Effective Listening Strategies

Effective Listening Strategies for the Classroom

with Susie Holman

Consent to Use of Photographic Image & Audio

Agenda

• What does “listening” mean?

• Current format of teaching listening

• The stages of listening

• Listening strategies and examples

• Teaching Assignment

Facts

“It has been claimed that over 50 percent of the time that students spend functioning in a foreign language will be devoted to listening.”

(Nunan, 1998 in Nation & Newton, 2009, p. 37)

“In reality, listening is used far more than any other single language skill in normal daily life. On average, we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write.”

(Rivers, 1981; Weaver, 1972 in Morley in Celce-Murcia, 2001, p. 70)

What challenges have you experienced when you listen to recordings/media in English?

English Listening Skills – Agree or Disagree?

1. No one is born a good listener. Everyone has to learn to listen well.
2. Watching videos and movies is a great way to improve English listening.
3. The best way to improve listening is to have a conversation with native speakers.
4. The English teacher should only speak English in class to improve student’s listening skills.
5. Students should have listening tasks as part of their English exams.
6. There are many levels of English listening skills in the classroom.
7. I listen to English news, TV, movies, or music most days.

Think-Pair-Share: English Listening

1. What is a ‘good listener’?
2. Are you a good listener in your first language? Why or why not?
3. What helped you become a better listener in English?
4. How will you know if your students have good English listening skills?

Goals

1. What are English listening skills that students need?
2. How can we make our formal listening lessons more effective?
3. What are the stages of a listening lesson?
4. What are examples of each stage?
5. What are effective listening activities we can use (with or without a textbook)?
6. How can students improve their English listening skills outside of class?
7. How can we?

What English listening skills do learners need?

• discrimination of individual sounds:

far/for, three/tree, quick/kick, very/wary, chicken/kitchen

• reduced speech: want to, going to, a (as uh), did you = dja
• intonation: I want YOU to go. I want you to GO.
• word stress: 13/30, 14/40, asked, wanted, delivered
• accent variety:

British, American, Australian, Canadian, regional dialects

• understanding of rapid speech
• understanding of grammar structures, syntax

Formal Listening Texts in Course Books

Monologue or Dialogue What problems do learners have with these types of listening texts?

Listening Strategies

Course books, and tests, have two target listening strategies: Bottom-Up and Top-Down

1. Bottom-up (intensive): focus on individual words, intonation, or remembering details. Ex. Listening to a phone call and accurately recalling the phone number
2. Top-down (extensive): listening for gist, main idea, important points. Ex. Listening to a lecture to note the main points

Listening Lesson Planning Stages

• Pre-Listening
• While Listening
• Post Listening

Note: Do NOT move around during 'while listening' activities as it will distract the students.

Stage 1: Pre-Listening

A pre-listening activity should:

• Activate learners’ background knowledge

• Give the context
• Build motivation
• Teach new vocabulary
• Make a prediction

Some Pre-Listening Activities

• Pre-discussion of topic
• Visuals
• Brainstorming
• Pre-teaching Vocabulary
• Speaker Biography

Stage 2: While Listening

While listening activities allow students to:

• Collect necessary information
• Understand the overall meaning and purpose of the text

While Listening Activities

• General Idea
• Who/What/When/Where/Why/How?
• Agree/Disagree with the speaker
• Gap Fill
• Checking Predictions
• Sequencing
• Graphic organizers/table to complete
• Specific details
• General comprehension questions

Stage 3: Post-Listening

Post-listening activities allow students to:

• Reflect
• Discuss specific information
• Use target language
• Analyze language heard
• Do something

Post-Listening Activities

• Debates
• Discussions
• Problem-solving
• Role plays, interviews, dialogue building
• Writing (essays, summaries, personal reactions,

letters, postcards)

• Predict

Example 1: Extensive listening

Pre-listening: Predictions

• Setting : Where are the speakers?
• Relationship: Who are the speakers?
• Mood: How do they feel?
• Topic: What are they talking about?

Example 1: Extensive listening

While listening

Listening 2: Listen for BIG PICTURE: the main idea

• What are the speakers talking about?

Listening 1: Just listen and discuss with a partner

• What did you hear?
• Were your predictions correct?

Listening 3: Listen for DETAILS

• What did Luis do last weekend?

Example 1: Extensive listening

Post-listening

• Have students check answers with a partner.
• Use checking language:

A: What did you write/hear for number______? B: I wrote/heard_____________and you? A: I wrote/heard that, too/No, I heard/wrote…

• Check answers and have students refer to the listening by asking: How do you know? What did you hear?
• If feasible, nominate students to go the board and have them write their answers. Check with the whole class.

Example 2: Intensive Listening

Pre-listening: Establish context and pre-teach vocabulary

While listening in 4 stages

Intensive listening 1 (first 20-30 seconds of recording)

• Learners write words that they recognize and compare with a partner.

Intensive listening 2

• Learners revise words and add more content.
• They compare answers and discuss interpretation of what they heard with their partner.

Example 2: Intensive Listening

Intensive listening 3

• Learners check their interpretation with their partner and then with the class.
• The teacher does not give the answer.

*Teacher then repeats the cycle with the next 20-30 seconds.*

Post-listening: Learners can mark areas they found difficult

Intensive listening 4

• Class discuss different interpretations and selects one.
• The teacher provides feedback.

10 Listening Activities

• Adaptable for many listening scripts
• For different language skill levels
• Involves students as active listeners and speakers
• More authentic
• Warm-ups and longer lessons

1. Show and Tell

Picture description/dictation

• Learners speak about family, life at home, a hobby (using pictures)
• The class listens; the teacher asks the class about what they heard

Around the room Activity: 1) silent phone tag 2) I’m going to the Moon, and I’m taking……

2. Matching games

Activity: Go Fish

click

Practice Listening for:

• numbers
• quantity vocabulary for non-count nouns
• articles

3. Information Gap

Activity: Comparing Cities

click

Whole class, small groups, or pairs:

• Collect information for information/understanding
• Then, make a decision with the information collected

4. Total Physical Response (TPR)

ACTIVITY: Stand up if……..

click

ACTIVITY: Simon says…..

5. True/False Quiz

Prepare series of statements students have studied or can easily see (clothes, colors, etc).

• Read each sentence.
• Students write T or F on their paper.

6. Dictation

Read a short target text and have students write what they hear.

• Can be a cloze to emphasize reading. Choose and pre-teach target vocabulary.
• Idea: Dictate questions to students and ask them to answer the question (this takes away students’ focusing only on individual word).
• About 100 words with familiar words.

7. Pair Dictation

ACTIVITY: Pair Dictation Stories

• Students read aloud a text to their partner (not showing it).
• The partner writes down the reading.
• Then, they check for accurate spelling and punctuation.

click

Extension: Make and share their own stories in 4 sentences.

8. Dictogloss

ACTIVITY: Traxoline

(text on next slide)

• Try to agree on the main idea.
• Try to check for correct grammar and spelling.

• Read the passage several times at a natural pace.
• Students write the key ideas, not every word.
• Then, they compare with each other what they wrote.

• Show students the original and ask questions to the class about the text.
• Alternative: Students can then write the “next chapter”.

Dictogloss example: The Montilliation of Traxoline

It is very important that you learn about traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter. It is montilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristerlate large amounts of fevon and then brachter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may well be one of our most lukized snezlaus in the future because of our zionter lescelidge.

Traxoline Questions

Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences. 1. What is traxoline? 2. Where is traxoline montilled? 3. How is traxoline quaselled? 4. Why is it important to know about traxoline?

click

Problem: These questions are answerable. But are the answers true? Solution: Pre-teach key vocabulary before students read/listen!

9. Surveys

• Each student chooses a topic from a list. All topics must be different.
• Each student writes four questions to ask classmates about their topic.
• Then, each student asks ten classmates the four questions, and writes what the classmates said.

10. Using English Songs

Awareness Tasks:

• Can be used in or outside of class (speaking club)
• Can integrate reading, listening, writing, critical thinking, issues
• Connect to American or British culture

1) Review the English songs you know.

• Ask, ”Can I use this song to help my learners use English?”

2) Imagine the unit in your text book is about “Eating Out”.

• What songs could be used to generate interest in this unit?

Next 4 Assignments

(but you only have 2 each)

In pairs, you will be divided into 2 groups:

Group 1 will micro-teach a Listening Lesson (Lesson Plan due and Teach on April 25)

Group 2 will observe their peers and individually submit their observations (Due by April 30)

Group 2 will micro-teach a Speaking Lesson (Lesson Plan due and Teach on May 23)

Group 1 will observe their peers and individually submit their observations (Due by May 29)

Listening Assignment-Group 1

Group 1: In pairs, create a listening lesson using audios provided in the 'elllo' link.

• The lesson length can not be longer than 20 minutes.
• The lesson should be appropriate for target level.
• The lesson should include the 3 phases of listening.
• Creativity will also play a factor.
• Teach your lesson to the class on April 25.
• You will be graded (by me AND your colleagues)

according to this rubric.

Listening Assignment-Group 2

Group 2: Observe and take copious notes of each of your peers' lessons. Type your observations and send them to susanMholman@gmail.com by April 30.

All of the links for this tutorial are in the Link Tree for Listening Resources

https://linktr.ee/listeningresources

For more information:

@ELPrograms

fellow@elprograms.org