TITLE
“THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DISCOURSE AND THE LISTENING SKILL
FROM THE FIRST CERTIFICATE OF ENGLISH FCE EXAM TAKEN ON
NOVEMBER 2012 IN THE APPLIED LINGUISTICS CAREER AT
UNIVERSIDAD DE LAS FUERZAS ARMADAS – ESPE”
AUTHORS
DIANA CRUZ SALGUERO
BRAADWELL CASTRO NOGALES
DIRECTOR
MIGUEL V. PONCE, M.S.
CO-DIRECTOR
DR. OSWALDO VILLA, MG.
• The FCE has five papers, each
paper has different parts.
• Listening is the main problem.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cohesion
Coherence
Intentionality
Acceptability
Informativity
Situationality
Intertextuality
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Genre
Agreement between speakers
Identifying speaker´s feeling
Attitude
Opinion
Purpose
Gist
Detail
Specific information
Main details
FCE FORMAT
100%
SPEAKING
0/20
15,20
20%
15,20
READING
0/30
16,00
20%
10,66
WRITING
0/20
15,47
20%
15,47
LISTENING
0/30
15,23
20%
10,15
USE OF
0/42
22,68
20%
10,80
ENGLISH
PART1
LISTENING PAPER
16
GENRE
X
AGREEMENT BETWEEN
X
PART2
PART3
PART4
SPEAKERS
14
IDENTIFYINF SPEEAKER
X
X
ATTITUDE
X
X
X
4
OPINION
X
X
X
2
PURPOSE
X
X
GIST
X
X
X
DETAIL
X
X
X
X
X
12
10
FEELING
8
SCORES
6
0
PART1
PART2
PART3
PART4
MAIN POINTS/IDEAS
X
X
PART1
LISTENING PAPER
AGREEMENT BETWEEN
16
PART2
PART3
PART4
X
SPEAKERS
14
IDENTIFYINF SPEEAKER
X
X
ATTITUDE
X
X
X
4
OPINION
X
X
X
2
PURPOSE
X
X
GIST
X
X
X
DETAIL
X
X
X
12
10
FEELING
8
SCORES
6
0
PART1
PART2
PART3
PART4
SPECIFIC INFORMATION
MAIN POINTS/IDEAS
X
X
X
X
X
X
CAUSE
EFFECT
Students present problems
dealing with Specific
Information
Students fail on parts 2 and 4
Students present problems
dealing Genre
Students fail on part 1
The question this study tries to answer is What
is the relationship between Discourse and the
Listening skill of the FCE exam?
VARIABLE
INDEPENDANT VARIABLE X
"DISCOURSE"
DIMENSION
LINGUISTICS
STANDARDS OF TEXTUALITY
DEPENDANT VARIABLE Y
"LISTENING SKILL"
LANGUAGE SKILLS
VARIABLE XY
DECODING THE FCE
LISTENING PAPER
FCE MAKEUP
To determine
the factors that
induces
discourse.
Objectives
To have a
complete
knowledge of
listening skill.
To determine the
relationship
between discourse
and the listening
paper from the FCE
exam.
To
understand
the
principles of
Discourse
Analysis
To
acknowledge
what Active
Listening is
To
understand
what the
Listening
Paper is
about
To
understand
how
language is
performed
To see the
benefits
Active
Listening
offers
To
acknowledge
the FCE
Make up
To realize the
common
barriers for
not listening
actively
To analyze
the FCE
results
To
acknowledge
all Standards
of Textuality
Students
Teachers
Research
will aid
• LINGUISTICS
• PRAGMATICS
-DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
• SYNTAX
• MORPHOLOGY
• SEMANTICS
• Robert Beaugrande: Speech, text, discourse or
conversation is a unit of spoken language
using pragmatics, syntax, semantics and
standards of textuality.
• Beaugrande proves that his standards are
used in any discourse.
 Used to connect ideas.
 Term “continuity” is used by continuing
having different situations related to each
other.
• Do you know how a phrase, a clause and a
sentence works within a recording?
• Can you follow up different ideas that are
connected during a conversation in a
recording?
The ability of a discourse to have sense.
Past knowledge is helpful.
• When you listen to a recording, does it make
more sense when you listen more to the
same recording?
• When you listen to a recording, how well
does it make sense to you?
 The concern of conveying a consciously
and deliberately a message.
• Do you feel lost when listening to a
recording?
• Can you perceive the recording’s
intention?
 The text receiver’s attitude towards
communication.
• Do you understand the context of a
recording?
• Can you notice the speakers’ willingness
to interact in a recording?
 To designate the extent to which a
presentation is new or unexpected for the
receivers.
• How well do you retain information that is
not usual to you?
• When listening to a recording, does new
information make sense to you?
 Factors which make a text relevant to a
situation of occurrence.
• How is your ability, when figuring out the
situation mentioned in a recording?
• Can you understand the speaker’s
objective to communicate in a recording?
Texts based on one´s knowledge or previous
encountered text.
• Was the situation of the recording similar to
yours?
• Can you identify a problem that is happening
in the recording?
• LANGUAGE SKILLS
• HEARING VS LISTENING
• ACTIVE LISTENING
• DECODING THE FCE LISTENING PAPER
• COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC STRATEGIES
-PRAGMATICS
-SEMANTICS
-EXTRA & INTRALINGUISTIC CONTEXTS
-SYNTAX
Listening
Writing
PAPERS
Reading
Speaking
Use of English
• Evaluates the level of English knowledge the
student has, how well the listening is.
• All the questions must be answered in real
time since there is no subsequent time lapse
to think after the recording is played and later
answer.
• Part 1 - Listen to 8 recordings, each with one
question.
• Part 2 - Listen and complete 10 gapped
sentences
• Part 3 - 5 multiple matching questions
• Part 4 - A long recording, with 7 multiple
choice questions
Duration: 40 minutes
The intended score that FCE offers in its
certificate is a B2 level from the CEFW which
stands for the Common European Framework.
SURVEY QUESTIONS
1. Can you follow up different ideas that are connected during a conversation in a recording?
2. Do you know how a phrase, a clause and a sentence works within a recording?
3. When you listen to a recording, how well does it make sense to you?
4. When you listen to a recording, does it make more sense when you listen more to the same recording?
5. Can you perceive the recording’s intention?
6. Do you feel lost when listening to a recording?
7. Do you understand the context of a recording?
8. Can you notice the speakers’ willingness to interact in a recording?
9. How well do you retain information that is not usual to you?
10. When listening to a recording, does new information make sense to you?
11. How is your ability, when figuring out the situation mentioned in a recording?
12. Can you understand the speaker’s objective to communicate in a recording?
13. Was the situation of the recording similar to yours?
14. Can you identify a problem that is happening in the recording?
BEAUGRANDE 1981
FCE FOCUS
COHESION
MAIN POINTS
COHERENCE
OPINION, PURPOSE
INTENTIONALITY
DETAIL, OPINION, FEELING,
ATTITUDE, PURPOSE
ACCEPTABILITY
AGREEMENT, FEELING
INFORMATIVITY
SPECIFIC INFORMATION
SITUATIONALITY
GENRE, GIST
INTERTEXTEAULITY
FEELING
Working Hypothesis
There is a relationship between discourse and
the listening part in the FCE exam.
Null Hypothesis
There is no relationship between discourse and
the listening part in the FCE exam.
• Applied, of field and descriptive
• Technique for collecting data was the exam and
the survey.
• The study was correlational quantitative and
transversal.
 Population Size And Sample
• A total sum of the population. This study was
concerned with 129 ESPE students.
• Census type since all of the students from 6th to
7th semester took the exam compulsorily.
 Field Work
The FCE exam was collected at Universidad de
las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE.
Instruments For Data Collection
Books, FCE exam, excell, power point, word, and
internet.
Data Processing And Analysis.
Quantitative data was compared with graphs
using conversions, rates, and means.
LISTENING SKILL
1. Can you follow up different ideas that are connected during a conversation in
a recording?
VERY GOOD
GOOD
MORE OR
LESS
BAD
VERY BAD
2. Do you know how a phrase, a clause and a sentence works within a
recording?
VERY GOOD
GOOD
MORE OR
LESS
BAD
VERY BAD
D
3. When you listen to a recording, how well does it make sense to you?
VERY GOOD
GOOD
MORE OR
LESS
BAD
VERY BAD
I
4. When you listen to a recording, does it make more sense when you listen
more to the same recording?
VERY GOOD
GOOD
MORE OR
LESS
BAD
VERY BAD
VERY GOOD
GOOD
MORE OR
LESS
BAD
VERY BAD
S
5. Can you perceive the recording’s intention?
C
6. Do you feel lost when listening to a recording?
NOT LOST
A LITTLE
LOST
MORE OR
LESS
LOST
VERY LOST
O
7. Do you understand the context of a recording?
VERY GOOD
GOOD
MORE OR
LESS
BAD
VERY BAD
U
8. Can you notice the speakers’ willingness to interact in a recording?
VERY GOOD
GOOD
MORE OR
LESS
BAD
VERY BAD
R
9. How well do you retain information that is not usual to you?
VERY GOOD
GOOD
MORE OR
LESS
BAD
VERY BAD
S
10. When listening to a recording, does new information make sense to you?
A LOT
NORMAL
MORE OR
LESS
LITTLE
NOT AT ALL
VERY GOOD
GOOD
MORE OR
LESS
BAD
VERY BAD
12. Can you understand the speaker’s objective to communicate in a recording?
A LOT
NORMAL
MORE OR
LESS
LITTLE
NOT AT ALL
13. Was the situation of the recording similar to yours?
A LOT
NORMAL
MORE OR
LESS
LITTLE
NOT AT ALL
14. Can you identify a problem that is happening in the recording?
A LOT
NORMAL
MORE OR
LESS
LITTLE
NOT AT ALL
E
11. How is your ability, when figuring out the situation mentioned in a
recording?
LISTENING SKILL
DISCOURSE
VERY GOOD
(X5)
GOOD (X4)
MORE OR LESS
(X3)
BAD (X2)
VERY BAD (X1)
RESULTS
26
21
235
19
20
195
13
20
165
36
33
276
34
35
276
37
36
292
38
40
234
41
46
261
43
37
240
23
25
96
29
24
106
29
30
118
6
10
16
6
4
10
7
6
13
129
129
857
129
129
848
129
129
828
18
16
170
14
18
160
37
35
288
24
19
172
43
35
234
38
32
210
26
39
130
38
38
152
5
4
9
15
22
37
129
129
831
129
129
731
23
18
205
30
33
252
41
46
261
29
30
118
6
2
8
129
129
844
14
15
145
49
42
364
33
33
198
27
32
118
6
7
13
129
129
838
SURVEY QUESTIONS
1
2
COHESION
3
4
COHERENCE
5
6
INTENTIONALITY
7
8
ACCEPTABILITY
9
10
INFORMATIVITY
11
12
SITUATIONALITY
13
14
INTERTEXTUALITY
COHERENCE
INTENTIONALITY
ACCEPTABILITY
INFORMATIVITY
SITUATIONALITY
INTERTEXTUALITY
848
828
831
731
844
838
COHESION
857
880
860
840
820
800
780
760
740
720
700
680
660
Listening skill
Discourse
COHESION
COHEREN
CE
INTENTIO
NALITY
ACCEPTAB
ILITY
INFORMA
TIVITY
SITUATIO
NALITY
INTERTEX
TUALITY
Related result
Expected counts
Chi square difference
Related result
Expected counts
Chi square difference
Related result
Expected counts
Chi square difference
Related result
Expected counts
Chi square difference
Related result
Expected counts
Chi square difference
Related result
Expected counts
Chi square difference
Related result
Expected counts
Chi square difference
VERY
GOOD
235
189,14
11,11
195
187,15
0,32
165
182,74
1,72
170
183,4
0,97
160
161,33
0,01
205
186,27
1,88
145
184,94
8,62
1275
GOOD
276
284,82
0,27
276
281,83
0,12
292
275,18
1,02
288
276,18
0,5
172
242,94
20,71
252
280,5
2,89
364
278,51
26,24
1920
MORE
OR LESS
234
242,99
0,33
261
240,44
1,75
240
234,76
0,11
234
235,62
0,01
210
207,26
0,03
261
239,3
1,96
198
237,6
6,6
1638
BAD
96
124,31
6,44
106
123
2,35
118
120,1
0,03
130
120,54
0,74
152
106,03
19,92
118
122,42
0,16
118
121,55
0,1
838
VERY
BAD
16
15,72
0,0048
10
15,55
1,98
13
15,19
0,31
9
15,24
2,56
37
13,41
41,47
8
15,48
3,61
13
15,37
0,3
106
857
848
828
831
731
844
838
5777
LISTENING PAPER
PART1
PART2
PART3
PART4
X
X
X
X
X
FCE FOCUS
GENRE
AGREEMENT BETWEEN SPEAKERS
X
X
GIST
X
SPECIFIC INFORMATION
MAIN POINTS/IDEAS
X
 Positive relation
 Students had problems understanding
new information
 Intentionality covers 62.5% of all the
Listening Paper
 Synergy by combining strategies
 3 Simple specific information
strategies
 Knowing the Listening Paper format
Students
Ministerio
de
Educacion
Tutors
FCE
Graders
 Problem
• Informativity was the first cause and Situationality
the second cause before the survey.
 Objective
• To avoid frustration and confusion in the Listening
Paper.
• Students understand new information, intention
presented in the Listening Skill and the use of
Discourse.
 Strategy
• Intentionality was shown as the second cause of the
low performance of the Listening Skill after the
survey.
Students do not
have problems
with the
Listening Paper
Aim
“TO BETTER THE LISTENING SKILL
PERFORMANCE OF THE FCE EXAM”
Purpose
Component
Activity
Test takers can
understand new
sorts of
information
when listening
Students should
take a 24listening-hour
course
Students are able
to understand
the objective of
the listening
Students should
take a
Preparation
course for the
FCE
Students use
discourse as
should be done
on a daily basis
Students should
participate in
debatable
activities
 First Activity: New Information
 Second Activity: FCE simulation
 Third Activity: Speaking test