2.2.1　Listening Comprehension and Listening Processes

2.2.1ListeningComprehensionandListeningProcesses

Listeningcomprehensionisanimportantlanguageskill.Languagelearnerswanttounderstandtargetlanguage(L2)speakersandtheywanttobeabletoaccesstherichvarietyofauralandvisualtextsavailabletodayviaallkindsofmedia.Furthermore,listeningcomprehensionisperhapsthemostessentialskillforsecond/foreignlanguagelearning,andthedevelopmentofL2listeningskillshasabeneficialimpactonthedevelopmentofotherskills(e.g.Vandergrift,2008).Inordertoresearchlisteningcomprehension,itisnecessarytofirstunderstandthedefinitionoflisteningandlisteningprocesses.

2.2.1.1DefinitionofListeningComprehension

Listening,beinganinvisiblementalprocess,isdifficulttodescribe,forlistenersmustdiscriminatebetweensounds,understandvocabularyandgrammaticalstructures,andinterpretstressandintentionwithintheimmediateutterance.Listeningwascommonlyviewedasareceptivelanguageskillinwhichlistenerspassivelyassimilatedthemessagestheygotfromoralinput,butinfactitinvolvesamorecomplexprocess.Inthelasttwodecades,listeninghasbeenfoundtoplayanimportantroleinlanguageacquisitionandhasthusbeendescribedasan“interactive,interpretiveprocessinwhichlistenersengageinadynamicconstructionofmeaning”(Murphy,1991,p.56).Listeninginvolveslinguisticknowledge,backgroundknowledge,andmeaningconstruction.

Rost(2011,p.2)defineslistening,initsbroadestsense,asaprocessofreceivingwhatthespeakeractuallysays(receptiveorientation);constructingandrepresentingmeaning(constructiveorientation);negotiatingmeaningwiththespeakerandresponding(collaborativeorientation);and,creatingmeaningthroughinvolvement,imaginationandempathy(transformativeorientation).

2.2.1.2ListeningProcesses

Oraltextsexistinrealtimeandneedtobeprocessedquickly;whenanoraltextisover,onlyamentalrepresentationremains.Asaresultofthis,listeningistheleastexplicitofthefourlanguageskillsandthemostdifficultskilltolearn.

Listeninginvolvesphysiologicalandcognitiveprocessesatdifferentlevels(Field,2002;Lynch,2002;Rost,2011).Severaltheorieshavebeenadvancedtoaccountforlisteningprocesses,withtwobeingparticularlyinfluentialonresearch.

Anderson(1983&1995)proposedacognitiveframeworkpresentinglisteningasathree-stageprocessofPerceptualProcessing,Parsing,andUtilization.Intheperceptualprocessingphase,attentionisfocusedentirelyonthetext,andphonemesaresegmentedfromthespeechstream(1995,p.137).Therefore,suchlisteningstrategiesas“selectiveattention”and“directedattention”arecrucialinthisstage(Vandergrift,2003a).Intheparsingstage,meaningrepresentationsareformedfromwordsandphrasesbymatchingthemwithlinguisticinformationstoredinthelistener'slong-termmemorytoconstructmeaningmentalrepresentations.“Grouping”and“inferencing”strategiesaredominantintheparsingstage.Andfinallyintheutilizationphase,informationcollectedfromtheprevioustwostagesislinkedwiththeschema—thepreviousknowledgeofthelistener.Asafactorrelatedtothepresentstudy,schemaisfurtherreviewedlaterinthischapter.Listenersusetheirpriorknowledgetoaidcomprehensionandrecall.Atthisstage,“elaboration”strategyisacrucialstrategy(Vandergrift,2003a).

Thismodelhastheadvantagethatitprovidesrecognizablestagesintheprocessoflistening,andthusfacilitatesresearchintoeachofthestages(asinO'Malley,Chamot,&Kupper,1989).Nevertheless,thismodelpresentslisteningmerelyasalinearprocesswithutilizationasthefinalproductoftheprocess.AsarguedbyGraham&Macaro(2008,p.748),“itisperfectlypossibleforlistenerstostartbyutilizingfragmentsofparsedtextandthendrawincorrectinferences.”

Inlightoftheparallelprocessingcapacityofferedbyworkingmemory(McClelland&Rumelhart,1986),amoreconvincing,recursivemodelwassuggestedinwhichlistenersoperatewithinmorethanoneofthelisteningstages—aninteractivetop-downandbottom-upprocessingmodeloflistening.Listenersuse“bottom-up”processeswhentheyuselinguisticknowledgeofsoundsandwordformsandbuilduptomorecomplexlexicalitemsandgrammaticalrelationshipstointerprettheinput.Byusingbottom-upprocesses,listenersconstructmeaningbyaccretion,graduallycombiningincreasinglylargerunitsofmeaningfromthephoneme-leveluptodiscourse-levelfeatures.Listenersalsouse“top-down”processeswhentheyemployfamiliaritywiththelisteningcontextandpriorknowledge(topic,genre,culture,andotherschemaknowledgeinlong-termmemory)tobuildaconceptualframeworkforcomprehension.Listenersusecontentwordsandcontextualcluestoformhypothesesinanexploratorymanner.

Listeningcomprehensionisnotjusttop-downorjustbottom-upprocessing,butaninteractiveandinterpretiveprocessinwhichlistenersusebothlinguisticknowledgeandpriorknowledgetounderstandmessages.Inotherwords,alistenercomestoalisteningtaskwithtwosetsofresources:his/herownlinguisticandschematicknowledge(Rumelhart,1980)andtheinformationcontainedintheactuallisteningtext.Withinaninteractivemodel,alistenermightbeginbyactivatinghis/herschemataasaresultofknowingthetopicofthetext,orofunderstandingafewwordsofthetext,andthusperceive,parseandmatchtheincomingspeechstreamwiththeelaborationsthathe/shepreviouslyactivated(Graham&Macaro,2008).

Also,whiletheseprocessesinteractinsomeformofparalleldistributedprocessing,thedegreetowhichlistenersmayuseoneprocessmorethantheotherwilldependontheirknowledgeofthelanguage,familiaritywiththetopicorthepurposeforlistening.Research(e.g.,McClelland&Rumelhart,1986;O'Malley,Chamot,&Kupper,1989)onthesecognitiveprocessessuggeststhatL2listenersneedtolearnhowtousebothprocessestotheiradvantage,dependingontheirpurposeforlistening.Forexample,listeningforgistinvolvesprimarilytop-downprocessing,whereaslisteningforspecificinformation,asinaweatherbroadcast,involvesprimarilybottom-upprocessingtocomprehendallthedetails.Theaboveresearchhasalsoshownthatsuccessfulandlesssuccessfullistenersprocessinputquitedifferently.Peterson(2001)statesthatlesssuccessfullistenerstendtorelyprimarilyoneithertop-downorbottom-upprocessingandspendagreatamountofconsciouseffortonperceptualactivity(e.g.,identifyingboundaries,recognizingmeaningfulsoundunits)solittleisleftoverforhigh-leveloperations(e.g.,relatingnewinformationtoinformationstoredinlong-termmemory).Incontrast,listenerswithhigher-proficiencyusebothtop-downandbottom-upprocessestounderstandoralinput,whichisalsoknownastheuseofmetacognitiveandcognitivelisteningstrategies,andistobefurtherdiscussedinthelastsectionofthischapter.