Hokkaido JALT:

Are We Really 'Teaching' Listening?

Date: Sunday, January 29th, 2012 Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Speaker: David Barker

Description:
Many people have made the observation that we do not really teach listening; we just keep testing it. Indeed, most of our materials are based on the assumption that students� listening skills will naturally improve through exposure to a series of listening texts accompanied by questions and tasks designed to test their comprehension. In this presentation, I will look at what it really means to �teach� listening, and I will discuss steps that teachers can take to speed up the learning process. I will also examine the connection between pronunciation knowledge and listening skills, and I will introduce elements of the English pronunciation system that I believe need to be explicitly taught, particularly to speakers of non-European languages.

Bio: David Barker is from North Wales in the United Kingdom. He has been teaching English for almost 20 years, and he has taught in the UK, Singapore, New Zealand, and Japan. He has the RSA Diploma in TEFLA, an MA in applied linguistics, and a PhD in English language education. He has worked full-time at three Japanese universities, and part-time at four more. He has also taught in several junior high and high schools. He is the author of seven books and various magazine and newspaper articles for Japanese learners of English, and he is the owner and founder of BTB Press.

Organization: Hokkaido Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Hokkaido JALT)

Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 1,000 yen

Venue: Hokkai Gakuen University map

Location: Sapporo City, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan

Contact Hokkaido JALT

Website: jalthokkaido.net