Aural Processing

and
Barriers to Listening

Aims and Objectives

To describe the listening process
To suggest some barriers that the
teacher imposes
To suggest some barriers that the
student faces

What is Listening?
Listening is an active process where listeners SELECT and
INTERPRET information that comes from visual and auditory clues

what is going on and what speakers

are trying to express
in order to define

It is a two way process between a speaker and a listener

Listening is a complex, cognitive process that is often described as
a parallel processing model. That is, information is processed by
using bottom up and top down processing, simultaneously

The Listening Process

Anderson (1983, 1995) suggests that there are 3 phases in the
cognitive (comprehension) process

Perception maintaining attention to spoken

input

Parsing holding the information in your short

term memory and making sense of it

Utilisation using your background

knowledge to interpret the input for storage

Bottom Up Processing

Perception = Aural Decoding

Phonemic and word recognition

Discerning known words in connected
speech
Recognising lexis, syntax and
morphology

Top Down Processing

Utilization =

understanding the rules of spoken English

Formulaic expressions: idioms, colloquialisms

Intonational patterns: sarcasm, emphatic stress
Situational contexts: phatic communion
Cultural knowledge

patas arribas

Comprehension

Parsing
Input
received
and decoded

holding the
information in
short term
memory

Rules of
English are
known and
acknowledged

Comprehension problems for the L2 learner

The desire to understand every word and so miss the gist
The need to translate into L1 before attempting comprehension

Barriers to Listening :Take a Dictation

Speed of delivery
Clarity of voice and utterance
Accent and dialect
No pause and rewind
The materials arent matched to the learners proficiency: too
lengthy and/or complex
Lack of context or meaningless to the learner: topic unfamiliar
Poor quality audio materials

Barriers to Listening : The Student

Physical Barriers
Hearing problems
Poor concentration: tiredness, frustration, boredom, resistance

Habitudinal Barriers
Insistence on listening word by word
Silently translating in to the L1 in order to comprehend

Linguistic Barriers
Lexical, syntactical and grammatical knowledge isnt in
place and so cant pick up key words

Psychological Barriers
Inability to hold gathering information in short
term memory
Allowing yourself to get distracted
Unable to process English phonemic patterns
Unable to distinguish words in connected speech
Unable to process English rhythm and intonation

Cultural Barriers

Learners whose native language possesses stress and

intonation features similar to English are likely to have less
trouble than learners whose L1 is based on different rhythms
and tones
Students whose culture and education includes a strong
storytelling and oral communication tradition are generally
better at listening comprehension than those from a reading
and book-based background
Underwood (1989)
Lack of schematic and cultural knowledge of British traditions:
Loch Ness Monster; Morris dancing; Pancake Day races

Any Questions?

Further Reading
Carter & Nunan (2001) The Cambridge Guide to TESOL (chapter 1)
Bremer et al. (1996) Achieving Understanding
Brindley (1998b) Assessing listening abilities
Flowerdew (l994b)
comprehension

Research

related

to

second

language

lecture

Mendelsohn and Rubin (1995) A Guide for the Teaching of Second

Language Listening
Nunan (l995c) New Ways in Teaching Listening
Rost (1990) Listening in Language Learning
White (1998) Listening
Chen Yiching (2005) Barriers to Acquiring Listening Strategies for EFL
Learners and their Pedagogical Implications