Parts and goals of a listening

and speaking course

 As a prospective teacher of English, you
should be able to
- Recognise and describe the range of goals of a
language course,
- Look critically at a language course to see its
strengths, weaknesses, and gaps,
- Develop and adapt courses to provide a
balance of the four strands in a course,
- Choose, apply, and monitor a range of
activities that will reach useful learning goals,
 The four strands
1. Learning through meaning-focused input

2. Learning through meaning-focused output

3. Learning through deliberate attention to language

items and language features

4. Developing fluent use of known language items

and features
1. Meaning-focused input: Learning through
listening and reading
What do you think the main goals should be in
this strand?

What are the typical activities to achieve these

goals?

What are the necessary conditions to include

this strand in language classes/courses?
 Some important points to be recalled for
the strand to work out well
- Comprehensible input hypothesis (Krashen,
1985)

- Well-planned deliberate learning vs. incidental

learning through input

- Large quantities of input

 2. Meaning-focused output: Learning
through speaking and writing

What do you think the main goals should be in

this strand?

What are the typical activities to achieve these

goals?

What are the necessary conditions to include this

strand in language classes/courses?
 Some important points to be recalled for
the strand to work out well
- Output hypothesis (Swain, 1985)

- the noticing/triggering function

- the hypothesis testing function
- the metalinguistic (reflective) function
 3. Language-focused learning
Focus on form

Form-focused instruction

Deliberate study and deliberate teaching

Learning as opposed to acquisition

Intentional learning
 3. Language-focused learning
What do you think the main goals should be in
this strand?

What are the typical activities to achieve these

goals?

What are the necessary conditions to include

this strand in language classes/courses?
 Some important points to be recalled for
the strand to work out well
- Deliberate learning has a positive effect

- Language-focused learning should not become

the whole course
 4. Developing fluent use of known
language items and features
What do you think the main goals should be in
this strand?

What are the typical activities to achieve these

goals?

What are the necessary conditions to include

this strand in language classes/courses?
 Some important points to be recalled for
the strand to work out well

- It is time out from learning new items and is a

time for getting good at using what is known

- More formulaic use of larger language chunks

 Balancing the four strands
Three-to-one balance;

Meaning-focused input
Meaning-focused output
Fluency development

vs.

Language-focused learning

Which one is more efficient?

 Integrating the four strands

How do you decide on ‘TIME’ given to the

strands in a specific course?
 Principles and the four strands
Some guidelines for teachers:

- Provide and organise large amounts of comprehensible input

through both listening and reading,
- Boost learning through comprehensible input by adding a
deliberate element,
- Support and push learners to produce spoken and written output in
a variety of appropriate genres,
- Provide opportunities for cooperative interaction,
- Help learners deliberately learn language items and patterns,
including sounds, spelling, vocabulary, multi-word units, grammar,
and discourse,
- Train learners in strategies that will contribute to language learning,
- Provide fluency development activities in each of the four skills,
- Provide a roughly equal balance of the four strands.
Beginning to listen and speak in another
language
The aims of a beginners course in listening
and speaking

What should be the aims of a beginners course?

 What should they learn?
1. Using a new alphabet
- Recognise and write letters of the alphabet
- Develop phonological awareness
2. Phrases for talking about yourself
3. Phrases and vocabulary for everyday life
4. Sight vocabulary
5. Classroom expressions
6. High frequency words
 How should be the teaching and learning
be done?
Five principles for teaching ‘beginners’

1. Meaning
2. Interest
3. New language
4. Understanding
5. Stress-free
 1. Meaning: Focus on meaningful and
relevant content

How can it be done?

The focus should be on language that the

learners can use quickly for their purposes
rather than on too much grammar explanation
or on words that are not directly useful.
 2. Interest: Maintain interest through a
variety of activities

How can it be done?

Activities should be short and involve the learners in

responding to or using the language

- Activities that involve movement?

- Activities that pictures are shown and real objects
are used?
3. New language: Avoid overloading learners
with too much new language

How can it be done?

«learn a little, use a lot»

 4. Understanding: Provide plenty of
comprehensible input

How can it be done?

- The use of visual aids,

- Simple language,
 5. Stress-free: Create a friendly, safe,
cooperative classroom environment

How can it be done?

- Anxiety?
- Opportunities for learners to experiment and
make mistakes without penalties?
Activities and approaches for teaching and
learning in a beginners course
1. Memorising useful phrases and sentences

Which ones?

2. Practising sentence patterns

- Substitution tables

What is the disadvantage of using a substitution

table?
3. Guiding listening and speaking

- «What is it?» technique

- Listening grids
- Surveys
- Listen and do (TRP)/ Positioning
- Listening to pictures