IE Listening

1
IE Listening
IE Active Listening
?
Why change?

• A series of reports about the program
  (Cummins, 1999 Kikuchi, 2001 Dias and Kikuchi,
  2006 2008--in press) based on external reviews,
  extensive student surveys, classroom observation,
  interviews with IE Listening teachers, and
  student focus groups showed that
• Students are overly passive and sometimes bored
  during class
• Most IE Listening classes are too large -- 50
  students
• Class time is not used productively improvement
  elusive
• Material needs to be renewed
• Teachers often leave out pre- post-listening
  tasks
• Materials tend to test, rather than teach,
  listening skills
• There is limited self-access to video material
  used in class
• More exposure to conversational / colloquial
  English is desired
• Many students can not remember anything about the
  course one year after completing it

2
Changes that were made over the last few years

• All the video materials were converted to DVD
  (most chapters no more than 5 minutes) new
  units on music and news added
• Better articulated pre- and post-listening tasks
  were included to stimulate discussion through
  information gaps and Internet searches on topics
  related to student interest
• At teachers orientations, instructors were
  strongly encouraged to include pair and group
  work as class activities
• Students became required to access listening
  content through the Internet as homework and
  submitted regular reports
• Transcripts were provided for all of the in-class
  listening materials at the request of teachers
  and students

Why stop there?
3
What more is needed?
A system which allows teachers to easily produce
new materials based on original and existing
public domain content.
Materials going out-of-date due to the
arduousness of listening material production.
?
solves the problem of
Purposeful classroom activities and real world
tasks based on short bits of listening material.
Boredom and the perception that time is wasted or
not well utilized.
?
4
What else is needed?
An evaluation system that rewards hard work and
autonomy by better monitoring the use of
self-access materials.
The perception that the evaluation system favors
students who had good listening comprehension
skills at the outset.
?
solves the problem of
Greater differentiation of the 3 skill levels in
terms of the difficulty of the content, task and
cognitive complexity, as well as the outputs
required.
The various levels of IE Listening becoming a
blur in the minds of students and insufficient
challenges for the higher level students.
?
5
Is that all?
NO! Theres more.
If class time is to be used in a constructive
way, the role of teachers needs to be better
defined.
Students wondering why the teacher exists.
?
solves the problem of
Listening content needs to be closer to the
interests of students and in line with their
learning goals.
The perception that the materials are not varied
enough and do not connect with them.
?
6
Another major change
18 of 28 IE Listening classes have enrol-ments of
50 students. Large classes will be divided in
half students will alternate between a week of
self-access activities, and a week of
teacher-orchestrated, task-based instruction.
solves the problem of
?
Classes being too large for meaningful,
teacher-monitored pair and group work to be
carried out.
7
What do we hope to keep?

• Some of our better, more popular listening
  materials that do not appear too dated.
• Holding the classes in computer labs.
• The themes, which help us to organize content and
  allow us to recycle vocabulary items and concepts
  in the 3 IE courses.

8
Cha-cha-cha-changes

• IE Listening

?
IE Active Listening
What's in a name? That which we call a rose By
any other name would smell as sweet
9
Proposal for a system allowing the easy authoring
of self-access materials

• It will need to allow
• for existing content on the Internet to be
  embedded in it.
• teachers and coordinators to upload new
  listening materials.
• user-friendly use through an inviting interface.
• the recording--and easy access to--evidence of
  the elapsed time students spend on these
  materials and sincerity of their efforts.

Lets see model materials in action.
?
?
Cornel West and Everyday People
A singer-songwriter in Tokyo
10
Adopting a more task-based approach

• A task is an activity in which meaning is
  primary there is some sort of relationship to
  the real world task completion has some
  priority and the assessment of task performance
  is in terms of task outcome.
• Skehan (1996)

11
Model task for the IE II theme biography
They are given the task of working on a team that
will create a program for the performance. The
program must include a synopsis of the play and a
profile of its director.

• Students watch a video (available as a
  podcast and on YouTube) in which the director of
  a Tokyo International Players rendition of The
  Elephant Man, introduces the play.

?
?
As part of the synopsis, students can be tasked
with explaining how the play differs from the
film of the same title by David Lynch.
Students imagine they will go to NYC with a
partner. As they look at the offerings on
Entertainment Link they discuss their options
and decide on what to see together.
?
12
Changes in the system of student assessment

• As the new self-access materials will allow
  teachers to monitor students conscientious
  application to work outside of the classroom, it
  will be reflected in the students grades.
• Successful completion of in-class tasks, and
  effective collaboration with classmates toward
  common goals, will also be rewarded.
• If testing will be continued, it would be
  preferable to move toward performance-based tests
  that may better reflect what students are doing
  in the classroom.
• At the higher levels, student creation of
  listening materials may also enter into the
  evaluation process. Techniques for selecting
  appropriate listening content can be taught and
  tested at the lowest level.

13
Spring 2008 Developing self-access material
authoring system. Creating and piloting new
tasks with selected classes.

• Timeline toward the
• implementation of the improved course

June, July 2008 Meetings and CALL orientations
with IE Listening teachers. Working version of
self-access software ready for trial use.
?
?
Fall 2008 Initial trials of self-access
materials. All IE Listening teachers try out
new tasks. Feedback from teachers and students is
gathered.
January - March 2009 Perfect the self-access
authoring system and create a pool of sample
materials. Articulate tasks for all 12 IE
themes through collaboration with teachers.
?
14
April 2009Launch of the new and improved IE
Active Listening course.

• Timeline continued

15

• The beginning