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TASK-BASED LISTENING ACTIVITIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH
Elmuratova Z
Nukus State Pedagogical Institute, teacher
As a demanding language skill, listening has frequently been underestimated by students and
educators in the field of second language acquisition because effective listening skills are developed
over time with lots of practice but listening practices seem limited and the activities are most of the
time decontextualized or inappropriate for students. Generally speaking, listening has attracted the
least attention among the four language skills because it was regarded as a passive skill. Many
listening classes still heavily rely on decontextualized listening activities which are not meaningful
enough to motivate students and enhance their listening abilities. The emergence of communicative
language teaching (CLT) and the shift in language teaching from developing the linguistic
competence to communicative competence was the starting point where listening skill has been
considered as an active skill. However a review of the literature confirms the use of the approach
across a wide breadth of disciplines in differing national contexts, including Media and Business
Studies, Geography, Environmental Science, Education, Information Technology and
Sustainability.[5,1] Stemming from CLT, task-based language teaching focuses on communicative
purpose of language and the final outcome of the tasks as they are used in everyday life. In the
Methodology strand students enter into teaching profession as specialists of English teachers who are
familiar with a sufficient range of approaches to teaching and learning English to meet the needs of
learners of XXI century.[4,3]
Tasks for listening comprehension. As a general rule, listening comprehension will be enhanced
if tasks (with communicative purposes) are used instead of decontextualized exercises. Advocating
the concept of task, Dunkel puts forward: “The students should be required to do something in
response to what they hear that will demonstrate their understanding"[1;104] Examples of tasks are
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making an appointment, making a hotel reservation, filling out a form, labelling a map, etc. has
classified listening tasks into the following types:
1. Matching: requires learners to listen to a text and then match a numbered list of items with
a set of options. The purpose of this task is to evaluate how well learners can listen to details.
2. Labelling: requires learners to select the labels from a list which best match the blank parts
of a visual task. The purpose of this task is to assess students’ ability to understand descriptions of a
place which usually includes spatial- and direction-related expressions such as opposite to, in front
of, etc.
3. Selecting (multiple choice): this listening task requires learners to listen to a text and
answer some questions each with 3-4 choices. This task type aims to check the learners’ detailed or
general understanding of the main points of the listening text and their ability to answer some
questions.
4. Form-filling: this listening task requires learners to listen to a text and complete the
information requested and it evaluates the learners’ ability to evaluate the relationships and details.
5. Sentence completion: this listening task requires learners to listen to sentences which
summarize the key information of the text and complete a gap in each sentence using information
from the listening text. The purpose is to measure the learners’ ability to focus on the main points of
the text.
6. Summary completion: this listening task requires learners to complete a summary which
contains a number of gaps and it assesses learners’ understanding of the overall meaning and main
points of the section summarized.
7. Short-answer questions: this listening task requires learners to listen to a text and read a set
of related questions to which they have to write a short answer. Such tasks evaluate learners’ ability
to listen for concrete facts such as places or times.
During task-based listening activities students have to activate knowledge of a topic and context
in order to create one’s own interpretation of what they have heard. In addition, these activities
require information about roles, number and relationship of listeners and speakers who construct
meaning of the utterance and respond to each. On the other hand, teachers should include realistic
listening tasks in order to make the lesson effective and meaningful for learners. Moreover, teachers
also use various texts including formal and informal language, enhance learners’ confidence and help
them avoid bad habits such as omitting important words, not paying attention or dreaming while
listening.
There are three stages occurring in a listening task:
Pre-listening stage: This stage establishes a framework for listening including asking for
learner’s knowledge about the topic, guessing content from the title, commenting on a picture,
reviewing vocabulary, etc..
While-listening stage: In this stage learners take part in a listening activity while responding
to the task. It includes ordering pictures, completing a timetable, constructing comprehensible notes,
analyzing true/false statements, etc.
Post-listening stage: This phase facilitates development of skills including writing a summary,
reading a text related to the topic, practicing role play activities, etc.
As stated in Nunan, listening tasks are further classified in relation to learner’s’ engagement in
bottom-up or top-down processing. According to Ellis, bottom-up processing involves
"understanding a text by analyzing the words and sentences in the text itself”. [2;339] Nunan’s study
provides that bottom-up processes involve decoding words, sounds and lexical items, dividing the
stream of speech into units and using phonological and grammatical signals to organize the input
into these units . On the other hand, Ellis defines top-down processing as "understanding a text by
making use of one’s existing knowledge and contextual information". Finally, Nunan explained that
top-down processes involve attaching an interaction to a part of a certain event (complaining,
storytelling or joking), attaching persons or places to sections, expecting outcomes and deducing the
topic of a speech, the consecution between events and missing.
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According to Nunan, listening is a six-staged process, consisting of Hearing, Attending,
Understanding, Remembering, Evaluating and Responding. These stages occur in sequence and rapid
succession
.
[3;23]
The first one is ‘Hearing’ and has to do with the response caused by sound waves stimulating
the sensory receptors of the ear; hearing is the perception of sound, not necessarily paying attention,
you must hear to listen, but you need not listen to hear.
For this, we have ‘Attention’. It refers to a selection that our brain focuses on. The brain screens
stimuli and permits only a select few to come into focus.
The third stage is Understanding, which consists of analyzing the meaning of what we have
heard and understanding symbols we have seen and heard. We must analyze the stimuli we have
perceived. Symbolic stimuli are not only words, they can be sounds like applause or even sights, like
a blue uniform that have symbolic meanings as well. To do this, we have to stay in the right context
and understand the intended meaning. The meaning attached to these symbols is a function of our
past associations and of the context in which the symbols occur for successful interpersonal
communication: the listener must understand the intended meaning and the context assumed by the
sender.
After following with the next stage, it is necessary to make a remark: as it has mentioned
previously, the background knowledge is important and people have to take into account several
points: general factual information, local factual information, socio-cultural knowledge and
knowledge of context. With these factors, the information will be correctly received.
The next step, ‘Remembering’, is an important Listening process because it means that an
individual, in addition to receiving and interpreting the message, has also added it to the mind’s
storage bank, which means that the information will be remembered in our mind. But just as our
attention is selective, so too is our memory, what is remembered may be quite different from what
was originally heard or seen.
Responding is a stage in which, according to the response, the speaker checks if the message
has been received correctly. This stage requires that the receiver complete the process through verbal
or non verbal feedback, because the speaker has no other way to determine if a message has been
received. Therefore, it is sometimes complicated as we do not have the opportunity to go back and
check comprehension.[4;23]
Listening interacts with speaking in the aural-oral communication feedback system. Ordinarily
listening is not an isolated skill. In normal, daily communication, listening usually occurs in
conjunction with speaking. One person speaks, and the other, through attending by means of the
listening process, responds. Only in certain circumstances-for instance, in a lecture situation, at the
theater, or when listening to radio or watching television-does listening seem to become an isolated
skill, unsupported by and not interacting with other language skills.
Listening activities improve students’ listening and speaking skills. It gives an opportunity to
enhance the learners’ creativity and critical thinking skills
REFERENCES:
1.
Dörnyei, Z. Teaching and researching motivation. London: Pearson.2001
2.
Nunan, D. Language Teaching and Methodology. London: Prentice Hall.1998
3.
Nunan, D. Communicative language teaching: Making it work. ELT Journal. Prabhu, N.S.
Second Language Pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4.
TAJIEVA A., BABANIYAZOVA N. PERSONALITY AS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN
FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING.
5.
Mamirbaeva D., Djumamuratova D. SOME FEATURES OF PROJECT-BASED
LEARNING //QUALITY OF TEACHER EDUCATION UNDER MODERN CHALLENGES. –
2023. – Т. 1. – №. 1. – С. 350-353.
