Joseph Siegel

Exploring listening strategy instruction through action research

PART I: ADDRESSING A GAP IN SECOND LANGUAGE LISTENING INSTRUCTION 1. Personal and Professional Foundations of a Listening Strategy Intervention 2. Listening and How it is Taught 3. The Listening Strategy Instruction Program PART II: UNDERSTANDING THE LISTENING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION INTERVENTION 4. Appraising the Listening Strategy Instruction Intervention 5. Iterative Findings from the Action Research Intervention 6. Participant Lenses: The Findings Viewed from Different Standpoints PART III: POSITIONING THE LISTENING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION IN THE FIELD 7. Reflections and Key Findings for the Local Context 8. Listening Strategy Instruction in the Broader Second Language Context

Teaching the Four Language Skills: Themes and Issues

This introductory discussion prefaces the chapters in this volume by surveying some key theoretical and practical insights into the teaching of the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. This chapter highlights the importance of contextually based teaching practices and innovations at the local level as well as the increasing incorporation of bottom-up and metacognitive abilities as they apply to the four skills.

Future Directions for the Four Skills

The final chapter summarizes the themes from the four sections of the volume and offers suggestions for future directions in teaching the four skills. It also prompts readers to consider the extent to which implementation of the pedagogic innovations described in the book may be appropriate for their given contexts.

Message sent. Message-received? Teachers and target community members decide

ABSTRACT The linguistic, social, and intercultural benefits of overseas experiences for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners continue to gain attention as the significance of English as a lingua franca proliferates. As the use of English for international communication increases, it is important to examine such interactions from multiple viewpoints. While previous studies have investigated various aspects of study abroad for EFL learners, the perspectives of target community members (TCMs) have often been overlooked. Therefore, this study investigated differences in EFL teacher and nonteacher TCM perceptions of five Japanese university study abroad students’ spoken pragmatic output. Students completed 10 oral discourse completion tasks before and after their one-semester study abroad. The EFL teacher and nonteacher TCM groups watched videos of and rated each task for formality and appropriateness. Findings showed the two groups perceived gains related to student speech and development. However, teachers rated on the pre-departure tasks lower but the post-tasks higher, while the TCMs did not identify as much improvement. Implications for students, teachers, and receiving communities are discussed.

Listening Vocabulary: Embracing Forgotten Aural Features.

This article describes an innovation in the teaching and learning of vocabulary in English as a Foreign Language classes. Whereas vocabulary coverage in classrooms and textbooks traditionally focuses on lists of target words in printed form, this article promotes the notion of ‘aural vocabulary’ as an important part of ‘knowing’ words. It describes a set of activities used to improve learners’ academic listening abilities and illustrates the activities by using the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000).

Listening Strategy Instruction in the Broader Second Language Context

This final chapter places this project within a broader context and considers its implications in the field of L2 teaching and learning. In doing so, the scope and purpose of the project, first described in Chapter 1, will be revisited. The limitations of the study, both theoretical and practical, will also be identified and addressed. Key messages and pedagogic implications for a wider audience, beyond those for the local Sakura University context described in Chapter 7, will also be discussed. These main points will then be incorporated to form a model for LSI program design and implementation, which builds on the LSI principles upon which this project was based. Finally, future research directions will be suggested, including those for my own research agenda as well as those for other teacher-researchers and teacher educators.

Iterative Findings from the Action Research Intervention

This chapter presents the findings generated by the research design methodology outlined in Chapter 4 from an iterative AR narrative point of view, which highlights data from each of the distinct cycles of observation and also links each data collection period to reflection and subsequent planning stages. The purpose of this chapter is to convey the way in which data from each phase of the project were collected from distinct groups of learners at specific times, thereby showing how multi-stage AR can help build theory from practice. In demonstrating the evolutionary nature of this AR, numerical data and narrative examples are presented chronologically so that repeating themes and views can be established, and any inconsistencies can be identified. The chapter emphasizes the methodological and cyclical triangulation of the research design. In contrast, Chapter 6 will examine the data from a different perspective, that of ‘participant lenses’, an approach which accentuates participant and investigator triangulation (see Chapter 4).

Listening and How It Is Taught

This chapter constructs the theoretical and conceptual framework for the project by examining past and current thinking from the literature on the topic of listening, mainly from an L2 perspective. It also examines previous research on listening strategies and instruction thereof and, in doing so, establishes a gap in the research that this project aimed to address. First, however, some background literature from L1 listening is explored, which provides a basis from which to consider similarities and differences between L1 and L2 listening. The discussion moves on to theories and models of listening, which are underpinned by the notions of top-down and bottom-up processing. Next, the history of L2 listening pedagogy is reviewed, revealing various limitations at the theoretical and practical levels. The concept of process-based LSI is then introduced, and its potential contribution to the current state of L2 listening pedagogy is evaluated.

Reflections and Key Findings for the Local Context

The previous two chapters presented findings from this study in distinct ways. Chapter 5 explored the evolution of the LSI from an iterative AR perspective, while Chapter 6 examined the intervention through various participant lenses. The purpose of Chapter 7 is to situate, interpret, and reflect on the findings within the local context of Sakura University and to consider the ways in which various participant groups perceived the LSI intervention. In doing so, Chapter 7 considers whether LSI is a viable and sustainable pedagogic option for Sakura University. This chapter aims to draw on the richness and variety of the findings and weave them together to provide a multi-faceted, triangulated interpretation of the LSI at Sakura University. It aims to generate key findings and outline essential methodological elements that can facilitate successful incorporation of similar LSI components at Sakura University.

Participant Lenses: The Findings Viewed from Different Standpoints

The previous chapter presented the findings from a chronological point of view, and in doing so, emphasized the evolutionary and cyclical nature of this AR. Chapter 6 presents additional exploratory and comparative insights from the perspectives of the two participant sets (students and language educators) in order to provide a multi-faceted account of the LSI intervention. Student findings for each phase are combined and displayed so that side-by-side comparisons between each phase are possible. Comparisons of the various types of data aimed to achieve methodological triangulation, which can strengthen the credibility of the findings. Teacher interviews, classroom observations, the research journal, and peer debriefing served to augment the student findings through participant and investigator triangulation (Denzin, 1978).