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Page 1: Listening & speaking skills teaching

Teaching Listening & Speaking

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Teaching Listening

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Key Questions about Listening

• What are listeners doing when they listen?• What factors affect good listening?• What are characteristics of “real life” listening?• What are the many things listeners listen for?• What are some principles for designing listening

techniques?• How can listening techniques be interactive?• What are some common techniques for teaching

listening?

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•What are listeners doing when they listen?

•Listeners think , feel and do when they are listening.

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• What factors affect good listening?• Effective listening requires maximum thinking power. Here are

six suggestions.

1- Understand the complexities of listening.

2- Prepare to Listen. Preparation consists of three phases—long-term, mid-term, and short-term.

3- Adjust to the situation. No listening situation is exactly the same as another.

4- Focus on ideas or key points.

5- Capitalize on the speed differential. 

6- Organize material for learning.

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• What are characteristics of “real life” listening?

• The characteristics of real-life listening include: the passiveness of the listeners; the expectation of listeners; the high quantity and variety of the received information and the choice of listeners; the response of listeners, the visibility of speakers; the shift of attention and focus of listeners; the priority of meaning; the ambiguity of the received information; characteristics of spoken language. Based on these features of real-life listening, in foreign language teaching, it is advisable to supply real-life listening materials, develop students' listening strategy, and emphasize students ′ response to what they listen to.

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• What are the many things listeners listen for?

• We listen for obtaining information.

• We listen for understanding.

• We listen for enjoyment.

• We listen for learning….etc.

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• What are some principles for designing listening techniques?

1. Establish eye contact with the speaker. Studies show that listening has a positive relationship with eye contact. In other words, the better eye contact you have with the speaker, the better you will listen.

2. Take notes effectively.

3. Be a physically involved listener.

4. Avoid negative mannerisms.

5. Exercise your listening muscles.

6. Follow the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

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• How can listening techniques be interactive?

• Listening techniques can be interactive by Being the kind of listener you want others to be when you are talking. Ask “How would I want others to listen to me?” That’s how you can be an interactive listener.

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• What are some common techniques for teaching listening?

• To start with listening needs to be ‘taught’. It needs to be seen as an active skill in which students take part and in which there are opportunities to interact, negotiate, discuss and become part of the event rather than being an ‘eavesdropper’. The majority of real-life listening involves all of these things and yet learners are often denied them in the classroom. As teachers we should start trying to bring to life the listening activities our students undertake.

• At lower levels, in particular, listening tasks should focus on helping students feel competent and believe in their ability. This means that it is essential to move away from a product-orientated (answers to questions) approach. When students feel there is a need to understand every word (whether or not that is necessary to achieve the task) they will never become ‘good’ listeners. Ultimately, teaching listening should be about just that, ‘teaching’ not testing. If the focus is on getting the correct answer, then we are failing our students.

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What makes listening difficult?

• Clustering (listening in groups )• Redundancy ( useful )• Reduced forms• Performance variables• Colloquial language• Rate of delivery• Stress, rhythm, and intonation• Interaction

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What kinds of listening skills are taught?

• Reactive (listen and repeat)• Intensive (listen on a focused sound)• Responsive (listen and respond – briefly)• Selective (listen for particular items in a

longer passage)• Extensive (listen for interactive/responsive

purposes)• Interactive (listen to discuss, respond,

debate)

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Principles for teaching listening

• Integrate listening into the course

• Appeal to students’ personal goals

• Use authentic language and contexts

• Consider how students will respond

• Teach listening strategies

• Include both bottom-up AND top-down listening

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Common listening strategies

• Looking for key words• Looking for nonverbal cues to meaning• Predicting a speaker’s purpose by the context• Activating background knowledge• Guessing at meanings• Seeking clarification• Listening for the gist• Developing test-taking strategies for listening

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Teaching Speaking

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Current issues in teaching oral skills

• Conversational discourse

• Teaching pronunciation

• Accuracy and fluency

• Affective factors

• Interaction effect

• Questions about intelligibility

• Questions about what is “correct” speech

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What makes speaking difficult?

The same things that make listening difficult:• Clustering ( speaking in groups )• Redundancy ( speaking usefully )• Reduced forms• Performance variables• Colloquial language• Rate of delivery• Stress, rhythm, and intonation• Interaction

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What are the types of classroom performance ?

• Imitative (this should be limited) – repetition drill

• Intensive – practice a grammatical/phonological feature

• Responsive – to respond to a question• Transactional (dialogue) – to convey

information• Interpersonal (dialogue) – to interact

socially• Extensive – monologue

(intermediate/advanced)

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Do drills have a place?

• Yes, BUT….

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Give some examples of Guidelines for Drills ?

• Keep them short• Keep them simple• Keep them snappy ( speaking sharply and

neat ) • Ensure that students know WHY they are

doing the drill• Limit the drill to phonological/grammatical

points• Ensure that they lead to a communicative

goal• DON’T OVERUSE THEM

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What are the principles for Teaching Speaking ?

• Focus on fluency and accuracy (depending on objective)

• Use intrinsically motivating techniques• Use authentic language in meaningful contexts• Provide appropriate feedback and correction• Optimize the natural link between listening and

speaking (and other skills)• Give students the opportunity to initiate oral

communication.• Develop speaking strategies.

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Give some examples of sample activities for teaching conversation ?

• Interviews• Guessing games• Jigsaw tasks• Ranking exercises• Discussions• Values clarification• Problem-solving activities• Role plays• Simulations

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Should we teach pronunciation?

• According to Wong (1987), “sounds are less crucial for understanding than the way they are organized” (as cited in Brown, 2008, p. 339).

• Native speakers rely more on stress and intonation than accurate articulation of a particular sound.

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What are the factors that affect pronunciation ?

• Native language

• Age

• Exposure

• Innate phonetic ability

• Identity and language ego

• Motivation/concern for good pronunciation

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What are the common speaking strategies ?

• Asking for clarification (what?)• Asking someone to repeat something• Using fillers• Using conversation maintenance cues (uh-huh,

right, yeah, okay, hmm)• Getting someone’s attention• Using paraphrases for structures one can’t

produce• Appealing for assistance from the interlocutor• Using formulaic expressions• Using mime and nonverbal expressions

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Wish You All The Best

Mazen Andijani