The goal in listening comprehension is to be able to understand native speech at normal speed in unstructured situations. This statement does not imply an ability equal to that in the students' first language, although certainly their ability in the receptive skills needs to be closer to first-language level than that of the productive skills. The implication is that they reach a level at which, in ungraded contexts, they can concentrate on the message without conscious attention to component elements of that message. At times, the students may not know the meaning of all the words being used, but they should be able to guess some meanings from the context. At times, in the excitement of spirited
conversational exchanges, the speaking rate may be much faster than normal and in these situations the students need much additional practice. At any and perhaps all times, the students should expect to hear occasional words and phrases that they do not understand. Instead of becoming flustered and losing the thread of the conversation, they need to learn to concentrate on the general content. Total comprehension at all times and in all situations is impossible even in the first language. The students should be made aware of their tolerance for such situations in their native tongue in order to overcome the feelings of insecurity that they likely feel initially in the second language.
Listening comprehension does not normally receive the amount of attention in the classroom that it deserves. Generally, listening is treated as almost incidental to the goal of speaking. The students listen to the dialog and repeat the lines after the teacher. Later, they respond to oral cues in the pattern drills and perhaps even to questions that the teacher has prepared. Yet, rarely do they listen to language in a continuous conversational exchange in which previously learned materials are recombined in slightly different contexts.
The students need practice in listening to the second language in communicative contexts so they can tune their "language ears" to the rhythm and sounds of the language. They need to be made aware of the many aspects of "vocalic communication": rate of speech, volume, characteristic and relative pitch, type and frequency of juncture and vocal quality (Pearce & Mueller, 1975). They need to be provided sufficient experience so that they can begin to anticipate and to expect "what is coming next." They need to learn which aspects of the language are important and which aspects are redundant or unnecessary as far as decoding the message is concerned. Such practice should be provided by the texts and by the teacher. Without practice in decoding new messages using familiar vocabulary and structure, the students will be unprepared for the unrehearsed situations that a native speaker must face every day.
The greatest weakness of students who go abroad is not their inability to speak, but their inability to understand the native's answer. They are not accustomed to meeting unstructured oral situations. This is not to say that the students can speak better than they can understand. Certainly, their productive skill can never surpass their receptive ability. The point is that students can limit their speech to language that they can control, but they must be prepared to understand the unstructured language encountered in the replies.
The second-language students' inability to function well at first in the foreign country should come as no surprise. For many of them, this experience is their first attempt to comprehend "real" conversation in the second language. Second-language teachers should make efforts to eliminate this weakness in the second-language experiences of their students by continuous
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efforts to provide classroom activities in which the students are asked to participate as users of the language, not only as learners. They should be given as many experiences as possible that are similar to those needed to function in the foreign country.
In reading, students are given clues that will make reading easier and more enjoyable. They are taught to look for word families, to practice sensible guessing, etc. The students are assisted in making the jump from carefully controlled materials to less structured readings. However, in listening comprehension, little assistance and very few guidelines are provided. The assumption is made that the students will automatically understand the spoken language without specific exercises and practice in that skill. The results in most classrooms would indicate that such is not the case. The point being made is that many of the aids normally given in promoting reading comprehension can also be used to facilitate the improvement of listening comprehension skills. (See chapter 11, pages 315-18.)