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992 THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIESmeasured by CELT. 2) that more advanced students reduce vowels more frequently that the less advanced, and, 3) thatmore advanced students contract with a greater number of preceding words. Although the individual students'contraction patterns are idiosyncratic, there do seem to be evolutionary states related to levels of proficiency. They seeevidence that the perception and use of reduced forms are crucial to aural comprehension and general ESL proficiencyand end their article a call for clear attention to contractions.2. Strategy instruction. A second source of research has been formalized under the banner of ―strategy instruction,‖in which researchers attempt to isolate approaches, decisions, and tactics that are associated with ―successful‖(symmetrical, low-anxiety, positive affect) listening. Early researchers of learning strategies began by listing the rangeof strategies that learners reported using in their attempts at learning a L2. The essential pedagogic implication behindthis initial research was that assisting learners in planning and monitoring their attempts at learning would be a benefit,helping them maximize the results of their learning efforts. This type of strategy instruction taps into a basic theme ofmost motivation theories, namely that intrinsic, self-guided motivation leads to increased time on task and concomitantsuccess, which in turn strengthens motivation. One aspect of this method of compilation research that is misleading,however, is the implication that all instances compiled are necessarily effective for all learners.Subsequent work on strategy development has focused more on defining a smaller subset of strategies that areconsistently associated with successful listening and with more efficient progress in gaining listening skills. Collectively,using introspection and retrospection methodologies, and coupled with measures of actual effects of strategy use oncomprehension and retention, this work has identified specific tactics that listeners use to plan, monitor, and modifytheir listening efforts. The five strategies that are most commonly identified as ―successful‖ are: 1) predicting speakerintentions and activating ideas, 2) monitoring one‘s own comprehension, 3) asking for clarification (with increasinglyfocused informational requests), 4) making inferences from incomplete information, and 5) providing personalresponses about content (Rost (2002) cited in Uso´-Juan & Martıńez-Florn, 2006). By identifying ―successful listeningstrategies‖ and structuring opportunities for students to practice these strategies, instructors can provide a ―laboratory‖for L2 learners to experiment with different approaches to use when listening.D. The Individual Listener FactorsIndividual listener factors include memory, interest, background knowledge, motivation, etc.1. Listener status. The listener‘s perceived status influences comprehension, participation, and value of input forlanguage acquisition. Engagement by the L2 user –assumption of an ―active listening‖ role –promotes acquisition oflistening skills and strategies.In all listening settings, including non-collaborative ones such as listening to an academic lecture or watching a filmin a theater, the listener adopts a role along a continuum of participation rights and responsibilities. The assumption of arole affects not only overt participation behaviors, but also the way in which the listener comprehends the event andretains information.This view of listening roles enables explicit development of attitudes, perspectives and responses that promote moresymmetrical participation and more active involvement in the construction of meaning. The extent to which listenerschoose to become involved in various discourse situations depends in large part on how they perceive their status inrelation to the primary speaker and in relation to the content the speaker is conveying. One known aspect of affectiveinvolvement in any discourse setting is the raising or lowering of anxiety and self-confidence, and thus the motivationto participate actively. For non-interactive settings, this involvement may entail the use of higher order cognitivestrategies, such as evaluating the speaker‘s position or taking notes of key points. For interactive settings, thismotivation will also involve using higher risk social strategies, such as showing openness and revealing private aspectsof self.It is now known that higher affective involvement promotes enhanced understanding through better connection withthe speaker and through construction of more tangible references for remembering the discourse, while lower affectiveinvolvement typically results in less connection, less understanding, and minimal efforts to evaluate and repair anymisunderstandings that arise. For example, in separate studies Yang (1993 cited in Uso´-Juan & Martıńez-Florn, 2006)and Aniero (1990 cited in Uso´-Juan & Martıńez-Florn, 2006) found a clear negative correlation between learners‘levels of anxiety (or ―receiver apprehension‖), their perceived distance from the speaker, and their listeningcomprehension performance. One well-known effect of perceived social distance is a reduction in the amount ofnegotiation for meaning — that is, the work that the listener will do to resolve communication difficulties. A relatedfactor in social distance and listening performance is uncertainty. Uncertainty regarding one‘s role or a likely ―map‖ forthe way the discourse is unfolding leads to a decrease in the listener uptaking of turn opportunities, including backchanneling. Back channeling signals – or ―vocalizations of understanding‖ as Gardner (1998, 2003) calls them – are aprimary influence on the speaker‘s perception of the listener‘s stance. When the listener does not provide backchanneling signals, or does not provide them in the expected fashion (particularly in ritual encounters such as jobinterviews), the speaker often unconsciously assumes antagonism or indifference. As listener uncertainty increases, theasymmetry of the discourse increases also. As has been well documented, in many stereotypical NS-NNS encounters inwhich asymmetry develops, the NS quickly assumes a ―superiority position,‖ and makes little effort to establish© 2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER
THEORY AND PRACTICE IN LANGUAGE STUDIES 993―common ground‖ with the NNS. This often leads to poor mutual affect, strained communication, andmisunderstandings which are hard to trace to a single moment in the interaction.Because asymmetry, anxiety and negative affect among L2 listeners are so pervasive, addressing the listener‘s role incollaborative discourse has become a vital aspect of listening instruction. There are two important sources of researchthat contribute to this aspect of instruction. The first source is analysis of the critical problems that L2 participantsencounter in discourse: misunderstandings, asymmetrical control, and lack of establishment of common ground. Basedon a discourse analysis of these problems (an analysis of organization, symmetry, turn-taking, intention, response, etc.)in real interaction, researchers provide insights into the kinds of problem-solving decisions and techniques that can beused to repair or avoid problems in discourse. Various typologies of listener strategies have been developed toencapsulate these insights (Bremer et al. (1996) cited in Uso´-Juan & Martıńez-Florn, 2006) (A general summary isprovided in Table 3).TABLE 3STRATEGIES OF UNSUCCESSFUL VS. SUCCESSFUL LISTENERS IN INTERACTIVE SETTINGS (BASED ON BREMER ET AL. (1996) CITED IN USO´-JUAN &MARTIŃEZ-FLORN, 2006)Characteristics of unsuccessful /asymmetrical/ passive Characteristics of successful /symmetrical / active listeninglistening- waiting for information to ―register‖(assuming that the speaker has theprimary role in creating meaning).- taking a lead in constructingmeaning- assuming the listener is responsiblefor any communication failuresnot activating background knowledgeorassumptions (assuming thatspeaker will provide all informationnecessary for comprehension)- not asking for clarification if confusionarises- not responding to speaker voluntarily(not revealing any personal reaction- assuming the speaker is (partly)responsible for any communicationfailures- activating background knowledgeand assumptions to fill in missinginformation- asking for clarification whenconfusion arises- providing reactions and responsesto the speaker voluntarilyIV. CONCLUDING REMARKSBuck (1994: 164 cited in Brindley & Slatyer) suggests, ‗performance on each task is a unique cognitive event‘, thentask design will require not only a much more detailed specification of task characteristics and conditions (Bachmanand Palmer, 1996), but also it will need to be based on a much better understanding of the interactions between text,task and learner variables. To this end, a good deal of further work will need to go into building models of listeningperformance that incorporate a wide range of overlapping difficulty components and exploring their effects onperformance.There is a need for teachers, curriculum designers and language testers to determine whether changes in taskcharacteristics and task conditions in competency based listening tasks would result in differences in test performance(Brindley, 2002). Knowing which variables were likely to affect test scores provide a basis for controlling taskdifficulty and thus for making tasks more comparable in the interests of fairness. However, the complexities of theinteractions between task characteristics, item characteristics and candidate responses suggest that adjusting one will notmake the task either easier or more difficult.REFERENCES[1] Brindely, G. (2002). Exploring task difficulty in ESL listening assessment. Language Testing 10 (1)[2] Brindley, G. & Slatyer. H. (2002). Exploring task difficulty in ESL listening assessment, Language Testing 19 (4) 369–394.[3] Brown, J.D. (1986). The effectiveness of teaching reduced form of listening comprehension. RELC Journal 12(1).[4] Brown, J. & Hilferty. (986). The Effectiveness of Teaching Reduced Forms of Listening comprehension, RELC Journal 17-59.[5] Collentine, J., & Freed, B. (2004). Learning Context and its Effects on Second Language Acquisition. Studies in SecondLanguage Acquisition 26, 153–171.[6] Díaz-Campos, M. (2004). Context of Learning in the Acquisition of Spanish Second Language Phonology. Studies in SecondLanguage Acquisition 26, 249–273.[7] Elder, C., McNamara, T. & Iwashita, N. (2002). Estimating the difficulty of oral proficiency tasks: what does the test-takerhave to offer? Language Testing 19 (4) 347–368.[8] Ellis, R. (1994). Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.[9] Foster, P. and Skehan, P. (1996). The influence of planning and task type on second language performance. Studies in SecondLanguage Acquisition 18, 299–323.[10] Gass, S. (2002). Frequency effects and second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 6.© 2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER
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(Contents Continued from Back Cover
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