Everything in writing begins with language. Language begins with listening.
Jeanette Winterson
Today in class we talked about how to assess ELLs listening skills. We went over some of the main ideas and looked out some examples of types of questions that can be used in assessing listening. We then broke up into three groups and worked on our collaborative group assignment. Each of the three groups were asked to review certain pages in the chapter and pick out the most important information. We then presented our findings to the rest of the groups. Each of the groups also did a role play of sorts. At the end, we took a group picture to post on our blog.
I can relate to how an ELL feels about listening to a native English speaker. I am sure that they think that we talk too fast. I felt this way when I was learning Japanese. Even after I got somewhat good at Japanese, I still felt like Japanese people spoke way too fast. Out of all of the skills, I definitely think that listening was my worst while studying Japanese. Even on my final exam, that was the section I scored the lowest in. I think that it would take me many more years of studying Japanese to ever get really good at understanding what Japanese people are saying.
I chose this quote because I do think that language begins with listening for the most part. As infants, we hear what others are saying around us and we start to mimic that. If we cannot hear how sounds are made, then we would have a lot harder time pronouncing the sounds correctly. We also need to know a language in order to write it.
I really like your quote. Language really does begin with listening. I can relate with your experience learning a language. Listening took me a long time to develop, and even at the end of my stay in France I still could not always understand what my 20-something host brother was saying. He never articulated and spoke at the speed of light!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the discussion we had about assessing listening. I too like your quote. I believe that language does begin with listening. One can learn a new language just by listening to the language being used and the context behind the words. Listening is also a skill that I am working on myself. I listen really well, but more of a selective kind of listening. I am also a visual learner and I am working really hard to learn by just listening to lectures and discussions without having to write things down.
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