Being able to understand the spoken language is not an automatic, concomitant outcome of language study. The teacher should realize that this often overlooked skill must also be stressed and that, as in all the other skills, a sequential arrangement of activities should be provided in order to develop it. Listening comprehension can be divided into at least five sequential components, each dependent upon the preceding one. The first is the ability to distinguish all the sounds, intonation patterns, and voice qualities in the second language and to discriminate between them and similar sounds in the native tongue. The second is the perception of an entire message produced by a speaker. The third is the ability to hold that message in one's auditory memory until it can be processed. Fourth, the listener decodes what the speaker has said. Comprehension of the message, however, is not synonymous with the ability to discuss content in the second language. The fifth and last stage is the ability to use the message and/or store it in the second language.
Discrimination When presented sounds unlike those of their own language, speakers tend to give those sounds first-language interpretations. In other words, the hearers perceive the new sounds in terms of the nearest equivalent in their own language. Students, for example, who are asked to imitate a line of a dialog in a second language may be confronted for the first few days with several sounds that they have never heard before. In such a situation, the students most likely do not even hear the distinctions which they will be called on to make in the second language. They translate the unfamiliar sounds into familiar ones in order to be able to process what they have heard. Especially if they are being asked to imitate these utterances, they are inclined to interpret the new language in terms of first-language sounds. Some research has indicated that second-language students learn more rapidly if they are not asked to produce language immediately in the early stages of second-language learning. This conclusion fits with the postulated need to establish the receptive skills prior to the productive.
The first task facing the teacher, then, in the process of building up the students' listening comprehension ability, is to teach the students to perceive and to distinguish those sounds that are not found in the first language from familiar sounds that may be somewhat similar. These distinctions should be taught prior to asking students to imitate any lines containing those sounds. One way of teaching these differences between the sounds of the two languages is to contrast the first-language and the second-language sounds in minimal pair drills.
The sounds in French that should be carefully distinguished prior to any active imitation on the part of the students are the vowels and the consonant sounds represented by the following letters: t, d, /, r, p, b, and the s sound as in the English word pleasure, which may occur at the beginning of a word.
In German, the most troublesome sounds are the vowels, especially the long e (geht versus gate) and the long o (Boot versus boat), and the consonant sounds of /, d, t, and the ts sound, which occurs in English but not initially as it does in German.
The problem sounds in Spanish are the vowels and the consonant sounds of g (between vowels), j, t, d, /, p, k, and the fricative b.
All the sounds (including the schwa) that may be misinterpreted and thereby mispronounced should be contrasted with the English sounds until the students can hear the difference. Before the students can eliminate the typical English vowel glide, for example, they must be made aware of that glide. With a little practice, they can readily discriminate between the Spanish words, me, le, and se, and the English words, may, lay, and say. Once there is no hesitation about which sound belongs to which language, pronunciation practice can begin. Similar minimal-pair comparisons should be made with the other vowels and consonants. The same is true for the schwa, i.e., the tendency in English to pronounce vowels in unstressed syllables as "uh."
As the students learn more sounds in the language, instances may arise in which important phonemic distinctions must be made between sounds in the language itself that are quite similar. In order to communicate in the oral aspects of the language, either listening or speaking, the students must be able to distinguish these phonemic differences. Before they are asked to make these distinctions as they occur in contextual situations and certainly before they are expected to make these distinctions in their speaking, these important contrasts should be isolated and studied in minimal-pair drills. The students should first be made aware of the problem, and then sufficient practice should be provided to insure that they can hear these often slight variations.
This problem is not so great in French and Spanish as it is in German. In German, the students need practice distinguishing between the long and short umlaut vowels u and 6 and the front and back ch sound. For example, Hute means "hats/' but H'utte means "hut." There is considerable difference between Hohle, which means "cave," and Holle, which means "hell." In the word ich, the ch is pronounced in the front of the mouth. In the word ach, it is pronounced in the back.
After the students have learned to distinguish isolated sounds, these same sounds should be placed into words to determine whether or not the students can identify the differences within the context of a word. The sounds and words should then be incorporated into sentences and communicative contexts to provide listening discrimination practice and to demonstrate the importance of these distinctions.
Nor can the students stop with individual sounds. Diphthongs, triphthongs, and various consonant clusters often create problems in student comprehension. The position in which a letter occurs may alter its pronunciation. For example, the voiced quality of a consonant may affect the pronunciation of an adjoining consonant. The joining of words in rapid speech may lead to the omission of certain sounds or to altered pronunciation of sounds.
In addition to the sounds and combinations of sounds, other speech characteristics, such as pitch, stress, and juncture, provide valuable linguistic clues to the meaning of the utterances. The voice quality characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter also play an important role in the affective aspects of the communicative situation due to the emotional response they create in the listener. For example, if a speaker drops the intonation pattern sharply at the end of a sentence, he will appear curt and perhaps even rude. The listener reacts predictably, although perhaps subconsciously, to these cues. Children are the best examples of these voice quality characteristics. They very quickly learn to indicate with tone of voice when they are unhappy about something.
Perception of message After acquiring the ability to distinguish between and among the sounds, intonation patterns, and voice qualities common to the language, the students are ready to listen to sentences for meaning. (The assumption is being made, of course, that they have also been learning the accompanying vocabulary and grammar contained in the text.) The first problem is simply to get the students to listen and concentrate on what is being said so that the stream of sounds registers on their consciousness. They obviously must hear what is being said, with the intent of doing something with what they hear.
The problem of getting students to listen has both cognitive and affective components. First, the students need to feel that it is possible for them to comprehend what they hear. This implies that they have sufficient preparation in phonology, semantics, and syntax. Second, for maximum concentration, the students should be aware of the purpose behind the activity. What is the objective? How will it help them? How does it fit into second-language learning specifically and language usage in general? Third, they should want to hear what is said and to understand the content.
Since listening to the second language requires a higher level of concentration and as a consequence a greater expenditure of energy, the teacher should not expect to spend a long time in any one class period on this skill. If he would like to provide the students with additional practice, he can switch to a different activity and return later to listening comprehension.
Auditory memory Once the students are able to discriminate the various linguistic cues and perceive oral messages, they are ready to begin to develop
their ability to retain sentences. The students face an insurmountable obstacle in second-language learning if they cannot remember what they have just heard. Most oral activities in the classroom, from repetition to question- answer practice, are based on the necessity of remembering the message. Even kindergarten children are asked to repeat a lengthy sentence in their native tongue to determine whether their auditory memories are developed sufficiently to profit from classroom learning activities.
In order to develop the students' auditory memory, the teacher should see to it that they hear as much language as possible. This means that most of the class will be conducted in the language being taught. However, the speed of presentation and difficulty level of the content must be geared to the students. Advanced language exchanges are little more than nonsense sounds to beginning students, and listening to language which is not understood does not provide satisfactory practice. Conversely, students at advanced levels soon tire of language that is beneath their capability level.
A proper sequencing of activities and difficulty levels, which challenges but does not defeat, needs to be maintained even in developing auditory memory. In the early stages of language learning, the sentences should be quite short. The students cannot cope if the sentences contain too many syllables and too much information. The sentences should not only be short; they should also be presented at a speed which permits the students to comprehend what is being said. Initially, native-speed renditions are not the most efficient manner of presentation. The fact that the goal is to comprehend a native speaker does not require that native-speed conversations be employed from the beginning of the course. Speech should always be normal, i.e., with native stress, pronunciation, intonation, liaisons, and elisions, but not so fast as to be incomprehensible. The reduction in speed can be accomplished primarily by speaking in phrases and lengthening the pauses between phrases. Too, the linguistic level of the sentences should be within the range of the student's previous language experience. However, both the teacher and the textual materials will need to lengthen the utterances, speed them up, and increase the linguistic complexity during the course of the year.
Minimal-pair drills are used to teach sound discriminations, but connected phrases must necessarily be the basis for increasing auditory memory. With the audio-lingual approach, a great deal of emphasis is placed on developing auditory memory. The students spend much of their class time in mimicry- memorization of the dialogs or responding to cues in pattern drills. In spite of the fact that this aspect of the audio-lingual approach is one of its most important strengths, teachers need not limit their classroom activities to dialog memorization and pattern drills. Other techniques such as reading aloud, dictation, question-answer practice, listening to the second language in context, classroom expressions, etc. are also beneficial in developing auditory
memory. In short, all language activity that is understandable promotes increased auditory memory. As the students progress through the course, their ears become attuned to the second-language sound system, and auditory memory expands. The important point to remember is the idea of progress. The progression from simpler to more complex and lengthy sentences must be slow, but continuous. During this progression, the speed of delivery should be increased in direct proportion to the students' ability to comprehend.
Comprehension in the first language With the ability to distinguish the sounds of the language, the ability to perceive strings of words, and the capability of remembering them, the students are in a position to comprehend incoming messages provided they have acquired the necessary semantic and syntactical bases for understanding what is received. Once the message is made available for processing, factors other than hearing and retention become involved. It is the students' conscious attention to these factors which severely limits listening comprehension ability in the early stages of language learning. There are simply too many elements with which to contend. The mind has difficulty coping simultaneously with both the code and the message.
Teachers should be aware of this stumbling block and attempt to prevent their students from becoming discouraged because of it. They should point out to them that comprehension of each single element is not necessary, desirable, or even possible. Psychologists find that information is processed in chunks. The students' listening skills will be much greater if they concentrate on absorbing chunks of information rather than bits and pieces. Mueller (1974) postulates separate processes in comprehending a message. The first process is termed sensing. During this process the listener gets a general idea or sense of the content of what he is hearing. In the second, called segmenting , the hearer begins to segment the content into simple linguistic units consisting of subject, verb, and object. Dividing the content into what Mueller calls skeleton sentences , the listener is able to decode the message in greater detail. Mueller emphasizes that there is more to the listening comprehension skill than merely learning the phonology, the words, and the structure. The students must also be given practice in the actual process of comprehending what they hear in the second language.
The teacher should be careful to develop listening comprehension activities that encourage the students to practice listening comprehension at the communication level. The teacher should not emphasize vocabulary building, knowledge of grammar, translation of individual words, speaking in individual words, repeating to the point at which students can concentrate on individual words or structures, or asking for the first-language meaning of words (Mueller, 1974). In addition, the teacher should be extremely careful not to expect comprehension of minute details in any of the follow-up activities.
Otherwise, he will be indirectly forcing the students to practice what they must avoid doing if they are to learn to understand a native speaker.
Comprehension in the second language In the early stages of second- language learning and during initial exposure to new material the students will in all likelihood convert an oral communication into their first language in order to remember it, or sense the meaning at a subword level. This type of comprehension means that they will not be able to discuss the content in the second language at this stage of their development. As they make progress in listening comprehension, they will gradually develop the ability to receive the message in the second language itself. (In fact, in some respects this conversion of the message into a form for storage may in itself be a productive process rather than a receptive one.) After much practice, the students will be able to concentrate on the content of familiar dialogs and readings without being consciously aware of the manner of expression. In order to reach this level, the students must have practice listening to the spoken language in extended contexts. In sound discrimination, single words were used. In auditory memory, phrases and sentences were employed. Now, short conversations and oral readings become the bases for developing greater listening comprehension. At some time, all dialogs and readings should be heard in their entirety.
The ability to comprehend familiar material without the obstructing awareness of individual grammatical and vocabulary elements, i.e., getting the message without conscious attention to the code, is indeed quite a psychological accomplishment. This is difficult to achieve and its importance should not be underestimated by the teacher or the students. However, even this level of comprehension is still short of the goal—comprehension of native speech in unstructured situations. The students have not truly learned to understand the spoken language until they can understand it as it is spoken in "real" situations. In order to anticipate such situations, practice should be provided in the classroom.
As is always true, the teacher must teach for transfer. The students cannot make the leap alone. Students needs practice in listening to unstructured situations in which they cannot anticipate immediate comprehension of all the content. Material at this level will provide practice in transferring known forms and words to new contexts, in applying listening guides to increase comprehension, and in adjusting to similar situations that they will encounter with native speakers. Such practice is essential in order to be able to cope successfully with experience in the foreign culture.
Material for listening comprehension exercises can, and should, be of various types. Most important is to remember that conversational interchanges
should be included as well as longer narratives. The students themselves can provide each other with a considerable amount of listening comprehension practice. For example, with games, impromptu conversations, dialogs prepared with classmates, short plays, descriptions, oral reports, etc., they have the opportunity to listen to other students. Listening to classmates stimulates motivation and provides an opportunity to relate to a live situation. Tbe limitation of students listening to other students lies in their restricted language ability. Therefore, the teacher should provide additional listening activities, such as descriptions of customs, plays and scenes from plays, songs, lectures, radio broadcasts, movies, etc. These activities are essential to the development of a true listening comprehension ability. (Teachers can alleviate their task by sharing listening comprehension materials with other teachers.)