Barriers and Strategies to Effective Listening
Abstract
Listening has been the greatest worry for most
students. This issue mainly concentrates on three barriers
to effective listening: inappropriate text selection
(materials out of date; improper level of difficulty),
stressful listening environment, fast speed in native
speech and their solutions. The issue provides three
strategies to guide an effective listening course. They are
developing listening comprehension via oral practice,
proper use of prediction and guessing, and visual support.
These strategies can be carried out through different
activities. The essential purpose of using strategies is to
promote a more conscious, more dynamic and interactive
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relation between listeners and texts. Thus, listening is
not a passive and intangible process. It can be an
enjoyable and exciting experience.
Keywords: effective listening, barrier, strategy
Listening has posed a biggest challenge to EFL students
in all kinds of exams ranging from interview to College
English Tests. It is mainly because listening is used to
being considered as a completely unconscious process,
during which neither teacher nor student himself could
perceive clearly enough. Therefore, teachers feel helpless
for the students who have no idea of what to do with
listening comprehension at all, but make them an empty
promise “Keep listening and you will make progress!”
Keeping listening is definitely no wrong but it is
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absolutely not enough. There are far more things that we
need to do to improve our listening ability than merely
listen. Great attention should be paid to the process of
listening and observe what happened during the course and
what we must do to make it more consciously controlled and
less hard.
First, we will have a look at the nature of listening.
Listening, like speaking, reading and writing, is a basic
language skill. By no means is it easy or simple. It is the
most crucial skill for humans to learn language and to
learn about others. However, for most students, this skill
seems to be the most unreachable among the all. There are a
number of causes which should be blamed for the difficulty
and we also found the solutions to them.
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Inappropriate Text Selection
Inappropriate text selection ought to be the primary
factor. Text must be chosen on the basis of the
characteristics of learner and should obey the rule of
being motivating, inspiring, and interesting in order for
students to engage easily and have the confidence and
desire to go further.
1. Materials out of date
The most popular listening material used by English-
major students is “Step by Step” published by Huadong
Normal University in 1983. It contains a lot of news items
in 1940’s, such as “Sihanouk had a friendly talk with
Chinese premier Zhou Enlai.” It is not hard to imagine how
difficult it is for the generation of 1990’s or 2000 to
understand, let along to engage. The out of date material
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is a big barrier to successful interpretation, for
students’ lack of relevant background knowledge. They are
unlikely to mobilize all their interest, curiosity and
confidence to concentrate on the text.
2. Improper level of difficulty
Grading texts is problematic, and the difficulty of a
given text will depend to a great extent on the learner. 1
It is suggested that start from the shortest and easiest.
Therefore, most listening books always devote the final
units to news items which are the most demanding part for
listeners.
Solutions to Inappropriate Text Selection:
All teachers are recommended to use authentic listening
materials in the EFL classroom. Teachers tend to worry that
1 Tony Lynch and Anne Anderson, Listening, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 80
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the materials might be too difficult. Students, however,
need to be exposed to the opportunities to listen to
native-speakers as often as possible. As Morrison said:
Authentic listening materials can, and
should, be used at all levels from beginners to
advanced, because it is only through exposure
from the initial learning stages that the
learner can fully integrate the individual
listening micro-skills that may be isolated and
presented by the teacher. Moreover, the
provision of authentic listening materials
allows students to supplement the inevitably
limited amount of listening material that their
teachers and classmates can provide. …authentic
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materials often go beyond the actual level which
the student is judged to have, they are
preferable to non-authentic materials, whose
reduced and simplified forms are often
culturally inappropriate, difficult to
accommodate into existing syllabuses, expensive,
and difficult to obtain.1
There are a wide range of materials to select: songs,
plays, short stories, jokes, discussions, daily talks,
interviews and science reports on VOA Special English.
Using authentic materials applies to not only reading but
also listening.
Stressful Listening Environment
1 Bruce Morrison, “Using New Broadcasts for Authentic Listening Comprehension”, ELT Journal, Volume 43/1, OxfordUniversity Press, January 1989.
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Stressful listening environment does great harm to
effective listening. As English teachers and learners, we
are quite aware of a fact that the effect of listening is
closely related to listeners’ psychological conditions.
One under great-pressure can never do well in a listening
course, while a relaxed mind can respond quickly.
Unfortunately, Chinese students are often required to keep
absolute quiet, which is traditionally thought as a
necessary psychological preparation for the coming sound.
In fact, dead quietness easily arouses listeners’
uncertainty and fear. One might has experienced that
standing in a big empty hall, nothing heard, you suddenly
feel small, unconfident and in a panic. That is why most
listeners will lose points for the first one or two
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questions.
Solutions to Stressful Listening Environment:
Being quiet is not always a good for getting prepared;
on the contrary, playing some lively tune can effectively
help listeners to relax. A beautiful familiar English song
can be even better to get students involved in English
surroundings in an unconscious way as soon as possible. It
needs to be confirmed that the song should be familiar or
already learned; otherwise listeners would start worrying
about missing its meaning. It is also suggested that
teacher play the listening text with a soft music
background on the premise of harmony. Proper music
selection and application is not an obstacle but a good
dose to reduce listeners’ affective filter. The more
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stressed you are, the harder you feel to get down to the
actual happening.
Fast Speed in Native Speech and Its Root
It is commonly heard that listeners complain much of
the fast speed; however, once we take a further look at
the problem, it is found that speed solely does not hamper
listening course. Speed is a fairly complicated matter
which results from many factors. First, it may result from
the problem of phonemes which change constantly according
to natural speech discourse. After many years of English
study at school, students have been accustomed to the
“classroom dialect” which is simplified and unnaturally
slow English spoken by teachers for the purpose of
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facilitating students’ understanding. 1 However, it is not
the case in native speech. Generally, certain consonants
are obliterated and this phenomenon is likely to mislead
foreign students of English. In the sentence “What happened
to you yesterday?” the past-tense inflection is not sounded in
connected speech, because it is followed by another
similar consonant. Without enough alert to the phenomenon,
students may be confused and misled. Teacher needs to help
them to use contextual cues to work it out. “Yesterday” is
such an indicator. The same can be seen in “I have just finished
my homework”; the past-tense inflection is obliterated,
while “have” helps us to determine the form of the verb
with ease. In addition, contractions (e.g. I’m) occur in
rapid speech, and vowels are weakened in unstressed
1 Nsakala Lengo, “Developing Listening Comprehension and Oral Fluency via the Language Laboratory”, English Teaching Forum, V.24, No.1, January 1986.
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syllables. This phenomenon is so usual in speech that
students need to be aware. 1 Moreover, natural speech has
accent, colloquial language, stress, intonation and
linking. In the sentence “Where are you?” verb is stressed,
but in “Where are you?” the question word is stressed.
Syllable stress can be different based on various
attitudes of narrator. Intonation can change meaning of a
whole sentence. If one reads “You are tired” with a falling
tone, it means he asserts that you are really tired. With
a rising tone, he asks “Are you tired?” Linking is a common
seeing in native speech which means if a consonant is
followed by a vowel, they should be linked up to create a
new connected sound. Such as “come on”, we actually
pronounce it as [’].
1 Nsakala Lengo, “Developing Listening Comprehension and Oral Fluency via the Language Laboratory”, English Teaching Forum, V.24, No.1, January, 1986.
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Surprisingly, it is found that “the advanced students
preferred narratives spoken with non-native accent at
approximately the same speeds or faster than native
listeners. And individual listeners may exhibit somewhat
different rate preferences …” (Zhao, 1997)
All the factors jointly make up of the fast speed
barrier.
Rate is sometimes a scapegoat when other
factors are more directly pertinent to
communication difficulties. Furthermore, it
would seem that learners’ listening
comprehension skills might well be enhanced from
exposure to a variety of speakers from different
language backgrounds speaking at normal rates. 1
1 Tracey Derwing and Murray J. Munro, “What Speaking Rates do Non-native Listeners Prefer?” Applied Linguistics, 22/3, 2001.
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This statement reconfirms the idea of using authentic
listening materials.
Skills and Strategies
1. Oral Practice: Imitation and Repetition
After a general view on the phonological features of
listening, this issue will focus on the strategies used to
reduce the difficulty. As a language learner and teacher,
I insist developing listening comprehension via oral
practice. According to Boyle:
In listening situations where the opportunities
for oral practice are much fewer than for
listening, more attention should be given in
teaching to exercises that link listening to an
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improvement of speaking skills. 1
Why the speed at which a sentence is spoken by native
speakers is the greatest problem for students? It is
because listeners have never experienced the language
orally. They have no spontaneous framing for the possible
stress, intonation and linking in native speech. Oral
practice related to listening serves as the medium to
abridge the gap. By introducing all the phonological
characteristics to students, teachers can record both
native and students’ voices to help them analyze the
differences. One could internalize the rules only through
times of imitation of the tape and repetition. Kalivoda
(1980), too, emphasizes the importance of oral repetition
when he says that “this simple activity tends to sharpen
1 Erlinda R. Boyle, “An Alternative Approach to Improving Listening Skills”, English Teaching Forum, V.31, No.3, July, 1993.
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listening skill, because it is hard to repeat an extensive
sentence without understanding what you are saying.”
Imitation and repetition can be very stimulating and
enjoyable. The tape is played with the students’ reading
aloud along with it. Some can follow; some can not. The
whole class becomes very noisy and hilarious. This is
called shadow-reading activity by Boyle. 1 Students are
encouraged to repeat the sentence from their memory and
speak it as fast as they can by using all the phonology
varieties. This activity successfully makes listeners
interact with the tape and personally experience speaking
the language with the same speed, tone, stress,
pronunciation and familiarize themselves with the
features. Listening is not an isolated task any more.
1 Erlinda R. Boyle, “An Alternative Approach to Improving Listening Skills”, English Teaching Forum, V.31, No.3, July 1993.
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The purpose of this shadow-reading is to give
the students experience with the differences in
tone, stress, accent, and pronunciation among
different varieties of English, and also to show
them how they stand in relation to native-
speaker speech. 2
This activity naturally brings about competition and group
work in class, in which students learn different skills
from their peers. It is an easy logic that if we can speak
faster than tape, we surely will not miss it.
2. Prediction and Guessing: Schema and Scaffolding
Another strategy to conquer speed barrier is the proper
use of prediction and guessing. Prediction is a key process
in reading as well as in listening. This process will
2 Ibid.
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eliminate listeners’ fear of the sudden happening.
Native speakers, when listen, use their
perception of he key features of context and
their knowledge of the world to limit the range
of possible utterances they are about to hear.
It means they do not have to pay attention to …
every word… They can simply process the message
for deviations from what was expected, thus
reducing their memory load in order to monitor
the incoming message more efficiently and in
order to set up further predictions. 1
Hymes indicated not only the necessity but also the way to
make prediction. That is to “use their perception of the
key features of context and their knowledge of the world”.
1 Dell Hymes, Language in Culture and Society, New York : Harper & Row, 1964
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Selecting key features effectively reduces the memory load
and one can concentrate on the main idea better. Outline,
key words dictation, and blank filling are designed for
practicing key words selection.
Another way is to use one’s knowledge of the world,
which is named “schema” (an abstract knowledge structure
summarizing what is known about a variety of cases).
1Schema supports us to make predictions in numerous cases.
The more schemata one has, the more accurate his
prediction is. Analogy with one’s prior knowledge is in
most common use. While listening to a text, learners
recall the past similar experiences and shared knowledge
to enhance their interpretations. Holding an expectation
to listen will make the listening text less abrupt. Schema
1 Carrell, P., Devine, J. & Eskey, D. (Eds.) Interactive approaches to second language reading. New York. Cambridge University Press, 1988, p.42.
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is dynamic and open to every new element. Teachers need to
help students set up as many schemata as possible by
providing them with cultural and literal background
references and to promote further extensions constantly.
During the predicting process, scaffolding strategy is
recommended as well. That is the listening text is not
given to students as a whole but separately. I used to
present a telephone invitation to first year undergraduate
students. I stopped the tape after the caller said hello
and asked his friend if she was available that Sunday.
Learners were urged to predict with their stereotyped
invitation schema: what would happen next; what the woman
would probably answer. Students were very excited about
the guessing and they predicted that the man wanted to
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date with the woman; they might go to movie, a concert, a
fancy dinner or an excursion. All were entertainments.
Their evidence was very convincing --- the time was
Sunday. The dialogue was played and they were right
because the man planned to invite the woman to see a new
play. The dialogue was stopped there and I asked what they
thought the woman would respond to the invitation. Their
answers were three kinds: to agree because she loved plays
or the boy; to refuse with excuse since she did not like
the boy or plays; to suggest other activities. In the
dialogue, the woman accepted the invitation with joy.
After getting the answer, the tape was stopped again.
Students were required to imagine if they were the two
speakers what they would talk about then. They got it all
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right. The two speakers were discussing about the time and
place for meeting. This dialogue is a typical life event
with universally shared sequence. Approaching to the end
in a scaffolding way offers opportunities for predicting
and makes the text not a story of “others” any more. A
positive and active interaction happens between listeners
and the recorded sound.
3. Visual Support
Audio-tapes listening are much more difficult than
face-to-face listening due to lack of visual support.
Teachers might as well reduce the difficulty by providing
related pictures, graphs, diagrams, maps.
Visuals can help learners by supplying
cultural information and by enabling them to
predict more accurately (a picture of the
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speaker really is worth a thousand words).
Visuals can also provide support during
listening by reinforcing the aural message … by
focusing learners’ attention on the important
parts of the message and training them to listen
for specific information.1
For low-intermediate learners, I insist that teachers
consciously make the listening text stimulate more than
one their senses. I would call it multi-senses input which
involves making the pure aural materials visual, touchable
and even flavourous by using visual aids or real objects.
I used to bring a real pizza to class when the students
were listening to a story of making pizza. The whole class
1 Susan Sheerin, “Listening comprehension: teaching or testing?” ELT Journal, Vol. 41/2, Oxford University Press, April 1987.
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shared the pizza after my brief introduction. With the
help of the hot delicious visual aid, listeners
successfully set up a simple schema about pizza with their
tongues, noses, and eyes. The little cooking story is no
longer an imagination based on an empty frame. As for
advanced learners, mono-sense input (just listen) is more
favored. That is because advanced learners have had the
mental schemata for the issue already. They can
automatically call up the schemata while listening. For
them, I have a good training program --- seeing Charles
Chaplin’s silent movie. There are only few simple
dialogues in his early movies. You can see the speakers’
lips moving but no sound. The captions are only used where
absolutely necessary. My students often play the dubbing
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game. By carefully watching the lips moving, they, using
proper schemata, have to figure out what the speakers are
talking about. This activity makes my class very
inspiring, challenging and interesting.
Above all, listening is not considered as a passive
process as before. Listeners can have a shared part with
it and personally experience it orally. With an
appropriate text selection and a relaxed listening
surrounding, guided by teachers to use effective and
proper strategies, as imitation, repetition, visual aids,
prediction and guessing, some prominent listening barriers
can be overcome. In order to have an inspiring,
motivating, and invigorating listening experience, the
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Bibliography
1. Bruce Morrison, “Using New Broadcasts for Authentic Listening Comprehension”, ELT Journal Volume 43/1,
Oxford University Press, January, 1989.
2. Charge and Karen Giblin, “Learning English in A Video Studio”, ELT Journal, Volume 42/4, Oxford
University Press, October, 1988.
3. Christine C.M. Goh, “How ESL learners with different listening abilities use comprehension
strategies and tactics”, Language Teaching Research, Vol. 2.2, 1998.
4. Erlinda R. Boyle, “An Alternative Approach to Improving Listening Skills”, English Teaching Forum, V.31,
No.3, July, 1993.
5. John Field, “Skills and strategies: towards a new methodology for listening”, ELT Journal, Volume 52/2,
Oxford University Press, April,1998.
6. John M. Levis and Linda Grant, “Integrating Pronunciation into ESL/EFL Classrooms”, TESOL Journal:
V.12, No.2, 2003.
7. Mambungi wa Sangwa, “Hints for Teaching a Listening Comprehension Lesson”, English Teaching Forum, Vol.
25, No.1, January, 1987.
8. Nsakala Lengo, “Developing Listening Comprehension and Oral Fluency via the Language Laboratory”,
English Teaching Forum, V.24, No.1, January, 1986.
9. Rao Zhenhui, “Reconciling Communicative Approaches to the Teaching of English with Traditional
Chinese Methods”, Research in the Teaching of English, V.30, No.4, December, 1996.
10. Susan Sheerin, “Listening comprehension: teaching or testing?” ELT Journal, Vol. 41/2, Oxford
University Press, April, 1987.
11. Tony Ridgway, “Listening strategies --- I beg your pardon?” ELT Journal, Volume 54/2, Oxford
University Press, April, 2000.
12. Tracey Derwing and Murray J. Munro, “What Speaking Rates do Non-native Listeners Prefer?” Applied
Linguistics, 22/3, 2001.
13. Xing Tian, “The Impact of Strategy Training on Listening Comprehension”, Teaching English in China, V.26,
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