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101ФИЛОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ НАУКИ
DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS THROUGH SONGS IN TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES Saidrasulova Sh.N.
Saidrasulova Shahnoza Nazarovna - Teacher, DEPARTMENT OF MEDIALINGUISTICS, UZBEKISTAN UNIVERSITY OF JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION, TASHKENT, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: the purpose of this article is to identify the ways of teaching and enhancing students' listening skills through songs and find the appropriate lesson plans according to their levels and interest. This research examined students' inter in the classroom, instructional strategies and alternative assessment promoting motivation. The question of how to develop listening comprehension of FL students through songs, language learners has been a neglected area in a foreign language research, and even the few available analyses lack an adequate research base.
Keywords: promoting assessment, listening comprehension, songs, rhythmic pattern, acoustic condition, real-life discourse, single hearing.
UDC 81-139
Introduction. According to the research, listening is the most difficult and least favourite skill of all. In comparison to the other receptive activity - reading, "spoken words do not stay still to be scrutinized and puzzled over, as do written words."1
There are several reasons why students find listening to foreign languages; English in particular, so difficult: spelling and pronunciation of foreign languages differ a lot: "Many learners of English or other Romano-German languages to recognize the spoken forms of words that they 'know' very well in print or writing." 2 - connected speech - students are able to recognize the words in isolation, connected speech poses a big problem though (factors of assimilation, weakening of sounds etc. come into play; rhythmic pattern of English, rules for putting stress and intonation (while in Uzbek the stress is always changeable , in English it can also be on the second or the third the 'same' sounds (usually vowels) can be pronounced in several different ways (break x weak x fear etc.); use of colloquial vocabulary in informal dialogues; grammar deviations; broken syntax; the pace of the recording or speech is the same for everybody - we cannot replay it anytime we want; in real-life listening we are usually exposed to the text only once: "Written discourse is fixed and stable so the reading can be done at whatever time, speed and level of thoroughness the individual reader wishes. Spoken text in contrast is fleeting, and moves on in real time. The listener - though he or she may occasionally interrupt to request clarification must in general follow what is said at the speed set by the speaker."3 ; other factors such as poor acoustic conditions or noise can make the listening activity even more stressful for the learners.
Methodology. The experience of being a listener is important: as a result you become a better speaker because you have knowledge of what the listener needs.4
As already suggested, when not conducted properly, listening can become a very stressful and de-motivating activity. According to Penny Ur, in order to avoid this, we must make several things sure. Firstly, we need to ensure good listening conditions - the recording and the recorder (CD player) must be in perfect condition and we are obligated to
1 Rixon, Shelagh. Developing Listening Skills. London McMillan Publishers, 1990, p 36.
2 Rixon, Shelagh. Developing Listening Skills. London: McMillan Publishers, 1990, p 38.
3 UR, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 2004, p 160.
4 Anderson, Anne and Tony LYNCH. Listening. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, p 16.
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guarantee that all students can hear it properly. Secondly, we must pay special attention to pre-listening activities.
"Students should be given specific instructions (are they listening for the gist or for detailed information?) - otherwise they will not be able to focus properly''1.
Extremes should be avoided - the activity should not be too long, after few minutes students begin to lose concentration and interest (pop songs with their usual length between three and four minutes are perfect). Strong accents, as stated before, are also not appropriate. "The most important thing is to emphasize that (as with reading) it is not vital to understand every single word"2.
Penny Ur claims that "the effort to understand everything often results in ineffective comprehension, as well as feelings of fatigue and failure."
There has been a debate among methodologists concerning the number of hearings students should be exposed to. Penny Ur argues that "if real-life discourse is rarely "replayed" then learners should be encouraged to develop the ability to extract the information they need from a single hearing." we think that even though her point seems valid, it is to a certain extent unrealistic and unfair request. ''While real-life communication offers a set of safety nets such as the context, possibility to ask for clarification, body language, facial expressions etc., in-class tape recordings provide nothing of that sort''3.
To prevent confusion and frustration we should play the recordings at least twice. We can however ask students few general questions after the first listening.
We can generalize and say that narrative texts are easier to comprehend than complex (and/or) abstract texts and that monologues are less demanding than texts spoken by more speakers. "Music is a powerful stimulus for student engagement precisely because it speaks directly to our emotions while still allowing us to use our brains to analyse it and its effects if we wish so. It can make a satisfactory connection between the world of leisure and the world of learning."4 The same point is made by Tim Murphey who says that "the use of music and song in the classroom can stimulate very positive associations to the study of a language, which otherwise may only be seen as a laborious task, entailing exams, frustration, and corrections." It is precisely the combination of enjoyment and practicality that is the most valid argument for integrating songs into educational process.
Songs present a type of highly motivational (see further), authentic listening material (since they are commonly listened to by native speakers) that can be used in several different ways:
> gap-fill exercises either with or without a list of words to choose from;
> spotting words which can be ticked, circled or written down (the same can be done with specific grammatical constructions - e.g. students are told to identify all examples of passives or forms of the future tense);
> correcting mistakes in the lyrics; finding words that were not sung;
> true-false exercises;
> multiple choice exercises;
> dictation - students are told to write down the lyrics by themselves; guess in difficult words;
> pronunciation exercises - students can practice pronunciation of individual sounds and words, they might be told to copy the intonation patterns;
> spotting differences between the lyrics and a given picture;
'UR, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.,2004, p.108.
2UR, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. p 111 -112.
3Rixon, Shelagh. Developing Listening Skills. London: McMillan Publishers, 1990, p 5.
4Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. -Third Edition.Harlow: Longman ELT-
2001,p. 242.
> drawing a picture - based either on the mood and atmosphere of the song or its narrative;
> organising the lyrics into individual lines and stanzas;
> listen-and-do exercises - students can imitate the actions described in the song;
> Especially, young learners might want to sing the song in class which may be a pleasant way to end the lesson (if possible they can even bring their musical instruments). It can be accompanied by pantomime (total physical response approach).
Conclusion. Songs represent valuable teaching material. However, not every song is appropriate for teaching purposes. Pop songs are generally speaking better because they are usually of reasonable length, their lyrics and tunes are memorable. It may seem self-evident, but we need to avoid songs with offensive or aggressive lyrics. We prefer to use popular songs because they are potentially appealing to more students than alternative music genres are familiar with them - we as teachers do not bring something alien to the class, songs are part of our everyday lives.
References
1. Anderson A. and Lynch T. Listening. Oxford:Oxford University Press, 1988. P. 3.
2. Harmer Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Longman.Third Edition, 2005. P. 205.
3. Murphey T. Music & Songs. Oxford :Oxford University Press., 1992. P. 7.
4. Rixon Shelagh. Developing Listening Skills. London:MacMillan Publishers, 1990.
5. Penny U.R. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 2004. P. 141.
6. Penny U.R. Five-Minute Activities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 1992. P. 160.
7. Penny U.R. Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1991. P. 134.
