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THE INTERGRATED LISTENING-BASED APPROACH

0. INTRODUCTION

The integrated listening-based approach is a new approach developed by Mubenga in 1988. It is a

result of his experiments carried out at the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Kananga ( ISP/
KANANGA ) between 1985 and 1987 and reported in his PHD thesis, "Teaching Listening
Comprehension to Zairian Students: The Effects of Training on the Performance of EFL
Listening Tasks".

The integrated listening-based approach ( ILA ) is based on the theory of language as communication
and as cognitive process. Learning another language is considered as acquiring a set of knowledge in
phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics in order to communicate fluently in that language.
Communication is easy only when speaker and hearer share the same background knowledge.

As for the theory of learning, ILA is based on the principal learning by listening and discovery.
Learners must be trained to listen with more understanding. This listening Comprehension training
will help them to discover with or without the assistance of a teacher those elements of the target
language which they need for their communication purposes.

The general objective of ILA is to develop Learners' competence in listening comprehension with a
possibility of transferring to other skills. This suggests that listening comprehension must be
developed in association with speaking, reading, and writing skills.

As for the learning and teaching activities are concerned, ILA consists of a wide range of classroom
activities taken from other approaches and methods to help the learners develop their aural
comprehension skills.

ILA uses a wide range of authentic and semi-authentic recordings. Authentic recordings consists of
radio and TV broadcasts such as news bulletins, advertising messages and soap operas . Semi-
authentic recordings comprise a large variety of commercially-punished tapes. ILA also requires the
use of the radio cassette recorder, a tape recorder or a video equipment.

The teaching methodology used in ILA is the classical three-phase model that is currently practiced in
TEFL today; a pre-listening phase, a while listening phase, and a post listening phase.

In pre-listening phase, the learners are prepared to familiarize themselves with the topic and materials
for listening. They are also organized I into small groups of activity. The teacher selects materials,
plans the listening tasks and makes sure that the learners understand well the tasks they're supposed to
do. More importantly, he must activate the learners' background knowledge so that they can create
some expectations; form some interest in the subject matter of the text.

In the while listening phase, the learners listen to the text and perform the tasks that are implemented.
This requires them to test their hypotheses, check and compare their individual answers with each
other, and write a brief report of their discovery. The teacher may provide assistance for the learner
who needs it.

In the post-listening phase, the learners present their reports in groups. This is followed by a whole-
class discussion and feedback from the teacher. Then, the teacher can organize some follow-up
activities related to the listening text to consolidate learning. The listening comprehension practice or
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training ends in a brief evaluation of the session and of the learners' contribution to the tasks of the
day.

ILA is a promising approach that is worth trying in foreign language teaching. It facilitates the
development of oral comprehension skills and greatly contributes to the rapid acquisition of the target
language in the classroom. However, the limitation of ILA is that it requires teachers who have
fluency in listening comprehension to help learners with their problems.

1. LISTENING COMPREHENSION TEACHING

The teaching of listening comprehension as a separate skill is a recent innovation in language teaching.
Even at present most commercial language programmes do not focus on sequential and
methodological development of the listening skill.

Developing the ability to understand the spoken foreign language is a long, continuous process.
It is a skill that must be taught and that does not happen automatically. One of the teacher's most
important tasks is to provide a variety of purposeful listening activities throughout the entire language
course.

The students must be given a reason for listening to one another. If the teacher requires individuals to
respond to each other, the students will make an effort to listen more carefully for the information
requested. In order to accomplish this, the teacher must insist that everyone speak up. The teacher
should avoid repeating each student's response or question; this is boring on the part of the
learners. Instead, the teacher can say, Great! Wonderful! That's good, but, not quite perfect. I see
you've been practicing at home. Hey, you got it right. Correct what you said. That was perfect, etc.

2. DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING

2.1. DEFINITION

Listening is a receptive skill that deals with the comprehension of the spoken messages. However, this
skill tends to get neglected in the teaching of English in D.R.Congo for various reasons. The first one
is that most teachers assume wrongly that listening comprehension is a 'passive' skill and that it will
develop by itself with the time. The second reason is that the use of pattern drills may give the teacher
the impression that he is also teaching listening comprehension. The third and the last reason is that
the majority of Congolese teachers have not been trained to teach listening comprehension and
therefore find it difficult to do so.

According to Newton in this approach of language learning, listening is at the center. All of the
information necessary for building up the knowledge for using language comes from receptive skills:
listening, and reading. When the knowledge of language in this regard is built the learner can write
and speak. In other words, without any input, the outcome or output should be nothing.

2.2 IMPORTANCE

Nowadays, the teaching of listening comprehension has most Importance for it contributes to the rapid

acquisition of the target language in the classroom. B-sides, if we want our students to communicate

with speakers of English, we must train them to listen with understanding to spoken English. That is,
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listening comprehension should be taught as a skill its own right, separate from grammar and

pronunciation, for example.

3. OBJECTIVES OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION TRAINING

Essential to all interaction is the ability to understand what others are saying. Even in the native
language many people are poor listeners, whether through weak powers concentration, egocentrism, or
short auditory memory. Yet, it has been estimated that of all time adults spend in communication
activities 45 percent is devoted to listening, only 30 percent to speaking, 16 percent to reading, and a
more 9 percent to writing. Apart from communicative interaction, much of the enjoyment in second or
foreign language use comes from listening activities: Watching films and plays or listening to the
radio broadcasts, songs or talks by native speakers. Even in class, students learn a great deal from
listening to their teacher, the tapes or records, or to each other.

Listening Comprehension Training must have definite objectives which should fit into the overall
language curriculum. At the moment, the teaching objectives of listening comprehension courses are:

1. To enable students to understand the gist of spoken messages delivered at normal speed in
contemporary English either in face-to-face interaction or on the radio.

2. To enable the same students to understand the detail of spoken messages also delivered at normal
speed in contemporary English either in face-to-face interaction or on the radio.

On this respect, students need to listen to a wide range of spoken texts such as conversations,
interviews, lectures, and news bulletins which they are likely to encounter in real life situations. To be
effective, listening comprehension training will be organized around tasks which will teach the
students how to listen and what to listen for in each situation. In other words, the students will be
given a reason for listening.

4. MODELS OF LISTENING

Listening was viewed as a passive skill through which the listener or hearer received information sent
by message senders. More recently listening is viewed as an active and interpretive process by which
the message is not fixed but is made or created by participants.

5. TYPES OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Basically, there are two types of listening comprehension: extensive and intensive listening. In
extensive listening, learners are trained to listen for the general idea or picture of the message. They
will primarily be concerned with following a story or finding the main points of the text to which they
are listening. However, it should be kept in mind that the ability to get the general picture from a
piece of authentic spoken rather than written English is often more difficult. For this reason, the
teacher can prepare his learners for listening to an authentic passage by telling them something about
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the topic of the listening text, giving them key words, or asking them to predict what people are going
to talk about in the spoken text.

In intensive listening, the learners are trained to listen for specific details related to the listening texts.
They will be given listening tasks which focus on detailed comprehension of meaning, for example,
answering questions, retaining relevant points, or understanding inferred information.

6. METHODOLOGY FOR LISTENING COMPREHENSION

There are three basic stages here:

1. Pre-listening, 2. While-listening, and 3. Post-listening.

During the pre-listening stage, the teacher must prepare the learners to listen. He will select the
listening material to the needs, interests and level of proficiency of his group of learners. He will
also set the tasks and have the purpose for listening. This will have an effect on how well the
learners will listen. An easy way to alert them to what they are going to do is simply to say for
example: 'Today, we're going to listen a section of story by ------------- about ------------- and then
answer questions on it. This is to give you practice in listening for the key points' or 'Today, we'll be
listening to a part of conversation ------------- about ------------- and then talk about it. This is to give
you practice in listening for the general idea. You probably won't understand every word. But this
won't matter'.

The teacher will always make sure that the learners are given whatever written material is necessary
for them to complete their task before they listen to the passage. Bisides, he will give them an example
at the beginning of the task to help those who may not have understood the verbal or written
instruction. Finally, in order to create some expectations in the learners or help them make some
predictions, he can ask them some questions about the topic of the listening text or show them a
picture or a map related to the text.

During the while-listening stage, the learners listen to the text and perform the task that is
implemented. The teacher will ask the learners if they are ready to listen. Then, he can play the tap or
read the text at normal speed right through once to help them get the overall picture. The number of
times the learners need to listen to the text depends on the length and difficulty of the listening
material, on the nature of the set task, and very often on the learners’ proficiency. In any case, the
learners should be encouraged to give their opinion freely about the number of times they want to hear
a specific listening text. The teacher should always remember that he is teaching listening
comprehension and not testing it.

During the post-listening stage, the learners check and compare their individual answers in pairs or
small groups. The tape may be played again (once). Then, the learners may be asked to report their
answers either orally or in writing them on the board. Finally, the teacher will provide the learners
with feedback of set tasks. The easiest way is to supply them with an answer key so that they can
correct their own mistakes. Or, if teacher has enough time, he can discuss the answers with the
learners and then go over the text to explain any persistent difficulties.

After the learners have received feedback on their performance, the teacher will organize some follow-
up activities related to the listening text to consolidate learning. For example, for a conversation, the
learners can dramatize the text, play roles, or practice the language functions of the texts. This will
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help them develop their interactive strategies. For a news bulletin, they can be asked to write simulated
news bulletins and report them to the class thereby integrating listening, writing and speaking. At the
and of these activities, the teacher will evaluate the tasks of the day in collaboration with the learners.

7. TYPES OF LISTENING MATERIALS

Listening materials may be divided into two main types:

1. Dialogue and 2. Monologue.

Dialogue materials are for example conversations, discussions and interviews. Monologue materials
are for example instructions, lectures, news bulletins and public announcements. Both dialogue and
monologue materials can be authentic or non-authentic.

Authentic materials are real texts designed for the native speakers of the target language, for example,
radio programmes from the BBC or the VOA. Non-authentic are those which designed for teaching
purposes, for example, commercially-published materials like Calling all Beginners and Getting on
in English by the BBC, and Special English by the VOA.

At the beginning stages of language learning, the teacher will use non-authentic materials to help
learners develop the necessary listening skills for understanding authentic materials. The latter will be
generally used at the intermediate and advanced levels. In all this, the teacher will grade the activities
so that the learners can understand something from the listening material.

Finally, this method is the best one for the teaching of listening comprehension at
secondary school as well as stages are respected for both, teachers and learners in skill.

REFERENCES:

 Bantu’s handout “introduction to the methodology A2” (2020)

 www.integratedlistening.com
 Scholar.google.com

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