TEACHING LISTENING

ENGLISH IIA course in language teaching , Penny Ur

WHAT DOES REALLY- LIFE DOES LISTENING INVOLVE?• The objective of listening comprehension

in classroom is that students should learn to functions successfully in real-life listening situations.

LISTENING SITUATIONS. • Make a list of many situations as you think of

where people are listening to other people

Yours

InterviewInstructions

Loud speaker announcements

Radio newsCommittee meeting

ShoppingTheatre show

Telephone chatLeeson,lecture

Conversation, gossipWatching television

Story-telling

Find some features that can be common to most of the situation:

• For example: kind of language, interaction, etc.

• 1. Informal spoken discourse features:o BREVITY OF CHUNKS: a conversation

where people take turnso PRONUNCIATION: the pronunciation of

words is often slurredo VOCABULARY: is often colloquialo GRAMMAR: tends to be somewhat

ungrammaticalo NOISE: certain amount of noise, bits of the

discourse is unintelligible, words that are no clear

o REDUNDANCY: the use of fillers such as I mean, well, er, em, etc.

o NON-REPETITION: the discourse will not be repeated verbatim

• 2. Listener expectations and purposeo Listener always knows in advance

something about what is going to be said: the basic topic, linked to his or her purpose. We expect to hear something relevant to our purpose.

• 3. Looking as well as listening oNormally , we have something to look at

that is linked to what is being said: the speaker, map, scene, object or the environment in general.

• 4. Ongoing, purposeful, listener responseo The listener is usually at intervals a discourse is going.

The responses are more over are normally directly related to the listeners purpose as a simple demonstration of comprehension.

• 5. Speaker attentiono The speaker usually directs his o her speech to

the listener. By changing or adapting the discourse, whether the listener´s character, intention, etc.

Application • Think of situation where you yourself

have recently been listening?

• How many of the above features in fact apply?

REAL-LIFE LISTENING IN THE

CLASSROOM• “CLASSROOM LISTENING IS NOT REAL-LIFE

LISTENING”o READ ALOUD FOLLOW BY COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

• IN ORDER TO PROVIDE STUDENTS WITH TRAINING IN LISTENING COMPREHENSION THAT WILL PREPARE THEM EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM, ACTIVITIES SHOULD GIVE LEARNERS PRACTICE IN COPING WITH AT LEAST SOME OF THE FEATURES OF REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS.

o LISTENING ACTIVITIES BASED ON SIMULATED REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS ARE LIKELY TO BE MORE MOTIVATING AND INTERESTING TO DO ≠ CONTRIVED TEXTBOOK COMPREHENSION EXERCISES.

GUIDELINES• 1. LISTENING TEXTS

o INFORMAL TALK. Most listening texts should be based on discourse that is either genuine improvised, spontaneous speech, or at least a fair imitation of it.

o SPEAKER VISIBILITY; DIRECT SPEAKER-LISTENER INTERACTION: It is useful to the learners to improvise at least some of the listening texts yourself in your presence. Video also makes a positive contribution to the effectiveness of listening

o SINGLE OF EXPOSURE: Learners should be encouraged to developed the ability to extract the information they need from a single hearing.

Listening tasks• EXPECTATIONS: Learners should have in

advanced some idea about the kind of text they are going to hear.

• PURPOSE: A listening purpose should be provided by the definition of a pre-set task, should involve some kind of clear visible or audible response.

• ONGOING LISTENER RESPONSE: The task should usually involve intermittent responses during the listening, encouraged them to respond the information they are looking for as they hear it not to wait to the end

COMPLETE THE NEXT CHART IN YOUR OWN

OPINIONADVANTAGES PROBLEMS

OR RESERVATIONS

CONCLUSION

1. LISTENING TEXTS

2. LISTENING TASKS: EXPECTATIONS AND PURPOSE

3. ONGOING LISTENER RESPONSE

UNIT THREE: LEARNER PROBLEMSLearners problems

Trouble with sounds

Have to understand every word

Can`t understand fast, natural native speech

Need to hear things more than once

Find it difficult to keep up

Get tired

Make some suggestions as to what the

teacher can do to help solve them

Unit Four: Types of activities

The learners do not

have to do anything

in response

to the listening; however, facia

l expressio

n and body language often show

if they are following

or not.

Stories

Songs

Entertainment

: films

, theatre,

video.

Types of listening activities1. No overt response

Short responses:

• Obeying instructions: Learners perform actions, or draw shapes or pictures, in response to instructions.

• Ticking off items: Listeners mark or tick off words/components as they hear them.

• True/false: Learners indicate whether statements are right or wrong; or make brief responses (‘True!’ or ‘False!’ for example).

• Detecting mistakes: Listeners raise their hands or call out when they hear mistakes.

• Cloze: The listening text has occasional brief gaps, represented by silence or some kind of buzz. The learners write down what they think might be the missing word.

• Guessing definitions: The teacher provides brief oral definitions; learners write down what they think it is.

• Skimming and scanning: Learners are asked to identify some general topic or information (skimming), or certain limited information (scanning).

Longer questions:•Answering questions: Questions demanding full responses are given in advance.

•Note-taking: Learners take brief notes from a short talk.

•Paraphrasing and translating: Learners rewrite the text in different words.

•Summarizing: Learners write a brief summary of the content.

•Long gap-filling: A long gap is left somewhere in the text for learners to fill in.

4. Extended responses

Here, the listening is only a ‘jump-off point’ for extended reading, writing or speaking: in other words, these are ‘combined skills’ activities.• Problem-solving:

Learners hear about a problem and try to solve it.

• Interpretation: An extract from a piece of dialogue or monologue is provided, with no previous information; the listeners try to guess from the words, kinds of voices, tone and any other evidence what is going on. Alternatively, a piece of literature that is suitable for reading aloud can be discussed and analysed.

Unit Five: Adapting activitiesLISTENING ACTIVITY 1Instructions1. Listen to the recording of someone giving instructions. What are they talking about?2. Look at the words below. Use a dictionary to check the meaning of any you are not sure about.Nouns: switch, slot, disk, handle, key, arrow, screenVerbs: lock, type Adjectives: bent, capital3. Listen to the cassette again, and use the words to complete these notes:Turn it on, here is the__________ at the side. Then you’ll see some words and numbers on the ________and finally a ___________C.Take your__________ and put it in the_____________ , and ___________it in; you have to close this_________ . Now______________ in ‘A’ and press the ________with the sort of _________ ___________at the side.The listening text First you turn it on, here’s the switch at the side. Then you’ll see some words and numbers on the screen, and finally a capital C and a sort of V sideways on. OK, now take your disk, this one, and put it in the slot – it’s called a ‘drive’ – and lock it in, you have to close this little handle here. Now type in ‘A’ and press the key with the sort of bent arrow at the side.

Activity 1The teachers need to pre-teach some of the vocabulary in order to make sure the listening is successful. Note that the text, although an imitation of spontaneous speech, is in fact very dense, with little redundancy and not much opportunity to make up for anything teachers have missed; it is also ‘blind’ listening – which it obviously would not be in real life.The second task is basically a vocabulary exercise, entailing learning or looking up words many of which they will already have needed for the previous activity: if the students are only learning them now, they must have had unnecessary difficulty before.The final exercise demands recycling of the words they have learned: useful for vocabulary practice, but not so good for listening. If they understand and have the items before them, and have already heard the text, then they can probably do the exercise by reading; there is no logical necessity for listening.

LISTENING ACTIVITY 2Instructions to studentYour worksheet shows a map of a zoo; write in the names of the animals in the appropriate cages as your teacher tells you.Instructions to teacherUsing your filled-in map of the zoo, describe to the class where each animallives; they may ask you to repeat or explain anything they did not catch or understand.Student’s map Teacher’s map

Listening Activity 2:Where the actual words of the text can be adapted to the level of missed or clarifications.Note, however, that this is not a particularly ‘authentic’ type of interaction: it is more of a game, than a real attempt at simulation of a natural communication situation.

LISTENING ACTIVITY 3InstructionsListen to the following recorded talk, and then answer the multiple-choice questions below.The listening textCrash! was perhaps the most famous pop group of that time. It consisted of three female singers, with no band. They came originally from Manchester, and began singing in local clubs, but their fame soon spread throughout the British Isles and then all over the world. Their hairstyle and clothes were imitated by a whole generation of teenagers, and thousands came to hear them sing, bought recordings of their songs or went to see their films.The questions1. ‘Crash!’ was a) notorious b) well-known c) unpopular d) local2. The group was composed of:a) three boys b) two girls and a boy c) two boys and a girl d) three girls3. The group was from:a) Britain b) France c) Brazil d) Egypt4. A lot of young people wanted toa) sing like them b) look like them c) live in Manchester d) all of these

Listening Activity 3:It can be improved to some extent as a listening activity if you go through the loas when are answering the questions and gives some previous information, expectation and purpose with which to approach the listening.To practice selective listening, learners can be asked to answer only one or two specific questions each time they hear the text.