How Toteach Listening

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great teachers

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“The How to... series is written by teachers and teacher trainers, people who know the reality of the classroom and the support teachers need to get the most out of their students. Our aim is to build teachers’ confi dence, knowledge and classroom abilities – and inspire them to try out new ideas.”

Jeremy Harmer, Series Editor

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te

ac

h l

iste

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g

J J W

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on

Other books in the How to... series: How to Teach English Jeremy Harmer 978 1405 85309 5

How to Teach English with Technology Gavin Dudeney and Nicky Hockly 978 1405 85308 8

How to Teach for Exams Sally Burgess and Katie Head 978 0582 42967 3

How to Teach Business English Evan Frendo

978 0582 77996 9 How to Teach Speaking Scott Thornbury 978 0582 85359 1 How to Teach Writing Jeremy Harmer 978 0582 77998 3 How to Teach Grammar Scott Thornbury 978 0582 33932 3

How to Teach Pronunciation Gerald Kelly

978 0582 42975 8 How to Teach Vocabulary Scott Thornbury 978 0582 42966 6

JJ Wilson

teach listening

how to

How to Teach Listening is a practical guide to the theory of listening in the language classroom and the skills required in its teaching. The book includes:

•

an explanation of the main principles behind listening in the language teaching classroom

•

a discussion of key topics such as authenticity, testing, and using technology for listening

•

practical ideas for conducting an effective listening lesson

•

strategies to ensure the long term development of students’ listening skills

•

a Task File of photocopiable training activities www.pearsonlongman.com/professionaldevelopment

JJ Wilson is a teacher, teacher trainer and

materials writer. He has taught in Egypt, Lesotho, Colombia, the U.K., Italy and the U.S. and co-authored a number of ELT courses including Language to Go,

Worldview and Total English, all

published by Pearson Longman.

with Audio CD

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT INTERACTIVE

www.teacherdevelopmentinteractivetdi.com

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Learners 4

Listening in the lesson – the sequence

Current thinking suggests that listening sequences should usually be divided into three parts: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. These three stages will be exemplified at length in this and the following chapters. First, however, we will deal briefly with what the three parts consist of and why this sequence is often favoured.

Pre-listening

The pre-listening stages described below help our students to prepare for what they are going to hear, and this gives them a greater chance of success in any given task. The first stage of pre-listening usually involves activating schemata (see Chapter 1) in order to help students to predict the content of the listening passage. The second stage is setting up a reason to listen. Maybe there is an information gap that needs to be filled or an opinion

gap or pre-set questions, or perhaps the students have asked questions based on things they

would hope to hear.

While-listening

The students hear the input once, probably listening for gist, although of course there may be occasions when they need to listen for specific information or listen in detail (see Chapter 1). They check their answers in pairs or groups. This is to give them confidence and to open up any areas of doubt. They then listen a second time, either in order to check or to answer more detailed questions. It is important that the students should be required to do different tasks every time they listen (listening to check answers is slightly different from listening to answer questions).

How many times should students listen to a passage? Some commentators say ‘once’. They point out that in real life we may not get second and third chances. For teaching

Pre-listening skills

and activities

4

n Listening in the lesson – the

sequence

n The role of the teacher

n What a listener needs to know

before listening

n Activating schemata/

predicting

n Establishing reasons for

listening

n Generating questions

n Pre-teaching vocabulary

n Things to avoid during the

pre-listening stage

People never listen without a purpose, except perhaps in a language class.

(Gary Buck)

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Pre-listening skills and activities

61

purposes, however, multiple opportunities to hear the input give students a safety net which helps to reduce their anxiety. There are a number of other factors concerning the passage that come into play: difficulty, length, the pedagogical focus and the potential for boredom. It may be the case that students only need to listen again to the part that they found difficult. If the focus is on close language analysis, it might be necessary to repeat several times, whereas if the focus is on listening for gist, it won’t be. Hearing the same passage three times is probably the maximum before feelings of boredom begin to set in. Furthermore, if a listener has been unable to decode a word or phrase after hearing it three times, the problem is probably not one that can be solved by repeated exposure to the same recording.

With longer passages, teachers might consider ‘chunking’ the text by pausing it at various intervals. This can help to make extended listening more accessible and to avoid overloading the students.

Post-listening

The whole class checks answers, discusses difficulties such as unknown vocabulary, and responds to the content of the passage, usually orally, sometimes in writing. This may be done in plenary (with the whole class) or in pairs or groups.

A final stage may involve the ‘mining’ of the recording for useful language, a particular grammatical structure, vocabulary or discourse markers, for example.

Here is a summary of the sequence:

Pre-listening 1 Activate schemata: What do I know? 2 Reason: Why listen?

3 Prediction: What can I expect to hear? While-listening 1 Monitor (1): Are my expectations met?

2 Monitor (2): Am I succeeding in the task? Post-listening 1 Feedback: Did I fulfil the task?

2 Response: How can I respond?

The above is the most common sequence for a listening lesson, although the duration of each stage will vary. Why has this sequence developed? Both research and instinct tell us that students have more chance of succeeding when they know something about the topic and are mentally attuned to what they may hear. These are, after all, the conditions under which most listening takes place outside the classroom. Also, as stated in the quotation that begins this chapter, we listen with a purpose and with certain expectations, hence the development of classroom exercises that ask students to listen purposefully. During the post-listening phase there is now an emphasis on helping students with difficulties, and reflecting on performance. The post-listening stage also developed with the realisation that listening provides excellent input and that this input needs to be analysed. We should note, of course, that the sequence described here – pre-, while- and post-listening – is not the only one, and alternatives will be discussed in the next chapter. It should also be mentioned that although the three stages of the sequence have been placed in different chapters, they need to form an organic whole – a seamless flow of activities that fit the text and the teaching situation. Further guidance on lesson planning will come in Chapter 7.

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107

to exploit them, but for a number of reasons transcripts still remain underexploited. One problem is that book configurations do not allow sufficient space for large print transcripts. Another is the lack of teacher education on how to use them. A third problem is the element of controversy surrounding their use; many teachers believe that transcripts facilitate cued reading rather than listening.

There are, however, compelling reasons for using transcripts, as we saw in Chapter 3. Their main appeal, apart from the fact that they represent an invaluable source of connected speech, is that they show the students the language in the recording. They appear in physical space rather than time. Sound is ephemeral, and conversations in recordings are gone with the wind, whereas transcripts allow students to look again, re-read and check. As such, transcripts provide opportunities for students to see the difference between the way words are written and the way they sound. Features such as elision and assimilation are far easier to teach if there is a visible context on paper. Transcripts can be marked up, annotated, kept as reminders of vocabulary or other features, while recordings cannot. Below is a summary of the reasons for exploiting transcripts.

Seven reasons to exploit transcripts

Features Elaboration

pronunciation elision, contraction, assimilation and other

aspects of connected speech, sentence stress, intonation for mood and attitude

speed where and why speakers speed up and

slow down

vocabulary students relate the written form to the

sound of the word in connected speech

features of good listeners backchannelling (mhm, I see, etc),

paraphrasing, asking follow-up questions features exclusive to speaking fillers, false starts, hesitations, repair

strategies

discourse markers signals for speech functions such as

changing the subject, softening an opinion, returning to the main point, etc

graphophonic relationships between words words that are related in spelling and meaning but differ greatly in sound (syllable shifts, silent letters, etc), e.g. sign and signal, suspect and suspicious, nation and nationality, know and knowledge

Here is how one coursebook attempts to exploit the transcript.

A final word of warning: deconstructing a text needs to be done judiciously. If we try to point out every interesting feature, our students will become either bored or overwhelmed. Many aspects of

Post-listening skills and activities

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Task File

146

TASK FILE

Chapter 1: Listening in the world and in language

learning

A The why and how of listening – motivation and mechanics

(pages 9–10)

Complete these statements in any way you choose.

We listen when … We don’t listen when … Listening is difficult when … Listening is easy when … A good listener is someone who … The best listener I know …

B The characteristics of spoken English (pages 10–12)

≥

Read this story, then listen to someone telling the same story. Compare the written and

the spoken versions. What features of spoken English can you identify?

A scorpion needed to cross a small lake but it couldn’t swim. It went into the water and began to drown. A holy man standing near the water saw the scorpion drowning. He reached in and picked up the scorpion and it bit him. The holy man went to the doctor and was saved. The following day the same scorpion needed to cross the lake. It went into the water and again began to drown. The same holy man passing by saw the scorpion and rescued it again. And again it bit him. Every day for a week the holy man was bitten by the same scorpion and every day he went to the doctor to be saved. Eventually the doctor asked, ‘Why does the scorpion keep biting you when you rescue it?’ ‘It is the scorpion’s nature,’ replied the holy man. And the doctor asked, ‘Why then do you keep picking up the scorpion instead of leaving it to drown?’ The holy man replied, ‘Because that is my nature.’

C Why listening is difficult (pages 12–15)

Read the sentences/passages. What problems might students have when they listen to them? 1 Whatchya doin’? 2 The world of art theft is not, as one might presume, populated with stylish aesthetes masterminding their operations from tax-free hideouts. 3 Are you crazy? You can’t just mosey on in here two hours late for work! Who do you think you are? You’re just taking the mickey. 4 It’s the first Test to be played here at the MCG and I think the Wallabies will be keen to get a W.

≥

Now listen to a linguist commenting on the difficulties.

PHOTOCOPIABLE

2

3

(8)

ho

w t

o

ho

w t

o

great teachers

inspire

“The How to... series is written by teachers and teacher trainers, people who know the reality of the classroom and the support teachers need to get the most out of their students. Our aim is to build teachers’ confi dence, knowledge and classroom abilities – and inspire them to try out new ideas.”

Jeremy Harmer, Series Editor

ho

w

to

te

ac

h l

iste

nin

g

J J W

ils

on

Other books in the How to... series: How to Teach English Jeremy Harmer 978 1405 85309 5

How to Teach English with Technology Gavin Dudeney and Nicky Hockly 978 1405 85308 8

How to Teach for Exams Sally Burgess and Katie Head 978 0582 42967 3

How to Teach Business English Evan Frendo

978 0582 77996 9 How to Teach Speaking Scott Thornbury 978 0582 85359 1 How to Teach Writing Jeremy Harmer 978 0582 77998 3 How to Teach Grammar Scott Thornbury 978 0582 33932 3

How to Teach Pronunciation Gerald Kelly

978 0582 42975 8 How to Teach Vocabulary Scott Thornbury 978 0582 42966 6

JJ Wilson

teach listening

how to

How to Teach Listening is a practical guide to the theory of listening in the language classroom and the skills required in its teaching. The book includes:

•

an explanation of the main principles behind listening in the language teaching classroom

•

a discussion of key topics such as authenticity, testing, and using technology for listening

•

practical ideas for conducting an effective listening lesson

•

strategies to ensure the long term development of students’ listening skills

•

a Task File of photocopiable training activities www.pearsonlongman.com/professionaldevelopment

JJ Wilson is a teacher, teacher trainer and

materials writer. He has taught in Egypt, Lesotho, Colombia, the U.K., Italy and the U.S. and co-authored a number of ELT courses including Language to Go,

Worldview and Total English, all

published by Pearson Longman.

with Audio CD

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT INTERACTIVE

www.teacherdevelopmentinteractivetdi.com

How Toteach Listening

ho

w t

o

ho

w t

o

great teachers

inspire

ho

w

to

te

ac

h l

iste

nin

g

J J W

ils

on

JJ Wilson

teach listening

how to

•

•

•

•

•

with Audio CD

Contents

Listening in the lesson – the sequence

Pre-listening skills

and activities

4

TASK FILE

Chapter 1: Listening in the world and in language

learning

A The why and how of listening – motivation and mechanics

(pages 9–10)

B The characteristics of spoken English (pages 10–12)

≥

C Why listening is difficult (pages 12–15)

≥

ho

w t

o

ho

w t

o

great teachers

inspire

ho

w

to

te

ac

h l

iste

nin

g

J J W

ils

on

JJ Wilson

teach listening

how to

•

•

•

•

•

with Audio CD