LICENCIATURA EN ENSEÑANZA DEL IDIOMA INGLÉS

Jorge Carlos Cortazar Sabido

TEACHING LISTENING SKILLS IN AN A2 LEVEL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS CLASS
August, 2019 · Merida, Yucatan. Mexico.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 3

Objective of the case 5

Scope and limits of the case 5

Presentation of the case 5

Synthesis and hypothesis 7

Conceptual framework 9

Development and solution of the case 17

Diagnosis and theoretical justification 18

Proposed listening activity 22

Lesson plan 23

Conclusions 28

Bibliography 29

Appendix 31

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 INTRODUCTION

Everyone who has worked professionally in English Teaching as a Foreign Language is

familiar with the many challenges such practice entails. The everyday work which
includes planning, researching for materials, assessing individual students and groups
of them, the limited time scheduled for English Teaching in both public and private
educational systems make the practice sometimes times daunting. No matter how
experienced teacherS may consider themselves, every group of students present very
particular demands and focused attention derived from their unique characteristics. It’s
also true that there is valuable advances in the field of pedagogy and educational
theories which provide teachers with renewed frameworks to base their teaching
practice on, and hopefully motivate them to enhance their skills and widen their set off
tools to up their student’s game in their English proficiency.

Nevertheless, despite Mexico’s Educational policy’s significant investment, including

financial and human resources, it has been reported that the English proficiency level
acquired by students in the public system is, in fact, far below the expectations and the
official established goals.The figures are alarming: according to the EF English
Proficiency Index, Mexico ranks in the 57 position, in the “Low Proficiency Level” (EF,
2018). It is worth noting that according to the Mexico’s Education Ministry (Secretaría de
Educación Pública, 2011) states that all Secondary Level student’s “must possess the
basic tools to communicate in the English language” (IMCO, 2015). The report “English
Learning in Mexico” published by the Non-Governmental Association Mexicanos
Primero, asserts:

“… the National English Program in Basic Education (SEP,

2011b) establishes that the purpose of English teaching in
Secondary education entails that students ‘strengthen their
English proficiency in basic communicative situations and
develop specific competencies related to the language’s social
practices, as well as varied communicative situations in which

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 they comprehend and produce, in a general fashion, oral and
written texts about diverse topics’ (p. 25)”.

The research conducted by the same organization has found that “almost the entirety of
the surveyed students -97%- obtained inferior levels than the ones established by SEP
to be able to credit the Secondary level (IMCO, 2015:86). Based in such findings it
leaves little room for speculation that a similar percentage of students who are
nowadays attending to High School and University education levels, at least in the
realm of Mexico’s public education system. The aforementioned scenario draws serious
concerns about the variables which may provide an explanation of the gap between the
efforts put into official English Teaching and Learning programs and the data supplied
by research.

It is no wonder that the information we can find about the state of the English proficiency
in Mexico’s public education system constitutes a great deal of responsibility for the
ones in charge of providing the right approach to tackle into this issue. Also, taking all of
the above in consideration, in not very few cases teachers of English as a Foreign
Language deal with the fact that English programs in public Universities (and private
ones as well) have a compensatory character. This means that it’s not rare that once
University students are placed in an English course, their motivation is mostly
instrumental; in other words, they have to “pass” the course to be able to graduate
(Ordorica, 2010).

In spite of everything, educators must find the way to overcome what seems to be a
steep incline towards the fostering of autonomous English users; being capable of
reading, listening, speaking and writing as it is expected in a world in which not only
the English language is in fact a lingua franca, but to contribute to form professionals
who can access to more and better opportunities in the working market.

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 OBJECTIVE OF THE CASE

The objective of this practical case consists in encouraging a group of 30 CEFR A2 level
University students to improve their listening skills, foster their learning autonomy using
authentic listening materials whenever possible.

SCOPE AND LIMITS OF THE CASE

This reflection is centered on the case of a teacher in a public university, who seeks to
“develop A2 level students’ listening skills using authentic materials and foster their
autonomy.”

Hence, the aim of this work is to implement Listening skills teaching strategies
according to the students’ characteristics and needs, promoting their self-confidence
and also providing tools and strategies which will allow students to succeed in their
understanding of authentic materials and autonomous learning outside of the
classroom.

PRESENTATION OF THE CASE

“Rebeca is 32 years old and she has been working as an English teacher for 2 years in
a public university. She got a bachelor’s degree in English Language Teaching 3 years
ago, and a year later she was awarded a certification that is equivalent to a C2 level.
Rebeca has shown great abilities teaching what are considered upper- intermediate and
advanced levels in that school (B2-C1). However, this year instead of the usual upper-
intermediate and advanced courses she receives; she is currently teaching an A2
course.

“This has been a challenge for Rebeca since most of the activities and materials she
has developed over the last years were designed for upper-intermediate and advanced
students. Another significant change is the number of students in this class; upper-B2-

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C1 classes are usually small, about 15 students, in contrast to those, there are 30
students in Rebeca’s new class.

“In the first week Rebeca’s students, who are between 19-20 years, had a positive
attitude and liked to participate in the activities she implemented. However, she
encountered that they struggled to complete listening activities; therefore, she decided
to plan and implement extra listening comprehension practice. Unfortunately, despite
her attempts, she has not seen any major improvement in the students’ abilities, and
lately they seem to be frustrated, very anxious and restless every time Rebeca says
they are going to practice listening.

"Rebeca wonders whether the problem is the kind of materials and activities she has
designed. She is fond of using authentic materials. Yet, she has realized that her
students struggle to understand the language used in the audios and these activities are
time consuming because she has to explain and repeat the audios several times.
Rebeca has asked colleagues who teach similar levels if they ever use authentic
resources in their classes. They have mentioned avoiding them since some students
may feel overwhelmed and discouraged. Therefore, she was advised to simply use the
textbook audios and avoid authentic resources.

“Based on her experience with advanced students, she knows that they should be able
to understand and respond to authentic speech. Nevertheless, she has failed in her
attempts to develop students’ listening skills and foster their autonomy. As a result,
learners are reluctant to participate in listening activities, or practice outside the
classroom because they feel that they are not able to understand English
speakers.” (CENEVAL, 2019)

As in any case in which a teacher’s efforts to produce a change in the students

performance in their English language learning in the form of progress in their skills,
several questions arise regarding the techniques and materials used in class, the time
invested in planning and implementing activities and the instruments used to observe

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and evaluate students’ progress. In the case presented, there are specific points that
stand out and require to be addressed preliminarily before proceeding to the next
section of this work.

SYNTHESIS AND HYPOTHESIS

It’s no secret the crucial role that motivation plays in a student’s will to learn a language.
What needs to be tackled is what dimension or type of motivation can be traced in
university students, and how can it be stimulated to develop and improve their English
skills. In a research conducted at the Autonomous University of Baja California, found
that students who enroll in an English language course are driven mostly by
instrumental motivation (Odorica, 2010); in other words, “their goal is to obtain a
professional benefit and enhance their work status, in a similar fashion as in acquiring a
skill such as expertise in computer software, which are seen as an added value in the
professional field. This echoes the findings of Al-Tamimi and Shuib (2009) whose
research with petroleum engineering students at Hadhramout University of Sciences
and Technology, confirmed “the subjects’ greater support of instrumental reasons for
learning the English language including utilitarian reasons”. How can Rebeca’s students
be motivated in order to regain interest in the planned Listening activities, and how to
foster autonomous learning in them?

The next point to consider is the English level of Rebeca’s students. According to the
Common European Framework of Reference’s scale of overall listening comprehension,
which states that A2 level listeners can “understand enough to be able to meet needs of
a concrete type provided speech is clearly and slowly articulated”, and also are
capable to “understand phrases and expressions related to areas of most immediate
priority (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography,
employment) provided speech is clearly and slowly articulated”. (Council of Europe,
2018). In the same document, it is stated that in the understanding interaction between
native speakers A2 listeners “generally identify the topic of discussion around her
that is conducted slowly and clearly.” Moreover, in regards of the listening of radio audio

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and recordings, A2 level students “can understand and extract the essential
information from short recorded passages dealing with predictable everyday
matters that are delivered slowly and clearly.” The purpose of presenting these
indicators may give us a forewarner of the limits, and by no means it should be intended
to constraint students’ competence into the boundaries of their level; but to offer a
starting point to plan and implement proper content and length of the aural speech to be
used in a language class situation for them. Thus, the main assumption here consists in
taking the professional area of studies of Rebeca’s students, and therefore tackling on
the aspects related to instrumental motivation as the area “of most immediate priority”
for them, as stated in the CEFR for A2 level listeners.

Another point of reflection for this work is how to deal with large groups of students. In
this respect, Zenhui (2001) warns that “many teachers are stymied by the physical
constraints imposed by large numbers in confined classrooms. They feel unable to
promote student interaction, since there is no room to move about.” In the case of
Rebeca’s students, group management doesn’t seem to be an issue, nonetheless how
to motivate and win her students back into participating in listening activities. This is a
serious concern, given the fact that by having a large group it’s difficult to monitor and
follow up student’s progress and the specific obstacles to prevent them to succeed in
listening activities. Dividing the classroom into smaller groups according to a
carefully designed plan may provide a solution to this issue and according to the British
Council’s Teaching English website, among the advantages of pair work and small
group work allow to change the pace of the lesson, takes the spotlight out of the teacher
focusing more on the students, gives the sense of achievement when reaching a team
goal (British Council, 2019).

The implementation of authentic materials has proven to play a role in improving

listening skills in students (Thanajaro, 2000); hence the importance of its proper use in
learning environments such as the language classroom. The dilemma faced by Rebeca
puts her drive to offer her students the real-life scenario from outside the formal
education setting into the classroom, exposing them to the target language in real-life

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situations, against the increasing frustration from the learners who haven’t been able to
engage with materials that are different from the assigned course book.

Having examined the previous first steps on this reflection including student's motivation
and English level; the challenges of working with a large classroom size and the use of
authentic materials there’s still a very important trait to promote in any language
student, namely, learner’s autonomy. Najeeb (2012) affirms that “learner autonomy is a
construct of capacity for making informed decisions about one’s own learning”. Citing
Trebbi (2006) the same author purports that “taking care of one’s own learning is a pre-
requisite of learning, and learning itself is impossible without the learner actually taking
charge”. One reflection arises to this respect, and it involves an interesting paradox:
Mexico’s culture has been influenced by English language culture due to its vicinity to
the United States, not to mention its political and economical influence. This presents a
wide variety of options to obtain not only samples of authentic materials drawn from
popular culture, but also an opportunity to entice awareness on the fact that students
have been exposed to English spoken stimuli for most of their lives. Therefore, the
autonomous learning can be fostered by the very same cultural proximity to English
language that can be found in the student’s preferences in music, movies, sports, etc.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

As mentioned earlier in this work, there is a very serious challenge in the preparation of
the basic level education in Mexico’s public system. The failure to comply with the goals
established concerning the expected level of competency in English language from high
school students has an impact in the English level in university students. Educators
must do their best to prepare their students to be competitive in the labour market, in
which English has been pointed out as a factor that make professionals more
competitive In this respect, McCormick (2013) reports “a direct correlation between the
English skills of a population and the economic performance of the country”. He
continues:

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 Indicators like gross national income (GNI) and GDP go up. In our
latest edition of the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI), the
largest ranking of English skills by country, we found that in almost
every one of the 60 countries and territories surveyed, a rise in
English proficiency was connected with a rise in per capita income.
And on an individual level, recruiters and HR managers around the
world report that job seekers with exceptional English compared to
their country’s level earned 30-50% percent higher salaries.

With this in mind, Shuib’s (2009) findings have shown that university students who
enroll themselves into a language course include “greater support of instrumental
reasons for learning the English language including utilitarian and academic reasons”.
Odorica (2010), citing Marshall (1987, p. 135 - 150) asserts that “the great majority of
(university students) understand the importance of this language (English) as a tool for
their work; in other words, they realize the practical application of it in their work area”.
One important fact discussed by Hernández (2019) consists in that the majority of
students who enter to the university in México; no matter if they come from public or
private schools, they do so with an CEFR A2 level, whilst it is expected to be B1. Both
researchers coincide in that the motivation of university students to learn English tends
to be low. They also agree on the necessity of making English classes interesting for
this group of students with the intention of providing the ways of pushing the boundaries
of their elementary use of the language, and of course; improve the students’ listening
skills among with the other “macro-skills”1.

LISTENING SKILLS IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Various commentators coincide in the fact that Listening skills have been considered as
a passive skill (Field, J., 2009; Reza Farangi, M.; and Kheradmand Saadi, Z. 2016;

1Cited in Hoang Mei, L.; Thi Bich Ngoc, L. And Thanh Thai, V. (2014) Enhancing Listening
Performance through Schema Construction Activities. [online] academypublication.com
Available at: http://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/jltr/vol05/05/09.pdf [Accessed
13 Aug. 2019]

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Paulston, C.; Bruder, M., 1976) and it had gained more attention more as an active skill
since the 1970s. Moreover, the same authors have pointed out that teaching listening
skills have been overlooked in the English learning classroom. From then on, it has
been accepted as a teaching standard to divide the listening skills teaching activities
into three stages: 1) Pre-Listening, 2) Listening and 3) Post-Listening. Addressing this
teaching structure as an “Early Format of a Listening Lesson” Field (2009)2, explains
that the Pre-Listening conveys “teaching vocabulary ‘to ensure maximum
understanding’”; Listening consists in “Extensive listening followed by general questions
on context” and “Intensive Listening followed by detailed comprehension questions”.
Finally, Post-Listening include the following activities: “Teach any new vocabulary…
analyze language… and paused play. Students listen and repeat”. The same author
contends that the “traditional” approach to develop listening skills in the classroom has
focused more in testing listening, rather than teaching listening skills. One of Field’s
critiques to that method is, on one hand, the amount of time given to the three stages.
On the other hand, he takes issue with the type of activities associated with the
Listening and Post-Listening stages. In short, this work takes in consideration Field’s
proposal to enhance the approach to Listening activities, particularly to the following
points: 1) “what would the listener already know in real life, before the speech event
began”; 2) giving “a purpose for listening” as well as expectations towards the content of
the aural materials ; 3) the implementation of tasks rather than questions in the latter
stages of the listening lesson; and 4) the inclusion of “authentic recordings whenever
possible”. (Field, 2009: p18-23).

Admittedly, Listening is regarded as a “difficult skill to master… That is due to one

important aspect: English language learners and teachers put too much emphasis on
the effects of language knowledge” (Bao, X. 2016). Nonetheless, by the means of
making adjustments in the listening lessons, having the students’ traits, interests, and
more importantly; considering their culture background knowledge being as important
as their language knowledge”, it is possible to bridge the gap between the reluctance to

2 Field, J. (2009) Listening in the Language Classroom. UK Cambridge University Press.

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participate in listening activities and to encourage them to become autonomous
learners.3

SCHEMA THEORY

Even though is not uncommon to hear from baffled English students that they “don’t
understand any English”, it’s an educator’s task to prove otherwise by means of the
student’s previous experience, be it in the language classroom or ay other scenario and
by making use of a better understanding of the learning processes. In this regard, the
Schema Theory can offer important insights in the way to approach university learners
as well as a framework to base teaching strategies from. Schema, is defined as “a
structure consisting of individual’s knowledge and past experiences classified into
different sections based on similarities facilitating retrieval of saved information and
incorporating new information” (Anderson, 2012)4 .

The student’s actual background and current knowledge of the professional area they
are studying can be taken as part of the “past experiences” which conform the “structure
of knowledge” as well other experience in contact with the target language, to tackle on
for the solution of this case. The way in which the listening activities offer new material
to the listener, the activities can be designed to activate “more than one set of existing
knowledge structures” which in turn contribute on “pulling together previously acquired
knowledge from several areas of experience” (Harden and Dent, 2005) 5. This notion is
also supported by Bao (2016). Taken as an unconscious depository of accumulated and

3 Bao, X. (2016) A Study on Schema Theory-based Listening Teaching Mode for English
Majors. [online] ccsnet.com Available at: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijel/article/
view/61442
4Reza Faranghi, M. and Kheradmand Saadi, Z. (2019). Dynamic assessment or schema theory:
The case of listening comprehension. [online] Cogentoa.com. Available at: https://
www.cogentoa.com/article/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1312078.pdf [Accessed 13 Aug. 2019].

5 Hoang Mei, L.; Thi Bich Ngoc, L. And Thanh Thai, V. (2014) Enhancing Listening Performance
through Schema Construction Activities. [online] academypublication.com Available at: http://
www.academypublication.com/issues/past/jltr/vol05/05/09.pdf [Accessed 13 Aug. 2019]

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dynamic knowledge, schemata is the mainframe of how the world is constructed as part
of the cognitive apparatus.

Through the agency of Schema Theory the game can be opened for the students to be
aware that they can use what they know about areas of their interest -professional, or
otherwise-, to give a more enjoyable experience in the classroom, bolstering their
motivation: “The motivation for listeners should be pleasure, interest and growing
confidence at being able to understand the spoken language (Brown, 1976)”.6

MOTIVATION

Motivation has been an ever-changing construct, defined according to various

theoretical standpoints. For the purpose of this work the definition taken is the one put
forward by Oletić and Ilić (2014): “In basic terms, motivation can be defined as the main
incentive a person may have to perform a particular action”.7 Of course, the concept of
motivation can’t be confined in a single definition; furthermore, depending on the given
theoretical approach its boundaries change, being also divided in various types of
motivation. According to the aforementioned authors, “Intrinsic motivation is related to
an internal wish to do something”, and also propose the intervention of “needs” of the
internally motivated individual:

Those needs are: autonomy (in deciding what to do and how to do it),
competence (abilities and skills by which we manage to control our
environment) and relatedness (relationships we develop through our
interaction with others). This assumption has significant implications for
students engaged in the learning process. Namely, students are more
likely to experience intrinsic motivation in an environment that promotes

6 Ibid.
7Oletić and Ilić (2014) Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation for Learning English as a Foreign
Language. [online] www.eltajournals.org.rs Available at: http://eltajournal.org.rs/wp-content/
uploads/2014/12/V-Intrinsic-and-Extrinsic-Motivation-for-Learning-English-as-a-Foreign-
Language-by-Aleksandra-Oleti%C4%87-and-Nina-Ili%C4%87.pdf

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 the satisfaction of these needs than in the one which neglects them
(Brophy, 2004).

On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is related to the performance of an activity

because of a particular benefit, in the short or long therm. Nevertheless, it has been
accepted that both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation can be combined to achieve
learning (Ibid.)

It has been reported how “instrumental motivation” is present among university students
who enroll in language courses. According to Wilkins (1983) the “instrumentally
motivated” student is driven by the need to graduate, pass exams or to use it in the
work environment.8 In other words, instrumental motivation is more closely related to
extrinsic motivation. The assumption in this work is to take advantage of the very real
need of university students to succeed in their English learning in order to graduate as a
way to motivate them “instrumentally” in the short term. In addition to the latter, by
presenting activities planned with relevant content, it is expected that it paves the way to
a more intrinsically motivated students with the benefit of promoting a gradually more
autonomous learning.

AUTONOMOUS LEARNING

The capacity of students to take over their own learning is a desirable and an essential
skill for learners in any sphere of knowledge, especially language learning. According to
Benson and Voller, cited by Najeeb (2012), as “the ability to to take personal of self-
regulated responsibility for learning and it can be an indicator to predict academic

8 Al-Tamimi, A. And Shuib, M. (2009) Motivation and Attitudes Towards Learning English: A
Study of Petroleum Engineering Undergraduates At Hadhramout University Of Sciences And
Technology. [online] www.ejpurnal.ukm.my Available at: http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/article/
view/156/132

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performance”.9 In order to promote learners’ autonomy in the classroom, there are what
the same author refers to as “strategies for successful autonomization”:

1. Use of the target language as the preferred medium of teaching and learning.
In the case of A2 students, teacher needs to carefully plan how to present the
language in her introduction of activities and how the aural material should be
selected for the listening lesson purposes.
2. Gradual development by the learners of a repertoire of useful learning activities.
3. Ongoing evaluation of the learning process with a combination of teacher-student
self-assessment.

The principles that underlie the strategies presented to plan an effective language
lesson, are 1) Learner’s involvement by the means of sharing responsibilities for the
learning process; for example, working in pairs or small groups to complete and review
a given task; 2) Learner’s reflection on their own performance; and 3) Using the target
language in the classroom.
As it can be observed most of the reflections included present some converging traits
such as gradual implementation of content, student’s interests and active involvement in
the activities and assessment, and the value of intrinsic in conjunction with extrinsic
instrumental motivation. The aim of the next section is to establish guiding principles to
the whole endeavor of this work and its impact on not only enhancing the students’
listening skills, but to the whole language learning process.

TEACHING BY PRINCIPLES

Continuing on the assertion that students can be able to make sense of their learning by
relating the vocabulary, grammar structures, the reception (and production) of speech in
the target language, this work will take into consideration and apply H. Douglas Brown’s
“Principles” to guide English teaching. In the case of teaching listening skills, along with

9Najeeb, S (2012) Learner Autonomy in Language Learning. [online] www.sciencedirect.com

Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042813001845

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Field (2009) and the other authors revised, the principle of “Meaningful Learning
occupies a central stance: “Meaningful learning will lead to long term retention than rote
learning.”10 Instead of taking loose bits of information (words, sounds, etc.) and asking
learners to repeat and memorize, teachers must entice the association of those bits
(and chunks) of information or speech into the learner’s existing cognitive structure, by
“appealing to to student’s interests, academic goals and career goals”.

Another Principle that will guide the resolution of this case is the one related to Intrinsic
Motivation: “The most powerful of rewards are those that are intrinsically motivated
within the learner” (Brown, 2000). As it has been mentioned, intrinsic motivation is
crucial to foster learner’s progress and autonomy. Among other things, it entails
knowledge about the student’s intrinsic motives; and in our case, use the instrumental
ones as a starting point to make listening lessons and activities more interesting and
useful for the students.

The above Principles according to Brown are related to the cognitive dimension of
learners, whilst the third Principle guiding this work is among the ones considered as
part of the “affective” principles, namely the Self-Confidence Principle, which states
that “Learners’ belief that they are indeed fully capable of accomplishing a task is at
least partially a factor in their eventual success in attaining the task.” In the case of
Rebeca’s students it can be inferred that part of their frustration and uneasiness toward
the listening activities given to them have mined their confidence about their capabilities
of successfully complying. It is advised that the tasks should be organized by starting
with simpler ones and gradually heading to more the more difficult. Lest not forget that
teachers should provide“verbal and non-verbal assurances to students” (Brown, 2000)
in order to build self-confidence in them.

A fourth and last guiding Principle deals with the Linguistic dimension; in other words,
everything that has to do directly to the target language itself: The Principle of

10Brown H. (2000) Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy.

Pearson Education ESL. Second Edition.

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Communicative Competence. In short, Communicative Competence is the ultimate
goal of a language classroom. Its focus is not so much on the usage, but the use of the
target language; the importance of fluency, not only accuracy. More importantly, to
prepare language learners to “authentic language and contexts, and to students’
eventual need to apply classroom learning to previously unrehearsed contexts in the
real world” (Brown, 2000).

Although it may seem that by dividing principles and strategies the teaching process is a
also constituted by different separate pieces, the reflections presented given by
academic research embody something that is more than the sum of its parts: the
practice of language teaching in the classroom to solve a case of students who are
challenged by listening activities. In the next section, an approach to a solution will be
provided under the framework described.

DEVELOPMENT AND SOLUTION OF THE CASE

The application of theoretical reflection into the classroom scenario can be tricky. A
teacher is compelled to offer quick and practical solutions to problems with students
who may be presenting challenges in particular areas of his or her learning. In the case
of Rebeca, there are several variables to take into consideration: the English level of
their students, being aware of the areas of interest they may show -professional and
otherwise-, and choosing the right learning materials and to implement them in a very
carefully planned lesson plan along the course, and having a fair assessment of their
student’s progress. Reviewing Rebeca’s case, it is possible to find strengths both in her
approach as well as with her students.

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 DIAGNOSIS AND THEORETICAL JUSTIFICATION

LISTENING LESSON FORMAT

One first action to implement to overcome the problems of presenting the listening
materials in a lesson, is to reframe the format of the listening lesson itself. Field (2009)
contends that before presenting the listening materials to students, it’s necessary to
cover the following points in the Pre-Listening stage:

PRE-LISTENING

* Pre-teaching vocabulary with only critical words, meaning that they must be only
words without which the audio material could not be understood. The number of
critical words shouldn’t be more than 4 or 5. This also addresses bottom-up
processing of information by giving clues in the form of the critical words to entice this
type of learning strategy (Solak, 2016)
* Establishing context by giving a general idea of what is going to be heard in the
recording. The caveat to this point is that at this stage, the contextual information
given to students should not be extensive. As mentioned before, the question to be
answered before giving context is what would the listener already know in real life
before the speech event began?
* Creating motivation by providing a mental set, a purpose for listening. One of the
suggested actions to implement by Field (2009), is to write a title on the board for the
listening material. This would allow the listener to predict what is going to be heard in
some extent.


The time given to this stage should be shorter in comparison to the following Listening
and Post-Listening stages. Of course, the actions suggested here won’t leave out of the
classroom dynamics to ensue in a short conversation about the theme of the recording
to be listened, focused on the critical words and the possible other expressions that

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might show up during the listening11 . It is important to note that by engaging in this
actions we will be activating the listeners’ previous knowledge about the topic to be
covered in the listening lesson, in coherence with Schema Theory and top-down
processing (Solak, 2016)12.

LISTENING/DURING LISTENING

Following Brown’s suggestions, before playing the aural material to the students, this
stage of the lesson must contemplate that it is in fact, an extensive listening activity. To
achieve to goal of focusing the students attention to the various layers of
comprehension in the task, the following actions must be ensured:

* Pre-set questions. Having a set of questions given to the students prior to the
first exposure to the listening material will let them know in advance what are they
listening for. In the experience of this teacher, such questions should be focused on
general information about the listening material to tackle the Listening for Gist sub-
skill; in other words, to get the general idea of the theme and nature of the recording
(Solak, 2016). Brown also suggests that the general questions should also be focused
on the affective nature of the speaker(s) in the listening: are they happy? Or are they
sad or angry? This will provide the chance of noticing the inflections and stressing in
speech, providing very important information on the material, especially to what is
concerned with the Listening to Infer sub-skill; namely deducting information about
how a speaker or speakers feel (Ibid.)
* Checking answers. After the first play students are given time to answer the pre-set
questions. At this point answers can be checked by enticing participation of the whole
class, and then forming small groups to compare their answers. This is intended
to tackle on possible insecurities about the students’ capability of complying with “all
correct answers”, and also promotes a first step on autonomous learning by giving
the chance of having a peer-to-peer assessing of their learning (Najeeb, 2009).

11 Field, J. (2009) Listening in the Language Classroom. UK Cambridge University Press.

12Solak, E. (2016) Teaching Language Skills for Prospective English Teachers. Ankara, Turkey.

19
POST LISTENING
At this stage it may be necessary to play the recording more than once, taking into
consideration the A2 level of the students and also to make sure that the answers to the
pre-set questions don’t heavily rely on memory, and also provide the opportunity to
practice on both the Listening in Detail and Listening for Specific Information sub-
skills. According to Field (2009) the points to be covered at this stage are the following:

* Functional language. Given the fact that in a listening material there will be
functional common language used, it is important to note this and practice it at this
stage. Such functions may include denial, refusal, acceptance, offerings, etc. One
way to anticipate the inclusion of specific functions is that the listening lesson should
be linked to the Grammar and Use of English in the current course book unit, and in
the course plan.
* Inferring vocabulary. It is worthy of noting that by having critical words as a starting
point in the pre-teaching of vocabulary in the first stage of the lesson plan, there will
be words unknown to the students. To tackle this issue, the teacher must prevent
what are the words or phrases that may be new to the students and provide some
controlled practice of inferring their meaning based on the recording’s context. Field
suggests that those words and phrases can be written on the board to entice
class participation.
* Paused play. Field warns that paused play has been dropped in the current teaching
paradigm, nevertheless, it can be used -if necessary- to have students to practice
dividing chunks of speech in words in order to be aware of connected speech
issues.
* Final play. At this stage, the understanding of the listening material is checked with
the students organized in pairs and as a whole class. One very important thing that is
encouraged to enforce is to use listening-based tasks instead of “conventional
comprehension questions.” (Field, 2009). Grids, forms or gap-filling transcripts can
be used as tasks, especially when the listening material portrays situations

20
 between two speakers such as a job interview, a sales deal, or any other real-life
interaction.

It’s worthy to note that along the structure of the listening lesson top-down and bottom-
processes have been addressed by the means of providing critical words and
vocabulary and contextual information to students, respectively (Solak, 2016).

In the same manner, it can’t be enough emphasized that the type of listening materials
should be selected and organized according to the student’s level and area of interest
as it was conveyed earlier in this work to regain student’s self-confidence using
meaningful learning principles with a view towards their communicative competence in
the short and long term; and more importantly, to promote students’ intrinsic motivation
conveyed in Brown’s Principles.

AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

The use of authentic materials in an English class represent a valuable tool to put
students in contact with a real use of the language, given its non-designed for learners
nature. But also, their implementation can be problematic. In the case of Rebeca, it is
understandable that her student haven’t responded they way the teacher expected,
given the fact that “the language used in authentic materials may also be too difficult for
learners (Hyland, 2003)13 . Yet, instrumentally motivated learners recognize this type of
materials as “pertaining to the professional community to which they aspire” and “can
provide comprehensive input on topics of real interest” (Ibid.)

As proposed earlier in this work, extrinsic/instrumental motivation can be the link to

intrinsically motivate students by using meaningful content for their learning. Of course,
the use of such material should be part of more controlled practice at the beginning of
the English course and depending on the students’ progress it can be gradually be

13Ahmad N. (2014) Authentic Materials in English as a Second Language (ESL) Classroom.

[online] www.academia.edu Available at: https://www.academia.edu/5397758/
Authentic_Materials_in_English_as_Second_Language_ESL_Classroom

21
relied on the students’ choice of selecting and finding ways to make the best use of it.
The steps to take in order to implement authentic materials should be, firstly in the
classroom environment prior to be assigned for independent and less teacher-
controlled.

PROPOSED LISTENING ACTIVITY: TAKING NOTES FOR AN EXAM

This section will be focused in a proposed Listening activity which will follow the Lesson
Format described in the previous section. Also, a home activity is also included in order
to include the use of authentic materials as part of a strategy to foster student’s
independent work.

The activity chosen consists in providing a 2 minute audio which will focus in receiving
advice from a teacher to a group of students to prepare for an exam. The activity has
been selected from the British Council website, which offers listening activities for A1 to
C1 levels. The activity is for A2 level students and also provides downloadable
worksheets with skeleton sentences and gap filling exercises (APPENDIX).

This activity will be a first trial for the solution proposed for this case. Indeed, this activity
is still an education-designed task, but can be a useful way to apply the principles
presented so far. The critical point to consider for this activity is not about the
downloaded and online resources themselves, but how the teacher can follow a step-
by-step plan to implement it and do the proper adaptations accordingly.

The following 50-minute lesson plan includes the steps proposed by Field (2009) using
the listening activity mentioned. Some of the exercises included in the worksheets are
adapted and properly described in the lesson plan. Also, the extra home activity which
includes a sample of authentic material is included in a final section.

22
 LISTENING ACTIVITY: TAKING NOTES FOR AN EXAM
MAIN OBJECTIVE:
To promote listening skills in A2 English Level students
OTHER OBJECTIVES:
- To motivate students to practice their English skills through meaningful content

- To practice listening for gist, listening in detail, listening to infer and listening for
specific information

- To promote student’s self-confidence

- To promote learner’s autonomy and responsibility in their learning

ATTITUDES AND
CONTENTS: SKILLS:
VALUES:
Vocabulary: * Listening comprehension * Discipline

* Common nouns and (Listening for gist, to * Collaboration

adjectives
infer, in detail, for specific * Responsibility

* Verbs
information)
* Respect
Grammar: * Organizing ideas

Present tense * Anticipating

TEACHING-LEARNING SEQUENCE
ACTIVITY TIME AND RESOURCES PRODUCT
Welcome the class

Questions to the class

about how they prepare for
an upcoming exam. Entice
participation with student’s 3 min. Oral participation
ideas about note-taking in
class and for exam
preparation

WARMING UP · 1. PRE-LISTENING
1.1 Write the title of the
Listening lesson on the
board: “Taking notes for an
exam”.

23
1.2 Project critical words
on the board: draw, notes, 7 min. / Video projector, Critical words on the
important, write, exam, laptop, whiteboard students’ notebooks.
remember.

1.2 (continued) Ask the

students to write the words
in their notebooks.
FOLLOW UP · 2. DURING LISTENING
2.1 Project the following
pre-questions on the
board and instruct the
students to copy them in
their notebooks. Entice
participation by asking
individual students to read
aloud 1 question each:
Oral participation

3 min. Questions written in the

1. How many speakers students’ notebooks.
are in the listening?

2. What are their names?

3. What is the girl doing

and why?

4. What does the boy tells

her?

5. What is her reaction?

2.1 Instruct the students to
listen for the general idea
and not to worry in trying 1 min.
to understand everything in
the recording.
2.2 Play the recording. 2 min.
2.3 Entice participation by
asking if they can answer
2 min. Oral participation.
the pre-set questions.
Provide feedback.

24
2.4 Ask students to
prepare for a True/False
activity. Give each students
the Worksheet 1
(Appendix). Ask them to 2 min. Answered worksheet 1.
answer the worksheet
while the recording is being
played. Play the recording
a second time.
2.5 Ask students to make
teams of 5 people to
Oral participation and
compare their answers.
5 min. feedback.

Ask the teams to share

Answered worksheets.
their answers to the class.
Provide feedback.
2.6 Give the students the
Worksheet 2 (Appendix).
Tell them that they have to
2 min.
answer it during a 3rd
playing of the recording.
Play the recording.
2.7 Ask the teams to share
their answers with the Oral participation and
class. Entice oral 3 min. feedback.

participation and provide Answered worksheets.

feedback.
3. POST-LISTENING
3.1 Ask students to go
back to the pre-set
questions and remaining in Written answers to the pre-
their teams instruct them to set questions in their
3 min.
work together to write and notebooks.

correct their answers Oral participation.

based on the previous
playing of the recording.

25
3.2 Take the time to ask
them if any of the words
delivered in the recording
were unfamiliar and if so,
Oral participation and
were they able to infer the 3 min.
feedback.
meaning. Entice oral
participation among the
teams and to share their
answers with the class.
3.3 Give to each team an
envelope containing
prepared flashcards with
words that build three
Skeleton sentences
different sentences
3 min. exercise in a sheet of
delivered in the recording.
paper.
Give them 3 minutes to put
the words in order and
paste them in a piece of
paper.
3.4 Using the ordered
words into sentences,
make a short review of
Oral participation and
present tense, question 2 min.
feedback.
forms and their function.
Ask the students to provide
examples of their own.
3.5 Ask each team to paste
their build up sentences on
the board in the sequence
they consider should be
based on the recording.

Assembled and sequenced

Ask them to pay attention 3 min.
sentences on the board.
to the Final Listening/
playing of the recording
to check both their
sentences and the
sequence.

26
3.6 Ask the students to
provide feedback on their
performance and the
quality of the activity. Make
sure to take note of any Oral participation and
3 min.
case in which a student or feedback.
students have had
difficulties during the
activity or in a particular
task.
3.7 Provide feedback to
the students and
congratulate them for their
effort and participation in
the activity. Make sure to 3 min.
mention their strengths and
the things that helped to
made them able to
succeed in it.

EXTRA HOME ACTIVITY

Give the students the following instructions: As an extra activity you will watch a
video in youtube in which two boys are taking a Speaking test. Watch it as many
times as you need to to answer the following questions:
1. What are the boys’ names? 2.Where are they from? 3. Where are they taking the
test? 4. What is the name of the evaluator? 5. Who do you think did well in the test
and why?

Remember that you don’t need to understand everything they say. Answer the
questions in your notebook the best you can and bring them for the next class.
RESOURCES: Computer and internet connection.

Authentic Material: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDZiJYcRCAI

PRODUCT: Answered questions in the students’ notebook.

27
 CONCLUSIONS

The implementation of listening activities and tasks on an English class are not new by
any stance. Nevertheless, it is important to reframe the methodology applied to focus on
how educators can enhance the listening skills of the students by the means of
including topics which they find useful in their context. Also, to dedicate more time in the
classroom environment to provide contextual background and intensive listening in
order to make sure that students are not only “listening” to answer questions. The
comprehension of speech, delivered in this case by aural material can be put into the
service of practical tasks which can gradually be more complex and closer to real-life
situations and allowing the students to follow-up and assess their own learning with the
right balance of challenging and close-to-home experiences (Field, 2009), such as the
preparation for an exam and study habits.

The classroom can be considered as an experimental lab in which teachers and

students put their knowledge and skills to the test everyday to succeed in their goals
with the resources available, and of course, the opportunity to reinvent themselves into
the teaching-learning process. Among the many variables that converge in this process
are the time available in every course, the students who struggle to succeed in their
professional tuition in which -hopefully- the proficiency in English language will be taken
as something more than a box to check in order to obtain a degree.

Teaching elementary-level university students comprises a difficult task that hopefully

can be overcome with the aid of continuous research in the field of pedagogy and
education theory to find new ways to foster motivation and more autonomous learners.
Rebeca’s case illustrates that great things can be achieved with students who are
willing to collaborate in the language classroom.The opportunities provided even in the
most challenging situations can be overcome with dedication, patience, collaboration,
open-mindedness and well-founded optimism.

Otherwise, there would be no teachers, nor motivated learners.

28
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APPENDIX

31
DOWNLOADED LISTENING ACTIVITY
WORKSHEET 1

WORKSHEET 2

32