0LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS WHILE LEARNING EFL
Madina Bakhtiyarovna Umirqulova
Tashkent Medical Academy Teacher, Department of Pedagogy, Psychology and Languages
ABSTRACT:
Listening comprehension skill plays an important role in the process of learning a foreign language. Despite its significance, language students consider listening to be the hardest skill to master. Many teachers do not emphasize the importance of listening comprehension in their lessons despite the fact that it has been constantly emphasized in language education. In this academic paper, the researcher reviews some important issues concerning listening comprehension. It begins with a definition of listening comprehension, followed by a brief discussion of the causes of listening difficulties, and finally, listening strategies. According to a study of the literature, learners can increase their listening comprehension by using top-down, bottom-up, and other listening strategies.
Keywords: listening comprehension skills, EFL, accent, unfamiliar vocabulary, top-down, bottom-up, listening length, speed of listening, listening strategies
АННОТАЦИЯ:
Навык понимания на слух играет важную роль в процессе изучения иностранного языка. Несмотря на его важность, изучающие язык считают аудирование самым трудным навыком, который необходимо освоить. Многие учителя не подчеркивают важность понимания на слух на своих уроках, несмотря на то, что этому постоянно уделяется внимание в языковом образовании. В этой научной статье исследователь рассматривает некоторые важные вопросы, касающиеся понимания речи на слух. Он начинается с определения понимания аудирования, за которым следует краткое обсуждение причин трудностей аудирования и, наконец, стратегий аудирования. Согласно исследованию литературы, учащиеся могут улучшить понимание речи на слух, используя стратегии аудирования top-down, bottom-up и другие стратегии.
Ключевые слова: навыки понимания на слух, EFL, акцент, незнакомая лексика, top-down, bottom-up, продолжительность прослушивания, скорость прослушивания, стратегии прослушивания.
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Annotatsiya: Tinglab tushunish malakasi chet tilini o'rganish jarayonida muhim o'rin tutadi. Uning ahamiyatiga qaramay, til o'quvchilari tinglashni o'zlashtirishning eng qiyin mahorati deb bilishadi. Ko'pgina o'qituvchilar o'z darslarida tinglab tushunishning muhimligiga til ta'limida doimiy e'tibor qaratilayotganiga qaramay, ahamiyat bermaydilar. Ushbu ilmiy maqolada tadqiqotchi tinglab tushunishga oid ba'zi muhim masalalarni ko'rib chiqadi. U tinglab tushunishning ta'rifi bilan boshlanadi, so'ngra tinglashda qiyinchiliklarning sabablarini qisqacha muhokama qilish va tinglash strategiyalari bilan yakunlanadi. Adabiyotlarni o'rganish natijalariga ko'ra, o'quvchilar yuqoridan pastga, pastdan yuqoriga va boshqa tinglash strategiyalaridan foydalangan holda tinglab tushunishlarini oshirishlari mumkin.
Kalit so'zlar: tinglab tushunish qobiliyatlari, EFL, urg'u, notanish lug'at, yuqoridan pastga, pastdan yuqoriga, tinglash uzunligi, tinglash tezligi, tinglash strategiyalari
INTRODUCTION.
Listening is an important part of our daily life. People listen for a variety of reasons, including amusement, academic purposes, or acquiring information. It is one of the most important skills in learning a foreign language. However, most language learners, especially those learning English as a second language, have significant listening difficulties when listening to English. In addition, most universities pay more attention to other skills rather than listening. EFL students have crucial problems with listening comprehension, according to Hamouda (2013), because teachers focus on grammar, reading, and vocabulary rather than listening skills. Teachers in their classes do not value listening as highly as they do other skills.
In this academic paper there will be reviewed the strategies of listening comprehension and then defined the learners' listening comprehension problems. It is hoped that the findings of this academic paper will give good insight into the teaching and learning of listening skills for both teachers and students.
Definition of Listening Comprehension
There are many researchers studying the term "listening comprehension." Listening comprehension is a component of interaction skills development, which also includes the development of reading and writing comprehension. According to the ideas of Rost (2002) and Hamouda (2013), listening comprehension is an interactive process in which listeners are involved in constructing meaning. It is true that listening is a two-way process that requires interaction. Actually, listeners are not
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Tashkent Medical Academy Integration of Science, Education and Practice in Modern Psychology,
Pedagogy: a Problem and Solutions
Toshkent tibbiyot akademiyasi Zamonaviy psixologiya, pedagogikada fan, ta'lim va amaliyot integratsiyasi:
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passive but active participants. This means they must work hard to construct the meaning from the sounds they hear with their ears, which they use as needed. Learners construct meaning by predicting and judging what they know about the language, their subject, and the world. When they are listening, they must be active at all times. As a result, it is beneficial to try consciously remembering what learners know and do not know about the subject before beginning to listen, and to formulate questions based on the information they have.
Some other researchers proved in their studies that listening comprehension refers to the understanding of what the listener has heard, and that it is his or her ability to repeat the text, despite the fact that the listener may repeat the sounds without real comprehension (Hamouda, 2013).
From the data given above, we can conclude that listening is the most frequently used language skill, which plays a great role in the process of interaction.
Major problems that Learners Encounter with Listening Comprehension
Iraqi researchers that conducted the experiment on listening comprehension challenges discovered a variety of issues that students may face throughout the listening comprehension process, with the aim of becoming aware of these issues and attempting to overcome them. The following are some of these issues:
Accent
A range of accents in speeches, according to Munro and Dewing (1999), can be lead to a significant reduction in comprehension. According to Goh (1999), "66% students rated a speaker's accent as one of the most important elements influencing listener comprehension". Unfamiliar accents can cause major difficulty in listening comprehension for both native and non-native speakers, but familiarity with an accent aids learners' comprehension. Buck (2001) stated that "when listeners hear a new accent, they would have significant difficulties in understanding what is being said". It certainly disrupts the entire listening and comprehension process. In this way, students should always listen to podcasts, TV, and radio programs.
Unfamiliar vocabulary
A majority of the students complain about not having sufficient vocabulary for listening comprehension. Not only does having a large vocabulary help with listening, but it also helps with reading, speaking and writing skills. Furthermore, Hung (1998) stated that "learners are more likely to understand listening passages with familiar terms, even if the concept is unfamiliar to them". Knowing the meaning of the terms, according to his research, may generate curiosity. Students' learning interests are arosed, and this has a good impact on their listening abilities. Another
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problem is here that many words have more than one meaning and if they are used their less common usage students get confused.
Another ELT author, researcher and lecturer, Scott Thornbury, pointed out,"... count one hundred words of a (reading) passage. If more than ten words are unfamiliar, the text's vocabulary recognition rate falls below 90%. As a result, it is unreadable." (2004, S. Thornbury) A listening passage is likely to be the same. Remember, as the old adage goes, "you can never be too rich, too thin, or have enough foreign language vocabulary." Hence, it is necessary for teachers to provide students with specific key words.
Listening length and speed of listening
Learners are put under pressure because of the extensive listening text. Students will become bored if they listen for an extended period of time. Another factor that makes listening difficult is the rate at which it occurs. There are certain limitations to successful listening comprehension, according to Underwood (1989). First, listeners cannot control the speed of speech. If the presenters speak too quickly, the listeners may have trouble catching the words. Second, listeners cannot have words repeated to them, which might cause serious problems for them. A recording part cannot be replayed by students. Teachers choose what and when to repeat listening materials, and it is impossible for them to tell whether or not their students comprehended what they heard. Third, listeners do not have a large vocabulary. Speakers may choose words that are unfamiliar to the audience. Listeners may be confronted with a new word, which may cause them to pause and consider the meaning of the word for a period of time, causing them to miss the next section of the speech. Fourth, listeners may be unaware of the context. Listeners may find it easier to communicate if they have mutual knowledge and are familiar with the texts. Listeners can sometimes understand the surface meaning of a passage, but unless they are familiar with it, they may have significant difficulty understanding the entire content. Fifth, it's difficult for listeners to focus on the listening text. Listeners will be able to concentrate more easily if the listening passage is fascinating.
Certain strategies for developing listening skills
Many researchers have been interested in strategies for listening comprehension. Listening strategies can be divided into two groups: bottom-up and top-down strategies. Top-down strategies focus on the overall meaning of the listening text. Bottom-up strategies, on the other hand, concentrate on linguistic features of the words and sentences. Top-down listening strategies take place when students use background knowledge to make sense of what they hear and perceive. In
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April 26, 2024
Tashkent Medical Academy Integration of Science, Education and Practice in Modern Psychology,
Pedagogy: a Problem and Solutions
Toshkent tibbiyot akademiyasi Zamonaviy psixologiya, pedagogikada fan, ta'lim va amaliyot integratsiyasi:
_mumovayechimlaL
this way, they already know a bit more about the topic. In contrast, bottom-up listening strategies happen when learners comprehend language word-by-word or sound by sound with a lack of background knowledge. The ability to combine these two types of processing is essential for successful listening comprehension. Students should be able to mix top-down and bottom-up processes to become more successful listeners in real-life settings or longer classroom listening activities that focus on each method independently.
Vandergrift (1999) and Ak (2012) pointed out that listening strategies are metacognitive, cognitive, and socio-affective strategies. Metacognitive strategies enable students to think about the learning process like comprehension monitoring. They involve planning, monitoring, and evaluating one's understanding. The metacognitive listening approach leads and regulates listeners' tasks and assists them in reaching their listening practice goals. According to Chamot (2008), successful listeners must organize their objectives, monitor and identify difficulties, and evaluate themselves after completing tasks.
Listeners can use cognitive strategies to improve their listening skills. Cognitive strategies are mental activities and they are used by learners in order to understand the linguistic input. And the last one: socio-affective strategies include interaction with other learners and using particular techniques to remove anxiety. Scholars said that social strategy consisted of another person's interaction such as asking questions for clarification or explanation regarding the activity and collaborating with peers to reach learning goals.
CONCLUSION
Listening is important not only in language but also in daily communication. The goal of this literature review was to identify significant problems of listening comprehension. The reviewed literature suggests that some useful strategies, such as top-down and bottom-up strategies in order to improve listening skills. It is hoped that the findings of this study will contribute to the development of teaching and learning in listening comprehension.
REFERENCES
1. Ak, S. (2012). Pronunciation Awareness Training As an Aid to Developing EFL Learners" Listening Comprehension Skills.
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2. Azmi, B. M., Celik, B., Yidliz, N., & Tugrul, M. C. (2014). Listening Comprehension Difficulties Encountered by Students in Second language Learning Class. Journal of Educational and Instructional Studies in the World, 4(4), 1-6.
3. Buck, G. (2001). Assessing Listening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511732959
4. Chamot, A. U. (2008). Teaching Learning Strategies. Person Education, Inc.
5. Hamouda, A. (2013). An Investigation of Listening Comprehens Problems Encountered by Saudi Students in the EL Listening Classroom. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development. 2(2), 113-155
6. Goh, C. (1999). Teaching Listening in the Language Classroom. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.
7. Munro, M. J., & Derwing, T. M. (1999). Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility and Intelligibility in the Speech of Second Language Learners. Language Learning, 49(1), 285-310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0023-8333.49.s1.8
8. Rost, M. (2002). Teaching and Researching Listening. London: Longman.
9. Thornbury, S. (2004). How to Teach Vocabulary. Harlow: Longman.
10. Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching listening. London: Longman.
11. Vandergrift, L. (1999). Facilitating Second Language Listening Comprehension: Acquiring Successful Strategies. ELT Journal, 53(3), 168-176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/elt/533.168
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