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e. Principles for Teaching Listening
The listening design process involves several basic principles. According to Nunan 2003, there are five principles for teaching listening:
1 Expose students to different ways of processing information: bottom-up vs top-down
In listening, there are two metaphors called bottom-up processing and top- down processing. The listeners understand the information of the language
through these two processes. The bottom-up processing is begun by recognizing the component parts of the language, for instance, the knowledge of vocabulary,
sounds, and grammar. In the other hand, in top-up processing, the students start from their background knowledge, either from the general information based on
the students’ life experience or the awareness of the kinds of information used in a given situation.
2 Expose students to different type of listening There are various types of listening. The most common type of listening
exercise is listening for specific information. This type of listening covers the ability to catch concrete information, for instance: time and names. At other times,
students try to do global or gist listening. They try to identify main ideas and note the sequence of events. Inference is another type of listening. Inference is the type
of listening for meaning that is implied but not stated directly. 3 Teach a variety of tasks
The students need exposure to a wide range of tasks in order for them to deal with different types of texts and respond in different ways. It also increases
18 the students’ interests.
4 Consider text, difficulty, and authenticity Speed, the number of individuals or objects in a text, the order of events,
and the number of inferences needed are the factors than influence the ease of understanding.
5 Teach listening strategies Nunan 2003 listed five strategies for listening, namely: predicting,
inferring, monitoring, clarifying, responding, and evaluating.
f. Methodological Models for Teaching Listening
As presented by Harmer 1998, there are five basic stages of the methodological model for teaching receptive skill. The stages are described as
follows. 1 Lead in
The students and teacher try to familiarize themselves with the topic of the listening exercises. The goal is to create expectation and to stimulate the students -
interest in the subject matter. 2 Teacher directs comprehension tasks
In this stage, the teacher makes sure what the students should do whether they should fill in the blank, give some signs or other things on what they heard.
Here the teacher explains and directs the purpose of listening. 3 Students listen for task
The students listen to the utterances and do the task that the teacher has
19 constructed.
4 Teacher directs feedback The teacher assists the students to see whether they can perform the task
successfully and how well they did the task. 5 Teacher directs related task
In this stage, the teacher organizes some kinds of follow-up tasks related to the lesson.
2. Kemp’s Instructional Design