TESL 0120 - Speaking and Listening - Unit 3 Reflection

Unit 3: Approaches to Listening Instruction

Can you tell that the above painting is made up entirely of tiny dots of paint?

Pointillism is a painting technique developed by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in 1886.
Seurat and Signac were Neo-Impressionists branching out from the Impressionists. Their new
technique gathered much attention and garnered much criticism at the time. Now it is a well
known, recognized and appreciated technique in the world of art. Pointillism is a technique of 
painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image. A 
pointillist painting may be made up of hundreds of small dots of paint, each with varying 
shades of tone and colour. Upon stepping back from the painting, the viewer can see the 
grander image revealed.  Just how the smaller points of the painting come together to reveal 
an image, the significant key words of speech come together to reveal the meaning of the 
utterance. The listener does not have to listen to and understand every word in order to make 
sense of what the speaker is saying.

English students often fret about not being able to understand every last word in a 
listening sample. They can become overwhelmed, frustrated and bogged down in trying to 
latch on to every word and decode it. It may however be quite freeing and encouraging for 
them to realise that they can learn how to pick out the key words and hone their discernment 
of what’s important information. Automaticity is the ability to recognise which words are 
significant and which can be ignored. Many words such as auxiliary verbs, articles and 
prepositions like the, of, a are the glue which hold a sentence together rather than being the 
content words like nouns and main verbs.  Even though nouns and main verbs may carry the 
weight of meaning, the auxiliaries, articles and prepositions can greatly alter the meaning of a
sentence if misunderstood.  Until students have reached a certain level of competence they 
struggle to discern which are the key words for understanding. My question as a TESL student
is: how can we teach automaticity strategies and scaffold this skill for our students? How do we
help our students automaticity and the ability to recognize which words are significant and 
which ones they can ignore? This is an area I would like to research more. 

A few other interesting points from the unit: 

1. Listening is a skill that can be taught. 

2. Listening is an active skill. Listeners are quiet however their minds are very active 
guessing, predicting, inferring, criticizing and interpreting. Along with all the activity of the mind,
our physical senses are also contributing to the interpretation - watching the body language of 
the speaker, taking in the surrounding smells, sensing the environment around us. All this extra
data helps give us clues as to what the speaker is saying. Our brain is processing a lot!

3. It’s not necessarily easier for students to understand native speakers of English than
foreign speakers of English.  Eg. Monolingual vs. Multilingual classrooms

4. It’s largely true that the skills involved in listening to a foreign language are the same 
as those that we use for listening to our native language. However, there are some 
differences in how we apply those skills. L2 listeners use more “compensation strategies” 
to fill in the gaps. 

5. It’s okay to let students read the script of recordings but perhaps only once they have 
listened to a couple times without the support. Real life doesn’t have transcripts and some say
using a script can produce “divided attention” and a reliance on reading. 

6. It's not that predicting is something that can necessarily be taught but rather something
that can be acquired with practice, repetition, exposure and modelling. As teachers we 
can "teach" predicting by developing lessons that foster the skill of active listening and match 
that with lots of practice and modelling.  

7. 5 main listening skills and strategies: predicting content, listening for the gist, detecting 
signposts, listening for details, and inferring meaning. (Ahmed, 2015)

Unit 3: 15-minute listening activity for blog
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FMJChwonCm7I0Vo-lN60KFxMfzHOOYwZKY-8xzxJNpw/edit?usp=sharing

References

Ahmed, R. (2015, June 18). Five essential listening skills for English learners. Retrieved from 
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/five-essential-listening-skills-english-learners

Cross. H. (1906). A Pine Groove [Oil on canvas]. Galerie Daniel Malingue, Paris, France. Mural Art 
Library (May 29, 2019). Retrieved from https://my.meural.netgear.com/editorial/184 

Harris, G. (2015). Ear Study. [Oil on board]. Greg Harris Bristol Artist. Retrieved from:  
http://www.greg-artist.com/gallery.html#pic67

Signac, P. (1916). Antibes, the Pink Cloud. [Oil on canvas]. Portland Museum of Art, Maine, U.S.A. 
GoodFon.com (August 10, 2017). Retrieved from 
https://www.goodfon.com/wallpaper/pol-siniak-rozovoe-oblako-antib-kartina-puantilizm-peizazh-m.html 

Wikipedia contributors. (2020, January 10). Pointillism. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pointillism&oldid=935131570

Wilson, J. J. (2008). How to teach listening. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Ltd.