Assessing listening skills in the context of aviation English training

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Flight Academy of National Aviation University

ASSESSING LISTENING SKILLS IN THE CONTEXT OF AVIATION ENGLISH TRAINING

TSAROVA Liudmyla,

Candidate of Pedagogy, Associate Professor

Associate Professor of the Foreign Languages Department

Annotation

listening assessment learner task

This article deals with the introduction of a variety of assessment techniques and it will suggest whether they fit the needs of the learners. The article will help to choose and adapt materials from published books, tasks made by other teachers or to prepare own listening assessments to use in the classroom.

The main emphases of this research is put on the importance for teachers offoreign languages in the Higher Educational establishments of Ukraine to identify some of the problems that learners have with listening; distinguish between different kinds of listening texts; distinguish different types of listening; find suitable recordings to use for listening tasks; demonstrate awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of different types of listening tasks; select or design appropriate tasks to assess your students for different purposes. So, the teacher should focus on the following aspects as tests and assessments; assessment for learning; listening; feedback and so on.

Key words: assessment, listening skills, listening tests, future aviation specialists, radiotelephony communication.

Анотація

ЦАРЬОВА Людмила Василівна, кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент, доцент кафедри іноземних мов, Льотної академії Національного авіаційного університету.

ОЦІНЮВАННЯ НАВИЧОК СЛУХАННЯ У КОНТЕКСТІ ВИКЛАДАННЯ АВІАЦІЙНОЇ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЇ МОВИ

Мета даної статті - представити різні способи оцінювання слухання у контексті викладання авіаційної англійської мови, і як це оцінювання відповідає потребам курсантів, що вивчають професійну англійську мову. Дослідження допоможе вибрати та адаптувати матеріали з виданих підручників, завдання підготовлені іншими викладачами та створити свої власні тести для оцінювання слухання для використання на заняттях.

Для викладачів іноземних мов у вищих навчальних закладах України очевидними є проблеми, що постають перед студентами під час слухання професійно-орієнтованих текстів. З цією метою треба чітко розрізняти тексти для аудіювання, що відповідають потребам слухаючих; різні типи слухання, знайти відповідні тексти для слухання, продемонструвати обізнаність на переваги та недоліки різних типів завдань для слухання; вибрати та створити різні завдання для оцінювання навичок слухання у студентів. Тому, викладачі повинні зосередитись на таких аспектах, як тест та оцінювання, оцінювання слухання та результат тестування, тощо.

Головне питання, що постає перед викладачами, чому слухання є таким важким, чому слухаючі вважають слухання важким, що робить слухання більш важким за інші навички, такі як говоріння, письмо та читання. Існує багато причин, чому слухання іноземною мовою є таким важким. Коли ви пишете чи слухаєте, ви можете вибрати слова, якими користуєтеся. Проте, коли ви слухаєте, інша людина робить цей вибір. Ви можете не знати ці слова та словосполучення, що застосовані у слуханні. Коли ви слухаєте, у вас мало часу перевірити незнайоме слово у словничку, і наступну частину тексту для слухання ви вже пропустите. Крім того, інші шуми можуть перешкоджати якості розуміння почутого. Під час читання у вас достатньо часу перевірити значення незнайомого слова у словничку, і потім успішно подовжити читання, що не можливо при слуханні. Більш того одне слово може звучати по-різному у викладі різних осіб. Навіть у межах вимови однієї особи слова можуть звучати по-різному залежно від слів, що знаходяться поряд. Мовці зазвичай не висловлюються чітко, можуть робити помилки і виправляти себе, під час мовлення, що впливає на розуміння.

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) створено для того, щоб уніфікувати світові вимоги щодо оцінювання лінгвістичних навичок, зокрема навичок слухання. Відповідно до вимог розрізняють рівні A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. У певній мірі ця градація співпадає із вимогами ІКАО щодо професійного рівня володіння авіаційною англійською мовою авіаційними спеціалістами, це допомагає створювати тестові завдання для перевірки навичок слухати. На основі вищезгаданих уніфікованих вимог викладачами кафедри іноземних мов Льотної академії Національного авіаційного університету був створений тест, який успішно використовується усіма викладачами на заняттях професійної англійської мови.

Ключові слова: оцінювання, навички слухання, тести для перевірки навичок слухання, майбутні авіаційні спеціалісти, радіотелефонна комунікація.

The main text

The problem set. As listening is in the specific communicative sphere of aviation with its standard forms, certain communicative situations which are determined in accordance with the requirements of ICAO. That is why the attention is primarily drawn to introduce a variety of techniques to assess the Aviation English as an effective means of verbal communication, and a form of social interaction of communicative partners and whether these techniques fit the needs of the learners.

The aim of the research. The article will help to choose and adapt materials from published books, tasks made by other teachers or to prepare own listening assessments to use in the classroom.

The analysis of recent researches and publications. For teachers of foreign languages in the Higher Educational establishments of Ukraine it is very important to identify some of the problems that learners have with listening; distinguish between different kinds of listening texts; distinguish different types of listening; find suitable recordings to use for listening tasks; demonstrate awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of different types of listening tasks; select or design appropriate tasks to assess your students for different purposes. So, the teacher should focus on the following aspects as tests and assessments; assessment for learning; listening; feedback and so on. Some of these issues were studied in the works of Buck G., Brown J., Field J., Flowerdew J., Green A., Milles L., etc. Though, they did not researched these problems in the connection with the assessment of future aviation specialists' listening skills.

The main body of the research of the article. The vital questions that teachers face to are what make listening difficult; why learners find listening difficult; what makes listening more difficult than other skills: speaking, writing and reading.

There are many reasons why listening in a foreign language is very difficult. When you write or speak, you can choose the words you use. When you listen, another person makes all the choices. You may not know the words and expressions they choose. When you listen, you have only a brief, passing opportunity to make sense of what you hear. And other noises can get in the way! When you read, you can easily check the meaning of unknown words in a dictionary. When you listen, you may not be able to match the sounds you hear to any word that you can look up. Even if you can pick out and spell a word, if you look it up in a dictionary, you'll miss the next part of the message.

Words have a fixed shape on the written page, but when you listen, it's impossible to hear where newordendsandthenextbegins.

In a noisy room, it is not easy to hear the difference between...

some others in the next train are causing trouble

some mothers with neck strain are causing trouble.

The same word can sound completely different when used by two different people. Even within one person's speech, words sound different depending on the other words around them. The phrase "the ripe apple" can be distinguished from "the right apple", but can you hear any difference in pronunciation of "pass me the ripe banana" and "pass me the right banana"? The context usually helps to make the meaning clear, but we often have to keep several possible meanings in our head, before the real one becomes obvious. Which word peach, beach, pitch, speech best fits in each gap

I think that's probably the best ...

— I've ever tasted.

— I've ever spent the day at.

— I've ever played on.

— I've ever heard.

It is impossible to decide on the correct answer until you hear the end of the sentence.

Moreover, concerning difficulty, speakers do not usually organize their ideas as clearly as writers. They generally have less time to plan and while they are talking they may make mistakes and correct themselves: "Pilot: Air China 102 ZHO 32 at 10200 metres, WXI 47, correction WXI 57" [1, p. 6].

Meanings in spoken language can vary according to stress and intonation. If you see a noticeboard in a train station that says "the next train is for York" the meaning is clear. But if a person says this to you, there may be many meanings, including these three:

The next train's for York (the train is for York rather than another city).

The next train's for York (the next train is for York, but this train is not).

The next train's for York (asking for confirmation: is the train going to York, not another city?).

All of these issues make it difficult for students to understand as they listen. As teachers, we need to find out what the problems are: we need to assess their abilities. And we need to help our students to overcome the problems: we need to develop their listening skills and strategies through guidance and practice.

Green A.. claims that it is essentially important to connect different kinds of listening texts to students' needs as learners of English [2, p. 84]. That is why the teacher must keep in mind three things listening tasks should reflect on students' listening experience, connect their experiences to a list of kinds of listening text and relate these experiences to a list of kinds of listening text and to students' needs as users of English.

As for investigation of students' listening experiences the teacher may provoke discussion about recent listening experiences. He may ask them to make a list of students' different experiences of listening to people speaking over the last 24 hours. These questions may be answered: Who was speaking? Why were you listening to them? In the web resource "Say Again?" all these issues are presented. The teacher may provoke thinking about these experiences. For example: Which involved seeing the person who was speaking? Which involved other kinds of visual information? Which involved recordings?

We presume these types of listening experiences have much in common with the following texts: public announcements and instructions public debates and discussion; public speeches, lectures, presentations, inter-personal dialogues and conversations; rituals (awards ceremonies, religious services); telephone/video-conferencing; conversations; entertainment (drama, shows, readings, songs); job interviews; sports commentaries (football, cricket, boxing, horse-racing, etc.); news broadcasts, radiotelephony communication.

Then the teacher may match the students' listening experiences and types of texts. All that helps to distinguish the kinds of listening texts students listen to most often, which ones were most important and for students. In this way the teacher studies what students need and don't need listen in English.

According to Green A. all mentioned above kinds of listening may be divided into three groups:

Very important for me in my future as a user of English. 2. Useful for me in my future as a user of English. 3. Not useful for me in my future as a user of English [2, p. 85].

Next step is to introduce different types of listening, to connect these to the kinds of listening text mentioned above and to consider some of the factors that can make listening to different texts easier or more difficult for language learners. There are four issues within this step: identify different types of listening, connect types of listening to kinds of listening texts, identify factors that make listening easier or more difficult, judge the Common European Framework level of listening tasks [2, p. 86].

The author differentiates several types of listening. When people listen to different kinds of text, they pay attention to different kinds of information. For example, on the train, you may listen to announcements to check the name of the next station, but you may decide to stop paying attention if the announcement is not relevant to you. This is very different from listening to a friend when you are having a conversation. Your friend probably expects you to show your interest by reacting (smiling, nodding, making "interested" sounds) and asking questions. It is rather different from what happens during radiotelephony communication, when speakers do not see each other. They rely only on their listening comprehension skills.

Researching the way we listen in terms of different types of listening, kinds of text and types of listening Brown J. suggested six types of listening that are important in language classrooms:

1. Reactive listening, focusing just on the sounds heard, e.g. "A classroom drill in which the students try to copy words and phrases that they hear".

2. Intensive listening, focusing on the form of the language, e.g. "Discussing with classmates about what kind of present to buy for your English teacher".

3. Responsive listening, showing understanding, e.g. "Following simple instructions: stand up, open the door, pick up your bag, draw a box".

4. Selective listening, picking out important information such as dates, times, locations, e.g. "Listening and identifying how many words you hear or deciding which sounds are questions and which are statements".

5. Extensive listening, understanding longer texts and connecting the ideas, e.g. «Listening to a five-minute lecture on the internet and taking notes».

6. Interactive listening combining listening with speaking - and sometimes other skills as well, e.g. «Listening to announcements in a train station to find the time and platform of your train» [3, p. 86]. In our opinion during radiotelephony communication the last one prevails.

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is designed to give people involved in language education around the world a shared way to describe language abilities. According to the proficiency requirements they differentiate such CEFR levels of listening skills:

A1 Can follow speech that is very slow and carefully articulated, with long pauses for him/her to assimilate meaning. A2 Can understand simple directions relating to how to get from X to Y, on foot or with public transport.

B1 Can understand the main points of radio news bulletins and simpler recorded material about familiar subjects delivered relatively slowly and clearly. B2 Has no difficulty understanding any kind of spoken language, whether live or broadcast, delivered at fast native speed.

C1 Can keep up with an animated conversation between native speakers. C2 Can easily follow complex interactions between third parties in group discussion and debate, even on abstract, complex unfamiliar topics [4].

Somehow they reflect the ICAO requirements to proficiency levels of English of aviation specialists and help to design tasks to develop mentioned above skills and prepare own listening assessments to use in the classroom. Such test was designed by the teachers of the Department of Foreign Languages of Flight Academy of National Aviation University.

Conclusion. So, the identified problems that learners have with listening will help a teacher to focus on the following aspects as tests and assessments; assessment for learning; listening; feedback and so on, while designing listening tests for future aviation specialists.

Areas for further search. Study other troubles of listening and factors that make it hard to listen and understand the profession related listening texts by the future aviation specialists.

References

1. Phraseology of Radiotelephony Communication for Crew // Textbook edited by Vitryak A. M. Kirovohrad: SFAU, 2007.

2. Green, A. (2014). Exploring Language Assessment and Testing. Language in Action New York, Routledge.

3. Brown, J. (1990). Listening to Spoken English. Harlow, Pearson Education Limited.

4. The Common European Framework in its political and educational context. URL: www.helsinki.fi/project/ceftrain.

5. Buck, G. (2003). Assessing Listening. Cambridge University Press.

6. Field, J. (2008). Listening in the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press.

7. Flowerdew, J., Miller, L. (2012). Assessing listening. The Cambridge guide to second language assessment. Cambridge University Press.

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