Listening—A Critical SkillCreated by Jerrold Frank, Adapted by Eve Smith

ETRC Spring School6-8 March, 2014

How Should Teaching and Learning be Done?The MINUS Approach

1. Meaning: Focus on meaningful and relevant language.

2. Interest: Maintain interest through a variety of activities.

3. New Language: Avoid overloading the learners with too much new language.

4. Understanding: Provide plenty of comprehensible input.

5. Stress-free: Create a friendly, safe, cooperative classroom environment.

Questions Teachers Should Ask?

• Is the input of a piece meaningful communication?• Does the input contain useful or interesting

information that will attract the learners attention?• What learnable (new) language will learners meet

through the listening experience?• Can the learners understand the input and how are

new language items being made comprehensible?• How is stress and anxiety being controlled?

Tips for Selecting “MINUS” Listening Activities

• Choose materials learners are interested in.• Choose materials that are at the right level for the

learners.• Help students understand unfamiliar words through

context.• Don’t focus exclusively on language features.

Concentrate on the FLOW of the listening task.• Allow opportunities for interaction during tasks• Concentrate on input over output.

Activities for “MINUS” focused Listening.

• Listening to stories• Oral Cloze exercises• Picture ordering• The “What is it?” technique• Same or different exercises• Listen and Choose exercises• Listen and Draw exercises• Padded Questions• Information transfer activities• Note taking

Supporting Listening

1. Provide pre-listening support with aspects of the text (i.e., with language, ideas, skills or text-type).

2. Guide learners through the text.3. Establish cooperative learning arrangements.4. Help learners to be autonomous listeners.

Dictation and Related Activities

• Running Dictation• One Chance Dictation• Dictation of Long Phrases• Guided Dictation• Dictation for Mixed Classes• Peer Dictation• Completion Dictation• Sentence Dictation• Unexploded Dictation• Delayed Repetition• Read-and-Look-Up

Monitoring Dictation

1. Memory span is shorter in a foreign language.2. Memory span in a foreign language increases with

mastery of the language.3. The difference between the native and the foreign

language memory span is greater when the material in the foreign language contains pronunciation and grammatical contrasts between the language.

4. The relation of memory span to foreign language is greater for contextual material than for numbers.

Dictogloss and Related Activities

• Dictogloss• Dicto-comp• Retelling• Expert Groups• Oral Reproduction• Disappearing Text• Phrase by Phrase

Websites for Listening

• Podbean.com• TED• Audacity• VOA Special English• National Public Radio

Strategy Based Listening

• Communication Strategies: strategies to assist comprehension, for example making predications before listening, listening selectively, knowing how to interrupt politely, etc.

• Learning Strategies: strategies for noticing language forms in the input in their independent listening, negotiating(seeking clarification), listening for patterns, focused listening.

Activities to Encourage Negotiation

• Listen and do.• Controlling the teacher.• Could you repeat that?• Graded Discussion

Developing Fluency in Listening• Name it!• Listening to Questions.• A Listening Corner.• Listening to Pictures.• Listening to Questions.• Listening to Stories• Listen Again.• Visit and Listen.• Listen while Reading.• Recorded Interviews.• Predicting.

Assessment

• Washback effect: A good test is a model for what should happen in the classroom.

• Reliability: A reliable test is one whose results are not greatly affected by a change in the conditions under which it is given and marked.

• Validity: A valid test is one that measures what it supposed to measure.

• Practicality: Ease of administration and scoring

Examples of Listening Tests

• Dictation• Partial Dictation• Text with Questions• Responding to Statements• Three Choice True-False• Recorded Cloze• Information Transfer

The END!

• Resource: Nation, I.S.P & Newton, J. Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND ATTENTION.

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