University listening classes: less product, more process
Listening skills, and receptive language skills as a whole, are often underappreciated, with curriculum designers and teachers choosing to focus on productive skills such as speaking and writing where the performance of students can be assessed via display; listening and reading are skills that are used only when required and are therefore more difficult to assess within course structures. Teaching students the process of listening also requires an appreciation of the meta-level processing of language to isolate and practice discreet skills, a method which requires time and control on the part of both student and teacher. This paper lays out the rationale and procedure of applying a process-based approach to the listening skills teaching in an EFL course at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, and reports on this project to improve teaching methodologies in the English program. Key terms: process-based methodology, listening skills, receptive language skills, curriculum development The writers acknowledge and appreciate the support given by faculty members during materials development, and the financial support provided by the FIP funding program during this on-going project. Introduction Listening methodology Six years of compulsory English study are completed by most Japanese students at the junior high school and high school levels. Much of this education focuses on final products in the forms of test scores and the passing of university entrance examinations. This compulsory language education continues into tertiary education where EFL classes are mandated as part of students’ credits for graduation (Nunan, 2003). Recently, the excessive product-oriented nature of such course design and teaching methodology has been gaining attention (Field, 2008). Teachers and students alike are beginning to recognize that sole attention to the outcomes of language learning results in the neglect of the processes involved in the four main language skills. At university, where these students are often focused on the long-term goal of using the language in real-world contexts, a focus on product is less relevant for their study purposes (Ur, 1984). A more systematic methodology for the teaching of listening skills has long been advocated (Richards 1983; Ur 1984; Field 1998; Field 2008), but it remains an underdeveloped field of study. Many current second language listening courses are founded on a product-based approach. Such courses often involve the following cycle: students listen to a text; they answer questions based on the text; the teacher shares the correct answers. The teaching component is absent from this cycle, and there is little or no opportunity for learners to develop their existing listening skills and strategies except through exposure, which can be a tedious and lengthy undertaking and not one best supported by most university course learning environments. Therefore, when the focus is on product, students are not explicitly exposed to specific listening processes. In other words, the content in many listening classes should more accurately be termed ‘testing’ not ‘teaching’. Field (1998) points out that instead of helping to improve listening effectiveness, many standard listening classes merely stack on more texts to a listener’s experience; student are not taught how to process these texts in such classes. Inherent within EFL curriculum discussions at the tertiary level is the methodology selected as the basis of instruction in
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