Well, hello. This is a summary of my hangout at excitELT 2018 at Rikkyo University’s Ikebukuro Campus. It was really good fun and the best thing was just nattering to people I know from Twitter and meeting new people!
My slides are here, but because it was a ‘hangout’, there was audience participation, and this is what I am going to put in this post.
What’s missing from materials for listening?
Michael Griffin
- A range of speakers: kids, seniors, non-native speakers.
- A variety of subjects, especially interesting/useful subjects.
Matt Shannon
- Natural language, especially at a low enough level for junior high and high school students.
- Clear intonation patterns.
What are some activities we could use to teach/practice bottom-up listening?
Matt Shannon
- Spelling bee.
There was also the discussion that listening can be taught with a reactive focus on something students have found difficult rather than “something pulled out of your arse” (Jones, 2018)¹.
Also, it was discussed, especially with Matt Shannon and Ruthie Iida, that some teachers in Japan are teaching English using kana, thus making it ‘easier’ for students to pronounce words, though this might render them less intelligible than if they were taught standard pronunciation of, especially vowels such as /ɜː/, /ɔː/ and /ʌ/ which can be important for contrasts, which might make the differences between Japanese and English phonological categories clearer. I said also my dream would be having enough time on the curriculum for children to be taught pronunciation using the IPA without stressing parents, teachers and kids that they can’t pick it up. However, I’ve changed my mind about this, and teaching absolute beginners without orthography might be a good idea based upon Mathieu (2016), until there is a critical mass of vocabulary or evidence of contrastive phonemes having been learned.
Comments, are more than welcome.
References
Jones, M. (2018) Whose Cared A Lesson In. (‘Hangout’ Presentation) excitELT Tokyo, May 6th 2018.
Mathieu, L. (2016) The influence of foreign scripts on the acquisition of a second language phonological contrast. Second Language Research, 32(2) 145–170. DOI: 10.1177/0267658315601882 (Open access)
Footnotes
1. I said, “I could mince my words, but I don’t think I will.” Listening and pronunciation can make you angry, I tell you.
Hiya, Again, it sounds as if all the interesting life is happening in Japan! I followed the tweets from the event and is must have been a really great place to be. So happy for you. Also, I am looking forward to the Listening group you set up. Thanks and Ciao! Kamila
It was very fun though a bit stressful to be in charge of refreshments as I am a bit forgetful. Thanks so much and I am looking forward to making the group good with you!