Hello everybody
Hello everybody
We talked a bit about 'perfectionists' who want to understand each and every word when listening. How do you make them 'focus on listening and not on judging themselves', as one of the participants wrote (I am so sorry I don't remember the name, but the words really resonated with me)?
We talked a bit about 'perfectionists' who want to understand each and every word when listening. How do you make them 'focus on listening and not on judging themselves', as one of the participants wrote (I am so sorry I don't remember the name, but the words really resonated with me)?
I think there are two (linked, but nevertheless slightly different) issues here.
ReplyDeleteOne is the problem of students who want to feel they've understood every single word in a listening text. The other is those who are preoccupied with assessment, self-judge all the time, and want to feel they've got perfect scores.
The first: I think you actually need to have an informal chat with them, to get them to understand that the aim of listening is to get information, not to understand every word and that even in our L1 we don't normally need to understand every word. The other thing you can do here is actually use exercises that focus on putting this into practice. Give them a listening text that YOU KNOW they can easily get specific information from but which includes a lot of words they don't know. For example, two people discussing a shopping list where the task is to list at least three types of food mentioned.
The perfectionist problem: if you can't beat em join em. Use percentage grades to clarify what you mean by 'success'. So tell them that they will get 100% on, for example, the task above if they get three foods. And if they get more than three they get bonus points.
There's a lot more to say about this, but hope this is a start. Anyone else like to add?
At present I teach a high level class. It is easier to talk about how worrying about understanding every word in reading or listenjng can hold you back and you that you are looking for general meaning first. (We discuss they could also use strategies like guessing from context, seeing/hearing an explanation or a further example maybe pick up the meaning? ).
ReplyDeleteI'm a good speller but often when I write a word in the board I will look at it and question myself. I tell the students I am not 100% sure and ask someone to look it up. 99% of the time I am right - but there IS the odd occasion when I'm wrong. I hope to demonstrate that it is OK to make a mistake, we're not perfect. English spelling (and listening!) is tricky.
English listening IS tricky because what you hear is not always the same as what is written! Written English and Spoken English can be very different (Unlike Spanish where what you see is what you get.) Apart from the different pronunciation of vowels and phonemes (think voicing!) there is also connected speech, linking, contractions. SO CONFUSING TO THE LEARNER WHO ARRIVES WITH TONS OF ENGLISH IN THEIR HEAD AND IS GREETED WITH "Wendidjakum?" At some point these elements need to be explained to the learners.
I teach ESL in Canada to new immigrants. Very often the only English they hear in a day is in the classroom...Weekends? A disaster...on Friday everyone is prattling away -Monday - tongue tied...NO English from Friday afternoon to Monday. A reality. Because of changing demographics (a good thing) even the belief that the children will pick up English in the playground is not a reliable assumption anymore.
So many students do not have much exposure to spoken English....to models of everyday speaking...
I turn to the radio as an example of authentic speech. (Your remark about podcasts or recordings was interesting -and I agree for lower levels. But students tell me they are practicing listening when they listen to the TV news - MOSTLY they are reading body language and getting information from the pictures. I tell them to turn their backs to the TV and see how much they catch..it is always "less". )
CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - the English is formal, pretty advanced vocabulary, and slooow). To hear everyday connected speech I direct them to a radio talkshow program ( AM, CFRB1010). In the first two weeks weeks of a new session I will turn on the news - and I ask them to take rough notes. (I do too on the board. Sometimes I miss important details..students fill me in..see, I'm not perfect!!!) In the beginning -NOTHING...sometimes not even the familiar words..The advantage of the radio is that the news is repeated more or less the same every half hour...(I just have to remember to watch the clock). Students can listen to the radio while they are driving, or over the weekend, They report that this REALLY helps their listening skills...( TED talks? - different animal - but can also be useful for some)
Off to ballet class now...😊
For students who want to KNOW every word when listening I use an example of a currently popular comedian here in Japan--Degawa. (a short example with translations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3xluPX-Q_0) There is a recurring segment on TV where he is travelling around the world and in each city has an assignment related to some local landmark. It is amazing what he can accomplish with terrible English skills!
ReplyDeleteI point out that usually he is successful in achieving his goal regardless of the huge barriers. So, depending on the circumstance (like not sitting a TOEFL test), understanding every word is usually not required to achieve the goal. It is a constant struggle with a couple in particular, that is lessening with time.
The flip side of the perfectionist that I find harder to deal with are those who are afraid to speak without uttering perfect sentences. I reference the same comedian but with less success. And one particular student spend 2 years in the USA as a child and has great listening skills, it is just so hard to get her to talk.