Teaching listening skills
LISTENING SITUATIONS
interview, committee meeting
watching TV, radio news
conversation, telephone chat, gossip
lesson, lecture, story telling
shopping etc.
REASON FOR LISTENING
In real life:
for pleasure (entertainment)
for social reasons (maintaining a relationship)
to get the info
In classroom situations:
developing listening skills
exposing Ss to variety of accents
subconscious learning:
pronunciation
rhythm
stress
intonation
vocab, grammar etc.
REAL WORLD VS. CLASSROOM LISTENING
Real world listening
reciprocity (taking turns): rather integrative - involves both speaking and listening
predictability: unpredictable
recording: no record kept
number of hearings: only once
visual clues: context, gestures (help)
feedback: can be given
context: shared
task: no set task
purpose: to establish relationship, be polite, get info etc.
evaluation: no evaluation of success/ failure
discourse: informal, spontaneous speech
Classroom listening
reciprocity(taking turns): a lot of passive listening to cds
predictability: content known in advance (at least by the T)
recording: usually available
number of hearings: can be played more than once
visual clues: there may be no visual clues
feedback: no feedback
context: no real context
task: provided by the teacher - usually involves taking notes
purpose: created by task
evaluation: T may evaluate Ss' success in doing task
discourse: reading aloud or reciting from memory
TAPES/ CDS/ VIDEOS
Reason for using tapes (advantages):
there is no limit of varety of voices
tapes small, tape recorders portable
a large nr of good taped materials
focus on spoken English - Ss are not distracted by gestures, surrounding events etc.
2. disadvantages of using tapes:
diff for Ss to sit in silence listening to a tape
difficulty in keeping the thread
difficulty in understanding of embodied voices
TYPES OF LISTENING ACTIVITIES
no overt response:
stories
songs
films
video
theatre
short responses:
cloze
true/ false
detecting mistakes
obeying instructions
guessing definitions
ticking of items
gap filling
skimming & scanning
longer responses:
paraphrasing and translating
answering questions
summarizing
note -taking
long gap-filling
extended responses:
problem-solving
interpretation
HOW TO MAKE LISTENING EASIER
before:
give effective, interesting set in a good context pre -listen activities
ensure that Ss underst the task (before they listen)
while:
try to make the task as usefull/ realistic as possible
grade the task not the tape
use visual materials (create expectations and reassure the Ss)
listening tasks should help Ss to listen more effectively (they should be able to predict the context)
1st listening play entire recording - Ss can get an idea of what it sounds like
after:
let Ss discus their answers together
don't give correct answers immediately (Do you agree?)
play the recording as many times as it is needed - until it's clear
give help if Ss are completely stuck
don't point to individual Ss
technical:
play the recording more than once - if necessary
keep the recording short
prepare the tapes & t. recorder in advance
FACTORS THAT MAKE TEXT DIFF/EASY
learner/ task factors:
confidence
motivation
prior learning experience
learning pace
observed ability in lg skills
cultural knowledge/ awareness
linguistic knowledge
text factors:
organization of info
familiarity of the topic
explicitness and sufficiency of the info
type of referring expressions
“static” or dynamic relationship
speed
amount of low frequency vocab
clarity of discourse structure
contextual support
genre
external factors
noise
weather
time of day
LISTENING WITH VIDEO
silent viewing
freeze frame
sound only
jigsaw viewing
viewing backwards
from transcript to voice
partial viewing