台灣高中英語教科書聽力活動之分析研究

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(1)國立臺灣師範大學文學院英語學系碩士論文 Master Thesis Graduate Institute of English National Taiwan Normal University. 台灣高中英語教科書聽力活動之分析研究 A Study on the Listening Activities in the Taiwanese Senior High School English Textbooks. 指導教授：葉錫南博士 Advisor: Dr. Hsi-nan Yeh 研究生：蔡伊琇 Yi-hsiu Tsai. 中華民國 107 年 1 月 January 2018.

(2) 中文摘要本研究主要目的為針對現行五個版本高中英語教科書內聽力活動進行分析比較，整體研究依據三大面向進行分析: (1) 聽力活動文本特質 (2) 聽力活動設計及 (3) 教師手冊內的聽力教學指引。其中文本特質又細分為文本類型、文本訊息密度及文本語言功能；聽力活動設計則採用 Lund 學者所提出的 Function-Response Matrix 進行活動分析；第三面向的教學指引，則是著重於探討聽力教學指引是否涵蓋提供學生背景知識以及教師是否讓學生重複聽錄音檔，並且了解聽力前、聽力中以及聽力後各個版本中的建議教學活動。本研究的分析結果摘要如下: (1) 大部分教科書中(A 版本, B 版本, C 版本及 E 版本)聽力活動的文本類型屬於獨白及對話，而 D 版本中多數聽力文本則屬於單句式問句，(2) 各個版本教科書內聽力活動的平均訊息密度均落於 50%左右，而各個版本內訊息密度並未有隨冊數增加而逐漸增加的趨勢，(3) 大部分的聽力活動著重於傳遞訊息給聽者 (informational)；除了 D 版本外，其他四個版本中的聽力活動文本屬於交流型功能(interactional)者均低於 10%，(4) 根據 Lund 學者所提出的 Function-Response Matrix，教科書內的聽力活動多數屬於選擇-大意理解以及選擇-細節理解兩種類型，(5) 每個版本中教學指引均有建議教師讓學生重複性練習聽錄音檔，但著重的情況及類型不一，百分比分別為 A 版本(96%)、B 版本(81%)、C 版本(26%)、E 版本(25%)及 D 版本(5%)，(6) 所有的聽力活動均提供聽者不同類型的情境知識，這些情境訊息可分為圖片、簡短介紹、題幹、選項、敘述及圖表...等等，(7) 與聽力前及聽力後活動相比較之下，聽力中所建議的活動較少，主要是於聽力時作筆記或是寫下關鍵字；而聽力前活動則占比較大的比例，分別為 B 版本(91%)、A 版本(72%)、C 版本(55%)、E 版本(54%)及 D 版本(36%)。聽力後建議活動在各版本所佔的比例則依序為 B 版本(74%)、C 版(51%)、A 版本 (43%)、E 版本(20%)及 D 版本(5%) 根據本研究分析結果，希望能夠提供高中英文教科書更具體的聽力活動設計概況以及各個版本的聽力教學指引。雖然研究發現顯示教科書內的活動具多樣變化，但是在教科書中，聽力練習普遍上仍被歸類為補充性的練習，而非活動主體。期盼教科書編纂者能夠參考分析結果，重新評估教科書內聽力活動的設計是否進行調整。除此之外，隨著大考中心聽力測驗的實施，聽力教學才開始逐漸受到重視，因此，若是對聽力教材沒有足夠的了解，教師要提供學生有效的聽力教學也會窒礙難行。期盼教師亦能夠為學生選擇更適切的聽力教材、運用不同版本所提供的教學指引和建議活動並能適切地補充教材。. 關鍵字: 英文教科書；聽力活動；聽力教材 i.

(3) ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the listening activities in the current five senior high school English textbooks. The analyses cover three major areas: (1) the features of the listening texts (2) the design of the listening activities in terms of listener function and listener response and (3) the teaching guidance provided in the teacher’s manual. With regard to the features of the listening text, this study includes text type, information density and functions of the language. In addition, the function-response matrix proposed by Lund (1990) is adopted to analyze the design of listening activities. As for the third area, the focus is on whether recursive listening and the provision of contexts are recommended in the textbooks. Besides, the suggested activities in the three listening stages are also examined. The results of the analyses can be summarized as follows: First, the listening activities in the Textbooks A, B, C and E are mostly monologues and dialogues, while most of the listening activities in Textbook D belong to sentential-level. Second, the information density in the multitude of the listening texts in the textbooks are approximately 50% and there is no progression of the information density from volume one to volume six. Third, most of the listening activities aim at informational function. Except for the listening activities in Textbook D, the proportion of the activities in the other four versions that include the texts with interactional function is lower than 10%. Fourth, based on the Function-Response Matrix proposed by Lund (1990), the majority of the listening activities fall in choosing-main idea comprehension and choosing-detail comprehension. Fifth, the proportion of the listening activities that are advised to implement recursive listening in the textbooks are as follows: Textbook A (96%), Textbook B (81%), Textbook C (26%), Textbook E (25%) and Textbook D (5%). Sixth, the listening activities in all these textbooks provide contexts for the listeners. The contexts provided come in listening questions, pictures, statements and the rest. On the other hand,. Seventh, few units in these five sets of textbooks include suggested while-listening activities. These activities are mainly taking notes or writing down certain key vocabularies. As for the pre-listening activities, they account for larger proportion. The proportion of the suggested pre-listening activities in each textbook are as follows: Textbook B (91%), Textbook A (72%), Textbook C (55%), Textbook E (54%) and Textbook D (36%). On the other hand, the proportion of the suggested post-listening activities in each textbook are as follows: Textbook B (74%), Textbook C (51%), Textbook A (20%), Textbook E (54%) and Textbook D (5%). Based on the findings of this research, it is hoped that the research can offer better understanding of how the listening activities are designed and the teaching guidance in the different set of textbooks. ii.

(4) Even though the findings show that the diversity of the listening activities in the textbooks is high, the listening activity is commonly located as a supplementary learning area in the current English textbooks. Therefore, it is hoped that the textbook writers can also refer to the findings of the study and re-evaluate whether the listening activities should be modified. Besides, instructors begin to emphasize listening instruction with the emergence of the Test of English Listening Comprehension (TELC). Therefore, without the understanding of the listening material, it will be difficult for them to provide effective listening instruction for students. Hence, the researcher hopes that instructors can select proper listening material for students and utilize the teaching guidance and suggested activities provided. Furthermore, instructors can properly supplement the listening material for the students.. Keywords: English textbooks; listening activity; listening material iii.

(5) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis is finally completed with the guidance, support and encouragement from numerous people. I was truly grateful to the professors, my family, colleagues and my friends. Without them, I would not be able to get through all the difficulty and frustration in this long journey. First of all, my deepest and heartfelt appreciation is extended to my advisor, Dr. Hsi-nan Yeh. In the beginning, when I told him my initial idea about the thesis, he spent lots of time giving me suggestions and telling me the possible difficulty that I might come across when analyzing the data. In the journey of writing the thesis, I encountered several obstacles. Every time we discussed about the problems of the project, he always patiently offers useful opinions and encourages me to find the solutions to the problems. It was his insightful advices, careful correction and warm encouragement that made me get on the right track. My gratitude also goes to committee members, Dr. Hui-chun Deng and Dr. Chun-jie Tseng. In the proposal stage, they not only gave me suggestions but encouraged me a lot. Besides, their constructive advice and comments at the oral defense stage helped me a lot in polishing the content of my thesis. My special thanks are also extended to my previous colleagues, Mei-lin Lu, who has more than three years of teaching English in the high school. I was appreciated that when I invited her to be my second rater, she accepted it without hesitation. She also repeatedly discuss with me to reach our consensus in the analyses. But for her help, this thesis would not be able to complete. I also want to show my appreciation to my colleagues in National Pei-Kang Agricultural & Industrial Vocational High School for their sincere encouragement: Shang-rong Huang, Yuan-feng Tseng, Cheng-wei Chen, Tse-ying Kuo, Wei-pin Lei, iv.

(6) Hsi-sen Wei, and Ssu-chi Chen. It is challenging for me to manage the roles of being an in-service teacher and a graduate student simultaneously. Their support and encouragement always make me full of courage and strength. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my beloved family and cousins. It is their love and support gives me the strength to overcome the frustration and difficulty that I encountered in these years. This thesis is especially dedicated to them.. v.

(7) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHINESE ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………… i ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………..…ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………………..……..iv LIST OF TABLES …………………………………………………………………....ix LIST OF FIGURES …………………………………………………………………..xi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………….1 Background and Motivation of the Study…………………………………………..1 Purpose of the Study ……………………………………………………………….5 Research Questions ………………………………………………………………...5 Significance of the Study …………………………………………………………..6 Definition of Terms ………………………………………………………………...7 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………...10 The Features of the Listening Text for Listening Instruction ………………..11 Text Type of Listening Tasks ………………………………………………….11 Information Density of the Texts in Listening Tasks ………………………....13 The Function Types of Language in the Listening Tasks ……………………..15 Listening Comprehension & Lund’s Function-Response Matrix ……….….17 Models of the Listening Process ……………………………………………...17 Listening Comprehension …………………………………………………….19 The Teaching Procedures for Listening Instruction …………………………22 The Implementation of Recursive Listening …………………………………22 The Provision of Contexts in Listening Tasks ………………………………..23 The Three Stages in Teaching Listening ……………………………………...24 Studies of Listening Instruction and Materials in Taiwan …………………..30 CHAPTER THREE METHOD …………………………………………………...33 vi.

(8) The Raters ………………………………………………………………………..33 Data Collection …………………………………………………………………..34 The Textbooks Selected for Analysis …………………………………………34 Instruments ……………………………………………………………………..38 Procedures and Data Analysis …………………………………………………43 Criteria for Analyzing Listening Activities …………………………………...44 Data Analysis …………………………………………………………………...46 Example …………………………………………………………………………48 CHAPTER FOUR RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ………………………….…..53 Text Type of Listening Activities ………………………………………………53 Information Density of the Text ……………………………………………….58 The Function Types of the Listening Texts ……………………………………60 Design of Listening Activities in Terms of Listener Function & Listener Response ………………………………………………………………………...64 The Implementation of Recursive Listening ………………………………….67 The Provision of Contexts in Listening Tasks ………………………………...70 Activities Provided at the Three Stages of Listening Instruction …………...72 CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION ………………………………………………...81 Major Findings …………………………………………………………………81 Text Type of Listening Tasks ………………………………………………..81 Information Density of the Texts ……………………………………..……..82 The Function Types of the the Listening Texts ……………………….…....83 Design of Listening Activities in Terms of Listener Function & Listener Response …………………………………………………………………….83 The Implementation of Recursive Listening ………………………………...85 vii.

(9) The Provision of Contexts in Listening Tasks ………………………………86 Suggested Activities in the Three Listening Stages …………………………87 Pedagogical Implications ………………………………………………………88 Limitations of the Study and Directions for the Future Research ………….90 The Contribution of the Study ………………………………………………...91 REFERENCES …………………………………………………………………92. viii.

(10) LIST OF TABLES Table 1. The Early Lesson Format for Listening Instruction ……………………….26 Table 2. The Current Lesson Format for Listening Instruction …………………….26 Table 3. Suggested Activities for the Pre-listening Stage …………………………..27 Table 4. Suggested Activities for the While-listening Stage ………………………..28 Table 5. Suggested Activities for the Post-listening Stage ………………………….29 Table 6. The Structure of Five English Textbooks …………………………………..37 Table 7. The Size of Listening Activities in the Five Textbook Series ……………...38 Table 8. Lund’s Function-Response Matrix …………………………………………39 Table 9. Transactional & Interactional Functions of the Language ……….………...45 Table 10. The Analysis of Text Type of the Listening Text ………………………….49 Table 11. The Analysis of Information Density of the Listening Text ………...…….50 Table 12. The Analysis of the Function Types of Language in Listening Activities ...50 Table 13. The Distribution of Listener Function & Listener Response ……………..51 Table 14. The Analysis of Suggested Instructional Guidance (Two principles) …….52 Table 15. The Analysis of Suggested Activities in Three Listening Stages …………52 Table 16. Text Type of Listening Activities in Textbook A ………………………….53 Table 17. Text Type of Listening Activities in Textbook B ………………………….54 Table 18. Text Type of Listening Activities in Textbook C ………………………….55 Table 19. Text Type of Listening Activities in Textbook D ………………………….55 Table 20. Text Type of Listening Activities in Textbook E ………………………….56 Table 21. Information Density of Listening Texts …………………………………...60 Table 22. Function Types of Listening Texts in Textbook A ………………………...61 Table 23. Function Types of Listening Texts in Textbook B ………………………...61 Table 24. Function Types of Listening Texts in Textbook C ………………………...62 Table 25. Function Types of Listening Texts in Textbook D ………………………...62 Table 26. Function Types of Listening Texts in Textbook E ………………………...63 Table 27. The Distribution of Listener Function and Listener Response ……………66 Table 28. Recommended Recursive Listening Activity in Teacher’s Manual……….67 Table 29. Activities Suggested at the Three Stages of Listening in Textbook A …….74 Table 30. Activities Suggested at the Three Stages of Listening in Textbook B …….75 Table 31. Activities Suggested at the Three Stages of Listening in Textbook C …….76 Table 32. Activities Suggested at the Three Stages of Listening in Textbook D ……77 ix.

(11) Table 33. Activities Suggested at the Three Stages of Listening in Textbook E …….78. x.

(12) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. ‘Narrowing in’ (Field, 2008) ………………………………………………23 Figure 2. The main CPIDR screen …………………………………………………..39 Figure 3. Procedures of Analysis …………………………………………………….46 Figure 4. The Listening Text in the Teacher’s Manual ………………………………48 Figure 5. The Listening Activity in the San Min English Reader (Book 5, Lesson 1) …………………………………………………………………………..49 Figure 6. The Listening Activity in Lung Teng English Reader (Book 6, Lesson 3) ..72. xi.

(13) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Background and Motivation of the Study In the era of globalization, English is widely recognized as a lingua franca for communication around the world (Dewey, 2007; Seidlhofer, 2001). Given that, innumerous people begin to make great efforts to learn English and hope that they can become proficient in this language. Among the four skills in English, the importance of listening is greatly emphasized not only for its crucial role in communication (Morley, 2001; Rivers, 1966) but also for its foundation in language learning (Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Hashim & Jafari, 2012; Rost, 1990; Vandergrift, 2007). Unlike its previous stance as a passive activity, listening is now viewed as an active and essential skill (Vandergrift, 2004; Winn, 1988). In view of the shift in the role of listening and its increasing significance, the way how listening is taught has changed substantially (Field, 2008; Osada, 2004; Richards, 2005; Vandergrift, 2007) and educators start to put stress on enhancing students’ listening skills. Students in Taiwan learn English as a foreign language. The exposure to the target language is limited for the multitude of students. With regard to students’ learning experiences in school, the majority of classroom time is allocated for the instruction on grammar, reading and vocabulary items. Little attention has been paid to listening activities in the English textbooks. The General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT) and the Advanced Subjects Tests (AST) focus on English reading and writing; therefore, the listening section is commonly ignored since high school teachers are inclined to teach students how to read and write. In 2011, the College Entrance Examination Center (CEEC) began to tentatively administer Test of English Listening 1.

(14) Comprehension (TELC). At the same time, English is commonly utilized as the instructional media in the university program. As a result, schools begin to pay more attention to listening instruction in the high school stage. For senior high school students, the input or the aural reception of language is mostly based on the diverse listening materials such as magazines, textbooks, movies, short clips on the website and the like. The evidence shows that the text to be listened to is one major source of listening difficulty (Yagang, 1993). Therefore, broadly speaking, the listening material in the senior high school is the focus of this study. Even though students in some of the senior high schools are required to listen to the English broadcast of the magazines, the content of the magazine receives less attention because they commonly served as the supplementary material and a reference for the construction of listening tests. On the contrary, it is from the listening activities in the textbooks that students receive more systematic instruction because the textbook is the main source of English learning in every senior high school. As a result, the focus of this study narrows down to the listening material in the textbook. Learning a language entails learning four different skills, and listening is the basic prerequisite to oral communication (Richards, 2005; Underwood, 1989). In order to offer students effective instruction on listening in the classroom, it is of great significance for teachers to thoroughly understand the listening materials and tasks in the textbook. The senior high school English textbooks are chosen in this study because they cover greater diversity in listening activities than the junior high school English textbooks. There are five1 major English textbook publishers in Taiwan and 1. The San Min Book Company, the Lung Teng Cultural Company, the Far East Book Company and the Nan I Enterprise Company are the four major publishers for the current senior high school English textbooks. The San Min Book Company and the Far East Book Company both published two textbook series. The San Min Book Company: Che et al.’s (A edition and B edition); the Far East Company: 2.

(15) each version consists of six volumes following the curriculum guidelines for senior high schools issued by Ministry of Education (MOE). One way to investigate the listening material is to know its text features. With regard to the features of the listening text, text type, information density and functions of language are frequently discussed in the previous studies. Text types influence not only how listeners process the text but also how they perform in the listening comprehension tests (Inbar & Shohamy, 1991). Listening texts are commonly divided into monologues and dialogues (Brown, 1994; Fox Tree, 1999; Nunan, 1991). However, sentential-level and multi-participants (Hughes, 2003) can also be found in the listening text type. Therefore, text type in the textbooks is one of the main concerns in this study. Speaking of text length, the listening text may be expressed either in seconds/minutes (Hughes, 2003) or the amount of the information embedded in the listening texts (Alderson et al., 2006; Bejar et al., 2000; Carroll, 1977; Dunkel, 1991; Rost, 2006). Another feature commonly discussed is the function of the spoken language. The different functions of language mean that the language is utilized for different purposes, which will have an influence on how the learners listen and what strategy they are going to adopt (Richards, 1990). With regard to function, transactional (informational) functions of language and interactional functions of language are the two categories frequently mentioned (Brown & Yule, 1983; Nunan, 1991). In addition to the features of the listening text, how students process the text is also widely discussed; with the purpose of teaching students listening more effectively, teachers should understand the nature of the listening process (Vandergrift, 2007). Three major models of the listening process commonly discussed in the previous. Chen et al.’s Far East English Reader (FEC) and Shih et al.’s Far East English Reader (FES). 3.

(16) studies are (1) top-down processing (2) bottom-up processing and (3) interactive processing (Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Boekaerts, 1981; Chaudron & Richards, 1986; Oxford, 1993; Richards, 1990; Richards, 2005; Rubin, 1994). To involve students in a more effective listening learning environment, many scholars advocate the implementation of listening activities with both of the top-down processing and bottom-up processing (i.e., interactive processing) (Richards, 2005). The fundamental goal of listening is to comprehend the speakers’ message (Brown, 2007; Rost, 2011). However, “comprehension itself is not externally observable” (Brown, 2007, p.311). To understand how learners’ process and comprehend the text, the Function-Response Matrix (Lund, 1990) can be utilized to analyze the listening tasks in the senior high school English textbooks because this matrix includes two major dimensions: listener function and listener response; they deal with students’ processing of listening tasks and the way to elicit evidence of students’ comprehension. In addition to the above two areas, the suggested teaching procedures for the listening instruction are also mentioned in the research. Different suggestions for teaching are made for the pre-listening stage, while-listening stage and post-listening stages. Two important principles of listening instruction are discussed: (1) recursive listening and (2) the provision of the context. In the classroom, it is the instructor that has the responsibility of playing the recorded material to the students (Underwood, 1989). That is to say, students cannot decide whether to repeatedly listen to the recording or not. In order to improve this situation, the idea of ‘repeated listening’ has been promoted (Field, 2008). Besides, listening is viewed as a cognitive activity involving “the activation and modification of concepts in the listeners’ mind” (Rost, 2002, p.57). This process can be enhanced by the provision of contexts because 4.

(17) contexts play important roles in activating schema which helps with students’ listening comprehension (Hadley, 1993 Hadley, 2001; Rost, 2002). Therefore, examining whether the suggested teaching guidance include the principle of recursive listening and providing contexts is also one major focus in this study. Purpose of the Study This study aims to analyze the listening tasks in the current four editions of senior high school English textbook series in Taiwan. The analyses are divided into three layers. For the first two levels of analysis, the focus is on the features of the listening text in the listening activities/materials and the design of the listening activities in terms of listener function and listener response. The rubric adopted is the Function-Response Matrix for Listening proposed by Lund (1990). Two important dimensions covered in this section are listener function and listener response which can be closely linked to the listening process and listening comprehension. At the third level, the dimensions covered in the analysis contain important elements of the listening tasks and the principles for teaching English listening. In addition, the focus is on the suggested teaching procedure provided in the pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening stages. Research Questions Textbook is the basic tool for learning in school education and, with respect to learner needs, it is viewed as a resource that can assist learners in achieving aims and objectives (Cunningsworth, 1995). The senior high school English textbooks in Taiwan are compiled based on the curriculum guidelines enacted by the MOE. Chang and Lu (2013) investigated the current condition of listening instruction in Taiwanese senior high schools; the results showed that the majority of teachers spent less than ten minutes teaching listening in a class (Chang & Lu, 2013). That is to say, English 5.

(18) listening received less attention in formal education. The three research questions correspond to the three layers of analysis respectively and progressively. That is, the first research question deals with the initial level of analysis for the features of the listening text in listening instructional materials; the second research question discusses the design of listening activities in terms of listener function and listener response while the last research question aims to cover the suggested teaching guidance provided in the teacher’s manual. With the background, rationale and purpose of the study mentioned above, the research questions of this study are listed as follows: 1. What are the features of the listening text in terms of the text type, information density and the function of language? 2. How are listener function and listener response to the speech represented in the senior high school English textbook series? 3. What are the instructional suggestions at the pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening stages in the teacher’s manual? Significance of the Study Previous studies have investigated the multifaceted aspects of textbooks such as word selection (Chang, 2002; Fan, 2004; Han, 2008; Chen, 2014), grammar activities (Chang, 2006; Hung, 2008) and the cultural content analysis (Chen, 2012). However, little work has been done on the listening tasks in the senior high school English textbooks. As a result, the focus of this study is the listening activity in the current Taiwanese senior high school English textbooks. After the analysis, some pedagogical implications in English listening instruction are provided for teachers. It is hoped that the results of the study can provide some objective evidence of how the listening tasks 6.

(19) and materials are designed. The findings of the study can also offer teachers more information about the listening activities in the textbook series. Furthermore, teachers could refer to the results when creating or searching for other useful ancillary listening material for their students. Textbook writers could also re-evaluate the listening material, activities or questions they developed. Definition of Terms As the analyses in this study cover three main tiers, it is essential to clearly list the measuring unit and matrix. The definition of the terms are provided as follows: 1. Text type The text types are divided into four categories in this study: (1) sentential level (2) monologues (3) dialogues and (4) multi-participant conversation. (1) Sentential level: the text containing only one sentence belongs to this category. (2) Monologues: the speech is presented by a single speaker (Brown, 1994; Nunan, 1991). (3) Dialogues: the speech is carried out by two speakers. (4) Multi-participant conversation: it refers to the situation involving more than two speakers (Hughes, 2003). 2. Information Density The Computerized Propositional Idea Density Rater (CPIDR) is adopted to measure the information amount of the listening text; it refers to the number of expressed propositions divided by the number of words (Brown et al., 2008). 3. Function The functions of language are divided into informational and interactional functions. These two functions differ in their features, purposes and the language. On the one hand, informational functions of language are message-oriented; the 7.

(20) main purpose of speaking is to transfer information. Therefore, the language is specific and direct. On the other hand, interactional functions of language are listener-oriented; the main aim of speaking is to shorten the distance between speakers. Comparatively, the language is uncertain and non-specific. 4.. Listener function Lund’s taxonomy was adapted from the recognition-comprehension continuum of. the receptive function proposed by Galloway (1987). In Galloway’s guideline, she underlined that the text itself should also be embedded in the definition of listener function. Hence, Lund defined listener function as “the aspects of the message the listener attempts to process” (p.107). The message entails both of the internal (e.g. actual language) and external messages (e.g. text length, the topic and the participants). Moreover, Lund expanded Galloway’s continuum to contain six listener functions which are identification, orientation, main idea comprehension, detail comprehension, full comprehension and replication. In Lund’s Function-Response Matrix for Listening, these six listener functions are accompanied with nine listener responses which are partially retrieved from Richard’s (1983) list of common task types. 5. Listener response In addition to listener function, listener response is also an important component in language teaching. The aim of listening instruction is to comprehend the message; however, it is hard for instructors to observe how the students comprehend the listening text. Therefore, this study attempts to utilize the response categories covered in Lund’s taxonomy because they are observable and can be used to “describe behaviors or products of behaviors” (p.110). Given that, instructors can infer their students’ comprehension from these observable cues. The nine listener responses are 8.

(21) doing, choosing, transferring, answering, condensing, extending, duplicating, modeling, and conversing.. 9.

(22) CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW Regarding learning English, among the four skills, listening is the one that is often depreciated and ignored. The majority of language learners have an inclination to emphasize writing and speaking abilities (Nunan, 2002). Besides, listening was merely viewed as an approach to introducing grammar to students in the early days (Field, 2008). However, the shift of pedagogical focus has brought listening skill up to the stage gradually (Oxford, 1993; Rivers, 1966). In the 1960s, listening has started to attract people’s attention due to the emphasis on the oral language. Later, the burgeoning of communicative approach in pedagogical field render listening necessary (Field, 2008). Then, Krashen (1982) put forth the concept of comprehensible input; inch by inch, listening became more influential since it was thought of upon as the input for language learners. Besides, Asher (1969) who developed the classroom teaching method, Total Physical Response, shared the similar view with the ideas about comprehensible input proposed by Krashen. Asher (1969) indicated that the core value of the TPR is instructors’ commands given to students and all these verbal cues are the indispensable components for language acquisition. Moreover, some of Asher’s colleagues, Nord, (1995), Postovsky (1974), and Reeds & Winitz (1975) proposed foreign-language methodologies in the 1970s. Their focus on listening appeared to become “a new approach to a language-learning syllabus” (Rost, 1990, p.28). Moreover, the development of listening skills also exerts positive influence on learning other language skills (Oxford & Scarcella, 1992; Vandergrift 2007). In accordance with the shift of the role of listening in different centuries, it is 10.

(23) conspicuous that the importance of the listening skill has received much more emphasis step by step (Field, 2008; Nunan, 2002; Oxford, 1993; Richards, 2005). What is more, for daily communication process, the average time spent on listening accounts for approximately 45% (Duker, 1971; Feyten, 1991), implying that listening is actually an important component in language learning. The review of the literature are divided into four major sections, each with some subsections. The first section centers upon the important elements that constitute the design of listening tasks and material; the second part focuses on the fundamental principles and the procedures for teaching listening. The third section discusses the listening processing and comprehension of learners. In the final section, studies related to the listening material/instruction in Taiwan are reviewed. The Features of the Listening Text for Listening Instruction This section reviews three major aspects about the design of English listening instructional materials. It covers the listening text type, information density of the text and the functions of the spoken language. Text Type of Listening Tasks Learning to listen can expose learners to different text types, indicating that information can be delivered in different formats (Fox Tree, 1999; Rost, 2002). Similarly, in language testing, it is significant that texts should be specified clearly and fully with regard to the content validity and backwash of the tests implemented (Hughes, 2003). With respect to text type, the oral language is often categorized into monologues and dialogues (Brown, 1994; Fox Tree, 1999; Nunan, 1991). In monologues, the speech is presented by a single speaker and it can be a lecture, news broadcast, advertisement and what not (Brown, 1994; Nunan, 1991). Nunan (1991) divided the monologue into planned monologues and unplanned monologues; 11.

(24) the discourse structure of planned and unplanned monologues differs significantly. On the one hand, the planned monologues usually contain few characteristics of the language used in the real-life situation such as redundancy, overlapping, fillers and restatement (Bacon, 1981; Brown, 1994; Nunan, 1991); besides, it may also contain sentences with higher level of difficulty and complexity which are more difficult for listeners to comprehend (Brown,1994). On the other hand, unplanned monologues exhibit more features of the natural language which can facilitate students in their listening comprehension. (Bacon, 198l; Brown, 1994). Dialogues involve more than one speaker and their function of the spoken language contains two purposes. The interactional functions of the language aim to maintain a harmonious relationship between speakers and listeners while the informational functions of the language focus to transmit important messages (Brown, 1994; Nunan, 1991). In addition to monologues and dialogues, Hughes (2003) also adds multi-participants as another text type in listening tasks. It refers to the situation such as a meeting or a discussion panel involving more than two speakers. This study distinguishes the dialogues from multi-participants by the number of people involving in the speech. From the abovementioned review, it is apparent that the classification of the text type lies mainly in the discourse level (i.e. monologues and dialogues). However, the listening activities included in the senior high school English textbooks also contain the sentential-level of listening recordings. Therefore, the rubric for the text type analysis in this study will cover (1) sentences, (2) monologues, (3) dialogues and (4) multi-participants.. 12.

(25) Information Density of the Texts in Listening Tasks Passage length may have a profound influence on the difficulty and complexity of the listening tasks (Blodgett et al., 2011; Rost, 2006). The concept of length may be expressed either in seconds/minutes (Hughes, 2003) or the amount of information embedded in the listening texts (Alderson, et al., 2006; Bejar et al., 2000; Carroll, 1977; Dunkel, 1991; Rost, 2006). Even though passage length is not the most desirable way to represent the amount of information, it is still the factor that can be utilized to predict the difficulty of the listening comprehension (Blodgett et al., 2001). In a study about factors related to passage length (Bloomfield et al., 2001), the passage length are closely interlocked with redundancy, speech rate and information density. The multitude of the recorded materials for the listening practices in the current senior high school English textbooks are planned oral language, with few redundancy and similar speech rate. Therefore, this study only focuses on the information density of the listening text provided for senior high school students. Information density refers to how much ‘relative’ information is included in the whole passage (Bloomfield et al., 2001). There are three commonly adopted definitions for information. First, real information comprises content words that bear independent meaning such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs (DeVincenzi et al., 1996; Gilmore, 2004). Second, some researchers adopt type-token ratio (TTR) for calculating the true amount of information (Garcia et al., 2001). The TTR can measure the vocabulary variation of the texts by dividing the number of different words in a text by the total number of words in the texts (Herdan, 1960). Third, the proposition, as the smallest meaningful unit of the information that can exist independently (Keenan & Kintsch, 1973; Kintsch, 1974), can also be utilized to measure the information density (Brown et al., 2008; Rupp et al., 2001). 13.

(26) Scholars posed different attitudes toward the increasing amount of information in the listening passage. With regard to its negative perspective, the more the amount of information is embedded in the passage, the more ‘damage’ it will bring to the learners’ listening comprehension (Blodgett et al., 2011). Once the listeners are bombarded with myriad of information, they will spend too much time focusing on what they have missed earlier (Chamot et al., 1989; Goh, 2000). Further, if the information missed are associated with the following message, the listeners may fail to comprehend the passage (Blodgett et al., 2011). Besides, high information density will impose heavy cognitive load on the listeners, accounting for students’ scant concentration on the tasks (Osada, 2004). Generally speaking, the listening material with longer than 2.5 minutes can be too challenging for students with lower level of proficiency (Rubin & Thompson, 1996). Some researchers suggest that the suitable length of the oral language for the average students lies in thirty seconds to two minutes (Rubin & Thompson, 1996). Notwithstanding the challenges brought by the increased amount of information, on some occasions, the amount of information presented to listeners should be increased. For example, the shorter passage may not contain adequate linguistic features (Buck, 2001). Additionally, the use of shorter passages cannot sufficiently model what learners will encounter in the real life context (Carrell et al., 2002). The Computerized Propositional Idea Density Rater (CPIDR) aims to measure the information amount of the listening texts since it “describes the real proportion of the passage that contains actual content” (Blodgett et al., 2001, p.2319). CPIDR is the only extant “computer program that determines the propositional idea density of an English text automatically on the basis of part-of-speech tags” (Brown et al., 2008, p.540); idea density refers to the number of expressed propositions divided by the 14.

(27) number of words (Brown et al., 2008). Though the measurement of the CPDIR is not perfect, it still has high rater-reliability between human raters and program raters (Brown et al., 2008). The Function Types of Language in the Listening Tasks In addition to the text type and information density of the listening tasks, it is also important to “recognize the very different purposes that listeners may have in different situations” (Richards, 1990, p.54).The different functions of language implies that the language is utilized for different purposes. Furthermore, the different purposes will influence how the learners listen and what strategy they are going to adopt (Richards, 1990). According to Brown & Yule (1983) and Nunan (1991), they divide the functions of spoken language into two major categories: (1) transactional (informational) functions of language and (2) interactional functions of language. In addition, with respect to testing listening, these two functions of language are also mentioned when writing the specification (Hughes, 1989). Transactional functions of language are message-oriented (Brown & Yule, 1983); the main purpose of speaking is “information transference” (p.14). That is to say, the message should be understood by the listeners (Brown & Yule, 1983; Richards, 1990). Therefore, the transactional speech often includes more specific and direct language. Besides, some of the tasks in real life are completed with the involvement of transactional spoken language (Brown & Yule, 1983). In the following are some examples of language that are utilized as informational purposes (Hughes, 1989, p161). Informational:  obtain information;  follow justification of opinions;  understand comparisons;  recognize and understand suggestions;  recognize and understand comments; 15.

(28)  recognize and understand excuses;  recognize and understand expressions of preferences;  recognize and understand complaints;  recognize and understand speculation;  recognize and understand opinions;  follow instructions (including directions);  understand requests for information;  understand expressions of need;  understand requests for help;  understand requests for permission;  understand apologies;  follow sequence of events. When compared with the transactional functions of language, interactional functions of language are listener-oriented (Brown & Yule, 1983). The goal of the speech is to shorten the distance between the participating speakers, aiming to establish harmonious relationship and interaction. Besides, the interactional function of the language is also related to the idea of “face work” proposed by Goffman (1976). In other words, instead of challenging each other, the interlocutors attempt to maintain their “face” and elicit the tacit agreement between the speakers and listeners (Brown & Levinson, 1978; Hughes, 1989). Therefore, the communication of information is not the goal; instead, “making social interaction comfortable and nonthreatening” are emphasized (Richards, 1990, p.54). As for the language used, the uncertainty and non-specificity of the speech is allowed because the listener does not need to understand the details of the information. Rather, the listener is partially processing the message coming in, which can be characterized as listening for the gist. In the following are some examples of language that are utilized as interactional purposes (Hughes, 1989, p161-162). Interactional:  understand greetings and introductions;  understand expressions of agreement;  understand expressions of disagreement;  recognize speaker’s purpose;  recognize indications of uncertainty;  understand requests for clarification; 16.

(29)  recognize a requests for clarification;  recognize requests for opinion;  recognize indications of understanding;  recognize indications of failure to understand;  recognize and understand corrections by speaker (of self and others);  recognized and understand modifications of statements and comments;  recognize speaker’s desire that listener indicate understanding;  recognize when speaker justifies or supports statements, etc. of other speaker(s);  recognize when speaker questions assertions made by other speakes;  recognize attempts to persuade others. In an effective classsroom learning, in addition to receving the input from the instructors, students also have to possess the social skills which can euqipped them with the ability to interact with teachers and their classmates. Given that, effective pupil classroom participation requires command of language in both its interactional and transactional functions (Richards, 1990). Listening Comprehension & Lund’s Function-Response Matrix Models of the Listening Process Listening instruction was frequently connected to testing, meaning that the product of listening is emphasized (Sheerin, 1987). However, when the instructors emphasize the ‘product’ of listening, they cannot understand students’ listening difficulties and processing (Vandergrift, 2004). With a view to teaching students listening more effectively, teachers should understand the nature of the listening process (Vandergrift, 2007) and how students process the text (Richards, 2005). In this section, three major models of the listening process that are commonly proposed are reviewed: (1) top-down processing (2) bottom up processing (Anderson & Lynch, 1988; Boekaerts, 1981; Chaudron & Richards, 1986; Oxford, 1993; Richards, 1990; Richards, 2005; Rubin, 1994) and interactive processing (Richards, 2005). The Top-down Processing Top-down processing refers to the use of previous background knowledge to 17.

(30) understand the messages (Lynch, 1998; Richards, 1990; Richards, 2005; Rubin, 1994). Listeners utilize the prior knowledge such as the topic, culture and background information of the listening material to process the text and “build a conceptual framework for comprehension” (Vandergrift, 2004, p.4). The feature for this schema-driven approach also includes the emphasis on the content words (Boekaerts, 1981). This can imply that listeners count more on the contextual clues than on the mere acoustic signals. Richards (1990) provides some examples of the top-down processing in the listening activities, most of which are related to ‘inferring’ (e.g. inferring the topic of the discourse, inferring the sequence between events and what not) (p.52). In addition, top-down processing in the listening is closely associated with the listeners’ expectations in the specific context (Richards, 1990). That is to say, when listeners “apply the prior knowledge about people and events to a particular situation, comprehension proceeds from the top down” (Richards, 1990, p.52). The Bottom-up Processing When compared with the top-down processing, the bottom-up processing relies more on the discrete acoustic signals, vocabularies and phrases (Ur, 1984). Listeners make good use of the incoming information such as individual sounds and phonemes to build their understanding of the text (Richards, 1990; Richards, 2005). Based on this perspective, the process of comprehension is regarded as decoding since listeners process the information from the fundamental acoustic messages received in the beginning (Richards, 1990); the information needed for the listening process “are applied in a serial and hierarchical” manner (Richards, 2005, p.24). The listener’s lexical and grammatical competence also play a crucial role in bottom-up processing (Boekaerts, 1981; Byrnes, 1984; Richards, 1990). For example, 18.

(31) after the listeners hear the vocabulary that they are familiar with, they will find their mental lexicon to match what they hear (Richards, 1990; Richards, 2005). The Interactive Processing It is crucial that the listeners can select both the top-down processing and bottom-up processing consciously based on different listening purposes (Byrnes, 1984). When both of these two processing are involved, it is referred to as interactive processing or parallel processing, implying that the different aspects of the language (e.g. phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics and etc.) are processed simultaneously (Richards, 2005; Rumelhart, 1975). With regard to the listening processing, the interactive model takes individual variation into consideration (Carrol, 1980; Richards, 2005), spurring “the possibility of a model that is sensitive to individual learning styles” (Richards, 2005, p.27). Listening Comprehension Listening comprehension has long been looked upon as a passive skill (Osada, 2004; Vandergrift, 2004), and teachers commonly believe that their students can sharpen their listening skills by “osmosis” (Osada, 2004, p.54) and without teachers’ scaffolding (Mendelsohn, 1984; Oxford, 1993). Therefore, listening is dubbed “the Cinderella Skill” in second language learning (Nunan, 1997, p.238), indicating that the instruction for the listening comprehension is insufficient (Mendelson, 1998; Vandergrift, 1997; Vandergrift, 2007). According to Sanders and Gernsbacher (2004), comprehension is the process of structure building in which the listeners will connect the concepts in their memory to the real world references (Rost, 2011). Besides, comprehension is a dynamic process since it “involves the mapping, updating and integration of references” (p.54). The information transmitted from the speaker’s utterances includes new information and 19.

(32) given information. The central process in the listening comprehension is “the integration of the information conveyed by the text with information and concepts already known by the listener” (Rost, 2011, p.55). Byrnes (1984) divides the approaches to listening comprehension into three categories: a linguistic approach, a conceptual approach, and a communicative approach. The first category focuses on the linguistic cues; it aims to examine how the comprehension is arrived at from the phonological, grammatical and semantic aspects of the language (Byrnes, 1984). The second category aims to explore how the listeners “assigns a conceptual structure to the linguistic input” (p.318). The third category refers to how the listeners and speakers interact with each other; namely, listening comprehension is achieved when the listeners can get what the speakers are intended to communicate (Byrnes, 1984; Clark, 1978). The fundamental goal of listening is to comprehend the speakers’ message (Brown, 2007; Rost, 2011). However, “comprehension itself is not externally observable” (Brown, 2007, p.311). In fact, listening comprehension encompasses several dimensions such as individual dimension, contextualized dimension and the like (Richards, 2005). There are diverse opinions toward the process of listening; that is to say, divergence still can be found in how the listeners derive the meaning from the myriad of elements that are vital to achieve comprehension (Byrnes, 1984). Lund (1990) proposed a taxonomy (the Function-Response Matrix) for second language listening, including nine components. The Function-Response Matrix for Listening is composed of two pedagogical dimensions (see Table 4). This taxonomy refers to “real-world listening behaviors that can be incorporated in listening tasks in the instructional environment” (Lund, 1990, p.106). In Lund’s taxonomy, both of the six listener function items and nine listener response items were all clearly defined 20.

(33) and they could be adequate for the students’ listening behaviors crucial to the listening instruction (Lund, 1990). Teaching students how to listen is an important goal; therefore, teachers should understand how students process the text (Richards, 2005). Lund’s taxonomy was adapted from the recognition-comprehension continuum of the receptive function proposed by Galloway (1987). In Galloway’s guideline (1987), she underlined that the text itself should also be embedded in the definition of listener function. Hence, Lund defined listener function as “the aspects of the message the listener attempts to process” (p.107). The message entails both of the internal (e.g. actual language) and external messages (e.g. text length, the topic and the participants). Moreover, Lund expanded Galloway’s continuum to contain six listener functions which were identification, orientation, main comprehension, detail comprehension, full comprehension and replication. Listener function mentioned in the Lund’s taxonomy is not restricted to “why the listener is listening”; instead, it focused on “how the listener is processing the text” (p.107). As a result, the function dimension can be utilized to examine the type of processing that students should be involved in when practicing the listening activities. In addition to listener function, listener response is also an important component in language teaching. The aim of listening instruction is to comprehend the message; Concerning listening comprehension, this study attempts to utilize the response dimensions in Lund’s taxonomy because they are observable and can be used to “describe behaviors or products of behaviors” (p.110). Given that, instructors can infer their students’ comprehension from these observable cues. The nine listener responses are doing, choosing, transferring, answering, condensing, extending, duplicating, modeling, and conversing. 21.

(34) The Teaching Procedures for Listening Instruction After reviewing the design of the listening instructional material, this section moves on to the review of the three important elements in the listening instruction: (1) recursive listening (2) the provision of the context for listening and (3) the activities in the pre-listening stage, while-listening stage and post-listening stage. The Implementation of Recursive Listening In the real-life situation, when ambiguity and uncertainty occurs in the conversation, one can ask the speakers to repeat what they said. Besides, when the hearers are confounded by the speakers’ propositions, they still can comprehend the speakers’ expression by observing the visual cues or interrupting the speaker for clarification (Field, 2008; Underwood, 1989). However, visual cues, repetition and clarification often cannot be asked for when listening to the recording, news broadcast or the TV program (Underwood, 1989). This is the same as that in the classroom since the recorded material is frequently under control of the instructors. Students cannot decide whether to replay the recording or not. It is viewed as one of the potential challenges in learning English listening (Underwood, 1989). To ameliorate the current situation, the idea of ‘repeated listening’ has been promoted (Field, 2008). In recursive listening activities, students are required to listen to the passage for several times; the focus and purpose of each listening is different (Hadley, 1993). According to Brown (2006), the systematic presenting of listening material to listeners from (1) listening for main ideas, (2) listening for details to (3) listening and making inferences will not only help learners understand the purpose of listening but raise their awareness of which strategy they should adopt while listening. It is consistent with what Field (2008) proposed: narrowing in (see Figure 1.), meaning that through repeated listening, listeners’ attention moves from the global 22.

(35) aspect toward the narrowed one. Moreover, with the multiple play, learners can accustomed themselves to the rhythms of English. The less successful learners can also build and assemble the information retrieved form the passage by degrees (Field, 2008). On the other hand, repeated listening can also drive teachers’ attention to the language of the recording. Besides, repeated listening can also make the input provided for students become more comprehensible (Krashen, 1996).. Figure 1. ‘Narrowing in’ (Field, 2008) The Provision of Contexts in Listening Tasks The two major operations of the listening process that constitute the listening skills are decoding and meaning building. The information that supplies the material for decoding and meaning building can be divided into three categories: input, linguistic knowledge, and context. Decoding is more related to the first two types of information while meaning building is particularly associated with the third type of information. Contextual information is composed of the listeners’ personal or general background knowledge and those about what has been said (Rost, 2002). Contexts can be provided in the form of listening questions/items, visuals and short introductions either from the task itself or the instructor. Listening is viewed as a cognitive activity 23.

(36) which involves “the activation and modification of concepts in the listeners’ mind” (Rost, 2002, p.57). In order to involve students in effective listening, the questions should be provided before students listen to the recording since these questions are not only regarded as the context for the listeners but utilized to activate the listeners’ schema (Hadley, 1993; Rost, 2002). With the understanding of the related information about the topic, students’ comprehension performance will not be influenced by the memory load (Hadley, 1993). Even though the relationship between schema activation and comprehension has been developed (Long, 1990), “mismatch conditions between schema and text can occur when the schema activated by the first lines of a text is not completely congruent with the remainder of the text” (Vandergrift, 2004, p.4) In addition, evidence from the study conducted by Tsui and Fullilove (1998) showed that in the Hong Kong examination the successful listeners did better in answering the items when the listeners cannot rely on background knowledge. It seems that less skilled listeners rest more on the contextual information (Field, 2008). Nevertheless, the provision of contexts can be helpful for both skilled listeners and less skilled listeners because both of them can make good use of the contextual information for different purposes (Field, 2008). Due to the important role that contextual information plays in listeners’ comprehension, this study also focuses to examine if there is any contextual information offered in the teachers’ manual of senior high school English textbooks. The Three Stages in Teaching Listening Listening instruction is commonly implemented with three stages: pre-listening stage, listening stage and post-listening stage (Field, 1998; Field, 2008; Masuhara et al., 2013; Richards, 2005; Schmidt, 1994; Wei, 2012). The current lesson format (see Table 2) in teaching listening differs from that of the early lesson format (see Table 1) 24.

(37) in terms of the three stages in listening (Field, 2008). Both of the early and current lesson format of teaching listening include three stages: pre-listening, listening and post-listening. However, some important elements were included in the current format for the lesson plan such as establishing context, creating motivation, pre-set questions and the like (Field, 2008). In the pre-listening stage, the multitude of activities are involved with providing contexts, activating schema, making predictions and the rest (Chang & Lu, 2012; Field, 2008; Masuhara, 2013). For instance, Underwood (1989) displays a range of activities that can be adopted by the instructors in the pre-listening stage (p.31): -the teacher giving background information; -the students reading something relevant; -the students looking at pictures; -discussion of the topic/situation; -a question and answer session; -written exercises; -following the instructions for the while-listening activity; -consideration of how the while-listening activity will be done. Some of the pre-listening activities aim to offer language practices such as the pre-vocabulary instruction whose goal is to activate learners’ previous knowledge and to help listeners connect the incoming messages to what they have in their memory (Field, 2008; Vandergrift, 2007). However, some argue that the pre-vocabulary instruction may divert the listeners’ attention to the text rather than meaning (Field, 2007; Underwood, 1989). Therefore, it is crucial that listeners should be taught only ‘critical’ words in the pre-listening stage (Field, 2007). Additionally, creating motivation is of great importance in this stage. Instructors should give learners clear and explicit instructions in the beginning since learners who do not know what to do will likely go on the wrong track in the activities (Underwood, 1989). With a purpose in mind, the listeners can create their own expectations which can arouse their motivation in learning listening (Field, 2007; Hadley, 1991; Underwood, 2007). Some 25.

(38) also believe that the pre-listening activities can facilitate learners’ listening comprehension (Chang & Lu, 2012). Briefly speaking, the pre-listening activities in the literature come in three parts: teaching the vocabularies, providing relevant information for the topics and discussing the relevant questions. The activities suggested for the pre-listening stage are summarized in Table 3. Table 1. The Early Lesson Format for Listening Instruction. Table 2. The Current Lesson Format for Listening Instruction. 26.

(39) Table 3. Suggested Activities for the Pre-listening Stage 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. Suggested activities Pre-teaching vocabulary; previewing new words. (Less than 10 words)/ Brown, 2006; Field, 1998 Establish context/ Field, 2008 Create motivation/ Field, 2008 Look at pictures/ Underwood, 1989 Look at a list of items or thoughts/ Underwood, 1989 Make list of possibilities/ Underwood, 1989 Read a text/ Underwood, 1989 Read through questions/ Underwood, 1989 Label a picture/ Underwood, 1989 Complete part of a chart/ Underwood, 1989 Predicting/ Chang & Lu, 2012; Field, 2008; Masuhara, 2013 Preview the language which will be heard/ Hadley, 2001 Informal teacher talk and class discussion/ Hadley, 2001 Using advance organizers - pictures, charts, films or comprehension questions/ Wei, 2012 Give a clear and definite purpose for listening each time/ Wei, 2012 Group/pair discussion about the topic/ Wei, 2012. As for the listening activities, they refer to “the tasks carried out during or after listening that directly require comprehension of the spoken material” (Masuhara et al., 2013, p.150). The while-listening activities are commonly designed to help learners “develop the skill of eliciting messages from spoken language” (Underwood, 2007, p.45). In this stage, extensive listening and intensive listening are the two fundamental and major types of the listening activity (Field, 2008; McDonough et al., 1993). The extensive listening focuses on the global comprehension and usually have the goal of learning the content (Field, 2008; Rost, 2011). Additionally, students can benefit from the extensive listening because the extensive listening activity not only improves students’ automaticity in language processing (Rost, 2011) but also enhances their confidence and interests in learning the language (Brown et al., 2008). On the other hand, the intensive listening refers to listening to the detailed information (Field, 2008; 27.

(40) Rost, 2011). Its learning focus is phonology, syntax and lexis (Rost, 2011), indicating that intensive listening can facilitate students’ “language-focused learning” (p.184) which is the essential aspect of the long-term language acquisition (Nation & Newton, 2009). All in all, to enhance students’ listening comprehension, the activities should be selected prudently; appropriate while-listening activities can “help learners find their way through the listening text and build upon the expectations raised by pre-listening activities” (Underwood, 2007, p.46). The multi-various while-listening activities suggested are presented in Table 4 (Field, 2007; Underwood, 2007; Wei, 2012). Table 4. Suggested Activities for the While-listening Stage Suggested activities 1.. Marking; checking items in pictures/ Underwood, 1989. 2.. Choosing the correct picture from the description/ Underwood, 1989. 3. Storyline picture sets/ Underwood, 1989. 4. Putting pictures in order/ Wei, 2012. 5. Completing pictures/ Underwood, 1989. 6. Picture drawing/ Underwood, 1989. 7. Carrying out actions/ Underwood, 2007. 8. Making models/arranging items in patterns/ Underwood, 1989. 9. Following a route/ Underwood, 1989. 10 Completing grids; form/chart completion/ Underwood, 1989 11 Labelling/ Underwood, 1989 12 Using lists/ Underwood, 1989 13 True& false/ Richards, 1983 14 Multiple choice questions/ Underwood, 1989 15 Text completion (gap filling)/ Underwood, 1989 16 Spotting mistakes/ Underwood, 1989 17 Predicting/ Underwood, 2007 18 Seeking specific items of information/ Field, 1998 19 Checking answers/ Field, 1998 28.

(41) 20 Cloze exercises/ Wei, 2012 21 Dictation (picture dictation, partial dictation, dictogloss)/ Wei, 2012 22 Taking notes/ Wei, 2012. Post-listening activities refer to the work related to the listening text that follows the listening activities (Underwood, 1989; Vandergrift, 1999). Its main purpose can be divided into four aspects. First, teachers will simply offer students answers to the comprehension questions and check whether they have understood what had been taught (Underwood, 1989). Second, some of the post-listening activities also include some discussions for the listening text which can also help teachers know more about the students’ listening difficulty (Field, 2008; Underwood, 1989). The third purpose of the post-listening activity is to “expand on the topic or language of the listening text, and transfer things learned to another context” (Richards, 1983; Underwood, 1989, p.77). With regard to the post-listening activities, they come in diverse activities such as problem solving, interpreting, role-play, written work and so on (Underwood, 1989); sometimes, the post-listening activities themselves are not the listening exercises (McDonough et al., 1993; Underwood, 1989). To sustain students’ interest and motivation in the post-listening stage, it is necessary to look for the activity that is intrinsically motivating (Underwood, 1989). Table 5 shows the suggested activities for the post-listening stage. Table 5. Suggested Activities for the Post-listening Stage 1. 2. 3 4 5 6 7. Suggested activities Draw attention to functional language/ Field, 1998 Inferring vocabulary/ Field, 1998 Paused play; final play/ Field, 1998 Problem-solving and decision-making/ Underwood, 1989 Interpreting/ Field, 1998 Role-play; simulation/ Underwood, 1989; Wei, 2012 Written work/ Underwood, 1989 29.