BOOK REVIEW

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.