Development of listening skills of students in English lessons

Джуманова Маржан Турсуналиевна
Түркістан облысы  Қазығұрт ауданы
Қ.Сатпаев атындағы мектеп -лицейінің
ағылшын пәнінің мұғалімі

Development of listening skills of students in English lessons

  Annotation
Nowadays every educated person wants to know English well. A lot of people learn it for different reasons. Some just need English to use it while travelling, others to read some literature for their thesis. Still there are many others for whom English is their profession. They want to know it fluently and the first step to master the language is to learn it at a professional level at a specialized university. There are four main skills of the language that a person should acquire: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Today I would like to speak more about teaching listening skills. Listening is one of the fundamental language skills. It’s a medium through which children, young people and adults gain a large portion of their education— their information, their understanding of the world and of human affairs, their ideals, sense of values, and their appreciation. Listening involves many other basic processes such as linguistic competence, previous knowledge that is not necessarily of a purely linguistic nature. In this work , I consider ways to develop  listening skills during classes with students.

Аннотация
В наши дни каждый образованный человек хочет хорошо знать английский язык. Многие люди учатся этому по разным причинам. Некоторым просто нужен английский, чтобы использовать его во время путешествий, другим-чтобы почитать литературу для своей диссертации. Тем не менее, есть много других людей, для которых английский язык является их профессией. Они хотят знать его свободно, и первый шаг к овладению языком-это изучение его на профессиональном уровне в специализированном университете. Существует четыре основных навыка языка, которые человек должен овладеть: чтение, письмо, аудирование и говорение. Сегодня я хотел бы подробнее рассказать о преподавании навыков аудирования. Аудирование-один из фундаментальных языковых навыков. Это средство, с помощью которого дети, молодые люди и взрослые получают большую часть своего образования-информацию, понимание мира и человеческих дел, свои идеалы, чувство ценностей и признательность. Слушание включает в себя множество других базовых процессов, таких как лингвистическая компетентность, предыдущие знания, которые не обязательно носят чисто лингвистический характер. В этой работе я рассматриваю способы развития навыков аудирования во время занятий со студентами.

References
The key priority of educational programms should be the development of the skills
which allow students to constantly adapt to changes and assimilate new knowledge»
addressby the President N.A.Nazarbayev dated by January 10, 2018
«New Opportunities under the Fourth Industrial Revolution»
     

The modern world is changing very fast day by day.   Technology is developing so rapidly. New machines and gadgets which were considered to be the most modern ones a year before become out-of-date today. And skills which made you successful yesterday might not help you to cope with the problems you are faced today. So, one should be able to adapt to any changes, to gain skills which can be useful to overcome difficulties and achieve goals.

And what can schools of our country teach their students to use their knowledge effectively in real life? Do our graduates have enough skills to be competitive in the modern world of globalization and modernization? The results  of PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS conducted by OECD and IEA showed that  our students are not so bad at memorizing and recalling, but, unfortunately, they are not so good at applying gained knowledge in different situations of real life i.e., they are lack of twenty-first century skills  (created by OECD)  such as critical thinking, ability to creatively apply knowledge, ability to solve problems, research skills, communication skills (including language skills), ability to work in groups and individually, ICT skills.

President NursultanNazarbayev in his Address to the Nation «Socio-economic modernization is the main vector of Kazakhstan’s development» today the Nazarbayev University and intellectual schools are successfully working on the basis of international standards. It is necessary to extend our experience to the entire Kazakhstani education system and to involve all educational institutions in their level». [1] And Nazarbayev Intellectual schools have changed their educational program to include the best international practices and incorporate them into the learning process. The program is aimed at the development of Kazakh, Russian and English languages, as well as support for teachers and students in Kazakhstan.

An  improved  educational  program requires  the  concept  of  «lifelong learning» from the  concept  of «lifelong learning»; obedience to initiative; transition from knowledge to competence. It aims to turn learning objectives into learning outcomes based on values, forming many skills. In this regard, the priorities for updating the curriculum are: the success of the idea that students need skills, because knowledge is necessary for success. This requires students to memorize information and understand, understand and apply knowledge in various fields. This use of knowledge allows students to acquire a wider range of competences, often called «The Skills of the 21st Century». There are several definitions of the term «21st century skills». Within the framework of the curriculum, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) uses the structure created within the framework of the project of identification and selection of competencies. Here competence is more than just knowledge and skills. It includes the psychological resources of certain contexts and, therefore, includes the ability to solve complex problems. For example, the ability to communicate effectively is the ability of a person to communicate, acquire practical skills in the field of information technology and build relationships with others».

          Listening is the selection and assignment of meaning to sound. When we listen we attempt to give importance to what we recognize and what we want to hear. In other words, we select what information is important to listen to, in order to try to be able to understand the message someone is giving us in order to respond (Brewster, Ellis & Girard, 2002). According to Rivers (1981), listening is a creative skill. The creative part of it occurs when you know what action (or non-action) to take to support what you hear, meaning that listeners should have an active role when listening in order to meet a specific purpose. Lindsay and Knight (2006) claim that people have different purposes when they listen. To learn a new language, for instance, it is important to define what listening purpose you have – listening for specific details, listening for general meaning or idea – to help learners organize their thoughts and use intelligent guesswork to ensure learners meet your listening purpose. Therefore, for this study the focus was on developing listening for gist and listening for specific information skills. Listening is the major skill that enables learners to use their other skills. If a learner is able to comprehend what they hear they will have less difficulty speaking, as Rost (1994) mentions, because listening is absolutely necessary since it provides input for the learner. Furthermore, if learners do not understand the input they receive, the learning process simply cannot begin. Language learning depends greatly on listening due to the fact that it is the skill that provides the primary impulse that initiates first, second and foreign language learning that sustains the learning process (Morris &Leavey, 2006). In addition, more than three quarters of what children learn in school happens through listening in the classroom .

Listening is receiving language through the ears. Listening involves identifying the sounds of speech and processing them into words and sentences. When we listen, we use our ears to receive individual sounds (letters, stress, rhythm and pauses) and we use our brain to convert these into messages that mean something to us.Listening in any language requires focus and attention. It is a skill that some people need to work at harder than others. People who have difficulty concentrating are typically poor listeners. Listening in a second language requires even greater focus.Likebabies, we learn this skill by listening to people who already know how to speak the language. This may or may not include native speakers. For practice, you can listen to live or recorded voices. The most important thing is to listen to a variety of voices as often as you can.
How do you really know that someone understood you correctly without asking after every sentence “Do you understand?” (And students are often programmed to respond “yes” even when they didn’t.) This  problem  may also apply to reading, the other “receptive” language skill, in that its focus is largely  on the comprehension of another speaker’s production; however, while  the teacher has some understanding  of how to teach someone to read in English by teaching context clues, for example, to help students comprehend text, how do you really teach someone to listen better (especially when even many native speakers of English often have difficulties with this)? However, while teaching listening  may  seem ambiguous, there are actually a number of principles that apply in teaching listening skills in English.
Pay Attention
Even native speakers need help with this. Focus on the speaker. Look at him or her because facial expressions and body language can communicate as much as language. For example, there will usually be more engagement with the listener in making eye contact and use of hand gestures if what the speaker is saying is of importance to him or her. In addition, it’s easy to mistake what someone actually said if you are not focusing on him or her and are engaged in some other task, such as reading or texting.
Practice Active Listening
Ask the speaker to slow down or repeat when you don’t understand or just want to be certain about what you heard. Repeat back what you think you heard him or her say, as there can often be a gap between what we thought we heard and what the speaker intended. This gap can be addressed by letting the speaker know what you heard: for example, “So what I’m hearing from you is that you would like more quiet and fewer distractions after 9 p.m. so that you can study.” This is called “active listening,” in which the listening portion of a conversation becomes as active as the speaking part in communicating a message, and not only helps the listener in understanding what the speaker is saying, but also can help the speaker in organizing his thoughts and clarify what he wants to communicate: e.g., the speaker may be spluttering something about the late hour and her test tomorrow, and may not consciously know what she is trying to ask for—or is too reticent—until the listener clarifies.

Listen for Key Words

What words does the speaker emphasize? Usually the speaker will let you know by stressing the main point: “Let’s talk about the TIME we will meet tomorrow….” The stressed word “time” signals that the time of tomorrow’s appointment is the main point, as does the marker “Let’s talk about—”

In addition, certain words signal importance by themselves, such as “issues,” as seen above: whatever follows “issues” is of importance. Other key words signaling importance are “concerns” and “points.”

Listening is a very important skill if students want to speak English fluently. No matter how well you communicate, if you don’t understand what the other person is saying, your answer will be a little awkward and, most importantly, random. To help students, we need to take English lessons with them. Here are some basic tips on how to teach students to listen, including a lesson plan template listening activities.

After finishing this, the sky is the limit in terms of what you can do. You might consider switching over to focus on other skills such as speaking or writing. Or, you could have students do a presentation related to the listening passage. Maybe you can play a game of some kind with them.  Have students take a closer look at some grammatical points within the passage like the 1st conditional. Get creative in terms of how you tie what you do next to what the students have listened to.
Here some listening activities :
1.             Simon Says
Simon Says is a great go-to listening game. It’s practically perfect for teaching with Total Physical Response. When your students play Simon Says, they will have to follow simple commands and move their bodies in the way you direct them.
This game is also great for reviewing vocabulary or grammar structures if you make a point of including them in your verbal directions.
2.             Listen and Draw
If you have kinesthetic students who struggle to express themselves in English, Listen and Draw isolates listening from speaking. Simply have your students take out a blank piece of paper and give them instructions on what to draw.
For example, you might say the following:

If your students listen correctly, they will have drawn a house (or something like it), and you will be able to tell with one glance whether they understood your directions.
Of course, you can make Listen and Draw as complicated as you like depending on the skill level of your students. This activity is particularly useful for reviewing vocabulary of colors, shapes and prepositions of location.
3.             Running for the Mouth
Running for the Mouth gets your students racing around your classroom to complete a dictation assignment. Have students work with partners or in groups, and make sure you have one available copy of a recording for each group (tape player, computer, CD player–anything will work, just work with what you have). The recordings are positioned around the edges of your room.
On your go, one student from each group runs to their recording and listens to part of it. The student must remember what they heard then run back to their group and dictate it to them. Another group member writes it down and then runs to the recording to memorize the next bit, later running back and dictating it to the group.
4.              Hearing is Believing
Before listening to a dialogue, play some background noise that matches the location of your scene and have students make predictions about what will be in the dialogue.
For example, play a movie clip (without visual or dialogue) that occurs in a restaurant (like this one) before playing a dialogue of people ordering food.
5.             Movie Vocabulary
Have students listen for specific vocabulary in a favorite movie clip. Before class choose a movie clip (FluentU or YouTube have tons to choose from) and prewatch it, noting any interesting or unusual vocabulary. Type up the words in list form. Keep them in order for an easier listening activity and randomize them for a more challenging activity.
In class give your students copies of the vocabulary list. Review the pronunciation with students and then play the movie clip for them. Have students mark off the words as they hear them. After watching the clip, see who heard the most words and discuss the meaning of any words your students don’t already know.
6. Sound Vocabulary
If you are doing a vocabulary unit on animals, modes of transportation or anything else that leads itself to specific noises, try having your students match sounds to words. Give them vocabulary words on index cards or in a numbered list.
Play sounds associated with each word, such as sounds that the item makes, sounds you might hear at that place, or conversations that might happen in association with the words. Then have students match each sound clip to the appropriate vocabulary word.
6.             TED Talk
TED Talks are a great resource for ESL teachers and students. They are short, interesting and versatile. Play a TED Talk for your intermediate or advanced students.
The first time through, ask students to listen for the main idea. The second time through, have them listen for specific comprehension questions. The third time through have them listen for opinions versus facts.
7.             Music to My Lexicon
Choose a song to play for your class. Anything will work, so try and match your song to the personality of your class. Before class, make a list of interesting vocabulary words that appear in the song.
Give the list to your students and review the pronunciation of each word. Then play the song for them and let them cross off the words on the list as they hear them.
8. Cloze Lyrics
You can also use a song for a great cloze exercise. Get the lyrics to the song you want to play and replace each fifth word with a blank. Or you can target specific words you want your students to listen for.
As they listen to the song, students will have to fill in the blanks in the lyrics.
9.             Tongue Twister Telephone
The classic game of telephone is good for logical listeners, especially when you start the telephone chain with a tongue twister.
Students will have to puzzle out what their classmates are saying with only one chance to hear the tongue twister as it’s passed down the line from student to student in whispers.
Very few teachers follow the technique of reading aloud a paragraph or two for improving the listening skill of the students. Some of the teachers assign the task to students to listen to English news and watch English plays and movies, but majority of the teachers do not assign this task. Majority of the teachers give instructions to students either in native language or in National language and very few teachers give instructions in the target language. So for as the use of electronic media is concerned; no teacher makes use of electronic media in the classroom. In order to compel students to listen to the teachers attentively, very few teachers use the technique of asking students to re tell the story in the target language.

Almost all the teachers agree that time utilized inside the classroom is not sufficient to bring improvement in the listening skill of the students. The teachers also agree that mother tongue creates great hurdles in improving listening skill of the students. In order to improve the situation, an experimental study was conducted. The results of the experimental study showed that a significant change in the listening skill of the students could be brought if innovative strategies were applied in the classroom

In conclusion, the future of our independent state depends on the spiritual wealth, culture, knowledge and skills of the younger generation. In this regard,  the development and development of students ‘cognitive interest in the educational process at school plays a leading role in the development of the ability to independently accumulate knowledge in the future and the effectiveness of using various methods and techniques in the classroom in the development and formation of students’ cognitive interest in the implementation of educational, developmental and educational tasks provided for in the teaching of subjects.