Developing listening skills based on transformational models

Developing listening skills based on transformational models.
Author of the article: Galimova Z.R.
Scientific adviser: Borisov A.M.
For many decades listening has been treated as a passive skill which doesn’t require special attention. Nowadays listening comprehension is considered as prerequisite to effective oral communication. Thus, listening comprehension is an integral part in the use of language as a means of communication.
It is important to distinguish between the concepts "hearing" and "listening", as the first one designates perception of a sound code, while the second one insures not only perception of oral speech, but also its comprehension. The developed skill of listening makes communication potentially possible as comprehension of the interlocutor insures adequate response.
V.F.Stanova considers listening as an intellectual process directed at «perception and comprehension of new speech messages that assumes a creative combination of skills and their active use according to the changes in communicative situations and features of a speech stream» [Пассов, 2002, C. 21]. Listening comprehension provides exposition of pupils to a new linguistic material, provides development of skills and abilities in all types of speech activity, listening included.
Depending on goals, teaching methodology distinguishes different types of listening. Teachers use listening to have the learners repeat, imitate, memorize lexical or grammatical material (this kind of comprehension is used at the beginning stage of training when pronunciation drill is given more preference), global listening (this kind of listening is normally used at the preintermediate stages when the main aim is comprehension of the main idea rather than of the details) and listening for the purpose of understanding (this one is used at the middle stage). As a specific type of listening comprehension is selective listening, that is listening for details, which is used at the middle stages.
Choosing material for listening, it is important to consider its linguistic, semantic and composition features, as well as age and individual particularities of the students. For example, at senior stages students take interest in politics, sport, love, detective stories, adolescent problems; senior students prefer texts about profession [Рогова, 1991, С 287].
Passov E.I. points out such groups of listening skills as : 1) grammar skills of subconscious recognition of grammatical structures at morphological and syntactic level); 2) lexical skills, which insure recognition and understanding of words and phrases in a speech stream); 3) phonetic skills of subconscious perception of sounds, sound combinations and intonations) [Пассов, 2002, C 21˗22].
To ensure effective listening, comprehension exercises of the same kind as in teaching speaking are used. The purpose of such exercises is to develop skills of perception of oral speech. They require reproduction of speech patterns without changes. While doing such exercises, students listen to and repeat the material on the set example [Москаленко, 199, 16.]; 2) substitution exercises are used to fix the material); 3) transformation exercises are used on transform language structures (this type assumes the formation of skills of a combination, reduction or expansion of certain structures, skills of replacement etc. [Скалкин, 1980, C.54].
Exercises in transformation mean a certain change of a construction which depends on a concrete speech intension.
Transformation exercises train grammatical rules. For example, a student is to retell the audiotext from the third person (when the record was from the first one) or to replace past tense with future one; to give negative answers to questions in the text etc. However, efficiency considerably will increase, if the content of the statement is reformed. For example, Yesterday I went to the cinema ˗ Tomorrow I will go to the cinema.
There are such transformation exercises as:
listening and doing of actions;
listening and transferring information;
listening and solution;
listening and estimating information;
listening and discussion of information in the form of question-answer;
listening for pleasure.
1.Listening and doing of actions requires doing of actions in response to instructions and descriptions, e.g. selecting of a photo or picture according to description, definitions of some element in the picture, doing sequenced actions (the way of cooking a dish or making a route) etc. This kind of exercises involves vocabulary on a certain topic, to revise the use of prepositions, passive voice, and such grammatical structures as there is/there are etc. For example, students listen to a text "My House" and try to draw a room and its interior; the drawings are compared with the original text or drawing. It is also possible to organize the work in pairs when one of the students knows a route and instructs the other student who "goes" according to the map fixed on the board. Other students attempt to lay a route, following on their copies of maps. Not all pupils manage to get to the necessary point that creates positive emotionally situation and more effective learning of a material.
2. Listening and transferring information, which aim is to transfer information, received through listening. Students can do exercises by filling in the gaps in the text, by filling in a form or a questionnaire, writing down the main idea of the short story or the message with the purpose to transfer this information to the others.
3. Listening and solution exercises assume listening of the short text containing a problem or a keyword, which students are to find. For example, a teacher gives task "to Draw what you hear. Be accurate, you’ll need the drawing to solve the problem."
4. Listening and estimating information requires recording and analysing of the received information in order to answer questions or to find solution, generalize or estimate the received information.
5. Listening and discussing of information in the form of question-answer.
This kind of exercises is used to check the way the students have understood the received information. A teacher can use such question like “Could you repeat … ?” in order to repeat information; paraphrasing information making the understanding easier “Could you say that again? I did not understand what you meant by …?” getting additional information or information, which wasn’t presented” Could you tell me more about …? How is this connected with …?”
6. Listening for pleasure assumes listening different songs, tales, poems, etc. [Борисов, 2012]
The use of transformational models guarantees an active participation at listening as the information is needed for solving a specific communicative or practical problem.
Literature
Борисов А. М. Трансформационные модели в формировании навыка аудирования [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://www.rusnauka.com/16_NPRT_2012/Philologia/1_111825.doc.htm
Москаленко Д. В. Некоторые приемы работы над грамматическими явлениями на уроке немецкого языка. // ИЯШ. ˗ 1999.˗№1. – С.16 ˗ 19.
Пассов Е. И. Методика изучения иностранным языкам: Обучение аудированию. – №12. – 2002. – C. 21 ˗ 22.
Рогова Г. В. Методика обучения иностранным языкам в средней школе. – М.: Просвещение, 1991. – С. 287.
Скалкин В. П. Коммуникативные упражнения на английском языке. – Владимир, 1980. – С.169.