to write what they heard.
6 I want to go I won’t go
I usually write a short text, topically-
7 was at university was in the university; went to university
related to lesson content, and divide it
into small chunks before dictating it, 8 I only needed I only need
and I will repeat each chunk if students
9 reaching which in
want me to. Students write on paper or
mobile devices, and give or send their forty years of songs four years a song; forty year songs; for years
10
transcripts to me. Dictation activities, of songs
which involve delivering a text in 11 seminar cinema
chunks or word clusters, provide the
opportunity to raise awareness to and 12 journey Jenny
show how words blend together and 13 float plane flute plane
create features of connected speech.
14 democratically elected democratic elected
When I return students’ dictation 15 night nice
transcripts along with the actual audio
16 I would do all I do my
script, we talk through differences
between what was written (anonymously)
and what was said. For me, and evidently much to the amusement and agreement (examples: 1, 3), assimilation (example:
for my students too, this is the point at of others in the group. 1), and elision (examples: 6, 16).
which the teaching and learning kicks in
as we discuss selected features of spoken Students’ transcriptions commonly
language. Wherever possible, I will take
Decoding difficulties
reveal phoneme-level problems requiring
every opportunity to model the original Field (2008) points out that non-expert focus in listening classrooms, and very
word or chunk, said alongside students’ listeners need to work with considerable often evidence small slips of the ear –
often ‘plausible hearings’ (Cauldwell, uncertainty when it comes to processing imagine you believe you heard ‘brain’
2018b: 47). It’s amazing how similar the words: they might not be confident that for ‘vein’ or ‘Jenny’ for ‘journey’, for
words ‘cinema’ and ‘seminar’ can sound they have heard a group of phonemes example? Or what about if you heard
when pronounced quickly, and teacher- correctly, or be able to recall them /s/ for /t/ and so decoded ‘nice’ for
modelling can demonstrate to students in the same order as they were said. ‘night’? Would it be possible to make
that they might not have been so far from There is no doubt that word recognition sense of the overall meaning of what was
the acoustic truth when deciphering one presents formidable challenges, and in being said? The brain/vein confusion
for the other after all. traditional listening classes such nitty was experienced by a Spanish speaker,
gritty listener problems are rarely worked who couldn’t distinguish between /b/
Student transcriptions provide tangible on. Above are transcriptions by students and /v/ consonants. Another example,
evidence of their perception of what of different L1 backgrounds and they hearing ‘Jenny’ for ‘journey’, involved
they had heard (and hadn’t), and can offer a flavour of the types of decoding three Chinese learners in a class with a
subsequently be used for analysis and challenges learners face when presented student who went by the English name
discussion. Post-dictation discussions with chunks of language to transcribe. of Jenny. Two students reported not
serve to raise student’s awareness to These include: not correctly recognising having recognised the long vowel sound
various features of spoken language, for or hearing phonemes (examples: 2, 4, 5), /ɜː/, whereas for one, the problem was
example how the pronunciation of words confusing similar sounding structures and a vocabulary issue. The student didn’t
in connected speech might change words (examples: 3, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15), know the word ‘journey’, and in her
from the way they are pronounced in not hearing the -ed and -er morpheme frantic search to tentatively match what
isolation. This is something most students (examples: 8, 14, 3), not hearing or she thought she had heard to a best fit,
seem to be unaware of. Indeed, when mishearing unstressed functions words her limited mental lexicon threw up the
presented with this, a French learner (examples: 3, 7, 10, 16), and having name of her classmate as the closest
spontaneously acclaimed, ‘Ah, now I difficulty recognising words and phrases candidate. In all cases, the mishearings
understand why I don’t understand’, in connected speech as a result of linking derailed understanding.

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Decoding problems regularly show up as Cauldwell (2018a) there is a ‘function- to move away from expecting to
a result of dictation, and they cry out for word fallacy’ held by many teachers, that understand every word, and to develop
some form of on-the-spot teaching. Guided function words in the stream of speech an ambiguity tolerance as they listen.
ear-training tasks such as minimal pair can be ignored. Clearly, we need to find
discrimination can be used to focus on a way of redressing this faulty reasoning – At some point in my teaching career,
specific examples, before students listen goodness knows how a listener can follow I’d intuited that ‘hope-to-cope listening
again to hear the word or words in context meaning if s/he is unable to pick out a comprehension’, along with pre-listening
(see Field, 2008: 168, for various examples pronoun! Periodic dictations of chunks, at activities which belied an exclusive
of a range of ear-training exercise types). different speeds and with students simply meaning-building focus, were somehow
saying how many words they heard, can not entirely hitting the spot. I certainly
Students regularly have problems help them develop their ability to hear didn’t feel that I’d taught anybody
recognising the beginnings and endings function words. anything in the same way as I would
of words, perhaps by failing to notice have done if I had been focusing on
final consonants or syllables such as the The cumulative effects of the difficulties elements of language or the other skills.
plural or tense markers ed and es, and of decoding phonemes, syllables, I would have been unable to answer
their ability to follow a speakers’ meaning function words and known vocabulary a question concerning what students
is (momentarily, at least) compromised. create an enormous challenge for non- would be taking from one particular
Similar problems apply to other word expert listeners attempting to attribute listening experience on to the next one.
endings, like ing, and ee or er, along meaning to what a speaker is saying. The Dictation affords me a rich resource with
with prefixes and suffixes in general. In whole is often greater than the sum of the which to discover my learners’ listening
order to recognise a word in the stream parts and, in post-listening discussions, needs, and which might otherwise have
of speech, students need to be able to students often report problems been left blowing in the wind.
pick out where it starts and where it ends, understanding specific information,
and teacher modelling at various speeds detail, the main idea or even the gist of References
can provide practice and gradually help what they had listened to. Cauldwell RT (2018a, November 30) Speech in
students recognise a word. Practice in Action: Insights into Student Listening [online].
recognising frequent word beginnings Available at: https://www.speechinaction.
and endings by getting students to raise
The benefits of using org/47-insights-into-student-listening.
a finger when they hear the beginning
dictation
Cauldwell RT (2018b) A Syllabus for Listening
of a given word, or the beginning of a With a window into the listener’s mind – Decoding. Birmingham: Speech in Action.
subsequent next word, can help chip we lift some of the mystery surrounding Field J (2008) Listening in the Language
away at the hope-to-cope method. listening processes, and bring the results Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University
into the classroom which are then open to Press.
The ability to locate word boundaries inspection for both teachers and students. Sheerin S (1987) Listening comprehension:
in connected speech tends to be taken Dictation enables us to identify listening teaching or testing? ELT Journal 41 (2) 126–131.
for granted in the listening lesson. problems and to teach economically Sheppard B & Butler B (2017) Insights into
Students are inadvertently left with the and efficiently. With knowledge of Student Listening from Paused Transcription.
‘unspoken myth’ (Cauldwell, 2018a), which areas need attention, we can CATESOL Journal 29 (2) 81–107.
expecting white spaces (or pauses) create useful and meaningful classroom
between spoken words, that words will practice which students see as relevant
always sound the way they do in citation and valuable. Class discussion also offers
form, and that chunks or words which the opportunity for raising awareness
co-occur will be carefully articulated. to appropriate listening strategies. All
However, with word boundaries hard to in all, we can help to nudge students in
determine, and students not necessarily the direction of decoding automaticity
alerted to this, spoken word recognition by repeated and recycled exposure to
is difficult. One consequence of this is common features of spoken language.
Annie McDonald is an EAP teacher at
that students invariably attribute failure the University of Chester and has taught
to understand as their own poor listening, Dictation activities give learners the EFL/ESP/EAP to secondary/university/
rather than the inherent difficulties opportunity to compare concrete adult students for 30+ years in Turkey,
Brazil, Spain and England. She holds
created by continuous speech. examples of mishearings from their
an MSc in Teaching English from Aston
own listening and the audio script, and University and is a former president of
As well as paying attention to the features they can start to reflect and discover TESOL-Spain. She co-authored English
of connected speech and the challenges reasons for their listening difficulties. Result (OUP, 4 levels), Authentic Listening
Resource Pack (Delta, 2015), co-
they present for listeners, we also need Class discussion can show that listening
founded http://www.hancockmcdonald.
to pay more attention to helping non- difficulty often resides with the speaker com (all with Mark Hancock), and she
expert listeners pick out function words, rather than with the learner. It provides still enjoys teaching listening. E-mail:
which are often reduced. According to the opportunity to encourage students [email protected]

78 www.modernenglishteacher.com n Volume 29 n Issue 4