EFS 693B - STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Listening and Communication
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EFS 693B
Notes: Week 5
CLASS OBJECTIVES
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Some key ideas
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Notes on listening to news
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Discuss your project with others
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Listening to movies--Groundhog Day
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Introduction of new sites
1) Preparation; 2) listen once for main ideas; 3) check vocabulary; 4) Listen again for details; 5) Summarize, discuss
II. Some key ideas
A. Selecting materials: generally, pick what is interesting
and good for language learning (familiar topic, right level, with
captions and/or transcripts); if this overlaps with something you should
listen to (e.g., class lecture), that's even better.
B. Selecting vocabulary: use both the
www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng and
www.lextutor.ca/vp/bnc tools. The
first includes words from the General Service List and University Word List (you
should know all of these). Put your current lists of words into these and
see what the result is.
C. Need to know words instantly; know sound as well as spelling
D. A note on the intensive<-->extensive listening continuum for learning. In general, intensive means working in a concentrated fashion, while extensive means working more broadly over a wider range of time. If you're running, you could think of intensive as running, say, a series of short sprints and extensive is taking a run of several miles (or kilometers). While some teachers define intensive listening as listening for details (the way you would on a TOEFL or IELTS exam) we will make a slightly different distinction. Extensive listening refers to listening to a lot of material but not trying to get all the details and every word--this is what you do when you listen to a live lecture or go to a movie: the goal is primarily listening for meaning (for information or entertainment), with any other development (like new vocabulary) occurring incidentally. That is, during extensive listening, you can still make "mental notes" of new words/phrases or other language points you notice, but that should not interfere with the objective of getting the meaning. Intensive listening involves going over a piece of material multiple times in an attempt to more fully understand it and often mining it for other purposes, such as using dictation to improve processing or examining the transcript to build vocabulary and grammar.
Besides the extensive listening you do for academic purposes or pleasure, when doing activities for this class or for your homework, a combination of semi-intensive and intensive listening is best. In semi-intensive listening, you don't necessarily try to get everything (that is, you don't have to understand and learn every word), but you interact with the material more than you would in real life--this is the great advantage of text-supported audio and video. For example, doing pre-listening, listening once with an occasional pause, and then listening a second time with the captions on, pausing and writing down a few key words of interest (not every new word) would be an example of semi-intensive listening. If you continued listening another time or two and then did a dictation, that would make it intensive. In a medium length clip (e.g., 10-15 minutes), or even a series of related clips as on ecorner, it is quite reasonable to do the majority of them semi-intensively and a small part intensively. In a longer one (e.g., a TV show, full lecture, or movie) different parts might be done extensively (listened to just once), semi-intensively, and intensively. Keep this in mind as you go through your independent material.
II. Listening to news: your experience
with www.pbs.org/newshour.
A. Why? keep track of current events, learn about
developments in areas of interest, get more acquainted with US culture...
B. What?
- Use stories on new or familiar
topics to practice getting meaning (though the procedure will be
different--how?)
- Use stories on familiar
topics for processing practice (dictation, accent practice, etc.) and building
vocabulary
- Note that continuing stories start out new but become familiar
C. How?
- Use the web, TV, or radio for
current breaking news
- Focus on online
resources for study
- Get stories with
transcripts, captions, and/or supporting readings if possible
- Be aware that the video can be helpful, but might also distract
III. Introduction to watching movies: Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day dictation
IV. Some additional links to explore
- www.ted.com (Technology, Entertainment, Design): This has subtitles and a transcript. most talks are around 18-20 minutes, but some are shorter--for example http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/arthur_benjamin_s_formula_for_changing_math_education.html.
- www.englishbaby.com: an English language learning website with multiple new audio and video lessons each week. The language is relatively authentic and conversational, with a lot of idioms and slang that are defined for you. Join the free version to explore the site. See http://www.englishbaby.com/lessons/4330/eavesdropping/jason_s_lucky_day.
V. Building objectives into your independent report.
Improve comprehension (make predictions), improve retention (e.g., note taking, summarizing (oral or written)); improve processing (understand faster speech, understand a specific accent, build accuracy, recognize reduced forms, build capacity…), improve knowledge (e.g., build vocabulary, identify discourse markers, recognize grammatical functions like hypotheticals…)
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Homework: Unless otherwise stated (e.g.,
the independent project) you should complete this material in time to discuss it
in the following class. Be sure to bring notes if requested.
1) Spend at least 45 minutes exploring each of the two sites in IV above
(TED and English, Baby), even if you've been there before. Let me emphasize
"explore": you should look at the range of links and options for the sites, not
just the obvious parts on the first page. Be prepared to describe your experience in class
(take notes and bring them to help you remember!).
you will need to "join" English, Baby by giving them your email
contact, but don't "Go Super" yet (you can do it later if you want--be
sure you understand what's free first).
2) Do not move on to watch the rest of Groundhog Day yet, but you can begin to locate a copy for the following week (see the syllabus for options).
3) Continue working on your independent project. Remember to incorporate any suggestions made in the individual meetings. Plan to do some combination of 3-4 sessions for a total of at least three hours. Be sure to include your objectives, and try to have a mixture of objectives that include not only comprehension, but also building language knowledge and improving processing. Be sure you are doing something about reviewing your vocabulary in addition to adding new words and phrases. Get the report form here. The report is due Sunday, October 28 at 8:00 PM. Please follow the directions and upload it to Coursework.
Be sure you have learned all the word on your vocabulary lists before our individual meeting this week.