EffectiveTeachingMethodsforListeningandSpeaking

Introduction

English is utilized as the second language （ESL） in many Asian countries such as India， Indonesia， Singapore， and Bangladesh. People live in these countries are highly exposed to the language environment， which forces them to use the English discourses in their everyday life. However， in some other Asian countries， such as Korean， Japan and China， English is regarded as a foreign language （EFL）， which means English is only taught in classrooms. That is to say， the language proficiency of learners from different Asian countries can vary significantly， especially in listening and speaking. Therefore， teaching methods which can be efficient in enhancing learners listening and speaking competence in both ESL and EFL contexts will probably be the main concern of my masters dissertation. The area I specifically intend to discover is the effective teaching methods and learning strategies both inside and outside the language classrooms. A portion of rationales and some relative issues will be further presented in the following paragraphs of this paper.

What is involved in the listening process？

Based on my previous knowledge， there are 2 different procedures involved in understanding a spoken discourse. They are bottom-up process and top-down process.

According my understanding of their definitions， bottom-up process refers to the use of incoming information as the basis for understanding. Listeners must pay attention to the sounds， words， clauses， sentences and even intonation patterns of the spoken discourses. Incoming voices need to be analyzed by segmenting speech into identifiable sounds before they get the meaning of the discourse. In other words， in the bottom-up process， knowledge of grammar， phonetics and vocabulary of target language will be used to analyze and process the incoming voice.

As to the top-down process， listeners prior knowledge will be used to understand the meaning of a message. Therefore， top-down comprehension strategies involve knowledge that a listener brings to the text rather than the knowledge that the learners get from the text directly.

Any teaching methods and learning strategies for listening must conform to the bottom-up and top-down process and make good use of these two theories. Therefore， I wish I could explore more about these two theories during my next study， so that I can grasp effective methods to improve ESL and EFL learners listening comprehensive skills.

What Listening & Speaking Teaching Methods are more suitable for ESL & EFL Learners？

Based on what I learned， the most commonly used listening and speaking teaching methods in ESL and EFL contexts are Communicative Language Teaching method （CLT）， natural approach， the silent way， and suggestopedia. These methods have one common feature， which is encouraging students to use English as a means of communication and use English as much as possible in classrooms.

Communicative language leaching （CLT） — Teaching method which interests me the most

The focus of CLT is the communication. CLT can effectively assist learners to practice their listening and speaking skills while communicating with others in real language settings. It is mainly focus on but not limit to improving students listening and speaking skills. Reading and writing are also permitted as long as it serves the cause of communication. It is an eclectic method which enhances the communicative language ability of learners. According to Tricia Hedge， there are 5 components of communicative abilities. They are respectively linguistic competence， pragmatic competence， discourse competence， strategic competence， and fluency. These 5 components can be the key to improve Asian students English listening and speaking competence. Therefore， they are the concepts that I intend to further discover in my next studies.

Classroom activities

There are actually a lot of activities can be conducted in the classrooms as it is generally believed that plentiful exposure to the language is vital important for students development of knowledge and skills. These activities typically involve students in realistic communication. Common types of activities are role-play and simulations. For example， students might be asked to simulate an interview from a TV program， or a dialogue happen at the airport， in a hotel or restaurant. These activities are not only flexible， variable and interesting， but also meaningful and close to their daily life. Learners can learn words， sentence structures， and communication skills at the same time. In addition， through interaction with native speakers and the study of teaching material， they can acquire the culture of the target language. Therefore， the proper way to design and organize effective classroom activities is one of the aims for my masters study in Education MA program in my University .

Can CLT be Integrated into Classroom activities to Enhance ESL and EFL Learners Listening and Speaking Competence？

In order to introduce how to enquire English information properly through real life conversation to students， teachers usually have to create different situations for students in the classrooms. For example， customers ask the shop assistant some information about certain goods， book a room in hotel， order a meal or ask for direction. Listening materials and speaking topics have to be carefully selected by teachers before using as classroom activities. As to the materials， they can be a sketch of video， audio or everyday dialogues. When suitable materials are chosen， teachers can start to design tasks to practice students communicative skills. Exercises， such as multiple choices， cloze listening， and dictation， can also be added into the class procedure as long as they are beneficial to students learning outcomes. Therefore， how to integrate teaching methods such as CLT into ESL and EFL language classrooms to enhance learners communicative skills is another topic I intend to conduct further research in my next study.

Based on my previous learning in college， procedures for conducting the above listening activity always follow the same routine. Teacher introduces the lesson by saying： “today， I would like to introduce how to enquire information in English listening”. Then， worksheets with “Materials extract 1” on will be distributed to all students. The listening material will be played by an audio sketch， CD， MP3 or cassette player. After listening， students need to finish the exercises provided at back. Teacher checks students answers and provides feedbacks if necessary.

Conclusion

This paper may be too short to include all the intentions for my future masters study in the University of Leeds. It can be just considered as an index. Some other issues I am also interested in are “inclusive education”， “teaching methods”， “learner diversity”， “gender difference in education”， “educational management” and so on. Therefore， I will really appreciate if a place can be offered to me to study in the University of Leeds， as it is not only one of the world-famous universities， but also my ideal one. In the end， I sincerely hope the university admission can take favorable consideration for my application.

References：

[1]Lecture notes of GGGV 2143 Teaching listening and speaking in an ESL Context.

[2]Jeremy Harmer “The practice of English language Teaching” fourth edition， P63-69， A2 Presentation， practice and production， A4 Four Methods A5 Communicative Language Teaching Chapter 4 Popular methodology， Pearson Longman press.

[3]Tricia Hedge “Teaching and learning in the language classroom” p 26 1.5.1 The teachers roles and responsibility. P 46-56 2.2 What are the components of communicative language ability？ P 57-59 2.4 what are the implications for the communicative classroom？ P230， 7.2.1 Bottom up processes in listening P 232 7.2.2 Top-down processes in listening Oxford University Press （2000） .

【作者简介】董盼婕（1991.11-），女，漢族，陕西延安人，硕士，西安工程大学，助教，研究方向：跨文化交际。