Scienze per la comunicazione internazionale Lingua Inglese 1 grp AE 17th lesson 1st Marchj 2004

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Scienze per la comunicazione internazionale
Lingua Inglese 1 grp A-E17th lesson 1st
Marchj 2004

• Prof.ssa Francesca Vigo
• vigof_at_unict.it
• 095-7102261
• Office hours
• Wednesday 15 17
• room 138

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• LISTENING

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Listening to NS

• Listen to Marie-Claude asking for directions in
  London
• Try to describe which problems she is having

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Tapescript MARIE-CLAUDE ASKING FOR DIRECTIONS IN
LONDON

• MC Er, excuse me please, er
• NS Yeah?
• MC Er, excuse me, where is, er Regent Strett?
• NS What?
• MC Er, Regent Street?
• NS Oh, Regent Street
• MC Er, yes, yes
• NS ER, well, look, you go up to the top of the
  street, right?
• Turn left, carry straight on, youll see the
  tube station on your right..
• MC Yes
• NS Yeah? Go past that, turn left and youll have
  Regent Street.
• You cant miss it. All right?
• MC Thank you very much

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Possible problems

• The NS is speaking too fast
• The NS is swallowing his words
• Too much information is given
• She is unfamiliar with the words used
• She is unfamiliar with the accent of the speaker

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English a stress timed language

• English is a stress-timed language
• Le sillabe accentate ricorrono ad intervalli
  regolari incuranti del numero di sillabe non
  accentate.
• In una frase il numero delle sillabe accentante
  rimane fisso e quindi tutti gli elementi non
  accentati devo restringersi per mantenere quel
  ritmo.
• La pronuncia delle sillabe non accentante varia
  fino ad annullarsi in schwa.
• Le forme deboli spesso non sono udibili e
  quindi confondono chi ascolta

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Listen again to Marie Claude!

• Try to understand what the NS says starting from
• Well lookto
• right

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• NS well, look, you go up to the top of the
  street, right?
• Turn left, carry straight on, youll see the
  tube station on your right
• What kind of words are stressed?

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What kind of words are stressed?

• NS well, look, you go up to the top of the
• street, right?
• Turn left, carry straight on, youll see the tube
• station on your right

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• They are all words that carry meaning

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• Up top street
• The meaning is clear
• Other words are not necessary

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SO.

• Dont panic
• Dont expect to hear every single word
• Listen for the stressed words

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Listening strategies

• Listening for gist
• Selecting and rejecting
• Guessing and predicting

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Main difficulties suggestions

• trouble with sounds
• problems to understand every word (ineffective)
• problems with speed (more exposition)
• need to hear things more than once
• problems to keep up (relax trying not to
  understand every word)

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1. Listening for gist
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• tapescripts

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2. Selecting and rejecting
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• tapescripts

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Characteristics of real-life listening situations

• Informal spoken discourse
• - brevity of chunks/ grammar
• - pronunciation often slurred different from
  standard (allright / orright)
• - vocabulary often colloquial (guy/man)
• - noise
• - redundancy use of fillers (I mean, well,
  er..), use of repetitions

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False friendsTranslate

• The film was boring, I was very annoyed
• It is very convenient to go to the shopping
  centre now
• Her new book was edited by a famous English poem
  writer
• There is no confidence between them
• Our teacher is too demanding
• Actually, I am not translating any more, I am
  teaching at University now
• Eventually we go to the chemist
• Your essay is not consistent

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• 9. Her technical choices are effective and not
  expensive
• 10. He is definitely lunatic
• 11. Something new occurs once in a while
• 12. Please do not walk on the pavement
• 13. Unfortunately we have run out of petrol
• 14. My mother spends days polishing her silver
  tea-pots!
• 15. He seemed preoccupied
• 16. I hate those, who pretend to be what they are
  not
• 17. Poor girl, she has been raped last week
• 18. Behaving like you did is not sensible!