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in the globalized world
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7.
Tie-nan, M. I. (2005). Analyze the phenomenon that one word has several meaning and the
countermeasures concerned in the special provisions of criminal law.
Journal of Gansu
Institute of Political Science and Law
.
8.
Wang, S., & Yin, J. (2019). Corpus-based statistical analysis of polysemous words in
legislative Chinese and general Chinese.
THE ROLE OF NEUROLOGY(NEUROSCIENCE) IN OVERCOMING THE
DIFFICULTIES OF EFL STUDENTS WITH LISTENING IN THE TARGET
LANGUAGE
Qabulova Iroda
student
Uzbekistan State World Languages University
Scientific advisor: Satibaldiyev Erkinjon
teacher
Uzbekistan State World Languages University
Abstract
This paper provides information about how to improve EFL students
’
listening
comprehension with the help of techniques and approaches adapted from the field of neuroscience.
This paper also discusses the findings of the author in terms of students
’
listening performance during
EFL classes.
Key words:
EFL classes, language comprehension, listening, neuroscience, visual memory,
visual materials, TED talks
Language skills, mainly listening, are considered one of the most essential parts
of learning the English language. Because of the fact that all aspects of a foreign
language comprehension is connected to the listening skill, particularly in English, that
is to say, the English phonetic system and even the speech organs of native English
speakers are totally different from those living in Central Asia. Which is why
understanding what is being said in a context of the foreign language plays a crucial
role in EFL teaching. There has been a lot in order to improve all of the skills of foreign
languages. For example, designing school and university classrooms with the latest
technologies in order to make it easy to acquire the English language such as modern
Topical issues of language training
in the globalized world
256
TV sets which are easy to access to the internet and play videos, even sensory gadgets
for students to learn.
Tompkins (2002) argues that listening is an important skill for young learners
and it is assumed that about 50 percent of classroom time involves listening. In
classroom settings, spoken language prevails over written language, especially in the
primary stages of language education. Listening and speaking are both active uses of
language (Cameron, 2001). However, many learners find it difficult to listen to foreign
people even if their comprehension of reading, speaking and writing is excellent. It is
a fact that some students often complain that even though they understand well their
English teachers during the class as they speak slowly and clearly, they are in trouble
of understanding what the native speakers are talking about on the record. Why is this
a matter? What is actually wrong in english classes with particularly listening. The first
and the biggest problem students are facing is that even though the essence of learning
a foreign language, namely improving listening, is widely understood in Uzbekistan,
the relevant teaching listening materials haven
’
t been provided.
According to Rubin (1995),
“
For the foreign language learners, listening is the
skill that makes the heaviest processing demands because learners must store
information in short term memory at the same time as they are working to understand
the information
”
(p. 8). Furthermore, as she explains,
“
Whereas in reading learners can
go over the text at leisure, they generally don
’
t have the opportunity to do so in
listening
”
(p. 8).
O‘
Malley, Chamot, and Kupper (1989) claim that
“
listening
comprehension is an active and conscious process in which the listener constitutes
meaning by using cues from contextual information and from existing knowledge...
”
(p. 434). Of course, it is evident that the cognitive process of listening is invisible to
us. Nonetheless, we might reconsider our approaches to teaching listening if we have
a better grasp of the listening process.
The extent to which the methods underlying the generally positive outcomes
of such studies have reached classroom practice seems, from my perspective, to be
limited, a view that is also expressed by other authors across a range of contexts who
Topical issues of language training
in the globalized world
257
comment on teachers doing listening activities or tests with their learners rather than
teaching them how to listen (Suzanne Graham, 2016). This
‘
doin
g‘
or
‘
testin
g‘
approach dates back a long while in England; thus Chambers (1996) outlines what he
sees as the typical approach to listening in foreign language classrooms in that context:
learners listen to a text and complete an accompanying exercise, which is then
corrected. Listening becomes principally a test of comprehension, typically based on
an exercise from a textbook, which, as an examination of such materials indicates,
usually requires the understanding of specific details rather than the global meaning of
the text (thus probably depriving learners of a sense of achievement if they rarely feel
they understand more than a few snippets of class listening materials). This constitutes
what Field (2008) calls the
‘
Comprehension Approach
’
and which, he argues, does
little to develop effective listening skills.
There have been some studies involving the use of TED Talks in extensive
listening. Takaesu (2017), for example, reported using TED Talks to teach his college
EAP (English for Academic Purpose) students whose proficiency levels were quite
varied. About 78% of the higher proficiency students felt that the use of TED Talks for
extensive listening improved their listening skills. Nearly an equal number of the lower
proficiency students (74%) reported improvements in their listening skills. This
showed that even though the TED Talk video podcast is a novel media, it is effective
in supporting extensive listening practice among language learners.
In this research, the subjects were mainly university students studying in two
different groups with the same level of language comprehension (B2). Each group
consists of 15 students, one is experimental, the next is a control group. The research
tool which was used at the beginning of the experiment was an online survey which
consists of 10 questions. These questions are mainly based on finding out how
frequently students come across challenges with understanding authentic audio
materials, what types of materials they prefer to do to improve their listening skills,
which topics they are interested in listening to, and challenges they are facing in doing
listening tasks. According to the survey, 80% of students are interested in listening to
Topical issues of language training
in the globalized world
258
podcasts which are based on current news but often find it difficult to understand the
context. They also mentioned that they like to watch things of their interest to improve
their language comprehension. In the next step, the author took a pre-test, to check
students
’
overall comprehension in listening. The pre-test consists of 20 questions such
as multiple choice, matching information, gap-filling. And the level of the test was
around B2, the same for each group. In order to evaluate students
’
comprehension,
scaling system was used.
Score
Level
19-20
C2
17-18
C1
15-16
B2
10-14
B1
According to the pre-test results, students
’
average listening comprehension
was B2 in each group. Each student
’
s result was provided below. And after the post-
test, there was a positive improvement on students from experimental group, which
means the approaches worked effectively.
Topical issues of language training
in the globalized world
259
Each lesson was designed in terms of students
’
preferences. Experimental
group was taught with the approach that the author was aiming to conduct and control
with traditional method. Eight lessons were conducted for each group within several
weeks. During the lessons, only authentic materials were chosen and adapted to the
class by making up different activities based on the new words, grammar structures,
and mainly context. The outstanding thing about the experiment was to use video
materials instead of an ordinary listening track. Pre, while, and post activities were
applied during each lesson. Additionally, for the vocabulary of the listening task, visual
pictures were used made creatively by AI which depict the exact meaning of the words.
Those materials helped students to learn new words easily with the help of visual
memory based on pictures, and the thing is, students
’
interest in the listening task
increased as the videos contain creative real-life events which also helped them to grab
the main theme of the video. Even when some students were asked about the content
of the videos, they claimed that they even managed to remember small details because
of impact of the moving pictures on them. Apart from that, most students stated that
they found doing listening or improving listening with the help of such techniques very
straightforward and inspiring.
Regarding to the further investigations, there are wide range of techniques that
can be adapted from the field of neuroscience into language teaching, not only for
listening but also other skills as well. This can also be achieved by different teaching
Topical issues of language training
in the globalized world
260
tools apart from the visual teaching technique. Also, in order to achieve even more
better results, more time and effort may be needed.
In conclusion, this research provided positive outcomes, meaning that using
methods and approaches from the field of neuroscience can have benefits in EFL
classes once used properly.
References
1.
Cameron, Lynne. (2002). Teaching languages to young learners (Cambridge Language
teaching library). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
2.
Chambers, G. (1996). Listening. Why? How? Language Learning Journal 14.1, 23
–
27
3.
O‘
Malley, J. M., Chamot, A. U., & Kupper, L. (1989). Listening comprehension strategies in
second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 10(4), 418-437.
4.
Rubin, J. (1995). An overview to a guide for the teaching of second language listening. In D.
J. Mendelsohn, & J. Rubin (Eds.), A guide for the teaching of second language listening (pp.
7-11). San Diego, CA: Dominie Press, Inc.
5.
Suzanne, G. (2016). Research into practice: Listening strategies in an instructed classroom
setting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6.
Tompkins, Gail. (2002). Language arts: content and teaching strategies. 5th ed. New Jersey,
Pearson Prentice Hall
7.
Takaesu, Asako. (2017). TED Talks as an Extensive Listening Resource for EAP Students. In
Kimura, K and Middlecamp, J (Ed.), Asian-Focused ELT Research and Practice: Voices from
the Far Edge (pp. 108-126). Phnom Penh: IDP Education (Cambodia).
8.
Chambers, G. (1996). Listening. Why? How? Language Learning Journal 14.1, 23
–
27
INCORPORATING CURRENT EVENTS AND NEWS ARTICLES IN ESL
CLASSROOMS
Qabulova Iroda
student
Uzbekistan State World Languages University
Scientific supervisor: Akhmadullina Alina
teacher
Uzbekistan State World Languages University
Abstract
This paper is mainly based on improving language learners
’
reading comprehension with
the help of news-based articles taken from the newspapers. It also discusses the research findings
regarding to the students
’
performance during EFL classes.
Key words:
a news-based course, news media source, cognitive awareness, news stories.
