Teaching listening as an aim at primary school contents introduction chapter theoretical foundations of teaching listening

1.2 Difficulties in listening comprehension
In order for the purposefulness of teaching listening to overcome problems and the formation on this basis of skills and abilities that contribute to successful work in natural conditions, you need to correctly imagine these difficulties can be due to
1) the nature of the language material,
2) difficulties can be connected with the language form of communication,
3) with the semantic content of communication, composition,
4) with the conditions for presenting the message,
5) with sources of information,
6) difficulties concerning the listener himself, his auditive experience. It should be noted that methodologists classify 4) and 6) as extralinguistic, and 1), 2), 3), 5) as linguistic.
1) Difficulties caused by the nature of the language material, in turn, can be divided into phonetic, lexical and grammatical difficulties.
Phonetic difficulties can be both common to all foreign languages ​​and specific to individual languages. A common difficulty is the lack of a clear boundary between sounds in a word and between words in a sentence; the presence in foreign languages ​​of such phonemes that are not in the native language, for example: [ ], [ ], [ ], [ ] in English.
The discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation of words is especially acceptable for the British language.
As for intonation, in English it changes for a general question, but even here it is a secondary means, since word order is decisive for expressing a question. The incomplete pronunciation style characteristic of oral speech, in which different words get the same meanings, also causes considerable difficulties when listening to oral speech, for example:
They will He is
They'll He's
They shall He has
Among the lexical problems, it is necessary first of all to include the presence in the English language of homonyms (hour - our) and homophones. Words that are close in sound also cause great difficulty, especially paronyms (economic-economical), words expressing paired concepts (answer - ask, give-take, west-east), words that have the same compatibility, or simply met side by side for the first time , - in other words, everything that can be confused.
In the field of grammar, the greatest difficulty is caused by the discrepancy in the syntactic pattern of the phrase - an unusual word order (assigning the preposition in the sentence to the very end). So, for example, different parts of speech in English often coincide in form: to work-work, to answer-answer. Since in most cases the connection between words is carried out with the help of different service words that do not have an independent lexical meaning. Recognizing service words by ear is not easy, because. They are often in an unstressed position, and therefore are reduced and combined with other words (for example, give her hat). in addition, weak forms of service words (you've, I've, he's) are used in oral speech.
There are, furthermore, difficulties in understanding from the ear the so-called "compound verbs" (compound verbs) of the type to put on, to put away, to put off, to put up, to put down, etc. The difficulty of understanding is aggravated by the fact that the second part of the verb can be far removed from the first (for example, Put your hat and coat on! I don't want to put the question off any longer; etc.).
Finally, one cannot ignore the English syntax. Let us point out, for example, that in English the participles and infinitives are widely used, which traditionally correspond to subordinate clauses in the Russian language. In English, further, conjunctions are often omitted before subordinate clauses (for example: the man yon met…, The book you brought me, I haven't the thing you want, etc.), which is atypical for a Russian student .
2) Difficulties associated with the language form of the message appear for two reasons:
a) thanks to the language learning material contained in the message,
b) due to the familiar, but difficult to hear, language material present in the message.
In general, depending on the specific educational tasks and on the basis of the completeness of understanding of information, two types of listening are distinguished: listening with full understanding and listening with understanding of the main content of the text (I.A. Bim). Listening texts with full understanding do not include unfamiliar vocabulary and expressions that could interfere with perception. When listening to a text with an understanding of the main content, the student must strive to understand the text as a whole. At the younger stage, the main attention should be paid to the development of the ability to fully understand the text.
3) Difficulties associated with the semantic content of the message, with its composition. The effectiveness of teaching listening depends primarily on the interest of students in understanding. An effective emblem of successful listening is the introduction of parts of humor into the audio text. Humor contributes to creating an atmosphere of ease, relaxation.
Descriptive texts, as a rule, are less interesting and emotional, therefore, when listening to such texts, it is imperative to be detailed, which is an additional difficulty. The plot long text attracts attention more easily, causes a desire to understand what is heard. When understanding such a text, individual details do not have the same meaning as when listening to a descriptive text. Here, a certain direction of perception arises faster, which makes it possible to overcome the probable difficulties in understanding. An unexpected denouement of O. Henry's stories or texts that tell about similar actions of certain heroes of B. Shaw, naturally, not suitable for listening.
4) Difficulties associated with the condition of presenting the message.
The correct tempo of speech messages describes, as is clear, not only the speed and accuracy of their understanding, but also the efficiency of memorization. There is, as emphasized by N.N. Gez, the maximum speed of presentation of speech messages, the increase or underestimation of which leads to a sharp drop in activity and a noticeable decrease in the level of understanding, fatigue, and a decrease in emotional tone.
During listening, students can be given tasks, write down words under stress, such as:
Listen to the rest of the conversation and write the important (stressed) words. Your notes should look like a telegram. Ann … teen here long … Nick …
5) Difficulties associated with sources of information.
Audiovisual and auditory sources of information
Audiovisual sources include: all sorts of abundant visualization (pictures, slides, etc.), accompanied by the teacher's story, dubbing of the dia- and film, television and the teacher's speech. Auditive sources include: gramophone records, phono records and radio broadcasts. The next most difficult source will be a filmstrip (slides, etc.) accompanied by the teacher's speech. Students will not be able to follow the facial expressions and gestures of the speaker, but the presence of subject visibility in the form of filmstrip frames and a familiar voice, rondo simplifies understanding. A more complex source is filmstrips, TV shows, the narration of which is slandered by an unfamiliar voice. The low male voices of a soft timbre are also easier to perceive, the most difficult thing is the high voices of a sharp timbre. The motion picture is the more complex of the auditory sources of information. The thing is,
Feature films are especially difficult, where visual information does not correspond to speech. But auditory sources of information are more difficult, because they lack any visual support. Speech in the recording has exemplary and unchanging sound.
N.V. Elukhina presents the following more appropriate sequence of inclusions of sources of information in the pedagogical process:
1) teacher's speech + visual clarity
2) teacher's speech + filmstrip
3) the teacher's speech is simple
4) teacher's speech + movie
5) filmstrip + unfamiliar voice
6) television
7) movie + unfamiliar voice
8) tape recording (teacher's speech)
9) tape recording (unfamiliar voice)
10) record
11) radio
6) It is generally accepted that listening is associated with difficulties of an objective nature, independent of the listener himself.
The process of perceiving speech by ear is distinguished by an active, purposeful nature associated with the performance of complex mental and mnemonic activities, the success of which is facilitated by a high degree of concentration. Attention arises with the help of emotions and develops due to them, but emotions constantly appear in a person in unity with volitional action.
A skillful combination of individual, frontal and group work, combining in pair work students with different backgrounds, an abundance of exciting forms of control, commenting on mistakes indicating a noticeable improvement in listening comprehension of individual students, etc. It will contribute to the activation of mental activity, an increase in enthusiasm for work, personal and collective responsibility.