Preview

Listening Skills

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2653 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Listening Skills
English Language Teaching

June, 2008

An Action Research Plan for Developing and Implementing The Students’ Listening Comprehension Skills
Chunpin Luo The School of Foreign Languages, Yunnan Nationalities University No.134, Yieryi Dajie, Kunming 650031, China Tel: 86-871-643-5063 Abstract This is a proposal for an action research plan designed to find out how to improve students’ listening comprehension skills, enhance their performance and help to promote better learning. This plan is focused on the minority students who major in English in our University. Listening comprehension is one of the most difficult courses for them. As their teacher, the author would like to conduct an action research in her classroom teaching in order to make some changes in her teaching, to assist the students to become active listeners, and to improve their overall listening comprehension skills. Keywords: Action research, Listening comprehension, Minority students 1. Introduction Listening is the basic language skill in language learning. However, students always think it is difficult to listen well. To foster the students’ listening comprehension skills and prepare them as active listeners in language learning is a big challenge. Scholars and researchers have done a lot of research to help students to acquire the skills. However, we cannot rely on some methodologies completely. We might see that apart from the methodologies, we also need to know that we face individual student differences: their learning styles, their backgrounds, and their cultures in teaching. In different classrooms, teachers have to adopt different teaching methods to be with their own students. Action research offers an opportunity for classroom teachers to do the research by themselves, improve their teaching, and make adjustments when necessary. This paper intends to propose an action research plan and attempts to inquire into the educational situation, understand the students’ skills and their situation



References: Brouwer, Catherine, E. (2002). Conversation promotes understanding. Sprogforum. Byrnes, H. (1984). The role of listening comprehension: A theoretical base. Foreign Annals, 17, pp. 317-329. Kanu, Stansky. & Carson. (1993). A Student’s Handbook of Action Research. Albert: University of Alberta. Kearsley, Greg. (1999). Theoretical Basis of Teaching L2 Listening Comprehension: Theory to Practice. [Online] Available: www. english listening.com/theory.phtml. Mills, Geoffrey, E. (2003). Action Research: A guide for the teacher researcher (2nd edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey and Columbus, Ohio: Merille Prentice Hall. Ming, Yee, Carissa, Young. (1997). A Serial Ordering of Listening Comprehension Strategies Used by Advanced ESL learners in Hong Kong. Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, 7, pp.35-53. Nagle, S. J. & Sanders, S. L. (1986). Comprehension theory and second langrage pedagogy. TESOL Quarterly, 20, 9-26. O’Brien, Rory. (1998). An Overview of the Methodological Approach of Action Research. Toronto: University of Toronto. Wang, Renfu. (2006). Action Research and Teaching of Listening Comprehension. Journal of Huangshang College, 2004 (4). 28

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Towards the end of Chapter 4 by Diane Larson-Freeman, she urges readers to “…make the bridge between this book and your teaching situation” (50). This book is a constant reminder for pedagogues and developing teachers to reflect and evaluate their own teaching habits to determine if they are offering students the best possible education. The goal of this method is to increase communicative competence in the second language. This is accomplished through memorization, repetition, and a series of drills that build up and add different skills as student’s progress. In my teaching situations, I use aspects of the Audio-Lingual method, especially in an English Conversation Club I facilitate.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    DTTLS Assignments

    • 5208 Words
    • 149 Pages

    Van Duzer, C. (1997). "Improving ESL learners ' listening skills: At the workplace and beyond." Washington, DC: Project in Adult Immigrant Education and National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education.…

    • 5208 Words
    • 149 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Active Listening Skills is the first article I read. This article was very helpful since it provided me with information on how to help clients improve the quality of their life. It is crucial for a client to know that the interviewer is really listening because the client will open up faster since the client will feel appreciated and respected. The article explains how important it is to listen in order to catch the client’s attention and for the client to respond positively and rapidly and on a deeper level. I learned by reading the article that there are different ways of listening. I have learned that the interviewer should have active participation which means facing the client at all times and maintaining eye contact during the interview/session, to always focus on what the client is saying, and for the interviewer to respond properly showing interest on what the client said.…

    • 577 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Active Listening Skills

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Child safety officers must communicate with individuals and families in crisis; good communication skills are essential to achieve the best possible outcomes within a range of challenging circumstances. Interpersonal skills of listening, questioning and feedback are crucial when working as a child safety officer as they allow the officer to clarify, gain knowledge and understand. Active listening allows the child safety officer to clarify the child’s needs with empathy; doing this builds a trusting relationship. The interpersonal skill of questioning further allows the child to gain knowledge, make decisions and effectively problem solve. Lastly, feedback allows the child safety officer to clarify understanding and encourage the child with…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first article I read was called “Active Listening Skills”. This article provided helpful information with helping clients improve the quality of his or her life. When a client knows that the interviewer is listening he or she will feel respected and appreciated. The article shows the importance of listening in order to get the client to respond to us positively and on a deeper level. The article states there are different ways of listening. The article states we should have active participation by facing the client, maintaining eye contact, focus solely on what the client is saying, and respond appropriately. This article also states we should use reflective listening. When we restate what the client just said it will show him or her we are listening, and this will provide them the opportunity to open up and talk more. The article also states that we should stop other distractions such as, looking through papers when the client is speaking. When reading this article I learned that facing the client, sitting up straight, or leaning forward will show the client we are attentive. I also learned if we maintain eye contact this will show the client we are interested in what he or she is saying. If we use the words um-hmm, I see or raise our eyebrows this will prompt the speaker to continue talking. I can apply what I learned from this article to my everyday life by focusing solely on what a person is saying to me. I have learned I should not let anything distract me, so they will know they have my undivided attention. I already make eye contact with a person when he or she is speaking to me so that will not change. These are strategies I will use in my practice, because I want my client to receive the best services for his or her current situation. I feel these strategies will be effective and help me to become a better listener.…

    • 1132 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Taherkhani, R. (2011). Active and Passive Students ' Listening Strategies. Journal Of Language Teaching & Research, 2(3), 705-708. doi:10.4304/jltr.2.3.705-708.…

    • 1413 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Top Down Processing

    • 2198 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Cognitive research will support the description of the processes taking place and present evidence of success and failure in speech comprehension. Goh (2000) carried out a study on the challenges of listening comprehension for English language students proposes the promotion of top down processing in order to enhance understanding speech from a…

    • 2198 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Discussion 1: “Action Plan for Effective Listening.” Create a formalized action plan with specific steps describing what you can do to evaluate your progress in becoming an effective listener. Look at the sample action plan in “Thinking Activity: 3.4” and you must review the “Eight steps of effective listening” before you are able to answer this question. Students will respond to the following:…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Active Listening Skills

    • 2299 Words
    • 10 Pages

    During the instructor interviews active listening skills were used. Listening is used for many purposes. Listening is used to gain important information, gain understanding, learning, and also enjoyment. Most people retain approximately twenty-five to fifty percent of what we hear. In reality this translates to when we speak for about ten minutes we are lucky if the person we are addressing remembers half of what we have said. On the flip side, when we are the listeners we can easily see how we aren’t receiving the whole message. This can be a disaster if the part we are missing contains important information such as directions. Working at improving listening skills is very important. Improving listening skills and becoming a better listener can help increase productivity and also help avoid misunderstandings and conflict.…

    • 2299 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Textbook Analysis

    • 2923 Words
    • 12 Pages

    3. Rost, M. (2002) Listening Tasks and Language Acquisition. Available from http://jalt-publications.org/archive/proceedings/2002/018.pdf [Accessed March 5, 2013].…

    • 2923 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Communication Cycle Essay

    • 3129 Words
    • 13 Pages

    The success of an endeavour hinges on the ability to communicate effectively in today's fast paced life, everyone is asked to do more with less. In such a scenario effective communication holds the key.…

    • 3129 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Effective Listening

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Child safety officers must communicate with individuals and families in crisis; good communication skills are essential to achieve the best possible outcomes within a range of challenging circumstances. Interpersonal skills of listening, questioning and feedback are crucial when working as a child safety officer as they allow the officer to clarify, gain knowledge and understand. Active listening allows the child safety officer to clarify the child’s needs with empathy; doing this builds a trusting relationship. The interpersonal skill of questioning further allows the child to gain knowledge, make decisions and effectively problem solve. Lastly, feedback allows the child safety officer to clarify understanding and encourage the child through…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This research presents the analysis of a listening assessment of a group of CEFR A1 Level adult learners of English in the UAE. 22 students participated in this study and consist of two groups at Elementary level – E2 and E4, with the latter being of a higher stage. Learners in the UAE usually involve a mix of nationalities and are either professionals looking to improve their English or young students who are aiming to sit for the IELTS test for admission to university.…

    • 4242 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Night of the Scorpion

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Remind the students of what being a successful group discussion member actually means, using the first resource…

    • 1556 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Conversational Implicature

    • 2180 Words
    • 9 Pages

    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 398 742 FL 024 044 AUTHOR TITLE Bouton, Lawrence F. Can NNS Skill in Interpreting Implicature in American English Be Improved through Explicit Instruction?--A Pilot Study. PUB DATE NOTE 94 PUB TYPE EDRS PRICE DESCRIPTORS IDENTIFIERS 23p.…

    • 2180 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics