Abstract
The students who study English as a second language (ESL) often face challenges with their oral skills in English because English is not their native language. Based on my observations, experiences, and perspectives, I focus on preparing ESL students for success in their college careers by acquiring listening and speaking skills in this paper.
Keywords: ESL students, oral skills, college career, supportive environment, authentic experiences
One of the most challenging aspects of English language acquisition involves listening skills and overcoming the tendency to avoid speaking for fear of being misunderstood. As an instructor of both intermediate and advanced listening and speaking classes, I strive to help students overcome some of their fears of speaking in public and provide students with the listening skills needed to succeed in college-level courses.
Most of the international students I work with at Minnesota State University join our Intensive English Program as a prerequisite before they are enrolled in general education classes as they work towards their degrees in everything from nursing to aviation upon completion of our program. I model my classes with their future academic careers in mind – with an emphasis on preparing students with the speaking and listening strategies to succeed in general classes, where skills like notetaking, active participation in small group and class discussions, and giving presentations are essential to graduate.
Before I get into some of the specifics of those skills and strategies, I’d like to discuss pronunciation and the importance of recognizing that all of us, whether we’re native speakers or new to the language, have accents and our own vernacular based on the region of the world, or of a specific country we live in. In his book, World Englishes: A Critical Analysis, Saraceni (2015) discusses the fallacy and harm caused by homogenizing English and the historical tendency to prioritize one ‘standard English’ over regional and local dialects.
I frequently remind my students that English is owned by the people who use it, whether we’re talking about variations with their own development and trajectory influenced by regional dialects or distinct vernacular. While this discussion can easily delve into grammar and pronunciation, I encourage my students not to let their concerns over pronunciation keep them from speaking freely. It reminds me of my previous career as a radio host on a morning news show where the news director suggested I ‘get rid of my Minnesotan accent, steeped from Scandinavian immigrants who arrived in the state 100 years ago, so that my speech came across as neutral.
Accents, however, are different than simply being understood, and I encourage students not to get bogged down by speaking a certain way. Instead, in my classes, we focus on phonetics like rising and falling intonation and how to identify each with the level of certainty of the speaker, as well as how English speakers emphasize certain words to steer listeners’ ears to the most important points in a conversation or formal presentation. When it comes to intonation, I model examples that show rising and falling intonation and then ask students to individually utilize those skills in their speech. The students find this task entertaining and often hilarious, and it’s a great way to lower student inhibitions about speaking when focusing exclusively on pitch and volume by using simple phrases that are easy to remember.
To build on this strategy, I incorporate everything from radio and T.V. commercials, to comedy, news clips, and videos of public speeches, with the focus being solely on identifying vocal inflections and then giving students the chance to use those inflections themselves in their own conversations. One Video I share with the students comes from the American television show, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment. One of the episodes, which can be found on YouTube, involves a voice actor repeating the same four words, “I don’t think so,” using dozens of different tones and inflections. It’s a funny example of the wide variety of ways English intonation can change the meaning of a phrase, sentence, or question.
Another video that illustrates the role of intonation, volume, and pitch in expressing sarcasm is a skit by the Toronto-based comedy troupe, Kids in the Hall. The skit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziH9St7ajuw), entitled, “Lonely Sarcastic Guy” provides a great opportunity for students to listen to the main character’s voice inflections for pitch, tone, and speed. Below is the transcript of the skit, with listening instructions for students.
Pitch and Tone
While we watch the video, follow along and underline any words that have a change in pitch (higher or lower) or tone (volume change), or speed (slower or faster). Write p for pitch, t for tone, or s for speed.
Sarcastic Guy: Oh no, you’re not bothering me, Derek, far from it. There’s nothing I would rather do than stand here and chat with you. You know – really get to know you.
Sarcastic Guy: Oh, I’m not being sarcastic. No, this is just a little speech impediment. I can’t help it.
Sarcastic Guy: No, no, no. Please stay. It’s true – I’ve talked this way all my life. It makes things very difficult for me.
Sarcastic Guy: Hey? Where are you going? Come back! I really want to be your friend. I’m so lonely.
While pitch, volume, and tone all affect the meaning, my students frequently express how challenging it can be to keep up with the fast pace of English speakers. Especially in Minnesota, where native speakers have a tendency to speak fast, helping students learn how to extract the vital bits of information to understand the general meaning of what is said is essential. This starts with breaking apart a 10-minute speech into sizable chunks of information.
For example, I may spend a couple of weeks focusing on the main ideas of a speech or presentation. Instead of expecting students to listen to everything all at once, instructing them to listen for specific parts of a speech helps to alleviate anxiety and increase motivation. This provides the foundation for notetaking and creating an outline for student presentations, which I will explain in greater detail a bit later.
Once we’ve identified the main ideas, we delve into details and, eventually, inferences – where a speaker makes a point, claims a suggestion, or opinion without explicitly saying so. One example I ask students to think about is if a friend asks you to go to a party on Friday night, and you say, “It sounds fun, but I’m tired,” what is the signal you are sending? Inevitably, most students figure out pretty quickly that the response means you are not interested in going to the party, even though you didn’t explicitly say, “I don’t want to go.” This can trigger discussions of how we express politeness and different cultural ideas of what it means to be ‘polite,’ which motivate students to share their own insights and ideas.
Student presentations are my primary model for assessment and listening, and notetaking skills provide a blueprint for students to create their own outline and, eventually, an academic presentation. The presentations start very small, especially with the intermediate students. At the beginning of the semester, I ask students to give a very brief 30-second presentation explaining who they are, a couple of fun facts about themselves, and their reason for studying abroad.
As the semester progresses, the students slowly acclimate to longer, more thorough presentations on the academic level as they utilize the speaking and listening skills they’ve acquired in class. When students first give a presentation using computer programs like Microsoft PowerPoint, I encourage them to use those slides and markers and to help them organize their presentations, but to keep the slides simple. As students get more comfortable with an audience, I encourage them to use note cards for supplemental information. My goal by the end of the semester is for every student to feel comfortable enough to go “off script.” This is partially why I encourage students to present in their own lives. Topics range from someone the students admire and why, the process that led to their decision to study abroad in the United States and to express an opinion of some kind using evidence to support that opinion. Past opinion topics have included students’ own experiences with their favorite and least favorite teachers and how that has shaped their view on education or environmental causes like addressing climate change and deforestation.
While all these skills are intended to prepare my students for their general classes and to become more confident in their listening and speaking skills, I think it’s important to spend some time discussing the fear of public speaking, something many of us have grappled with at some point in our lives using our native language. For students learning a new language, the anxiety of speaking in public is even more intimidating.
I remind students that I am looking for progress, not perfection. Some of us are more comfortable speaking than others, and usually, early in the semester, I like to share the story of ABC News Reporter Dan Harris, who had a panic attack on live television while speaking to an audience of millions of viewers. The Video of Harris’s panic attack can easily be found on YouTube, and one thing I ask my students to note is the change in Harris’s voice during that fateful moment. Harris openly shared what he learned from that experience, and I find it’s helpful to remind my students that they, as with everyone in the class, is here to practice in an encouraging and supportive environment.
Acquiring listening and speaking skills in an academic setting is incremental progress, and the one mantra that follows is to never assume anything, particularly when it comes to students listening comprehension. Providing a supportive environment and allowing students to share their own stories and follow their own interests is key to all of this. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing students get excited about a particular discussion topic, and that helps the students to forget they are in a listening and speaking class and to be captured by the moment or the topic. It is that natural, unconscious approach to speech that helps students forget where they are that creates authentic experiences.
References
Sarceni, M. (2015). World Englishes: A critical analysis. Bloomsbury.
Thungangel662. (2008, September 8). Kids in the hall: Lonely sarcastic guy [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziH9St7ajuw
About the Author
Mr. Dan Greenwood is a journalist and reading and writing instructor for the Intensive English Program at Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota, USA. His articles have been published in The Bangladesh Daily Star, National Public Radio, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Mankato Free Press, and U.S. News and World Report, among others.
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