Stanford

EFS 693B - STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Listening and Communication

Home | Syllabus | Class Notes | EFS Home Page

EFS 693B

Notes: Week 6

 

CLASS OBJECTIVES

 

I. Opening : Groundhog Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXfC726XJ-w&feature=fvw

    - Discussion

    - Dictation

 

II. Review "No Time to Think"

 

III. Listening to news
    A. Why? keep track of current events, learn about developments in areas of interest, get more acquainted with US culture...
    B. What?
        -   Use stories on new or familiar topics to practice getting meaning
        -   Use stories on familiar topics for processing practice (dictation, accent practice, etc.) and building vocabulary
    C. How?
        -   Use the web, TV,  radio for current breaking news

        -   Focus on online resources for study
        -   Get stories with transcripts, captions, and/or supporting readings if possible

 

IV A note on the intensive<-->extensive listening continuum. Extensive listening refers to listening to a lot of material but not trying to get all the details and every word--this is what you do when you listen to a live lecture or go to a movie: the goal is primarily listening for meaning, with any other development (like new vocabulary) occurring incidentally. Intensive listening involves going over a piece of material multiple times and often mining it for other purposes, such as for dictation to build vocabulary and grammar. besides the extensive listening you do for academic purposes or pleasure, when doing activities for this class, a combination of semi-intensive and intensive listening (http://elt-wiki.cw.idm.fr/elt-wiki/index.php/Intensive_listening) is best. In semi-intensive listening, you don't necessarily try to get everything, but you interact more than you would in real life. For example, doing pre-listening, listening once with an occasional pause, and then listening a second time with the captions on, pausing and writing down a few key words of interest would be an example of semi-intensive listening. If you continued listening another time or two and then did a dictation, that would make it intensive. In a medium length clip, it is quite reasonable to do the majority of it semi intensively and a small part intensively. In a longer one (e.g., a TV show, full lecture, or movie) different parts might be done extensively (listened to just once), semi-intensively, and intensively.

 

V. Reminder--Part II: We've talked about three types of listening activities: practice for comprehending more effectively, practice for building language knowledge, and practice for improving language processing. This week we'll focus on practice for building language knowledge. Note that technically, some of the time you’re building knowledge you aren’t actually listening, but you’re working with material that you have listened to (or plan to listen to soon, if you’re previewing a transcript). We have suggested that there are at least four components to language knowledge:

-  Sound system (phonology): individual sounds, sound clusters and syllables, linking, reduction, rhythm, and intonation

-  Vocabulary (words and phrases), including recognizing pronunciation of known items

-  Grammar: recognizing the meaning in grammatical endings (like -ing), words (like prepositions and modal auxiliary verbs such as can), and structures (like passive or present perfect)

-  Discourse: typical organizational structures of lectures, newscasts, discussions, etc.; how speakers introduce and shift topics and comments

 

The most basic area for building knowledge is in the sound system. As noted in Week 3, these are the key concepts for understanding the English sound system.

 

            A. Basic sounds (phonemes): http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

            B. Rhythm: http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/10/stress-timed-rhythm-of-english.html

            C. Stress: www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/word-stress.htm

            D. Intonation: www.americanaccent.com/intonation.html

            E. Linking: www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/linking.htm

            F. Reduced forms: www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/ReducedForms.html

As a matter of knowledge, these can be studied independently and then you can listen closely to speech samples to identify each of these components. The assumption here is that by being aware of the components of the English sound system and the way it works, you will more easily notice and understand what you hear.

 

Vocabulary is of course the most obvious area of language knowledge. In most cases, we can identify whether or not we know a word, at least its basic form and meaning. While it is possible to pick up words simply form exposure and attention to context (that is, after all, how we do it as children in our native language), that seems to be a less efficient process for adults in a second language. To learn a new word consciously, you first need to notice it--to isolate it the form. This is quite difficult to do in normal speech unless the context allows the word to be repeated a number of times or something else makes it particularly salient. Having text support in the form of captions or a transcript makes this job a lot easier (and again, more efficient). Once the form is recognized, in some cases you may be able to figure out the meaning from the context, but often you will need to look it up in a dictionary. Once you understand the meaning, both the basic meaning and the meaning in the particular context you have encountered it if they are different, your job is not finished. If you have the time, it's good to Google the word and explore how it is used in a couple of other contexts. I also recommend writing down the word, its definition, and the sentence in which it occurs on a card or in a list for later study (an Excel spreadsheet is good for this). You need to review your new words regularly, especially in the days and weeks right after you've learned them the first time. We'll discuss specific recommendations for this in a later class. And if you want to move the word from just being something you recognize to one that you use yourself, creating meaningful sentences with it will help, especially if you can work this practice into your everyday speech.

 

Of course you don't need to learn every new word you encounter because learning takes time. As noted in previous classes, higher frequency words are generally more valuable--you're likely to see them more often. Use Google or www.lextutor.ca/vp/bnc to help you figure out frequencies.

 

Words are not all there is to vocabulary--you need to be able to recognize, define, and learn phrases as well. Unfortunately, phrases, particularly idioms, are not always easy to spot. When you go through a transcript or captions and recognize words that appear together but don't seem to make sense in context given their literal meanings, try putting the phrase into Google. You can also sometimes find phrases, especially recent ones, defined in the Urban Dictionary (www.urbandictionary.com).

 

Another area of language knowledge is grammar. There is a sense that in listening once you know what the words mean, you can figure out the rest of the meaning of a sentence, but this isn't always true. For example, the difference between "The cat chased the dog" and "The cat is chased by the dog" requires more than just knowing the meanings of cat, chase, and dog. Looking through transcripts to try to understand the grammar can help in reviewing grammar rules you may have forgotten as well as in recognizing the differences between how English is spoken and written. It's especially good for noticing preposition and article uses.

 

Finally, there is also discourse knowledge, an understanding of how ideas are ordered in speech, how those ideas are related to one another, and the speaker signals those relationships. Take a look at the transcript below from a lecture on game theory and notice the functions of the italicized words and phrases:

OK, so, what does game theory say, then, is the right way to play this game?  The theory of games says it's very important that you be unpredictable.  Therefore, you must randomize.  You must randomize.  The only way to be completely unpredictable is to randomize, and by that I mean, in this case, you can simply take out a coin, flip a coin, and if it comes up heads, then you would put up one finger, if it comes up tails, then you would put up two fingers.  Now, you can try in your own head to randomize, but it's a little bit unreliable.  Because there may be a tendency to put up one finger more often than two fingers, and then your opponent can take advantage of that to win the majority of the time.   So game theory says, "Be sure you randomize." Now, game theory has two key assumptions.  The first assumption is that both players are rational.  Both players are rational.  That is,  they...that they use logical thinking for making their decisions.  They're not basing their decisions on emotion.  That's the first assumption.  The second assumption is that  both players choose their strategies solely to promote their own welfare. 

VI.  Discuss your project with other students in the class (bring notes to help you remember)
       1) What material are you using?
       2) Why did you pick that? What are your objectives?
       3) Give an example of an effective procedure you're using. Why do you think it's effective?
       4) What is the most useful thing you've learned so far from the project?
       5) What is your main problem in doing the project?

 

VII. Discuss Homework: using VLC or Windows Media Player and the speed control. Was everyone able to try it? How many found it useful? Problems?

  1. Can't always find URL for videos (CNN Student news; Online News hour (recent))

  2. Even if you find the URL, the video may not play (Stanford ecorner)

  3. Click here for some suggestions

  4. Note for http://ecorner.stanford.edu: you can register for free, download clips in WMV format, and play in Windows Media Player with speed control.

        

VIII. Introduction to watching movies: Groundhog Day. See www.eslnotes.com/movies/html/groundhog-day.html for a synopsis and vocabulary list with definitions. Note we will be watching this scene by scene over the next few weeks.

 

IX. Some additional links to explore

    - www.ted.com (Technology, Entertainment, Design): e.g., http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_on_how_technology_evolves.html This has subtitles.

    - http://www.edict.com.hk/TextAnalyser/wordlists.htm. From the edict Virtual Language Center. Word lists (up to 5000 frequency level) with definitions using the Brown Corpus (different from the BNC and General Service List described before). Some definitions include Chinese translations.

    - www.englishbaby.com: a free English language learning website with multiple new audio and video lessons each week. The language is authentic and conversational, with a lot of idioms and slang that are defined for you.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Homework: Unless otherwise stated (e.g., the independent project) you should complete this material in time to discuss it in the following class. Be sure to bring notes if requested.
 
1) Spend at least 30 minutes exploring each of the three sites in IX above (90 minutes total). Make a few notes and come prepared to discuss your impressions in the next class.

 

2) Continue working on your independent project. Remember to incorporate any suggestions made in the individual meetings or in my written feedback to you. Plan to do some combination of 3-6 sessions for a total of at least three hours. As before, try to have a mixture of objectives that includes not only comprehension, but also building language knowledge and improving processing. Be sure you are doing something about isolating new vocabulary, learning it, and then reviewing it over the next few days. Get the report form here

 

NOTE: We will be making up the missed class next week. The Tuesday class will also meet Thursday 3:15-4:30; the Wednesday class will also meet Friday 9:00-10:15. Please plan your week accordingly.
 
 

Last modified: May 4, 2010, by Phil Hubbard