Classroom Ideas Using TV ‘soaps’ for listening comprehension Thomas Farrell is a lecturer in English and Applied Linguistics at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. Here he presents h approach to listening comprehension by using TV soap operas in a step- by-step process comprehensible to students regardless of their level. Introduction For many students not proficient in a language, the skill of listening ean be one of the most difficult barriers to overcome, and listening can be a very harrowing experience. The following is a typical dialogue between a teacher of English and a student: Student: How can I improve my English listening? Teacher: Listen to tapes, or to the radio, or watch TV programmes in English. ‘The teacher, although with the best of intentions, has probably offered advice that will have the opposite effect on the student in general, and on their listening comprehension in particular. The student, although possibly proficient in other skills such as writing, speaking and reading, has probably associated pain/frustration with watching English programmes. The problem with watching unstructured English TV programmes is that the student tends to become submerged in a sea of meaningless noise, which, in turn, results in a raising of that student's affective filter (Krashen 1985). This is not an ideal way for a student to approach a listening task, for as Bacon says: ‘the learner may approach the listening task with more affective baggage: the speech signal may cause the hearer added apprehension since it cannot be touched or held the way a written text can’, However, this noise phenomenon can be reduced by effective structuring of the students’ use of English TV programmes. Careful planning and preparation by the teacher (Ur) can make TV programmes in English more accessible to learners, whatever their stage of language development. This article presents one approach to listening comprehension by using TV soap operas. Why TV soaps? TV soaps are useful for improving listening comprehension for these reasons: 1 In this new age of satellite TV, many countries around the world get soaps beamed into their living rooms, either their own home-made variety or foreign soaps dubbed into their native language. Students using the approach outlined in this article would come into the classroom already familiar with TV soaps schemata. Then the teacher, using Dunkel’s advice ‘to make certain to activate the students’ world knowledge before presenting any listening selections’, triggers the soaps schemata before launching the approach outlined here.Classroom Ideas 2 Classroom listening must prepare students for real/authentic listening situations with language that is, as Bacon says: ‘intelligible, informative, truthful, relevant, and sociolinguistically appropriate’. Soaps provide such authentic listening situations. 8 Although MacWilliam and others (Ur, Dunkel, Bacon) caution against grand claims that visual cues have a positive effect on retention, most see a positive role for TV soaps, not for their content but, as MacWilliam says, ‘they may prove more supportive to the English learner’ 4 TV soaps are usually programmed on a sequential basis with either daily or weekly serials. The continuity of such shows would allow the individual student room for self-correction, self-pacing, and increasing familiarity with the show's characters, setting, mood. 5 It is now widely accepted that spontaneous spoken language does not sound at all like written language read aloud, where rhythm is used because the words are organized in complete sentences. Since spontaneous spoken language is made up as the speaker speaks, it is less organized, and has less information content. Soaps, although not as spontaneous as real-life speech, offer a close example of real language. Also, speakers who have been trained on written-language-read- aloud, or tapes where language is spoken very slowly, are usually shocked when they hear two native speakers talking to each other . The use of TV soaps from the beginning of instruction would greatly alleviate this situation. 6 The goal of any ESL/EFL language programme should be learner independence (Krashen 1982, Dickinson). The use of TV soaps would give students an opportunity to continue watching the programme(s) after the class/semester has been completed. Also, a self-directed learner will be able to transfer this method to other programmes of interest. Procedures ‘This diagram illustrates the main procedures of TV soaps. (Script activators) FUN (Plot prompt) (Western names) SUMMARY NAMES & FACES (Discussion) (Infer age, etc.) (Vocabulary) (Family tree) PERSONALITIES RELATIONSHIPS (Likesidistikes) — “\X_ (Compare culturekin) The procedures given below for each stage have suggestions for pre-stage and post-stage activities, as does the complete method itself; they are presented after the explanation of each stage. MET VOL7NO2 1998, 43Classroom Ideas Stage 1: fun The students are asked to watch a particular soap and have fun. No response is required. Many students, especially beginners, will probably not have understood anything. The teacher's job here is to reassure them that this is normal and to encourage them to continue on to the next stage. Stage 2: names and faces After all the fun of not understanding stage 1, students are asked to listen only for the names of the characters on the show. They should write these and try to draw a picture of each person. Stage 3: relationships Now that the students know some of the names of. the characters, they have to establish the relationships between these individuals (teaching family/relations vocabulary may be necessary prior to stage 3). This is an important stage, not only to reinforce the names recognized in stage 2, but also because the story will have started to form in the students’ subconscious. Stage 4: personalities At this stage the students should be taught the necessary vocabulary to describe personalities in order to be able to write a personality description of all the characters they have identified; they also have to write about the characters they like/dislike, Stage 5: summary The students should now be ready to watch for story content and then write a summary of that day’s/week’s show. This can be compared to the first stage’s frustration of not understanding anything. The students will be surprised at how much they ean actually write. Stage 6: fun The cycle comes full circle and fun returns to watching TV soaps in English, This stage should produce quite a different reaction from that of stage 1. Even the most basic level student should have some idea of the general story line, even if this is only one line. Classroom activities Pre-stage activities Preparation of students for this approach entails a triggering of their schemata/script for watching TV soaps. Students are asked to predict what the soap will be about, from the title or from their previous experience of watching soaps in their native language. This can be performed orally or in writing, whichever causes the least anxiety. During-stage activities ‘The top-down approach, previously mentioned, can continue throughout each stage of the model. Total Physical Response (TPR) exercises can be utilized by beginning students, as can role-plays. An example of an additional exercise that can be used in stage 2 would be to ask students to: identify the setting and socioeconomic status of the people infer each person's age establish who is the most important person establish who the villains are infer the edueational backrounds of each person identify the amount of familiarity between the characters. Many such variations can be incorporated at each stage by any creative teacher. VOL7NO2 1996Classroom Ideas Post-stage activities TV soaps offer a rich context for students to practise speaking and writing on a variety of topics. Activities could resemble the following: an oral debate in groups about an issue of disagreement (advanced) discussion on related topics: culture difference, body language, food, jobs, etc. true/false exercises about each programme interviewing students who assume the role of any of the characters (in groups) groups/whole-class writing of a class soap opera predicting the outcome of the next episode(s) transfer of this approach to other soaps (student directed). Conclusion Language learning usually occurs when we are not focused on the language used (Krashen 1982). The tasks presented at each stage of this model identify a purpose for listening and a response to that listening (Dunkel). Teachers play an important role in this approach, which is different from the traditional teacher-fronted approach. Here, the teacher must be careful when organizing the initial introduction by detailing the purpose of each activity and offering words of encouragement at every step of the way. The use of TV soaps as an authentic teaching tool is a statement of philosophy that TV programmes in English can be accessible to students of all levels of proficiency, and that second/foreign language learning can be fun. Sources For teachers working outside English-speaking countries, here are some ways of obtaining soap operas. 1 A satellite dish or cable TV can be used by the institution in some countries. 2 Find a British Council library; they have video tapes of recent British soaps. 3 For American English, visit a US Information Service (USIS) Center as they also have libraries with video tapes available. 4 Most non-English-speaking countries use soaps that have been originally produced in English; teachers could ask the TV studio to provide a copy of the tape in its original English. 5 Aska friend in the English-speaking country to kindly tape the desired soap and send it to you (or the institution could do this). References Bacon, 8. M. (1989) ‘Listening for real in the foreign-language classroom’ Foreign Language Annals. 22, 543-551 Dickinson, L. (1987) Self-instruction in Language Learning. CUP Dunkel, P. (1986) ‘Developing listening fluency in L2: theoretical principles and pedagogical considerations’. Modern Language Journal. 70, 99-106 Krashen, 8. (1982) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Prentice Hall Krashen, S. (1985) The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. New York Longman, MacWilliam, I, (1986) ‘Video and language comprehension’. ELTJ, 40, 131-134 Ur, P. (1984) Teaching Listening Comprehension. CUP W Thomas Farrell MET VOL7 NO? 1998