A number of positive terms have been used to describe listeners, including:
“competent,” “skilled,” “advanced,” “good,” “active,” “strategic,” “high-ability,”
“proficient,” “effective,” [and] “successful”’ (Goh, 2005, p. 64). All these labels refer to the ability to make sense of the spoken messages. In order to do so a so- called “good listener” has to operate a number of skills simultaneously as they receive a spoken message. As far as linguistic knowledge is concerned, listeners need to perceive the incoming sounds and store them in working memory, while beginning some processing of the stored language by separating it into manageable segments. They also scan the incoming message in order to sample bits of language which may hold the key to the meaning of the message, and parse words and phrases by matching them with representations already stored in long-term memory.
At the same time listeners refer to contextual information in order to construct
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hypotheses concerning the meaning of what they have sampled and what may come next (Macaro, 2001). Contextual information includes the physical setting in which the message was produced, the participants, and the co-text (what has already been said). Listeners also make use of schematic knowledge to understand meaning, and this includes knowledge of how discourse is organized, as well as how language is used in a particular society, and factual knowledge of the topic which is being talked about. It is obvious from this brief description that knowledge of the language system (phonology, stress, intonation, lexis, syntax) is not sufficient in itself to interpret the meaning of a spoken message, and that listening involves combining bottom-up processing of sounds with top-down expectations for messages which draw on much wider schematic and contextual knowledge of language in use.
Language learners often think that all their difficulties in listening are due to their inadequate knowledge of the target language. In fact, what they need is the strategies to cope with hindrance they encounter while doing listening tasks or real- life communication. Among many researchers who investigated the effectiveness of the use of listening strategies, we can mention (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990;
Vandergrift,1999,2006; Oxford 1990,1999 and Lynch ,2004). They found that people who are successful in listening to a foreign language tend to combine different strategies. These broad general strategies help learners to listen more effectively and improve their listening (Cohen, 1990). Hence, good listeners use a variety of strategies, namely metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies.
2.7.1. Meta-cognitive Strategies
Metacognition can be defined simply as thinking about thinking (Anderson, 2002, 2005). It is the ability to reflect on what is known, and does not simply involve thinking back on an event, describing what happened, and the feelings associated with it. Strong metacognitive skills empower language learners: when learners reflect upon their learning, they become better prepared to make conscious decisions about what they can do to improve their learning.
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O’Malley and Chamot (1990, p. 8) emphasize the importance of metacognition when they state: “students without metacognitive approaches are essentially learners without direction or opportunity to plan their learning, monitor their progress, or review their accomplishments and future learning directions.” It is a kind of self- regulated learning process. Include using mind from which the learners control the listening task via management of techniques to plan, check, monitor, select, revise and evaluate. Listeners arrange the complex speech or event to observe the comprehension then interpret the information (Chelli, Rubin, 1990 and Vandergrift, 1997).
Baker and Brown (1984) identified two types of metacognitive ability:
knowledge of cognition (i.e., knowing what) and regulation of cognition (i.e., knowing how). The first type is concerned with the learners’ awareness of what is going on, and the second type relates to what learners should do to listen effectively. Empirical studies have found that an important distinction between skilled and less skilled L2 listeners lies in their use of metacognitive strategies (e.g., Bacon, 1992; Goh, 1998, 2000; O’Malley & Chamot, 1990; Vandergrift, 1998, 2003). O’Malley et al. (1989) found that skilled listeners use more repair strategies to redirect their attention back to the task when there is a comprehension breakdown, whereas less skilled listeners give up and stop listening. Vandergrift (2003) found that skilled listeners used twice as many metacognitive strategies as their less-skilled counterparts. Among the metacognitive strategies, two strategies will be analyzed here. Focusing on what the speaker is saying is a strategy that enables the listener to focus his/ her attention on the speaker’s message without being distracted by any distractors. This strategy is very useful in participating in the classroom, watching TV, listening to the radio, or talking to other people.
The second metacognitive strategy is deciding in advance what to pay attention to. Listeners employ selective attention as a technique to facilitate the comprehension process. For example, some listeners choose to focus on pronunciation and accents as a way to understand the spoken language with
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different accents. However, focusing too much on accents can have a negative impact on comprehension because it can be a distracter, leading to misunderstanding.
Therefore, it is a useful strategy which combines Pre-listening; planning strategies; While-listening; monitoring strategies and Post-listening; evaluation strategies. The listeners summarise and find out indirectly something they already know. So we can see that it is better to associate strategies to achieve a good listening activity.
2.7.2. Cognitive Strategies
According to Buck (2001), cognitive strategies are skills or actions used to control, reasoning and storing the input in order to understand the language in some direct way. It facilitates the new learning task and the processing information. It is resided in the working memory or long-term memory, for later retrieval from the bottom-up strategies to the top-down strategies. These strategies go through inference the meaning, organizing and mapping words, transfer and repetition, summarization, translation which include, using pictures in the mind, writing down ideas, outlining, using previous linguistic knowledge and elaboration. In other words, these strategies depend on the cognitive abilities of the learners that is to say; listeners who are most efficient in processing received information with an attempt to understand more.
Previous research has revealed that advanced learners employ more top- down strategies than beginners (Clark, 1980; Conrad, 1985; Tsui & Fullilove, 1998;
O’Malley, Chamot, & Kupper, 1989). Among the cognitive strategies, four strategies will be analyzed here.
The first cognitive strategy, trying to comprehend without translating, is used when the listener attempts to understand the L2 input without translating to the L1.
This strategy is useful because oftentimes, many words do not have equivalents in one of the languages, tendering the comprehension process more difficult. This
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strategy, therefore, directs the listener’s attention to the meaning and structure of the target language.
The second cognitive strategy is focusing on the main words to understand the new words. The listener creates meaning by applying his/ her knowledge of words from the target language to sentences. This strategy is very useful, especially for beginning listeners, who rely on their small vocabulary repertoire to build their comprehension.
The third cognitive strategy is relying on the main idea to comprehend the whole text. This strategy helps the listeners locate the theme first and details later on. One of the techniques that this strategy involves is skimming. The learner who uses this strategy locates the main idea quickly and understands the L2 aural input very rapidly.
The fourth cognitive strategy is guessing the meaning by relying on any clues (contextual or linguistic). Listeners use this strategy when they do not know all the words, or they do not understand the overall meaning of the sentence. Both native and non-native speakers use this strategy either when they have not listened well enough or when the meaning is not clear.
2.7.3. Socio-affective Strategies
The last type of indirect strategy includes the socio-affective strategies. It has been defined by (Vandergrift, 2003; 1997; Oxford, 1990; Lynch, 2009) as the techniques used first; to collaborate with others, assist learning and verify the understanding to make sure that a learning activity having success. Second; to lower anxiety, promote oneself, and taking one’s “emotional temperature”. Thus, collaborate with others contains asking queries to get clarification and involving in doing the listening task together. And anxiety reduction is about how to use the emotional strategies to reduce the listening task anxiety by encouraging oneself, and comparing with the others focusing on success. Therefore, it is very crucial for the listeners to know how to integrate with the other learners. In order to reduce their
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anxiety through, try to feel relaxed in doing the listening tasks. Besides, be motivated to get self-confidence and enhance the listening competence.
Vandergrift (2003) defined socio-affective strategies as the techniques listeners employ to collaborate with others, to verify understanding, or to lower anxiety. According to Gardner & MacIntyre (1992, 1993), the affective strategies used to control learning experiences are very important because the learning context and learners’ social-psychological factors (i.e., how learners feel about the learning experience) are directly related.
Aneiro (1989) found a significant correlation between low anxiety and high listening performance, which suggests that using affective strategies could facilitate and enhance listening. O’Malley & Chamot (1987) found that among the four strategies of management, cognitive strategies, social strategies, affective strategies in listening comprehension, social and affective strategies influenced the learning context immediately.
In conclusion, listening strategies (cognitive, meta-cognitive and the socio- affective) provide support to any listening comprehension activity. Listeners use their background knowledge to decode the speakers’ intentions via these strategies.
It makes learning strategies easier, rapid and interesting through using more changeable strategies (Oxford, 1990). Consequently, listening strategies is very important in the development of students’ listening competence. Thus, teachers should help their learners improve their listening. By being able to use the appropriate listening strategies because, some EFL students’ have difficulties in listening comprehension.