Date: Sunday, January 27, 2:00 — 4:00 p.m.
Place: Hokkai Gakuen University, Building 6 (Subway Building), 3rd Floor, Room C-31
Cost: Free for everyone!

Double presentation

Presentation 1 (2:00 - 2:45)

Title: Actually Teaching Listening: The importance of script and of supra-segmental phonology

Presenter: Hugh Graham-Marr, ABAX, Ltd

SYNOPSIS: This talk looks to examine how you can go beyond giving practice in listening and actually teach listening skills. Knowledge of script is something that can be taught that helps students with their top-down predictive skills. Teaching supra-segemental phonology helps students with their bottom-up decoding skills.

Presentation 2 (3:00 - 3:45)

Title: Teaching the Strategies of Speaking

Presenter: Hugh Graham-Marr, ABAX, Ltd.

SYNOPSIS: We all use strategies when we speak: to confirm or clarify what we're saying and what we're hearing, to show interest, to maintain and develop conversations, to help with fluency, to compensate for language we don't have. This talk will examine the whys of teaching strategies and at the sort of strategies that can be taught.

Combined Report: Hugh Graham-Marr thinks that many language teachers don’t actually teach listening skills. When teaching the skill of listening in English it’s useful to identify the kinds of problems that students often have. Language problems, i.e. unknown vocabulary or grammar structures, are connected to top-down processing skills. It’s important to pre-teach the unknown vocabulary and grammar structures students will encounter in the exercise. Many listening problems are connected to the bottom-up processing skills and teaching intrusive sounds, linking words, the schwa sound, and contrastive stress can greatly help students.

In his second presentation Graham-Marr stated that speaking strategies are the tools that students need for effective communication. Control strategies help students gain control of a conversation by asking someone to slow down or repeat themselves. Affective strategies are emotion-based and help students to be pleasant to communicate with because they show that they’re listening to their partner by making thinking sounds or asking questions. A good way to teach strategies is to model them, help students notice them, and point out the communication breakdown that happens when they’re missing. Strategy use means more effective communication, which leads to more enjoyable encounters in English — something that all teachers want for their students.

Reported by Wilma Luth