Book Review

Hi readers, here I really hope that you can give me some critics, suggestions, comments, or anything that can help me improve my review. Thank you. :)

 

BOOK REVIEW

LISTENING IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

By John Field

Cambridge University Press: Cambridge

2009

As written at the title, this book is about listening in the language classroom. Mostly, the author talks about some alternative approaches to teach listening that can be applied in teaching listening so that the teachers can run their classes better. One of the approaches stated in this book is comprehension approach. In the chapter, the author suggest a more effective way to do the comprehension approach.

This book is written by Dr. John Field, a senior lecturer in cognition in language learning and assessment. He has an MA in Linguistics and ELT from the University of Leeds and an MPhil in English and Applied Linguistics from Cambridge University. He has published widely on second language listening. In fact, this book, Listening in the Language Classroom, which is his most recent book, has reshaped thinking on the teaching of the skill, and won the international Ben Warren Prize for its contribution to second language studies.

After I read this book, there are some topics that interested me. One of them is “listening and the learner” part. In this chapter, the author wants to consider the ways in which comprehension approach affects the dynamic of the classroom and to put forward suggestions on how some of the teaching practices with which the approach is associated might be made more effective.

For comprehension approach stated in this chapter, the listening class is teacher-centered. It is the teachers who control the agenda. It is the teachers who do most of the work. As for learners, the comprehension approach marks out the student’s role as being to answer questions. The comprehension approach was founded on the premise that there is a ‘right’ answer to each question that is asked. Actually, I do not really agree with what comprehension approach marks for the learner’s role even though I know that this approach is made by experts. In my opinion, listening is not only about answer the questions to check the students’ comprehension of the listening, but listening also, actually, have to ‘train’ the students ability to listen so that they can comprehend better.  

Besides, the writer explains about the differences between listening in group and individually. The interesting fact is that learning listening individually and learning listening in groups have different effects on learner. They can comprehend better about what they hear when they listen to the listening in group because they have some discussion after listening activity. Another advantage is that the learner becomes more active speaker since they discuss their understanding to each other. It means that, instead of listening the students can learn speaking as well. Brown (2006) also said the same idea. He said that “once the listening tasks have been completed, if time allows, speaking tasks using the same topic can be done in pairs or groups to give practice interpersonal listening”. 

I really agree about having group listening and discussions because there must be some things that make the students hard to understand what they listen to. As teachers, they should understand that all humans are limited in their ability to process information (Brown, 2006). Because of this limitation, I think the teachers should provide some time for the students to discuss the materials in the listening. Also, it is because everyone may have different understanding about listening. Even the best listener can have difficult time (Brown, 2006). This different understanding may be because sometimes the speakers at the conversation in the recording do not always say exactly what they mean. That is why we have to check for meaning. Barker in Brady and Leigh (2005) stated that “words have no meaning—people have meaning”. Thus it means that the students need to listen what the speakers trying to say. Therefore, the students need to discuss the possibilities of what the listening may exactly mean so that they can comprehend better.  In addition, Brown also stated that “listening courses must make use of students’ prior knowledge in order to improve listening comprehension” (2006). Therefore the students need to share they knowledge on guessing what the listening about exactly. If the students have already had prior knowledge about the topic, they can comprehend what they listen to easily. Thus, having listening in group and group discussion afterward is just necessary. 

Therefore, for me, I think it would be good if this method (listening in group) is used in our department. As I have experienced I have not done listening activity in groups in listening class. We just listened to the record individually in our sits and answer the questions. Sometimes, we only have class discussion after the listening activity, but this is not enough to make all students to participate in the discussion because only some students who are willing to speak out their opinions. Whereas the students need chances to express their own ideas and listen to different point of view, to talk through problems or share ideas to create something new (Dawes, 2011). And, listening in groups and having the discussion afterward are useful to check the students understanding of the listening. As Dawes (2011) mentioned that “children need to say things aloud if they are to check their own understanding and that of others”. Thus, I think having group listening and group discussion in listening are worth-considered activities to have in listening class in our department. 

In conclusion, from the benefits that can be got by the students on their listening comprehension, the more effective way to do the comprehension approach is to have group listening activity and group discussion after the listening. Because of that, I personally suggest that this activities to be used in our department.

References

Brady, M., & Leigh, J. A. (2005). A Little Book of Listening Skills. Paideia Press. Retrieved on September 15, 2013, from http://libgen.org/book/index.php?md5=CC2EE67929B43AB78E6026C7942265C7&open=0

Brown, S. (2006). Teaching Listening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dawes, L. (2011). Creating A Speaking and Listening Classroom- Integrating talk for learning at key stage 2. New York: Routledge.

Field, J. (2008). Listening in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on September 10, 2013, from http://libgen.org/book/index.php?md5=0b6e0d06403cbf6df170661577c02f14&open=0