Developing Listening Comprehension In Teaching English To Intermediary Learners

Developing Listening Comprehension in Teaching English to Intermediary Learners

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

TEACHING LISTENING COMPREHENSION TO INTERMEDIARY LEARNERS

Definition

Reasons for using listening in the classroom

Classroom procedure (short stories, songs)

CHAPTER 2

LISTENING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

2.1. The importance of audio tapes

2.2. Video and audio aids

2.3. Audio Material in the Foreign Language Classroom

2.4. Using films in Teaching

CHAPTER3

RESEARCH STUDY

3.1. Research aims

3.2. Research questions

3.3. Research methodology

3.3.1. Research methods and instruments

3.3.2. Research stages

3.3.3. Data collection

3.3.4. Research procedure

3.3.5 Skill based activities

3.4. Data analysis

3.5. Conclusions

CONCLUDING REMARKS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ANNEXES

INTRODUCTION

Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely.

(The Land before Time)

The reason I have chosen this study is to point out the importance of using listening comprehension in Foreign Language Teaching.

This study aims to discuss the issue of ‘teaching listening comprehension’ to intermediate students and to see the relationship between comprehension and potential achievement. The study is based on the qualitative method of classroom observation by observing the listening lesson, and analyzing the lesson plans for teaching listening. This research is aiming to demonstrate how listening to English short stories through using movies, videos, etc, improve intermediate students’ listening skill . The first activities aim at activating the students’ background knowledge on the topic of the short story, and to facilitate the way to comprehending it, to set expectations, to make hypotheses, etc. While the second activities are designed to make students acquire real knowledge or information in a meaning full context. This knowledge extracted from the short story that is going to be used in order to make activities interacting. The research is divided into three main chapters. The first chapter contains the literature review, the second chapter deals with the importance of using movies in teaching listening comprehension and the third chapter is concerned with the analysis of the data and the results obtained from the test.

The first chapter contains the following sections: Section one deals with the listening skill, its definition, kinds of listening, and the factors influencing listening comprehension such as: topic, content, etc. section two deals with a review of short stories, their role in literature, and their use as a listening input.

The second chapter deals with the role of movies in teaching a foreign language.

The third chapter is composed of the analysis of the data gathered and the results that are obtained from the test given to the students.

The theories covering the topic of teaching listening comprehension and the results of this study indicate that the sooner the English language teachers realize how to teach comprehension instead of purely testing their students, the better results in English learning their students will achieve.

Language is a mean of communication whether it is spoken or written. In order to communicate, we not only learn our mother tongue but also other languages. Learning a language other than our mother tongue is among the basic needs of today’s globalized world. We must learn at least one foreign language aside from our mother tongue to maintain good relations with other societies and to meet our needs. In parallel to changes in communication and technology, changes in language teaching have also emerged.

Nowadays, teachers need audio-video materials in order to supplement their language teaching. Instructions are not enough to make an effective language teaching. Audio-video materials are of vital importance to evoke learners’ sense for effective learning and it is a quick way to appeal to their senses. It has been discovered that use of audio and video materials in language education makes Foreign Language Teaching more enjoyable and long lasting.

CHAPTER 1

Teaching listening comprehension to intermediary learners

1.1.Definition

Listening is an invisible mental process, making it difficult to describe.

Being able to listen well is an important part of communication for everyone. For our learners, guided practice by a teacher is one of the best ways to improve this skill. A pupil with good listening comprehension skills will be able to participate more effectively in communicative situations.
Teaching the skill of listening cannot be emphasized enough in a communicative classroom. For second language learners, developing the skill of listening comprehension is extremely important. Students with good listening comprehension skills are better able to participate effectively in class (Brown, 2001).

According to Howatt and Dakin(1974),listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying.This process involves understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciation, the speaker’s grammar and vocabulary, and comprehension of meaning. An able listener is capable of doing these four things simultaneously.

Tomlinson’s (1984) definition of listening includes “active listening”, which goes beyond comprehending as understanding the message content, to comprehension as an act of empathetic understanding of the speaker. Furthermore, Gordon (1985) argues that empathy is essential to listening and contends that it is more than a polite attempt to identify a speaker’s perspectives. Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as well as the larger socio-cultural context of the utterance (Wipf, 1984)

Rather more importantly, empathetic understanding expands to “egocentric behavior”.

Thus, the listener altruistically acknowledges concern for the speaker’s welfare and interests.

Ronald and Roskelly (1985)define listening as an active process requiring the same skills of prediction, hypothesizing, checking, revising and generalizing that writing and reading demand and these authors present specific exercises to make students active listeners who are aware of the “inner voice “one hears when writing.

Language learning depends on listening since it provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication.

Listening is the first language mode that children acquire. It provides the foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development, playing a life-long role in the process of communication.

A study by Wilt (1950), found that people listen 45% of the time they spend communicating. This study is still widely cited (e.g. Martin, 1978; Strother, 1987).Wilt found that 30% of communication time was spent speaking,16% reading, and 9% writing. That finding confirmed what Rankin discovered in 1928, that people spent 70% of their waking time communicating and those three-fourths of this time was spent listening and speaking.

According to Bulletin (1952), listening is the fundamental language skill. It is the medium through which people 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. In this day of mass communication, much of it oral, it is of vital importance that students are taught to listen effectively and critically.

According to second language acquisition theory, language input is the most essential condition of language acquisition. As an input skill, listening plays a crucial role in students’ language development.

Rost (1994) states that there are several reasons that make listening so important in language learning:

1. Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner. Without understandable input at the right level, any learning simply can not begin.

2. Spoken language provides a means of interaction for the learner. Since learners must interact to achieve understanding, access to speakers of the language is essential. Moreover, learner’s failure to understand the language they hear is an impetus, not an obstacle, to interaction and learning.

3. Authentic spoken language presents a challenge for the learner to attempt to understand language as it is actually used by native speakers.

4. Listening exercises provide teachers with a means for drawing learner’s attention to new forms (vocabulary, grammar, interaction patterns) in the language.

(Rost) defines listening, in its broadest sense, as a process of receiving what the speaker actually says (receptive orientation); constructing and representing meaning (constructive orientation); negotiating meaning with the speaker and responding (collaborative orientation); and, creating meaning through involvement, imagination and empathy (transformative orientation). Listening is a complex, active processes of interpretation in which listeners match what they hear with what they already know.

There are two distinct processes involved in listening comprehension.

Listeners use 'top-down' processes when they use prior knowledge to understand the meaning of a message. Prior knowledge can be knowledge of the topic, the listening context, the text-type, the culture or other information stored in long-term memory as schemata (typical sequences or common situations around which world knowledge is organized). Listeners use content words and contextual clues to form hypotheses in an exploratory fashion.

On the other hand, listeners also use 'bottom-up' processes when they use linguistic knowledge to understand the meaning of a message. They build meaning from lower level sounds to words to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings in order to arrive at the final message. Listening comprehension is not either top-down or bottom-up processing, but an interactive, interpretive process where listeners use both prior knowledge and linguistic knowledge in understanding messages. The degree to which listeners use the one process or the other will depend on their knowledge of the language, familiarity with the topic or the purpose for listening.

“Listening comprehension refers to the understanding of the implications and explicit meanings of words and sentences of spoken language.” 
(CDE Guidelines for Identifying Students with Specific Learning Disabilities 2008 ).

Listening comprehension is the receptive skill in the oral mode. When we speak of listening what we really mean is listening and understanding what we hear. In our first language, we have all the skills and background knowledge we need to understand what we hear, so we probably aren't even aware of how complex a process it is.

Research from cognitive psychology has shown that listening comprehension is more than extracting meaning from incoming speech. It is a process of matching speech with what listeners already know about the topic. Therefore, when listeners know the context of a text or an utterance, the process is facilitated considerably because listeners can activate prior knowledge and make the appropriate inferences essential to comprehending the message (Byrnes, 1984). Therefore, teachers need to help students organize their thoughts, to activate appropriate background knowledge for understanding and to make predictions, to prepare for listening. This significantly reduces the burden of comprehension for the listener.

Listeners do not pay attention to everything; they listen selectively, according to the purpose of the task. This, in turn, determines the type of listening required and the way in which listeners will approach a task. (Richards, 1990) differentiates between an interactional and a transactional purpose for communication. Interactional use of language is socially oriented, existing largely to satisfy the social needs of the participants; e.g., small talk and casual conversations. Therefore, interactional listening is highly contextualized and two-way, involving interaction with a speaker. A transactional use of language, on the other hand, is more message-oriented and is used primarily to communicate information; e.g., news broadcasts and lectures. In contrast with interactional listening, transactional listening requires accurate comprehension of a message with no opportunity for clarification with a speaker (one-way listening). Knowing the communicative purpose of a text or utterance will help the listener determine what to listen for and, therefore, which processes to activate. As with the advantages of knowing the context, knowing the purpose for listening also greatly reduces the burden of comprehension since listeners know that they need to listen for something very specific, instead of trying to understand every word.

The listening process involves five stages: receiving, understanding, evaluating, remembering, and responding. Basically, an effective listener must hear and identify the speech sounds directed toward them, understand the message of those sounds, critically evaluate or assess that message, remember what's been said, and respond (either verbally or nonverbally) to information they've received.

1.2. Reasons for using listening in the classroom

In recent years literature has played a minimal role in the EFL classroom as researchers concentrated on spoken language acquisition. Luckily this restrictive methodology (the aural/oral method) was itself once more updated to confirm what every teacher knew instinctively: that the point of learning languages was to communicate.

Even with that change language theorists did not recognize the dramatic role that literature can play in the growth of language fluency ;thus they have failed to develop classroom techniques for its use.(Povery,1984). Teaching of literature is an important business and is always relative to different cultural, experiential and pedagogic concerns.

According to Carter and Long (1992) three main reasons for the teaching of literature have been consistently advanced, beyond any particular circumstances, places and contexts: the cultural model, the language model and the personal growth model. The three models should be preferably viewed as tendencies, as each embraces a particular set of learning objectives:

a) Literature express the most significant ideas and sentiments of human beings, thus teaching literature represents a means by which students can be put into touch with a range of expression over a historical period. Teachers working within such an orientation stress the value of literature in encapsulating the accumulated wisdom.

b) According to the second model, a justification for the teaching of literature is its value in promoting language development, that literature is viewed by some teachers as an instrument for use in connection with the teaching of specific vocabulary, or structures, or language manipulation.

In my mind this orientation may result in mechanistic teaching practices which substitute language activities in place of a genuine engagement with the work as literature and will spoil the pleasure the poem or story might have given. This approach to literature communicates to the learner the idea that it was written for the sake of language, or grammar, and only secondarily for the sake of its ideas.

c) The test of teachers’ success in teaching literature is the extent to which pupils carry with them beyond the classroom and enjoyment and love for literature. This personal growth orientation means a lasting pleasure in reading; it means to achieve an engagement with the reading of literary works. This engagement cannot be measured in terms of passing examinations in literature but is rewarding because its result from learning how to appreciate and evaluate complex cultural artifacts.

Thus, literature can be a special resource for personal development, its major aim being to encourage greater sensitivity, self-awareness and greater understanding of the world around us.

It is said that comprehension is the basis of communication. Listening is one of the most challenging skill for students to develop and yet also one of the most important.

Listening is the ability to identify and understand what other people are saying.

As Lessard-Clouston (1997) notes, in the past, people learned a foreign language to study its literature. Now, it has been more than merely teaching a foreign language for its own sake and there are many reasons for learning a new language: personal development, cultural, educational and economic reasons. Teachers need listening materials in order to supplement their language teaching. Mere instruction is not enough to make an effective language teaching. The more we appeal to learners’ senses, the better learners will learn a language. Especially, audio materials are of vital importance to evoke learners’ senses for effective learning.

Listening comprehension is a key initial step in communication. The better a learner can understand what is being said, the better will be their ability to communicate.  In addition, they will be better able to notice the characteristics of the target language which will help improve their language development in all four key skill areas.

Pupils may feel a great deal of pride when they are able to comprehend something in the target language.  This can be a great motivating factor in continuing to learn the language, and teachers should do whatever possible to promote this sense of accomplishment. Consequently, teachers need to construct learning activities which will enhance learners' oral comprehension (listening skills) and motivate them, as well.

1.3.Teaching listening comprehension through stories

Everyone knows stories, overhears stories and narrative stories. All of us use stories every day to recount what happened in class, outside class, how they learnt about this and that, what happened to this and that, how we fell in love, etc. Stories then seem to be omnipresent.

What is a Short story? A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. It is usually but not necessarily short in size. It is concise and recounts a series of events with causal or temporal relationships between them. Generally, it presents no more than two characters and one significant event around which the story is built.

Since birth children love listening to stories. They are also very useful in learning a foreign language. Listening/reading them stories over and over again, helps them learning key vocabulary and structures. They are very challenging, motivating and great fun.

Short stories are a useful tool in linking fantasy and the imagination with the child’s real world. They provide a way of enabling children to make sense of their everyday life and forge links between home and school. They can become personally involved in a story as they identify with the characters and try to interpret the narrative and illustrations. (Ellis and Brewsters 2001:1)

Short stories are a way of teaching the four skills to all level students. Murdoch (2009: 9) mentioned the fact that „short stories can, if selected and exploated appropriately, provide quality text content which will greatly enhance ELT courses for learners at intermediate levels of proficency”. He also said that short stories could be very beneficial materials in ELT reinforcement by using them in learning activities such as writing, discussion and acting out dialogues.

Why should teachers use short stories? Firstly, because children will always be willing to listen to or read stories: children want to find meaning in them. If they find meaning in them, they are rewarded through their ability to understand the foreign language, if they fail they are motivated to improve their understanding.

The story serves as a motivating factor for subsequent eliciting of both oral and written language. Any type of linguistic phenomena desired by the teacher can be easily included in the language of the tale and later extracted for drills, that is, stories can be part of a group of related activities.

This method of natural language acquisition compensates to some degree for the absence of a natural communicative situation outside the community of native speakers. Stories, therefore, offer the best source of fluency in all four skills. Most stories can be used to develop the learners’ awareness as well as to relate to other subjects of the curriculum – such as history, geography, cultural and social studies – thus tales need to be for children’s cultural and cognitive development.

Finally, stories are a source of enjoyment and interest, but there is always the danger of using them merely as a teaching vehicle. Although storytelling offer vast opportunities for reinforcing grammar and vocabulary, the most important thing is the story itself and digressing too often and too far will demotivate the pupils.

There are many advantages of listening to short stories:

The primary function of short stories is to entertain and inform. They keep interest alive in the classroom and motivate students, they create a comfortable atmosphere and a good and enjoyable environment. Every student will create her / his own setting, characters, physical appearance and relating them to her / his own reality and experience to that of the story, thanks to her/ his background knowledge.

So, we have to use stories that can cope with the learners’ framework and his/ her schema in order to make her/him listen with great care, and understand perfectly well the content of that

story, because if this short story cannot go with the schema, then learning will come to nothing. Learners are involved to see and interpret (Arab: 1990).

In the language teaching field and especially in the teaching of language comprehension, there is much contention about the "context-of-use "principle and "shorter –is –easier –to process” principle (Brown: 1986). But we may integrate these two principles so that the listening input could present language in its context of use. That is why we use meaningful extracts of short stories, in order to ensure an easier language processing.

Classroom procedure

Stories are very useful in illustrating language use. In order to chose a suitable story, the teacher must decide whether to read it or tell it. Reading a story is particularly useful for a long story and works with intermediate pupils. However, there are many advantages in telling rather than reading a story. When telling a story, the teacher is able to see all the children (i.e. to maintain eye contact with the class); thus s/he can make the story understandable, if special adaptation is necessary, by a number of techniques for helping understanding. The teacher may show or draw pictures, act, mime, use a repertoire of gestures like a visual dictionary, may repeat the key points and even stop the story to rephrase the idea in another way. When telling the story the teacher may simplify, if necessary, some of the language (words, idioms, tenses, etc)

Stories which are told gain meaning from voice; voices have qualities of tone and emotion and can create atmosphere. Telling stories creates an immediate connection with the listeners. Voices hace sound and silence: pauses in storytelling are necessary for the listeners to create their own mental pictures (Tkacenko 1992). Letting pupils guess what happens next is another storytelling technique And then, do you know what she did? You’ll never guess what happened next. I told you you’d never guess what he did. Another technique meant to keep the interest of the audience is the use of such link words as so, and, suddenly, however, in spite of/despite etc. to encourage students to predict.

Stories need careful visual support to contextualise the setting and the events and thus make the meaning clear. Storytelling needs proper materials such as: puppets (stick puppets, finger puppets animals and characters, for example), pictures, posters, large flashcards, etc. These visual aids may be exploited later when the teacher elicits the story.

A very productive follow-up activity is that of matching, classifying, labelling, and sequencing the pictures. Another technique in the classroom is using story illustrations in jumbled order, thus getting the children to put them in order; therefore it is very practical to have detachable pictures or stickers as visuals.

There are several methods to make the pupil narrate the tale themselves: eliciting the story by means of visuals; getting the students to tell the story in a circle so that everyone does a bit; The students may be also asked to make up their own story, older students can be even required to write it down; the new story might be wholly theirs or a logical sequence to the opening paragraphs given by the teacher.

One of the most recurrent subsequent activities in the classroom is role play since pupils are so enthusiastic about it. Nevertheless there are a wide range of other language procedures which are popular with young learners, such as games, letters written by the pupils on behalf of the characters in the story and addressed to fellow characters.

Short Stories

Short stories are an attractive way of introducing students to literature in the foreign language classroom. They may offer many powerful advantages:

-The fact that they are short they can be listened, or read entirely within a class lesson.

-They can be listened individually when they are set as home tasks or in a group during the class.

-Short stories give a greater chance of finding something to appeal to each individual’s tastes and interests.

Types of short stories

Folklore: Stories are considered to be very important in every culture. They have their roots in folklore, or the oral tradition of storytelling. In the oral tradition, stories were told to remember the great deeds of heroes from the past, to explain beliefs about the world , to teach moral principles or just to entertain people.

Myths are traditional stories that explain the beliefs of a people about the natural and human world. The main characters in myths are usually gods or supernatural heroes. The stories are set in the distant past and the people who told these stories believed that they were true.

Legends are traditional stories about the past. The main characters are usually kings or heroes. As myths, people also believed that legends were true.

Fables are short stories whose main purpose is to teach a moral lesson. The main characters are usually animals ,objects in nature (e.g. stones, lakes, mountains ) or forces of nature (e.g. the rain, the sun, the wind), which are given human qualities.

Parables are short stories that illustrate a moral principle through the use of metaphors, in which the main characters are human beings.

Folktales are anonymous stories passed on through generations by oral storytelling. They often have no time and place ,and are used openings like : “Once upon a time…’’.Folktales were told as a form of entertainment.’ Folktale’is a general term that can include various traditional narratives, such as myths , legends, fables and fairy tales.

Fairy tales are traditional folktales in which the main characters are imaginary creatures such as fairies, wizards, elves, trolls gnomes or fire-breathing dragons.

Ghost stories are stories about ghosts or other supernatural beings. Ghost stories have been told and passed down orally from generation to generation. These stories reflect the superstitious, fears and beliefs that people from all over the world had. The main characters of ghost stories are ghosts, witches, vampires, werewolves, zombies that came out of the oral tradition of storytelling.

For short, literature contains narratives like fable, myths, fairy tales, stories, plays, poetry, traditional literature (rhymes, riddles, sayings etc).

Myths are old narrative bounds to the origin of people that attempt to explain natural phenomena; fables are short popular moralizing sermons in which the characters are animals. All of us are familiar with this type of narrative literature. For example, Aesop’s and La Fontaine’s fables, like the one about the two donkeys going along a river – one carrying a load of salt and the other sponges. The former was groaning and moaning about his heavy load while the latter rejoiced over his light one. Somewhere along the way the two donkeys had to cross the river. The one loaded with salt went first; as he moved across, his load became lighter and lighter as the water dissolved the salt. Heartened by what he had seen, the second donkey followed behind him, only to drown from the weight of the sponges, which had filled with water. The moral of the story: not everything that happens to others may happen to you.

Another form of narrative is the story, of which there are many kinds: funny stories, animal stories, stories about detectives, spaceships etc., in which children are the characters. There are stories like Heidi and Peter Pan, which delight and amuse pupils. Stories are works of art that satisfy a child’s curiosity about what is and what appears to be.

The most enjoyed by children, and not only, are the fairy tales in which the main characters are princesses, princes. They are also found of tales, for example the Frog King where an enchantment or spell is not broken by the love of the princess but by the king’s stern insistence that what she had promised she must do…and the story has a happy ending when the frog is transformed into a prince.

It is undeniable the fact that fairy tales have a great cultural value not only for their artistic perfection and simplicity but also for their role in the building of character. Written in poetic form, they embody universal truths, the same truths that have a positive impact on the emotional development of children.

The characters in fairy tales are generally children or young people of marrying age who act and are portrayed like children; they have one outstanding feature: they are big or small, weak or strong, beautiful or ugly, obedient or disobedient, good or bad, modest or proud etc. Hence they are easy to understand, and the child does not get lost in complicated plots. The setting is never described in detail; it is felt or sensed intuitively – fairy tales are absolutely children’s favorites.

In addition to fairy tales and stories, there are also children’s novels, where we find a more ample treatment of the characters. In Pinocchio, as the varied action unfolds in a number of episodes, a wooden boy is transformed into a real boy virtually before our eyes.

In the theater all the actions presented in a dialogue form which is not intended to be read: it is intended for live representation on the stage. It can be represented by children or adults, but only for the amusement and delight of children. Can you visualize their joy, laughter, and excitement at seeing four common mice turn into four fine horses by the touch of a magic wand/. Or a pumpkin turns into an elegant carriage? Or rags changed into luxurious garments?

Poetry is yet another category of children’s literature. Children’s enthusiasm for poetry makes the answer easy to find, for before they start to listen or read, they have started to appreciate it the same way our ancestors did: aurally, through the ear. And like our ancestors who did not read, children react with great joy and pleasure when they hear selections in verse. “Say it again, say it again! They will say as they move and sway their bodies to its rhythm and music, marking time, and chanting the words themselves. Poetry needs to be listened to and heard to be understood and enjoyed. When properly read, with feeling and sincerity, children understand and enjoy it. And so it is, too, with the traditional literature such as riddles and rhymes, sayings, etc.

Unfortunately, children’s literature is often neglected in the ESL/ Language Arts curriculum. McKay (1982:529) says that “with the current focus in ESL on meeting the particular academic and occupational needs of the students, it is easy to view any attention to literature as unnecessary. Is there a rationale for including literature in the curriculum?” She also mentioned that it can provide a key to motivating students to read in English; that for all students literature is an ideal vehicle for illustrating language use and for introducing cultural assumptions.

Martin (1977:1) lists three advantages to teaching ESL oral-language development through the story approach. First, it serves as motivating factor for subsequent eliciting of oral as well as written language. Second, the child’s attention is quickly captured and easily maintained, especially if the initial presentation is accompanied by stimulating visual aids. And third, any type of linguistic phenomena desired by the teacher can be easily included in the language of the story and later extracted for oral drills and for cultural and cognitive development. In using the literature approach for teaching linguistic objectives, teachers should always bear in mind the cognitive, affective, cultural and psychomotor objectives as well. Although some literature occasionally does not lend itself to the development of objectives in all areas of the school curriculum, careful selection will help maximize the benefits. Each lesson should be well planned; the objectives in all possible areas specified; teaching and learning activities along with materials clearly enumerated; and evaluation strategies defined.

Chapter 2

VIDEO IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

“The standard classroom” is not a very proper environment for learning languages. Because of that teachers should use different aids and stimuli to improve this situation, and to make the atmosphere from the classroom more enjoyable.Video is known as beeing a well appreciated material applied to language learning and teaching.Using videos as ateaching aid is an important way making classes enjoyable.Movies not only bring images of reality,but they can also make the classes become funnier.It is not a surprise how much a short video can change a boring lesson into one full of joy,even if it is used as warmer,in additional exercises or just to create the right atmosphere.

In recent years, the use of video in English classes has grown rapidly as a result of the increasing importance on communicative techniques. Because video is a rich and valuable resource, both students and teachers like it.(Hemei, 1997).

Students are very fond of it because video presentations are interesting,stimulating and challenging to watch. Through videos students can obderve how people behave by bringing into the classroom a wide range of communicative situations.Teachers use video during the classroom because it is more interesting and enjoyable and it helps in promoting comprehension. Every teacher knows that deficiencies in vocabulary can make even a simple task very difficult for our students. A ten-minute programme can be useful for more advanced students. Less advanced students may wish something much shorter because their limited command of the language also limits their attention span. It is an undeniable fact that video is one of the best materials that enables students to practice what they have learned through various techniques.

As Canning-Wilson (2000) describes video, at the most basic level of instruction, is a form of communication and it can be achieved without the help of language, since we often interact by gesture, eye contact and facial expression to convey meaning. Thus it is clearly true such kind of materials present complete communicative situations by means of the dynamic, immediate and accessible combination of sound and vision. The students contextualize the language they have learnt. In other words, students can see and hear the speakers in dialogues; their ages, their sex, their relationship one to another, their way of dressing, social status, what they are doing and of course their feelings..The learners can also see the setting of the communication on the screen, so they can clarify whether the situation is formal or informal.

According to a research, language teachers like video because it motivates learners, brings the real world into the classroom, contextualizes language naturally and enables learners to experience authentic language in a controlled environment. Even more, in this issue Arthur (1999) claims that video can give students realistic models to imitate for role-play; can increase awareness of other cultures by teaching appropriateness and suitability.

When used appropriately, video is quite beneficial for learners and teachers as long as they are considered only as mere entertainment, but carefully chosen films can be a useful and extremely motivational teaching tool for both practicing listening skills and stimulating speaking and writing (Katchen, 2002).

.2.1. The importance of movies in foreign language teaching

One way of bringing variety and flexibility into the classroom is the use of MOVIES in foreign language teaching. Using movies in EFL teaching is a useful method and has several advantages compared to the more traditional teaching styles.

First of all, movies can be considered as authentic material and they provide the learners with genuine input (Mishan 2004). Moreover, as Krashen (1985) points out, a natural input helps the learners to acquire language without necessarily even noticing that they are hearing or reading a foreign language.

Secondly, as it has been studied by (Stoller 1988) films enhance English language skill development since they bring variety, reality, authenticity and flexibility into the EFL classroom and before anything, diversify the curriculum.

Thirdly, using movies can motivate the students to study English and the visuality of the film may also help the weaker students to understand since it offers another channel of understanding in addition to just listening to the language (Champoux 1999, Allan 1985, Stoller 1988).

When teaching oral skills it is important to notice that textbooks usually focus on more formal language and do not focus on, for instance, small talk or conversational interaction. In other words, movies, can be a good way to teach the oral skills needed in everyday speech since the language used in old movies can be rather up-to-date and can thus motivate the pupils. Moreover, movies can also rouse feelings and opinions and create discussion (Katchen 2003).

The positive effect of films on language learning

Using films in EFL teaching may seem to be irrelevant, and some teachers may think that using films is too time-consuming. Moreover, films are quite often used as a light stimulation in the beginning of a lesson or in the end of it.

Using films has brought authenticity, variety, reality and flexibility into EFL classrooms.

Stoller (1988) points out that film extend the range of classroom teaching techniques and resources and not only enhance, but also diversify the curriculum.

Champoux (1999) emphasizes that film scenes can make it easier to teach abstract themes and concepts because of their visuality. Also inexperienced students can benefit from films because of their greater feeling of reality.

Combining both audio and visually makes film a comprehensive tool for language teaching. The visuality also supports the students: it helps learners by supporting the verbal message and provides a focus of attention while they listen. As viewers, students are not just passive observers but their responses also add to the power of the film.

Katchen (2003) emphasizes the authenticity of the language in films. Since the films are often made to sound natural to native speakers of the language, they thus represent authentic language. Films can even to some extent substitute for the input that EFL students cannot receive from outside the classroom. In addition, real spoken language includes several characteristics that a textbook cannot present. These characteristics are for instance false starts, incomplete sentences and hesitations.

Sufen (2006) underlines the fact that films are considered an insightful means of teaching, since they reflect people’s way of life in terms of variety, contemporaneity and authenticity. The realistic verbal communication also helps the students to pick up the language more spontaneously.

According to Allan (1985) films actually get students to talk and they can be a stimulus to genuine communication in the classroom by bringing out different opinions within the group.

Stoller (1988) points out that the use of films in a content-based curriculum gives the students an opportunity to explore several aspects of a given thematic unit. While watching a film, they can develop their possibly weak background knowledge. At the same time they also exposure to the language. Together such content exploration and language exposure promote more sophisticated language use. Both content and language are mutually reinforcing and the content provided is not just something with which to practice language, but language becomes the tool with which to explore the content.

2.2. AUDIO- VISUAL AIDS

Types of audio-visual aids

As the use of technology becomes a daily life habit for the students, audio-visual aids is very crucial in the classroom. Learning differs between students which is the main cause for using audio-visual aids components to improve the learning process. (Moss, ‘Types of audiovisual material used in teaching, n.d.).

1. Graphic aids

Graphic aids are used to capture student’s attention, convey and present information efficiently, make abstract ideas more real and concrete, and target student’s interests and needs.

Types of graphic aids:

Charts

Pictures

Diagrams

Graphs

Maps

Posters

Cartoons

Comic strips

Flashcards

2. Films

Teaching with audio-visual aids provides many pluses so students can learn with varied stimuli. Playing English films to help students, they might be used along with texts presented in the syllabus. Other films can also be used for different purposes to achieve different goals. This method is very useful to shorten the distance between students and the 14 British and American English pronunciation and eventually with the culture reflected in the English literature. Lately, the use of audio-visual aids in teaching has become easier and affordable than before. Materials such as CDs, DVDs, CD/DVD player, computer/laptop, TV set, LCD projector can now be more easily available inside colleges/universities or outside. And even the English language movies are available in all genres nowadays. (Rautrao, 2012). In some parts of the world, especially in Europe, films have an immense significance when it comes to culture and education. Audiovisual works, particularly films, play an important role in shaping European identities. They reflect the cultural diversity of the different traditions and histories of the EU Member States and regions. (European Commission, 2012, ).

3. Filmstrips

Filmstrips are used mainly in an educational atmosphere. (Joseph, 1982). They are perfect for independent study and small size learning group since using this medium involves making films to observe and improve learning. Learning English through filmmaking can aid in studying subjects like literature and drama. A film making project by an entire class can create a live atmosphere in the classroom where students can be engaged in highly motivating activity while learning. (Rautrao, 2012).

4. Television

When using a program in a classroom and listen to it too, “audio-visual aids will be functioning as complete units for the enrichment of classroom teaching.” (Chandler & Cypher, 1948). Television with its simultaneous appeal to the sense of sight and the sense of hearing is the most effective and the most sophisticated audio-visual aid available today. Described as “The queen of audio-visual aids” (Rautrao, 2012), it is used for educational purposes in more than one hundred countries today. T.V. combines a number of aids for teaching English tapes, models, films, charts, maps, diagrams and several others. All these go the make the T.V. lesson lively and useful. (Rautrao, 2012).

5. Internet

You can imagine literally any topic and find it on the World Wide Web. It is a great source for information and documentation as well as a source that learners can access for projects and research. You can tap the Internet in class to project images of website, products or information that ties to your session content. You might also have individual learners or groups search for material that they will present to the class in short “teach backs.” This type of event can help stimulate learning, add variety to your delivery, while allowing participants to become more actively engaged in their own learning. (Lucas, ‘The power of audio-visual aids,’ n.d.). Knowing the types is not enough in order to get the right aid; it has to be suitable and appropriate to the needs of both the teacher and the student. One of the most common worries among teachers when using technology is the cost of it, economically speaking, and the amount of time and skills that it requires (Brinton, 2001). But YouTube has offered a new way of accessing to a rank of information and video resources in a simple way, which does not require any special skills and is free (Snelson and Perkins, 2009). As it is a global online delivery system, current events, new and cultures can be brought to the classroom with a simple click. Teachers navigate directly to a short focused video segment and in this way the attributes of the video can be exploited without losing students attention, a problem that rises during long-playing presentations (Snelson and Perkins, 2009). Thanks to YouTube special features, teachers can collect several related videos together in a playlist in order to illustrate the concepts of a lesson or spark discussions about a topic (Snelson and Perkins, 2009). In YouTube the possibilities are almost infinite; teachers can find from videos of real life to trailers or movie scenes.

6. Language laboratory

Good communication skills are very necessary for the success of any professional. If one wants to communicate with people, he or she has to speak their language. The English language, in particular, has become essential in the lives of young people who aspire to advance their careers anywhere in the world. The four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking have to be practiced. The language laboratory plays an important role in the language learning process. If the classroom is using language laboratory, the student are more concentrated on the material and they feel more comfortable knowing they are controlling the equipment. (Agustin & Aisyah 2011). As it is a technological aid for learning, it has a number of advanced facilities that can help a student to learn a language to communicate efficiently. An active simultaneous participation of all students in a class is provided in listening and 15 listening speaking practice. “It is also useful for the teacher as it frees him from the tiring task of repetitive presentations, therefore puts him in a dual role simultaneously.” (Rautrao, 2012).

7. PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a way of attracting students towards your views and arguments. It is a type of presentation software that allows one to show colored text and images with simple animation and sound. PowerPoint is just one of many types of presentation software. It is a useful tool that is now being used in many classrooms. (Rautrao, 2012).

2.3.AUDIO-VISUAL MATERIAL FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Scholars attempt to assist learners to improve their listening skills "by assigning them videotape, audiotape or computer-based activities," (Jones, 2003), in order to complete either at home or in the language lab setting. With these resources, students can practice hearing vocabulary words, sentence structures, and dialogues in the target language. For years, educators and publishers followed a unimodal approach to listening comprehension and presented auditory texts without visual or verbal/textual helpful information. (Jones, 2003).

According to Hoven (1999, p. 88), multimedia aids, “enable learners to pool their knowledge in more effective ways and enhance peer correction and language repair work.” Moreover, videos and other multimedia resources are becoming more commonly used in L2 learning contexts and there is a immense need to involve the argument of the effects of visual comprehension on listening. (Hoven, 1999).

Technology is still viewed to be as an improvement to the progression of language acquisition. The large blending of computers in language teaching programs in the past decade is a proof to this notion. (Meskill, 1996). The reason behind what is now rising as a support for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is not different than earlier zeal for audiotape based technologies. That is to say, both aids give “individualized access to 37

target language material that the learner can control and use in a self-study format.” (Meskill, 1996,). Learning a language through this medium, individualized instruction with the computer, particularly when audio and video are combined (as audio-visual aids) is an extremely interesting preposition. (Meskill, 1996).

Audio-Visual material gives excitement and interest to the foreign language class. It can be used in a variety of language activities whether they are listened or spoken activities. I am going to present some activities that can take only a minute to do, so a great variety of activities can be done during a class. One of the most effective methods is to have the students work in pairs or in groups. That way each student uses the language intensively during a short period of time. The following activities are based on audio-visual materials and can be easily used in our foreign language classes:

One student orally describes a picture for one minute to the pupils/to his partner.

One student describes a picture orally to the class then one pupil repeats the description, using the picture as an aid for recall.

One student orally describes a short listened description to another student who does not hear it; the second student then repeats the description to the first student.

The students look at a picture; then one student looks away while the others student ask him questions about it.

The students watch a short video and compete to see who can make up as many questions about it as possible.

Students make up questions about a picture; they are divided into two groups one group uses question words, the other does not use question words.

Students are divided in pairs; one student orally describes a picture to a second student who then draws a copy of it.

Teacher orally describes a video to students who then are given a choice of videos and must choose the one described.

Students tell a story using a picture. Some student tells what happened before the scene in the picture and the others tell what will happen afterward.

Students are divided in pairs; while one student orally describes an image, the other student changes descriptive statements to questions.

Students are divided in pairs; while one student orally describes what is happening in a video, the other student says the same thing in a different tense or in the negative.

Students are divided in pairs; while one student orally describes what he has heard in the headphones, the other paraphrases what the first student is saying.

Students are divided in pairs; while one student orally describes a picture, the other repeats the same thing but changes all subjects to the plural or singular and makes all other necessary grammatical changes.

Students watch a short video and say what the person in the picture should do in a certain situation.

Students look at a picture and then they are asked to tell what will happen in an optimistic point of view while others relate the future in a pessimistic point of view.

Students hear the same conversation and they are asked to tell all the good and bad points about things in the conversation.

Students are divided in pairs; students look at the same picture and as one describes the picture the other says the exact opposite, i.e., “the book is interesting” will be changed to “the book is boring.”

Students are divided into groups; they are asked to listen to the same short conversation and act out what is happening in that conversation as they are describing it.

Students are divided into pairs; one student tells the other student all the colors in the picture and the second student tells what objects have those colors.

One student tells the other students what he would do in the shown situation. The other students criticize his behavior.

After selecting a picture, teacher chooses a letter of the alphabet and then the students have to name as many objects as possible in the picture that begin with that letter. The student who names the most in one minute wins.

Students look at the video; one student names an object and describes it. Another student compares it to some other object in the picture. They do this for as many objects in the picture as possible (at least 5). For example: first student, “The dog is big;” second student, “The horse is bigger than the dog”; third student, “The lion is bigger than the horse”.

Students look at the same picture; they have to name as many word as they can made of a certain material (wood, plastic, metal). See who can name the most objects.

Students are divided in pairs; they watch the same video ; the first group names all the pretty things in the video and the second student then names all the ugly things in the video.

Students are asked to look at a picture; one student tells what mood he feels is represented in the picture. Theo other students tell whether they agree with him and why.

Students listen to a conversation; one student is selected to tell the others about a similar experience in his own life. The other students then tell in what way the first person’s experience is similar to theirs.

Students are divided in pairs; the students are shown two different videos. The first student describes all the similarities between the two videos. The second student then describes all the differences between them.

Students are divided into pairs; they are given two pictures. The first group makes up a story about the two pictures. The second group uses the pictures in a different order to tell a different story.

Students are divided into pairs; one student describes the home and the family of the person in the picture. The other student tells how the described home and family is similar or different from his own.

The students contrast objects in the picture, i.e., “The film is interesting but the book is boring.” Another student compares the objects using equalities, i.e., “The film is as interesting as the book.”

Students make up a mystery story about a heard conversation which has no end. The other students try to solve the mystery by creating a possible solution.

Each student lists as many vocabulary words as possible from a given conversation. The student who writes down the most words wins.

One student starts a story based on an image. Another student continues the story, the next students adds another sentence. The story ends when the last student says the sentence. After three sentences, the second student continues the story for three more sentences.

Given a vowel or consonant sound, the students have to say all the words, objects, actions, etc., in the picture which contain that sound.

One student makes a statement about something the teacher said. The second student repeats the statement and adds to it by using a conjunction such as “but” or “since”.

Students see how many different ways they can rearrange three pictures to tell different stories.

In turn, each student selects a picture and tells why the other should visit the place or do the activity illustrated in the picture. A third student will decide who wins and explain why.

No audio-visual aid is perfect for all situations. Each time a video, a conversation or a picture, is used its effectiveness should be evaluated. The evaluation should include the suitability of the audio-visual aid to the given topic, the maturity of the students, and the academic level and motivational level of the students. When making the feedback of the lesson we see that the results will be the positive ones, this means that the audio-visual material used were effective.

Audio-Visual material plays an important role in foreign language instruction. The activities mentioned above are by no means all-inclusive. Audio-Visual material can be used in as many ways as you or your students’ imaginations allow. The use of audio-visual material will help make foreign language learning an enjoyable, lifelike activity.

2.4 .Using film in teaching listening comprehension

According to the Curriculum for foreign Languages, „Oral Communication skills are fundamental to the development of literacy and essential for thinking and learning. Through talk, learners not only communicate information but also explore and come to understand ideas and concepts; identify and solve problems; organize their experience and knowledge; and express and clarify their thoughts, feelings and opinions. Listening and speaking skills are essential for social interaction at home, at school, and in the community.”

There are three oral parts to oral communication that are important for students to learn and are crucial in the development of their skills. They are:

Listening-Learners need to listen to their teachers, other pupils, and oral versions of texts. This is to allow pupils to find meaning in texts and vocal strategies, respond appropriately when involved in a conversation, understand and interpret the content of texts or point-of-view, and demonstrate critical thought.

Speaking-Learners need to be able to interact with others, using appropriate language, clarity and strategies that emphasize or help express meaning and emotions

Reflecting-Students need to recognize their strengths and weakness when preparing for and participating in communication activities, and reflect on how they can improve.

By teaching oral communication skills, students should learn:

-To listen, understand and respond to learners and teachers in class/group discussions about texts, concepts, and points of view

-To develop the skills to interact and behave appropriately while communicating with others

-To be able to communicate clearly using a wide range of vocabulary that is appropriate for the setting and to whom they are speaking to

-To be able to identify and communicate various meanings of words through tone, speed, and pitch ( Henderson).

One of the greatest strengths of television and video is the ability to communicate with viewers on an emotional, as well as a cognitive, level. Because of this ability to reach viewers’ emotions, video can have a strong positive effect on both motivation and affective learning. Not only are these important learning components on their own, but they can also play an important role in creating the conditions through which greater cognitive learning can take place.

Marshall (2002) details three theories that explain how learning may occur via well-selected video “based on the ability of the entertaining media to engage the learner, activate emotional states, initiate interest in a topic, and allow for absorption and processing of information”(Branigan 2005). Arousal theory deals with how communication messages evoke varying degrees of generalized emotional arousal and how concomitant behavior can be affected while a person is in this state. Short-Term Gratification Theory deals with affective and motivational components such as enthusiasm, perseverance and concentration.

Finally, Interest Stimulation Theory posits that entertainment promotes learning and creativity by sparking a student’s interest in and imagination about a topic. The visual messages of multimedia are processed in different part of the brain than that which processes textual and linguistic learning, and the limbic system responds to these pictures by triggering instinct, emotion and impulse (Bergsma 2002,as cited in CPB,2004).Memory is, in turn, strongly influenced by emotion, with the result that educational video has a powerful ability to relay experience and influence cognitive learning ( Noble 1983,as cited in CPB 2004).

Advantages of using films to teach listening comprehension

Visual literacy(the ability to interpret and create visual,digital and audio media)is a fundamental form of literacy in the 21st Century.The use of film in the classroom or as an outside school activity can uphold the motivation of the learners,because of its playful component.Using films through specific task activities provides an ideal vehicle for active learning,as well as encouraging interaction and participation.The communicative potential of its use has been commended:

-it facilitates listening comprehension activities that are perceived as “real”;

-it creates a curiosity gap that facilitates the exchange of opinions and ideas about the film;

-it helps to explore non-verbal elements;

-it improves oral and aural skills (Altman, 1989);

-it provides meaningful contexts and vocabulary, exposing viewers to natural expressions and natural flow of speech.

There are many ways of using videos in the classroom and it will depend on its type:

-Fiction films tell a fictional story or a narrative one

-Documentary films are a visual expression attempting to “document “reality

-Short films are generally longer than one minute and shorter than 15 minutes.

The versatility of its use allows incorporating film in different types of learning sessions in the classroom. For example:

-It is possible to screen complete films or short extracts of films (clips) .

Films can be used just for enjoyment, creating a positive atmosphere in the classroom, which can enhance motivation.

-Videos can provide a stimulus for other activities, such as listening comprehension, debates on social issues, raising intercultural awareness, being used as a moving picture book or as a model of the spoken language.

Watching video films should be different from passive television viewing and the teacher should encourage the learners to watch the films actively, by using the supplementary materials, such as worksheets prepared by him or supplied with the films. The learners should participate in the activities,and if possible, they themselves should set up some projects in the target language, by recording their own activities such as speaking, interviewing, reporting etc. Shortly, the role of the learner is not to be a passive viewer but an active member in the triangle of the video, the teacher and the learner.