Stages of listening

In order to make the process of teaching listening comprehension easier, listening is divided into 3 stages: pre-listening, while-listening, post-listening stages.

The pre-listening stage

Before listening students should be "tuned in" so that they know what to expect, both in general and for particular tasks. When planning lessons, time must be allocated for pre-listening activities and these activities should not be rushed. Sometimes, students are asked to give answers to questions. The choice of activities depends on a number of factors, such as:

- the time available;

- the material available;

- the ability of the class;

- the interests of the teacher;

- the place in which the work is being carried out;

- the nature and content of the listening text itself.

The while-listening stage

While-listening activities are what students are asked to do during the time that they are listening to the text. As far as listening comprehension is concerned, the purpose of while-listening activities is to help learners develop the skill of eliciting message from spoken language.Because it is important for students to know how the language sounds in order to develop their listening comprehension skills, some early listening work, which focuses on this aspect is essential. It enables students to begin to appreciate such things as the differences which exist between the pronunciation of words when spoken with in utterances and when spoken in isolation (e. g. the use of weak syllables in continuous speech), and the stress and rhythm of the language. In cases where students have already learnt some English but have had very limited exposure to the spoken language, it is also important to make them aware of the relationship (or lack of any apparent relationship!) between the written word and its spoken form.

When developing the skills of listening for comprehension is the aim, while-listening activities must be chosen carefully. Activities which do no more than test whether or not the listener has understood and which simply produce "right / wrong" answers will soon discourage all but the most enthusiastic learner.There is a place for the testing of listening comprehension, but this should not be the purpose of every listening practice session..While-listening activities should be things, which most people can do. Failure here leads to demotivation and activities with potential difficulties, should be used very sparingly in the early stages. In time of course, it will be necessary to include activities, which presents potential "sticking points" so that students learn not to be putt off and to persevere in spite of the problems.

The post-listening stage

Post-listening stage embraces all the work related to a particular listening text which is done after the listening is completed. Some post-listening activities are extensions of the work done at the pre-listening and while-listening stages and some relate only loosely to the listening text itself.

The most common form of post-listening activity has been the answering of multiple-choice questions or "open" questions based on a spoken text.

The purposes that should be in a listening activity are providing:

· General information (understanding of the main points)

· Specific information (understanding of the particular items)

· Cultural interest (generally informing about the target language culture)

· Information about people's attitudes and opinions

· The organization of ideas

· Sequence of events

· Lexical items (words expressing noise / movement)

· Structural items (their use and meaning)

· Functional items (their form and use)