English Australia Journal : English Australia Journal 27.1
EA Journal Volume 27 No 1 59 using music in listening classes sAsAn BAleGhizAdeh Shahid Beheshti University, G.C. shirin firoozBAkht Khatam University Listening is an important constituent of verbal communication. Second language scholars now recognise it as a vital skill in second language learning and advise language teachers to allocate more class time to listening activities. Byrnes (1985, p.81) puts into words the current attitude very well by stating that: A growing body of research on comprehension characterizes it as an activity with a high degree of active cognitive involvement whose essential characteristic is creative inferencing, hypothesizing and critical evaluating performed at every step of the process. If we wish our students’ behaviour to reflect these insights, major adjustments in our approach to the tasks of listening comprehension and reading and in the way we might most effectively teach them are in order. In recent days, the shift from total comprehension to functional comprehension has been noticeable. It must be kept in mind that listening comprehension skills cannot be acquired overnight. Students make progress through various skill levels. Taylor (1981, p. 41) outlines how students progress from hearing an indecipherable stream of sounds, to grasping isolated words, to understanding groups of words, to apprehension of clauses and sentences, and ultimately to extended speech recognition. Efficient language teachers insist on a manageable sequence of listening comprehension activities and select listening activities that contribute to the development of students’ listening skills.
English Australia Journal 27.2