Session 8 objectives: Listening. Not just for stories!
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By the end of this session you will be able to:
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Before
you start, make a list of the things you listen to in your day-to-day life [remember
that listening can be for instrumental reasons, e.g. listening to directions/instructions,
as well as for pleasure, e.g. the radio or music]. Once written, compare your responses
with our ideas (http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-1).
Understanding our learners’ problems
Task 1a: What problems would learners have in
understanding this football commentary (http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-2)?
Listen to the commentary, make notes and then read the suggestions below.
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The
commentary would be difficult to understand for different reasons. Firstly, the speaker has an accent with which
the learners may not be familiar; additionally, he talks very quickly. Secondly, he uses a lot of colloquial language
relating to football, which learners would probably not understand. Finally, the quality of the sound is not
crystal clear and this can add to learners’ frustration. The fact that we can use visual clues to help
us understand what he is saying is useful and this is something we should
remember when we plan our listening lessons.
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Task 1b: Listen to these ESOL teachers, Clare and
Tonia, discussing what their learners find difficult about listening and
strategies they use to help them. As you
listen, number the strategies in the order you hear them being discussed. The first one has been done for you.
Strategy to help
learner
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Number
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Pre-teaching
vocabulary
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Use visuals
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Set the context
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Play the audio
again
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1
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Provide listening
tasks
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Chunk the
information
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Generate
discussion about the topic
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Give learners
training in strategies for listening
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Clare
and Tonia say that learners find accents difficult to understand as well as the
speed of speech and topic, which they may be unfamiliar with. Another challenge is learners’ lack of
awareness of word boundaries in English – what ESOL and literacy teachers call
‘connected speech’. For example, when
said quickly ‘first of all’ can sound
like ‘festival’, and we need to be
aware of this additional problem when lesson planning.
Visit the BBC language site at http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-4 if you
are interested in finding out more about this area of language.
Overall,
difficulties with listening in English can be divided into four main categories
– acoustic, personal, linguistic and content. Look at this list of reasons (http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-5).
Strategies to help our learners
Task 2a: Self-assessment. Look
at the strategies in the table. Tick the
ones you already use.
Task 2b: Experiment with some of the strategies you don’t use next time you are teaching a lesson with a listening element.
Strategy to help
learners with listening
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Give learners a purpose
for listening and set questions in advance of listening
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Teach vocabulary
necessary for the task in advance
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Choose relevant and
interesting material
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Create interest using
other resources
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Stimulate previous
knowledge of the topic of the listening
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Vary topics and genre
to maintain interest and relevance
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Provide visual clues
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Use live audio and
‘real life’ listening material
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Use good quality audio
recordings and equipment
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Provide transcripts for
learners with hearing problems
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Allow learners to
control the audio so they can stop, start and repeat when needed
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Task 2b: Experiment with some of the strategies you don’t use next time you are teaching a lesson with a listening element.
How do we listen?
Top-down listening involves the listener using
their:
- background knowledge of the topic to understand it and
- existing knowledge to interpret, predict and test their ideas.
Bottom-up processing involves:
Using a combination of these strategies helps our understanding of a listening ‘text’.
- pauses in speech
- grammatical knowledge
- vocabulary knowledge
- non-verbal clues (facial expressions, body language)
- features of pronunciation
Using a combination of these strategies helps our understanding of a listening ‘text’.
The sub-skills of listening
Task 3: In task 1b, Tonia talked about using listening
tasks to support learners. This means
listening to get a general understanding of the content. There are other listening sub-skills we can
help our learners develop. Look at the
table below and match the sub-skill on the left with its definition on the
right.
Sub-skill:
listening….
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Definition
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for gist
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listening carefully to extract specific
pieces of information
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to predict information
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listening to select a particular piece of
information and ignoring the rest
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for detail
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getting a general understanding of the
content
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to extract a specific piece of information
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listening to confirm initial ideas about
what the content of the listening will be
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Look at this comprehensive list (http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-7) of listening sub-skills which can help you vary the skills you support and develop with your learners.
The structure of a listening lesson
As
we saw in session 3, it can be helpful if we structure our listening lessons
carefully to support our learners’ listening development. There are many alternatives but the outline
below is a useful one.
Pre-listening stage
- Generate interest in the topic by using discussions to motivate learners to listen.
- Teach unknown vocabulary so it does not interfere with completing the listening tasks.
While-listening stage
- Use a variety of tasks to develop learners’ listening skills.
- Try True/False, matching, ticking, correction exercises to develop different skills.
Post-listening stage
- Use tasks after the listening based on the same theme.
- Develop learners’ writing and speaking skills.
Tasks for developing learners’
listening skills
There
are a variety of tasks you can use to support your learners to develop their
listening skills.
Task 4: Which task for which skill? When you are
planning a lesson listening, try to select a task which has the best potential
for developing the skill you want learners to develop. Click on each link below and decide the best
task for each of the skills listed in the table below. Check your answers by clicking on the link
below the table.
Now check your answers (http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-15).
Skill
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Listening carefully for
detailed information
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Listening to confirm
predictions
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Listening for gist
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Listening for a
particular piece of information
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Tasks to choose from
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(http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-8)
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(
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(http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-10)
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(http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-11)
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(http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-12)
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(http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-13)
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(http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-14)
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Now check your answers (http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-15).
Top tips for supporting learners to
develop their reading skills
Task 5: look at the top tips for supporting learners
to develop their reading skills. Which
do you routinely do?
Session 8 top tips! Remember to:
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1
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Play the audio for a few second to check
acoustics.
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2
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Give out the task before the students listen
so they can read over it and know what they are looking for.
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3
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Make the first task relatively simple to
build confidence.
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4
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Reassure them they don’t have to understand
every word.
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5
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Let them check their answers in pairs before
doing feedback with the class.
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6
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Play the audio 2 or 3 times.
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7
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In feedback, go through the reasons for the
answers.
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8
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Keep a copy of the tapescript to hand if
possible so you can clarify parts of the dialogue if you need to.
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9
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Check you know how the equipment works
beforehand.
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10
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Stop and pause the audio as and when
needed.
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Now over to you:
Considering
what we’ve covered in this session, plan a lesson which focuses on supporting
learners to develop their listening skills. You could teach the lesson and ask a colleague to observe it. Look at this list for a longer list (http://tinyurl.com/ESOL-Lit8-16) of some listening
activities you can experiment with. Good
luck!
Further
reading
The Practice of English Language
Teaching by Jeremy Harmer: chapter 16
Teaching English as a Foreign Language by David Riddell
