Chapter 3: Listening Activities

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Chapter 3: LISTENING ACTIVITIES






















Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:
Examine some of the listening activities that may be adapted in the
classroom
Explain the different listening games that can be used in the classroom
Identify some principles for developing listening activities
Demonstrate the use on online listening activities
3.1 Preamble
3.2 Principles in developing listening activities
3.3 Sample of listening activities
3.4 Sample of listening games
3.5 Websites for listening practice and materials
C
Chapter 1: Introduction to Listening
Chapter 2: Teaching Listening
Chapter 3: Listening Activities
Chapter 4: Assessing Listening Skills
5 Chapter 5: Introduction to Speaking
Chapter 6: Teaching Speaking
Chapter 7: Speaking Activities
Chapter 8: Assessing Speaking Skills
Chapter 9: Listening-Speaking Connection



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There are thousands of listening activities and several different ways of classifying these
activities. This chapter will examine some of these activities and attempt to classify them.
Listening may be designed by the teacher or obtained from the internet. There are hundreds
of websites offering free access to the large store of listening activities that can be used by
teachers. The only drawback of these activities is that they may be culture biased and
students will not be able to relate to the context in which the activities are presented. This
prompts the need for Malaysian teachers to develop their own listening activities and to make
them available on the web; to be shared by others and develop a large database of activities.


As you design listening tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the information in an
aural text is an unrealistic expectation to which even native speakers are not usually held.
Listening exercises that are meant to train should be success-oriented and build up students'
confidence in their listening ability.
a) Construct the listening activity around a contextualised task.
Contextualised listening activities approximate real-life tasks and give the listener an idea of
the type of information to expect and what to do with it in advance of the actual listening. A
beginning level task would be locating places on a map (one way) or exchanging name and
address information (two way). At an intermediate level students could follow directions for
assembling something (one way) or work in pairs to create a story to tell to the rest of the
class (two way).
b) Define the activity's instructional goal and type of response.
Each activity should have as its goal the improvement of one or more specific listening skills.
A listening activity may have more than one goal or outcome, but be careful not to
overburden the attention of beginning or intermediate listeners.
Recognizing the goal(s) of listening comprehension in each listening situation will help
students select appropriate listening strategies.
Identification: Recognizing or discriminating specific aspects of the message, such as
sounds, categories of words, morphological distinctions
Orientation: Determining the major facts about a message, such as topic, text type,
setting
Main idea comprehension: Identifying the higher-order ideas
Detail comprehension: Identifying supporting details
Replication: Reproducing the message orally or in writing
3.1 PREAMBLE
3.2 PRINCIPLES FOR DEVELOPING LISTENING ACTIVITIES
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c) Check the level of difficulty of the listening text.
The factors listed below can help you judge the relative ease or difficulty of a listening text
for a particular purpose and a particular group of students.

How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or instruction
conform to familiar expectations? Texts in which the events are presented in natural
chronological order, which have an informative title, and which present the
information following an obvious organization (main ideas first, details and
examples second) are easier to follow.
How familiar are the students with the topic? Remember that misapplication of
background knowledge due to cultural differences can create major comprehension
difficulties.
Does the text contain redundancy? At the lower levels of proficiency, listeners may
find short, simple messages easier to process, but students with higher proficiency
benefit from the natural redundancy of the language.
Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly
differentiated? It is easier to understand a text with a doctor and a patient than one
with two doctors, and it is even easier if they are of the opposite sex. In other words,
the more marked the differences, the easier the comprehension.
Does the text offer visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the listeners
hear? Visual aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images in a video help
contextualize the listening input and provide clues to meaning.
d) Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view.
The activities chosen during pre-listening may serve as preparation for listening in several
ways. During pre-listening the teacher may
assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text
provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their comprehension
of the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge that the students possess
clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage
make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will
play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening
provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or
class discussion activities
Sample pre-listening activities:
looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs
reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures
reading something relevant
constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing
how they are related)
predicting the content of the listening text
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going over the directions or instructions for the activity
doing guided practice
e) Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose, and
students' proficiency level.
While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them do during or
immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these points in mind when planning
while-listening activities:

If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow
them to read through it before listening. Students need to devote all their attention to
the listening task. Be sure they understand the instructions for the written task before
listening begins so that they are not distracted by the need to figure out what to do.

Keep writing to a minimum during listening. Remember that the primary goal is
comprehension, not production. Having to write while listening may distract students
from this primary goal. If a written response is to be given after listening, the task can
be more demanding.

Organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text. Combine global
activities such as getting the main idea, topic, and setting with selective listening
activities that focus on details of content and form.

Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to
comprehension of the whole. Before the listening activity begins, have students
review questions they will answer orally or in writing after listening. Listening for
the answers will help students recognize the crucial parts of the message.

Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen.
Do a predicting activity before listening, and remind students to review what they are
hearing to see if it makes sense in the context of their prior knowledge and what they
already know of the topic or events of the passage.

Give immediate feedback whenever possible. Encourage students to examine how or
why their responses were incorrect.

Sample while-listening activities
listening with visuals
filling in graphs and charts
following a route on a map
checking off items in a list
listening for the gist
searching for specific clues to meaning
completing cloze (fill-in) exercises
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distinguishing between formal and informal registers


Whether you teach preschoolers or high school seniors, guiding your class through a series of
active listening activities can do a lot to boost your students' performances. If you are looking
to incorporate active listening activities into your teaching, there are a host of activities you
can choose from to transform your students into adept listeners.
Sound Walk
To perform a sound walk, take your class
outside and instruct them to follow you
double-file. Once the sound walk begins,
students should stay quiet and listen to
detect different kinds of sounds and
different qualities and volumes of
sounds. They should attempt to remember
the loudest and softest sounds they hear as
well as attempt to remember the sources of the different sounds. The point of this
exercise is to teach students how to detect patterns of sounds as well as develop
proficient memorization skills.
Pattern Recognition
Start by instructing your students to be quiet and listen for the pattern that you tap
on the desk with your pencil or hands. Once you finish the pattern, raise your hand
to signify that you are finished. At your request, they should then attempt to
repeat the pattern you tapped. Make the sequences simple at the beginning, but
gradually increase the difficulty as you progress through the exercise.
Category Recognition
Instruct students to sit in a circle. Start by exclaiming a word that is part of a
group, quality or category of things. For example, you could say a fruit such as
"Apple." The student to your left should then find a quality that matches
apples and say that. For example, the student could say, "Green." The nest student,
going clockwise, should then answer with a thing or object that is green or is
associated with the colour green. Do not stop until every student in the circle has
been able to speak at least once. Encourage students to respond as quickly as
possible to teach them how to listen and think in a fast-paced setting.


3.3 LISTENING ACTIVITIES
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Student Introductions
Instruct each student, one at a time, to stand
in front of the class. Have the first student
tell the rest of the class five things about
herself. She could mention where she is
from, her favourite colour, what month she
was born or even or favourite hobby among
other things. When she is finished, instruct
the next student to repeat this process. After
the second student introduces himself, ask the
class to recount the answers to first student's
introduction. Repeat this process for the rest
of the class.
Name That Animal
This exercise is useful for preschoolers
and kindergartners. Using pre-recorded
animal sounds, play an animal's
characteristic sound for the students. Then,
ask the students to identify the animal
associated with that sound. Do this with at
least 15 animals. For added difficulty, play
more than one animal sound at a time and
ask the students toidentify which animals
are making the sounds.
Finish the Story
Instruct your students to stand in a circle. Start by
telling a story about anything. At any moment, stop
and call on one of your students. He should then fill in
what you left out. Of course, he will be able to come
up with anything he wants, but he should try to finish
your thought with something that would naturally
follow. At a random moment during his addition to the
story, you should stop him and call on another student
to add to the story. Ensure every student gets a turn.

Syllable Counting
At an introductory level, students can enhance their listening skills by performing
physical actions to coincide with the syllables of vocabulary words. The teacher
demonstrates by stating the word aloud, saying the word again while clapping
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during each syllable of the word. The students then repeat the teacher's
display by clapping once for each syllable. Students then learn to pronounce the
word correctly and begin forming phonetic awareness around the sounds in each
syllable.
Dramatic Retelling
The teacher reads a story aloud to the class
and encourages whole-group discussion
about the events, characters and plot of the
story. The students retell the story by
becoming characters and acting out the
storyline. Listening comprehension is
crucial to the activity because students
must process the events in the story and
retell them in chronological order. The
teacher may review the storyline a few
times with the students prior to dividing
them into small groups for the activity.
Singing Improves Listening
o A classic method to improve young children's listening comprehension
ability is through songs. There is a wide variety of preschool educational
songs, each focusing on a specific issue, such as directions, money and
animals. Ask kids to create flashcards of objects, animals or direction arrows,
for example, which they will hold up when they are mentioned in the songs'
lyrics. Furthermore, when after multiple repeats kids have learned the lyrics by
heart, don't hesitate to sing together in the classroom and move on to more
complex songs.
Interactive Puppet Show
You will present a small dialogue between two
puppets, facing a small problem for which they
will ask the children's opinion, in addition to other
simple questions. It must be a straightforward
story, such as going to the kindergarten without
their bag and trying figure out what they are going
to do later. Whether they go back home to fetch it
and risk being late, or decide to go without it,
would be up to the kids to decide, as the puppets
will explicitly ask for their opinion. In addition,
the puppets can act like they constantly forget
things, so kids have to remind them, testing kids'
ability to understand basic conversations.
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Jokes Time!
Saying jokes will not only get the
attention of children, but in most cases
it will let you see if they understood
the meaning of what you said, by
hearing them laugh of course. You can
start the activity, but it doesn't mean
you have to monopolise it; Not every
joke is allow kids to share jokes they
already know with the rest of the
class. so funny as to make young
children burst into laughter, but when
there's silence in the audience, it is a
sign that children just didn't understand
the meaning.
Cartoon Quiz
Gather children around the TV and have them
watch a popular cartoon episode. Stop the
action every now and again, asking them a
specific question on what the cartoon
characters said. Alternatively, watch the
episode in advance and prepare a set of easy
questions that you will give the kids before
you press play on the remote, prompting them to listen carefully to spot
specific answers. Both ways will teach them how to get specific information
they need from a conversation.
Read and React
To help your students learn to follow directions in another language, read
out instructions. Ask the class to listen and follow the directions. Surround the
command with other sentences so your students will learn to pick out the
important actions; they can also take clues from the context. This type of
activity has the potential to be comical and is a fun way to loosen up a class
that is nervous. Instruct your class to do anything from jump up and down to
walk across the room.
Responsive Listening
Get your class used to hearing and participating in real-world situations.
Choose a setting that involves a conversation, such as ordering food or
checking in to a hotel. Conduct one side of the dialogue and ask a student
to respond with the correct language. Introduce elements that require the
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student to adjust their case, such as different-gendered speakers or people that
warrant formal language. The other students can watch and write down both
sides of the conversation.
Verb Conjugation
Verb conjugation is an important part of learning a second language, and can
be challenging for both beginning and advanced students. Help your students
practice conjugating verbs by showing a card with a picture of an action
and have them say the verb out loud. Then, shout out a verb tense and ask
students to give the correct conjugation. For an extra challenge, point to an
individual student and have them say a sentence that uses the verb in your
chosen tense.
Emotion
Emotions can be a difficult thing to pick up in
a conversation in a foreign language. Plan an
exercise that gives students experience
picking up on the mood of a dialogue. Tell a
story with characters who express distinct
emotions. As you read, have the students make
faces or actions that express those emotions.
Start with simple conversations that include
the words for the emotion and progress to
stories that convey emotion in the context.
[source: John Mack, Jennifer Zimmerman eHow Contributor]
Listen for Differences
Student A Reads Aloud
Tigers are large carnivores of the cat family. They live in the forests of
Europe. Their yellow-orange fur has many black stripes. Males may reach 4
meters in length and weigh 290 kilograms. Tigers usually live alone. They can
swim well, but cannot climb well. Tigers usually hunt at night. Many species
of tigers are endangered because people kill them to make medicines from
their body parts and jackets from their bones. Habitat destruction has also
endangered them. Baby tigers are called cubs. The average tiger lives sixteen
years

Student B Reads Aloud
Tigers are large carnivores of the dog family. They live in the forests of Asia.
Their yellow-orange fur has many purple stripes. Males may reach 3 meters in
length and weigh 290 kilograms. Tigers usually live alone. They can swim
well, but cannot climb well. Tigers usually hunt at noon. Many species of
Chapter 3: Listening Activities

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tigers are endangered because people kill them to make medicines from their
body parts and jackets from their fur. Habitat destruction has also endangered
them. Baby tigers are called cubs. The average tiger lives sixty years

The class listen to the two passages and spot the differences.
5 Ws
Play a short audio story or news report. As the students afterwards to note the
5Ws (Who / What / Where / When / Why ). Let them be the reporter!
Quizzes
Play a short audio passage and then have the student respond and answer
several comprehension questions. Another great idea is to have them write the
questions also, to quiz their classmates!
Prediction
Find a good audio story. Students listen to the audio story and when the
teacher pauses it, they guess What will happen next? This really keeps
them listening and engaged in the learning!
Cloze / Language Gap
The student have a passage with some words missing. They listen (repeat as
often as necessary) and then check their answers when the audio is played
again. Can be used very well with karaoke.
Dictation
The teacher puts on the board some information (and covers it so the
students cant see it). The students listen to the teacher dictate and they record
the information. The teacher then reveals the correct answers and the students
check.


Making listening comprehension fun can inspire reluctant learners, as well as making
learning fun for all students. With children, games are effective and fun. Everyone can have
fun playing games. Being a good listener is not as simple as keeping silent when someone is
talking. Strategies in demonstrating non-verbal signals, proper body positioning and offering
relevant feedback all make a person a more skilled listener. There are several games you can
use to brush up on positive listening skills.
3.4 LISTENING GAMES
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Listening Cues Game
For the first game, split up into two-person teams. Person 1 reads a news article to
Person 2, while Person 2 displays poor listening behaviour -- such as fidgeting,
looking around, interrupting to ask questions and making inappropriate facial
expressions. When they are through, Person 2 then explains the article that was
just read to him, back to Person 1. This time, Person 1 should display positive
listening skills, such as making eye contact, sitting still, making appropriate facial
cues and taking notes and waiting until the end to ask questions. Have each group
review the article together, and identify things that Person 2 missed because he
wasn't listening closely. This exercise demonstrates how important it is to use
proper listening behaviours to understand the message being relayed.
Listening With Distractions Game
The second game is played with a large group. It's best executed without
informing the group what the objective is. Simply explain that you will read a
story (any story will do.) Give people on the left side of the room a task. For
example, ask some of them to count now many times you say the word "and," and
ask others to count the number of times you smile. Give people on the right side
of the room no task at all, except to listen. Next, read the story. When you have
finished, ask each group member to write down answers to three questions about
your story. You will find that the people who were distracted by a task may not
answer the questions as easily as those who were listening without tasks. Discuss
how difficult it was for people to pay attention when they were not focused on the
message itself.
Feedback Game
This game will take some preparation beforehand. Ask people to each prepare a
small presentation on a debatable issue using three to five focus points. Now have
the group members partner up. Ask Person 1 to make her presentation to her
partner. When she is through, the partner must give feedback, either positive or
negative. Person 1 has the opportunity to change her message based on the
feedback. Next, have everyone switch partners, and Person 1 delivers her
presentation again to a new partner. Discuss with the group how feedback
changed their messages and made them either more efficient or more garbled.
LUVR
Students can utilize LUVR as a method of actively listening and interacting with
others. LUVR employs Listening, Understanding, Validating and Responding
as a method of processing oral communication. Use role play for this activity. You
may play one of the roles, or have two students complete the exercise. Player One
relates an incident and how the event made him feel. Player Two must listen to the
story and process it before responding. Player Two validates Player One by
expressing in her own words what she understands were the feelings and
Chapter 3: Listening Activities

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experience of Player One. When she has completed the summarization, she asks
Player One if she correctly understood him. He may agree that she accurately
summarized his story or correct her. The interaction continues until Player One
feels that Player Two has correctly understood his feelings and story.
Gossip
Have the students sit in a circle. The
beginning student reads a short story of three
to five sentences into the ear of the student
beside him. The second student repeats the
information to a third student and the story is
repeated from student to student until all have
heard the story. The last student in the circle
tells the rest of the circle what she heard. The
first student then reads the original story aloud
to the circle. The students compare the stories
and determine how accurately the
information was passed from one to
another. The students can brainstorm ways to
insure more accurate listening and retelling.
Following Directions
Provide practice to students on listening to
instructions. Read a student a three- to four-step
process you want the student to follow. Have the
student follow the instructions, then observe how
accurately the instructions are completed. Allow
the student to provide some suggestions on what
she could have done to more accurately follow
the instructions. Each student could have a
similar opportunity to complete the activity.
Story Retelling
Have the class listen to you read a story. The story must have clear, identifiable
events. After you complete the story, present a collection of pictures that
illustrate events in the story. Have the class determine the order the
illustrations should appear to retell the story. You can make this more
challenging by including some pictures that have no bearing on the story. Students
choose the order for retelling and identify which pictures are not a part of the story.


Chapter 3: Listening Activities

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Simon Says
Although this game seems very simple,
it is an effective tool in teaching
listening comprehension. To play all
you'll need is a clear play space and a
list of commands you'd like the kids to
perform. Prepare a sheet of paper with
commands that will prove at least
somewhat useful in the child's school
and home life, and yet be simple enough for them to understand, such as: "Simon
says raise your hand ," or "Simon says clean off your desk." As the school year
goes on, add more difficult tasks with multiple steps. You can either have a
designated Simon Says playtime or use it spontaneously throughout the school
day to get the children to pay attention to special commands.
Telephone
This interactive game will
help children learn to listen
to, internalise and then
transfer information.
Assuming there are about 20
students in the classroom, you
will have one group of 10
students gather around in a
circle and then have a second
group of 10 repeat the same
process when the first group
is finished. You will sit between two students and relay a message into the first
student's ear. The message will then be passed clockwise down the circle and
eventually make it back to your ear. At the end of the game you will reveal
whether the students listened closely enough to relay the correct message.
When the students develop more advanced listening skills, play the game with all
of the students in the classroom at once.
Story Time
This game should be used with more advanced students who have already learned
how to write. Each student will have a piece of paper and a pencil ready while you
select a short story to read. Choose a story that is simple in language but rich in
detail and events. Instruct your students to write down what happens
throughout the story as best as they can while you're reading the story to them
very slowly. After you've finished reading, go down the rows and ask each student
a probing or clarification question. Ask students things like, "What was the main
Chapter 3: Listening Activities

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character's name?" and "What happened after...." Make sure to ask each student
something different, and if he can't answer, help him along by going through his
notes with him until he can recall it.
Game Directions
Create a game all about following directions. Students must listen to the
instructions given by the teacher and follow them in order to be successful in
the game. For example, a teacher may advise the students that each must find a
pencil, sharpen it, draw a circle, rectangle and square, colour them and place their
paper in a pile on the teacher's desk. When all steps are completed in order and to
the best of the child's ability, she may receive an extra five minutes of recess. Daily
requirements may be adapted to a game with a reward to practice listening
comprehension skills.
Riddles
The teacher may devise a number of riddles
coinciding with the academic level of the students to
enhance listening skills. For example, the teacher
may speak a riddle such as "I am often blue. I'm
worn. I have three openings. What am I?" The
teacher only states the riddle one time, requiring the
students to listen very carefully. Each has a turn to
guess the riddle's answer. Extend the activity by
asking each child to devise his own riddle with
everyday objects.
Sound Identification
Make up a listening game that involves identifying sounds. You can make many
different games out of this concept. Fill small opaque containers with various
objects that make noticeably different noises. Use sand in one, marbles, coins or
water in another, for example. Have the child shake the container and guess what
is inside it. This teaches the child to identify nonverbal sounds. Make this a solo
activity for children by putting a sticker with a picture of the object on the bottom
so that they can check to see whether they were correct in their identification.
Another sound-identification activity is a listening walk. Take children for a walk
and have them listen for different sounds. See how many different sounds they
can identify, such as a dog barking, a lawnmower or a truck. Challenge the child
to listen for the subtle sounds found in nature, like water flowing in a stream, wind
blowing through grass or bird calls.
Chapter 3: Listening Activities

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Music and Rhythm
Learning how to make music and keep rhythm are important listening skills.
These activities teach children how to make sounds that are enjoyable and how
to listen to them. Make up a noise routine that can be choreographed to a
favourite song. Make it into a rhythmic pattern using claps, knocking, stomping
and mouth noises. You can also help children invent their own musical
instruments by building objects out of things like boxes, strings, and pebble
shakers. Have the child play with all of the made-up instruments to explore the
different sounds.
Rhyming
Introduce the concept of rhyming to a child by reading nursery rhymes and other
rhyming poem books. Encourage the child to make up his own rhymes by creating
stories and poems. Make up a simple line and then have the child retort with a
rhyming line. Make it as silly and crazy as you can, and your child will find
endless fun and entertainment in the activity. Even made up words are fine, as
long as they have the rhyming sound.
Reading
We all know that reading to children is
important for their development.
Reading strengthens the bond between
parent and children, teaches
vocabulary words and builds attention
skills. Reading also encourages
listening skills by captivating interest.
You may find it boring to read the
same book over and over again, but it
is a great learning tool. Read a line of
the book and see if children can finish
the sentence. They may be unable to
read, but they are improving their
listening and memory skills.
[source: Kathryn Rateliff Barr, Diane Todd, Alyssa Ideboen & Trisha Dawe, eHow Contributor]



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The Internet offers a big helping hand to all teachers. Heres a list of sites that are free
and excellent resources for the classroom teacher or the student for self-study.

http://www.diigo.com/list/eflclassroom/listening-and-pronunciation -- All the
best websites about and for listening.
http://eflclassroom.ning.com EFL Classroom 2.0 - An international community
of teachers sharing resources. Go to Study Listening. Also use the Audio + page
(see the site map).
http://breakingnewsenglish.com - Breaking News English - For higher level
learners and teachers. News stories with listening and complete lessons.
http://www.elllo.org/ - Ello English Language Listening Laboratory - Lots of
games, articles and instant feedback while students listen.
http://www.esl-lab.com/ Randalls ESL Cyber Listening Lab - Plenty of stories,
videos with quizzes for listening practice.
http://voicethread.com - Voicethread - Using a picture, students can record
their own response and listen to what others said. Revolutionary!
http://www.voxopop.com/ - Voxopop - A teacher can post up a question or
start a discussion and students can record and listen to others responses.
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html - Phonetics
- The complete sounds of English shown with articulation. For students with
listening and phonemic awareness difficulties.
3.5 WEBSITES FOR LISTENING PRACTICE & MATERIAL