This chapter consists of the motivation, the purpose and the significance of this [602486]

1
CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of the motivation, the purpose and the significance of this
study, providing a g eneral overview on the importance of teaching and testing elementary
students‟ listening comp rehension .

1. Motivation

Listening is important in second or foreign language learn ing. The listening skill
supports the development of other language sk ills. P roficiency in listening comprehension
is “readily transferable to other language skills, (including speaking and reading)”, stated
by Nord (1981) it is without doubt th at listening is the first connection to speaking,
reading and wr iting, which is built to associate both communication and language
learning. Most researchers now agree that listeners are active participants in an y
communication experience and listening comprehe nsion is in fact the foundation of
language acquisition (Feyten, 1991; Field, 2000). Also, listening is the most frequently
used language skill in communication. Of the time in communication, 45% is spent in
listening, 30% in speaking, 16% in reading, and approximately 9% in writing (Nichols &
Stevens, 1957).
Listening is an invisible mental process, which makes it difficult to describe.
Listeners must discriminate between sounds, understand vocabulary and gr ammatical
structures, interpret stress and intention, retain and interpret this within the immediate as

2
well as the larger socio -cultural context of the utterance (Wipf, 1984). (Rost, 2002)
defines listening, in its broadest sense, as a process of receivin g 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, imaginat ion and empathy
(transformative orientation). Listening is a complex, active processes of interpretation in
which listeners match what they hear with what they already know.
It is necessary for students to learn how to listen. Although listening was once
regarded as a receptive or passive language skill, or even as Scarcella & Oxford (1992)
stated, as “an enabling skill, not worthy of attention on its own” (p. 139), the status of
listening instruction has changed enormously over the past decades from non -teaching
listening to a listening strategy instruction (Mendelsohn, 1998), w hich could be attributed
mainly to the development of communicative approaches to language teachin g (Asher,
1977 ; Krashen, 1982; Ommaggio Hadley, 2001).
With more and more attention given to the importance of listening, many
researchers have begun to create a lot of listening activities and design several teaching
methodologies for listening (Brown, 1990; Mendelsohn, 1998; Rost, 1990; Thompson &
Rubin, 1996; Underwood, 1989; Ur, 1984 ). In addition, some researchers have begun to
investigate the factors or strategies affecting listening comprehension (Blau, 1990, 1991;
Griffiths, 1991; Teng, 1994; Vandergrift, 1996). Joiner (1991) and Rubin (1994),
reviewing the state of listening inst ruction, treated listening skills as separate elements in
L2 pedagogy and stressed the importance of listening in second language acquisit ion.
Teaching listening improves learner s‟ listening comprehension and enhances their
confidence towards the second la nguage, and thus motivates learners to explore the
language. The study of Thompson and Rubin (1996) showed that strategy instruction can

3
improve lis tening comprehension. In their study, the experimental group of students of
Russian as a Foreign Language did significantly better in listening comprehension than
the control g roup and showed an increase in willingness and confidence to watch Russian
movies on their own. In the study of Omaggio Hadley (1979), it was found that pictures
aid listening comprehensio n in French as a foreign language. Herron (1994) tested the
effect of a single advance organizer on listening comprehension in a French video series.
Participants were 38 college students, including 8 males and 30 females. For the advance
organizer plus vi deo condition, the instructor wrot e six sentences on the board in
chronological order, depicting the major scenes of a 10 -minute video session. In the
control condition, students watched the video only, with no introductory statements or
other manipulation of the material by the instructor. Herron found that students in the
experimental group performed significantly better in listening comprehension when
compared with students who had viewed video only.
Furthermore, Herron, Hanley and Cole (1995) compare d the effects of two
advance organizers on the comprehension of 39 college students in an introductory
French course. Results indicated that the Description + Pictures condition significantly
improved comprehension when compared with Description Only condi tion. R esear chers
interpreted that listening comprehension is facilitated by the visual support that advance
organizers provide. The findings of these studies show the benefits of using advance
organizers in second / foreign language classroom, suggesting teachers to introduce
appropriate advance organizers to facilitate students‟ listening comprehension.
In the learning of second or foreign language, learners spend far much less hours
in listening to the target language than in their native language. A ch ild aged 6 has
listened to his native language for a minimum of 17,520 hours, equivalent to more than
50 years of college instruction. In contrast, the average time spent by a second or foreign

4
language student who completes one year of foreign language in struction reaches only
about 160 classroom hours, with perhaps, in a very generous estimate, an additional 50 to
100 hours of language lab exercises, interaction with native speakers, or other voluntary
listening practi ce (Asher, 1982) .
In Romania , the te aching of listening comprehension has been neglected for a
long time. As a result, it can possibly b e concluded that students in Romania do not
receive as much practice in listening as in reading and wr iting. T here are mainly two
reasons accounting for thi s phenomen on. First, there are not many teaching activities
designed for teaching listening comprehension . Second, English teaching focuses mostly
on reading, writing and teaching grammar. Even an upper secondary school student is not
confident of his list ening ability. Students are aware of the importance of listening
comprehension but still admit that listening competency is the least emphasized language
skill in their learning of English.
Although most recently published English textbooks include a se ction of listening
comprehension, which aims to respect the English co mpetency standard set by The
Minis try of Education , there are some problems that elementary students encounter in
listening activities. First, students‟ limited vocabulary results in the ir inability in
identifying content words in listening practices and tests (Ur, 1984). Young learners‟
incompetence in deriving meaning from a larger context becomes one of students‟
problems in listening. Second, children always assume that they have to u nderstand every
word in a listening passage, and tend to listen to every single word distinctively, so they
always stop listening when encountering a certain word that they do not know (Ur, 1984).
They may try very hard to understand the meanings of unfami liar words. As long as
children start to become obsessed about this habit, they are likely to fail to listen to the
whole passage, and then would possibly become extremely frustrated and unconfident.

5
Third, foreign language learners‟ pre -existing knowledge helps very little in listening to
the target language because learners have different cultural background and discourse
pattern from that of native English speakers (Ur, 1984; Harmer, 2001).

2. The purpose of this s tudy

The main purpose of this stud y is to identify effective teaching activities that
improve elementary EFL students‟ listening comprehension. It is important for
elementary EFL learners to cultivate their confidence in listening to English and for them
to experience the success, which po sitively affects students‟ affective factors in learning
the foreign language. The classroom is one of the main occasions that provide English
learning opportunity for EFL learners, and teachers need to be active in creating students‟
engagement by providi ng them with different tasks.
The second purpose of this study is to examine when learners rely on top -down
processing, such as backgr ound knowledge , or on bottom -up processing, such as acoustic
features and stress, and on parallel processing. By receivin g listening activities, young
learners are likely to develop their own liste ning strategies and thus improve their
communication ability in English.
The third purpose is to investigate problems and difficulties that elementary EFL
students usually encount er in the process of listening. Teachers, accordingly, can design
listening activities or modify their listening teaching methods and provide the most
appropriate learning environment for young EFL learners.

6
3. The significance of this s tudy

The res ult of this study is expected to help teachers review, evaluate and modify
either their teaching methods in listening or their design of the curriculum, thereby
providing more effective learning strategies for children in listening comprehension.
Listen ing ability requires a large amount of consistent practice. Classroom
activities should ideally provide each student enough opportunities of practicing. If it is
possible for studen ts to practis e listening through classroom activities in an effe ctive way,
it is likely to increase their interest in improving lis tening and to cultivate a good listen ing
habit which is of great importance in their future English learning.
Furthermore , information provided by this study could be used by textbook
writers showi ng more various perspectives regarding listening teachi ng design. It would
be an advantage for EFL students if more helpful listening activities are offered in their
language learning textbooks. Learners, then, would become more active and independent
in learning English. They would im prove their listening ability even there is no assistance
or instruction from their teachers.

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CHAPTER II
LISTENING COMPREHENSION – THEORY OVERVIEW

This chapter contains a n overview of theory related to listening c omprehension in
EFL environment. First, the importance of listening comprehension is discussed. Second,
difficulties in listening comprehension for EFL learners are illustrated. Third, listening
comprehension processing is discussed. Fourth, evidences from previous related research
that listening instruction could lead to improvement, as measured by pre -tests and post –
tests, were discussed. Fifth, nature and characteristics of children‟s learning are reviewed.
Lastly, research questions of the present study are stated.

1. The importance of listening c omprehension

The increased importance of listening comprehension in language learning may be
attributed largely to the development of communicative language teaching approach,
which attempts to prepare l earners to trans fer their classroom skills to real-life context,
over the past three decades (Asher , 1977; Krashen, 1982; Omaggio Hadley, 2001; Va nde
Berg, 1993). There has been a shi ft from non -teaching listening comprehension in the
audio -lingual period to teaching listening comprehension in a strategy -based approach
(Mendelsohn, 1998 ). Before World War II, the teaching of reading was given the most
attention while that of listening comprehension was the most infertile and the least
understood language sk ill (Winitz, 1981). Under the predominant audio -lingual approach
in the 1960‟s and the early 1970‟s, the teaching of listening comprehension was still
minor . With the increasing interest toward s communicative language teaching approach,
several researches revealed the importance of listening comprehension (Brown & Yule,

8
1983; Faerch & Kasper, 1986; Feyten, 1991; Long, 1985). Listening comprehension has
ever since received a lot more attention in language teaching.
On the one hand, technological advances and the growing awareness of the
importance of listening in the world have made listening even more important in the
communication process (Mendelsohn, 1998). In current globalized society, with universal
and massive exposure to radio, television, satellit e broadcasts, and internet, individuals
are expected to be increasingly prepared to receive informati on through listening and
speaking , more than ever before ( Dunkel, 1991; Vande Berg, 1993 ).
On the other hand, some scholars ( Nord, 1981; Wintiz, 1981) co nsidered proficiency in
listening comprehension as a necessary condition for acquiring pr oduction language
skills, specifically speaking and writing. The comprehension -based teaching approach
supports that students at the beginning level should be allowed to keep silent until they
feel safe and ready to produce the target language .
Thus, it can be reasonably concluded that students are probably engaged in
listening before they are able to speak and write in the target language, which means that
second la nguage instruction at a beginning level should focus on developing learners‟
listening c omprehension ability . Still, other scholars (Dunkel, 1991; Long, 1985; Rost,
1990; Vogely, 1999) stressed that listening is important because it provides input as the
raw material for learners to process in language learning. Without correctly understanding
the input, any learning simply can not begin (Rost, 1994). Furthermore , the failure of
listening comprehension of the target language is an impetus, not merely an obst acle, to
language learning as well as to communication interaction (Rost, 1994).
The recognition of the importance of listening comprehension has resulted in an
increased number of listening activities in students‟ textbooks and even in
comprehension -based methodology texts designed specifically for teaching listening

9
(Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Rost, 1990; Underwood, 1989; Ur, 1984). Several studies
have found that through the use of effective pre -listening activities, instructors can
increase students‟ un derstanding of the listening passages, which in turn develops their
listening proficiency and contributes to their mastery of the ta rget language (Herron,
1994; Richards, 1983; Rubin, 1994; Teichert, 1996; Vande Berg, 1993).

2. Difficulties in l istenin g comprehension for EFL l earners

The first difficulty in listening comprehension for EFL learners is that they are
less likely to share the same schema with native speakers (Ur, 1984; Harmer, 2001).
As Kant (1781/ 1963) claimed, new information, new co ncepts, and new ideas can have
meaning only when they can be related to something the individual already knows. This
applies as much to second language comprehension as it does to comprehension in one‟s
native language. The empirical research in the relate d field has come to be known as
schema theory and has demonstrated the truth of Kant‟s original observation and of the
opening quote from Anderson et al (1977). Schema theory research has shown the
importance of background knowledge in language comprehensi on (Bartlett, 1932;
Rumelhart, 1980; Rumelhart & Ortony, 1977).
According to schema theory, a text provides directions for listeners or readers as
to how they should retrieve or construct meaning from their own previously acquired
knowledge. This previous ly acquired knowledge is ca lled the listeners‟ or readers‟
background knowledge , and the previously acquired knowledge structures are called
schemata (Bartlett, 1932; Adams & Collins, 1979; Rumelhart, 1980). The prior
knowledge, or schema, that a L2 listen er brings to the listening task plays a vital part in
interpreting the material, and should be considered in the evaluation of learners‟ listening

10
compre hension ( Long , 1990; Raphan, 1996). Based on schema theory, the process of
interpretation and comprehen sion is guided by the principle that every input is mapped
against some existing schema and that all aspects of that schema must be compatible with
the input information (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983). Efficient language comprehension
requires the ability to relate the textual input to one‟s own background knowledge , which
means that understanding words, sentences, and entire texts relies not merely on one‟s
linguistic knowledge but also the knowledge of the world (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983).
According to Ri chards (1983), much of our knowledge of the world is organized around
scripts, which is our memory about particular situations, the goals, participants, and
procedures commonly associated with them, and the information needed to understand is
therefore not explicitly present in the utterance but is provided by the listeners from their
repertoire of scripts. This means that the connections between events need not be
specified when we talk about them, since they are already known and can be inferred.
Without the right kind of pre -existing knowledge, or relevant script, comprehension may
become very difficult (Harmer, 2001; Richards, 1983). Non -native speakers may have a
different shared knowledge of cultural reference and discourse patterning in their own
language and culture; their individual scripts may differ in certain degree and content
from target language scripts, and that poses additional problems for some foreign
language learners who have to work twice as hard to understand what they hear. (Harmer,
2001; Richards, 1983; Underwood, 1989).
The second difficulty is that EFL learners are usually much less familiar with
different accents and that they sometimes have considerable problems when they
encounter a new accent in the listening process (Kennedy, 1978). Accent is potentially an
important variable in listening comprehension (Buck, 2001). Many foreign -language
learners who are used to the acc ent of their own teacher are surprised when they find they

11
have difficulty understanding someone else (Ur, 19 84).
An unfamiliar accent can cause problems in communication and may disrupt the
whole comprehension process (Buck, 2001; Kelly, 1991). Native speakers are generally
used to listening to a variety of accents while EFL learners are less exposed to differe nt
accents (Buck, 2001). Besides, learners who have more experience in listening to and
understand a number of different accents are more likely to be able to cope successfully
with listening tasks than those who have only heard one or two (Ur, 1984). Ther efore, it
seems reasonable to conclude that it generally takes a L2 learner much longer to adjust to
the voice if the accent is very different from any with which he is familiar than a native
speaker (Buck, 2001; Kelly, 1991).
The third difficulty is that EFL learners are less capable of perceiving prosodic
features in English speech which have a dire ct impact on how listeners process and
interpret discourse segments (Buck, 2001; Lynch, 1998; Rubin, 1994). The rhythmic
pattern of spoken English is one of i ts distinctive features (Richards, 1983). Unlike many
languages in the world that are syllable -timed , which means that the length of time
required to pronounce an utterance depends upon the number of syllables it contains,
English is a stressed -timed langu age (Buck, 2001; Richards, 1983). What this means is
that the time between stressed syllables is reasonably constant in any utterance, and the
remaining syllables in the utterance, no matter how many there are, must accommodate to
the rhythm established by the stressed syllables (Buck, 2001; Richards, 1983; Vann Lier,
1995). As a stressed -timed language, the following English sentences would take about
the same amount of time to articulate, even though the number of syllables contained in
each sentence is very different (Richards, 1983; Vann Lier, 1995):
The CAT is INTerested in proTECTing its KITTens.
LARGE CARS WASTE GAS.

12
The result of the stress -timed language is that the words between the stressed
syllables are pronounced very quickly, with no s tress or mild stress, and if there are more
words they are pronounced even quicker to fit in the short time, subjecting to
considerable phonological modification (Buck, 2001). Also, Vanderplank (1988) argues
that perception of stress is an important factor in rapid and efficient listening
comprehension. This adds another dimension to the listener‟s task, since listeners must
learn the complex set of rules that determine the pronunciation of connected speech and
be able to identify words according to the rhy thmic structure within which they occur
(Buck, 2001; Richards, 1983). Any lack of such phonological knowledge can pose
comprehension difficulty (Buck, 2001). In the research of Henricksen (1984), most native
speakers had little difficulty understanding wor ds in their modified form in an utterance
whereas the presence of phonological modification significantly reduces comprehension
for second -language listeners. In addition, Vanderplank (1985) found interesting
differences in native speakers‟ and non -native speakers‟ ability to percei ve stress by
addressing that “native speaker s were in general agreement as to sentence stress location ,
while only a small number of non -native speaker s agree with native speaker judgments as
to stress location, and the ability t o perceive stress location was not significantly linked to
level of English ability in learners” (p. 38). Still, Bond and Garnes (1980) agree that
speech perception is also subject to what they call “heuristic strategies” such as paying
attention to stress , intonation patterns, and stressed vowels. Therefore, listeners need to
know how the sound system works in English speech, in order to be able to process
natural listening task in real time (Buck, 2001).
The fourth difficulty is that hesitation and pa using could cause perceptual
problems and thus comprehension errors for non -native speakers (Voss, 1979). In his
study, 22 non -native speakers of English were asked to listen to a passage of spontaneous

13
speech, about 210 words long. Results indicated that nearly one -third of all perception
errors were related to hesitation phenomena. These errors were due to listeners‟ either
misinterpreting hesitations as words, or parts of words, or to misinterpreting parts of
words as hesitations (Voss, 1979). In contras t, some researches indicated that hesitation
and pausing help listening comprehension (Blau, 1990; Blau, 1991; Dunkel, 1988;
Friedman & Johnson, 1971; Johnson & Friedman, 1971). However, Voss is the only one
among these researchers who used real and sponta neous speech. All of the other studies
used a written text read aloud. Voss (1979) suggests that native speakers are usually not
bothered by hesitation phenomena since they possess strategies to recognize and process
such phenomena while focusing on meanin g, and non -native speakers get stuck in
bottom -up processing of phonetic utterances that do not affect meaning, while native
speakers discard these utterances in favo ur of top -down processing. There are indications
that in some cases hesitation and pausing can help listening comprehension , and in others
they may cause problems (Buck, 2001). In the researches of Friedman & Johnson (1971)
and Johnson & Friedman (1971), pauses inserted at meaningful syntactic boundaries can
benefit comprehension, whereas rando m pauses do not. When one -second pauses were
introduced into a text at the juncture between clauses, comprehension improved, while
pauses inserted randomly into the text resulted in lower levels of comprehension
(Friedman & Johnson, 1971; Johnson & Friedma n, 1971). Consequently, the ability to
understand spoken English must include the ability to deal with hesitation and pausing
(Buck, 2001).
Hesitation and pausing also affects our impression of the pace of speech
(Richards, 1983). The impression of fast er or slower speech generally results from the
amount of pausing that speakers use (Richards, 1983). Stanley (1978) suggests that when
speech was faster, language learners „constantly failed to perceive individual phonemes

14
and hence words with which they w ere already familiar‟ (1978: 289).
Comprehension declines as the speakers talk faster, and the weight of the evidence
suggests that the decline in comprehension is rather slow until a threshold level is
reached, at which time an increased speech rate le ads to a much more rapid decline in
comprehension (Buck, 2001). Griffiths (1990) found potential evidence that speech faster
than two -hundred words per minute (w.p.m.) is difficult for lower -intermediate learners
to understand. He found that this level of students perform best at 127 w.p.m.
Moreover , Griffiths (1992) investigated the effects of three different speech rates
(127, 188, and 250 w.p.m.) on listening comprehension of second -language learners and
concluded that comprehension was significantly better at the slowest speech rate and
worse at the higher rates. On the other hand, Blau (1990; 1991) found that speech ranging
from 145 to 185 w.p.m. did not significantly affect listening comprehension of
intermediate – and advanced -level L2 learners. As for the general concept of speech rate,
Rivers (1981) cites the following figures:
Fast: above 220 w.p.m.
Moderately fast: 190 -220 w.p.m.
Average: 160 -220 w.p.m.
Moderately slow: 130 -160 w.p.m.
Slow: below 130 wpm
Besides, Sticht (1971) qu otes a normal speech rate of 165 to 180 words per minute for
native speakers of English. Based on the researches ab ovementioned, speech rate is one
of the variables that affect listening comprehension, which may relate to text variables,
such as vocabulary , syntax or topic, type of text used, and amount of background
knowledge required (Buck, 2001; Rubin, 1994).
The fifth difficulty is that learners tend to think they have to completely

15
understand what they hear, consequently causing anxiety (Rubin, 1994 ; Ur, 1984). Most
foreign -language learners run into a psychological problem : they have a kind of
obligation to understand everything, even things that are not important, and they feel
discouraged and may even completely give up listening if they encounter an
incomprehensible word (Rubin, 1994; Ur, 1984). Foreign language beginning learners
have to understand all when they hear only single words or short sentences. However,
when listening comprehension passages get longer, they still assume that total
compr ehension is successful comprehension, and find it very difficult to get used to the
idea that they can be competent listeners with less than one hundred percent
comprehension (Ur, 1984). From the anecdotal evidence in the research of O‟Malley et
al. (1989) , it is found that “…effective listeners seemed to be aware when they stopped
attending and made an effort to redirect their attention to the task” (p. 428) and
“ineffective listeners reported that when they encountered an unknown word or phrase in
a liste ning text, they usually just stopped listening or failed to be aware of their
inattention” (p. 428). Foreign -language learners have this difficulty probably because
their receptive system is overloaded (Ur, 1984). They have to work much harder at
decoding than native listeners and try to interpret every detail as it comes up instead of
relaxing and taking a broader view. Compared with reading and writing, listening is more
stressful for learners since it involves serious time constrain ts on processing, whic h cause
learners‟ anxiety ( Ur, 1984 ).

3. Listening comprehension p rocessing

Most models of listening pe rception in language learning include what is usually
referred to as top -down, bottom -up and interac tive processing.

16
3.1. Top -down processing

In top-down processing, the listener s need to use their pre -existing knowledge to
interpret or get a general view of the listening passage and to create appropriate and
plausible expectation of what they are about to come across (Harmer, 2001; Goodman
1967; Shohamy & Inbar, 1991; Smith 1971). Top -down processing occurs as the
perceptual system makes general predictions based on general schemata, or prior
knowledge, and then searches the input, either visual or auditory, for information to fit
into, or ver ify these predictions, and thus top -down processing is conceptually -driven or
knowledge -based (Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983; Shohamy & Inbar, 1991). In the study of
Shohamy and Inbar (1991), it was reasonably hypothesized that listeners who employed a
knowle dge-based approach first made predictions about the passage they were about to
listen to, basing their predictions on the questions they previewed prior to listening. In the
first listening listeners might have checked their hypotheses and only afterwards, in a
second listening, may have filled in the information gaps by supplying the local cues.
Bacon (1989) and Vande Berg (1993) found that appropriate pre -listening
activities could benefit learners‟ comprehension for various listening exercises.
Adva nce organizers, such as brainstorming (Vande Berg, 1993), illustrations and key
words (Teichert, 1996), picture prediction (Harmer, 2001) and making inferences after
listening to a series of sentences (Brown, 2001), can be used to facilitate learners‟ top-
down processing and help them be engaged in listening tasks.

3.2. Bottom -up processing

In bottom -up processing, the listener focuses on individual words and phrases by

17
decoding the linguistic input rapidly and accurately to refute implausible interpr etation,
and achieves understanding by combining these detailed elements together to build up a
whole view of the listening passage (Harmer, 2001; Carrell 1983, 1988; Carrell &
Eisterhold 1983; Rost 1990). Thus, bottom -up processing is data-driven or text-based
(Carrell & Eisterhold, 1983; Rubin, 1994). There are two types of comprehension
strategies identified by Van Dijk and Kintsch (1983): one is local strategies which require
learners‟ attention to relations and links between the facts denoted by local clauses and
sentences, and the other is global/ macro -strategies which require a focus on the overall
coherence, gist or topic of a text. Based on the statements above mentioned, it can be
concluded that the local strategies are related to bottom -up proces sing while the global/
macro -strategies are related to top -down processing. Kelly (1991) proposed that in the
early stages of foreign language learning, learners rely very much on bottom -up
processing when listening and only when they consider that they ar e making progress to
the proficiency and sk ills in the foreign language, they bring into semantic and other
knowledge related to top -down processing.
Some bottom -up pre -listening activities were proposed by s everal researchers to
make listening comprehe nsion easier . Providing listeners with key vocabulary before
listening proved valuable in Raphan‟s (1996) and Rost‟s (2002) studies. Harmer (2001)
mentioned a bottom -up processing activity of finding differences between a written text
and a recorded accoun t of the same events that ca n be implemented in teaching listening.
Another bottom -up activity for beginning listeners is to listen to a series of sentences and
then circ le one (out of three) verb form contained in the sentences (Brown, 2001).

18
3.3. Interactive processing

Listening comprehension is considered by some researchers as an interactive
process between top -down and bottom -up processing and as a continuous modification of
a developing interpretation in response to incoming information and p re-existing
knowledge (Brownell, 1996; Buck, 1991; Harme r, 2001 ). Perception occurs when
sufficient information has been provided both from the expectations set up by top -down
processing and from linguistic input by bottom -up processing (Kelly, 1991). Acco rding to
Kelly (1991), if the sound signal is weak, obscured or incomplete, the listener will
probably make greater use of top -down processing; similarly, it is when the listener‟s
expectations are low or not sensible that he will need to rely more on the sensory level
and to hear clearly what is being said by bottom -up processing, and such view of
perceptio n processing would probably fit in with almost all current models of auditory
speech perception. Similarly, some studies have indicated that effective l istening
comprehension takes place when the listener can successfully monitor their interpretation
by constantly checking it against the incoming linguistic cues and to modify their
hypotheses accordingly (Tyler & Warren, 1987; Buck, 1990). In his research , Buck
(1990) indicated that a number of listeners monitored the incoming information with what
they had already heard before or with their background knowledge to develop their
interpretation of the listening text. Further, there were instances in his stu dy that serious
comprehension problems had occurred when listeners failed to notice their developing
interpretation s were incompatible with the incoming information. In addition, O‟Malley,
Chamot, and Kuppe r (1989) indicated that bottom -up processing is on ly fragmentary for
efficient EFL listeners; they activate more L1 knowledge in the form of schemata and use
both top -down and bottom -up strategies to construct meaning. Hildyard and Olson (1982)

19
found that efficie nt listeners and readers use the knowledge -based interactive mode of
text processing, while low level students relate mostly to local details. According to
Rumelhart (1980), both top -down and bottom -up processing should be occurring at all
levels simultaneously: bottom -up processing ensures that th e listeners will be sensit ive to
information that is new or contradictory to their ongoing hypotheses about the text; top –
down processing helps the listeners to resolve ambiguities or to select between alternative
possible interpretations of the incoming d ata.

3.4. Effectiveness of top -down and bottom -up processing

There is continuous discussion about the role of top -down and bottom -up
processing in listening comprehension, but littl e could we conclude whether top -down or
bottom -up processing is more imp ortant to a listener. Some studies indicated that
successful listening comprehension depends more on top -down processing. In the
researches of Carrell & Eisterhold (1983), Conrad (1981, 1985), Hildyard & Olson
(1982), Kelly (1991), Meyer & McConkie (1973), Rumelhart (1983), Shohamy & Inbar
(1991), Van Dijk & Kintsh (1983), it is found that skilled listeners, like proficient readers,
use a knowledge -based mode of text processing, namely top -down processing, whereas
less-skilled listeners and readers both a ttend mostly to local details as in the bottom -up
processing. Similarly, Voss (1984) found that “successful speech perception depends on
an active reconstruction process applying top -down strategies to the acoustic input, i.e.,
assigning ultimate values to segments and other lower -order units on the basis of
hypotheses about a larger stretch” (p. 148). In Weissenreider‟s (1987) study, schemata
which are crucial in top -down processing were found to be beneficial in listening
comprehension. Her results show t hat both textual schemata (knowledge about the

20
newscast processing) and content schemata (topic fam iliarity with specific news) help the
listening comprehension of non -native speakers, particularly when participants are
capable of incorporating cognitive s trategies. Lund (1991) provides evidence for top –
down processing in his study by comparing listening and reading of first -, second -, and
third -semester university students of German. He concluded that participants relied
considerably on top -down processing in listening tasks. Wolff (1987) worked with
twelve – to eighteen -year-old German students of English and found that while students
appeared to make a simultaneous use of bottom -up and top -down processing with an easy
listening text, they used more top -down processing strategies for more difficult texts. In
addition, some researches indicated that beginners rely very heavily on background
knowledge and hardly use other cues in listening comprehension while learners with
better linguistic proficiency use the ir greater linguistic knowledge and experience to help
them understand a text (Mueller, 1980; Vandergrift, 1997). Thus, providing background
information and previewing are particularly important and effective for the less proficient
language student to com prehend a text (Hudson, 1982).
Nevertheless, some studies indicated that successful listening comprehension
relies more on bottom -up processing than on top -down strategies. Schemata in top -down
processing can also have dy sfunctional effects on listening comprehension (Long, 1990;
O‟Malley et al., 1989). In Long‟s (1990) study, participants completed a survey of their
background knowledge of two topic s used, namely, gold rush and rock groups, and he
found that participants overextended their gold rush sch emata onto a set of da ta that were
clearly incompatible . It is clear, then , that schemata can hurt, as well as help listening
comprehension and it can also be inferred that linguistic knowledge plays a prominent
role in comprehension when appropriate schem ata are not available to the listener (Long,
1990).

21
4. Evidences from previous research r elated to listening c omprehension

Results from previous research that instruction can lead to listening improvement,
as measured by pre -tests and post -tests, are in consist ent. On the one hand, there was no
significant improvement in the studies of Johnson and Long (2007), O‟Malley et al.
(1985), and McGruddy (1995). Johnson and Long (2007) assessed listening competency
of college students through the Watson -Barker Li stening Test (Watson & Barker, 2000).
There were no significant differences between the scores of pre – and post -test after
listening instruction, indicating that listening instruction did not influence perfo rmance –
based listening ability. O‟Malley et al. ( 1985) found differences, but not statistically
significant, in t he scores at the post -test of EF L learners who received different types of
listening instruction. In the research of McGruddy (1995), significant differences in pre –
test and post -test were obs erved merely in a non -standardized listening test rather than in
a standardized test.
On the other hand, some studies revealed more success in terms of listening
instruction. In the study of Nichols, Brown and Keller (2006), the trained group of 31
freshman students made significant gains in scores during the period of listening
instruction. In Kohler‟s (2002) study, 70 learners of Spanish at a university received
listening instruction. Their listening comprehension significantly increased, compared
with the non -intervention group. However, there does not appear to have been a pre -test
of learners‟ listening comprehension, without which it is difficult to conclude Kohler‟s
claim of significant improvement in listening comprehension of the experimental gro up.
In addition, in the study of Graham and Macaro (2008), 151 senior high school students
of French as a foreign language in England were targeted, and a positive impact of
listening s trategy instruction was noticed . Students who underwent listening instr uction

22
significantly outperformed those who did not receive such instruction, and students
reported that they themselves recognized this improvement.

5. Characteristics of children’s l earning

Based on the theory of Piaget and Inhelder (1969), there are four phases of
children‟s cognitive development, which are sensory -motor period, preoperational period,
concrete operation period and formal operation period. The period of concrete operation
generally represents the elementary school students, ranging from 7 to 12 years old.
Children in the concrete operation period begin to think logically. Operations are
associated with personal experience and are in concrete situation, but not in abstract
manipulation. Children‟s learning in this period relies heavi ly on operational activities,
such as objects, pictures and physical experiments.
Another theory concerning children‟s learning is the scaffolding theory (Wood,
Bruner, & Ross, 1976) which was developed based on the concept of zone of proximal
developme nt proposed by Vygotsky (1978). Zone of proximal development refers to the
differences between the level of actual development and the level of potential
development; the level of actual development means children‟s actual independent
problem -solving compe tence while the level of potential development means children‟s
problem -solving competence develope d either through the leading or guidance from
adults or instructors or through the collaboration or cooperation with more competent
peers (Wertsch, 1984). Th e zone, or the difference, of proximal development does not
mean a fixed distance or concrete space of learning; rather, it refers to the possible,
learnable scope created by the interaction between people and it s changes with the
development of individual s (Cole, 1985; Moll, 1990). Scaffolding, when applied in

23
teaching practices, generally refers to the development of learners‟ gradual
comprehension of knowledge through the interaction between the instructor and the
learners. In such interaction, teachers, as assistants in children‟s learning process, provide
necessary assistance to foster learners‟ cognition with the consideration of learners‟
develo pment level. T he interaction which is the scaffolding in the teaching process
generally follows the pattern of question asking from the teacher, replying from students,
specific guidance of asking further questions from the teacher, and then replying from
students.
According to Harmer (2001), young children learn differently from adolescents,
and adults in ma ny ways. Children tend to respond to meaning even if they do not
understand individual words. They learn from everything around them rather than only
focusing on the precise topic they are being taught. Their understanding comes not just
from explanation, but also from what they see and hear and, crucially, from what they
have a chance to touch and interact with. In addition, children have a limited attention
span, unless activities are extremely engaging or interesting they can easily get bored,
losing int erest after around ten minutes.
In the light of these characteristics, teachers at this level need to provide a rich
diet of learning experiences which encourages students to get information from a variety
of sources (Harmer, 2001). In addition, in t he process of scaffolding in teaching, it is
essential for teachers to be skilful in asking questions to activate students‟ thinking and
creativity, which are helpful in deepening and broadening the language development of
the students. Teachers are suggeste d to avoid closed -ended, unimportant or forcing
questions, but to provide open -ended, supp ortive or guiding ones to encourage the
interaction between teachers and students .
Teachers need to work with their students either individually or in groups to

24
develop good relationships, and need to plan a range of activities for a given time period,
and to be flexible enough to move on to the next exercise when they see their students
getting bored.

6. Research questions of the present s tudy

Listening comp rehension is important for EFL lear ners. B eginning instruction in a
second language should focus on developing learners‟ li stening comprehension. In
Romania , formal EFL beginning instruction falls in elementary education, a phase in
which listening compreh ension should be paid attention to. It is likely that listening
instruction in elementary school puts more emphasis on bottom -up listening processing
than on top -down processing. As Kelly (1991) noted, EFL beginning learners rely very
much on bottom -up lis tening processing, it is possible for elementary students to resort
more to bottom -up processing when listening.
Although some studies have investigated either the effects of different advance
organizers on listening comprehension of undergraduate and j unior -high school students
(Sherman, 1997; Vande Berg, 1993; Herron, Hanley, & Cole, 1995 ) or how to teach high
school students listening skills more ef fectively , little research has been done regarding
the teaching of listening in elementary school, whic h is the beginning level of EFL
learners.
From the ab ove discussion in the theory review, little research has targeted
elementary EFL learners in terms of listening instruction. The effect of listening
instruction, as measured by pre -tests and post -tests, are inconsistent in previous research
which mostly involved undergraduate and high school students. Although it is apparent
that listening involves both top -down and bottom -up processing, most elementary English

25
learners tend to focus on bottom -up rather than top -down processing (Kelly, 1991).
Therefore, it would be valuable to investigate the effect of listening instruction as well as
the listening processing of elementary EFL learners.
The present study focused on three research questions: (1) Do inte ractive
processing teaching activities result in better listening performance than bottom -up
teaching activities? (2) Why or why not? (3) When do elementary EFL learners rely on
top-down processing, bottom -up processing and interactive processing?
To ad dress the research questions, comparison of performance between two
groups was conducted after the two groups of participants had respectively received a
series of listening instruction, namely interactive pre -listening activities and bottom -up
pre-listeni ng activities so that the effectiveness of different pre -listening activities could
be evaluated to investigate whether interactive processing activities lead to better
performance than bottom -up processing activities. Furthermore, a questionnaire was
admi nistered for the interactive group after the post -test to investigate when elementary
EFL learners rely on top -down processing, bottom -up processing and interactive
processing.

26
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This c hapter consists of five par ts. The first one provides characteristics of
participants in the present study. The second part provides information about the
instruments of the study, including the listening tests and a questionnaire. The third part
provides information about the teach ing and testing procedures as well as the
administration of the questionnaire of th e main study. The fourth part is a sketch of the
pilot study. Data analysis is described in th e fifth part .

1. The participants in the s tudy

Participant s in the stud y were 45 students from the fifth grade from two classes in
“Lucian Blaga” school Jibou, Sălaj, Romania, including 21 boys and 23 girls (see Table
3.1). The students from the fifth grade were chosen because students in the fifth grade had
established not only vocabulary concept bu t also the concept of sentence and discourse.
Thus , they were able to cope with t asks of listening to a passage and receiving instruction
of top -down or bottom -up listening processing strategies. One of the two classes was
treated with bottom -up pre -listening activities while the othe r class was treated with
interactive pre -listening activities.
The two groups of participants shared similar backgrounds. First, they used the
same English textbooks , Snapshot , an all -skill English l earning textbook that comprises
listening, conversation, reading and writing, pub lished by Pearson Lo ngman. The Wide
angle , a magazine -style section in the textbook contains feature articles on real -life topics,
including authentic listening tasks offering real -world experiences such as interviews,

27
teleph one messages and listening to n ews broadcasts. Second, all the participants had
equally received approximately 250 hours of Eng lish instruction for nearly three years
since the third grade and their native l anguage is Romanian . Third, the participants‟
English proficiency was similar because the students had an initial evaluation at the
beginning of the fifth grade and the means of the two classes were similar. Participants in
the present study range from proficient to less proficient. Therefore, the instructional
setting and learning en vironment of the participants were controlled accordingly.

2. The instruments used in the s tudy

Instruments in the present study comprised two types of listening comprehension
tests and a questionnaire. One type of listening comprehension te st was t eacher –
developed listening activities that were used after each session of teaching listening . The
other type of listening test was a listening test adopted from the Starters level in the
Cambridge Young Learners‟ English Test (hereby referred to as the Ca mbridge YLE
Test) which is a standardized language proficiency test for young language learners from
7 to 12 years old developed by University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge
ESOL).

2.1. The Teacher -developed listening activities

Teacher -developed activities (see Appendix 1) were developed by the researcher
based on the consideration of each listening practice text and the ability of the
participants . Each teacher -developed listening comprehension quiz took approximately
1.43 minutes on av erage, and it included five multiple -choice questions. The average

28
speech rate was about 94 words per minute.

2.2. The Cambridge YLE listening test

There are three levels in Cambridge YLE Test, Starters , Movers , and Flyers . The
level of Starters requires the test taker to receive at least 150 learning hours, the level of
Movers requires 250 hours, and the level of Flyers requires 500 hours. The listening test
adopted from the Cambridge YLE Test was used for pre -test and post -test so that learning
achievement and progress of students under two different types of pre -listening teaching
activities could be evaluated.
The listening test adopted from Cambridge Young Learne rs‟ English Test (see
Appendix 2 ) took about 18 minutes, including four parts wi th twenty -five items in total.
In the first part, participants had to match the names with the characters in a picture based
on the description of the CD. In the second part, participants had to write down correct
answers according to the listening passage . In the third part, test takers had to tick the
correct picture. In the fourth part, test takers had to colour the picture based on the
instruction of the CD. The average speech rate of the pre – and post -test was about 64
words per minute.

2.3. The questionnaire

A questionnaire (see Appendix 3 ) was administered after the listening post -test for
the interactive group. The main purposes of the questionnaire were to track when the
listeners employ top -down and bottom -up proce ssing, to understand liste ners‟ general
listening behaviours and to determine the effect of interactive pre -listening activities.

29
There were no interactive pre -listening activities designed for the bottom -up group which
may not be able to provid e information about when the listener s employ top -down and
bottom -up processing as well as the effect of interactive pre -listening activities.
Therefore, the questionnaire was administered only for the interactive gr oup. The
questionnaire was adapted from the studies of Vandergrift et. al. (2006) and Ockey
(2007) . Students were asked to respond to items using a 6 -point Likert scale ranging from
“strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. A scale without a neutral point was chosen so
that respondents could not hesitate . Items in the questionnai re were grouped into and
organized by four categories, including bottom -up processing features, top -down
processing features, the effect of interactive pre -listening activities and listening
difficulty. However, to support respondents‟ attention, some items w ere rando mly
interwoven with others. N egatively worded description was not used in the consideration
of young respondents‟ cognition and comprehension.

3. The procedures of the s tudy

There were four steps in the procedures (see Figure 3.1). First, a pre -test was
conducted. Second, teaching activities with tea cher-developed listening activities were
followed. The third step was the post -test. The fourth step was the administration of the
questionnaire.

3.1. The g eneral procedures

A pre -test adopted from listening test of Cambridge YLE Test was prepared for
the two groups of participants to assure a similar starting level of the two groups.

30
After fifteen sessions of teaching activiti es and teacher -developed activities , a
post-test was prepa red for the two groups using the same listening test as the one used in
the pre -test so that the final learning achievement and progress can be evaluated.
During fifteen lessons throughout the first and second semester, each session of
fifty-minute teac hing activities was designed by the researcher. Teach ing was
implemented in the class each we ek (see Appendix 4 ), which included pre -listening
activities, listening, and a teacher -developed listening quiz. The two classes in this study
were instructed by t he same teacher, the researcher, with two different listening
processing methods, namely, bottom -up processing and interactive processing.
Bottom -up pre -listening activities in this study (See Table 3.2) included:
a) vocabulary pre -teaching, b) finding differences between a written text and a taped
account of the same events (Harmer, 2001), and c) on an answer sheet, circling one out of
three word forms that contained in a sentence after listening to a series of sentences
(Brown, 2001). Worksheets were designed for students to practis e bottom -up listening,
especially for activity b) and c) so that students can be familiar with the procedure of
bottom-up processing (see Appendix 5 ). All the worksheets were designed by the
researcher.
Interactive pre -listening activities in this study (s ee Table 3.3) consisted of
vocabulary pre -teaching (bottom -up pre -listening activity) and prediction of topic -related
pictures (top -down pre -listening activity). Listening and self -designed listening
comprehension quizzes followed after the implementation of pre -listening activities.
Texts used for listening practice were adopted from the textbook Snapshot .
For bottom -up activities, as shown in Table 3.2, vocabulary pre -teaching was
arranged preliminarily in the fifteen sessions, seven of which were followed by asking
students to find out the difference between a written text and a taped account, five by

31
asking students to circle one out of three word forms contained in a sentence, and three
were arranged only with vocab ulary pre -teaching. In vocabulary pre -teaching, the teacher
showed the word card and said one sentence that contained the new word. The sentence
was simple enough for students to understand. Then, students had to guess the meaning of
the new word. The teac her had to provide assistance whenever learners needed help.
After all the new words had been taught, the teacher passed out the worksheet and
continued the next bottom -up pre -listening activity. Vocabulary pre -teaching was
necessary for the reason that mo st of the vocabulary items were content words in the
following listening texts, and students needed to understand the meaning of these words
to ensure their fluency of listening processing (Berne, 1995; Raphan 1996; Rost, 2002).
For interactive activiti es, as shown in Table 3.3, vocabulary pre -teaching was
implemented preliminarily in a total of fifteen sessions, and was followed by prediction
of topic -related pictures. The researcher initiated brainstorming for vocabulary by
showing students the continu ed illustrations, eliciting suggested vocabulary, and then
showing these word cards until the scene was well described.
Using pre -taught vocabulary in the process of prediction not only attempted to
help students memorize vocabulary with stronger impres sion but also to cultivate their
ability of associating vocabulary with certain topic. Such arrangement was based on the
consideration of comparability and consistency with the other group which was treated
with bottom -up pre -listening activities.

3.2.The test procedures

To ensure the reliability of pre -test, post -test and 15 teacher -developed tests, the
same testing procedures were administered for both tests. Participants were allowed to

32
have question preview by taking a look at listening comprehe nsion questions in advance.
There were stereo sets for playing CDs in each classroom, ensuring the quality of sound
perceived by test takers. Windows and doors were closed to avoid noise disturbance
during the test. Partic ipants were reminded by the teache r to listen and answer questions
carefully. Before taking the test, students were informed that the CD would be played
twice .

3.3. The administration of the questionnaire

The questionnaire was administered in a quiet classroom and the researcher, same
as the instructor, explained the purpose of the questionnaire and reminded respondents
that there were no right or wrong answers regarding this questionnaire.
The researcher answered participants‟ questions whenever they did not understand
the mean ing of the sentence descriptions and provided help when they needed it.

4. The pilot s tudy

To ensure the validity and reliability of the main study, a pilot study was
administered for teaching listening as well as the questionnaire.

4.1. The pilot study for listening teaching

Two classes, 40 fifth graders in total (See Table 3.4), were treated respectively
with interactive and bottom -up pre -listening activities for fifteen English class sessions,
with pre -test and post -test which were adopte d from Cambridge Young Learners‟ Englis h

33
Test. In each class session, 5 0 minutes were used in teaching listening.
For bottom -up pre -listening activities in the pilot study, as sh own in Table 3.5,
seven lessons were implemented with vocabulary pre -teachi ng along with asking students
to circle o ne out of three word forms contai ned in a sentence. Four lessons were
implemented with vocabulary pre -teaching and then asking students to find out the
differences between a written text and a taped account. And one lesson was arranged only
with vocabul ary pre -teaching. Three lessons were implemented by asking students to
complete worksheets which contained firstly, the activity of circling one out of three
word forms contained in a sentence and secondly, the activit y of asking students to find
out the differences between a written text and a taped account in the purpose of enhancing
students‟ ability of distinguishing different acoustic inputs.
For the fifteen interactive pre -listening activities in the pilot stud y, as shown in
Table 3.6, six sessions were implemented with vocabulary pre -teaching and prediction of
topic -related picture; three sessions were implemented with vocabulary pre -teaching and
brainstorming over a certain topic; one session was implemented w ith vocabulary pre –
teaching and making inferences after listening to a series of sentences; four sessions were
implemented with circling one out of three word forms contained in a sentence and
brainstorming over a topic; one session was implemented with ci rcling one out of three
word forms that contained in a sentence and then with making inferences.
The result of the pilot study showed that interactive pre -listening activities are not
as effective as bottom -up pre -listening activities. Students treated with interactive pre –
listening activities made an averaged progress of 12.71%, the percentage of the difference
between post -test and pre -test while students treated with bottom -up pre -listening
activities made an averaged progress of 19.01%.
The reason s why interactive pre -listening activities are not as effective as bottom –

34
up pre -listening activities could be outlined as follows: first, the combination of different
pre-listening activities was too complicated to show the significant differences between
these two types of pre -listening activ ities. Second, the schema of children under 12 might
not be sufficient for them to relate to when using top -down processing because of their
limited living experiences and English vocabulary. Third, only one topic -related picture
used in each list ening session was not enough to stimulate children‟s thinking. Fourth,
EFL learners are less exposed to the target language as native speakers are (Kelly, 1991);
for these reasons, top -down processing which is used largely by native speakers are not as
effective as bottom -up processing for EFL learners.
Based on the experience of the pilot study, the procedure of the main study was
modified in the following aspects: (1) simplifying the combination of different pre –
listening activities; (2) revising topic -related pictures; each set of topic -related picture
replaced by three or four continued illustrations for the purpose of activating learners‟
prediction m ore effectively .

4.2. The pilot study for the questionnaire

Seven students, including four males and three females were chosen for the pilot
study based on their performance of the YLE listening post -test to ensure the validity of
the questionnaire for different levels of listeners. Three of the seven students were ch osen
from the group of low achievers, three from the group of intermediate achievers, and one
from the group of high achievers. The researcher explained how to answer the
questionnaire and read each item with some necessary explanation to ensure the
respon dents‟ understanding.

35
Twenty -three items were designed in the pilot study. Items which were less
relevant to the purpose of the study were deleted, such as “I focus harder on the text when
I have trouble understanding,” “when my mind wanders, I recover my concentration right
away,” “after listening, I think back to how I listened, and about what I might do
differently next time,” and “I don‟t feel nervous when I listen to English.” Wording for
some items which was too difficult or abstract for respondent s to understand was
carefully changed; for example, “when I am listening, I relate my topic -related
knowledge to the listening content” was revised as “I compare the listening content with
topic -related knowledge that I had when I am listening, (Compar con ținutul audiat cu
cunoștințele pe care le am legat de acea temă.) ,
“the pictures discussed remind me of what I have heard” was revised as “the discussion
of pictures reminds me of similar contents I heard before (Discutarea imaginilor îmi
amintește de con ținuturi similare audiate înainte.) ,” and “I think that knowing every
single word is the key to listening comprehension” was revised as “I think that knowing
the meaning of every word is the key to listening comprehension ” (Secretul înțelegerii
materialulu i ascultat este să știi înțelesul fiecărui cuvânt.) .

5. Data a nalysis of the present s tudy

Data analysis was discussed based on two aspects: first, the performance of
listening tests, including the pre -test, the 15 listening quizzes and the post -test, and
second, the results of the questionnaire.

36
5.1. Dat a analysis for listening tests

Descriptive as well as inferential statistics were administered for the listening
tests. First, descriptive statistics was used to illustrate the performance o f the two groups.
Mean scores (the central value of a discrete set of numbers: specifically, the sum of the
values divided by the number of values) and standard deviations (the standard deviation ,
represented by the Greek letter sigma , σ is a measure that is used to quantify the amount
of variation or dispersion of a set of data values) of two groups in pre -test, teacher –
developed tests and post -test were calculated and investigated. Then, t-tests (statistical
hypothesis test in which the test statistic follows a Student's t distribution if the null
hypothesis is supported) were conducted with Microsoft Excel based on statistic al
formulations to determine whether there is a significant difference between the two
groups in the mean scores in the following aspects: (1) pre -test, (2) post -test, (3)
difference between pre – and post -test, namely, the progress of the participants, and (4) 15
teacher -developed listening quizzes.

5.2. Data analysis fo r the questionnaire

Frequency description was used to illustrate the results of the questionnaire by
considering th e small sample size of 21 respondents. The 6 -point Likert scale was
categorized into two types of frequency: low frequency for scale 1, 2 and 3, and high
frequency for scale 4, 5 and 6.

37
Figure 3.1 Overall procedures of the s tudy

↓

↓ ↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

Pre-test: listening test from Cambridge Young Learners‟ English Test Teaching
Teaching Procedures (Lesson 1 to Lesson 15)
Group One Group Two
Bottom -up Pre -listening Activities
Interactive Pre -listening Activities
Question Pr eview
Listening to a passage
Teacher -developed Listening Quiz
Post-test: listening test from Cambridge Young Learners‟ English Test
Questionnaire for Group Two (Interactive group)

38
Table 3.1 Characteristics of p artici pants in the main s tudy
Type of groups

Gender Number of
participants

Bottom -up Group

Interactive Group
Total

Male

11
10
21

Female

13
11
24

Total

24
21
45

Table 3.2 Arrangement of bottom -up pre -listening a ctivities
Follow -up
Activity

Number
Start -up Of
Activity Session

Finding
differences
between a
written text
and a taped
account
Circling one out
of three word
forms
contained in a
sentence

Vocabulary
Pre-teaching

Total
Vocabulary
Pre-teaching
7

5
3
15

Table 3.3 Arrangement of interactive p re-listening a ctivities
Follow -up
Activity

Number
Start -up Of
Activity Session
Prediction of topic -related pictures
Total
Vocabulary
Pre-teachin g
15
15

39
Table 3.4 Characteristics of participants in the pilot s tudy
Type of groups

Gender Number of
participants

Bottom -up Group

Interactive Group
Total

Male

9
10
20

Female

11
10
20

Total

20
20
40

Table 3.5 Arrangement of bottom -up pre -listening activities in the pilot s tudy

Follow -up
Activity

Number
Start -up Of
Activity Session

Circling one out
of three word
forms
contained in a
sentence

Finding
differences
between a
written text
and a taped
account

Vocabulary
Pre-teaching

Total
Vocabulary
Pre-teaching
7

4
1
12
Circling one out
of three word
forms
contained in a
sentence

0

3

0

3

Total

7
7
1
15

40

Table 3.6 Arrangement of interactive pre -listening a ctivities in the pilot s tudy

Follow -up
Activity

Number
Start -up Of
Activity Session

Top-down Pre -listening Activities
Total Prediction of
topic -related
pictures Brainstorming
over a topic Making inferences
after listening to a
series of sent ences Bottom -up Pre -listening activities

Vocabulary pre –
teaching

6

3

1

10

Circling one out of
three word forms
contained in a
sentence

0

4

1

5

Total

6
7
2
15

41
CHAPTER IV
THE RESULTS OF THE PRESENT STUDY

This chapter consists of two aspects: first, the comparison of listening tests
between the two groups, i.e. one treated with bottom -up pre -listening activities and the
other with interactive pre -listening activities respectively, and second, the results of the
questionnaire administered for the interactive group.
For the comparison of results from listening tests between the two groups,
descriptive statistics was firstly used to illustrate the performance of the two groups.
Mean scores and standard devia tions of two groups in pre -test, teacher -developed
listening quizzes, and post -test were calculated and illustrated. Then, t-tests were
conducted in: (1) pre -test, (2) post -test, (3) difference between pre – and post -test, namely,
the progress of the partic ipants, in order to determine whether there is a significant
difference between the two groups in the mean scores. The numbers used in t-tests were
calculated with Microsoft Excel.
For the results of the questionnaire administered after the listening po st-test for
the interactive group, frequency description was used and discussed based on the four
categories, namely bottom -up processing features, top -down processing features, the
effect of interactive pre -listening activities and listening difficulty.

1. Means and standard deviations of the two g roups

As shown in Figure 4.1, in pre -test, the mean and standard deviation of the
interactive group (Mean = 68.21; SD = 20.42) were both higher than those of the bottom –
up group (Mean = 60.44; SD =18.23). The means and standard deviations in pre -test

42
indicate that, on the one hand, the interactive group performed better in the mean score
than the bottom -up group; the deviation, or the extent of each score deviating from its
mean, on the other hand, varied g reater than that of the bottom -up group.

Figure 4.1 Means and standard deviations of the two groups, p re-test

Pre-test
80
60
40
20
0
Bottom -up Interactive
In post -test, as shown in Figure 4.2, the mean of the interactive group (Mean =
72.38) was higher than that of the bottom -up group (Mean = 63.97), and the standard
deviation (SD = 15.43) was lower than that of the bottom -up group (SD = 17.35). These
numbers indicate that, in post -test, the interactive group performed better than the
bottom-up group in mean scores; in addition, the deviation, or the extent of each score
deviating from its mean, showed less variation than that of the bottom -up group. Table
4.1 shows the numbers of the means and standard deviations of the two groups in both
pre- and post -test.

Figure 4.2 Means and standard deviations of the two groups, p ost-test

Post-test
80
60
40
20
0

Mean
SD
Mean
SD

43
Table 4.1 Means and standard deviations of pre -test and p ost-test

Pre-test Post-test
Mean Standard
Deviation Mean Standard
Deviation
Bottom -up 60.44117647 18.23116076 63.97058824 17.35456502
Interactive 68.21428571 20.41703702 72.38095238 15.43033500

As for the fifteen listening quizzes which were administered at the end of each
session during the fifteen weeks, 15 m eans of the interactive group were mostly higher
than those of the bottom -up group (see Figure 4.3 and Table 4.2), and 15 standard
deviations of the interactive group were mostly lower than those of the bottom -up group
(see Figure 4.4 and Table 4.3). Altho ugh the interactive group did not performed better
than the bottom -up group in Quiz 2 and Quiz 5 in terms of means and standard
deviations, the performance of the interactive group in the other thirteen quizzes was
better than that of the bottom -up group, and these two quizzes were rather minor when
compared with the total of fifteen quizzes. This implies that in the 15 listening quizzes,
the interactive group generally performed better than the bottom -up group with a lower
extent of each score deviating fr om its mean.

Figure 4.3 Means of the 15 listening q uizzes

Mean

100
80
60
40
20
0

In terac tiv e
B o tto m -U p

% of Correctness
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15

44
Figure 4.4 Standard deviations of the 15 listening q uizzes

STANDARD DEVIATION
50
40
30
In teractiv e
20
B o tto m -U p
10
0

Table 4.2 Means of the 15 listening q uizzes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Bottom -up
61.2 79.4 56.4 50.6 49.1 68.5 43.0 77.6 55.3 75.3 54.5 64.1 66.7 69.4 56.3

Interactive

68.6
61.4
63.3
66.2
41.9
75.7
52.4
85.7
68.6
87.6
79.5
81.0
82.4
79.5 67.5

Table 4.3 Deviations of the 15 listening q uizzes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Bottom -up
22.9 21.7 22.1 21.6 23.5 37.1 23.5 26.8 25.6 30.0 41.0 32.2 23.8 22.7 35.6

Interactive
16.6 25.9 24.6 27.4 23.7 34.7 20.7 26.2 25.0 24.6 29.5 26.9 14.1 18.5 36.8

2. t-Test of the means of the two g roups
This section illustrates the results of t-test of the means in the following aspects:
a) Pre -test, that is the profi ciency level of the two groups before the listening instruction;
b) Post -test, that is the proficiency level of the two groups after the listening instru ction; as
described in Chapter III , the listening test in Cambridge Young Learners English Test
(Start ers level) was adopted for both pre – and post -test;
c) Improvement within the same group, that is the difference of pre – and post -test within
the interactive group and the bottom -up group respectively;
d) Improvement between the two groups , that is the e xtent of improvement difference 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15
15 SD

45
between the two groups.
In pre -test, the difference of means between the two groups was not significant
based on the t-test under 95% confidence level, which implies that the proficiency level of
the two groups in pre -test was equal in terms of statistic inference. As the calculation
shown in Table 4.4, the p-value 0.0877 is higher th an the level of significance 0.0 5,
meaning that there was no significant difference between the proficiency levels of the two
groups.

Table 4.4 t-Test of means of the two groups in p re-test

N MEAN SD CL VAR POOLED VAR DF
Bottom -up 24 60.44117647 18.23116076 95% 332.3752228 379.1818079 43
Interactive 21 68.21428571 20.41703702 416.8554007
t
STATISTIC t CRITICAL p-VALUE
-1.730 327589 -1.992543466 0.087740277*
*p <0.05

In post -test, the difference of means between the two groups was significant ly
based on the t -test under 95% confidence level, which implies that the proficiency level
between the two groups was significantly different, and the proficiency level of the
interactive group was higher than that of the bottom -up group. As the calculation shown in
Table 4.5, the p-value 0.01 is lower than the level of significance 0.05, meaning that the
proficiency level of the inte ractive group was higher than that of the bottom -up group.

Table 4.5 t-Test of means of the two groups in p ost-test

*p <0.05
As for the improvement within the same group, both groups showed significant
improvement after the listening instruction. There was sufficien t evidence for this N MEAN SD CL VAR POOLED
VAR DF
Bottom -up 24 63.97058824 17.35456502 95% 301.180927 266.228045
3 43
Interactive 21 72.38095238 15.430335 238.095238
t STATISTIC t CRITICAL p-VALUE
-2.23431914 -1.665706893 0.014241045*

46
conclusion. For the bottom -up group, as the calculation shown in Table 4.6, the p-value
0.04 is lower than the level of significance 0.05, which implies that the improvement of the
bottom -up group was statistically significant.

Table 4.6 t-Test of the means of the pre – and post -test, bottom -up group

N MEAN SD CL VAR POOLED
VAR DF
Bottom -up 24 3.529411765 11.51608965 95% 1.974993082 132.6203209 23
t STATISTIC t CRITICAL p-VALUE
1.787050192 1.692360258 0.041559262*
*p <0.05

For the interactive group, as the calculation shown in Table 4.7, the p-value 0.02 is
lower than the level of significance 0.05, which implies that the improvement of the
interactive group was also statistically significant.

Table 4.7 t-Test of the means of the pre – and post -test, interactive g roup

N MEAN SD CL VAR POOLED
VAR DF
Interactive 21 4.166666667 13.20184146 95% 2.037088363 174.2886179 20
t STATISTIC t CRITICAL p-VALUE
2.045403009 1.682878003 0.023633977*
*p <0.05

As for the extent of the improvement between the two groups, there was no
sufficient evidence for the difference between the improvement percentages of the two
groups based on the t -test under 95% confidence level, which means that the interactive
group did not i mprove more than the bottom -up group. As the calculation shown in Table
4.8, the p-value 0.41 is higher than the level of significance 0.05.

47
Table 4.8 t-Test of the means of the improvement of the two g roups

N MEAN SD CI VAR POOLED
VAR DF
Bottom -up 24 3.529411765 11.51608965 95% 132.6203209 155.7068098 43
Interactive 21 4.166666667 13.20184146 174.2886179
t STATISTIC t CRITICAL p-VALUE
-0.221368942 -1.665706893 0.412707445*
*p <0.05

In conclusion, there was no significant differen ce in the proficiency levels of the
two groups in pre -test, meaning that the proficiency levels were equal in terms of statistic
inference before listening instruction. There was significant difference in the proficiency
levels of the two groups in post -test after the listening instruction. As for improvement
within the same group, both of the two groups showed significant improvement, meaning
that the listening instruction was effective; however, there was no significant difference
between the extent of im provements of the two groups, namely interactive and bottom -up
group, after the listening instruction, which means that the interactive group did not
improve more than the bottom -up group, and the bottom -up group did not improve more
than the interactive g roup, either.

3. Frequency description for the q uestionnaire

The results of the questionnaire administered after the listening post -test for the
interactive group were described and discussed based on frequency description, which
fell into four categor ies, namely bottom -up processing features, top -down processing
features, the effect of interactive pre -listening activities and listening difficulty.

48
3.1. Frequency description for bottom -up processing features

Some items described in the questionnaire were classified as features for bottom –
up processing, including “translating word by word into Romanian when the listening text
is difficult” (item 01), “translating key words when listening” (item 09), “translating
every word when listening” (item 12), a nd “viewing it as the key to listening
comprehension to know the meaning of every word” (item 18). As shown in Table 4.9,
there were nearly 80.95 % of all the responses (68÷84×100%) indicating that listeners
resorted to bottom -up processing when listening. These four bottom -up-featured items
were discussed from the highest percentage to the lowest percentage. First, the high est
percentage, approximately 92.86 %, fell in “I think that knowing the meaning of each
word was important to listening comprehension” ( item 18), which may indicate that most
respondents regarded it essential for listening comprehension to know the meaning of
every word in the listening text. Second, the percentage of 85.72 % in “When I am
listening, I translate key words into Romanian” (it em 09) indicated that many listeners
frequently translated key words into Romanian when t hey were listening. Third, 80.96 %
for “I translate what I hear word by word into Romanian when I find the listening text
difficult” (item 01) indicated that listeners usually employed word -by-word processing
when they found the listening text difficult.
Finally, the p ercentage of approximately 61.91 % for “I translate every word into
Romanian when I am listening” (item 12) indicated that over half of the respondents
tended to translate what they hear word by word when they are listening.

49

Table 4.9 Frequency description for bottom -up processing f eatures
* The scale of this questionnaire ranged from 1 to 6. Scale 1 to scale 3 were classified as
“low frequency” while scale 4 to 6 as “high frequency ”.

3.2. Frequency description for top -down processing features

Some items described in the questionna ire were classified as features for top –
down processing, including “guessing the meaning of new words based on words that
have been learned” (item 02), “comprehending listening with provided pictures” (item
03), “comparing listening content with knowledge related to the listening topic” (item
04), “comprehending listening with personal experience and existed knowledge” (item
05), “reminding of previous similar content when discussing listening -related pictures”
(item 07), “guessing the meaning of new words with the main idea of the listening text” Frequency and
Percentage

Item Description
Low* High* Total
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
01. I translate what I hear
word by word into
Romanian when I find
the listening text
difficult. 4 19.04 % 17 80.96 % 21 100%
09. When I am listening,
I translate key words into
Romanian. 3 14.28% 18 85.72 % 21 100%
12. I translate every word
into Romanian when I
am listening. 8 38.09 % 13 61.91 % 21 100%
18. I think that knowing
the meaning of every
word is the key to
listening comprehension. 1 4.76% 20 92.86% 21 100%

Total
16 19.05% 68 80.95 % 84 100%

50
(item 08), “associating listening content with discussed pictures” (item 10), “guessing the
meaning of words with provided pictures” (item 11), “comprehending listening with the
assistance of pictures” (item 14), a nd “answering listening comprehension questions with
the assistance of pictures” (item 15).
As sh own in Table 4.10, there were 83.34% of all the responses (175÷21 0×100%)
indicating that most respondents usually employed top -down processing when listenin g.
However, there was no significant improvement in the post -test over the bottom -up group
based on the results of the t-test shown in the previous sections.
Some possible reasons for such results will be discussed in the next chapter. These
top-down -featured items were discussed from the highest percentage to the lowest.
First, the high est percentage, approximately 95.24 %, fell in “I comprehend the
listening text with the use of my experience and knowledge” (item 05), indicating that
listeners in thi s study would mostly resort to their prior experience and knowledge when
listening. Second, nearly 85.72 % fell in both “the discussion of pictures reminds me of
similar contents I heard before” (item 07) and “I associate pictures with the content of
listen ing” (item 10), which may imply that pictures in this study provided notable
assistance in activating listeners‟ prior knowledge and helping them associate wi th the
listening text. Third, 85.72 % fell in both “I guess the meaning of new words with the
words I have learned” (item 02) and “I compare the listening content with topic -related
knowledge that I had when I am listening” (item 04), indicating that listeners may widely
employ what they had known, namely their prior knowledge when they were guessing th e
meaning of new words or listening t o the text. Fourth, nearly 80.96 % fell in both “I
comprehend the listening text with the use of pictures provided previously” (item 03) and
“I guess the meaning of new words with pictures provided before listening” (ite m 11),
which may imply that pictures provided before listening were also useful in the process of

51
guessing new words and listening text, but may not be as effective as listeners‟ prior
knowledge (85.72 % in item 02 and 04).
Fifth, approximately 80.96 % fe ll in both “I guess the meaning of new words with
the main idea of the listening text” (item 08) and “I think that showing pictures helps me
more in answering listening comprehension questions than learning new words” (item
15), which may imply that listen ers often guessed the meaning of new words by inferring
main idea and answered listening comprehension questions with the assistance of
pictures. Finally, 71.43% fell in “I think that showing pictures helps me more in
comprehending listening text than lear ning new words” (item 14), indicating that over
70% of listeners agreed upon the usefulness of showing pictures (top -down pre -listening
activity) over learning new words (bottom -up pre -listening activity).

Table 4.10 Frequency description for t op-down processing f eatures
Frequency and

Percentage

Item Description
Low* High* Total
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
02. I guess the meaning
of new words with the
words I have learne d. 3 14.28 % 18 85.72 % 21 100%
03. I comprehend the
listening text with the
use of pictures provided
previously. 4 19.04 % 17 80.96 % 21 100%
04. I compare the
listening content with
topic -related knowledge
that I had when I am
listening. 3 14.28 % 18 85.72 % 21 100%
05. I comprehend the
listening text with the
use of my experience
and knowledge. 1 4.76% 20 95.24 % 21 100%
07. The discussion of

52
* The scale of this questionnaire ranged from 1 to 6. Scale 1 to scale 3 were classified as
“low frequency” while scale 4 to 6 as “high frequency ”.

3.3. Frequen cy description for the effect of interactive pre -listening activities

Some items described in the questionnaire were classified as the effect of
interactive pre -listening activities. In this category, respondents compared “the
effectiveness of discussing pictures and learning new words (interactive pre -listening
activity) with that of learning new words only (bottom -up pre -listening activity)” (item
06). In addition, they reported how “frequently they thought of previous discussion about
the pictures” (it em 16), and how “frequently they thought of new words being taught” pictures reminds me of
similar contents I heard
before.

3

14.28 %

18

85.72 %

21

100%
08. I guess t he meaning
of new words with the
main idea of the
listening text. 4 19.04 % 17 80.96 % 21 100%
10. I associate pictures
with the content of
listening. 3 14.28 % 18 85.72 % 21 100%
11. I guess the meaning
of new words with
pictures provided before
listening. 4 19.04 % 17 80.96 % 21 100%
14. I think that showing
pictures helps me more
in comprehending
listening text than
learning new words. 6 28.57% 15 71.43% 21 100%
15. I think that showing
pictures helps me more
in answering listening
comprehension
questions than learning
new words. 4 19.04 % 17 80.96 % 21 100%

Total
35 16.66% 175 83.34% 210 100%

53
(item 17) during listening, implying the effect of interactive pre -listening activity
(discussing pictures and learning new words) when these two items were considered
simultaneously.
As Table 4.11 shows, the percentage of 71.43% of all the responses
(45÷63 ×100%) indicated that the interactive pre -listening activities were effective to a
certain extent in listening. Among these three i tems, the highest percentage, 80.96 % fell
in “When I am listening, I frequently think of the new words being taught just now” (item
17); the following was the percentage of 71.43% in “When I am listening, I frequently
think of the pictures and what we have discussed about them” (item 16).
These two percen tages, 80.96 % and 71.43%, indicated that the students in this
study did employ interactive processing (pictures and new words) even though there was
a minor difference between these tw o. Finally, the percentage of 61.10 % fell in “I think
that discussing th e pictures and learning new words helps me more in listening
comprehension than merely learning new words” (item 06), which may imply that over
half of the respondents regarded it more helpful to discuss pictures and learn new words
(interactive pre -listen ing activity) than just to learn new words (bottom -up pre -listening
activity).

Table 4.11 Frequency description for the effect of interactive pre -listening a ctivities

Frequency and

Percentage

Item Descriptio n
Low* High* Total
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
06. I think that discussing
the pictures and learning
new words helps me
more in listening
comprehension than 8 38.09% 13 61.10 % 21 100%

54
* The scale of this questionnaire ranged from 1 to 6. Scale 1 to scale 3 were
classified as “low frequency” while scale 4 to 6 as “high frequency ”.

3.4. Frequency description for listening difficulty

There was one i tem concerning participants‟ listening difficulty in the
questionnaire, which referred to “the hindering of new words appeared in the processing
of listening” (item 13). As shown in Table 4.12, only 23.81% (10 participants out of 42)
reported that the appe arance of new words hindered their progress of listening, which
may imply that most participants chose to ignore the new words and continued listening
to incoming data which might be useful for their listening comprehension.
Table 4.12 Frequency d escripti on for listening d ifficulty only learning new
words.
16. Whe n I am listening
I frequently think of the
pictures and what we
have discussed about
them.

6

28.57%

15

71.43%

21

100%
17. When I am
listening, I frequently
think of the new words
being taught just now. 4 19.04 % 17 80.96 % 21 100%

Total
18 28.57% 45 71.43% 63 100%
Frequency and
Percentage

Item Description
Low* High* Total
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
13. I keep trying to
figure out the meaning of
new words and stop
listening for the
incoming text when
some new words
appeared during my 16 76.19% 5 23.81% 21 100%

55
* The scale of this questionnaire ranged from 1 to 6. Scale 1 to scale 3 were classified as
“low freq uency” while scale 4 to 6 as “high frequency ”.

3.5. Summary of frequency description for the questionnaire

Participants in this study reported a higher frequency of employing top -down
processing (83.34%) than bottom -up processing (80.95%) in their liste ning while they
viewed the understanding of each word (bottom -up processing) as essential to listening
comprehension. The difference between the two percentages (80.95% and 83.34%) was
rather minor and this could probably imply that participants need plent y of contextual
support to compensate for their lack of word -by-word linguistic decoding skill (Wallace
1992). Furthermore, effectiveness of interactive pre -listening activities was reported in
the questi onnaire (71.43 %), but such effect was enough to faci litate significant
improvement over the bottom -up group. As for listening difficulty being identified, there
were few participants (23.81%) being hindered by the appearance of new words in their
process of listening. Other types of listening difficulty may exist which need to be further
investigated.

Table 4.13 Frequency description for the q uestionnaire

listening.

Total 16 76.19% 5 23.81% 21 100%
Frequency and
Percentage

Category
Low* High* Total
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage
Bottom -up processing
features 16 19,05% 68 80,95% 84 100%
Top-down processing 35 16,66% 175 83,34% 210 100%

56
* The scale of this questionnaire ranged from 1 to 6. Scale 1 to scale 3 were classified as
“low frequency” while scale 4 to 6 as “high frequency ”.
features
Effect of interactive pre –
listening activities 18 28,57% 45 71,43% 63 100%
Listening difficulty 16 76,19% 5 23,81% 21 100%

57
CHAPTER V
THE DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS AND
THE CONCLUSION OF THE STUDY

This chapter consists o f six parts: the first one includes the summary and discussion
of the findings o f this study; the second part shows the implications of the study; the third
part includes suggestions for teaching listeni ng; the fourth part sketches the limitation s of this
study; the fifth part includes directions for fu ture research; the sixth part presents the
conclusion of the present study.

1. Summary and discussion of the f indings of the p resent study

The main purposes of the present study are: first, to identify effective listening
teaching activities for elementary EFL learners; second, to understand when learners rely on
top-down and bottom -up processing in their process of listening and third, to investigate
difficulties that elementary EFL learners usually enc ounter in the process of listening.
For the first purpose, both interactive and bottom -up pre -listening activities were
observed to be effective in facilita ting learners‟ listening comprehension. However, there was
no sufficient support for significant i mprovement between pre – and post -tests to identify
which type of pre -listening activities was more effective for all the students from the fifth
grade in elementary school . Some possible reasons may account for the limited finding of this
study.
First, the schemata, which are important in the interactive approach, are limited to
certain extent for children under twelve. Children may not successfully associate their
experiences or background knowledge with listening tasks because of their limited schemata

58
and world knowledge, failing to activate effective top -down processing.
Therefore interactive pre -listening activities did not facilitate learners‟ listening
comprehension to the expected extent. Second, children may relate their listening with
incorre ct schemata even if they have background or prior knowledge (Jensen & Hansen,
1995). According to Jensen and Hansen (1995), selecting appropriate schemata depends on
successful interaction between the acoustic input, linguistic knowledge and world knowledg e
to construct the meaning of the d iscourse. In order to understand a message correctly;
students need to successfully integ rate the incoming input with their own knowledge system .
Third, EFL learners tend to widely employ bottom -up processing rather than top-down
processing when listening . Participants in this study may tend to listen word by word and
decode the incoming data with lexical meanings even though they had been provided
previously with some top -down pre -listening organizers, such as content pic tures. Fourth,
although participants in this study seemed to be unfamiliar with techniques of top -down
processing, they had reported in the questionnaire that they employed top -down processing;
however, some of them needed more directi ons or hints from the teacher to make meaningful
inferences or association. In picture inferring activities, some students h ad difficulty drawing
conclusions by merely loo king at pictures; the teacher needed to guide them with different
questions or uncompleted Romanian senten ces so that they could focus on the main idea
instead of on insignificant details of the pictures.
For the second purpose of this study, it was observed from the questionnaire that
although listeners reported it helpful to discuss content pictures befor e listening (a type of
top-down proces sing activity), 16 out of the 21 participants in the interactive group employed
bottom -up processing when they found listening t exts difficult to understand, 18 participants
usually translated key words into Romanian i n the process of listenin g (bottom -up
processing), and 20 participants agreed that understanding every single word was the key to

59
comprehend listening texts (bottom -up processing).
For the third purpose as difficulties encountered in the process of list ening, learners in
this study were observed to be relying on word -by-word processing. Most learners seemed to
need very high lexical familiarity f or good listening comprehension. B eginner -level EFL
listeners tend to adopt a mental translation approach to l istening, so it is difficult for them to
construct meaning when they process connected speech merely on a word -by-word basis
(Osada, 2001). Automatiz ation of word recognition skills, that is, fluent bottom -up
processing, is critical for successful listenin g comprehension (Segalowitz and Segalowitz,
1993). However, due to the lack of grammatical knowledge and vocabulary, word recognition
skills of ineffective EFL listeners are not fully automatized (Meccarty, 2000). Learners in this
study tended to employ a word -by-word method when they encountered unfamiliar listening
content, so there is little vocabulary of which they understand, and thus there is little the
listeners comprehend. On the other hand, they needed plenty of contextual support to
compensate for the lack of automatized linguistic decoding skill (Wallace 1992). However,
they were observed to be rather unfamiliar with top -down processing. This could possibly
imply that students, especially beginners, do not frequently employ top -down processing in
their regular listening or reading activities. And it is re asonable to assume that this
unfamiliarity could potentially result from insufficient instruction of school teachers
regarding top -down processing trainings. It would be interesting to follow up on how school
teachers arrange their teaching in listening or reading to see if learn ers are provided with
plenty of chances to employ their top -down processing.

60
2. Implications of this s tudy

Some implications of this study could be drawn for EFL te achers and textbook
writers. For EFL teachers‟ listening teaching in elementary school, providing more top -down
processing activities before listening could help learners activate their schemata. By
providing listening activities adequately, learners are e xpected to cultivate good listening
habits, such as deliberately focusing attention and blocking out distractions and getting ready
both ment ally and physically , activating appropriate schemata and defining goals a nd
perspectives . Furthermore, EFL teachers could help elementary EFL learners develop and
apply listening strategies.
For textbook writers, various types of pre -listening activities are suggested to be
considered in the e dition of textbooks, focusing not only on word or sound recognition, but
also on practis ing learners‟ top -down processing, as well as strategies for good li stening . The
selection criteria of English textbooks for elementary school in Romania seems to put much
focus on the teaching of phonics, the listening quality of CDs, and th e presence of songs.
There are many types of listening activities designed in elementary English textbooks, most
of which are bottom -up oriented, such as circling the sound you hear in phonics section.
There are less top-down pre -listening activities, such as predicting the coming listening
passage based on related pictures , which learners would find interesting and challenging. EFL
students could benefit in listening comprehension if various t ypes of listening activities were
provided in the textbook, and EFL teachers could effectively design their listening lessons
with useful textbook resources.

61
3. Suggestions for teaching and t esting of listening

Some suggestions can be made for the application of top -down processing activities
and listening st rategy instruction. Top -down processing activities in this study included
picture -inferring and discussing, which seemed to be attractive to the majority of elementary
EFL learners. During picture -inferring and discussing, the teacher guided students with open –
ended questions in Romanian which were mostly based on students‟ living experiences,
producing an easy and safe atmosphere for students to think and reply questions. Participants
were strongly encouraged to express their in ferences and opinions in Rom anian without any
right or wro ng judgement from the teacher which could probably foster their willing and
confidence of listening.
For the instruction of listening strategy, three types of cognitive strategies in Imhof‟s
(2001) study were identified, na mely interest management, asking pre-questions, and
elaboration strategies. First, for interest management, it has been concluded that topic interest
changes the quality and the quantity of information proc essing . Elementary EFL teachers
could build learne rs‟ interest by choosing appropriate listening topics based o n their daily life
experiences and their language level, and also providing positive, immediate feedback right
after learners‟ listening. Second, asking pre -questions can help listeners filter in comin g
information in advance and help them in deciding if a piece of information is relevant; thus
facilitating inference and the integration of new information into the listeners‟ existing
schemata . Teachers can ask useful, relevant and int eresting pre -questions to develop
elementary learners‟ interest and prepare them for the following listening tasks. Third,
elaboration strategies can be defined as a variety of processing activities that help listeners
relate new information to prior knowledge, create i nterrelations between individual pieces of
information and stimulate inferences (Imhof, 2001). Elaboration strategies take various

62
forms, such as creating personal examples, contrasting the target concepts, and expanding on
the target concepts (Hamilton, 1 997). Teachers can provide such processing act ivities to
develop EFL learners‟ listening and make them more and more familiar with listening
strategies. In addition, it is suggested that before listening, teachers should show keywords in
the listening text that may interfere with student‟s overall comp rehension . This approa ch can
build beginning -level listeners‟ confidence and help them learn to use effective combinations
of top -down and bottom -up processing strategies.

4. Limitation s of this s tudy

Two limitations of this study should be noted. First, the sample size o f this study was
rather small, 2 4 participants in the bottom -up gro up and 21 in the interactive group. There is
a risk of drawing an overall conclusion that interactive pre -listening a ctivities are more
effective than bottom -up pre -listening activities for all fifth e lementary EFL learners , based
on the performances of the two groups of the sample. Opinions collected from the
questionnaire could represent the tendency of listening behav iours of the interactive group
rather than that of all the fifth graders in elementary school. Further research is necessary
based on a larger number of participants to ensure the conclusion for the population. Second,
21 boys out of the total 45 participa nts were sampled, which could be a problem in gender
distribution. It would be more worthwhile and meaningful to investigate the listening
performance of a more gender -balanced group.

5. Directions for future r esearch

As for directions for further research, future studies are suggested to put focus on

63
either the integration of top -down, bottom -up processing and listening strategy with a larger
sample size or the evaluation of the effects of various types of pre -listening activities with
purposes of training EFL learners both linguistically and cognitively, especially for
elementary EFL learners, and developing an overall systematic teaching plan concerning
listening instruction. Furthermore, it would be useful to follow up on how teachers teach
listening in instructional settings in elementary school classrooms.
To present, the majority of listening studies have been conducted with university
students and not with kindergarten through 12th graders (Beall et al., 2008). It is hoped that
through th e understanding of how elementary EFL teachers teach listening, there would be a
better balance between the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing.

6. Conclusion

From the discussion above, some important conclusions may be drawn for the
teaching of listening. First, teachers need to provide a variety of different pre -listening
activities, featuring top -down, bottom -up or interactive processing, as well as listening
strategies, such as interest management, asking pre -questions and othe r elaboration strategies
for learners to listen more effectively and efficiently and further prepare them with the ability
of self -learning in the future. Second, it would be helpful to ask for feedback on stra tegy use
and reflection on listening behavio urs from students. Student s could not be expected to
improve their listening abilities until they learn to appreciate their listening inadequacies .
With such feedback and reflection from learners, learners‟ awareness of the complex set of
behavio urs required for effec tive listening could be improved , and listening instruction, in
this way, could be more helpful to young learners who could treat listening with increased
sensitivity, which would ultimately enable them to acquire another language more efficientl y.

64
In addition , EFL t eachers could improve and adjust their listening teaching based on such
feedback and reflection from learners. Finally, it is suggested that textbook writers should
consider the variety of pre -listening activities, focusing not merely on word or sound
recognition, which are more bottom -up oriented, but also on practis ing learners‟ top -down
processing, as well as strategies for good listening . As for the content of listening texts in
textbooks, natural, native -like listening texts are su ggested to prepare EFL learners for
communication as it exists in the real world. Learners will find listening interesting and
challenging if they are provided with different types of pre -listening activit ies as well as
authentic and interesting listeni ng materials. EFL students can benefit in listening
comprehension if various types of listening activities a nd attractive listening texts ar e
provided in their textbook, and EFL teachers can effectively design their listening lessons
with useful teaching mate rial resources. Although there is still much to be desired concerning
researches on listening comprehension, it is believed that with adequate listenin g teaching,
young learners will build their confid ence in listening and progress in their English
profici ency.

65
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Appendices
Appendix 1
Teacher -developed listening activities

Listening 1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the correct answer.
1. Does Daniel like rock?
Yes, he does. No, he doesn‟t. We don‟t know.
2. Does Daniel like techno?
Yes, he does. No, he doesn‟t. We don‟t know.
3. Does Luke like reggae?
Yes, he does. No, he doesn‟t. We don‟t know.
4. Does Luke‟s father like Celine Dion?
Yes, he does. No, he doesn‟t. We don‟t know.
5. Does Luke‟s mother like Celine Dion?
Yes, she does. No, she doesn‟t. We don‟t know.

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Listening 2

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the correct answer.
1. Who phones Emily?
Spike Daniel Luke
2. Who do they talk about?
Spike Daniel Luke
3. Does Daniel speak English?
Yes, he does. No, he doesn‟t. We don‟t know.
4. Does Emily like Daniel?
Yes, she does. No, she doesn‟t. We don‟t know.
5. Has Daniel got a girlfriend?
Yes, he has. No, he hasn‟t . We don‟t know.

Listening 3

Class: ______ Name: ______________

Circle the correct answer.
1. Is Daniel pleased to meet Spike?
Yes No We don‟t know.

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2. Is Spike pleased to meet Daniel?
Yes No We don‟t know.
3. Is Emily pleased to see Spike?
Yes No We don‟t know.
4. Are they l ate for the cinema?
Yes No We don‟t know.
5. Have they got four tickets for the cinema?
Yes No We don‟t know.

Listening 4

Class: ______ Name: ______________

Circle the correct answer.
1. Who buys orange juice?
Daniel Emily Spike
2. How much is a regular coke?
75 pence 50 pence 25 pence
3. Who buys coke?
Luke Emily Spike
4. Who buys popcorn?
Luke Emily Spike
5. How much is the regular popcorn?
1 pound 60 1 pound 90 pence

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Listening 5

Class: ______ Name: ______________

True or False. Write “T” for true, and “F” for false.
______ 1 Charlie wants to ask Luke something
______ 2 Charlie can‟t borrow Luke‟s bike.
______ 3 Emily has Luke‟s bike.
______ 4 Charlie can have the football.
______ 5 The boys want to play foot ball.

Listening 6

Class: ______ Name: ______________

Circle the correct answer.
1. Where is the Grand Hotel?
On Kings Road On St. James‟s Street On Queens Park Road
2. Where is the bus station?
Near The Palace Pier On St. James‟s Street Near The Brighton Centre
3. Where is The Tourist Information Office?
Opposite The Town Hall Near The Museum Near the bus station

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4. Where is Brighton Centre?
Next to the museum Near the Clock Tower On the corner of
Kings Road
and West Street
5. Where is The Clock To wer?
Between Dyke Road and Next to the museum Opposite The
Queens Road Town Hall

Listening 7

Class: ______ Name: ______________

Circle the corr ect answer.
1. Does Luke know about the King Alfred Leisure Centre?
Yes, he does. No, he doesn‟t. We don‟t know.
2. Has The leisure Centre got tennis courts?
Yes, it has. No, it hasn‟t. We don‟t know.
3. Does Daniel want to go there?
Yes, he does. No, he doesn‟t. We don‟t know.
4. Has Hove got some good restaurants?
Yes, it has. No, it hasn‟t. We don‟t know.
5. Does Emily want to go to the disco?
Yes, she does. No, she doesn‟t. We don‟t know.

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Listening 8

Class: ______ Nam e: ______________

True or False. Write “T” for true, and “F” for false.
______ 1 The twins are girls.
______ 2 They are sixteen years old.
______ 3 They wear their hair the same way.
______ 4 They have got the same colour eyes.
______ 5 They ar e the same height .

Listening 9

Class: ______ Name: ______________

Circle the correct answer.
1. Where does Daniel live?
Montreal Quebec Brighton
2. When does Daniel start school?
8 o‟clock 9 o‟clock 10 o‟clock
3. How long is Daniel‟s jour ney to school?
About twenty -five minutes About forty -five minutes About ten minutes
4. What extra activity does he do after school on Monday?

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Weight lifting Swimming Play football
5. Why does he stay late on Friday?
Because he is in the hockey team Because he plays football Because he plays
tennis

Listening 10

Class: ______ Name: ______________

Circle the correct answer.
1. Who learns scuba -diving at school?
Daniel Emily Spike
2. Who goes to dance classes?
Daniel Emily Spike
3. W ho swims three times a week?
Daniel Emily Spike
4. When do they play football at Luke‟s school?
In spring In summer In autumn In winter
5. When do they play tennis at Daniel‟s school?
In spring In summer In autumn In winter

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Listening 11

Class: ______ Name: ______________

True or False. Write “T” for true, and “F” for false.
______ 1 Chilli plays the guitar in his band.
______ 2 The Basement is the name of Chilli‟s band.
______ 3 Chilli plays at the club every day.
______ 4 Daniel likes dancing.
______ 5 They can‟t go to the disco because the tickets are expensive.

Listening 12

Class: ______ Name: ______________

Put a tick ( √) or cross ( X) under each picture.
___ ___ ___ ___

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Listening 13

Class: ______ Name: ______________

Complete with the word you hear.
You come in the front ……………………… and there‟s a large ………………….. with
stairs leading up from it. On your left is the …………………….. with a TV and a stereo
system. This room leads into the ………………………. We only eat there at weekends and
on special occasions like birthdays. We usually eat in the ………………………….

Listening 14

Class: ______ Name: ______________

True or False. Write “T” for true, and “F” for false.
_____ 1 Cameron is wearing black jeans.
_____ 2 Cameron is wearing a blue baseball cap.
_____ 3 Claudia is wearing a black jacket.
_____ 4 Tony is wearing black trousers.
_____ 5 Maria is we aring a yellow top.

83

Listening 15

Class: ______ Name: ______________

Put a tick ( √) or cross ( X) under each picture.

___ ___

___ ___

___

84
Appendix 2
Cambridge young learners’ English t est (Listening)
Listening
Class: ________
My name is ______________________
Part 1
– 5 questions –
Listen and draw lines. There is one example.

85
Part 2
– 5 questions –
Listen and write a name or number. There are two examples.

Sue

7

___________________Road

_________________________

__________________________

86

___________________________

____________________________

Part 3
– 5 questions –
Listen and tick the box. There is one example.
Which is Tom‟s bike?

1. What‟s Nick‟s favourite lesson?

87
2. Which is Sam‟s Dad?

3. What‟s Ann doing?

4. What‟s Pat got in her bedroom?

5. What can Tom do ?

88
Part 4
Listen and colour. There is one example.

89
Appendix 3
Questionnaire for the interactive g roup

Class: _____ Name: ______________

On a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree) please express your opinion on the
following statements.
Pe o scar ă de la 1 (dezacord total) la 6 (acord total) va rugăm să vă exprimați opinia în
legătură următoarele afirmații.
01. I translate what I hear word by word into Romanian when I find the listening text
difficult.
(Când un text audiat este dificil îl traduc cuvânt cu cuvant în limba română.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
02. I guess the meaning of new words with the words I have learned.
(Gicesc înțelesul cuvint elor noi pe baza unor cuvintelor pe care le -am învățat.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
03. I comprehend the listening text with the use of pictures provided previously.
(Folosesc imaginile primite anterior să mă ajute să înțeleg conținutul audiat.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
04. I compare the listening content with topic -related knowledge that I had when I am
listening.
(Compar conținutul audiat cu cunoștințele pe care le am legat de acea temă.)
1 2 3 4 5 6

90
05. I comprehend the listening text with the use of my experience and knowledge.
(Îmi folosesc experiența și cunoștințele să mă ajute să înțeleg conți nutul audiat.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
06. I think that discussing the pictures and learning new words helps me more in listening
comprehension than only learning new words.
(Cred că discuția pe baza imaginilor și învățarea cuvintelor noi mă ajută mai mult în
înțelegerea textului audiat decât doar învățarea cuvintelor noi.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
07. The discussion of pictures reminds me of similar contents I heard before.
(Discutarea imaginilor îmi amintește de conț inuturi similare audiate anterior .)
1 2 3 4 5 6
08. I g uess the meaning of new words with the main idea of the listening text.
(Gicesc înțelesul cuvânt elor necunoscut e cu ajutorul ideii principal e a conținutului
audiat.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
09. When I am listening, I translate key words into Romanian.
(Când asc ult traduc cuvintele cheie în limba română.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
10. I associate pictures with the content of listening.
(Asociez imaginile cu conținutul audiat .)
1 2 3 4 5 6
11. I guess the meaning of new words with pictures provided before listening.
(Gicesc sensul cuvintelor cu ajutorul imaginilor primite anterior .)
1 2 3 4 5 6

91
12. I translate every word into Romanian when I am listening.
(Când ascult traduc fiecare cuvânt în limba română.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
13. I keep trying to figure out the meaning of new w ords and stop listening for the incoming
text when some new words appeared during my listening.
(Tot î ncerc să îmi dau seama de înțelesul cuvintelor necunoscute și mă opresc din
ascultat în momentul în care apar cuvinte necunoscute în timpul audiției.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
14. I think that showing pictures helps me more in comprehending listening text than learning
new words.
(Cred că imaginile mă ajută mai mult în î nțeleg erea conținutul ui audiat decât doar
învățarea cuvintelor noi .)
1 2 3 4 5 6
15. I think th at showing pictures helps me more in answering listening comprehension
questions than learning new words.
(Cred că imaginile mă ajută mai mult decât învățarea cuvintelor necunoscute când
ascult un text.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
16. When I am listening I frequently th ink of the pictures and what we have discussed about
them.
(Când ascult mă gândesc frecvent la imagini și la ceea ce am discutat despre ele.)
1 2 3 4 5 6

92
17. When I am listening, I frequently think of the new words being taught just now.
(Când ascu lt mă gândesc frecvent la cuvintele necunoscute care tocmai mi -au fost
predate.)
1 2 3 4 5 6
18. I think that knowing the meaning of every word is the key to listening comprehension.
(Cred că s ecretul înțelegerii materialului ascultat este să știi înțele sul fiecărui
cuvânt.)
1 2 3 4 5 6

93
Appendix 4

Teaching procedures of the 15-lesson listening instruction

Lesson 1

Date
The 5th of January 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 1: Snapshot book, p. 41,
DO YOU LIKE HEAVY METAL?

New Words
Introduced
(1) rock
(2) rap
(3) techno
(4) heavy metal
(5) reggae
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.
22
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat a fter T.
– Activity: What‟s Missing.
T placed the flash cards on
the boa rd and divided the
class into t wo groups. Ss
studied the ca rds for 10-15
secon ds, and then clo sed
their eyes. T removed o ne
(or more than one for extra
challenge ) of the ca rds, and
then cho se one student
from each g roup. When T
said, “What‟s missing?”
30
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or in Engli sh
when the se pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: What‟s Missing.
T placed the flash cards on
the boa rd and divided the
class into t wo groups. Ss

94

the two student s competed
to say the mi ssing word.
The first student to
correctly identi fy the
missing ca rd won a point.
studied the ca rds for 10-15
second s, and then clo sed
their eyes. T removed one
(or more than one for extra
challenge ) of the ca rds, and
then cho se one student
from each g roup. When T
said, “What‟s missing?”
the two student s competed
to say the mi ssing word.
The first student to
correctly identi fy the
missing ca rd won a point.

7
min.
WS 1-1: Find differences
between a written text and a
taped acco unt of the same
event
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.
15
min.
Listening Practice 1:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the li stening practice
proced ures.
– Question p review: T read the que stions and required the student s to
repeat. T explai ned the que stions in Romanian i f necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 2

Date
The 6th of January 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 2: Snapshot book, p. 46,
CLASSICAL MEETS POP

New Words
Introduced
(1) natural father
(2) professional training
(3) especially
(4) mixture
(5) violin
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.

95

22
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the new
words, having student s to
repeat a fter T.
– Activity: Clap, Tap and
Point. T prepared a dart
and d rew a circle with
different nu mber of points.
T designated the sequence
of the ne w words and
divided the cla ss into two
groups, choo sing th ree
student s (S1, S2 and S3)
from each g roup to the
front, havi ng them lining
up. S1 had to say the first
word after he clapped,
tapped and pointed to S2.
S2 had to do the same as
S1. S3 had to do t he same
but S3 pointed to T. The
team who first pointed to T
and said th e word correctly
won and the winning g roup
threw the d art to win the
points
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian o r Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: Clap, Tap and
Point. T prepared a dart
and d rew a circle with
different nu mber of points.
T designated the sequence
of the ne w words and
divided the cla ss into two
groups, choo sing th ree
student s (S1, S2 and S3)
from each g roup to the
front, havi ng them lining
up. S1 had to say the first
word after he clapped,
tapped and pointed to S2.
S2 had to do the same as
S1. S3 had to do t he same
but S3 pointed to T. The
team who first pointed to T
and said the word correctly
won and the winning g roup
threw the d art to win the
points

15
min.
WS 2-1: Circle one out of
three word forms that
contained in a sentence
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.
10
min.
Listening Practice 2:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.

96

– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 3

Date
The 12th of January 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 3: Snapshot book, p. 48,
CAN I COME TOO?
New Words
Introduced
(1) clock times:
– quarter past…
– half past…
– quarter to…
-… o‟clock
(2) preposition of time AT

Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.

20
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat a fter T.
– Activity: Quicke r Tongue.
T divided the cla ss into t wo
groups and cho se two
student s as representative s
of their group. The t wo
student s stood back to back
and walked five steps when
the cl ass counted from one
to five. The t wo student s
turned a round when the
class counted to five and
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic-related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: Quicke r Tongue.
T divided t he cla ss into
two groups and chose two

97

the one who said out the
word quickly won a point.
student s as representative s
of their group. The t wo
student s stood back to back
and walked five steps
when the c lass coun ted
from one to five. The t wo
student s turned a round
when the class counted to
five and the one who said
out the word quickly won a
point.

15
min.
WS 3-1: Circle one out of
three word forms that
contained in a sentence
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played th e CD twice.

10
min.
Listening Practice 3:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 4

Date
The 13th of January 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 4: Snapshot book, p. 50,
BRITISH MONEY
New Words
Introduced
(1) diet coke
(2) fast food
(3) regular
(4) large
(5) tea
(6) orange juice
(7) packet
(8) bucket
(9) ice cream
(10) money
(11) pound
(12) pence
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re

98

5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.

25
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat a fter T.
– Activity: All Sit Down. T
had the cla ss stand up and
quickly flashed the pictu res
of the ne w words. S who
said out the word sat do wn.
T used a time r to show
how long it t ook for all the
class sat do wn and wrote
the ti me on the board. T
repeated the p rocedu re and
encou raged the cla ss to do
this activity quicke r than
their first time record.
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: All Sit Down. T
had the cla ss stand up and
quickly flashed the pictu res
of the ne w words. S who
said out the word sat do wn.
T used a time r to show
how long it t ook for all the
class sat do wn and wrote
the ti me on the board. T
repeated the p roced ure and
encou raged the cla ss to do
this activity quicke r than
their first time record.
10
min.
WS 4-1: Find differences
between a written text and a
taped acco unt of the same
event
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.
10
min.
Listening Practice 4:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

99

Lesson 5

Date
The 19th of January 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 5: Snapshot book, p. 52,
ASKING FOR PERMISSION
New Words
Introduced
(1) come in
(2) watch TV
(3) borrow
(4) magazine
(5) play the guitar
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.

35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards,
having student s name them
out loudl y, applying to the
whole cl ass and then to
groups.
– Activity: Ba sketball. T
prepared two basketball s
by cutt ing out two circles
from orange p ieces of
pape r. On each side o f the
board, T drew a column of
six ho rizontal line s. On the
top line, T drew a
basketball hoop and
attached t wo basketballs on
the boa rd below the bottom
line. T divided the cla ss
into t wo groups and had a
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: Ba sketball. T
prepared two basketball s
by cutt ing out two circles
from orange p ieces of
pape r. On each side o f the
board, T drew a column of
six ho rizontal line s. On the
top line, T drew a
basketball hoop and
attached t wo basketballs on

100

student from each team
come to the front. T
quickly showed the se two
student s a flash card. The
first student to co rrectly
name the ca rd threw the
dice to move the
basketball. Anothe r two
studen ts came to the front
to na me the ca rds. T
returned the ba sketball to
the starting position and
continued playing until a
pre-determined numbe r of
point s was reached. The
team reaching this number
won the ga me.
the boa rd below the bottom
line. T divided the cla ss
into t wo groups and had a
student from each team
come to the front. T
quickly showed the se two
student s a flash card. The
first student to co rrectly
name the ca rd threw the
dice to move the
basketball. Anothe r two
studen ts came to the front
to na me the ca rds. T
returned the b asketball to
the starting position and
continued playing until a
pre-determined numbe r of
point s was reached. The
team reaching this number
won the ga me.

10
min.
Listening Practice 5:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 6

Date
The 20th of January 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 6: Snapshot book, p. 54,
WELCOME TO BRIGHTON
New Words
Introduced
(1) a resort
(2) a swimming pool
(3) a pier
(4) a shopping mall
(5) prepositions of place

101

Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group

Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.

25
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards and
had several student s name
the ca rds.
– Activity: Which Team Is
Faster. T prepared a ball
and d rew a 3×3 grids with
number 1 to 9. T divided
the cla ss into t wo groups,
choo sing th ree student s
(S1, S2 and S3) from each
group to the front, having
them lining up. T quickly
showed the flash cards to
S1 from each g roup. The
one who na med the ca rd
correctly and quick ly went
back to hi s seat. The lo ser
stayed back to the queue. T
did the same to S2 and S3.
The first team who all went
to the seats won and the
winning g roup th rew the
ball to make the Bingo.
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented .
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: Which Team Is
Faster. T prepared a ball
and d rew a 3×3 g rids with
number 1 to 9. T divided
the cla ss into t wo groups,
choo sing th ree student s
(S1, S2 and S3) from each
group to the front, having
them lining up. T quickly
showed the flash cards to
S1 from each g roup. The
one who na med the ca rd
correctly and quickly went
back to hi s seat. The lo ser
stayed back to the queue. T
did the same to S2 and S3.
The first team who all went
to the seats won and the
winning g roup th rew the
ball to make the Bingo.
10
min.
WS 6-1: Circle the word that
is different from what you
hear
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the

102

listening exe rcise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.

10
min.
Listening Practice 6:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 7

Date
The 26th of January 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 7: Snapshot book, p. 56,
PLACES IN TOWNS
New Words
Introduced
(1) leisure/sports centre
(2) water chute
(3) badminton court
(4) ten-pin bowling alley
(5) neighbourhood
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.

25
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards and
had several student s name
the ca rds.
– Activity: Clap, Tap and
Point. T prepared a dart
and d rew a circle with
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when

103

different nu mber of points.
T designated the sequence
of the ne w words and
divided the cla ss into two
groups, choo sing th ree
student s (S1, S2 and S3)
from each g roup to the
front, havi ng them lining
up. S1 had to say the first
word after he clapped,
tapped and pointed to S2.
S2 had to do the same as
S1. S3 had to do t he same
but S3 pointed to T. The
team who first pointed to T
and said the word correctly
won and the winning g roup
threw the d art to win the
point s.
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: Clap, Tap and
Point. T prepared a dart
and d rew a circle with
different nu mber of points.
T designated the sequence
of the ne w words and
divided the cla ss into two
groups, choo sing th ree
student s (S1, S2 and S3)
from each g roup to the
front, havi ng them lining
up. S1 had to say the first
word after he clapped,
tapped and pointed to S2.
S2 had to do the same as
S1. S3 had to do t he same
but S3 pointed to T. The
team who first pointed to T
and said the word correctly
won and the winning g roup
threw the d art to win the
point s.

10
min.
WS 7-1: Circle the word
you hear
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.
10
min.
Listening Practice 7:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 8

Date
The 27th of January 2015

104

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 8: Snapshot book, p. 61,
SIX OF A KIND
New Words
Introduced
(1) twins
(2) triplets
(3) pets
(4) similarity

Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.
25
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards and
had several student s name
the ca rds.
– Activity: What‟s Missing.
T placed the flash cards on
the boa rd and divided the
class into t wo groups. Ss
studied the ca rds for 10-15
second s, and then clo sed
their eyes. T removed o ne
(or more than one for extra
challenge ) of the ca rds, and
then cho se one student
from each g roup. When T
said, “What‟s missing?”
the two student s competed
to say the mi ssing word.
The first student to
correctly identi fy the
missing ca rd won a point.
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encouraged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: What‟s Missing.
T placed the flash cards on
the boa rd and divided the
class into t wo groups. Ss
studied the ca rds for 10-15
second s, and then clo sed
their eyes. T removed one
(or more than one for extra
challenge ) of the ca rds, and
then cho se one student
from each g roup. When T
said, “What‟s missing?”
the two student s competed
10
WS 8-1: Circle the word that

105

min.
is different from what
you hear
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.
to say the mi ssing word.
The first student to
correctly identi fy the
missing ca rd won a point.

10
min.
Listening Practice 8:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 9

Date
The 16th of February 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 9: Snapshot book, p. 56,
I NEVER GO STRAIGHT HOME

New Words
Introduced
(1) adverbs of frequency
(2) a port
(3) metro
(4) match
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.
25
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards and
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress

106

had several student s name
the cards.
– Activity: Quicke r Tongue.
T divided the cla ss into t wo
groups and cho se two
student s as representative s
of their group. The t wo
student s stood back to back
and walked five steps when
the cl ass counted from one
to five. The t wo student s
turned a round when the
class counted to five and
the one who said out the
word quickly won a point.
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: Quicke r Tongue.
T divided t he cla ss into
two groups and chose two
student s as representative s
of their group. The t wo
student s stood back to back
and walked five steps
when the c lass coun ted
from one to five. The t wo
student s turned a round
when the cla ss counted to
five and the one who said
out the word quickly won a
point.

10
min.
WS 9-1: Find differences
between a written text and a
taped acco unt of the same
event
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.
10
min.
Listening Practice 9:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 10

Date
The 2nd of March 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 10: Snapshot book, p. 70,
CAN YOU SCUBA -DIVE?
New Words

107

Introduc ed
(1) keep fit
(2) scuba -dive
(3) shark
(4) lucky
(5) lazy
(6) dance classes
(7) sea
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.

35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards and
had several student s name
the ca rds.
– Activity: Memory Cha in. T
designated a student (S1)
to say a word using the
new words in thi s session.
The student sitting behind
S1 (S2) repeated hi s word
and added hi s own word.
The student sitting behind
S2 (S3) repeated S1 and
S2‟s words, and added his
own word. The cla ss
contin ued in the same way
until someone was unable
to repeat all the p reviou s
words. The act ivity then
began again starting with
this student.
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: Memory Cha in. T
designated a student (S1)
to say a word using the
new words in thi s session.
The student sitting behind
S1 (S2) repeated hi s word
and added hi s own word.
The student sitting behind
S2 (S3) repeated S1 and
S2‟s words, and added his
own word. The cla ss
contin ued in the same way

108

until someone was unable
to repeat all the p reviou s
words. The act ivity then
began again starting with
this student.

10
min.
Listening Practice 10:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 11

Date
The 9th of March 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 11: Snapshot book, p. 74,
WATER BOY

New Words
Introduced
(1) jet ski
(2) hot
(3) free tickets
(4) equipment
(5) traditional
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today
20
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:

35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards and
had several student s name
the ca rds.
– Activity: Li sten and Say.
T rando mly numbe red the flash
cards, said the number and
chose one student to say the
word. T repeated the p rocedure
until most students are familiar

Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.

109

with the ne w words.
– Activity: Touch and Say. T
divided the cla ss into two
groups and a rranged the
flash cards on the boa rd. T
chose two students as
representatives of their
group. T said the nu mber
of new words, and the t wo
student s touche d the word
and said it out. The quicke r
one won.
– Activity: Li sten and Say. T
rando mly numbe red the
flash cards, said the
number and cho se one
student to say the word. T
repeated the p rocedu re
until most studen ts are
familiar with the ne w
words.
– Activity: Touch and Say. T
divided the cla ss into two
groups and a rranged the
flash cards on the boa rd. T
chose two students as
representatives of their
group. T said the nu mber
of new words, and the t wo
student s touched the word
and said it out. The quicke r
one won.

10
min.
WS 11-1: Circle the word you
hear.
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.
10
min.
Listening Prac tice 11:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

110
Lesson 12

Date
The 10th of March 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 12: Snapshot book, p. 76,
WHAT‟S DANIEL DOING?
New Words
Introduced
(1) upstairs
(2) write a letter
(3) read a book
(4) play a computer game
(5) talk on the phone
(6) have a shower
(7) listen to the radio
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.

35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards and
had several student s name
the ca rds.
– Activity: Which Team Is
Faster. T prepared a ball
and d rew a 3×3 grids with
number 1 to 9. T divided
the cla ss into t wo groups,
choo sing three student s
(S1, S2 and S3) from each
group to the front, having
them lining up. T quickly
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: Which Team Is
Faster. T prepared a ball
and d rew a 3×3 g rids with
number 1 to 9. T divided

111

showed the flash cards to
S1 from each g roup. The
one who na med the ca rd
correctly and q uickly went
back to hi s seat. The lo ser
stayed back to the queue. T
did the same to S2 and S3.
The first team who all went
to the seats won and the
winning g roup t hrew the
ball to make the Bingo.
the cla ss into t wo groups,
choo sing th ree student s
(S1, S2 and S3) from each
group to the front, having
them lining up. T quickly
showed the flash cards to
S1 from each g roup. The
one who na med the ca rd
correctly and quickly went
back to hi s seat. The lo ser
stayed back to the queue. T
did the same to S2 and S3.
The first team who all went
to the seats won and the
winning g roup th rew the
ball to make the Bingo.

10
min.
Listening Practice 12:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 13

Date
The 16th of March 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 13: Snapshot book, p. 80,
ROOMS AND PARTS OF THE HOUSE
New Words
Introduced
(1) bedroom
(2) bathroom
(3) kitchen
(4) living room
(5) sofa
(6) armchair
(7) dining room
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group

112

Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re

5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.

25
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards and
had several student s name
the ca rds.
– Activity: Quicke r Tongue.
T divided the cla ss into t wo
groups and cho se two
student s as representative s
of their group. The t wo
student s stood back to back
and walked five steps when
the cl ass counted from one
to five. The t wo student s
turned a round when the
class counted to five and
the one who said out the
word quickly won a point.
35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: Quicke r Tongue.
T divided t he cla ss into
two groups and chose two
student s as representative s
of their group. The t wo
student s stood back to back
and walked five steps
when the c lass coun ted
from one to five. The t wo
student s turned a round
when the cla ss counted to
five and the one who said
out the word quickly won a
point.
10
min.
WS 13-1: Find differences
between a written text and a
taped acco unt of the same
event
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.
10
min.
Listening Practice 13:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to

113

repeat. T explai ned the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

Lesson 14

Date
The 23rd of March 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 14: Snapshot book, p. 82,
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO WEAR?
New Words
Introduced
(1) sweater
(2) boots
(3) sweatshirt
(4) trainers
(5) socks
(6) leggings
(7) tights
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.

30
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards and
had several student s name
the ca rds.
– Activity: All Sit Down. T
had the cla ss stand up and
quickly flashed the pictu res of
the ne w words. S who said out
the word sat do wn. T used a
timer to show how long it t ook
for all the class sat do wn and
wrote the ti me on the board. 35
min. Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh
when the se pictures were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.

114
T repeated the p rocedu re
and encou raged the cla ss to
do thi s activity quicke r than
their first time record.

– Activity: All Sit Down. T
had the cla ss stand up and
quickly flashed the pictu res
of the ne w words. S who
said out the word sat do wn.
T used a time r to show
how long it t ook for all the
class sat do wn and wrote
the ti me on the board. T
repeated the p rocedu re and
encou raged the cla ss to do
this activity quic ker than
their first time record.

7
min.
WS 14-1: Circle one out of
three word forms that
contained in a sentence
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.

Listening Practice 14:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– Question preview: T read the questions and required the student s to
repeat. T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

115
Lesson 15

Date
The 24th of March 2015

Listening
Material
Listening Practice 14: Snapshot book, p. 84,
CLOTHES
New Words
Introduced
(1) baggy
(2) tight
(3) long
(4) long
Bottom-up Group
Interactive Group
Time
Teaching Procedu re
Time
Teaching Procedu re
5
min.
Warm-up:
– Homework for today.
30
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching:
– Presentation: T showed
flash cards of the ne w
words, having student s to
repeat after T. T randomly
showed the flash cards and
had several student s name
the ca rds.
– Activity: Memory Cha in.
T designated a student (S1)
to say a word using the
new words in thi s session.
The student sitting behind
S1 (S2) repeated hi s word
and added hi s own word.
The student sitting behind
S2 (S3) repeated S1 and
S2‟s words, and added his
own word. The cla ss
contin ued in the same way
until someone was unable

35
min.
Vocabulary Pre-teaching &
Prediction of Topic-related
Pictures:
– Presentation: T showed
topic -related pictu res and
encou raged Ss to exp ress
what they thought eithe r in
Romanian or Engli sh when
these pictu res were
presented.
– T showed flash cards when
Ss mentioned t he new
words.
– Activity: Memory Cha in. T
designated a student (S1)
to say a word using the
new words in thi s session.
The student sitting behind
S1 (S2) repeated hi s word
and added hi s own word.

116

to repeat all the p reviou s
words. The act ivity then
began again starting with
this student
The student sitting behind
S2 (S3) repeated S1 and
S2‟s words, and added his
own word. The cla ss
continued in the same way
until someone was unable
to repeat all the p reviou s
words. The act ivity then
began again starting with
this student

7
min.
WS 15-1: Find differences
between a written text and a
taped acco unt of the same
event
– T passed the worksheet to
Ss and expla ined the
listening e xercise
proced ures.
– T played the C D twice.
10
min.
Listening Practice 15:
– T passed the worksheets to Ss and explained the listening practice
proced ures.
– T explain ed the que stions in Romanian if necessary.
– T played the C D twice.

117
Appendix 5
Worksheets for the bottom -up group

WS 1 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word that is different from what you hear.
There are some musical programs on TV. On Monday, there is one of rock music. On
Tuesday, it‟s about popular music. On Wednesday, there are a lot of singers singing country
songs. I like to watch these programs, but my sister doesn‟t. She likes to watch ne ws
programs, and she reads a lot of short stories. We are very different.

WS 2 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word you hear.
Sam is a very popular/ outgoing/ shy person. He usually stays at home. He doesn‟t go to
concerts/ go to movies/ go to parties . He usually listens to music/ reads a novel/ plays
computer games at home. And he watches TV very late. He likes jazz and poetry/ rock
music/ short stories .

118
WS 3 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word you hear .
Jason is a very active boy. On Monday, he swims/plays tennis/jogs in the park. On
Thursday /Tuesday/Friday , he baby sits works sings for his aunt. On Thursday, he sees a
movie/plays the violin/takes a karate lesson . On Saturday, he goes dancing. And on
Sunday, he has lunch/plays tennis/does yoga with his grandparents.

WS 4 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word that is different from what you hear.
Joyce is at the cinema. She likes going to the cinema. She buys a ticket. Then she buys an
orange juice and a packet of sweets.

WS 6 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word that is different from what you hear.

119
There is a shopping mall in the centre of my town. There are more than one hundred stores in
the mall . There is a laundromat, a video store and a bookstore. There are many clothing stores
for men and children. There are five restaurants and two cafeterias.
There are two snack shops and there is even a big movie theatre. Almost everyone likes the
shoppin g mall. I usually go to see a movie and have lunch in the mall. Sometimes I rent a
video and buy some books.

WS 7 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word you hear.

Nancy‟s apartment building is in the centre of town. Next to / Acros s from / Around the
corner of the apartment building, there is a bank, a post office and a clinic. There are two
restrooms / schools / restaurants next to the building. There is a book store between the
apartment building and the health club. The neighborhood is very noisy / expensive / nasty .
There are a lot of people on in at the sidewalks day and night. But it is a very convenient
place. Nancy is happy / upset / frustrated about her apartment.

120
WS 8 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word that is different from what you hear.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee live in an old neighborhood in San Francisco. They speak a little English,
but they usually speak Chinese. They read Chinese newspaper. They watch Chinese TV
programs. And they shop at Chinese s upermarkets. Their daughter, May, lives in a small
apartment outside the city. She speaks a little Chinese, but she usually speaks English. She
only speaks Chinese when she calls her parents on the phone. Mr. and Mrs. Lee are upset that
their daughter is f orgetting her culture, her language and her old country.

WS 9 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word that is different from what you hear.

Anna is in her bathroom now. She is looking for something to wear to school, but there is
nothing in her closet. She wants a pair of stockings, but some her stockings are in the
washing machine. She wants a clean jacket, but all her skirts are ripped. She wants a different
shirt, but all her shirts are at the dry cleaner‟s. Poor Anna! She is ang ry because there‟s
nothing for her to wear.

121
WS 11 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word you hear.
My name is Sue. I live in London Berlin Tokyo. I work in a library bank restaurant. My best
friend lives in Pairs Seoul Toronto. She drives a taxi plays the piano sells cars. My sister and
brother live in Buffalo; they work in an office a cafeteria a bookstore. What about your best
friend and your family?

WS 13 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word that is differ ent from what you hear.
Emma‟s apartment is in a beautiful neighbourhood. There‟s a big, convenient bank next to
her apartment building. Across from the building, there is a laundromat, a vide store and a
bus stop. There are also many bookstores and rest aurants in her neighbourhood. It is a very
convenient place and Emma likes her neighbourhood.

122
WS 14 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word you hear.
There is a big sale in the K -Mall. Everything is cheap and good. In Aisle 3/ 1/ 5 , there are
sweaters / shorts / scarves . In Aisle 6, there are jackets / gloves / slippers . In Aisle 1, there
are sneakers rings bracelets . In Aisle 9/ 11/ 8 , there are jeans / pants / blouses .

WS 15 -1

Class: _____ Name: ______________

Circle the word that is different from what you hear.
Tom is looking for some birthday gifts for his family. He is looking for a brown wallet, but
all the wallets are black and white. He is looking for a blue jacket, but all the jackets are
either yellow or pu rple. He is looking for a wool shirt, but all the sweaters are cotton. Tom is
very frustrated. He is looking for gifts for his friends, but he is having a lot of trouble.