TEACHING RESOURCES FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN EXAMINATIONS

The Hellenic American Union

ECCE: Listening Section

By Christine Irvine – Niakaris

Many teachers who prepare students for the ECCE are concerned by the relatively high failure rate of
the listening section. Very often candidates blame the quality of the sound for their poor performance
in the examination. However, over the years we have ascertained that the quality of sound is very
rarely the cause of poor performance and if in fact this is the case, then the scores are adjusted
accordingly. Nevertheless clearly more careful consideration was needed to shed some light on why
students’ performance was below par on the listening. The academic testing team at the HAU
therefore decided to conduct extensive research to identify specific areas in listening comprehension
which were problematic for Greek learners of English. The research showed that students lacked
certain sub-skills of listening comprehension, such as listening for gist and specific information as
well as the ability to employ effective strategies for completing listening tasks in examination
conditions. Once the team identified some of the problematic areas they then considered types of
practice activities that would not only assist learners in improving their listening comprehension skills
for the ECCE but would also facilitate their development of communication skills in the real world.
The results of this research forms the basis of our seminars for the ECCE, which we have already
started offering in Athens as well as in some of the provinces. We also thought that we should
include some of our ideas in this issue of log-on so that you will be able to refer to it the next time
you think about planning listening comprehension lessons for your ECCE students.

ECCE: Research and Teaching Materials

According to the literature specific sub-skills and contributory skills of listening comprehension can be
identified. The first stage of our research therefore matched these sub-skills with what is actually
tested on the ECCE. Through careful analysis of both parts of the listening section it appeared that
almost all sub-skills were tested integratively in both sections of the test.

Sub – skills Contributory Skills

Listening for gist Understanding specific grammar
Listening for specific information Understanding functions
Note- taking Understanding specific vocabulary
Applying short term memory Sound discrimination

The next stage of our research was to test students’ comprehension of listening items similar to what
is tested on the ECCE. The students were required to decide on an answer choice and then articulate
the reason for their choice or an explanation of why they found a particular item difficult to
understand. Based on the students’ responses the researchers then made assumptions about
students’ difficulties and generated ideas about the type of classroom activity that would help the
students overcome these difficulties. Examples of these activities can be found in the new HAU
publication “Build Up Your Listening Skills”

Listening for Gist

Difficulty
Students tend to focus on what they do not understand rather than partial comprehension, which
would at least give them an idea of the gist of a conversation.

Teaching Resources for the University of Michigan Examinations page 1 of 3

ECCE Listening May 15, 2002
Hellenic American Union
Activity
Get students to practice reformulating short conversations they hear in response to the following
questions. Who is speaking to whom? Where and Why?

Listening for Specific Information

Difficulty
Students do not focus enough on important information such as dates, times, prices and events.
Furthermore, sometimes-important information may occur right at the beginning of the dialogue,
which students sometimes miss as their level of concentration is not sharp enough right from the
start.
Activities
Have students pay attention to opening statements of conversations and check their comprehension.
For the more extended dialogue have students focus on dates, prices, events and comparisons.

Note-taking
Difficulty
Students have no background learning in note taking. It is difficult therefore for students to retain
information when dealing with comprehension of longer texts such as in part two of the listening.
Activities
Introduce a systematic formula for students to learn which will speed up their note-taking skills.
Students should start taking notes from shorter texts and gradually work with longer ones.

Applying Short -Term Memory Span

Difficulty
In order to process instructions and directions even in one’s native language the short- term memory
span needs to be activated. This is even more difficult to do in a foreign language. The students in
the research were able to understand the instructions or directions but were unable to retain them
long enough to make an appropriate response.

Activities
Give students plenty of practice with following instructions and directions with the use of diagrams.

Understanding Specific Grammar and Functions

Difficulty
The research showed that students often misunderstood a message through their lack of
understanding of the use of grammar and functions. The use of modals seemed to be a challenging
area. For example, the meaning of the following statement, “I shouldn’t have eaten so much”
Did the person eat too much or not? Why is the person saying this? These types of questions help
students to understand both form and function of an utterance.

Understanding Specific Vocabulary

Difficulty
Students have a gap in their knowledge of some topic related vocabulary. For example they are not
familiar with vocabulary related to domestic and work situations. They are also unfamiliar with some
American use of vocabulary e.g. closet.

Teaching Resources for the University of Michigan Examinations page 1 of 3

ECCE Listening May 15, 2002
Hellenic American Union
Activities
Activities should be based on topic related vocabulary particularly for the home and office. Some
attention should also be paid to the better-known differences between the use of vocabulary in
British and American English e.g. lift/elevator closet/wardrobe faucet/tap. A suggested list of these
differences can be found in the HAU publication “Build Up Your Listening Skills”

Sound Discrimination
Difficulty
Our research showed that very often students had a problem with simple sound discrimination. For
example, they were unable to differentiate between he/she and can/can’t.
Activities
Simple sound discrimination activities with minimal pairs ( he/she, can/can’t) really help students to
increase their level of sound perception
As a final reminder teachers should make sure that they give students practice in listening
comprehension with both short conversational texts and more extended texts and that the texts
should be delivered at a normal rate of speech. They should also try and use practice activities that
focus on the development of sub-skills of listening. More importantly however practice tests should
be used as a teaching tool so that teachers can discover more about the student’s difficulties in
listening comprehension and subsequently select appropriate activities that will increase their level of
performance in both parts of the listening section

Teaching Resources for the University of Michigan Examinations page 1 of 3

ECCE Listening May 15, 2002
Hellenic American Union