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
I. 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. 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, with any other development (like new vocabulary) occurring incidentally. During extensive listening, you can still make "mental notes" of new words/phrases or other langauge points you notice, but that should not interrupt the focus on getting the meaning. Intensive listening involves going over a piece of material multiple times and often mining it for other purposes, such as for dictation to build vocabulary and grammar. besides the extensive listening you do for academic purposes or pleasure, when doing activities for this class, a combination of semi-intensive and intensive listening (http://elt-wiki.cw.idm.fr/elt-wiki/index.php/Intensive_listening) is best. In semi-intensive listening, you don't necessarily try to get everything, but you interact more than you would in real life. 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 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, it is quite reasonable to do the majority of it 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.
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
- Use stories on familiar
topics for processing practice (dictation, accent practice, etc.) and building
vocabulary
- 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
III. Listening practice: picture identification
IV. Discussion
A. What was your experience with the speed control? Under what circumstances might you use it to slow down or speed up material you're watching?
B. Discuss your
independent project with other students in the class
1) What material are you using? Why did you pick that? What are your objectives?
2) Give an example of an effective procedure you're using. Why do you
think it's effective?
3) What is the most useful thing you've learned so far from the project?
4) What are your main challenges in doing the
project?
V. Introduction to watching movies: Groundhog Day. See www.eslnotes.com for a synopsis vocabulary list with definitions--don't read the plot summary yet. Note we will be watching the rest of this later.
VI. 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.
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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 VI above
(TED and English, Baby). Describe your experience in your report and be prepared
to discuss it in class.
Be sure that you "join" English, Baby, but don't "Go Super" yet.
2) Continue working on your independent project. Think about the difference between extensive, semi-intensive, and intensive listening noted above (extensive only is not acceptable for the project). Remember to incorporate any suggestions made in the individual meetings or in my written feedback to you. Plan to do some combination of 3-5 sessions for a total of at least three hours. As before, try to have a mixture of objectives that includes not only comprehension, but also building language knowledge and improving processing. Be sure you are doing something about isolating new vocabulary, learning it, and then reviewing it over the next few days before you forget it. Get the report form here.
3) Do not move on to watch the rest of Groundhog Day yet, but you can begin to locate a copy for the following week.