Week 8 Reponse

Listening comprehension is often underestimated in L2 learning, and I have seen the effects of such a mentality in my own experiences as a student, teacher, and tutor.  Most recently, one of my students at the ELI expressed to me her concerns about her listening comprehension; chapter 21 really made me ponder what this ability entails.  She explained how she often got the gist or idea of what was being said, but did not know every word that was spoken.  Many times this happens to me in English, my first language... but for different reasons.  So then, I thought, is that entirely bad?  She is using context and previous knowledge to formulate a notion of what the speaker is saying (239).  This reflects the dichotomy we often create of bottom-up or top-down listening processes.

I like that the authors offer strategies to help students listen better--the foundation for the production of speech itself.  Chapter 23 explores this topic more by teaching students to recognize native speaker's devices within their own speech: pause fillers, transitions, and "stock phrases" that are all readibly at their disposal (249).  It's important for listeners to be aware of these items and, furthermore, to incorporate them in their own speech.  This also helps the students realize that speaking is improvised (for the most part) and thus, contains errors and imperfect structure or argumentation.  As the book states, it is not the same as the written language, but we often create or use activities that are more akin to the language found in writing samples (250).

Lastly, another aspect of the reading I found enlightening was its demand for authentic materials for listening activities.  We must not "water down" language or overstructure it thinking such tactics will help the learner transition and improve their listening comprehension.  Instead, the book proposes an exposure to native speech samples from the onset of language learning accompanied by the student's prior knowledge that they will not understand everything (244).  I think this is important, because this is what happens in the real world for L2 learners at different stages of proficiency.