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Chapter 5: While-listening skills and activities

1 Listen to a teacher describing a w hile-listening activity. Using the dictogloss
technique, w rite down as m uch as you can. W ork w ith a partner to reconstruct the
text.
2 Read the transcript from a program m e about the start o f the T V age in politics.
During the 1960 presidential campaign there was an organised political debate between the two
candidates, Nixon and Kennedy. Nixon had recently been ill, and with his swarthy appearance
he also looked somewhat unshaven. He refused to wear TV make-up for the debate, and with
the lights burning overhead in the television studio, he began to sweat. Kennedy, on the other
hand, was far more telegenic. He was a younger, better-looking man in the first place, but
crucially, he didn’t sweat, and he wore TV make-up.
So who won the debate? In polls taken after the show, it turned out that radio listeners
thought Nixon had won. He was, after all, an experienced campaigner who knew his brief. TV
viewers thought Kennedy had won.
The 1960 debate has come to be recognised as a seminal moment in the history of US
politics. It inaugurated the TV age in which looking good was as important as anything you
said.
W hich o f the w hile-listening activities/exercises below w ould be appropriate fo r this passage?
Why? O f
• Listening for gist
• Listening for detail
• Inferring
• Participating actively
• Note-taking
• Dictation
• Listen and do
3 Read the dialogue below and design three w hile-listening tasks.
R: Good morning, Western House.
A: Hi, I’d like to book a single room for two nights, please.
R: Certainly, madam. For which dates?
A: I’m arriving on the 14th of April and I’m leaving on the 16th.
R: OK. I’m just checking on the computer. OK. That’s fine. How are you going to pay?
A: Is American Express OK?
R: Yes, of course. The full course is 100 pounds. Can I take your number?
A: Yes, sure. It’s 0489-6666-1072-3465.
R: And the expiry date?
A: 04-09.
R: And your name as it appears on the card?
A: Mrs A Jones.
R: Great. Thank you, Mrs Jones. That’s one single room for April the 14th and 15th. We look
forward to seeing you then.
A: Great. Thank you. Bye.
(from Dellar, H and Walkley, A (2005) Innovations Elementary, Thomson Heinle, page 127)

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4 M atch the activities to transcripts 1-5. Evaluate the activities in term s o f purposefulness,
authenticity and suitability.
A ctivities
a Listen and do b Guess the subject c Label the photos d Make notes e Draw a map
Transcripts
1
SARAH: This is my mother in our garden at home.
GUY: Let’s see. Is that your father?
SARAH: No, it’s Martin, her partner. My mum’s divorced.
GUY: Does your mother work?
SARAH: Yes, she’s a nurse. And Martin’s a doctor at the same hospital. I don’t like him very
much. This is my sister Lisa and her husband Philip. And their daughter, Sophie.
GUY: Ah - she’s really sweet. How old is she?
SARAH: She’s three.
GUY: Do you have any more nieces or nephews?
SARAH: No, just Sophie for the moment.
GUY: Is that you?
SARAH: Don’t laugh! Yes, that’s from last Christmas, at my grandparents’ house.
GUY: Who’s that?
SARAH: That’s my cousin Adam. Adam and I are really good friends. He’s a singer in a band.
They play in local pubs and clubs ...
(from Oxenden, C, Latham-Koenig, C and Seligson, P (2004) New English File Elementary, Oxford University
Press, page 115)
2
A: It’s a sm all tow n, an d very easy to get aro u n d .
B: Right.
A: The main road runs parallel to the river, and ... um ... everything you need is basically on
this road. Most of the university buildings are here.
B: OK, that’s easy. What about the library? Is th a t...
A: If you keep going straight here, you’ll find the library on your left. Opposite the library
there’s a very good restaurant called Gritos where a lot of students have lunch.
B: Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of it.
A: Next to Gritos, there’s Davies Hall, which is a hall of residence where a lot of students live.
B: Davies Hall. OK.
3
He’s not especially tall but he’s very athletic. He’s quite good-looking, with dark hair and a small
nose. He’s famous all over the world but especially in Switzerland, where he comes from. He
probably trains twice a day, practising his shots and getting very fit because his job involves a lot
of running and hitting a ball.
4
Hi, it’s Chris here. Just wanted to see if you’re still going to the party. I could give you a lift. I’m
going to be leaving at about 9.30. Call me back when you get this message. The number is 987
2769.
5
So, then you add the chopped parsley and the ginger. You may also want to add a little bit of
salt, like this. You place it on a baking tray - there we go - and leave it in the oven for thirty-five
minutes on medium heat.
T h in k o f three other w hile-listening activities the students could do w ith each of these passages.

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Chapter 6: Post-listening skills and activities
1 Listen to the passage and read the transcrip t o f a listening text from an interm ediate
coursebook. Look at five post-listening tasks w ith different aims. W hich are
appropriate/inappropriate fo r the passage? Why?
The person I admire most in the world is Nelson Mandela. He was the President of South Africa
during the 1990s, but before that he spent more than twenty-five years, I think, in prison. He
was put in prison because of his political beliefs. He wanted to get equal rights for black people
in South Africa, and the government put him in prison because of his political views ... um ...
he was a lawyer before he went to prison and he represented himself at his trial. Some of the
things he said during his trial were amazing. They’re still famous speeches, I think.
The reason that I admire him is that in spite of the fact that he spent such a long time
in prison he never changed his views. It would’ve been quite easy for him to perhaps stop
campaigning for the rights of black people, but he never did that. Right until the end of his time
in prison, he was still campaigning. When I went to South Africa, I met somebody who was in
prison with him and it was amazing to hear about how they were ... they found it so easy to
forgive the government and the people who’d put them in prison, they weren’t bitter or angry
about it.
I think he’s really influenced the way people think about how they can make changes,
political changes, by standing by what they believe in and stating their beliefs very clearly.
(from Cunningham, S and Moor, P (2005) New Cutting Edge Intermediate, Pearson Education, page 164)

A Work with a partner and discuss the following questions.

• Do you agree with the speaker that Mandela is admirable?
• Do you think Mandela is an interesting choice as ‘the person I admire most’?
• If you could choose a person that you admire, who would you choose? Why?
B Imagine you could interview Nelson Mandela. Prepare a set of questions to ask him about
his life. One student will act as Mandela. Conduct the interview.
C Discuss the following: how much do you think the speaker knows about:
• Nelson Mandela?
• the political history of South Africa?
• ‘how they [political prisoners] were’?
• what Mandela said at his trial?
Give reasons for your answers.
D ‘He was the President of South Africa during the 1990s, but before that he spent more
than twenty-five years, I think, in prison.’
‘Was’ and ‘spent’ are irregular verbs. Underline all the other irregular past tenses of verbs
in the passage.
E Work in pairs. Look at the key words from the listening passage:
admire prison political beliefs rights trial campaigning forgive angry
influenced changes
Retell the passage you heard, using the key words. Do not write.
Label the post-listening tasks w ith these headings:
• Reconstructing
• Discussion
• Critical response

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• Deconstructing
• Creative response
2 Listen to an anecdote, a joke and a ghost story. Construct post-listening tasks to:
1) check com prehension, 2) allow personal response, 3) enable the students to
reconstruct the text, and 4) make the listening a model for the students to follow.
W hich post-listening task is the m ost/least suitable for each extract? Why?

Post-listening Post-listening Post-listening Post-listening

task: check task: allow task: get task: make
comprehension personal students to the passage a
response reconstruct the model for the
passage students to
follow
Anecdote

Joke

Ghost story

3 Read what some teachers say about using transcripts/tapescripts. W rite 1) - it’s a very good
idea; or 2) - it’s an O K idea but it has some problem s; or 3) - the idea isn’t especially good; or
4) - it’s a terrible idea.
a ‘I let my students read the transcript for homework before listening in class. It helps them if
they know what’s coming.’ D
b ‘I avoid using tapescripts. If I used them, my students, who are teenagers, would want to use
them all the time and they would never learn to listen.’ E H
c ‘After listening to a difficult passage from the book, we sometimes read through the transcript.
It’s a way for the students to see the written version of the difficult words and ask about
them.’ D
d ‘I get my students to listen and read at the same time and highlight where the stresses fall
on each sentence. Then they act out the dialogues or monologues with the script in front of
them.’ □
e ‘I give them the transcript cut up into strips. In groups, they put the strips in the right order.
This gets them thinking about the structure of the conversation.’ D
f ‘I choose ten important words from the recording and write them on the board. Then the
students have to piece together what was said, using the ten words. After this they check by
listening again and reading the tapescript.’ E H

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Chapter 7: Preparation and planning
A Listening in the syllabus (page 113)
Put these stages o f a listening lesson in the order in w hich you m ight do them in class.
a Students check their answers to ‘listen for detail’ questions in pairs or groups. D
b Teacher pre-teaches vocabulary. CD
c Whole class checks detailed information. □
d Students are given a speaking task involving a personal response to the passage, d l
e Students listen for gist. EH
f Students listen for detail. D
g Students are given a more challenging task that asks for more detailedinformation. D
h Teacher checks answers to comprehension questions. [H
i Teacher activates students’ schemata (e.g. by showing pictures aboutthe subject). D
j Students ask about any areas of particular difficulty. D
k Teacher sets comprehension questions. □
Now m atch the stage (above) to its purpose (below ). W rite the letter o f the stage in the box.
Stage □ : Make sure the students know the key words that will help them understand the
main message.
Stage □ Give the students a reason to listen again but for more detailed information.
Stage □ The students listen to the passage and understand the main idea.
Stage □ Check that the students understood the main idea of the passage.
Stage □ Bring the class together to go through the answers.
Stage □ Give the students a reason to listen.
Stage □ The students listen to the passage again.
Stage □ Give the students a chance to respond to the content of the passage, voicing their
own views about what was said.
Stage □ : Get the students interested in the topic and help them predict the content of the
passage. Get them thinking about what vocabulary they may hear.
Stage □ : Give the students a chance to say what they found difficult or where
misunderstanding occurred. Try to work out why the problem occurred and what
can be done about it in future.
Stage Q : Give the students a chance to compare their answers, work out any areas of
contention or misunderstanding, and give them confidence in what they could
understand.
Answ er these questions.
a Are the stages essential or optional?
b What does it depend on?
c When and why might you change the order of the stages?

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B Choosing and adapting

published materials
[pages 113-119)
Look at the listening sequence from a
coursebook. T h in k o f ways to adapt i t ...
a to make it easier, 4 His Or Hers?
b to make it more challenging,
c to make it more personalised,
d to make it longer,
Beforeyoustart
1 What jobs do you do at home? Use the Key
e to make it shorter, Words and the Mini-dictionary to help you.
f to focus on grammar. KEY WORDS: Housework
clear the table, do the cleaning, do the cooking, do DIY,
C Anticipating problems do the gardening, do the ironing, do the shopping,
do the vacuuming, do the washing, do the washing-up,
(pages 125-127) lay the table, look after the children, look after the pets,
You are going to teach separate listening make the beds, tidy my room

courses to all four o f the classes described

below. Answer these questions. O 2 Listen to a radio programme and complete the
table with the results from a UK national survey.
a What are the different types of problems
they might have with listening? Job National survey
women men
b What would you do about these problems? cooking and washing-up
c What different types of listening input and cleaning and tidying up
gardening/looking after pets
tasks would you use? DIY and repairs
looking after children
d Which class would you prefer? Why?
washing and ironing
Class A consists of fifteen children aged
between seven and ten. They are happy, bright 3 Your Culture What do you think the times are
for men and women in your country?
and interested, but they like to run around a lot
and cannot concentrate for long.
Class B consists of five business students from
the same engineering company. They are very
serious and studious when they are in class, but
they are also very busy. Some of them tend to
arrive late for class - or not at all if something
important crops up at work.
Class C consists of twelve adults who all want
to learn general English. Some of them want
English in order to travel overseas; others are
just interested in the language. Some are very
serious and prefer not to play games or listen to
songs in class. Others are there to have fun as
well as to learn English.
Class D consists of twenty-five fourteen year
olds in a secondary school. Many of them
feel that learning English is a waste of time. A
few are keen and quite good at languages, but
pressure from the others prevents them from
taking an active part in lessons.

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Chapter 8: Listening in the wider context
A How to assess listening (pages 136-142)
1 How do you know your students are getting better at listening in the long term? Com plete the
sentences w ith some ideas.
a They are able to listen to ...
b They are able to recognise ...
c They begin to interact with ...
d They persevere even when ...
e They can understand a wider range o f ...
f They question the completeness of ...
2 Look at the extracts from a variety o f listening tests. W hat are the advantages and
disadvantages o f these test types?
a Multiple choice b True or false?

Choose the correct option. The weather in San Francisco is

1 Robert says he likes going to be hot.
A horror films Thunderstorms are expected in
B all kinds of films California.
C cowboy films The weather is hotter now than
D Hollywood films it was this time last year.
2 Jenny hates
A happy endings
B sad endings
C bad acting
D car chases

c Answer the questions d Listen and write a reply

1 How many brothers does Listen to the phone call. You are
Mohamed have? the supplier. Write a follow-up letter
2 Where does Mohamed go to confirming the delivery of the goods.
school?

e Complete the notes

1 Sharks can detect other fish’s

Lemon sharks grow a new set of

teeth every_______ .
Sharks navigate by sensing
changes in the Earth’s _______ .
Some sharks can detect one part
of blood in

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B Encouraging students to listen outside the classroom (pages 142-143)

1 T h in k of advantages and potential difficulties of these ways for students to listen to English
outside the classroom .
a Use a self-access centre.
b Keep a portfolio of your experiences of listening to English.
c Look regularly at websites such as www.youtube.com to hear people talking about things you
are interested in.
d Listen to audio books for a certain amount of time a day.
e Do homework, e.g. write a report on something you watched/listened to, that involves listening
to the radio or watching television programmes.
f Interview people in the community who speak English as their LI or who are highly proficient
speakers.
g Have an evening in which the whole class gets together and watches a film in English.
2 Listen to four teachers discussing ideas for students to practise listening beyond the
classroom . Make notes on the ideas as you listen. W hich o f the ideas are possible in
your current/future teaching situation? W hich ideas could you experim ent with?
Why?

Ideas
Teacher 1

Teacher 2

Teacher 3

Teacher 4

C Self-access and listening in the language lab (pages 143-144)

Read a case study o f a failing self-access centre/language laboratory.
We have had a self-access centre with a language lab since the seventies. It contains a lot of
cassettes, most of which have been there since the beginning. They are organised alphabetically
according to the title, and not graded. Some of the recordings are very difficult, containing
radio programmes for native speakers. There used to be worksheets to go with the cassettes, but
now there are hardly any left because students used the master copies.
We have about twenty videos, but they are quite old and the picture and sound quality isn’t
very good. There are two televisions in the centre, but the headphones don’t work.
Classes at the school finish at 4 p.m. and the self-access centre/lab is open until 5 p.m. Many
students know there is a self-access centre, but they don’t know how to use it or what material
there is. Some of the teachers who have been at the school a long time know what is in the self-
access centre, but the newer teachers never go there.

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Answ er the questions.

a Identify as many problems with the self-access centre/language lab as you can.
b You have been given $1,000 to improve the centre in the short term. What would you do with
the money?
c Think of a long-term plan of action to improve the centre.

D Teacher autonomy; becoming a better teacher of listening

(pages 144-145)
Here are five projects that teachers can do to become better teachers o f listening.
1 Devise a questionnaire for your students about what they like listening to.
2 Find a scene from a film or TV programme or a download from the Internet that can be used
for teaching listening. Write an accompanying worksheet. Think about how to adapt the
worksheet for a different level.
3 Invite a guest speaker to the class. Decide how to prepare the students, and devise pre-, while-
and post-listening tasks.
4 Write a dialogue or plan a semi-scripted discussion. Record it with colleagues and prepare a
sequence of activities for the students to do with the recording.
5 Make a poster of listening strategies. Put it on the classroom wall. Refer to it before and after the
students listen in class and discuss their strategies.
Answ er the questions.
a Which of the projects are possible in your (future) teaching situation?
b What benefits might there be?
c What difficulties might there be?
d Which would be the most useful and the least useful?

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