TEACHING LISTENING
By Steven Brown
Cambridge University Press
2006
Listening is one of basic
skills in learning a language. There are many strategies that can help teacher
in teaching listening. These strategies also can help students to improve their
comprehension in listening process. I as a reviewer and also a student of
English education is interested to know more about teaching listening because
soon I will face it as a teacher. Reviewer has read 5 e-books. The first book
talks about “A Little Book of Listening
Skill”, the author of this book is Mark Brady, Ph.D and Jennifer Austin
Leigh. The second book is about “Second Language Listening: Theory and
Practice” that is written by John Flowerdew and Lindsay Miller.
The third book is “A Framework for
Teaching across Differences” that is written by Katherine Schultz, and the
last one is “Teaching Listening” by
Steven Brown. From those books, reviewer is interested in the last one, that is
teaching listening, this book is written by Steven Brown, this book publish in
2006 by Cambridge University Press.
The
reviewer thinks that, this book is good because it provide some strategies. Those
strategies can be used by the teacher in teaching listening. Also, the
strategies can help students to improve their comprehension in listening to be
effective listeners.
This
book is divided into four chapters. Every chapter has own explanation that is
easy to understand. After reviewer reads this book, reviewer is interested with
chapter 1, 2, and 3. In these chapters, the author explains what teacher has to
do to improve their students’ comprehension in listening.
The
first chapter talks about activation of prior knowledge for improving listening
comprehension. Brown stated that “one very important idea for teaching
listening is that listening courses must make use of students’ prior knowledge
in order to improve listening comprehension. Based on that statement the
reviewer really agree with that, because in listening something that we have
experienced will help us to more understand about the speaker say. The idea of
prior knowledge is one part of the cognitive models of language process. As
Brown said that, teachers can help
students to comprehend what they hear by activating their prior knowledge by
using top-down and bottom-up model (2006). Then Rumelhart in Flowerdew and
Miller (2005) added that the interactive model give an important advantage that
is it allows for the possibility of individual variation in linguistic
processing. The reviewer really agrees with these listening models, because
these models means that when listening, we process the information we hear
using our previous knowledge or our prior knowledge to determine the meaning,
then we use the information we have and connect them each other and then
interpret what we just have heard before something new come along. The reviewer
thinks that these listening models can help students comprehend what they hear.
Thus, teachers have to help students to recall their memorization to active
their prior knowledge.
Actually
chapter one has given much explanation for teacher to improve comprehension in
listening by activating prior knowledge. However, there is less evidence given.
My suggestion is the author needs to give evidence of the explanation given,
not only theory and explanation but also evidence that can prove that theory.
Chapter
2 talk about systematic presentation of listening for main ideas, listening for
details, listening and making inferences. Brown said that having a purpose
helps us listen more effectively (2006). It means that, before doing listening
students have to know the reason why they are listening. The reviewer supports
this statement because by knowing the purpose of doing listening, we can focus
on what information that we need to find on it. The problem happened in
listening when students do not realized with the mutual purpose (Brady and
Leigh, 2005). Therefore, the reviewer
thinks that teachers should take a time before listening to give information
what the purpose of listening, because it helps them to be more focus in
listening. Thus, it is important for students to know the purpose why they are
listening.
Chapter
3 explains about stimulating integration of real world cultural information for
students to know and share. The primary place language is situated is in
culture (Brown, 2006). Most students of foreign language are interested in the
culture of the places where the language they are studying is spoken. Therefore,
the reviewer thinks that if they are interested with the culture of the
language that they spoken, it will motivate them to share their own culture and
also learn about the cultures through the medium of English. In addition, it
will lead them to find the words to describe their own culture in English and
also motivate them to share it with other people. Then, the reviewer thinks
that, if students have motivation to know about the language especially the
culture of that language that they spoken, it will motivate them in listening
too.
In
conclusion, in teaching listening, teachers have to aware that many ways that can
be used in listening process. Then, teachers need to think carefully about
making activities that is interest for students such as giving information
about the cultural of the language. Teachers should help students applying
their prior knowledge in listening comprehension and also making students
realize that know the purpose of doing listening also help them to focus in
listening.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Steven,
Brown. Teaching Listening. Cambridge
University Press, 2006.
Flowerdew, John and Lindsay Miller. Second Language
Listening: Theory and Practice. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Schultz, Katherine. A
Framework for Teaching across Differences. Teachers College Press, 2003.
Brady, Mark Ph.D and Jennifer Austin Leigh. A Little Book of Listening Skill. Paideia
Press, 2005.
