Mid-Semester Listening Review
Often, the advice you get as a language learner is the quantity is the most important. That doing MORE with the language will help you improve faster. If you want to be a better speaker, speak more! If you want to be a better listener, listen more! The accompanying idea is that there should be a variety of speaking, writing, listening, and reading opportunities. This is great advice. We call this extensive language practice. This means that the purpose is contact with the language. The whole purpose is to expose you to as much language as often as we can. This can be extremely helpful for students, especially when they aren't studying the language in a place where it is used frequently.
However, there is another approach to language practice. We call this intensive language practice. This means that instead of a lot of very different practice, the focus is on taking one practice and looking at it very closely. This is usually done with listening and reading. Rather than a "quantity is best" approach, you take a "quality is best" approach. In this lesson, we will practice taking ONE listening passage and discussing it in detail. We will use this one listening passage to apply everything we have learned so far.
This may sound repetitive and possibly boring to you. The idea isn't that you will do this every time you listen to something. The idea is that you learn to take a deep look at the language every once in a while to practice the skills you are developing. When you repeat the same recording for these activities, you are able to focus on strategies you want to practice instead of having to develop a general understanding of the content, organization, vocabulary, speaker's accent, etc.
Think of it like these binoculars. You can see and appreciate the view of the city with just your eyes. This is like extensive listening. It's great! You have an experience of seeing the city. You will remember the most important details of what it looks like. However, if you look in the binoculars, you will be able to focus your view on individual buildings. You might notice something you couldn't see with your eyes alone. It adds a little to your experience. Maybe it helps you understand where the buildings are in relation to each other a little better (organization). Maybe you recognize a building you couldn't see clearly before (new vocabulary or major details). Or perhaps you just find yourself appreciating how beautiful something complex can be (grammar).
Exercise 1: Background Knowledge
The topic of this TED Talk is "The Art of Stillness" by Pico Iyer. Pico Iyer is a travel writer. Before you listen, think about the title and the speaker's profession (and point of view). What do you think he will talk about?
Consider what type of vocabulary you would expect to hear in this TED Talk.
Think about the speaker's purpose and audience. How might his speaking be influenced by those factors?
Exercise 2: Purpose & Point of View
Listen to the introduction to his TED Talk. As you read, think about the purpose and point of view by asking yourself these questions:
- What is the main purpose here? To explain, entertain, persuade? What is the underlying purpose?
- TED Talks typically follow similar patterns. Read the TED Mission Statement and consider how the speaking situation impacts the purpose and point of view: TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and, ultimately, the world.
- What is the speaker's background and experience? What might his bias be? How would it be different than your own or the people in the audience?
Introduction Transcript
Listen to the until 2:53.
Now listen to his conclusion. See if his more explicitly stated purpose and point of view match your answers after reading the introduction.
Exercise 3: Organization
This TED Talk transcript is organized into 6 paragraphs. Below is a list of the topic sentences from each of his spoken paragraphs. Read the list and talk to a partner about how his speaking is organized.
Topic Sentences
- I'm a lifelong traveler.
- And of course, this is what wise beings through the centuries from every tradition have been telling us.
- Now, in the physical domain, of course, many people, if they have the resources, will try to get a place in the country, a second home.
- And so when I was 29, I decided to remake my entire life in the light of going nowhere.
- I'll always be a traveler -- my livelihood depends on it -- but one of the beauties of travel is that it allows you to bring stillness into the motion and the commotion of the world.
- So, in an age of acceleration, nothing can be more exhilarating than going slow.
Exercise 4: Vocabulary
Because vocabulary knowledge is so dependent on the experience of every individual language learner, we will practice identifying new vocabulary individually.
- Watch the TED Talk on the TED website while reading the transcript.
- When you see an unfamiliar word, write it down.
- Read the sentences around the word to see if there are clues to the meaning.
- Be prepared to share the new vocabulary words you found with the class, as well as your guesses on the meaning of each word.
Exercise 5: TEDTalk - "The Art of Stillness" by Pico Iyer
Here is the complete TEDTalk.
Comprehension
To evaluate your understanding of the TED Talk, you will take a quiz and answer questions about the main idea, major details, and minor details.
In-Class Discussion
- Iyer's opinion is that going nowhere can be more valuable than travel. Do you agree or disagree with his perspective? Explain your answer with specific reasons.
- Tell your partner about a specific experience you had with either an exhausting vacation or a relaxing day of nothing. Remember to include specific details about the experience and what made it good or bad. Your explanation should use the past.
- Pico Iyer has clearly traveled extensively around the world. The many of the examples he uses are of people with a significant amount of money, comfort, and stability. Do you think his advice and experience are universal? Would this practice have the same impact on someone living in poverty?
- One of the references used in this TED Talk is to William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Here is a link to the context of that famous line. On the left you will see the original text, on the right you will see the Shakespearean English in modern words. How does this example from classic literature relate to the speaker's topic?
- How would you change this topic to have a different purpose or share this same information with a different audience?
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