Developing Materials for Teaching Listening

Introduction

The methodology of teaching English, like any other methodology, is a pedagogical science. It studies the problems of instruction and education in the process of teaching English. In studying these problems methodology has to rely on the theory of instruction and the theory of education and applies them to the special conditions of teaching English.

Instruction as a social phenomenon is a bilateral process, in which the teacher who teaches and the pupils who acquire knowledge work closely together. The task of the methodology is to improve the process of teaching English by enabling teachers to work efficiently and to be conscious of their purpose. However, in order to apply successfully the principles set forth by methodology, the teacher has to master the art of teaching.

Art in teaching implies a sound knowledge, a continuous analysis of one’s own work and of the experience of others, the search for new, scientifically sound means for the continual improvement of teaching, and the acquisition of knowledge. It also means the creative connection between the theory and practice of teaching.1

The theory of teaching is useless without the creative activity of the teacher while the art of teaching is inefficient without knowledge and application of the principles set forth by methodology and pedagogy.

When teaching a foreign language one must consider the peculiarities it offers for pupils of a certain mother-tongue. Thus the methodology of teaching English has to take into account the problems posed by the English language for the pupils who will learn it.

The methodology of teaching English must deal with the following problems:

-what to teach and to what extent?

1. Semlyan E. “An English Teaching Methodology”, Bucureşti, 1967 p.9

-what are the aims, importance and tasks of teaching English in our schools-

-how to teach?

The answers to these questions determine the scope of methodology as a science and, consequently, the nature of the problems to be dealt with further.

This paper is devoted to the study of developing materials for teaching listening. The topic in question is very important because trough the normal course of the day, listening is used nearly twice as much as speaking and four to five times as much as reading and writing. The main goal of this paper is set in the following way: to characterize and analyse listening as a process.

Many scientists occupy with the investigation of teaching listening as Gillion Brown, Burdeniuc Galina, Semlyan Eva, Wilga Rivers and others.

This paper is based on the following fundamental tasks that must be performed:

1. to select useful information about the topic from various resources;

2. to explore listening phenomenon;

3. to identify the difficulties;

4. to elaborate activities eliminating these difficulties.

The investigation is carried on the basis of the following methods:

1. analysis

2. synthesis

3. generalization

4. systemic experiment

5. contrastive analysis method.

One hundred of listening activities have been analysed. The material of the research comprises the analysis of exercises for listening from the textbooks “English for Life-8” and “Tasks for Language Teachers”.

According to the investigation we have the following structure of the paper:

Chapter I is connected with the study of listening as a psycho-pedagogical process;

Chapter II deals with the critical analysis of listening exercises;

Chapter III describes a model of developing materials for teaching listening.

The quoted and recommended literature is given in the bibliography. Conclusion presents the results of the carried out investigation.