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TV SERIES AS RESOURCE TO FOSTER THE ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL

Proposal presented by
Angela P. Montaa Avella
Dayanna Mendoza
Andrea P. Villalobos

presented to
YUDY MARIANA IBAEZ GALINDO

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA Y TECNOLOGICA DE COLOMBIA


FACULTY OF SCIENCES OF EDUCATION
MODERN LANGUAGES APPLIED LINGUISTICS
TUNJA
2016

4
Justification...........................................................................................................................
Problem Statement................................................................................................................
Research Question................................................................................................................
Aims.....................................................................................................................................
General Objective.............................................................................................................
Specific Objective............................................................................................................
The theoretical framework...................................................................................................
Research design..................................................................................................................
Metodology.........................................................................................................................
Role of Teachers, Students And Materials..................................................................
References..........................................................................................................................
Appendix A.........................................................................................................................
Workshop 1.....................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................
Appendix B.........................................................................................................................
Appendix C.........................................................................................................................
Appendix D........................................................................................................................
Appendix E.........................................................................................................................

Introduction
For a start, according in what we have analyze at a public university located in
Tunja (Boyac) students of first semester of modern languages have difficulties about to
understand in English when they are exposed to listening skill. That is why this proposal is
about how students can improve their listening skill from a t.v serie because we have
established that students find it as an easy and creative way of improve their listening skill
when they are learning a new language since it is difficult to force them in a context where
they just had to follow a specific way of develop it case of the classrooms management.

On the one hand, this proposal has the objective of help students that are beginners
about to understand the management of a second language when it refers to listening skill
specifically about English. That is why we have implemented a useful resource for solving
those troubles that they can have. The resource it is to create a comfortable space with a
good sound and image in order to practice their listening skill with a specific tv serie which
is going to be according to topic which it is going to be given previoulsly.it is with the
objective of to create aware about what they are listening it is showing in a real context.

For the other hand, this proposal has diverse point about how to develop listening
skill in English. Thus, there is a questioner that was made with the objective of know how
the students think that is their listening skill. The data showed what type of topic they
preferred and how they wanted to work in it. Thus, this proposal includes deep theory about
how the students can develop listening skill taking into account the communicative
competence since the idea of this proposal it is from a tv serie to take aware about the real

situations where language it is crucial when it is refereeing to the intentions that speakers
can have.
Justification

The learning of a new language implies new challenges for the learner; the listening
skill is one of them. According to Brown (2016) Listening in another language is a hard
job, but we can make it easier. (pg, 1). Obtaining a satisfactory listening skill in English as
second language is tough, it requires time, dedication, commitment; and the use of some
listening strategies that can help learners to make this process more bearable, until turn it
into an easier practice in the foreign language.
The importance of the listening skill goes beyond of the professional and academic
context. Listening skill is valuable to the understanding of the language, helping the users
to establish a fluent conversational. (Paris, 2013). Taking those aspects into account, it is
relevant to contribute to the improvement of this skills, creating a strategy for a group of
students of first semester from the Modern language program at a public university. It is
expected that in this space, the students are going to have the opportunity to improve their
listening skills through watching a Tv Series in English.
The learning of English through a Tv Series is a good strategy, because it introduces
the learners to new vocabulary, expressions, to gain a better listening skill, and having fun
while watching them. This strategy could be an useful tool for the members of our
community and perhaps also for others English learners in the world. Teachers can use this
strategy in the classrooms to motivate their students for the enhancing the listening skill in
the second language, in this case English.

Problem Statement

The learning of a native or foreign language is focused on four specific skills:


Listening, Writing, Speaking and Reading (Powers, 2010). Foreign language Learners aims
to become proficient in these four skills because it is a sign of good use and understanding
of the language. Considering the previous aspect, learners are exposed to certain activities
to improve these skills, but sometimes they do not obtain the same progress for each skill,
one or two of them are better developed than the other ones. This was the situation of
students of first semester from the Modern Languages program at a public university, who
affirmed through a questionnaire that their level for the Listening skill was not good, they
have some difficulties to identify tenses and that was hard for them to understand English
native speakers.

Research Question

To what extend Tv Series help students of first semester to improve their listening
skill in English?

Aims

General Objective.
To recognize what extend Tv Series help students of first semester from the Modern
Languages program at a public university to improve their listening skill in English
Specific Objective.
To create a space where a group of students of first semester of Modern languages
program in a public university, be able to watch a Tv Series in English.

The theoretical framework

This theoretical framework connects concepts such us communicative competence


and second language learning focused in skills (listening, speaking, writing and reading);
listening meaning and how Tv Series allow to motivate students to be active listeners. We
believe the best way to have listening comprehension is when it is learnt from
communicative perspective.
According to Hymes (1967), Communicative competence enables people to convey
and to interpret messages, and negotiate meanings between others within a specific context.
That statement has made changes in classrooms for second teaching a second language. It is
necessary to prepare students for real situations in which they could keep appropriate
linguistic interactions in new unrehearsed conditions. Soon communicative competence
became the major objective of Second Language Teaching (SLT) and consequently,
development of the four linguistic skills became a relevant issue in this field.
Skills are divided in two fields: receptive and productive skills (Harmer, 2007).
Receptive skills allow people to extract meaning from the discourse they see or hear
(writing and listening).If a person understands a message; this will be able to produce
answers in writing or speaking way.
We state that Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are
saying. Tarigan and Sutari also suggested that the term of hearing and listening are related
element with different meanings in language teaching. Hearing was an activity of process to
accept words or sentences accidentally whereas listening means fully attention,
comprehension, appreciation, interpretation to get information, to get message, and to
understand communicative meaning that have been expressed by the speaker.
Moreover, Richard & Rubin said that listening do not only to comprehend the
utterances of speakers, but also understood visual aspect in activities of listening
comprehension. Based on those explanations, listening is a process included activity of
listening sound of language and visual aspect, identify, interpret, value, and do reaction for

the content of meaning. This term was used as the fundamental in development of active
integrative listening learning model. Hence, we think at the beginner levels, It is important
to use materials with visual components.
Listening involves understanding a speaker's accent or pronunciation, his grammar
and his vocabulary, and grasping his meaning (Howatt and Dakin). An able listener is
capable of doing these four things simultaneously. In that way, we could say that listening
might be a tough activity to master.
There are needed several micro-skills in order to develop as good as possible the
listening skill Richards (1983) lists the following micro-skills:
Ability to:

To identify the purpose and scope of monologue.

To identify the topic of lecture and follow topic development.

To recognize the role of discourse markers.

To recognize key lexical items related to subject/topic.

To deduce meanings of words from context.

To recognize function of intonation to signal information structure (for example


pitch, volume, pace, key).
To take into consideration the understanding skills the effective listener uses that.

These understanding skills can be used singly or integrated with other ones to fulfil the
defined objective. So, according to Vandergrift and Goh (2012) there are some micro-skills
related to listening:

Listen for details understand and identify specific information

Listen for main ideas understand and summarize key points in a text

Listen for global understanding understand the gist of the message

Listen and infer fill in the gaps in ones understanding by using

knowledge about the language forms and use, and relevant prior knowledge

Listen and predict anticipate what one will hear

Listen selectively pay attention to specific parts of the message by ignoring other
parts.
Thus, for developing the listening skill, students need to be active listeners (Brown,

1990) and have strategies or metacognitive knowledge.


Active listening learning model was based on students focused on pre- listening,
while listening, and post listening activities. Therefore, we think It requires engagement
and motivation.
In pre listening stage, there are some preparations like noticing and reflecting key
words; in while listening, the students make listening process by clarifying meaning and
performance effectiveness; and in post listening stage, students reflected listening purpose
by determining whether listening result accepted or not accepted.
When the students are not aware of the listening strategies, students could try to
listen and understand word by word; students assume failure: students do not have an idea
of the listening context; students are not conscious of features of connected speech, word
stress, or speed of speech.
In this opportunity, the focus on the listening skill will be to find out the discourse
meaning:
According to Sharma (2011) to extract meaning students mean to follow four basic
steps:

They should outline the purpose for listening. They should be active in background
knowledge of the topic in order to calculate or predict content and identify suitable
listening strategies.

They should attend to the parts of the listening input that are important to the
identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on
specific items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to hold
in short-term memory in order to recognize it.

They should select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the
listening task and use them flexibly and interactively. Students' comprehension

improves and their confidence increases when they use top-down and bottom-up
strategies simultaneously to construct meaning.

They should check knowledge while listening and when the listening task is ended.
This helps students to detect comprehension failures, directing them to apply other
strategies.
Returning about bases on listening learning model Sharma also propose:
Before listening to plan the task:

To decide the purpose in advance what one wants to listen.

To determine if more background information is needed.

To attend to the overall meaning or focus on the words and phrase.


In whole listening to monitor comprehension:

To confirm predictions and check for inaccurate guesses.

To view again to ensure comprehension.

To ask for help if it is needed


After listening, evaluate comprehension and strategy use

To assess comprehension in a particular area.

To evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of listening tasks.

To make a decision if the strategies used were suitable for the purpose.

To modify strategies if it is necessary.

For motiving, teachers have to choose the adequate means of training that do not
make listening difficult but create favorable psychological environment to listen. Therefore,
genuine materials and situations prepare students for the types of listening they will need to
do when using the language outside the classroom.
Among materials for working Listening comprehension are radio and Tv programs,
announcements, post casts, speeches and lectures and so on.

In this project, TV series are the chief material because we state that it is briefer
than a movie aiding students to repeat them more than once. According to Wilson (2006)
Tv Series are entertaining, dynamic, dramatic, with culture content, story line, inbuilt
task(guess what happens)easy to extend (show another clip).
Harmer (2004) states videos aid comprehension, since general meaning and moods
are often conveyed through expression, gesture and other visual clues. All paralinguistic
features allow viewers to watch beyond what they are listening to, and interpreting the text
more deeply. Besides, the best reason for which students watch videos in an increased level
is that they have a change to see the language in use.
In brief, Listening understanding could be teaching from a functional focus. It
means planning the process of learning before, in course and after the listening activity. To
carry out that process it is necessary to keep in mind no only real situations but also to
manage materials that allow students feel motivated according their level.

Research design

This proposal instead of developing in the traditional research it has been addressed
by the model of action research because this proposal it is based on to describe what is
happening and to understand the effects that an intervention of new method can produce in
the learning of English That is why this proposal treats topics in the qualitative way since,
the idea it is from the needs that the student can have that is why the proposal addresses
about the positive effect that those problems and what to do for solving them from specific
and confident topics that will be necessary for filling gaps specifically about listening skill.

The context and the participants that included this proposal were students of first
semester of a public university located in Tunja (Boyac). Students which were studying

modern language program and the study showed that those students had difficulties when
they were exposed in situations where it was necessary to pay attention in what it was
saying in English. Those could be songs, videos when the teacher or a native speaker was
expressing ideas. What produced in their knowledge to lose the motivation in their learning
process and as a consequence it could bring problems in the decision of continue with their
career.

About the data collection instruments and procedures. This proposal applied two
instruments which were questioners and interview. The purpose of questioners and
informal interview were to ask about how they feel that their listening skill was and if they
had difficulties how they would like to eradicate them. What it showed, it was that until
they expressed in closed-end-items that they feel confident with listening, but when there
was the possibility to communicate open-ended-questions they expressed that they do not
understand totally. What produced a contradiction in terms of their perception of learning.
Metodology

the chosen population are seven students of modern languages,first semester. they
were chosen at random because in any class there is students with different
personalities,and levels of English knowledge.The number of the students is because the
seekers want to do the activities very close to the students and offer us a good feedback.

from our experience in the first semester they do not the oportunity to work with tv
series and listening from native speaker.hence, they want to innovate with authentic
material.Authentic materials can be even used from the first week of the first semester; however, the

materials must relate to learners' life experiences and contain appropriate features that enhance
comprehension at this level
(Rings, 1986; Vandergrift, 1997).

According to Bacon and Finnemann (1990) authentic materials are those texts
which are made by native speakers for non-pedagogical purposes.Besides, scholars argue that the
use of authentic materials help students to bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and their capacity to
participate in real-world events.In other words, incorporating authentic materials helps students acquire an
effective communicative competence in the target language.

The instruments that we use for gathering data:


Artifacts filled by students (Appendix A,B,C), and field notes and observation
where we will be a description about the development of the class (Appendix G)
The instruments for analysis date there are:
The chart feedback (Appendix D) which displays to the students the aspects that
will allow to measure their achievements.With the field notes and observation we will a self
reflexion about the negative and positive events for the class.that information allows a to
enhance the quality in the learning process.
For leading the work to engage students in the listening comprehension and become
them in active listeners, we take into account some strategies (Brown, 2000) and have and
objective in each activity.
Acoording to Sharma(2011) active listening learning model is focused on prelistening, while listening, and post listening activities. He proposes:
Before listening to plan the task:
To decide the purpose in advance what one wants to listen.
To determine if more background information is needed.
To attend to the overall meaning or focus on the words and phrase.

Thus, pre serve teachers will explain the objective of the activity, useful information
about the video, the possible unknown words and phrases practicing their pronunciation.
Besides, Students will know the question before watching the episode, because it will help
them to focus on mean information.(Appendix A)
In whole listening to monitor comprehension:
To confirm predictions and check for inaccurate guesses.
To view again to ensure comprehension.
To ask for help if it is needed.

For doing this step, Students watch the selected part of the episode without subtitles,
share their ideas and feelings, watch the video with subtitles. Then, Pre service
teachers will ask to the students if they want to watch the video once and will develop the
workshop.
After listening, evaluate comprehension and strategy use
To assess comprehension in a particular area.
To evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of listening tasks.
To make a decision if the strategies used were suitable for the purpose.
To modify strategies if it is necessary.
Therefore, Students will discuss the workshop with pre server teachers and reflect to
the process of the activity.
The activity will allow pre service teachers to test the level of the students and to
design the next grading activities.

The proposal is focused on the communicative teaching approach. According to


Brown,(1990) this approach goes beyond the grammatical discourse elements and try to
prove the nature of social, cultural and pragmatic features of languages and explore
pedagogical means for real-life communication in the classroom.in that sense, Students will
learn from Tv series, expressions, custums and accents of the american culture, and share in
groups their point of views and their undertanding in each episode with open dialogs.
(Appendix A, B, C)

Besides, context aids students to learn vocabulary according to the situation and
have the support of the non-verbal lenguage of the characters.Krashen, S.D. , & Terrell,
T.D. (1983) claims that Communicative competence requires the mastery of the production
and comprehension of communicative acts or speech acts that are relevant to the needs of
the L2 learner.thereby, each activity will show the context, gestures and other body
language cues, knowledge of the meaning of key lexical items in the utterance.

Role of Teachers, Students And Materials.

Each person performs different roles according to the milieu which demands certain
behavior. In this opportunity, it is expected that the preservice teachers be the
leaders, guiders, observers and evaluators of the students of first semester. In other
words, according to Beltran(1995) teachers lead the students toward Knowldge and
design the conditions under which learning can take place. Students' role is very
important during this process, they are expected to follow the isntructions, pay
attention to the TV series and do all the activities recquired by the preservice

teachers, it means they are the participants. Finally the materials play the role of
data collection, which are going to be analyzed and evaluated.

references

Wilson, J. J. (2009). How to teach listening. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Longman.


Harmer, J. (2007). Listening. In The Practice of English language teaching (4th ed.)
(pp. 303-319). Harlow: Pearson Education.
Morchio, M. (2009). Listening as an Easy Skill: Analysis of a Particular
Context. International Journal For English Studies, 9(1), 29-41.
Retrieved from
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ878409.pdf
Rost, M. (2002). Teaching and researching listening. Harlow, England: Longman.
Sharma, N. (2011). Strategies for developing listening skills. ELT Voices,5(1), 1218.
Retrieved from
http://eltvoices.in/Volume1/Issue6/EVI16.2.pdf
Saricoban, A. (1999). The Teaching of listening.The Internet TESL Journal, 12(1),
1-7.
Retrieved from
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Saricoban-Listening.html.

Omid, Akbari. (2016). Using authentic materials in the foreign language


classrooms:Teachers perspectives in EFL classes. International Journal Of Research
Studies in Education, 5(2), 105-116
Retrieved from
file:///D:/Windows7/Downloads/1189-4346-1-PB%20(1).pdf

Appendix A
Workshop 1.

Appendix B.
A TV SERIES AS A RESOURCE TO ENGAGE IN THE ENGLISH LISTENING SKILL
WORKSHOP TWO
UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGGICA Y TECNOLGICA DE COLOMBIA
FIRST SEMESTER STUDENTS OF MODERN LANGUAGES PROGRAM.

PSEUDONYM: _________________________DATE: ________TIME: 1 HOUR


Topic: Mystery and Tales
Objective: To listen, discuss and understand the main issues of the Once Upon a Time (Cora
removes her heart) TV Series.
Activity: After watching the Tv series and discuss with your partners the main ideas of it, answer
the following questionnaire.

1. Who had to take the kings heart?


a. Carol
b. Snow White
c. Cora
d. Rumpelstiltskin
2. Cora has a __________________ to go to.
a. Party
b. Wedding
c. Place
d. Marriage
3. What is in the box?
a. Heart
b. Poison
c. Hand
d. Antidote
4. Was Cora going to scape with Rumpelstiltskin?
a. False
b. True
5. Rumpelstiltskin said Cora to _________________________
a. They will get married
b. He hates her
c. He loves her
d. Not to leave anything stop her
6. What was stopping Cora?
a. Her baby
b. Her husband
c. Her heart
d. Her mother
7. Rumpelstiltskin and Cora had a ______________
a. Contract
b. Baby

c. Wedding to go
d. Other: ____________
8. The contract was about a _____________
a. Heart
b. Daughter
c. Baby
d. The king
9. Cora prefers to stay with Rumpelstiltskin than with the King.
a. False
b. True
10. Cora prefers to stay with Rumpelstiltskin will get married.
a. False
b. True

Appendix C.
WORKSHOP THREE
UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGGICA Y TECNOLGICA DE COLOMBIA
FIRST SEMESTER STUDENTS OF MODERN LANGUAGES PROGRAM.

PSEUDONYM: _________________________DATE: ________TIME: 1 HOUR


Topic: Mystery and Tales
Objective: To listen, discuss and understand the main issues of the Once Upon a Time (An apple
red as Blood' Snow White' eats the poison apple ) TV Series.
Activity: After watching the Tv series and discuss with your partners the main ideas of it, answer
the following questionnaire.
1. Regina is the women with the red dress.
a. False
b. true
2. Snow White saved Reginas life.
a. False
b. True
3. They are looking at Daniels grave.
a. False
b. True
4. Daniel died because of Snow whites father.
a. False
b. True
5. Snow White did not keep Reginas promise.
a. False
b. True
6. The enchanted apple kills people.
a. False
b. True

7. If Snow White refuses to eat the apple, her father will die.
a. False
b. True
8. Regina forced Snow White to eat the whole apple.
a. False
b. True
9. The Charming prince lives thanks to Snow White.
a. False

b. true
10. Regina felt victories because she got a horse.
a. False
b. True

Appendix D
Feedback Chart
Keep in mind these aspects before developing your workshop
Aspect
observation
percentage
Participation in
20%
class
Quality of the
answers(certainty
and grammar)

60%

attitude
and behavior in the
class

20%

Name

Appendix E

WORKSHOP
1

TOPIC
Single
or
Married

OBJECTIVE
To be an
active listener
using
metacognitive
strategies.

ACTIVITIES

Pre-listening.

Pre services teachers present the


objective of the activity.

Pre service teachers contextualize to


the students about friends series and
the possible unknown words and
expressions practicing their
pronunciation.

Students read the questions.

While-listening.

Students watch the selected part of


the episode without subtitles.

Students share their ideas and


feelings from the video.

Students watch the video with


subtitles.

Pre service teachers ask students if


they want to watch the video once.

Students share their answers and give


a title.

Post-listening.

Students discuss the workshop with pre server


teachers and reflect to the process of the activity
1

Myster
y and
Tales

To listen,
discuss and
understand
the main
issues of the
TV Series.

Pre Listening.
1.
Preserves teachers present the objective.
2. Preserves teachers contextualize to the students the
Once upon a time series.
3.
Students read the questions they are going to
answer.
While Listening.
4. Students watch two times, the three minutes series
"Once upon a Time" (Cora removes her heart). Without
subtitles.
5. While watching the series, students take notes, as
names and vocabulary.
6. Preserves teachers ask to the students if they want to
watch the video once.

7. Students discuss relevant ideas about the series with


partners.
Post Listening.
8. Students answer the questionnaire.
9. Students discuss the workshop with preserves
teachers and reflect about the activities.
2

Myster
y and
Tales

To listen,
discuss and
understand
the main
issues of the
TV Series.

Pre Listening.
1.
Preserves teachers present the objective.
2. Preserves teachers contextualize to the students the
Once upon a time series.
3.
Students read the questions they are going to
answer.
While Listening.
4. Students watch two times, the four minutes series
"Once upon a Time" (An apple red as Blood' Snow
White' eats the poison apple ) without subtitles.
5. While watching the series, students take notes, as
names and vocabulary.
6. Preserves teachers ask to the students if they want to
watch the video once.
7. Students discuss relevant ideas about the series with
partners.
Post Listening.
8. Students answer the questionnaire.
9. Students discuss the workshop with preserves
teachers and reflect about the activities.

Appendix F.
Universidad Pedaggica y Tecnolgica de Colombia
Facultad ciencias de la educacin
Programa de idiomas modernos
Lingstica aplicada
El siguiente cuestionario se desarrolla con el fin de conocer algunos aspectos en cuanto a su
habilidad de Listening en ingls como lengua extranjera. La informacin obtenida ser utilizada con
fines acadmicos.
1. Cmo considera que es su nivel auditivo en ingls? Sustente su respuesta.
a)
b)
c)
d)

Excelente
Bueno
Regular
Malo

2. Cul de las siguientes estrategias le resulta ms interesante a la hora de practicar su habilidad de


escucha en ingls?
a)
b)
c)
d)

Series
Documentales
Pelculas
Audio-libros

3. Qu aspectos tiene en cuenta al momento de escoger una estrategia para practicar su habilidad
auditiva en ingls?
a)
b)
c)
d)

Pronunciacin
Acento
Tema
Otro? Mencione cul.______________________

4. Cul situacin le resulta ms conveniente para comprender el idioma ingls?


a)
b)
c)
d)

Cuando su maestro habla en ingles


Cuando habla con compaeros de clase
Cuando escucha a un hablante nativo
otro? cul?

5. estara interesado en hacer parte de espacios dirigidos para el mejoramiento de su habilidad de


escucha en ingls?
a) Si
b) No
6. Cul de los siguientes temas le pareceran interesantes que se aplicaran en dichos espacios?
a)
b)
c)
d)

Romance
Comedia
Policiaco
Thriller psicolgico

7. Cul cree que es la mejor forma de determinar su nivel de listening?


a)
b)
c)
d)

Estableciendo una conversacin sobre lo escuchado.


Realizando un escrito
Desarrollando una serie de preguntas.
otro_______________cul
Gracias

Appendix G.
Chart for the data analysis
Observation and field notes
To describe the situation about
In that situation, what could the
advice be?
Positive
aspects
in
Aspect for improving
For the teacher For the student
the class

Appendix H.
Chronogram of the research project.
Chronogram of the research project
ACTIVITIES

Februar
y

Topic selection

Problem statement

March

Principal and
specific objectives

Rational

Theoretical
framework
Methodology

April

May

June

*
*

Instruments

Application of the
study and data

July

collection
Data analysis
Presentation of the
results

*
*

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