Teaching listening

How many listenings?

 at least two, as many as necessary

global intensive
- general idea - details (lexis, syntax)
Should the learners follow the text
in the textbook?
 NO, if they start to read, they stop
listening!
 Tapescript can be given to Ls after
the listening work has been done,
i.e. after a global and intensive
listening (to check if they
misunderstood something; to do
additional work on the text, etc.)
 THE TEACHER’S ROLE
 exposing students to a range of listening
experience: stories, conversations, descriptions…
 making listening purposeful (realistic tasks)
 helping students understand what listening
entails and how they might approach it
 building up students’ confidence
 making planning decisions (a separate lesson or
part of a general lesson, equipment, recordings,
timing, choosing the listening text, choosing
activities, adjusting the level of difficulty of the
activities if needed, thinking about visual aids)
 Selection of materials (criteria)
 Language:
• level i+1
 Length
• long: many activities; higher levels
• short: may be a disadvantage (no time to get used to)
 Content
 The use of visual support material
 The style of delivery (the way a speaker speaks)
 The speed of delivery
 Spontaneity
 The quality of production
Selection of materials (adjustment)
 the level of difficulty can be
adjusted by:
a) selection of less/more difficult texts
b) selection of less/more difficult tasks
(e.g. jumbled questions)
c) giving more/less support
 Choosing the procedure
 a recorded text or presenting ‘live’?
 without stopping/ with pauses? (mark the
tapescript where you want to stop the
machine!)
 organization of each stage
(pairs/groups/individually)
 replay – how many times? who chooses?
 students write down the answers, make
notes, cooperate?
 correction?
 During the lesson:
 giving help whenever needed and
encouraging students to help each other
 not treating the activities as tests!
 allowing students to alter their answers
after listening for a second time
 including lots of pair and group work (to
remove the feeling of isolation & anxiety)
 making listening work enjoyable
 leaving out part of the work rather than
rushing
 giving immediate feedback
 A GOOD PATTERN FOR A LISTENING
SESSION (M. Underwood, 1989)

 pre-listening  establishing context,

explaining tasks, motivating

 while-listening  students discuss their

activities responses in pairs/groups
 a repeat listening (completing
activities, checking answers)
 perhaps further discussion
between students (listening
again?)

consideration of the areas

post-listening

 where Ss failed to understand
or missed something
(replay?)
 post-listening extension
activity
 A MODEL FOR A LISTENING LESSON
(J. Field, OTEC Oxford, 1999)
 WARM UP/PRE-LISTENING
 EXTENSIVE LISTENING
 INTENSIVE LISTENING
 CHECKING
 VOCABULARY AND LANGUAGE
SUB-SKILLS EXERCISES
 FINAL LISTENING
 REMEDIAL WORK
 motivating; pre-teach only critical words!
whole of recording or, if long, half; 3-5

general questions which establish: identity of
speakers, their relationship, their emotions
and attitudes, the situation)
 pre-set questions, tasks, sections of about
1.5 minutes
 comparing answers in pairs/groups; replay;
check answers; Ss present ideas to class -
teacher does not comment !
 deeper comprehension questions; replay
sentences with new word for inferring a)
general meaning of sentence; b) meanings of
words from context; examine interesting
functions of language – possible practice)
 if appropriate to the text
 listen/repeat; listen/complete; listen/predict;
Ss revise guesses, class discusses which
ideas are correct, teacher assists)
 on listening sub-skills (possibly in a later
lesson)
 HOW TO SUCCEED WITH
LISTENING WORK
 Ss need to understand very clearly
what they are expected to do
 Ss need to have a specific purpose

for listening even when listening for

the second, third or fourth time
EVERY TIME A DIFFERENT PURPOSE
 include plenty of appropriate pre-
listening work
 HOW TO SUCCEED WITH
LISTENING WORK
 do not put emphasis on quality of the
presentation of the response (e.g. do not
insist on full sentences when short ones
would suffice)
 encourage Ss not to worry if they don’t
understand every word
 never use a recorded listening text in class
without having listened to it in advance
 never take a chance on whether you will
be able to operate the equipment
 HOW TO SUCCEED WITH
LISTENING WORK
 help Ls develop their principal and
other micro-skills
 help Ls use and develop their

listening strategies
Listening: principal (micro) skills
 identifying the topic of conversation/
general trend/idea
(difficult in the early stages of L2 learning)
 ability to make predictions about likely
development of the topic
 ability to recognize and signal when not
enough of the input has been understood
to make a prediction or a response
 Listening: other micro-skills
 listening for specific details
 checking pre-knowledge against
what was said
 understanding speaker’s intention
(why)
 understanding speaker’s attitude
(how s/he felt)
 listening for the key words
 Listening: micro-skills
 noticing the role of intonation and
stress in marking the meaning
 distinguishing between literal and

implicit meaning
 recognition of anaphoric and

kataphoric relationships
 predicting the exact words
Listening activities
 PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES
 reading, writing, speaking
 make the listening realistic (i.e. do
things which listeners do in real life)
 the choice depends on:
• the time availabe
• the material available
• the ability of the class
• the interest of the class & teacher
• the nature & content of the text itself
 WHILE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES
 to elicit messages from spoken
languge
 careful choice of tasks: it is difficult

to write and listen at the same time

 some tasks may be frustrating (e.g.

T/F, MCQ)
POST-LISTENING ACTIVITIES
 extension
 can be much longer

 include additional data (e.g. What do

you think?)
 includes other language skills