Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch

College of Foreign Languages and Literature Department of English

Towards acquiring communicative competence

through listening

Professor : Dr. Z . Seifoori

By:Zahraa Khudhair
 Communication

language

Theoretical side Practical side

General grammar of the language Listening

Speaking
Reading
Writing
 Linguistic communication

Sending Receiving

Speaking listening

Writing Reading
 What is the concept of the listening skill ?
One of the basic and effective skills in
communication process . It is intended to listen,
understand and explain and the listening process
includes three main steps as defined by (Scott,
1989), namely:
1. Receive audio content and ignore noise.
2. Pay attention to the audio content and focus
on what the speaker says.
3. Interpret the audio content and interact with it
so that the listener classifies the information,
compares and connects it with his cognitive
background.
 What is the importantance of the listening ?
- The natural entrance to language learning and the correct way to acquire it, understanding
and thus production
- The earliest means of linguistic communication,where the human begins the stages of his linguistic
development by listening, then speaking
- A main tool for the learners
-The basic means for interaction

Reading
16%
Speaking
30% Writing
9%

Listening
45%

- So what is your idea?

(Verbal communication skills space of human activity) (Busan 2002)
Listening: Learned first, Used most (45%), Taught least.
Speaking: Learned second, Used next most (30%), Taught next least.
Reading: Learned third, Used next least (16%), Taught next most
Writing: Learned fourth, Used Least (9%), Taught most
 The role of listening in the learning approaches
An environmentalist approach End of 1960s Linguistic level 
- Neglected skill
- A passive process with no role in language learning.
- Learning a language was a mechanical process based on a stimulus-response pattern

- listeners Stimulus = hearing L2 spoken words

Response = identifying and organizing those words into sentences
Main role = the recognition and discrimination of sounds

-Improve auditory habits through a series of exercises that included pronunciation drills, memorization of
prefabricated patterns and imitation of dialogues .
-The Audiolingual teaching methodology
-Listening comprehension = repeating, imitating and memorizing.

An innatist approach By the 1960s Cognitive level 

-More dynamic and mentalistic process.

-Comprehension is a necessary step for language learning and listening is the primary means by which
L2 inputs can be accessed.
-listeners’ role = Actively participating in the comprehension process.
-Teaching methodologies Reception precedes production
 Exposing learners to large amounts of input together with
semantic decoding practice and imple selection tasks
-Listening comprehension = Understanding the language.

An interactionist approach By the late 1970s cognitive psychological level

-The language learning process is interactive, social, and contextual

-Listening focuses on the completed discourse text
-The listeners' role is to listen to content and meaning
-Listening comprehension = Understanding and processing by :

1)the Perception, Parsing and Utilization model

2) the Identify, Search, File and Use model
=The constructivist view of listening
= Constructed the meaning according to own purposes for listening
=Own prior knowledge.

-Teaching methodologies
Focuses on processing spoken Discourse for functional purposes and
Perform tasks that focus on meaning, not form .

-The use of = verbal and non-verbal and non-verbal methods

= non-linguistic-non verbal methods

By the speaker To convey the meaning to the listener.

What do you think we need to be good listener?

sh

What affects the skill of listening?

Negatively
Positively

Physical Obstacles:

Psychological & mental obstacles

External obstacles
.
1. Receive content - stay away Environmental Obstacles
from confusion
2. Attention to content - focus
3. Interpretation of content -
linking with prior knowledge

What is the strategies

for developing the
Listening skill ?
LISTENING And Communication Competence
LISTENING

Communicative competence Increase the effectiveness of the L2

teaching process
Discourse competence = Knowledge of discourse features& formal schemata in relation to
the particular purpose and situational context of the spoken text.
Linguistic competence =The elements of the linguistic system such as aspects concerning
grammar, phonology and vocabulary
Pragmatic competence = Understanding of the function or illocutionary force of a spoken
utterance in a given situation and the sociopragmatic factors
Intercultural competence = Knowledge of both cultural and non-verbal communicative factors
in order to appropriately interpret a given spoken text.
Strategic competence =The mastery of both communication and learning strategies
- Understand which discourse features have been used and why, and then relate them to the
communicative goal and particular context of that piece of discourse.
- Understand the meaning of a spoken text at the discourse level grammatical knowledge +phonological
system + vocabulary
-Pragmatism factors contribute to the interpretation and understanding of spoken text for listeners and include
participant and politeness issues such as status, social distance and the degree of imposition involved in the delivery of
the spoken message also play an important role for listeners’ interpretation of such message

-Listeners’ background knowledge of cultural and non-verbal communicative factors will help them
construct its meaning as well as acknowledge differences between their own culture and that of the
target language so that possible misunderstandings can be avoided.
-Making learners strategically competent in their ability to comprehend oral input will foster their overall
communicative competence in the L2 .
Influence L2 listening instruction
Listening instruction is a pedagogic plan that focuses on four goals:

1) Improving learners’ comprehension of spoken language,

2) Increasing the quality of learners’ intake from spoken input,

3) Developing learners’ strategies for better understanding of spoken discourse,

4) Engendering a more active participation in face-to-face communication

Four key areas in which research has provided insights into the teaching of L2 listening.

Area 1: Accessibility of input Area 3: Bottom up processing

Area 2: Top down processing Area 4: Listener status

Accessibility of input
Access to relevant and appropriately challenging input is a critical factor in listening
development.
Functions of input = listening is the primary vehicle by which a person acquires an L2. Listening
opportunities “provide the linguistic environment” or “set the stage” for acquisition

Factors that affect quality of input

1.Relevance refers to the personal significance of the input.
2. Difficulty refers to the intrinsic “cognitive load” of a listening or reading text, its linguistic and
informational complexity
3.Authenticity refers to the degree to which a text is a legitimate sample of the way the
language is actually used..
2. Top down processing
Top-down processing in listening refers to the use of expectations in order to infer what the
speaker may have said or intended to say.
Activating schemata
In L2 listening, the role of schemata is especially important because in NS-NNS interactions
and in the L2 listening generally, there are frequently significant mismatches between the
speaker’s and the listener’s schemata that lead to misunderstandings.
Lexical access
Top down processing is made possible both through non-linguistic means, particularly visual
cues, and through linguistic means, primarily lexical access.
3. Bottom up processing

Refers to a two-pass listening process:

The first is to identify the overall phonological shape of the metrical unit (or phrase or pause
unit) that the speaker utters.
The second is for segmental decoding or breaking the metrical unit into individual words.

Components of bottom up processing

In continuous speech, there is no auditory equivalence to the white spaces in reading
continuous text, .

There are two complementary phonological processes that assist the listener:

Feature detection is the most fundamental bottom up listening process. Speech processing
research has shown that we have a wide range of phonetic feature detectors (specialized
synaptic networks) in our auditory cortex which enable us to decode speech into linguistic
units.
Metrical segmentation: refers to the use of stress and timing rules to segment incoming speech
into words, which are then used for lexical processing and meaning construction.
Listener status

The listener’s perceived status influences comprehension, participation, and value of input for
language acquisition. Engagement by the L2 user –assumption of an “active listening” role –
promotes acquisition of listening skills and strategies.

Analyzing listener problems in discourse

Because asymmetry, anxiety and negative affect among L2 listeners are so pervasive,
addressing the listener’s role in collaborative discourse has become a vital aspect of
listening instruction. There are two important sources of research that contribute to this
aspect of instruction.

Strategy instruction
Researchers attempt to isolate approaches, decisions, and tactics that are associated with
“successful” (symmetrical, low-anxiety, positive affect) listening.
We Are blessed with two eARs ANd one mouth -
A consTAnt reminder thAT we should listen
AT leASt twice AS much AS we
tALk.
LISTEN TO UNDERSTAND