Adding Web-based Listening Practice to a Listening

Comprehension Course: Cultivating

Autonomous Learning [50 slides]

Melvin R. Andrade, Ed.D.Sophia Junior College and

Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan

The 4th Asia TEFL International Conference, Aug. 18-20, 2006, Fukuoka, Japan

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Outline

Introduction Aims of the study Students & courses Building the Web site Creating the online survey Data analysis Observations, findings & conclusions

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Introduction

Through the Internet, learners of English as a foreign language have access to a large and growing body of listening material.

Some of this material is intended for learners of English while other material assumes a native or near-native competency.

Audio &

video

materials

on the Web

For

non-native

For

native

For general

audience

For ESL

settings

For children

& youth

For EFL

settings

Fig. 1 Intended audiences4

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Examples (External links. Click “Back” to return)

Non-native (EFL/ESL) BBC Learning English CBS/Literacyworks English Language Listeni

ng Lab Online ELLLO (HB) "Australia" 5-Minute English

Native Academy of Achievement American Rhetoric Movie

Speeches CNN for Students Lives That Make a Differe

nce Nobel Prize Speeches

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More examples

Non-native (EFL/ESL) Living English (Australia) News Stories (CDLP) NHK TV Daily News Randall’s ESL Lab Student Times (Japan) Voice of America (VOA)

Native Stone SoupTM

Story Corps (National Public Radio)

This I Believe (National Public Radio)

Video Nation (UK)

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The Present Study (ongoing)

The present study describes three courses in EFL listening comprehension for Japanese college students in which guided and free listening using Web resources played an important role.

In particular, it presents and analyzes the results of weekly questionnaires and homework assignments through which the students summarized, gave their opinion of and evaluated the sites.

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Aims of the Study

To develop guidelines to help teachers who wish to add a Web-based listening component to their courses

To identify sites of particular usefulness for students who wish to continue improving their listening comprehension on their own after completion of the course

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Students

College and university students enrolled in English-as-a-foreign language courses in Japan in which training in listening comprehension was a main component of the courses

All students had studied English previously at the secondary level

N = 126

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Courses

English Comprehension 1 (“Group A”) Academic Listening (“Group B”) Oral English 2 (“Group C”)

Details

Group A: English Comprehension Aim: To improve reading and listening　

comprehension Students: Junior college, 1st year, English

majors, TOEIC range 375-470 (Listening Section 185-315)

Format: Two 90-minute classes per week,13 weeks

Enrollment: Two groups of 23 students each (n = 46), required course

Syllabus [pdf]

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Group B: Academic Listening Aim: To develop note-taking skills and the

ability to understand intermediate-level university lectures

Students: Junior college, 1st and 2nd years, English majors, estimated TOEIC range 300 – 500

Format: Two 90-minute classes per week,13 weeks

Enrollment: 54 students, elective course Syllabus [html] Portfolio [pdf]

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Group C: Oral English 2 Aims: To improve conversational listening

and speaking sills. To develop the ability to give short, informal presentations and discuss current events.

Students: University, 2nd year, education and psychology majors,TOEIC scores not available

Format: One 90-minute class per week,13 weeks

Enrollment: 26 students, elective course Syllabus [pdf]

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Finding Listening Material

Google search using “listening” combined with terms such as “EFL,” “ESL,” “TEFL,” “TESOL”

Journal articles, both online and hard copy, provide additional sources

“Links” and “Resources” sections on the Web sites textbook publishers, academic organizations, universities, English centers, etc.

Personal home pages of English teachers

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Criteria for Selecting Web Sites (1)

Be free of charge (sites offering a few sample lessons for free and then requiring payment to continue were not included)

Have no advertising or a minimum of advertising

Have no pop-up ads and special effects (flashing words, animation) that aim to attract paying customers

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Criteria for Selecting Web Sites (2)

Include topics of interest and value to the students in the target courses

Have exercises, quizzes, and transcripts Have a user-friendly interface that allows

for easy self-study by EFL users Have a balance of materials at various

levels of difficulty, elementary through advanced

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Criteria for Selecting Web Sites (3)

Limitations:

It is not easy to find sites that meet all these criteria.

Some of the best content-rich sites have poor layouts or annoying advertising.

The teacher must decide how much weight to put on each criterion.

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Adding Links to the Teacher’s Home Page Links are added to the teacher’s home page

and the course syllabus For convenience, many of the links can be

accessed from the top page To attract attention, links are accompanied by

clipart, photographs, or brief descriptions Layout aims to encourage learners to try many

different types of sites Home page (current) More listening practice

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Collecting Data on Student Participation

Students did “free-choice listening” for homework or as part of the in-class activities

The minimum number of listening assignments required depended on the course (English Comprehension 9 times, Academic Listening 10 [5] times, Oral English 7 times)

Students completed an online questionnaire (“survey”) for each listening assignment

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Creating the Survey

Used the free version of online software available from <www.surveymonkey.com/>

Software allowed up to 10 questions and accepted up to 100 responses per survey

Results of multiple-choice questions were analyzed automatically (frequencies, percentages)

Results were displayed graphically or in tables (screen shot examples)

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Contents of the Survey (1)

Introduction: This survey is for students enrolled in my [English Comprehension] classes. The purpose is to find out what they think of the online listening and reading lessons as well as to monitor their listening progress.

Click "Next" to get started. If you'd like to leave the survey at any time, just click "Exit this survey." Your answers will be saved and kept private.

As a guest, you do not need to answer any of the questions to proceed through the survey.

There are 9 questions:

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Contents of the Survey (2)

1. Write your student ID number and your full name (family name first). Example: 00-000 Tanaka, Hanako

2. Please type in: (1) The name of the site (for example, "ELLLO," "Student Times"). (2) The level (beginner, low intermediate, etc.) of the passage. (If you don't know the level, write "don't know.") (3) The title of the passage (for example, "Sisters," "Episode 1").

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Contents of the Survey (3)

3. Please give your opinion of the following by marking Strongly agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly disagree:

This lesson was interesting.

I understood the contents of the lesson.

The speaker was easy to understand.

I learned new words from this lesson.

This lesson fit my ability level.

I want to listen to or read more lessons like this one.

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Contents of the Survey (4)

4. How many times did you listen to the audio or watch the video? (If no audio or video, skip this question.) One time Two times Three times More than three times

 

5. In total, about how many minutes did you spend on this lesson (listening, reading, doing exercises, checking the dictionary, etc.)? Choose the closest number: Up to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, More than 120

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Contents of the Survey (5)

6. Write a summary or description of the listening passage.

For a summary, use this format: "This passage was about ( ). There are (three) main ideas. First, ( ). Second, ( ). Third, ( ). The conclusion is ( ). "

For a description, answer the following: (1) Who are the main people in the story? (2) When did it happen? (3) Where did it happen or what place is it concerned with? (4) What is the story about? (5) Why did it happen? (6) How did it happen? How much? How long? How far?

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Contents of the Survey (6a)

7. Write your opinion, reaction, or impression. Consider the following questions:

(1) What is interesting about this passage?  

(2) What is something new that you learned?

(3) How does it affect or compare to your life? 

(4) Do you agree or disagree? 

(5) What is good or bad about it? . . .

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Contents of the Survey (6b)

(6) What is an advantage or disadvantage?  

(7) What is it similar to or different from?  

(8) What do you predict will happen? 

(9) How do you feel about it (happy, sad, shocked, etc.)?

(10) What more would you like to know about this topic? . . .

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Contents of the Survey (6c)

You do not need to answer all these questions. You can add your own ideas, too! Write at least

[50] words. Try to give details, reasons, and examples. Use

signal words such as these: however, in contrast, on the contrary, on the other hand, moreover, furthermore, in addition, for example, in general, specifically, similarly, therefore, in conclusion.

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Contents of the Survey (7)

8. Do you have any other comments or questions?

9. Optional: The teacher may want to contact you about your answers. What is your e-mail address? . . .

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Contents of the Survey (8)

Thank you! I appreciate your feedback. It is your active participation and diligent study that make this class a success!

Please click "Done" (below) to save your answers. After that, you will be taken to the Web site "SurveyMonkey," which is the company that provides this software. After that, if you want to return to my home page, go to this address: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/m/and/

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Survey Screen Shots (Click titles to view. Click “Back” to return to this page. The links on the screen shots are not active.)

Introduction Student ID page Web site ID page Site evaluation Study time Summary or

description

Opinion Comment Submission

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Students! What did you think of the listening passages? Click to take a SURVEY.

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Examples of Collected Data(Click titles to view screen shots. The links on the screen shots are not active. Click “Back” to return to this page.)

Screen Shots Main display Topics Summaries Opinions

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List of Tables:Survey Results (1)

Table 1: How many passages did you listen to? [Click here for table.]

Table 2: How many times did you listen to each passage?

Table 3: How much time did you spend doing each assignment?

Table 4-1: Was this lesson interesting?

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List of Tables:Survey Results (2)

Table 4-2. Did you understand the contents?Table 4-3. Was the speaker easy to

understand?Table 4-4. Did you learn new words from this

lesson?Table 4-5. Did the lesson fit your ability level?Table 4-6. Do you want to listen to more

lessons like this one?

Table 2a. How many times did students listen to each audio segment? (repeated listening) (N = 126) (All groups)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Totals (N=126)

Per

cent 1 time

2 times3 timesMore than 3 times

Table 2b. How many times did students listen to each audio segment? (repeated listening) (N = 126) (Displayed by groups)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Group A(n=46)

Group B(n=54)

Group C(n=26)

Totals (N=126)

Per

cent 1 time

2 times3 timesMore than 3 times

Table 3. How much time did the students spend doing free-choice listening? (N = 126)

36.1

28.9

19.9

62.3 3.4 3.6

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

10 20 30 40 50 60 More

Minutes (average time per student, all groups)

Per

cent

age

of s

tude

nts

Table 4-1.This lesson was interesting (N = 126)

47 48.6

4.10.3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Stronglyagree

Agree Disagree Stronglydisagree

Per

cent

Table 4-2. I understood the contents of the lesson (N = 126) 　　

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Stronglyagree

Agree Disagree Stronglydisagree

Per

cent

Table 4-3. The speaker was easy to understand (N = 126)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Stronglyagree

Agree Disagree Stronglydisagree

Per

cent

Table 4-4. I learned new words from this lesson (N = 126)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Stronglyagree

Agree Disagree Stronglydisagree

Per

cent

Table 4-5.This lesson fit my ability level (N = 126)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Stronglyagree

Agree Disagree Stronglydisagree

Per

cent

Table 4-6I want to listen to more lessons like this one (N = 126)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Stronglyagree

Agree Disagree Stronglydisagree

Per

cent

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Other Activities

In addition to completing the online survey, students kept a personal record (hard copy) of the sites they visited including date, site, topic, and study time.

Students also discussed their free-choice listening experiences in class in small groups or with the teacher.

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Observations, Findings, and Conclusions (1/4)

It is possible to assemble a selection of free Web sites for listening comprehension practice at different levels of ability covering a wide range of topics.

These sites can be used for both extensive and intensive listening practice.

These sites can be used to supplement and perhaps replace textbook lessons or for self-access, autonomous learning.

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. . . Conclusions (2/4)

With some teacher guidance students can successfully select materials that they find interesting and that fit their ability level.

Many students in this study preferred to stay with easier materials rather than to challenge themselves.

When students in this study found a site they liked, they stuck with it.

It may be beneficial to encourage students to try a variety of sites.

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. . . Conclusions (3/4)

Positive experiences with interesting sites have motivated some students to pursue extensive on-their-own practice.

To engage the students in serious listening, it is helpful to have feedback activities such as brief oral reports, a listening journal, completion of a questionnaire, and the writing of summaries, descriptions, and opinions.

Social interaction such as discussion with a partner or in small groups is also motivating.

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. . . Conclusions (4/4)

Many students do not scroll down the page and miss important features of the sites such as transcripts and quizzes.

Many content-rich sites have confusing interfaces (or too many advertisements). Students get lost. They don’t know where to click or how to proceed.

Some students do not do well filling in the online questionnaire because of poor typing skills.

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Selected Reference

The following article has over 1,000 references related to autonomous learning:

Benson, Phil. (2003, August). “What is Autonomy?” In Autonomy in Language Learning. English Centre, University of Hong Kong. Retrieved on August 10, 2006 from <http://ec.hku.hk/autonomy/#k>.

(Archive PDF version here)

For more information:(Prof.) Melvin R. Andrade

Home page: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/m/and/

E-mail: m-andrad@jrc.sophia.ac.jp