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Listening to the same material many times

  Tags: Listening
 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
Perdita
Diglot
Newbie
Poland
Joined 4980 days ago

10 posts - 15 votes
Speaks: Polish*, English
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 1 of 2
17 September 2020 at 12:28pm | IP Logged 
I have some doubts about the listening exercise, in which the student listens to the
same recording over and over again. It is recommended as a good method of practising
and improving listening skills. However, it seems to me that it is only good for lower
levels of a given language, because if you need to listen to the material more than
once, it means you are not really proficient in this language.

Secondly, it has no bering on the real life, because it hardly happens in life that we
can listen to the same utterance more than once; even if we ask the speaker to repeat
what they said, they may rephrase it, and no two utterances sound exactly the same.

Last but not least, it is true that the learner will understand a given fragment
perfectly having listened to it umpteen times, but it applies only to this particular
fragment. When they listen to something new, they have to repeat the entire process.
Should not a proficient learner of a language be able to understand the listening at
their first listen?
1 person has voted this message useful



Speakeasy
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 4055 days ago

507 posts - 1098 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 2 of 2
18 September 2020 at 2:00pm | IP Logged 
Hello, Perdita,

Value of Listening Exercises
I agree with you that language-learning listening exercises achieve their greatest value at
introductory and intermediate levels. On the other hand, while it may be that the value of
this type of practice diminishes at the more advanced levels, my experiences suggest to me
that concentrated listening to recorded conversations of native speakers in typically
difficult-to-understand situations may help prepare advancing students prepare themselves
for the rigours of real-life conversations. For example, while I have never come across
such materials for language study, let us assume that someone has recorded a number real-
life conversations involving two, four, six, and finally eight participants in several
different scenarios (e.g., a business meeting, a noisy restaurant, et cetera) and that
these recordings are accompanied by a complete transcript, a set of questions to validate
the student’s understanding, and that the recordings can be replayed with pauses which
would allow the student to role-play. Is it not possible that advancing students might
benefit from practicing with such hypothetical materials? This is actually a rhetorical
question because …

Replacement Forum: LLORG
You might wish to know that, in response to the recurring technical and administrative
issues which had rendered the maintenance of this forum a very difficult task, a
replacement forum was launched in July 2015 as the LANGUAGE LEARNERS' FORUM. Since that
time, virtually all regular activity has ceased on this forum, it has become a seldom-
consulted archive. I suggest that you register on the new forum and re-post your comments
above. You’re likely to receive many more responses there than you would here.


A Language Learners' Forum

Edited by Speakeasy on 18 September 2020 at 2:58pm

1 person has voted this message useful



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