tailieunhanh - English Listening Courses: A Case of Pedagogy Lagging behind Technology

However, the handbook is also intended for all teacher aides who do not speak the language of the students they are working with, including those teacher aides who speak only English. All teacher aides can use the information in the handbook in different ways, with the support of a coordinating teacher in their school (. SENCO, Syndicate leader, ESOL teacher, Literacy leader, Learning support teacher). The charts at the end of the handbook (pp 92-103) explain how to work with groups of students who speak the same first language as the teacher aide (first language or L1 groups), and. | TĨIÌ Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 2005 Vol. 2 No. 1 pp. 25-43 Centre for Language Studies http National University of Singapore English Listening Courses A Case of Pedagogy Lagging behind Technology John Wong eljohnw@ City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong KSAR Abstract Of the four English language skills that are often taught separately listening requires more efforts from both course developers and learners. Unlike courses for other skills which are mostly paper-based listening courses are a combination of paper-based materials in the form of a course book and sound-based materials in the form of audio on tapes compact discs. However learners get to keep only the course book and can access the course audio only in class which essentially prescribes teacher-centered lessons. Learner autonomy if it is to take place at all necessitates a different delivery mode. The web seems to be the perfect candidate for an alternative mode. Jakob Nielsen 2003 states that information technology is maturing. When it comes to the multimedia capabilities of the web we can probably argue that the technology is mature. However listening course developers are reluctant to venture to the web and are still clinging to traditional ways of conducting listening classes. This paper discusses issues behind educators apparently slow uptake of advances in web technologies that can be incorporated into the teaching of listening skills in a straightforward manner and attempts to propose interim approaches as solutions. 1 Introduction Listening courses differ from other skills-based courses in a number of ways. Firstly they were introduced to many curricula relatively late. While writing and reading are skills that need to be formally taught to native speakers and so courses designed can be used as models for developing similar courses for use with ESL EFL learners early speaking and listening skills are informally acquired and so there is a lack of