Listening to Authentic Czech. Authentic Listening Proficiency-Based Methods
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 359 782 FL 021 260 AUTHOR Privorotsky-Kabat, Grazyna TITLE Listening to Authentic Czech. Authentic Listening Proficiency-Based Methods. INSTITUTION Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, D.C. SPONS AGENCY Office of International Education (ED), Washington, DC PUB DATE 93 NOTE 287p. AVAILABLE FROM Center for Applied Linguistics, 1118 22nd Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20037. PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Use Instructional Materials (For Learner) (051) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PC12 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Advanced Courses; Athletics; Competency Based Education; Culture; *Czech; Economic Change; Environment; Health; Information Dissemination; *Language Proficiency; *Listening Skills; News Reporting; Politics; Sciences; Skill Development; Social Change; Technology; Uncommonly Taught Languages; Workbooks IDENTIFIERS *Authentic Materials ABSTRACT The set of materials for development of listening skills in Czech is designed for students with advanced language proficiency and is intended to be used with cassette tapes (not included here) to supplement other instrtntional materials. It consists of 20 units grouped into 2 levels (advanced and advanced plus). At each level thereare 10 units, each based on a specific topic, including: announcements; culture; economic change; environment; health; politics; news; science and technology; society in transition; and sports. The unit contains exercisesbased on the tapes of authentic Czech listening materials. An introductory section gives the student background informationon listening skills and habits and describes briefly a number of strategies emphasizedin the exercises, incluVmg predicting, recognizing cognates, identifying grammar and discourse markers, categorizing, listening for specific information, guessing at unfamiliar words in context, repetition,and summarizing. Answer keys for the units are appended. (MSE) ****************************/ **************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best thatcan be made from the original document. * *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) *his documenthas been reproduced as received from the person or organi<ation originating ,1 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction gustily Points of vie* or opinions stateo in this docip ment do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy 1 BEST COPY AVAILABLE LIS TENING TO AUTHENTIC AUTHENTIC LISTENING PROFICIENCY-BASED METHODS GRAZYNA PRIVOROTSKY-KABAT CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS 1993 Table of Contents Table of Contents Preface Introduction Level : Advanced Unit 1 Announcements 1 Unit 2 Culture 15 Unit 3 Economical Changes 29 Unit 4 Environment 43 Unit 5 Health 55 Unit 6 Political World 67 Unit 7 News Digest 79 Unit 8 Science and Technology 91 Unit 9 Society in Transition 103 Unit 10 Sport 115 Level : AdvancedPlus Unit 11 Announcements 127 Unit 12 Culture 137 Unit 13 Economical Changes 147 Unit 14 Environment 159 Unit 15 Health 169 Unit 16 Political World 179 Unit 17 News Digest 191 Unit 18 Science and Technology 203 Unit 19 Society in Transition 215 Unit 20 Sport 227 Answer Keys Level : Advanced Unit 1 239 Unit 2 243 Unit 3 246 Unit 4 249 Unit 5 252 Unit 6 254 Unit 7 257 Unit 8 260 Unit 9 263 Unit 10 266 Answer Keys Level : Advanced - Plus Unit 11 270 Unit 12 273 Unit 13 276 Unit 14 279 Unit 15 282 Unit 16 285 Unit 17 289 Unit 18 292 Unit 19 295 Unit 20 298 ii Preface Listening to Authentic Czech is a sequel to two volumes of supplementary textbooks called Reading Authentic Czech and consists of a workbook and cassette tapes for listening practice. The author believes that listening to authentic text and completing the series of exercises provides practice in understanding and using realistic czech language. The purpose of the book is to familiarize students with the Czech spoken language, which will eventually lead to effective communication in real-life situations. The textbook is not meant to replace other textbooks that focus on intensive teaching of Czech grammar and vocabulary, as it contains neither grammar explanation nor vocabulary lists. It is designed for students of advanced proficiency levels and it can be used either in the classroom or at home. All the materials used for this textbook were taken from broadcast announcements that Czech people hear every day. The majority of the materials were collected in 1991-92. Since Czechoslovakia separated and is still undergoing rapid changes, no special attention should be paid to such details as titles and names of public figures. Most important for the reader is to become familiar with the context of the materials and the format in which they appear. This will invariably help better understanding of the spoken language.The present volume focuses on a single skill -- listening.Listening to professional Czech broadcasters gives students a chance to practice their listening skills and to correct their pronunciation and intonation. Improvement in listening proficiency may be achieved through the use of appropriate listening strategies, which are explained in the introduction. Listening to Authentic Czech consists of twenty units which have been grouped into two levels based on the following ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. Advanced At this level the studentis able to understand main ideas and most of the details of connected discourse on a variety of topics beyond the immediacy of the situation. Comprehension may be uneven due to a variety of linguistics and extralinguistic factors, topic familiarity bein' prominent among them. Texts may include interviews,short lectures on familiar topics, and news items and reports dealing primarily with factual information.' Advanced The student is able to understand the main ideas of most speech in a Plus standard dialect. The listener, however, may not be able to sustain comprehension in an extended discourse which is contextually and linguistically complex. The listener shows an emerging awareness of culturally implied meanings beyond the surface meaning of the text, but may fail to grasp sociocultural naunces of the message. There are ten units at each level. Each tmit is based on a specific topic, such as 'Environment Culture ',SportsHealth contains authentic recorded texts followed by specially designed exercises.Students have to merely open the textbook, read the instructions and listen to the appropriate text, then write the correct answer. Answer keys to the exercises are provided ina separate section at the end of the book. Although Listening to Authentic Czech is built around two levels of language proficiency, it can be used in almost any order, allowing teachersor students to determinate for themselves the progression they wish to follow. The completion of this volume was possiblethanks to a competitive grant awarded to theCenter for Applied Linguistics by the InternationalResearch and Studies Program of the U.S.Department of Education. I wish to express my great appreciation to allthe Czech friends that helped me to collect the authentic materials, especially Marketa Karlovskawho spent hours in the train station and in front of the 1"..V. and the radio recording and transcribingthe texts. Also, my thanks go to Mr. Milan Tomanek of Czech Radio and Mrs. Alena Mullerovaof Czech TV who helped me gather timely news reports. I also wish to express my appreciation to Dr.Eva Roubalovi, Dr. Michael Heim and Dr. Mi la Satkova-Pierce for their insights and careful critiques. My greatestappreciation is reserved for Mr. Waldek Walczynski, who coordinated the processof putting together the textbook and wrote the cover and all the graphics. Thanks also goes to Ms.Marie Ciganek for computerinput and proofreading and to Ms. Kathy Kalinyak who examined every draft version. Finally,thanks to radio speakers Dr.lvona Nemejovska and Dr.Jan NEmejovskS, both of whom took timefrom their busy schedule and helped me to record all texts. To above persons, and to any I have failed to mention, I express mydeepest thanks. Grazyna Privorotsky Kabat Prague, January 1993 1 iv INTRODUCTION This introduction will prepare you for the listening activities in this workbook. The selections you will hear are drawn from real-life broadcasts of television and radio news, science and cultural programs and interviews. Although we all listen to a variety of sounds including music and traffic noises, this workbook has been designed around spoken discourse. Every day, native Czech speakers engage in listening tasks like those you will encounter in this volume. The topics include informational announcements, the media, the environment, sports, culture, societal issues, and science and technology among others. When you complete this workbook, you should be able to understand many listening situations that you would fmd in daily life in the Czech Republic. What is listening? Listening is an interactive, interpretive process in which the listener tries to construct meaning from the sounds, words and tone conveyed by a speaker. Listeners can get clues to the speaker's meaning when they attend to word choice, tone and where possible, extralinguistic clues such as facial gestures and visual cues. Successful listeners frequently make mental connections between what they are hearing and what they already know. Listening comprehension plays an important role in language acquisition. Exposure to comprehensible oral input not only