Eileen Mu

1. What additional types of information does video material make available to the language learner?

2. What are the advantages of using video material for the practice and development of listening skills?

 

If producing summaries of listening texts appears to be a comparatively difficult task for L1 listeners, it is likely to be at least as difficult for L2 listeners.

3. What do you think might be the additional (speaking or listening) problems involved in the case of summarizing L2 listening material?

 

In the section entitled 'Purpose and expectation', Ur (1984:4) says 'It would seem a good idea when presenting a listening passage in class to give the students some information about the content, situation and speaker(s) before they actually start listening.'

4. Do you agree with Ur? Why (not)?

 

EXPLAIN QUESTIONS ABOVE BY SUPPORTING WITH THE ARTICLE 1.3 REAL-LIFE LISTENING

We could divide real-life listening activities into 2 simple categories where you (1) listen without speaking, or (2) listen with the opportunity of speaking. Which of those two types are the following engaged in?

 

A. A student at a lecture

B. Someone listening to a radio play

C. Pupils being told how to conduct a chemestry experiment

D. Someone in lunch-time conversation with a friend

E. A patient listening to his doctor describing a course of treatment

 

If the listener has a problem in understanding some part of what he has heard,

1. what can/should he do in each case?

2. Do the sources of help differ in the two categories?

 

3. In which category is the responsibility for overcoming any difficulties mainly the listener's, and in which is it the speaker's?

 

EXPLAIN QUESTIONS ABOVE BY SUPPORTING THEM WITH THE ARTICLE 1.2 UNIQUENESS OF LISTENING

 

Imagine you meet a friend who has just completed a stay in hospital. When you ask him how it went, he begins his answer with the words 'Fine, except for the visiting hours. They told me I couldn´t...'

 

1. How have you started to interpret his comment?

2. What sort of complaint might he be going to to make about the hours?

3. Who do you think he is referring to when he says 'they'?

4. Who are the potential actors in your own hospital script*?

5. What are the sources, in your case, for your knowledge or expectations about hospitals?

 

EXPLAIN QUESTIONS ABOVE BY SUPPORTING YOUR ANSWERS WITH 1.1 AN OVERVIEW OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION

 

 *Script is the term coined by Schank and Abelson (1977) to describe a set of knowledge of probable sequences of events in familiar situations. Like a film or theatre script, a mental script specifies the roles played by certain actors and the expected sequence of their actions. Our mental script, unlike the film or theatre script, will not normally specify the precise words that each actor will use.

 

¿Qué hay detrás de esos tus ojos que dicen nada y ocultan todo?

Ojos oscuros que sin querer esconden sus más vastos deseos

Ojos profundos que sin querer aluden a las más grandes promesas ayer enterradas

Ojos de luz que sin pedir lo exigen todo

Ojos tiernos que sin hablar gritan por amor

 

¿Qué hay detrás de esos tus ojos que dicen nada y ocultan todo?

Nada que hiere el corazón de quien late al verte

Nada que rompe con cualquier ilusión de repente encendida

Nada que deja en el pasado la vaga esperanza

Nada que divide en dos los senderos ayer inusitados

 

¿Qué hay detrás de esos tus ojos que dicen nada y ocultan todo?

Ocultan posibles oleadas de sentimientos de dos

Ocultan posibles encuentros al pensar en el amor

Ocultan posibles caricias de ternura encendida

Ocultan posibles primaveras en rigidos invierno

 

Detrás de esos tus ojos que amo cuando se vuelven estrellas

Detrás de esos tus ojos que amo cuando estoy yo

Detrás de esos tus ojos

 

 

 

¿A dónde vas corazón ciego?

que prosigues sin conocer al verdadero ser

de quien corona tu imagen y coincide en tu aliento

¿A dónde vas corazón ciego?

que lates sin parar al minimo estruendo de su voz

de quien con audacia maquilla su entorno y colorea de ilusión tu interior

¿A dónde vas corazón ciego?

que aguardas con esperanza el detonante profundo

de quien al descubrir tu universo excelso se mude firme y eterno

¿A dónde vas corazón ciego?

que vislumbras dimensiones agenas y eternas

de quien sin conciencia alimentó tu sueño y reconfiguró tu secreto

Dime ahora corazón,

¿Pertenecer o no pertenecer?

¿Creer o no creer?

¿Arriesgar o no arriesgar?

He ahí el constante dilema de tu continuo existir