Journal of English Language Teaching

Academic Listening Skills in the Indian Context

Prateeba Bose

Professor of English, Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India.

Keywords: Cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), academic listening, online classes

---

Abstract

In a scenario where students are more inclined to e-devices such as android mobile phones, laptops, palmtops, tablets and i-pads via online classes, listening has emerged as the frontbencher relegating all the other skills. Academic Language Proficiency is the narrow stream of linguistic competence that comes under the umbrella term “Communication Skills” and the ways of honing the academic listening skills with the ultimate objective of the enhancement of academic language proficiency in the Indian context during the era of online classes are dealt with in this paper. If students improve their academic listening skills by making use of the strategies listed in this paper, then they can eventually improve their overall Cognitive Academic Listening Proficiency(CALP).

---

References

Baker, C. (2006). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (4th Edition).

Clevedon, England, Buffalo, N.Y.: Multilingual Matters.

Cummins, J. (1979) Cognitive/academic language proficiency, linguistic interdependence, the optimum age question and some other matters. Working Papers on Bilingualism, No. 19, 121-129.

[BICS & CALP Explained by Jim Cummins]: http://www.iteachilearn.com/cummins/ bicscalp.html

James, C. J. (1986). Listening and learning: Protocols and processes. In B. Snyder (Ed.), Second-language acquisition: Preparing for tomorrow (pp. 38-48). Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook.

Krashen, S. (2018). Paths to Listening competence, Beyond Words, Vol. 6, No. 1.

Long, D. R. (1990). What You Don’t Know Can’t Help You. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12(01), 65. doi:10.1017/ s0272263100008743

Rost, M. (2002). Teaching and researching listening. Great Britain: Pearson Education.

Samuels, S. J. (1984). Factors influencing listening: Inside and outside the head. Theory into Practice, 23, 183—189.

Vandergrift, L. (2007). Recent developments in second and foreign language listening comprehension research. Language Teaching, 40, pp 191210 doi:10.1017/ S0261444807004338

Vidal, K. (2003). Academic listening: A source of vocabulary acquisition? Applied Linguistics, 24.1, 56–89.