Teacher beliefs about listening in a foreign language

Abstract

Teacher beliefs about listening in a foreign language. Teaching and Teacher Education, 40. pp. 44-60.

The Congruity/Incongruity of EFL Teachers’ Beliefs about Listening Instruction and their Listening Instructional Practices

“…In spite of areas such as literacy (McNeill & Kirk, 2013), grammar (Uysal & Bardakci, 2014), and content areas (Goldhaber & Brewer, 2000) which have witnessed research on the correspondence between teachers' beliefs and practices abundantly, an area which has received little attention in the literature has been teachers' beliefs about listening and their beliefs-driven practices (Graham, Santos, & Francis-Brophy, 2014). Listening as the most difficult skill for learners (Martinez-Flor & Usó-Juan, 2006) requires teachers' full adherence to cultivating the basic mechanisms of how listening works in the learners.…”

“…Considering this point, it is of high significance to explore teachers' listening theories and their listening instructional behaviors. Regarding teachers' beliefs about listening comprehension, Graham et al (2014) conducted a study to explore the listening beliefs of 115 Modern Foreign Language (MFL) teachers in England, how they used listening materials in textbooks, and the nature of those materials. The results indicated a mismatch between teachers' stated beliefs regarding listening instruction and their stated practices.…”

The Impact of Listening Strategy Training on the Meta-Cognitive Listening Strategies Awareness of Different Learner Types

“…Listening is probably the most difficult skill to learn since it seems to be the least explicit of the four language skills (Graham, Santos, & Francis-Brophy, 2014). According to Richards and Schmidt (2007), listening comprehension can be defined as the process of understanding speech in a first or second language which needs a conscious plan to deal with incoming speech problems due to incomplete understanding of the listener.…”

Getting to the bottom of L2 listening instruction: Making a case for bottom-up activities

“…However, recent studies of L2 listening instruction have revealed that many teachers rarely incorporate BU processing in their listening lessons (e.g., Graham, Santos, & Francis-Brophy, 2014;Siegel, 2014). An expansion in pedagogic practices to include more BU techniques is needed as this area is typically overlooked and because many of the listening difficulties L2 learners experience have been attributed to BU obstacles.…”

“…Moreover, based on findings from questionnaires, class observations, and teacher interviews, language educators are often lacking in practical approaches, techniques and activities that they can apply in their classrooms (Graham, Santos, & Francis-Brophy, 2014;Graham, Santos, & Vanderplank, 2011). Further, teachers who turn to textbook teacher manuals for help may find little support for listening (Field, 2012).…”