TEACHING ADULTS

Doing versus knowing:

coursebook materials
and the adult L2 listener
John Field

Knowing and doing about language from knowing how of language in transparent contexts, is

C onsider the plight of the adult

learner. He or she has tried, perhaps
several times, to master the basics of
to use it. More recently, cognitive
psychologists studying how experts
behave have proposed a distinction
more appropriate than a deductive one,
based on presenting rules. It is also clear
that such an approach to presentation
English during primary or secondary between declarative knowledge (factual needs to be followed up by oral tasks
school; and has not succeeded. Will information) and procedural knowledge in which learners employ the grammar
more of the same be of any help? Is it (the skill of applying information as and point in similar contexts – and do so as
relevant to repeat the same methods when we need to and as automatically as freely as possible.
and the same instructional content in possible). Surely what the adult learner
the hope that the information will at last needs is not another set of grammar rules By all means, let us provide the grammar
get through on some kind of water-on- followed by manipulative slot-and-filler rule at the end of the session as a way
a-stone principle? The answer is surely: written exercises, but the opportunity to of summarising what has been learned;
no. If learners have failed to achieve put into practice what he/she is in the after all, these are adult learners and
a basic proficiency in English despite process of learning or relearning. more than capable of understanding
the efforts of their earlier teachers, the theoretical explanations. But we must
problems most likely lie not in their There is no suggestion here that we not lose sight of the main goal of adult
ability to understand the grammar of the should do away with grammar. Teachers instruction which is to get learners to
language, but in their ability to put that like courses that are structured around internalise linguistic information, to apply
knowledge to use. major points of language. Adult learners it concretely to real-world situations
themselves view learning as a process and to produce it as spontaneously as
This notion is not new. As long ago of accruing information. But it is evident possible when one of those situations
as 1921, Harold Palmer stressed the that an inductive approach to presenting occurs. Written grammar exercises might
importance of distinguishing knowing grammar, based on providing examples well seem a way of reinforcing what has

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TEACHING ADULTS

been learned, but their weakness is that to behave spontaneously, drawing ,(even those aimed at adults) to relegate
they intellectualise the process of finding upon their knowledge of English skills practice to a brief slot at the end
the right language and allow learners without time to pre-plan. of a language-focused unit. Stand-alone
time to plan what language to use. tasks inserted for cosmetic reasons are
Small wonder that so many adults have Again, all this might seem obvious, but unhelpful. What adults badly need,
failed to transfer school learning to real- there has been a disturbing tendency and very rarely get, is a developmental
world communication. over the past 25 years for coursebooks approach to acquiring skills – one that
begins by practising basic processes
All of this might seem blindingly obvious related to perceiving and producing
to many readers. After all, what was the smaller units of language, before moving
communicative approach about if not “Surely what on to wider issues of (e.g.) meaning in
the importance of language in use? But context and lines of argument.
it bears repeating because, among both the adult learner
teachers and materials writers, there Let us now consider the place of
currently seems to be a backwards trend needs is not listening in all this. It can contribute
to a more formal deductive mode of in two ways, which need to be kept
presentation based on rules and written another set of distinct. One makes use of listening in
exercises. This might sometimes form order to present new language; the other
a convenient way of handling large grammar rules practises listening for its own sake with
primary and secondary classes and of a view to training learners to become
dealing with the demands of a national followed by more successful listeners.
curriculum – but it assuredly does not
meet the needs of adult learners. manipulative Listening for language

The role of skills

written presentation
Listening passages have long been
One conclusion to be drawn from exercises, but used as a means of delivering examples
what has been said so far is that, of grammar in an illustrative context.
in an adult English programme, the opportunity Their advantage (as compared
skills practice is just as important as to reading passages) is that they
recycling points of language that were to put into can be played several times – with
imperfectly mastered in the past. It learners first reporting meaning and
is, after all, competence in the four practice what then going on to identify language
skills (speaking, listening, reading and forms. These multiple plays develop
writing) that enables learners to put he/she is in the familiarity with the language point
their language knowledge to use. Of being demonstrated, but also provide
the four, the most crucial are arguably process phonological models for learners when
the oral skills because, in most they come to produce it themselves.
contexts, they require language users of learning.”
In relation to adult courses, it is
important that the illustrative contexts
used should reflect the real-world
experience of an adult learner. Instead
of Speaker A telling Speaker B for
no particular reason about her two
brothers, three sisters and grandfather,
we might perhaps listen to two
adults planning who to invite to their
wedding. Monologues should feature
alongside more traditional dialogue
material. Indeed, the best type of text
is often one that supplies information
that learners may not know. Instead
of the tired ‘day in my life’ account
to exemplify the Present Simple (I get
up at 7.00, I eat lunch at 1.00, I go to
bed at 11.00), why not a simulated
documentary about a day in the life
of an air hostess or racing driver? Or

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 TEACHING ADULTS

a brief talk about late dining times in

certain cultures? This kind of material
“We should not up the four language skills. They not
only suggest a set of possible targets for
takes a little imagination, but it both
engages the attention of the adult
lose sight of practice, but also provide a framework
which enables one to determine which
listener and avoids the long shadow
of the secondary classroom and the
the fact that, processes are likely to be most critical at
the lower levels of L2 proficiency.
sinking feeling of ‘more of the same’.
these days, the Let us again look at the example of
We should not lose sight of the fact
that, these days, the vast majority
vast majority of listening. It has been argued for some
time (see Field, 1998) that we should not
of adult learners have already been
exposed to English at school. They
adult learners just think of listening loosely in terms of
‘comprehension’. Comprehension can
already have some knowledge of
the language, even if it is imperfect.
have already only be achieved if the learner is capable
of achieving basic word recognition and
A presentational listening passage
should therefore not be exploited by
been exposed to of building grammatical patterns on to
what is heard. Current models of listening
the teacher in a top-down way that
just involves identifying language
English at school. suggest that it falls into five distinct phases:

nn Input decoding: recognising the

information. Instead it should be a
‘fishing trip’, with the teacher playing
They already sounds of the language
the passage a first time in order to
establish how much of it learners
have some nn Word search: matching groups of
phonemes to known words
understand. On a second play,
learners might be encouraged to
knowledge of the nn Parsing: imposing a grammatical
pattern of a group of words
report why the grammar point is used
in the way it is or even to draw on the
language, even it nn Meaning construction: relating what
context and work out its function for
themselves. This supplies the teacher
is imperfect.” has been heard to its context

nn Discourse construction: building a

with valuable information about how
line of argument that runs through
much a group does or does not know context as they sometimes have to in a
what has been heard
– and thus about how much time to real-world situation.
give to introducing new language or
Each of these can and should be practised
revising known. We need to avoid
a default assumption of ignorance,
Listening as a skill: a by means of small-scale exercises in order
which leads to learners feeling
developmental approach to build up a learner’s competence in
the skill. For extensive examples of such
underestimated or patronised. Independently of any language input,
exercises, see Field (2008).
extensive and focused attention needs
In choosing the language of a to be given to the development of the
presentational listening text, materials four language skills. Again, this is not a So how to grade such material in a way
writers and teachers go to great lengths controversial idea. Since the early 1980s, that ensures a skills programme that is
to restrict the grammatical forms used it has been widely accepted that it is truly developmental? Once again, there
to those taught so far in the course, necessary for learners to acquire practice is plenty of hard evidence. It is well
and to confine the vocabulary to in the four skills and that it might take established in the case of L1 reading
a narrow range determined by the the form of focusing on processes which that children acquiring the skill focus a
syllabus. Again, one has to question contribute to successful performance. great deal of attention on recognising
whether this is wholly relevant to adults Unfortunately, in practice, this need has words and that, as a result, they do not
who are revisiting material rather largely been sidelined, with (as noted have enough attention capacity for
than encountering it for the first time. above) skills tasks quite often tacked thinking about wider issues of meaning
Should writers and teachers of lower- on to grammar and vocabulary work as or of discourse. The same is true of L2
level adult courses feel themselves optional extras. What is required instead, listening. In fact, word recognition in
bound by the convention of excluding particularly for the adult learner, is a listening is even more demanding than
grammar that has not yet featured? structured programme which develops reading because a) spoken words vary
Would the odd past or future verb proficiency in each of the four skills in the greatly on form from one realisation to
form in an early unit do very much kind of graded and systematic way that we another, and b) listeners have to work
harm? Certainly, writers should be would expect of a language programme. out where one word ends in connected
free to introduce occasional items of speech and the next begins.
vocabulary that fall outside the target Fortunately, these days, we have
range, with a view to encouraging detailed models (based upon empirical My own database of learners
learners to infer word meaning from research) of the processes which make reporting how they handle listening

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TEACHING ADULTS

An adult skills package

In short, what has been proposed here
is a course format that addresses the
specific needs of the adult learner by

nn using listening passages to present

instances of grammar in adult
contexts

nn handling those passages in ways that

pass the initiative to the learner, and
draw upon his/her prior knowledge
of English

nn moving from listening input to oral

practice

nn accompanying language content with

a progressive skills syllabus in the form
of small-scale listening tasks that each
focus on a single problematic aspect
tests demonstrates a heavy reliance in themselves as language users – and of the skill, e.g. recognising weak forms,
upon decoding isolated words until their faith in the effectiveness of their locating word boundaries, recognising
intermediate level (somewhere listening training. words changed by assimilation and
between CEFR levels B1 and B2). elision; processing at clause level;
It is only at this stage that listeners At lower proficiency levels, L2 listening inferring meaning
become able to report chunks of words is of necessity a highly strategic activity,
nn providing strategy training that shows
(including function words) and show with learners identifying isolated words
learners how to form assumptions
signs of responding much more rapidly or phrases in the stream of speech and
on the basis of spoken input that has
to oral questions. What this tells us is quite often having to rely on guessing
only been partially understood.
that, at lower proficiency levels, we the ideas that link them. What is
need to focus small-scale practice urgently needed in these early stages
References
upon input decoding, word search and is therefore additional practice that
parsing. There is plenty of work to be addresses the realities of the situation. Field, J. (1998) Skills and strategies: Towards a
new methodology for listening. ELT Journal,
done in these perceptual areas – not Early L2 listeners need to be shown how
52/2, pp. 110-118
least, getting learners to recognise to form and check hypotheses about
Field, J. (2008) Listening in the Language
words that change their forms in what they have heard.
Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge
connected speech and locating where University Press
word boundaries fall. For a fuller The most effective way of achieving
discussion of grading in listening, see this is probably to play a short
Field, 2008: Chapter 17. listening passage and ask learners
to report how much they have
understood. Without correcting
Strategic listening them or adding to what they have
Training learners in a focused way to said, the teacher then replays part
make them better listeners is only one of the recording and asks them to
side of the listening coin. This type of note down any words that they have
skills development takes time, and a managed to recognise. They guess John Field is a member of the CRELLA
critical consideration with adult L2 the ideas that link the words, and on research unit at the University of
learners is how they will manage to a second and third play, check their Bedfordshire. He is best-known for his
get by meanwhile. Many of them will guesses and try to add more words to work on listening; his Listening in the
Language Classroom (2008) is a standard
be confronted with real-life examples those that they have identified. The book in the field. His thinking is supported
of L2 speech – either in their everyday point is to encourage them to behave by a background in psycholinguistics, on
contacts with others speaking English strategically in extracting meaning which he has also written widely. In earlier
or in their exposure to English- from a partially understood text. It years, John was a prolific materials writer,
producing national coursebooks for Saudi
medium films, TV programmes, news constitutes a preparation for the real Arabia, skills-based courses for Hong
broadcasts or audio material on the world where they cannot expect Kong schools, a two-year BBC English by
internet. If they fail to make even speech content to be tailored to meet Radio course and TV courses for the Open
minimal sense of what they hear, it their level of language knowledge or University of China. He continues to advise
publishers on ELT coursebook design.
can severely affect their confidence their level of listening expertise.

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