In this article, I explore the availability of multiple pitch centers in poprock songs that emerge from the application of what John Covach has called "positional listening." I demonstrate how ...different methods of listening and analysis have a drastic effect on our interpretation of a song's pitch center. Adapting Robert Bailey's term "double-tonic complex," I refer to songs that exhibit multivalent centers as "multi-centric complexes." Through several examples I demonstrate how different instruments-such as lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, or bass-can present their own, sometimes competing, centers. I use a variety of listening strategies and analytical methods in order to demonstrate and justify multiple centric interpretations that emerge when a listener compares a single instrument's projected center with others in pop-rock songs.Allowing for a "thick"interpretation of a pop-rock song's pitch center not only celebrates pop-rock's oft-cited tonal complexity, but also the overlooked complexity of the listening subject. Who is listening? How? And why?
Our paper reflects on our experience with Weaving Music II—a web performance space we built with fifteen artists working across different disciplines. The website and our essay attempt to create ...alternatives to the “at-the-same-timeness” of streaming technologies as well as the forms of listening defined by data capitalism and corporate platforms like Google and YouTube. At the heart of the alternative practices we propose is an embrace of what we see as the creolizing potentiality of the Web and of listening. To unpack these potentialities, the essay and artwork critically reflect on listening that occurs through Afrofuturistic modes of engagement with technology, space and time. We consider the historical origins of Web improvisations, our approach to collaboration using Weaving Music II, and theories of information that move beyond the need for predefined codes of understanding.
Social work can all too often become synonymous with the pressures of child and public protection. Yet at is heart, it is a profession that promotes human rights and challenges social injustices, ...through understandings of marginalisation and oppression. Social work is a global profession, where individual social workers actively engage with a diversity of experiences and situations, seeking to work with people to empower them to take control of and improve their lives. In this final issue of the year, which is slightly smaller, following the previous bumper special edition, we bring together three qualitative papers that capture this abundance, and encourage us to hear voices from those that are often at the margins of social work.
Focusing on the teaching of listening strategies to second language (L2) learners, this study sought to revisit Renandya and Farrell’s (2011) claims that explicit listening strategy instruction for ...lower-proficiency learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) is a fruitless endeavor. As such, we implemented a quasi-experimental study to measure the effectiveness of a metacognitive intervention for a convenience sample of lower-proficiency (CEFR A2) Japanese university EFL learners (n = 129). The training program focused on an explicit process-based approach, involving integrated experiential learning tasks and guided reflections, to develop learners’ L2 listening skills. Data collection consisted of TOEIC® test scores, listening comprehension tests, cloze tests, a listening self-efficacy questionnaire, and a post-treatment survey. While the training program was received favorably by students, and students displayed a slightly more confident stance towards listening in their L2, we were unable to find any strong empirical evidence that our lower-proficiency EFL learners’ listening performance improved. As such, these results provide evidence of a potential proficiency threshold for EFL learners to start to benefit from a strategy-focused metacognitive intervention.
This study reviewed conceptualizations and operationalizations of second language (L2) listening constructs. A total of 157 peer-reviewed papers published in 19 journals in applied linguistics were ...coded for (1) publication year, author, source title, location, language, and reliability and (2) listening subskills, cognitive processes, attributes, and listening functions potentially measured or investigated. Only 39 publications (24.84%) provided theoretical definitions for listening constructs, 38 of which were general or had a narrow construct coverage. Listening functions such as discriminative, empathetic, and analytical listening were largely unattended to in construct conceptualization in the studies. In addition, we identified 24 subskills, 27 cognitive processes, and 54 listening attributes (total = 105) operationalized in the studies. We developed a multilayered framework to categorize these features. The subskills and cognitive processes were categorized into five principal groups each (10 groups total), while the attributes were divided into three main groups. This multicomponential framework will be useful in construct delineation and operationalization in L2 listening assessment and teaching. Finally, limitations of the extant research and future directions for research and development in L2 listening assessment are discussed.
Although second language listening has become a rather active area of research in the past ten years, some topics such as listening fluency development and extensive listening (EL) have not received ...much attention. The purpose of the present study is to examine the levels of listening support that might be needed to facilitate L2 learners’ listening fluency development. Sixty-nine EFL college students completed a full intervention through one of the three modes: (1) listening only (LO), (2) reading only (RO), and (3) reading while listening plus listening only (RLL). Ten level-1, 10 level-2 and 8 level-3 (audio) graded readers were used as the study materials within three 13-week periods. Listening tests were given before the intervention (pre-test) and after they finished each level of the texts (post-tests 1, 2 and 3). The research questions addressed effect sizes of the scores’ changes from the pre-test to each of the post-tests in each group on their comprehension of practised and unpractised texts. The results show that in comprehending the practised texts, the LO and RLL groups could comprehend the more complicated texts at faster speech rates and also maintain higher levels of comprehension. When listening to the unpractised texts, the RLL group could do as well as they did on the practised texts, but the LO group could process the more difficult texts at faster speech rates without decreasing their comprehension levels. As predicted, the RO group performed poorly on the tests. Pedagogical implications for facilitating the effectiveness of extensive listening practice are discussed.
PDF
