Activities and techniques for teaching listening comprehension

Activities at the pre-listening stage.

Pre-listening work can consist of a whole range of activities, including:

- the teacher giving background information;

- the students reading something relevant;

- the students looking at pictures;

- discussions of the topic / situation;

- a question and answer session;

- written exercises;

- following the instructions for the while-listening activity;

- consideration of how the while-listening activity will be done.

The one activity which teachers are urged not to use is’ going through the tape script bit by bit explaining the "difficult" words to the students. There is also a temptation to over-assist and to give too much away, so that by the time the actual listening text is played the students are bored and no longer want to listen. On the other hand, you can use this time to motivate the students by making them feel that the actual listening text is really interesting. Some teacher's books provide suggestions for this type of introduction to listening text, but the best ideas often come from the teachers, who adjust the nature and level of the talk to suit the students.

Discussion questions:

- What sorts of stories do you prefer-happy or sad? Romantic or violent? Science fiction or historical novels? Why? Do you have a favorite story from childhood? If so, what is it? How much of it can you remember? Do you like stories for adults ,about childhood , adolescence?

Reading a text before listening

Students can be asked to read a text before listening. 'This type of activity is popular with students who feel more secure when they have printed text in front of them. To be ready to check when they hear the listening text, students need to read quite carefully. Concentration on the written text brings the language, which is likely to be heard ,to mind. Unfortunately, reading in advance in this way may leave those who have learned their English mainly from the printed word still in difficulty when they are listening as they may be unable to connect the sounds which they hear with the words which they have seen printed on the page. If this is the case, you can assist by contriving, during the pre-listening stage, to speak some of the words, which are printed, and which you know will occur in the listening text.

Activities at the while-listening stage

• listening with visuals

• filling in graphs and charts

• following a route on a map

• checking off items in a list

• listening for the gist

• searching for specific clues to meaning

• completing cloze test (fill-in) exercises

• distinguishing between formal and informal registers.Marking items in pictures: Identifying people and things, marking items mentioned by the speaker, marking errors, checking details, marking choices, etc.

· Which picture? Students hear a description or a conversation and have to decide, from the selection offered, which picture is the "right" one. The most common pictures used are drawing (photos) of people or scenes, indoors or out of doors.

· Putting pictures in order: A number of pictures are presented to the students. The aim is to arrange the picture in the correct order according to the listening text.

· Multiple-choice questions: Well-designed multiple-choice questions can help guide students through the text just as ordinary "open' questions can.

Activities at the post-listening stage

Post-listening activities can be much longer than while-listening activities because at this stage the students have time to think, to discuss, and to write.

Problem-solving and decision-making: Newspaper stories can be read by teacher and used for problem-solving activities. It is important to prepare for this kind of activity and to make sure that everyone knows what the problem to be solved is.

Role-play: Basing role-play on listening provides students with at least some language, which they can use when their turn comes to speak. Many teachers use listening text to demonstrate to students how speakers of English behave in a situation and then ask the students, in pairs or in groups, to play the various roles.

Written work: Post-listening written work can take many forms, from listening to specific points to writing summaries or even essays..

Extending lists: This activity can "straddle" the while-listening and post-listening stages. The students are asked to make a list or tick / check a list while listening, and then to add it after the listening is finished. It provides a way of collecting word sets and extending word sets already known to the students.

Matching with a reading text:This activity is particularly useful for students who have so far learned their English mainly through reading and writing and who have difficulty in matching the heard word with the written word.

Summarizing can be done by extending notes made at the while-listening stage or by simply depending on memory. IIt is possible to do oral summary work, by getting pairs or small groups to go through the story and make notes and then asking one or two people to retell the story whilst the rest of the class listens for any errors or omissions.

Jigsaw listening: "Jigsaw listening" is a term which was used by Marion Geddes and Gill Sturtridge in the late 1970s to describe a listening activity in which a class of students is divided into a small number of groups and each group listens to a different listening text, although all the text are on the sane topic, and then the groups exchange information to build up the complete picture.

Teaching listening with news broadcast.

1. Play the entire broadcast. Have students listen without taking notes. The purpose of this listening is to relax them and make them comfortable with the language.

2. Play the entire broadcast. Have students listen and write one sentence in which they identify the main idea of the broadcast and write a question they have about what they heard. Have students circulate throughout the class, sharing ideas and questions with other students in the class.

3. Before you begin, divide the tape into segments of approximate thirds. Develop who, what, when, where, why, and how questions for each third. Provide students with a copy of these questions. Play the tape in thirds, stopping after each third at least a minute to give students enough time to answer the questions and then share the answers with a partner. Review the answers to all the questions after the last third has been played.

4. If the news broadcast includes interviews with different people, assign students to listen for the parts spoken by different people. For example if there are three people interviewed, assign each student a number 1-3. Students assigned N2l will listen for the first interviewee; students assigned JV»2 will listen for the second interviewee; students assigned #3will listen for the third interviewee. After listening, have the students get into groups by numbers (e.g. all the #l students in one group), and decide what were the most important points that the interviewed person made to contribute to the news story. Then, have the groups report their results to the entire class.

5. Play the entire tape through one more time. Divide students into small groups of three and have them group write a short one-paragraph summary of what they have heard.

Teaching listening with video

Listening routines are similarly designed to provoke engagement and expectations.

1. Pictureless listening: the learners listen to conversation with picture off and have to guess such things as where it is taking place, who the speakers are, guess their age, their occupation or how they look like. Then they compare their guesses with he actual film.

2. Pictureless listening: where a script has a prominent music track, learners can listen to it and then say what kind of scene they think it accompanies and where it is taking place.

3. Pictureless listening: in a scene without dialogue learners can listen to the sounds to guess the scene. For example, they might hear the car engine or someone running, opening or closing the door. Then they tell "the story" they think they have just heard. Instead of telling they can write "the story".

4. Have learners focus on the dialogue contained in a scene by listening to a particular vocabulary (e. g. words describing the weather) structures with Passive Voice or functional expressions (e. g. invitation).

5 TV Dictation: have learners write dialogue lines as they view them using the pause control to stop the scene after each line.

6. Cloze Scripts: as learners view a scene have them fill in missing words in scripts and then compare their variants.

2. Teaching prompts:

Pre-listening stage

• Tell your students they shouldn't worry that they have to understand every word they hear. Not every word is important!

• Where possible, make sure students know what they are listening to before you start listening. Explain they should focus only on the information they need.

• Give two or three general questions to check students comprehension of the basic details.

• If possible, check for any words that your students may not know. Pre-listening these so they do not interfere with understanding.

• Brainstorm students' ideas on the topic they are going to listen to. This will help focus them.

• Don't choose a listening that is too long. If necessary, stop them recording at-certain points and review what students have understood so far.

• As a general principle, try to play the recording once for overall comprehension. Then play the recording again for specific details.

• Tell students to note any dates, people or places they hear.

• Divide students into groups and give each group a different listening task (e. g. different questions). Then swap their answers and have students listen again and check their classmates' answers.

• Don't be afraid to repeat the recording... especially the parts students have most trouble understanding.

While-listening stage

· Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose, and students' proficiency level.

While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them do during or immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these points in mind when planning while-listening activities:

· If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow them to read through it before listening. Students need to devote all their attention to the listening task. Be sure they understand the instructions for the written task before listening begins so that they are not distracted by the need to figure out what to do.

· Keep writing to a minimum during listening. Remember that the primary goal is comprehension, not production. Having to write while listening may distract students . from this primary goal. If a written response is to be given after listening, the task can be more demanding.

· Organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text. Combine global activities such as getting the main idea, topic, and setting with selective listening activities that focus on details of content and form.

· Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of the whole. Before the listening activity begins, have students review questions they will answer orally or in writing after listening. Listening for the answers will help students recognize the crucial parts of the message.

· Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen. Do a predicting activity before listening, and remind students to review what they are hearing to see if it makes sense in the context of their prior knowledge and what they already know of the topic or events of the passage.

· Give immediate feedback-whenever possible. Encourage students to examine how or why their responses were incorrect.

Post-listening stage

· Tell students to compare their notes and discuss what they understood in pairs or small groups.

· Encourage students to respond what they heard. For example, where possible ask questions like Do you agree? And encourage debate.

· Tell pairs to write a summary of the main points. Then have them compare their summaries arid check if they covered all the main points.

· Play the recording again and tell students to call out "Stop!" when they hear the answers they were listening for.

· «Put students into groups and tell them to make a list of comprehension questions to ask each other.

· Tell students to make a list in their note books of any new vocabulary they feel is useful.

· Try to use as many different sources of listening material as you can: advertisements, news programs, poetry, songs, extracts from plays, speeches, lecture.

· assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content

· • provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their comprehension of the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge

· clarify any cultural information which may be necessary for comprehension

· make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be, listening

· provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or class discussion activities Sample pre-listening activities:

· looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs

· reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures

· reading something relevant

· constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing how they are related)

· predicting the content of the listening text

· going over the directions or instructions for the activity

· doing guided practice

3.Types of exercises for two types of processing the input information: bottom-up and top-down operations.

Bottom-Up Processing Goals and Exercise Types

Goal: Differentiate between content and function words by stress pattern

· Read a series of sentences and predict which words will be stressed (content words) and which will be reduced (function words.)

Listen to the sentences and confirm your predictions.

Goal: Find the stressed syllable

· Listen to a list of multisyllable words. Repeat each one and check whether the stress is on the first, second, or third syllable. Note which syllables were more frequently stressed.

Goal: Recognize words with reduced vowels or dropped syllables

Listen to a series of statements about sports activities and use word stress to determine whether the speakers are saying "can" or "can't".

Read a list of polysyllabic words and predict which syllabic vowel will be dropped. Listen to the words and confirm your predictions.

Goal: Recognize words as they are linked in the speech stream

· Listen to a series of short sentences with consonant/vowel linking between words. Mark the linkages on the answer sheet

Goal: Recognize pertinent details in the speech stream

· Listen to a short dialogue between a boss and a secretary regarding changes in the daily schedule. Use an appointment calendar. Cross out appointments that are being changed and write in new ones

Listen to a short telephone conversation between a customer and a service station manager. Fill in a chart which lists the car repairs that must be done. Check the part of the car that needs repair, the reason, and the approx­imate cost.

Тор-Down Processing Goals and Exercise Types, Intermediate-Level Listeners

Goal: Discriminate between registers of speech and tones of voice

· Listen to sentences with either flat or varied intonation and determine whether the speaker is enthusiastic, friendly, or sincere by the amount of pitch change and energy in the voice

Goal: Listen to identify the speaker or the topic

· Listen to four short conversations with peo­ple making small talk and match each to a picture of the speakers and the setting. Read the headlines for five different news stories on the topics of environment, health, and lifestyle. Listen to the news stories and match each one with the appro­priate headline .Goal: Find main ideas and supporting details

· Listen to a short conversation between two friends. On your answer sheet are scenes from television programs. Find and write the name of theprogram and the channel. Decide which speaker watched the program

Goal: Make inferences

· Listen to a woman and a man ordering dinner in a restaurant. Based on the food choices they make, tell which person is more conscious of health concerns

Goal: Use word stress to understand the speaker's intent

· Listen to a series of statements about money problems. In each statement, circle the words that are emphasized. With a partner, discuss what is important to the speaker and how the speaker feels about it

Goal: Recognize missing grammar markers in colloquial speech and reconstruct the message

· Listen to a series of short questions in which the auxiliary verb and subject have been deleted. Use grammatical knowledge to fill in the missing words: "(Have you) got some extra?"

· Listen to a series of questions with assimilated verb auxiliary and subject, and use gram­matical knowledge to identify the missing verb (does it/is it). Example: "Zit need more salt?" and "Zit OK?"

Goal: Use context and knowledge of the world to build listening expectations; listen to confirm expectations

· Based on your knowledge of other cultures, predict whether their topics of conversation will be personal or impersonal, direct or indirect. Then listen to a newcomer describe his experience in that culture and note what kind of culture shock actually occurred. After listening, discuss with a partner whether your initial idea was correct and how you have to revise your ideas because of your added knowledge