Untitled

saxelmwifo enis swavlebis sakiTxebi:
problemebi da gamowvevebi
Issues of State Language Teaching;
Problems and Challenges
text processing and vice versa, restricted vocabulary represents the main reason of inadequate understanding
of the heard text. If a foreign language learner does not have a well-developed perceptional ability for perception-understanding
of the sound flow even identification of words will be quite difficult for him during listening
(Grotjahn, 1998). The Foreign language learner, on the basis of different pragmatic goals, may want
global, selective understanding of the oral speech or to put emphasis on its detailed information. Each goal of
listening determines a specific style of listening, the type of understanding of the listened text and quality
(Zolmecke, 1993, P. 4-26; Grotjan,1998, P. 35-83).
3. Unlike the process of reading, the listening process occurs in a “factual” limited time and that is
why the auditory impression is much more rapid and momentary. Very slow or fast authentic pace of the
background noise, accompanying the audiotext, presents special difficulties for a foreign language learner during
the process of listening. If a listener could not understand a certain part well, it will be difficult for him to
understand the following part of the text adequately. The specificities of the audio channel specify limited
possibilities of memorizing the listened to text. Memorized information represents the basis of understanding
the following part of the text. If we take into consideration the fact that listening to the text is accompanied by
the tasks, memorizing of which is necessary for listening to the text for a certain purpose and the implementation
of these tasks, it becomes evident that this may congest the cognitive memory of a candidate a lot. If the
tasks are given after listening to the text, in this case we do not check the listening skill, but – the ability to
memorize (Buck, 2001).
4. Specific peculiarities of oral, everyday speech considerably complicate the adequate understanding
of the listened to text by language learners. Oral, everyday speech is characterized with spontaneity. The following
is distinguished according to the increase of the spontaneity degree: unspontaneous everyday speech,
prepared everyday speech and spontaneous everyday speech. 3 Everyday speech is characterized by parataxis,
ellipses, revisions, zehitational pauses, non-final position of the verb after subordinative conjunctions (weil,
obwohl), particles, dialectic expressions, vulgarisms, coarticulation, reduction etc. (Glaboniat, 1998, P. 86).
The more spontaneous the speech, the more distinguished it is by these features. This fact should be taken into
account as the factor of potential difficulty while selecting authentic audiotexts.
5. A foreign language learner, on the basis of different pragmatic goals, may want global, selective
understanding of oral speech or to put emphasis on its detailed information. Each goal of listening determinesa
specific style of listening, the type of understanding of the listened to text and quality (Zolmecke, 1993, P. 4-
26).
6. Two basic forms of the information processing are distinguished during the process of listening in
the scientific literature: “from the top down” and “from the bottom up” that are in close interconnection with
each other; Which form is more dominant during the process of listening - is a matter of dispute. According to
the empiric researches, “from the top down” process is dominant among the listeners, who do not speak a foreign
language well, during this process the global understanding of the listenedto text, making logical conclusions
and hence the compensation of the “bottom up” process is easy for them. The second part of the scholars
remark that during the process of processing “bottom up” of the listened to information, cognition of the
words occur more rapidly and correctly. In the heterogenic group this phenomenon should also be taken into
consideration during the compilation of the text (Grotjan, 2005, P. 117-118; Wolff, 2003, P. 11-16).
7. The level of a candidate’s phonetic competence affects the understanding of the oral text. Unlike
the written text, which represents the system composed from discrete units (letters, words etc.), the oral text is
a realized acoustic signal within the limited time, sound flow, in which word boundaries are not often marked
out well. The listener has to discern separate words, break up the foreign audiotext into words and sentences
by means of short or long pauses that also complicates the perception-understanding process of the listened.
Understanding of what has been listened to is more difficult when there are many phonetic phenomena in the
oral text, those are: coarticulation, regressive and progressive assimilation, reduction, tendencies of a vowel
reduction, etc. (Goh, 2000, P. 56-79).
3
texts for listening belong to the category of unspontaneaus everyday speech that is formulated in writing and thenread
word by word or orally stated (for example transcription of the texts). Lecture, as well as political comment on the radio
or television is the example of prepared everyday speech. We can hear spontaneous everyday speech in the street, restaurant,
within the circle of friends etc.
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