4. Selective In longer stretches of discourse such as monologues of a couple of minutes or considerably longer, the task of the student is not to process everything that was said but rather to scan the material selectively for certain information. The purpose of such performance is not to look for global or general Meanings, necessarily, but to be able to find important information in a field of potentially distracting information. Such activity requires field indepen-dence on the part of the learner. Selective listening differs from intensive listening in that the discourse is in relatively long lengths. Examples of such discourse include:
• speeches
• media broadcasts
• stories and anecdotes
• conversations in which learners are "eavesdroppers" Techniques promoting selective
listening skills could ask students to listen for:
• people's names
• dates
• certain facts or events
• location, situation, context, etc
• main ideas and/or conclusion
5. Extensive This sort of performance, unlike the intensive processing (#2) described above, aims to develop a top-down, global understanding of spoken language. Extensive performance could range from listening to lengthy lectures to listening to a conversation and deriving a comprehensive message or purpose. Extensive listening may require the student to invoke other interactive skills (e.g., notetaking, discussion) for full comprehension.
6. Interactive Finally, there is listening performance that can include all five of the above types as learners actively participate in discussions, debates, conversations, role-plays, and other pair and group work. Their listening performance must be intricately integrated with speaking (and perhaps other) skills in the authentic give and take of communicative interchange.
Principles for Designing Listening Techniques 1. In an interactive, four-skills curriculum, make sure that you don't overlook the importance of techniques that specifically develop listening comprehension competence.