Reading Strategies
Reading Strategies
Teaching Listening
(http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/developlisten.htm)
(©2003, 2004 The National Capital Language Resource Center, Washington, DC | site map |
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To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather than on its product.
• They develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by
asking students to think and talk about how they listen in their native language.
• They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using
authentic listening tasks.
• They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener
rather than as a teacher.
• When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will
work best for the listening purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why
students should use the strategies.
• They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice outside
of class in their listening assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what
they're doing while they complete listening tape assignments.
• They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use
immediately after completing an assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-
class and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically review how and when to
use particular strategies.
• They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies by
using the target language to conduct classroom business: making announcements,
assigning homework, describing the content and format of tests.
• They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They
explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of listening
task or with another skill.
By raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active engagement, and by
explicitly teaching listening strategies, instructors help their students develop both the ability and
the confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom.
In this way they give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new
language.
One-Way Communication
Materials:
Procedure:
• Help students identify the listening goal: to obtain specific information; to decide whether
to continue listening; to understand most or all of the message
• Help students outline predictable sequences in which information may be presented:
who-what-when-where (news stories); who-flight number-arriving/departing-gate
number (airport announcements); "for [function], press [number]" (telephone recordings)
• Help students identify key words/phrases to listen for
Two-Way Communication
In authentic two-way communication, the listener focuses on the speaker's meaning rather than
the speaker's language. The focus shifts to language only when meaning is not clear. Note the
difference between the teacher as teacher and the teacher as authentic listener in the dialogues in
the popup screens.
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Teaching Listening
As you design listening tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the information in an aural
text is an unrealistic expectation to which even native speakers are not usually held. Listening
exercises that are meant to train should be success-oriented and build up students' confidence in
their listening ability.
Contextualized listening activities approximate real-life tasks and give the listener an idea of the
type of information to expect and what to do with it in advance of the actual listening. A
beginning level task would be locating places on a map (one way) or exchanging name and
address information (two way). At an intermediate level students could follow directions for
assembling something (one way) or work in pairs to create a story to tell to the rest of the class
(two way).
Each activity should have as its goal the improvement of one or more specific listening skills. A
listening activity may have more than one goal or outcome, but be careful not to overburden the
attention of beginning or intermediate listeners.
Recognizing the goal(s) of listening comprehension in each listening situation will help students
select appropriate listening strategies.
The factors listed below can help you judge the relative ease or difficulty of a listening text for a
particular purpose and a particular group of students.
How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or instruction conform to
familiar expectations? Texts in which the events are presented in natural chronological order,
which have an informative title, and which present the information following an obvious
organization (main ideas first, details and examples second) are easier to follow.
How familiar are the students with the topic? Remember that misapplication of background
knowledge due to cultural differences can create major comprehension difficulties.
Does the text contain redundancy? At the lower levels of proficiency, listeners may find short,
simple messages easier to process, but students with higher proficiency benefit from the natural
redundancy of the language.
Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly differentiated? It is
easier to understand a text with a doctor and a patient than one with two doctors, and it is even
easier if they are of the opposite sex. In other words, the more marked the differences, the easier
the comprehension.
Does the text offer visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the listeners hear? Visual
aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images in a video help contextualize the listening
input and provide clues to meaning.
Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view.
The activities chosen during pre-listening may serve as preparation for listening in several ways.
During pre-listening the teacher may
• assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text
• provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their comprehension of
the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge that the students possess
• clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage
• make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will play,
and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening
• provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or
class discussion activities
Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose, and
students' proficiency level.
While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them do during or
immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these points in mind when planning while-
listening activities:
If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow them to
read through it before listening. Students need to devote all their attention to the listening task.
Be sure they understand the instructions for the written task before listening begins so that they
are not distracted by the need to figure out what to do.
Keep writing to a minimum during listening. Remember that the primary goal is comprehension,
not production. Having to write while listening may distract students from this primary goal. If a
written response is to be given after listening, the task can be more demanding.
Organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text. Combine global activities such
as getting the main idea, topic, and setting with selective listening activities that focus on details
of content and form.
Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of
the whole. Before the listening activity begins, have students review questions they will answer
orally or in writing after listening. Listening for the answers will help students recognize the
crucial parts of the message.
Give immediate feedback whenever possible. Encourage students to examine how or why their
responses were incorrect.
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Listening Skills
http://www.d.umn.edu/kmc/student/loon/acad/strat/ss_listening.html
The average college student spends about 14 hours per week in class listening (or perhaps I
should say "hearing"--there is a difference!) to lectures. See if you can improve your listening
skills by following some of the strategies below:
Maintain eye contact with the instructor. Of course you will need to look at your notebook to
write your notes, but eye contact keeps you focused on the job at hand and keeps you involved in
the lecture.
Focus on content, not delivery. Have you ever counted the number of times a teacher clears
his/her throat in a fifteen minute period? If so, you weren't focusing on content.
Avoid emotional involvement. When you are too emotionally involved in listening, you tend to
hear what you want to hear--not what is actually being said. Try to remain objective and open-
minded.
Avoid distractions. Don't let your mind wander or be distracted by the person shuffling papers
near you. If the classroom is too hot or too cold try to remedy that situation if you can. The
solution may require that you dress more appropriately to the room temperature.
Treat listening as a challenging mental task. Listening to an academic lecture is not a passive
act--at least it shouldn't be. You need to concentrate on what is said so that you can process the
information into your notes.
Stay active by asking mental questions. Active listening keeps you on your toes. Here are
some questions you can ask yourself as you listen. What key point is the professor making? How
does this fit with what I know from previous lectures? How is this lecture organized?
Use the gap between the rate of speech and your rate of thought. You can think faster than
the lecturer can talk. That's one reason your mind may tend to wander. All the above suggestions
will help you keep your mind occupied and focused on what being said. You can actually begin
to anticipate what the professor is going to say as a way to keep your mind from straying. Your
mind does have the capacity to listen, think, write and ponder at the same time, but it does take
practice.
=================================
Prereading
Strategies
...to be beneficial,
carefully directed
Roman,, 4 BCE - 65 AD
* Reading critically
* Prereading strategies ◄
* Reading essays
* Interpretive reading
* Reading fiction
Brainstorming:
List all the information that comes to mind about this title
Use this knowledge to reframe or reorder what you know, or to note what you disagree
with, for further research
Group discussions:
Group discussions in and out of class will help you to discover what you bring to your
reading, what your fellow students bring, as well as shared experiences
If you find they have new background information, ask for more information from them
then develop a "mind map" around it. It can be effective either in a group or by yourself
Pre-questions:
You can also write out a series of questions you expect to be answered when reading:
Examples:
Definition
What is....?
Examples
What are similar examples that share attributes but differ in some way? Experience
Visual Aids:
Pictures and other visual material can activate your prior knowledge.
Use the Internet to search for pictures related to your title/topic to give you visual images
of what you are about to read.
Advance Organizers:
Relate new reading material to something you already know, to your background or
experiences.
Ask your teacher for assistance in developing these.
Overviews:
Discussing information about the selection or assignment prior to reading must take
place.
This may take the form of class discussions, printed previews, photographs, outlines, or
films. Spend enough time before the students begin the assignment to ensure understanding of it.
Vocabulary Previews:
Unfamiliar key words need to be taught to students before reading so that new words,
background information, and comprehension can improve together.
List all words in the assignment that may be important for students to understand.
Arrange words to show the relationships to the learning task. Add words students probably
already understand to connect relationships between what is known and the unknown. Share
information with students. Verbally quiz them on the information before assigned reading
begins.
A Purpose for Reading: When students have a purpose for reading a selection, they find
that purpose not only directs their reading towards a goal, but helps to focus their attention.
Purposes may come from teacher directed questions, questions from class discussions or
brainstorming, or from the individual student. Along with the question, it is a good idea to pose
predictions of the outcome and problems which need to be solved. These may be generated by
the student or the teacher, but the teacher should use these to guide students in the needed
direction for the assigned selection.
Author Consideration: Depending upon the content area, a discussion of the author of the
particular work can be helpful to the understanding of it. What is the author trying to say? What
is his point of view and his reason for writing the particular work?
KWL: This strategy consists of three steps for students to use with expository text:
Develop a three column poster with each question in a column and list out responses.
Adapted from
Porter, Karla, M.Ed., Prereading strategies, funded by the State Board of Education from
Federal Funds, Weber State University.
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10 Bibliography Discussion Area Next Page
Listening
(http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/xla/ela15b.html)
Listening is more than merely hearing words. Listening is an active process by which
students receive, construct meaning from, and respond to spoken and or nonverbal messages
(Emmert, 1994). As such, it forms an integral part of the communication process and should not
be separated from the other language arts. Listening comprehension complements reading
comprehension. Verbally clarifying the spoken message before, during, and after a presentation
enhances listening comprehension. Writing, in turn, clarifies and documents the spoken message.
Teachers can help students become effective listeners by making them aware of the
different kinds of listening, the different purposes for listening, and the qualities of good
listeners. Wolvin and Coakley (1992) identify four different kinds of listening:
* Therapeutic (Empathetic) Listening--Students listen to support others but not judge them.
Traditionally, secondary schools have concentrated on the comprehensive and critical
kinds of listening. Teachers need to provide experiences in all four kinds. For example, listening
to literature read, listening to radio plays, and watching films develop appreciative in addition to
comprehensive and critical listening. When students provide supportive communication in
collaborative groups, they are promoting therapeutic listening. For example, the listening
behaviour can show understanding, acceptance, and trust, all of which facilitate communication.
Students benefit from exposure to all four types of listening.
Pre-listening
* Have a specific purpose for listening and attempt to ascertain speaker's purpose
* Minimize distractions
* Have no specific purpose for listening and have not considered speaker's purpose
During Listening
* Are flexible notemakers--outlining, mapping, categorizing--who sift and sort, often adding
information of their own
After Listening
Listening requires conscious mental effort and specific purpose. The purposes for listening relate
to "types" of listening:
Students should be able to determine what their purpose should be in any given listening
situation.
Undisplayed Graphic
Students do not have an innate understanding of what effective listeners do; therefore, it is the
responsibility of teachers to share that knowledge with them. Perhaps the most valuable way to
teach listening skills is for teachers to model them themselves, creating an environment which
encourages listening. Teachers can create such an environment by positive interaction, actively
listening to all students and responding in an open and appropriate manner. Teachers should
avoid responding either condescendingly or sarcastically. As much as possible, they should
minimize distractions and interruptions.
It is important for the teacher to provide numerous opportunities for students to practise listening
skills and to become actively engaged in the listening process. The three phases of the listening
process are: pre-listening, during listening, and after listening.
Pre-listening
During the pre-listening phase, teachers need to recognize that all students bring different
backgrounds to the listening experience. Beliefs, attitudes, and biases of the listeners will affect
the understanding of the message. In addition to being aware of these factors, teachers should
show students how their backgrounds affect the messages they receive.
Before listening, students need assistance to activate what they already know about the ideas
they are going to hear. Simply being told the topic is not enough. Pre-listening activities are
required to establish what is already known about the topic, to build necessary background, and
to set purpose(s) for listening. Students need to understand that the
... act of listening requires not just hearing but thinking, as well as a good deal of interest and
information which both speaker and listener must have in common. Speaking and listening entail
... three components: the speaker, the listener, and the meaning to be shared; speaker, listener,
and meaning form a unique triangle. (King, 1984, p. 177)
There are several strategies that students and their teachers can use to prepare for a listening
experience. They can:
1. Activate Existing Knowledge. Students should be encouraged to ask the question: What do I
already know about this topic? From this teachers and students can determine what information
they need in order to get the most from the message. Students can brainstorm, discuss, read, view
films or photos, and write and share journal entries.
2. Build Prior Knowledge. Teachers can provide the appropriate background information
including information about the speaker, topic of the presentation, purpose of the presentation,
and the concepts and vocabulary that are likely to be embedded in the presentation. Teachers
may rely upon the oral interpretation to convey the meanings of unfamiliar words, leaving the
discussion of these words until after the presentation. At this stage, teachers need to point out the
role that oral punctuation, body language, and tone play in an oral presentation.
3. Review Standards for Listening. Teachers should stress the importance of the audience's role
in a listening situation. There is an interactive relationship between audience and speaker, each
affecting the other. Teachers can outline the following considerations to students:
* Students have to be physically prepared for listening. They need to see and hear the
speaker. If notes are to be taken, they should have paper and pencil at hand.
* Students need to be attentive. In many cultures, though not all, it is expected that the
listener look directly at the speaker and indicate attention and interest by body language. The
listener should never talk when a speaker is talking. Listeners should put distractions and
problems aside.
4. Establish Purpose. Teachers should encourage students to ask: "Why am I listening?" "What
is my purpose?" Students should be encouraged to articulate their purpose.
* Am I listening to understand? Students should approach the speech with an open mind. If
they have strong personal opinions, they should be encouraged to recognize their own biases.
* Am I listening to remember? Students should look for the main ideas and how the speech
is organized. They can fill in the secondary details later.
* Am I listening to be entertained? Students should listen for those elements that make for
an enjoyable experience (e.g., emotive language, imagery, mood, humour, presentation skills).
* Am I listening to support? Students should listen closely to determine how other
individuals are feeling and respond appropriately (e.g., clarify, paraphrase, sympathize,
encourage).
Before a speaker's presentation, teachers also can have students formulate questions that they
predict will be answered during the presentation. If the questions are not answered, students may
pose the questions to the speaker. As well, students should be encouraged to jot down questions
during listening.
T -- Tune in
(The listener must tune in to the speaker and the subject, mentally calling up everything
known about the subject and shutting out all distractions.)
Q -- Question
(The listener should mentally formulate questions. What will this speaker say about this
topic? What is the speaker's background? I wonder if the speaker will talk about...?)
L -- Listen
(The listener should organize the information as it is received, anticipating what the speaker
will say next and reacting mentally to everything heard.)
R -- Review
(The listener should go over what has been said, summarize, and evaluate constantly. Main
ideas should be separated from subordinate ones.)
5. Use a Listening Guide. A guide may provide an overview of the presentation, its main ideas,
questions to be answered while listening, a summary of the presentation, or an outline. For
example, a guide such as the following could be used by students during a presentation in class.
* Situation:
Speaker's name:
Date:
Occasion:
* What transitional expressions (e.g., firstly, secondly, in contrast, in conclusion) does the
speaker use?
During Listening
Students need to understand the implications of rate in the listening process. Nichols
(1948) found that people listen and think at four times the normal conversation rate. Students
have to be encouraged to use the "rate gap" to actively process the message. In order to use that
extra time wisely, there are several things students can be encouraged to do:
They can run a mental commentary on it; they can doubt it, talk back to it, or extend it.
They can rehearse it in order to remember it; that is, they repeat interesting points back to
themselves. They can formulate questions to ask the speaker ... jot down key words or key
phrases ... They can wonder if what they are listening to is true, or what motives the speaker has
in saying it, or whether the speaker is revealing personal feelings rather than objective
assessments. (Temple and Gillet, 1989, p. 55)
Effective listeners:
* connect: make connections with people, places, situations, and ideas they know
* find meaning: determine what the speaker is saying about people, places, and ideas
* question: pay attention to those words and ideas that are unclear
* make and confirm predictions: try to determine what will be said next
* make inferences: determine speaker's intent by "listening between the lines"; infer what the
speaker does not actually say
* reflect and evaluate: respond to what has been heard and pass judgement.
Several strategies such as the following have been developed to help teachers guide students
through the listening process.
Teachers can use the Directed-Listening Thinking Activity (Stauffer, 1980). A description of this
activity follows.
* Choose a story with clear episodes and action. Plan your stops just before important events.
Two to four stops is plenty.
* At each stop, elicit summaries of what happened so far, and predictions of "what might
happen next".
* Ask the students to explain why they made particular predictions and to use previous story
information for justification.
* Avoid "right" or "wrong"; use terms like "might happen", "possible", or "likely".
* After reading a section, review previous predictions and let the students change their ideas.
* Involve everyone by letting the students show hands or take sides with others on predictions.
* Keep up the pace! Do not let discussions drag; get back to the story quickly (Temple &
Gillett, 1989, p. 101).
Teachers can create listening guides to focus students' attention on the content, organization, or
devices used by a speaker. The following is an example:
# Qualifications of speaker:
* Example words: for example, for instance, thus, in other words, as an illustration
Usually found in: generalization plus example (but may be found in enumeration and
argumentation)
* Time word: first, second, third, meanwhile, next, finally, at last, today, tomorrow, soon
Usually found in: narration, chronological patterns, directions (and whenever events or
examples are presented in a time sequence)
Usually found in: Enumeration, description, and sometimes in generalization plus example
Usually found in: comparison and contrast (and whenever speaker makes a comparison or
contrast in another pattern)(Devine, 1982, p. 24).
Most students need practice in making inferences while listening. A simple way to help
students become aware that there is meaning between the lines is to read a passage from
literature which describes a character's actions, appearance, or surroundings. From this
information, students make inferences about the character's personality. Teachers should keep in
mind that the purpose of an exercise such as this is not to elicit the exact answer, but to provide
opportunities for students to make various inferences. Students also need to be aware of the
inferences they can make from non-verbal cues. A speaker's tone and body language can convey
a message as well.
Teachers can also encourage guided imagery when students are listening to presentations
that have many visual images, details, or descriptive words. Students can form mental pictures to
help them remember while listening.
Although listeners need not capture on paper everything they hear, there are times that
students need to focus on the message and need to record certain words and phrases. Such
notemaking ("listening with pen in hand") forces students to attend to the message. Devine
(1982) suggests strategies such as the following:
* Give questions in advance and remind listeners to listen for possible answers.
* Provide a rough outline, map, chart, or graph for students to complete as they follow the
lecture.
* Have students jot down "new-to-me" items (simple lists of facts or insights that the listener
has not heard before).
Transcribing or writing down live or recorded speech can sharpen students' listening, spelling,
and punctuation skills.
* The teacher then dictates the passage slowly to the class. The students transcribe the form
and conventions (i.e., spelling, punctuation, and capitalization) as accurately as possible.
Palmatier (1973) suggests students can benefit from the Verbatim Split-page Procedure [VSPP].
Students divide their notebook paper so that 40% of each page lies to the left and 60% to the
right. Students take brief notes on the left-hand side only. The right-hand side is used after
listening for reorganizing and expanding on the scribbles to the left.
Sample VSPP
40%
60%
Heroic
Superhuman
Universal
Enduring
Typical of Time/Culture
Recurring
2. Each hero/heroine is typical of a time in history and the culture of that time.
Critical thinking plays a major role in effective listening. Listening in order to analyze and
evaluate requires students to evaluate a speaker's arguments and the value of the ideas,
appropriateness of the evidence, and the persuasive techniques employed. Effective listeners
apply the principles of sound thinking and reasoning to the messages they hear at home, in
school, in the workplace, or in the media.
Planning and structuring classroom activities to model and encourage students to listen critically
is important. Students should learn to:
Critical listeners are concerned first with understanding accurately and completely what they
hear (Brownell, 1996). Students should identify the speaker's topic, purpose, intended audience,
and context. The most frequent critical listening context is persuasion. They should keep an
open-minded and objective attitude as they strive to identify the main idea(s)/thesis/claim and the
supporting arguments/points/anecdotes. They should ask relevant questions and restate
perceptions to make sure they have understood correctly. Taking notes will enhance their
listening.
Critical listeners must understand the nature and appropriateness of the evidence and
reasoning. What evidence is used? Expert testimony? Facts? Statistics? Examples? Reasons?
Opinions? Inappropriate evidence might include untrustworthy testimony; inadequate, incorrect,
inappropriate, or irrelevant facts, statistics, or examples; or quotations out of context or
incomplete.
Critical listeners must understand the logic and reasoning of the speaker. Is this evidence
developed in logical arguments such as deductive, inductive, causal, or analogous? Faulty
reasoning might include hasty or over-inclusive generalization, either-or argument, causal fallacy
(therefore, because of this), non sequitur (confusion of cause and effect), reasoning in a circle,
begging or ignoring the question, false analogy, attacking the person instead of the idea, or guilt
by association.
Critical listeners must understand that persuaders often rely on emotional appeal as well as
evidence and reasoning. Critical listeners, therefore, must recognize effective persuasive appeals
and propaganda devices. A skilled critical listener identifies and discounts deceptive persuasive
appeals such as powerful connotative (loaded) words, doublespeak, appeals to fears, prejudice,
discontent, flattery, stereotype, or tradition. The listener must also identify and discount
propaganda techniques such as bandwagon appeals, glittering generalities, inappropriate
testimonials, pseudo-scientific evidence, card-stacking, and name-calling.
By understanding and practising the principles of objective thinking, students can prepare
themselves to listen effectively in most situations.
Listening affects our ability to make good decisions, our appreciation of the world around us,
and our personal relationships. Effective communication begins with listening and with listeners
carrying 80 percent of the responsibility in the interaction (Brownell, 1996, pp. 6-7). Whether at
home, in school, or in the workplace, effective listening is important for the development and
maintenance of healthy relationships.
After Listening
Students need to act upon what they have heard to clarify meaning and extend their thinking.
Well-planned post-listening activities are just as important as those before and during. Some
examples follow.
* To begin with, students can ask questions of themselves and the speaker to clarify their
understanding and confirm their assumptions.
* Hook and Evans (1982) suggest that the post-mortem is a very useful device. Students
should talk about what the speaker said, question statements of opinion, amplify certain remarks,
and identify parallel incidents from life and literature.
* Students can review their notes and add information that they did not have an opportunity to
record during the speech.
* Students can analyze and evaluate critically what they have heard.
* Students can be given opportunities to engage in activities that build on and develop
concepts acquired during an oral presentation. These may include writing (e.g., response journal,
learning log, or composition), reading (e.g., further research on a topic or a contradictory
viewpoint), art or drama (e.g., designing a cover jacket after a book talk or developing a mock
trial concerning the topic through drama in role).
Assessment of Listening
Listening is one of the more difficult aspects of the language arts to assess. It cannot be easily
observed and can be measured only through inference. However, there are both informal and
formal strategies and instruments that teachers can use to help them in their assessments.
Informal Assessment
The most effective assessment of listening may be teachers' observations and students' self-
assessments. Students initially may not be aware of how well they listen and, therefore, need
teacher guidance.
Self-assessments should be followed with one-on-one discussions about student progress.
Teachers can also videotape students while they are listening and follow up with discussion.
The following assessment forms are provided as examples. To be able to view and copy these
files the user must have a viewing program such as Acrobat Reader. If you do not have such a
program, click on the Acrobat Insignia provided below.
Formal Assessment
More formal listening assessments can be prepared by teachers based on objectives and
perceived needs. Some examples follow.
* A score of 70% or better on basic recall and basic inferential questions indicates that the
student has comprehended the passage.
Questions can also be designed to determine if students are comprehending critically and
creatively.
2. Students can paraphrase, summarize, analyze, make notes, complete a listening guide, or
write a response to a spoken or multimedia presentation. The assessment tasks can be as simple
as listing significant ideas and arguments, answering a series of questions, or identifying
connotative meanings of key words. They can be as challenging as formulating their own
questions; identifying irrelevant details; identifying fallacies, bias, or prejudice; using the
information presented and applying it to a new situation; or judging the effects of various devices
the speaker may use to influence the listener or viewer.
* After placing ten details on the chalkboard, the teacher reads a ten-minute story aloud.
After listening to the story, students are asked to jot down the four or five details that are most
important to the outcome. The responses provide insights into students' listening ability.
* Students listen to a story and, afterwards, write down three key qualities of the character
and their reasons for selecting these. While listening to the story a second time, the students
listen for and record details that prove their assertions about the character.
Even though listening is a difficult language strand to evaluate, assessment must take place to
validate its place in a curriculum and to provide feedback to students. The feedback should be
specific, concise, and as meaningful as possible. As with all evaluation, it needs to be
continuous.
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=========================================
David Huron
Society for Music Theory 2002 Conference.
Columbus, Ohio
November 1, 2002
Handout
Listening mode: a distinctive attitude or approach that can be brought to bear on a listening
experience. Some simple possible listening modes:
1. Distracted listening. Distracted listening occurs where the listener pays no conscious
attention whatsoever to the music. Typically, the listener is occupied with other tasks, and
may even be unaware of the existence of the music.
2. Tangential listening. Tangential listening is similar to distracted listening except that the
listener is engaged in thought whose origin can be traced to the music, but the thought is
largely tangential to the perceptual experience itself. An auditor is engaged in tangential
listening when preoccupied with thoughts such as: why did the concert organizers
program me this work? Isn't that the oboist who played at the last chamber music
concert? I wonder how much money the guest artist makes in a year? Tangential listening
behaviors may occasionally approach what might be called metaphysical listening:
4. Signal listening. Truax coined the term "listening-in-readiness" to denote the state of a
listener waiting for some expected auditory event. E.g., rather than laboriously count
hundreds of bars of rest, a percussionist may recognize a certain musical passage as a cue
or "alarm" -- signaling the need to prepare to perform. In effect, the music is heard in
terms of a set of signals or sign-posts. Similarly, a dance couple may wait for a dance
tune with a desired tempo before proceeding on to the dance floor. A more sophisticated
example of signal listening occurs whe listening to a work known or assumed to be in
sonata-allegro form; the listener will wait for features in the music that signal the advent
of the next structural division, such as the advent of the development section, or the
beginning of the second theme in the recapitulation.
8. Allusive listening. Allusive listening may be said to occur where a listener relates
moments or features of the music to similar moments or features in other musical works.
(`This reminds me of a passage in Bartók ...'). Allusive listening may be viewed as a form
of referential listening in which the referential connection is made to the domain of music
itself. Philip Tagg (1979) has made extensive use of allusive listening as a tool for
studying musical meaning. Tagg has created musical "dictionaries" by asking listeners to
construct lists of musical works of which a given work reminds them.
10. Identity listening. A listener engaged in asking any "what is" question regarding the
music is engaged in what might be called "identity listening." Typical "what is" questions
are: What is this instrument I am listening to? Is that a Neapolitan sixth chord? What is
the meter signature? What language are the lyrics in? Who might the composer be? What
is the style of this music called? etc. Identity listening often employs allusive listening as
a problem-solving tactic.
11. Retentive listening. The goal of "retentive listening" is to remember what is being heard.
Retentive listening is most commonly encountered when music students perform ear
training or dictation exercises. Unlike many other modes of listening, retentive listening
is very much a problem-solving behavior. A composer in the process of improvising
might use retentive listening skills to recall a fleeting passage or an appealing
juxtaposition of notes.
12. Fault listening. Fault listening occurs where the listener is mentally keeping a leger of
faults or problems. A high-fidelity buff may note problems in sound reproduction. A
conservatory teacher may note mistakes in execution, problems of intonation, ensemble
balance, phrasing, etc. A composer is apt to identify what might be considered lapses of
skill or instances of poor musical judgment. Fault listening tends to be adopted as a
strategy under three circumstances: 1) where an obvious fault has occurred, the listener
switches from a previous listening mode and becomes vigilant for the occurrence of more
faults (this is a type of signal listening); 2) where the role of the listener is necessarily
critical -- as in tutors, conductors, or music critics; or 3) where the listener has some a
priori reason to mistrust the skill or integrity of the composer, performer, conductor,
audio system, etc.
13. Feature listening. This type of listening is characterized by the listener's disposition to
identify major "features" that occur in the work -- such as motifs, distinctive rhythms,
instrumentation, etc. The listener identifies the recurrence of such features, and also
identifies the evolutions or changes which the features undergo. The "feature listening"
mode may be considered superficially to be a creative union of two other listening
modes: retentive listening (identification and remembrance of features), and signal
listening (recognition of previously occurring features).
14. Innovation listening. A variant form of allusive listening is one based, not upon the
recognition of similarities to previous compositions, but upon the identification of
significant musical novelty. Innovation listening is characterized by a vigilant listening-
in-readiness for a musical feature, gesture, or technique that is unprecedented in the
listener's experience. Composers may be especially prone to engage in innovation
listening.
15. Memory scan listening. When an auditor knows a work by memory, a special type of
signal listening called scan listening is possible. An auditor may approach a memorized
work with a question concerning the occurrence of a certain event: For example, the
auditor may be interested in knowing whether the composer has used timpani in a given
work; or does the word "but" occur in the lyrics to "Row Row Row Your Boat?" The
scan listener will mentally execute a speedy rendition of a work in order to answer a
given question. What distinguishes scan listening from signal listening is that the auditor
tends to be impatient: the tempo of the music can be doubled or quadrupled to advantage
for the scan listener.
16. Directed listening. Directed listening entails a form of selective attention to one element
of a complex texture; the listener purposely excludes or ignores other aspects of the
music. For example, the auditor may attend to a single instrument for a short or
prolonged period of time. Directed listening may ensue as a result of a listener's special
interest, or may result from suggestions made by others. When a listener is concurrently
viewing a notated score, it is possible that a visual attraction or interest in a particular
aspect of a score may cause the listener to selectively attend to the corresponding sounds.
The Norton Scores use a highlighting method to draw attention to various parts in
orchestral scores. These scores thus dispose listeners to adopt a directed listening mode.
18. Ecstatic listening. The term `ecstatic listening' is meant here in a very concrete and
technical way. On occasion music will elicit a sensation of "shivers" localized in the
back, neck and shoulders of an aroused listener -- a physiological response technically
called frisson. The frisson experience normally has a duration of no more than four or
five seconds. It begins as a flexing of the skin in the lower back, rising upward, inward
from the shoulders, up the neck, and sometimes across to the cheeks and onto the scalp.
The face may become flush, hair follicles flex the hairs into standing position, and goose
bumps may appear (piloerection). Frequently, a series of `waves' will rise up the back in
rapid succession. The listener feels the music to have elicited an ecstatic moment and
tends to regard the experience as involuntary. Goldstein (1980) has shown that some
listeners report reduced excitement when under a clinically-administered dose of an
opiate receptor antagonist, naloxone -- suggesting that music engenders endogenous
opioid peptides characteristic of pleasurable experiences. Sloboda (1991) has found
evidence linking "shivers" responses to works especially loved by subjects.
19. Emotional listening. Emotional listening is characterized by deeply felt emotion. The
music engenders feels of sorrow or joy, resignation, great satisfaction. Occasionally there
will be overt signs of emotion, such as the sensation of a lump in one's throat, imminent
or overt weeping, or smiling. The emotions may be related to current events in the
listener's life, but the feelings are more apt to seem non-specific and to arise `from
nowhere'.
20. Kinesthetic listening. This form of listening is characterized by the auditor's compulsion
to move. Feet may tap, hands may conduct, or the listener may feel the urge to dance.
The experience is not so much one of `listening' to the music, as the music `permeating'
the body. Kinesthetic listening is best described as `motivation' rather than
`contemplation'.
21. Performance listening. When performers listen to works that are part of their own
repertoire, they may experience a form of vicarious performance. For conductors,
instrumentalists, and vocalists, arms, fingers, and vocal cords may subliminally re-create
the gestures and performance actions involved during actual performance. In such cases,
listening may be mediated by an acute awareness of the listener's body. For example,
musical passages that are difficult to execute may evoke a heightened sense of tension --
whether or not the sonic gesture conveys some musical tension.
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