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
1. In real life:
a. for pleasure (entertainment)
b. for social reasons (maintaining a relationship)
c. to get the info
2. In classroom situations:
a. developing listening skills
b. exposing Ss to variety of accents
c. subconscious learning:
pronunciation
rhythm
stress
intonation
vocab, grammar etc.
REAL WORLD VS. CLASSROOM LISTENING
1. Real world listening
a. reciprocity (taking turns): rather integrative - involves both speaking and listening
b. predictability: unpredictable
c. recording: no record kept
d. number of hearings: only once
e. visual clues: context, gestures (help)
f. feedback: can be given
g. context: shared
h. task: no set task
i. purpose: to establish relationship, be polite, get info etc.
j. evaluation: no evaluation of success/ failure
k. discourse: informal, spontaneous speech
2. Classroom listening
a. reciprocity(taking turns): a lot of passive listening to cds
b. predictability: content known in advance (at least by the T)
c. recording: usually available
d. number of hearings: can be played more than once
e. visual clues: there may be no visual clues
f. feedback: no feedback
g. context: no real context
h. task: provided by the teacher - usually involves taking notes
i. purpose: created by task
j. evaluation: T may evaluate Ss’ success in doing task
k. discourse: reading aloud or reciting from memory
TAPES/ CDS/ VIDEOS
1. Reason for using tapes (advantages):
a. there is no limit of varety of voices
b. tapes à small, tape recorders à portable
c. a large nr of good taped materials
d. 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
a. no overt response:
stories
songs
films
video
theatre
b. short responses:
cloze
true/ false
detecting mistakes
obeying instructions
guessing definitions
ticking of items
gap filling
skimming & scanning
c. longer responses:
paraphrasing and translating
answering questions
summarizing
note -taking
long gap-filling
d. extended responses:
problem-solving
interpretation
HOW TO MAKE LISTENING EASIER
a. before:
- give effective, interesting set in a good context pre -listen activities
- ensure that Ss underst the task (before they listen)
b. 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 à play entire recording - Ss can get an idea of what it sounds like
c. 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
d. 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
a. learner/ task factors:
confidence
motivation
prior learning experience
learning pace
observed ability in lg skills
cultural knowledge/ awareness
linguistic knowledge
b. 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
c. external factors
noise
weather
time of day
LISTENING WITH VIDEO
a. silent viewing
b. freeze frame
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Ylayda