Week 9: Reflection

REFLECTION

For this task, we were required to refer to extracts from a local English textbook which focused on listening section only. The objectives are to identify the listening process in that particular section and the effectiveness of the materials to be used to teach listening skills in the classroom. The topic FOOD FOR THOUGHT in chapter 10 was chosen for this purpose. In my opinion, I believe that Listening lessons should be supplemented with activities that required students to listen to other more natural spoken language because this will prepare them to respond appropriately to people outside the classroom. The visual support and the content of the message are relevant to local social context and it is quite easy for students to practice their learning skills in the classroom. After going through this topic in class, I finally understand that an effective listening process is actually affected by the speaker, the listener, the content of the message and any visual supports that assist the message. In order to make the message comprehensible to the listener, speaker has to make sure that there are awareness on the language used, the exposure the listener has to them, the rate of delivery and the practice that listener has as clues to decipher the meaning. It is also important that listener has interest in the topic and be able to use his/her negotiation skills so that the incoming message is becoming meaningful.

As a pre-service teacher, I strongly agree that we must have knowledge on the cognitive processes before teaching listening in the classrooms. It is crucial to understand the differences between top-down processing and bottom-up processing so that we can develop listening materials which are suitable with our students’ language proficiency levels. Teachers have to develop materials with bottom-up processing to fit those less proficient students and higher proficiency students will be exposed to materials with top-down processing  because at this stage, they are assumed to be able to utilize their schemata to derive meaning and interpret the meaning, unlike less proficient students.  I believe that all listening activities should teach students and not test them. It does not matter how fast or slow they learn the language but the ability to use the language through skills that matter. If activities are made to test the students, then I won’t be surprised that students will focus on memorizing the task than on the process of listening. This will never help them to develop listening ability of determining main ideas and details.