Minimal response as the aid strategy to develop listening comprehension in a beginning level

MINIMAL RESPONSES AS THE AID STRATEGY TO DEVELOP LISTENING COMPREHENSION IN A BEGINNING LEVEL.

Beginners of the English language lack of listening comprehension in a conversation because the most of the time they do not listen to music, radio, conversation,etc., without an idea about the content as pronunciation and meaning of the words so they are not   able to understand the message that the speaker is trying to convey.In addition, the speaker has to speak accurately to make less difficult to the listener understand the idea or message.Such ideas are base on what J.C.Richards calls  ´script competence´, that is the knowledge we possess in advance about the subject-matter or context of the discourse (Richards, 1983)

There are some problems that the students  face to get an effective listening comprehension in a conversation.For instance, they need a strategy that  help them to  understand what is said in a conversation so I am going to use the minimal responses as  an aid which is going to be useful to develop their  listening comprehension in a conversation because this strategy presents them different communicative situations that listeners can face in a conversation.For example, compliments, greetings, apologies, compliments. invitations, etc

Moreover, their expectations may often be linked to their purpose in listening so if they want to know the answer to a question, they are will  ask and expect to hear a relevant response.This leads to their ´listening out´for certain phrases or words.It depends from their  questions.For example, where are you going to be?.Then they are going to listen carefully for the expression of a place.

So:This strategy has different kind of minimal responses that the listener can make a conversation :single words (yes,no,ok),phrasal utterances(oh really,oh my god),short clauses(that´s right, that´s true and I agree) and large utterances(what? For clarification).These are very short and easy to learn, so in this way they are going to be able to make a prediction about what they are listening and later on they are going  to make minimal responses in any conversation.Moreover, the listener will be connected with their purpose  and their expectations because minimal responses are indicators that the listener is understanding what the speaker is saying as well as they are going to get  self-confidence to participate even at the end or while the speaker is talking. (Zimmerman, 1975)

PURPÓSE

This paper aims to identify the use of minimal responses a conversation in which the listener uses this strategy as an aid to develope  listening comprehension  in a beginning level

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

How do minimal responses help to beginners to develop listening comprehension  in a conversation?

What kind of activities does the teacher implement in a classroom to develop listening comprehension?

Bibliografía

Richards, J. C. (1983). ´Listening comprehension´ 17:2. ESOL Quarterly.

Zimmerman, D. W. (1975). Sex Roles, interruptions and silences in conversation.