PATHS TO COMPETENCE IN LISTENING COMPREHENSION 1 Beyond Words Vol. 6, No. 1. May 2018 Paths to Competence in Listening Comprehension 1 Stephen Krashen University of Southern California, USA (Emeritus) Willy A. Renandya Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Beniko Mason Shitennnoji University Junior College, Japan Pratheeba Bose Kamuraj College of Engineering and Technology, India Abstract We present two paths to increasing listening comprehension ability, one in-class and other in the country where the language is spoken. In both cases, we predict that those with higher reading ability in the second language will progress faster. Consider the case of an adult second language acquirer with high competence in reading comprehension, but with substantially lower competence in listening comprehension. Such cases are typical of many users of English as a foreign language who have done a great deal of reading but do not live in an English-speaking environment. They have large vocabularies, and have acquired a great deal of grammar, but have difficulty understanding spoken input. This is because they lack competence in phonological aspects of the spoken language, which is made more challenging because speakers often “modify, drop, and add sounds” (Renandya and Farrell, 2011, p. 53). Spoken language also includes intonation and, in some languages, tones, and even a large percentage of the language used in classrooms by university lecturers is “conversational” (Biber, 2006). There are two possible paths for improving listening competence for those in this situation. Either path, it is hypothesized, will work. Both assume that acquirers’ previous English competence gained through reading can help make aural input comprehensible, resulting in rapid improvement in listening. Path A: Provide aural comprehensible input as part of a language teaching program. Such a program could follow the stages described by the conduit hypothesis (Krashen, 2018). Stage 1: stories, made comprehensible with the use of visual context (e.g., drawings, as in Mason and Krashen, 2004; Mason, Vanata, Jander, Borsch and Krashen, 2009) and occasional translations. Mason and colleagues have provided consistent evidence supporting the effectiveness and efficiency of this approach. As students become more advanced, include read-alouds, made 2 PATHS FOR IMPROVING LISTENING COMPETENCE comprehensible through pictures, discussion and translation (Elley, 1989, Lee, Lee, and Krashen, 2014, provide supporting evidence). Stage 2: comprehensible recreational listening, in the form of interesting films, videos, and audiobooks (see Dressman, Lee, and Sabaoui, 2016, on the use of youtube videos). Stage 3: academic listening, in the form of lectures and academic discussion on topics of personal interest. Path B: Go to the country where the language is spoken and where aural comprehensible input is plentiful. Many acquirers of English as a second or foreign language, especially those with financial means to study in an English-speaking country, can forgo most of Path A, and then take Path B when convenient. Path A never tried, Path B rarely studied. According to our experience, extensive and detailed versions of Path A have not been set up or evaluated (see Renandya and Farrell, 2011, for suggested resources). The bulk of L2 listening research has not dealt with the effects of providing extensive aural input, but has instead focused on explanation and training on cognitive and metalinguistic strategies such as prediction (“what do you think is going to happen next?”), comprehension monitoring, and summarizing. Renandya (2012) has pointed out that research on the efficacy of teaching such strategies is weak, and that positive correlations between strategy competence and language competence may be the result of higher proficiency resulting in the natural emergence of strategies, rather than strategy use leading to increased proficiency. Preparation for Path B might include strategy instruction, but of a kind much different from the strategies typically taught to beginning students in classes. We refer here to strategies for finding comprehensible input in the real word and for making “authentic” input more comprehensible. Such strategies, in contrast to those discussed earlier, do not require extensive training. In fact, often they need only be mentioned. They include finding a particularly friendly and comprehensible language “parent” (Krashen, 2012) and taking advantage of background knowledge through the use of the first language (e.g., first reading about current events in the first language and then following stories in local TV and radio in the second language). Path B usually happens accidentally, and its impact on listening comprehension, while informally acknowledged, has not been fully appreciated by the field of language education (but see Moyer, 2006). Nor has the potential contribution of competence in reading comprehension to listening comprehension been seriously considered. © Stephen Krashen, Dr Willy A Renandya, Pratheeba Bose & Dr Beniko Maso Stephen Krashen is Professor Emeritus, University of Southern California. His research interest is language and literacy acquisition. He is the author of The Power of Reading (Libraries Unlimited), and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame. He also holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and was the 1977 incline bench press champion of Venice Beach, California. PATHS FOR IMPROVING LISTENING COMPETENCE 3 Dr Willy A Renandya is a language teacher educator currently teaching at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. His teaching and research interests include L2 acquisition and extensive reading and listening. He manages an online teacher professional development group called Teacher Voices:https://www.facebook. com/groups/teachervoices/ Pratheeba Bose teaches ESP at Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology, Virudhunagar, India. Her areas of interest are reading and English Language Teaching. She has passed Cambridge English (Business Higher). Dr Beniko Mason is a faculty member at Shitennoji University Junior College in Osaka, Japan. Her teaching and research interests are primarily in the areas of reading and listening. She has published widely in the area of extensive reading. Her publications can be found here: http://beniko-mason.net/publications/ References Biber, D. (2006). University Language. Philadel- phia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Dressman, M., Lee, J.S. & Sabaoui, M.A. (2016). Path to English in Korea: Policies, practices, and outcomes. English Language Teaching. 28(1),67-78. DOI:0.17936/pkelt.2016.28.1.4 Elley, W. (1989). Vocabulary acquisition from listening to stories. Reading Research Quarterly 24: 174-187. Krashen, S. (2012). Language parents for second language acquisition. International Journal of Foreign Language Education, 7(3):2 Krashen, S. (2013). Should we teach strategies. The Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 10(1), 35-39. Krashen, S. (2018) The conduit hypothesis: How reading leads to academic language competence. Language Magazine, in press. Lao, C. & Krashen, S. (2014). Language acquisition without speaking and without study. Journal of Bilingual Education Research and Instruction 16(1), 215-221. Lee, M.H., Lee, S.Y. & Krashen, S. (2014). Vocabulary acquisition through read-alouds and discussion: A case study. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 9 (1), 2-6. Mason, B. & Krashen, S. (2004). Is form-focused vocabulary instruction worth-while? RELC Journal, 35(2), 179-185. Mason, B., Vanata, M., Jander, K., Borsch, R., & Krashen, S. (2009). The effects and efficiency of hearing stories on vocabulary acquisition by students of German as a second foreign language in Japan. The Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching, 5(1), 1-14. Moyer, A. (2006). Language contact and confidence in second language listening comprehension: A pilot study of advanced learners of German. Foreign Language Annals 39(2): 255-274. Renandya, W. & Farrell, T. 2011. ‘Teacher, the tape is too fast!’ Extensive listening in ELT. ELT Journal,65(1), 52-59. DOI: 10.10.1093/ elt/ccq015 Renandya, W.A. (2012). Five reasons why listening strategies might not work with lower proficiency learners. English Language Teaching World Online: Voices from the Classroom (ELTWO), 4, 1-11. (http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2012/02/22/five- reasons-why-listening-strategy-instruction- might-not-work-with-lower-proficiency- learners/);also available in (http://hdl.handle. net/10497/4676 ). http://beniko-mason.net/publications/� http://scholar.dkyobobook.co.kr/searchDetail.laf?barcode=4010024824142� http://scholar.dkyobobook.co.kr/searchDetail.laf?barcode=4010024824142� http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2012/02/22/five-reasons-why-listening-strategy-instruction-might-not-work-with-lower-proficiency-learners/� http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2012/02/22/five-reasons-why-listening-strategy-instruction-might-not-work-with-lower-proficiency-learners/� http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2012/02/22/five-reasons-why-listening-strategy-instruction-might-not-work-with-lower-proficiency-learners/� http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2012/02/22/five-reasons-why-listening-strategy-instruction-might-not-work-with-lower-proficiency-learners/� Pratheeba Bose