How to teach listening

Why teach listening?

To let them hear different varieties and accents It helps students to acquire language subconsciously even if teachers do not draw attention to its special features Students get better at listening the more they do it

What kind of listening should students do?

A realistic (though not authentic)
Announcements Conversation Telephone exchanges Lectures Plays News broadcasts Interviews Other radio programmes Stories read aloud

Whats special about listening?

They go at the same speed for everybody In informal spoken language, there are a number of unique features including the use of incomplete utterances, repetitions, hesitations etc.
Other spoken factors:
Tone of voice, intonation, rhythm, background noise Will help students to tease meaning

Principles behind the teaching of listening

1. The tape recorder is just as important as the tape
It can be heard all round the classroom Tape counter easy to see

2. Preparation is vital
Listen to it before presenting it to students Students need to be ready to listen: look at pictures, discuss the topic, read the questions first *predicting

Principles behind the teaching of listening

3. Once will not be enough
To pick uo things they missed

4. Students should be encouraged to respond to the content of a listening, not just to the language
The most important of a listening is to draw out a meaning, what is intended, what impression it makes on the students

5. Different listening stages demand different listening tasks

First listening: be straightforward and general Later listening: focus on detail of information, language use, pronunciation

6. Good teachers exploit listening texts to the full

Use the tape for as many different applications as possible

What do listening sequences look like?

Example 1: Brief study phase:
Before listening practice saying key words Give a Quick question-and-answer drill Present pictures of the contexts and situations

Listening stages:
first listen to get general idea matching pictures

Follow-up task:
Role-play

What do listening sequences look like?

Example 2: Engagement
The listening leads into grammar work (language that has been heard) Contains pictures and general information about the people in the pictures Ss read and listen to the paragraphs They ask and answer questions about the people

Activation
Teacher gets them to look at some questions Ss are asked whether they can predict the answers Listen to the tape Gives a chance to check through their answers Plays the tape again

Study the language

Physical description of the text: Use of pronouns in the dialogue etc

What do listening sequences look like?

Example 4: shows how listening practice can be integrated into a topic sequence. Engagement: discussion
Ss try and match cultural practices with various countries Then they decide which of the customs they would find it most difficult to get used to.

Engage-activate: speculation
T presents questions in 3 parts to manage the story with pauses Gives the questions for each part and gets students to speculate about what they are going to hear (can they predict the story from the question clues?)

Study session: grammar

Ss listen again to identify examples of different tenses filling in a chart for each category

Activate: Follow-up task

Ss talk about the advice they would give a foreigner coming to visit their country. What things should the visitor absolutely not do.

What do listening sequences look like?

Dealing with a long taped segment, which is complex:
The teacher starts by asking the students to put the following sports in order from 1(most frightening) to 10 (least frightening) Discussion about which and why Students are told that they are going to hear They are told to read 3 summaries
Teacher tells them that only one is correct. As they listen they have to decide which one is. Plays a second listening for them to get details

Where does video fit in?

Techniques for videos:
Playing the tape without sound
Discussion about what they see Guessing what the characters are actually saying After playing it with sound: were they right?

Playing the tape but covering the pictures

They try to judge where the speakers are, what they look like, whats going on etc. After playing it with images:were they correct?

Freezing the picture:

Pauses to ask what is going to happen next Can they predict?

Dividing the class in half:

Half the class face the screen, the other half sit with their back to it. The screen half describe the visual images to the wall half