Glossary of Key Terms
Authentic materials - Materials created by native speakers for native speakers in the target language country.
Authentic situations - Situations that learners are likely to encounter when they use the language outside the classroom.
Authentic task - A task which involves learners in using language in a way that replicates its use in the 'real world' outside the language classroom. Examples of authentic tasks would be answering a letter addressed to the learner, arguing a particular point of view and comparing various holiday brochures in order to decide where to go for a holiday.(adapted from TEFL Glossary http://www.finchpark.com/courses/glossary.htm#peda)
Automaticity - Speed and efficiency in the listening process to achieve understanding (adapted from CASL L2 Listening Ability)
Bottom-up processing -Teaches the micro skills first (grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure), before asking learners to use the language in communication. The focus is on the various components of the language. Students then fit these together in comprehending or producing language. Examples: listening for specific details, recognizing cognates, recognizing word-order patterns, (adapted from http://www.finchpark.com/courses/glossary.htm#peda, TEFL Glossary)
Explicit knowledge - What the learner knows about the target language, structures and functionsGlossing - An active listening strategy that helps the learner remember key ideas. Glossing is a two step process: 1).Listen carefully; 2) Summarize main ideas that were heard.
Graphic Organizer - Visual representations of knowledge, concepts or ideas that organize information and promote understanding, recall.
Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) levels - A set of descriptions of abilities to communicate in a language. ILR scale has five levels for listening, speaking, and reading skills.
Implicit knowledge - Knowledge that is used in an automatic and unconscious way.
Information gap - An activity in which learners complete a task by obtaining missing information from each other. Example: different students, individually or in a group, listen to different parts of the same audio or different (but related) audio excerpts and then get together to discuss their parts and reconstruct the information from both inputs.
Listening strategies -Techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the input. (adapted from NCLRC The Essential of Language Teaching http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/stratlisten.htm) Tools for active, self-directed involvement (Oxford, R. & Scarcella, R. 1992).
Non-participatory / non-collaborative listening - Type of listening which occurs when there is no interaction between the speaker and listener. The listener has no control of the incoming language input. Examples: listening to a lecture, news on TV, eavesdropping on other people’s conversations. (Adapted from Rost, M. (2002)).
Participatory / collaborative listening - Type of listening which occurs when two or more speakers are engaged with each other in face-to-face situations, over the phone, or via tele-conferencing tools. The listener has some degree of control of the incoming language input. Listener interacts with speaker.(Adapted from Rost, M. (2002)).
Pedagogic task - A task in which learners are required to do things which are only likely to take place inside of the classroom. Pedagogic tasks can sometimes parallel authentic tasks. Examples: Completing one half of a dialogue, filling in the blanks in a story and working out the meaning of ten nonsense words from clues in a text.
Schemata - Framework for mental representation of prior knowledge about the content (content schemata) and language associated with this content (formal schemata). Applied to listening, this is knowledge we already have prior to receiving new knowledge through listening. (Adapted from Rost, M. (2002)).
Simulated materials - Materials created for language teaching purposes that represent authentic situations (voicemail message, interview, speech or lecture).
Task-based instruction - Instruction which is designed around a series of authentic tasks which give learners experience in using the language in the 'real world' outside the classroom. Tasks generate observable outcomes that may be different for each student. Examples: working out the itinerary of a journey from a timetable, completing a passport application form, ordering a product from a catalogue and giving directions to the post office. (adapted from http://www.finchpark.com/courses/glossary.htm#peda, TEFL Glossary)
Three phases of lesson plan – 1) Pre-listening (schemata activation, vocabulary building); 2) Listening (noticing, organization of the incoming information, utilizing appropriate strategies); 3) Post-listening (personalized task-based activity with observable, multiple outcomes)
Top-down processing - Approach to listening in which understanding of a listening text comes from a bank of prior knowledge (see Schemata) and global expectations about the language and the world that utilizes knowledge of the larger picture to assist in comprehension. Examples: Listening for main idea, predicting, drawing inferences, summarizing, activating background knowledge of the topic (Adapted from Brandl, K. (2008))
Additional Resources
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