Less proficient listeners at advanced levels
Particularly at more advanced levels, less effective listeners may also be those who rely too much on top-down processing and devote too little attention to checking their interpretations against all the information.
In what follows, you can explore how two first year post A-level students of French coped with understanding a complex seven-minute interview in French. This was part of a listening comprehension exam and their task was to write a summary of the interview in English.
| Study the extract from the interview and then look at Student 1's answer. What difficulty has she had in completing the task? What strategy did she use? |
Source: an authentic interview with Catherine Clément (in Dominique et al, Sans Frontières 3, Clé International, 1984: 182-83), who explains her job at the head of an association promoting international cultural exchanges:
Je suis tout à fait d'accord avec l'expression d'importation et d'exportation (1). Je veux dire que la transposition marchande de la réciprocité est une chose importante ... car de même qu'on parle du commerce des idées qui veut simplement dire la conversation ou l'échange des idées philosophiques .. et bien de même il y a le commerce des arts ... et le mot commerce (2) est à prendre dans tous les sens et le sens financier (3) est très important (4).
I totally agree with the expressions 'import' and 'export' (being used in relation to culture). What I mean is that the commercial dimension of reciprocal arrangements is something which is important ... just as we can talk about the exchange (commerce) of ideas, which simply means conversation or the exchange of philosophical ideas, so in the same way, there is exchange of art ... and the word 'commerce (exchange)' should be understood in its range of meanings, and the business (financial) meaning is very important.
Student 1's answer:
Catherine Clément does not like the expressions 'importation' and 'exportation' (1) when it comes to French culture, though she sees that French business (2) is very important (4) to culture as they give financial support (3).
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Reflection task 7
| Again, study the extract from the interview below and then look at the Student 2's answer. What difficulty did he have in completing the task? What strategy did he use? Were the difficulties encountered and the strategy the same as in the previous case (Reflection task 6)? |
Source: an authentic interview with Catherine Clément (in Dominique et al, Sans Frontières 3, by Clé International, 1984: 182-83), who explains her job at the head of an association promoting international cultural exchanges:
Les buts initiaux de cette association qui a été créée en 1922 (1)... étaient texutellement l'expansion de la culture française à l'étranger, je souligne le mot expansion parce qu'en 1922, on ne pouvait difficilement penser autrement, c'était la pleine époque du colonialisme (2), c'était disons le sommet de tous les empires coloniaux des pays occidentaux, pas seulement la France d'ailleurs, et ce mot d'expansion n'a plus de sens maintenant, puisque ce qui se pratique entre pays à l'échelle internationale s'appelle maintenant pas le beau mot de réciprocité ... ce qui est tout à fait différent. C'était l'époque où on envoyait deux ou trois grandes tournées de théatre (3) que les pays étaient censés accueillir comme l'essence meme de la France ... il est bien évident qu'on n'en est plus du tout là. On sait que toutes les cultures sont égales, toutes aussi riches les unes que les autres ... (4)
The initial aims of this association, which was set up in 1922 ... were quite specifically the expansion of French culture abroad. I'm deliberately emphasizing the word expansion because in 1922, that was how people thought, it was the big era of colonialism, it was the high point of the colonial empires of the Western countries, and not just France ... and that word expansion now is no longer relevant, because what happens now between countries at an international level goes by the grand term of 'reciprocity' ... which is completely different. That was the time when we used to send our two or three theatre tours which those countries were supposed to accept as representing the very essence of France and things French ... of course, it's quite clear we're no longer there. We consider that all cultures are equal, each as rich as each other ...
Student 2's response:
The AFAA was set up in 1922 at a time when France was being colonised. In this era, French theatre was very successful. It seemed that all cultures around the world were equally good and as rich.
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