Bachelor of Education, Primary Education Degree

Observation Task 4: Observing a teacher during a listening

lesson
Reference: Tanner, R. & Green, C. (1998) Tasks for Teacher Education: A Reflective
Approach,Unit 6, Task 3, p.42.

Objective
To think about young learners success in listening and to reflect upon ways
of improving their listening skills

Procedure

You will need a copy of the Observation Table: Teaching Listening

Before the Observation

Arrange to observe a lesson that focuses on listening

During the Observation

Complete the Table: Teaching Listening. Make notes in the appropriate column
on:
The kind of preparation the learners do for listening
The time spent on preparing learners to listen
The learners' purpose in listening: was it stated by the teacher?
The type, topic and length of listening text
The number of times learners listened to the same text or part of the text

Example of a completed row of the Observation Table for Listening

Kind of Preparation Time spent on Purpose stated Type of text, topic No. of
times text
preparation (Y/N) and length
heard

Teacher showed picture of

father and daughter and Dialogue between
5 mins. No father and daughter 2
elicited what they might
be talk ing about. Teacher (3 mins)
gave true/false questions
out before tape was
started.

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 Bachelor of Education, Primary Education Degree

After the Observation

1 What preparation (i.e. pre-listening activity) did the teacher give the
learners before they listened to the text?

She asked students to open their learner book page 133 and said look at
the picture. Can Ahmad see? Elicit that he is blind. Then, she read the
sentences and checked that students understand. She explained that they
need to listen and order the sentences by writing the numbers in order in
their learners book. She told to them "we will play the audio twice to
answer.

If they had some preparation, select (a) if they did not, select (b).

a. How did the pre-listening activity aid student understanding?

In second language we have hard to understanding listening so, give more instructions
and prepare before listening it help facilitate comprehension. Students after step pre-
listening were able to identify what they will listen? they knew they will listen about
Ahmed who is blind and they understand about what sentences are but unordered and
they knew what they require to them are they have to order sentences by writing the
numbers in order in their learners book. Also they knew they will listen audio twice.
All these they helped to understand listening and they were able to ordered sentences.
b. What pre-listening activity might have been done to help them understand the
target language better?

2 Were the learners engaged in while-listening activity/activities? If they were,

select (a); if not, select (b).

a. What were the aims of the while-listening activity/activities?

The teacher played the audio and she was paused after each sentence and let students
to write number. Then played again and paused after each sentence and asked to
students read after listening to help them order sentences.

b. What while-listening activity/activities might have helped

the learners more to understand what they were listening
to?

3a. Did the learners have a post-listening

activity/activities?

If they did, select (a); if not, select (b).

a. What were the aims of the post-listening activity/activities?

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 Bachelor of Education, Primary Education Degree

Teacher played the audio again to reveal the answer and check
answer with them. The students raised their hand and teacher
selected 4 students to answer.

b. What post-listening activity/ activities might have helped the learners

more to understand what they had heard?

4a. How many times did the learners listen to the text / recording?
3 times.

b. Would it have increased their understanding if they had been

allowed to listen to the text/recording again? Explain.

c. Did the learners hear the whole text at once, or in parts?

If so, which was the most helpful?

The students heard sentence by sentence .the teacher was

pausing the audio after each sentence. Its good for students to
give them a chance to understanding listening and not miss their
focus. Also, they give them a chance to write their answer.

Think about the advantages and disadvantages of using the model of pre-, while-
and post-listening activities to teach a listening lesson. Write first from the
perspective of the teacher and then from the perspective of the learners.

Using the model of pre-, while- and post-listening activities to

teach a listening lesson very important especially for students because there
are many advantages such as, let them understand what they will hear,
about what? It is not reasonable for a teacher to do listening activity to
students without taking these steps.it will not be able to do activity .they will
be confusing and it will be difficult to develop their skill in listening . As we
know that listening skills one of harder for learners in second language.so
we have to help them to make it easier as we can. Also for the teacher,
model of pre-, while- and post-listening activities will help the teacher to
teach their students Faster, easier and more efficient. I think there are no
disadvantages for both except that it takes more time but this can be
overridden to the importance of these steps in process learning.

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 Bachelor of Education, Primary Education Degree

Observation Table: For Task 4 Teaching Listening

Class: grade 2 girls
Number of learners: 20 students
Length of lesson: 45 minutes
Teacher observed Language: English ______
Learning Goals: My learning
Materials used: Data show , Power point , Computer, audio, learners book
Time Purpos
spent e Type of text, topic and No. of times text
Kind of Preparation
on stat lengt heard
preparati ed h
on (Y/
N)
The teacher closed 4 minutes Yes Listening about story of 3 times
eyes one of students Ahmed who is blind. 4
(Fatema) by scarf and short sentence about
let another student what touched, smelled
(Maryam) to touch and tasted.
her. She asked ( 40 second)
Fatema "who is this?"
Fatema said "she's
Maryam"