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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Module Topic Page

Module 1: An Overview on the
Teaching of the Macro Skills

Module 2: A Short Review on

Assessment

Module 3: The Teaching and Importance of Listening

Assessment of Listening Stages of Listening Process
Skills Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing in
Listening
What Makes Listening Difficult?
Listening Strategies
Designing Assessment Tasks in Listening
Tips in Teaching Listening

Module 4: The Teaching and

Assessment of Reading Skills

Module 5: The Teaching and

Assessment of Speaking
Skills

Module 6: The Teaching and

Assessment of Writing Skills

Module 7: Viewing: The New

Macro Skill

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Module 3: The Teaching and Assessment of Listening Skills

Overview:

“Listening is both the most used and the least understood of all communication arts.
However, listening can and should be taught, not through talking about listening skills but rather
by engaging students in authentic communication”. This module discovers the principles of
listening process as well as the different strategies in teaching and assessing listening
comprehension.

Module Objectives

At the end of this module, you are able to:

• discover the principles, theoretical bases, methods, and strategies in teaching

listening;
• classify bottom-up and top-down listening processes; and
• design differentiated learning tasks in teaching listening comprehension.

Course Materials:

Importance of Listening
Rost (1994) as mentioned in Nunan (2009) points out that listening is vital in the language
classroom because it provides input for the learner. Without understanding input at the right level,
learning cannot begin. The following are important reasons emphasizing that listening is vital in
the development of spoken language proficiency:

• Spoken language provides a means of interaction for the learner. Access to

speakers of the language is essential because learners must interact to achieve
understanding.

• Authentic spoken language presents a challenge for the learner to attempt to

understand language as native speakers actually use it.

• Listening exercises provide teachers with the means for drawing learner’s attention
to new forms (vocabulary, grammar, new interaction patterns) in the language.

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Stages of Listening Process

Listening is a cognitive process which is composed of steps. According to (DeVito, 2000),

the listening process is divided into five stages: receiving, understanding, remembering,
evaluating, and responding (DeVito, 2000).

1. Receiving- It is the intentional focus on hearing a speaker’s message, which

happens when one filters out other sources so that he can isolate the message and
avoid the confusing mixture of incoming stimuli. This stage is where hearing the
message takes place.

2. Understanding- It is the stage where the listener learns what the speaker means.
For one thing, if a speaker does not enunciate clearly, it may be difficult to tell what
the message was.

3. Remembering- It is the process of placing the appropriate information into short-

term or long-term storage. The most common reason for not remembering a message
after the fact is because it wasn’t really learned in the first place.

4. Evaluating- It is the stage in the listening process which the active listener
participates by evaluating or judging the value of the message.

5. Responding- It is sometimes referred to as feedback. This stage requires the

receiver to complete the process through verbal and/or nonverbal feedback.

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing in Listening

According to Richards (2008), main function of listening in second language learning is to

facilitate understanding of spoken discourse. In short, the ultimate goal of listening is
comprehension. Two different kinds of processes are involved in understanding spoken
discourse. These are often referred to as bottom-up and top-down processing.

1. Bottom-up processing

• It is the listener as “tape-recorder view” of listening because it assumes that the listener
takes in and stores messages in much the same way as the tape recorder,
sequentially, one sound, word, phrase, and utterance at a time. (Anderson and Lynch,
1988)

• Bottom-up processing refers to using the incoming input as the basis for understanding
the message. Comprehension begins with the received data that is analyzed as
successive levels of organization – sounds, words, clauses, sentences, texts – until
meaning is derived. Comprehension is viewed as a process of decoding. (Richards,
2008)

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 • The bottom-up processing model assumes that listening is a process of decoding the
sounds that one hears in a linear fashion, from the smallest meaningful units (or
phonemes) to complete texts. In order words, the process is a linear one in which
meaning itself is derived as the last step in the process. (Nunan, 2009)

Learners need a large vocabulary and a good working knowledge of sentence structure
to process texts bottom-up. Richards (2008) identifies exercises that develop bottom-up
processing help the learner to do such things as the following:

❖ Retain input while it is being processed

❖ Recognize word and clause divisions
❖ Recognize key words
❖ Recognize key transitions in a discourse
❖ Recognize grammatical relationships between key elements in sentences
❖ Use stress and intonation to identify word and sentence functions

Moreover, in the classroom, examples of the kinds of tasks that develop bottom-up
listening skills require listeners to do the following kinds of things:

❖ Identify the referents of pronouns in an utterance

❖ Recognize the time reference of an utterance
❖ Distinguish between positive and negative statements
❖ Recognize the order in which words occurred in an utterance
❖ Identify sequence markers
❖ Identify key words that occurred in a spoken text
❖ Identify which modal verbs occurred in a spoken text

Below is an example of a listening task that develop bottom-up processing:

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 2. Top-down processing

• It views the listener as active "model builder", accords a much more active role to
listeners as they construct an interpretation of a message as they construct an
interpretation of a message by utilizing both bottom-up and top-down knowledge.
(Anderson and Lynch, 1988)

• Top-down processing refers to the use of background knowledge in understanding the

meaning of a message. Whereas bottom-up processing goes from language to
meaning, top-down processing goes from meaning to language. The background
knowledge required for top-down processing may be previous knowledge about the
topic of discourse, situational or contextual knowledge, or knowledge in the form of
“schemata” or “scripts”–plans about the overall structure of events and the
relationships between them. (Richards, 2008)

• The alternative top-down view, suggests that the listener actively constructs (or more
accurately, reconstructs) the original meaning of the speaker using incoming sounds
as clues. In this reconstruction process, the listener uses prior knowledge of the
context and situation within which the listening takes place to make sense of what he
or she hears. (Nunan, 2009).
An important theoretical underpinning to the top-down approach is schema
theory. It is based on the notion that past experiences lead to the creation of mental
frameworks that help us make sense of new experiences.

Richards (2008) enumerates exercises that require top-down processing develop the
learner’s ability to do the following:

❖ Use key words to construct the schema of a discourse

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 ❖ Infer the setting for a text
❖ Infer the role of the participants and their goals
❖ Infer causes or effects
❖ Infer unstated details of a situation
❖ Anticipate questions related to the topic or situation

In addition, the following activities develop top-down listening skills:

❖ Students generate a set of questions they expect to hear about a topic, then listen
to see if they are answered.
❖ Students generate a list of things they already know about a topic
❖ and things they would like to learn more about, then listen and compare
❖ Students read one speaker’s part in a conversation, predict the other speaker’s
part, then listen and compare.
❖ Students read a list of key points to be covered in a talk, then listen to see which
ones are mentioned.
❖ Students listen to part of a story, complete the story ending, then listen and
compare endings.
❖ Students read news headlines, guess what happened, then listen to the full news
items and compare.

The example below shows the use of top-down processing in listening:

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 Because speaker and hearer share understanding of the “going to the dentist” schema,
the details of the visit need not be spelled out. Minimal information is sufficient to enable the
participants to understand what happened.

Combining bottom-up and top-down listening in a listening lesson

In real-world listening, both bottom-up and top-down processing generally occur together.
According to Richards (2008), the extent to which one or the other dominates depends on the
listener’s familiarity with the topic and content of a text, the density of information in a text, the
text type, and the listener’s purpose in listening.

A typical lesson in current teaching materials involves a three-part sequence consisting of

pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening and contains activities that link bottom-up and top-
down listening (Field, 1998).

1. The pre-listening phase prepares students for both top-down and bottom-up
processing through activities involving activating prior knowledge, making predictions,
and reviewing key vocabulary.

A good way to do this is to have a brainstorming session and some discussion

questions related to the topic. Then provide any necessary background information
and new vocabulary they will need for the listening activity.

2. The while-listening phase focuses on comprehension through exercises that require

selective listening, gist listening, sequencing, etc.

Be specific about what students need to listen for. They can listen for selective
details or general content, or for an emotional tone such as happy, surprised, or
angry. If they are not marking answers or otherwise responding while listening, tell
them ahead of time what will be required afterward.
3. The post-listening phase typically involves a response to comprehension and may
require students to give opinions about a topic.

Finish with an activity to extend the topic and help students remember new
vocabulary. This could be a discussion group, craft project, writing task, game, etc.

What Makes Listening Difficult?

In teaching listening, the teachers must have knowledge of listening difficulties that
students encounter in order to choose and adopt appropriate tasks to help improve student's
listening comprehension.

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 In a series of experiments, Anderson and Lynch found that the difficulty of listening tasks
was particularly influenced several factors which are presented by Nunan (2009). These are the
following:

1. The organization of information

2. The familiarity of the topic
3. The explicitness and sufficiency of the information
4. The type of referring expressions used (for example, use of pronouns rather than
complete noun phrase referents made texts more difficult)
5. Whether the text describes "static" relationship (for example, geometric figures)
or dynamic relationship (for example, a road accident)

Furthermore, Nunan (2009) enumerates the four principal sets of factors affecting the
difficulty of listening by Brown and Yule (1983):

1. Speaker factors: How many speakers are there? How quickly do they
speak? What types of accents do they have?
2. Listener factors: What is the listener’s role?—eavesdropper or participant?
What level of response is required? How interested is the listener in the
subject?
3. The content: How complex is the grammar, vocabulary, and information
structure? What background knowledge is assumed?
4. Support: How much support is provided in terms of pictured, diagrams, or
other visual aids?

Listening Strategies

According to Richards (2008), successful listening can also be looked at in terms of the
strategies the listener uses when listening. Does the learner focus mainly on the content of a text,
or does he or she also consider how to listen? Strategies can be thought of as the ways in which
a learner approaches and manages a task, and listeners can be taught effective ways of
approaching and managing their listening. These activities seek to involve listeners actively in the
process of listening.

Buck (2001) identifies two general kinds of strategies in listening:

1. Cognitive strategies: These are mental activities related to comprehending and storing
input in working memory or long-term memory for later retrieval. Cognitive strategies
include comprehension processes, storing and memory processes, and using and
retrieval processes.

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 2. Metacognitive strategies: These refer to conscious or unconscious mental activities that
perform an executive function in the management of cognitive strategies. Metacognitive
strategies involve assessing the situation, monitoring, self-evaluating, and self-testing

In addition, Nunan (2009) presents a summary of the most important listening

skills/strategies with corresponding examples:

Strategy/Skill Examples

1. Listening for gist - Is the speaker describing a vacation or a day in the office?
- Is the radio report about news or weather?
2. Listening for purpose - Are the speakers making a reservation or ordering food?
- Is the speaker agreeing or disagreeing with the
suggestion?
3. Listening for Main Idea - Why is the speaker asking the man questions?
- Did the speaker like or dislike the movie?
4. Listening for Inference - What are the speakers implying by what they said?
5. Listening for specific - How much did they say the tickets cost?
information - Did the speaker’s husband say he picked up the kids?
- Why did the speaker say he was studying Chinese?
- Where did she say the meeting was being held?
6. Listening for phonemic - Did the speaker say first or fourth?
distinctions - Did the speakers say they can or can’t come to the party?
7. Listening for tone/ pitch - Did the speaker enjoy the wedding or not?
to identify speaker’s - Is the speaker surprised or not?
attitude
8. Listening for stress - What is more important, where he bought the watch or
when?

Designing Assessment Tasks in Listening

Designing appropriate assessment tasks in listening begins with the specification of
objectives or criteria (Brown, 2004). There are four commonly identified types of listening
performance, each of which comprise a category within which to consider assessment tasks and
performance. These are intensive listening, responsive listening, selective listening, and
extensive listening.

1. Intensive- This is listening for perception of the components (phoneme, words, intonation,
discourse markers, etc.) of a larger stretch of language. Below are some assessment
tasks for intensive listening:

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 a. Recognizing phonological and Morphological Elements. A classic test task gives
a spoken stimulus and asks test-takers to identify the stimulus from two or more
choices, as in the following two examples:

Phonemic pair, consonants

Test-takers hear: He's from California.

Test-takers read: (a) He's from California.

(b) She's from California.

Phonemic pair, vowels

Test-takers hear: Is he living?

Test-takers read: (a) Is he leaving?

(b) Is he living?

Morphological pair, -ed ending

Test-takers hear: I missed you very much.

Test-takers read: (a) I missed you very much.

(b) I miss you very much.

b. Paraphrase Recognition. The next step up on the scale of listening comprehension

micro skills is words, phrases and sentences, which are frequently assessed by providing a
stimulus sentence and asking the test-taker to choose the correct paraphrase from a number of
choices.

Sentence paraphrase

Test-takers hear: Hello my name is Keiko. I come from Japan.

Test-takers read: (a) Keiko is comfortable in Japan

(b) Keiko wants to come to Japan.
(c) Keiko is Japanese.
(d) Keiko likes Japan

Dialogue paraphrase

Test-takers hear: Man: Hi, Maria, my name's George

Woman: Nice to meet you, George. Are you American?
Man: No, I'm Canadian

Test-takers read: (a) George lives in the United States

(b) George is American
(c) George comes from Canada
(d) Maria is Canadian

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2. Responsive- It is listening to relatively short stretch of language (a greeting, question,
command, comprehension check, etc.) in order to make an easily short response. A question-
and-answer format can provide some interactivity in these lower-end-listening tasks. The test-
taker's response is the appropriate answer to a question.

Appropriate response to a question:

Test-takers hear: How much time did you take to do your homework?

Test-takers read: (a) In about an hour.

(b) About an hour.
(c) About Php 100.
(d) Yes, I did.

Open-ended response to a question:

Test-takers hear: How much time did you take to do your homework?

Test-takers write or speak: ____________________________________

3. Selective- This type of listening is processing stretches of discourse such as short

monologues for several minutes in order to "scan" for certain information. The purpose of
such performance is to be able to comprehend designated information in a context of
longer stretches of spoken language (such as classroom directions from a teacher, TV or
radio news items, or stories). In selective listening, the test-taker listens to a limited
quantity of aural input and must discern with it some specific information.

a. Listening Cloze. Listening Cloze tasks (sometimes called cloze dictations or

partial dictations) require the test-taker to listen to a story, monologue, or
conversation and simultaneously read the written text in which selected words
or phrases have been deleted. However, one potential weakness of listening
cloze techniques is that they may simply become reading comprehension
tasks.

Test takers hear:

Ladies and gentlemen, I now have some connecting gate information for those of you making
connections to other flights out to San Francisco.

Flight seven-oh-six to Portland will depart from gate seventy-three at nine-thirty P.M.

Flight ten-forty-five to Reno will depart at nine-fifty P.M. from gate seventeen.

Flight four-forty to Monterey will depart at nine-fifty-five P.M. from gate sixty.

And flight sixteen-oh-three to Sacramento will depart from gate nineteen at ten-fifteen P.M.

Test takers write the missing words or phrases in the blanks.

Example: Flight ___________ to Portland will depart from gate ___________ at ____________ P.M.
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 b. Information Transfer. It is a selective listening technique in which aurally
processed information must be transferred to a visual representation, such as
labelling a diagram, identifying an element in a picture, completing a form, or
showing routes on map.

Test takers hear:

Choose the correct picture in my backyard. I have a bird feeder. Yesterday, there were two birds and
a squirrel fighting for the last few seeds in the bird feeder. The squirrel was on top of the bird feeder
while the larger bird sat at the bottom of the feeder screeching at the squirrel. The smaller bird was
flying around the squirrel, trying to scare it away.

Test takers see:

The test-taker will select the picture that matches the description in the listening text.

c. Sentence Repetition. The task of simply repeating a sentence is also used as

assessment of listening comprehension. The test-taker must retain a stretch of
language long enough to reproduce it, and then must respond with an oral
repetition of that stimulus. Incorrect listening comprehension, whether at the
phonemic or discourse level may be manifested in the correctness of the
repetition.

4. Extensive- It means listening to develop a top-down global understanding of spoken

language. Extensive performance ranges from listening to lectures to listening to lengthy
conversation and deriving a comprehensive message or purpose.

a. Dictation. In a dictation, test takers hear a passage, typically of 50 to 100 words,

recited three times: first at normal speed; then with long pauses between phrases or

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 natural word groups during which time test-takers write down what they have just
heard; and finally, at normal speed once more so they can check their work and
proofread.

First reading (natural speed, no pauses, test takers listen for gist):

The state of California has many geographical areas. On the western side is the Pacific Ocean with its
beaches and sea life. The central part of the state is a large fertile valley. The southeast has a hot dessert,
and north and west have beautiful mountains and forests. Southern California is a large urban area
populated by millions of people.

Second reading (slowed speed, pause at each // break, test takers write):

The state of California// has many geographical areas.// On the western side// is the Pacific Ocean// with its
beaches and sea life.// The central part of the state// is a large fertile valley.// The southeast has a hot
dessert,// and north and west// have beautiful mountains and forests.// Southern California// is a large urban
area// populated by millions of people.

Third reading (natural speed, test-takers check their work).

The difficulty of a dictation task can be easily manipulated by the length of the
words groups (bursts), the length of the pauses, the speed at which the text is read, and
the complexity of the discourse, grammar, and vocabulary used in the passage.

Scoring is another matter. Depending on the context and purpose in administering

the dictation, deciding the scoring criteria is important. Yet, dictation seems to provide a
reasonably valid method for integrating listening and writing skills.

b. Communicative Stimulus Response Tasks. It is a more authentic example of

extensive listening in which the test-taker is presented with a stimulus monologue or
conversation and then is asked to respond to a set of comprehension questions.

Dialogue and authentic question on details

Test-takers hear:

You will hear a conversation between a detective and a man. The tape will play the conversation twice.
After you hear the conversation a second time, choose the correct answers on your test sheet.

Detective: Where were you last night at eleven P.M., the time of the murder?
Man: Uh, let's see, well, I was just starting to see a movie.
Detective: Did you go alone?
Man: No, uh, well, i was with my friend, uh, Bill. Yeah, I was with Bill.
Detective: What did you do after that?
Man: We went out to dinner, then I dropped her off at her place.
Detective: Then you went home?
Man: Yeah
Detective: When did you get home?
Man: A little before midnight. 14
 Test-takers read:

1. Where was the man at 11:00 P.M.?

(A) In a restaurant
(B) In a theater
(C) At home

2. Was he with someone?

(A) He was alone.
(B) He was with his wife.
(C) He was with a friend.

3. Then what did he do?

(A) He ate out.
(B) He made dinner.
(C) He went home.

4. When did he get home?

(A) About 11:00
(B) Almost 12:00
(C) Right after the movie

5. The man is probably lying because (name two clues):

(A) _____________________________________________________________

(B) _____________________________________________________________

Other Tips in Teaching Listening

1. Use other authentic listening tasks like note-taking, editing, interpretive task, and retelling
that may mirror real-world contexts of listening performance.

2. Give the learners some degree of control over the content of the lesson, and to personalize
content so learners are able to bring something of themselves to the task.

3. Provide extension tasks that take the listening materials as a point of departure, but which
then lead the learners into providing part of the content themselves.

4. Devise listening tasks in which the classroom action is centered on the learner, not the
teacher.

5. Make the students listen to authentic texts. Exposing learners to authentic texts is
important for two reasons:

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 • non-authentic listening texts usually contain linguistic features more usually
found in written rather than spoken language
• the use of authentic sources leads to greater interest and variety in the
material that learners deal with in the classroom.
6. Get the learners involved in the processes underlying their learning and in making active
contributions to the learning which can be achieved in the following ways:

• making instructional goals explicit to the learner

• giving learners a degree of choices
• giving learners opportunities to bring their own background knowledge
and experience into the classroom
• encouraging learners to develop a reflective attitude to learning and to
develop skills in self-monitoring and assessment

References

Brown, D. H. (2004). Language assessment: Principles and classroom practices. White Plains,
NY : Pearson Education

DeVito, J. A. (2000). The elements of public speaking (7th ed.). New York, NY: Longman.

Listening: Top-Down and Bottom-Up. Retrieved from

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/listening-top-down-bottom

Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching methodology: a textbook for teachers. Prentice Hall

Nunan, D. (2009). Second language teaching and learning. Cengage Learning Asia Pte. Ltd.

Richards, J.C. (2008) Teaching listening and speaking: from theory to practice. New York:
Cambridge University Press

Alda, R.V. et. al. (2022). Teaching and Assessment of the Macro Skills. Lorimar Publishing

Teaching Listening. Retrieved from https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/esl/listening.cfm

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Learning Activity/Assessment

1. Boosting Your Listening Skills

a. Visit Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab at https://www.esl-lab.com/.

b. Try one listening activity for each of the following levels: Easy, Intermediate,
Difficult. Choose the activities based on your interest.

c. After completing the activities, write a reflection about your experience, strengths
and challenges while answering each activity.

d. Discuss your experiences with a classmate and come up with a Venn Diagram to
show comparison and contrast.

2. Preparing a Listening Lesson in English

a. Look into the English Curriculum Guide and MELCS and choose one competency from
any grade level from the Listening Comprehension Domain.

b. Choose a listening text or passage that would be appropriate for the competency.

c. Create a complete listening activity following the format shown below:

A Listening Lesson in English for Grade __________.

Listening Comprehension
Competency

Title of the Listening Text

or Passage

Description of the Is it an audio or video material?

Listening Text/Passage Is it teacher-made or adapted?
How many minutes is the length of material?
Other descriptions

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Pre-Listening Stage What will happen in this stage?

While-Listening Stage
What will happen in this stage?

Post-Listening Stage
What will happen in this stage?

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