HOW TO TEACH LISTENING

What listening situations can you meet in your lives ?
Suggested listening situations :
interview
theater show
instructions
loudspeaker announcements
radio
committee meeting
telephone chat
lesson , lecture
conversation
television program
story-telling
video films
Look at the textbook ( Tiếng Anh 8 or 9 ) and tick the listening situations in it .

What is a good listening technique ?
A good listening technique is :
_ gets students to think before they listen , what they know about the subject helps them think what they expect to hear , in order words helps them predict and therefore understand better too .
_ provides them with a purpose for listening .
_ provides a “ listening guide “ : something which guides students ‘ listening by focusing their attention through questions , grids , visuals , etc .
_ gets students to make a clear response . As the teacher can’t see inside students’ heads to find out if they understand or not , a good technique externalizes the understanding process by making students complete a task which shows the teacher they have understood , this can be by putting ticks , filling in a grid , underlining something , etc .
_ teaches students to infer meaning between the lines of the text .
_ exploits differences in answers through pair work share / compare activities and therefore gives students a purpose for listening a second or third time .
_ helps students to identify “ redundant “ information .


There are 3 stages of a listening lesson :
Pre-listening , While-listening and Post-listening .
1) What are the aims of each stage ? What does each stage involve ?
Pre-listening : Preparing students to listen and think about what they are about to hear – ordering , predicting and guessing tasks . Completion of the Pre-listening task happens after the first listening and is used for fluency listening – getting the main ideas . Some new essential vocabulary can be chosen to pre-teach in this stage .
While-listening : The main listening task , getting students to focus on the details by using a listening guide – grids , comprehension questions , listening and drawing and selecting tasks . Completion of While-listening task usually happens after the second listening and is used for accuracy listening – getting the facts or details .
Post-listening : An extension activity , usually integrated skills , information transfer , personalization – recall , writing it up , discussion tasks .
2) What activities do you include in each stage ? Decide the
stages to which listening activities belong :
3) Fill in the blank with the suitable listening
technique .
1. .....................................................
The teacher gets students to predict what will be in the picture . Then the teacher describes the picture . In the description the teacher makes some deliberate mistakes . Every time the students hear a mistake they must put their hands up or shout out what ‘s wrong .
2. ....................................................
Students write up the information that they have in their listening instruction . they reconstruct the text in their own words using the notes in the “grids “ or drawings in the “ listen and draw “ exercises as cues . Students practice writing in groups , pairs or individually .

3. .................................................................................
The teacher writes 5 – 10 statements on the board based on the main ideas in the listening text .
Only half the statements are true .
Students copy the numbers of the statements in their books .
In pairs students predict which of the statements are true and underline the numbers ( or mark them T / F )
Students call out their predictions .
The teacher doesn’t say if they are right or wrong .
The teacher reads the text .
Students tick the predictions that are right and any that they didn’t guess. In pairs students compare and if there are disagreements the teacher reads the text again until everyone agrees.

4. ...........................................................................
The teacher puts the grid on the board and students copy it . The grid gets students to listen for the facts or details in the text . Some of the information has already been filled in to guide their listening . Students listen and fill in the rest , in note form . Students work in pairs and compare to check answers and the teacher reads the text a second time or more until everyone agrees on the answers .

5. ...........................................................................
The teacher gives students jumbled statements or pictures on the board .
Students must discuss in pairs / groups and predict the correct order .
Statements / pictures have letters A , B , C etc .
Students fill in their chosen order 1 , 2 , 3 etc in a grid .
In pairs they compare their answers . The teacher accepts different orders .
Students listen and tick or correct their order .

6. .............................................................................
The teacher chooses a related –usually personalized – topic , which is
inspired by the listening text and designs a production activity for the
students to do . For example , after doing the “ grids “ , they will describe
other classmates ; or students can recount similar stories to the listening
text – things that have happened to them personally .

7. ......................................................
The teacher gives students a map , or house plan or diagram – any visual that students can draw on – draw a route , mark changes , label parts . The visual can be copied off the board by drawing , filling in , labeling , numbering , etc.

8. ..........................................................
The teacher doesn’t give the students any statements , only sets the scene and gets students to predict some of the things they think they will hear the text . Students write down their predictions . In this way students have made their own listening guides . The teacher reads the listening text and students tick their correct predictions .

9. ................................................
Students dramatizes the listening text , taking the roles of the characters in the story they have just heard . This is particularly good for students who haven’t studied the past tense but have just heard a story in the pats tense . The role-play transfers a past tense story into the present tense . The teacher organizes the role-play by putting all the same “ roles” together , eliciting and letting them practice what they will say , then cross – grouping so that each new group has one of each of the different characters .

10. ...................................................
The teacher puts a few questions on the board : one pre-question for each main point in the listening text . Students read and think about the pre-questions . The pre-questions focus the students ‘ attention but students don’t have to guess or predict the answers if they don’t want to. After the first listening they answer the questions .
11. ..........................................................
Students re-tell the story in the listening text in their own words . The teacher can help them by doing a mini drill first , usually using the same pictures or simplified statements that were used for “ predicting “ in the pre-listening task or “ ordering “ or “ selecting “ in the while listening task . Students practice speaking in pairs or groups . The re-telling with picture can also be done as a chain story .
12. ...........................................................
The teacher shows the class a set of pictures . The pictures are similar but not the same . The teacher describes one or two of the pictures . The pictures or items in the pictures are numbered . The students have to say which picture the teacher is describing by writing down the number of the picture , or ticking or labeling .
Using a cassette recorder :
1 ) What are the advantages of using a cassette recorder for listening activity ?
Can you talk about your own experiences of using the cassette recorder ?
_ The cassette recorder gives a chance for students to listen to a variety of voices apart from the teacher’s , and it is a way of bringing native speakers ‘ voices into the classroom . Students who have only heard English spoken by their teacher often have difficulty understanding other people .
_ Recorder material is useful for listening to dialogues , interviews , discussions , etc. where there is more than one person speaking . Otherwise the teacher has to act the part of more than one person .
_ Listening to a cassette recording is much more difficult than listening to the teacher . When we listen to someone “ face to face “ , there are many visual clues ( e.g. gestures , lip movements ) which help us to listen . When we listen to a cassette these clues are missing .
_ In a large class with bad acoustics , listening to a cassette may be very difficult indeed . Up to a point , trying to listen to something that is not clear can provide good listening practice , but if it is too difficult it will just be frustrating .

2 ) What is an important part of listening ?

_ An important part of listening is able to “ catch “ words and phrases that we hear ; students who have not had much chance to listen to English often fail to recognize words that they already know . The cassette recorder is very useful for giving practice in this , because the cassette can be stopped and a phrase played over and over again . This kind of listening practice is often called “ intensive listening “ .
GETTING STUDENTS TO PREDICT
1) An important part of the skill of listening is being able to predict what the speaker is going to say next ; as we say earlier , we can help students to listen by giving them some idea of what they are going to listen to .
When doing listening activities in class , we can ask students to guess what they are going to hear next ; this will help them develop listening skills , and is also a good way to keep the class actively involved in listening . This technique is especially useful for telling stories to the class ; a natural part of listening to an interesting story is to wonder what will happen next .
Demonstration :
A few nights ago , I was asleep at home as usual . At about three o’clock in the morning .............................................. I was suddenly waken by a noise
........................................ of rushing water ..... .................................. . It came from the bathroom , so I got up and went to the estigate ................................... I found to my dismay that the cold water pipe had burst and water was pouring all over the floor ....................................................... So I got a bucket and put it underneath .................................................... Then I realized what I should have done . I went out into the hall and turned off the main tap .
@ The technique for prediction :
Asking questions keeps the class involved , and is also a way of checking that the students are following the story .
The same technique can be used with any kind of story – a story about yourself , a historical story , a folk tale , or a fable . Stories are one of the easiest ways for teachers to give listening practice if there are not enough listening activities in the textbook.
Work in pairs . Read the story .

Once there was a boy called Ali , a poor fisherman ‘s son . As he was going home one evening , he saw an old man lying by the side of the road , seriously ill . The boy was very kind , and he helped the old man to the nearest hospital . The old man thanked the boy and asked him for his name and address . The boy was ashamed to admit that his father was a poor fisherman , so he said , “ My name is Mustafa and my father is a teacher “ . A few days later , the old man died in hospital , and left all his money to “ Mustafa , a local teacher ‘s son who helped me in my hour of need “ . Of course , because Ali had lied , he did not receive any of the old man ‘s money .
Make five places in the story where you could stop and ask students to predict what will happen next . What question would you ask each time ? Practice telling the story to your partner .
SELF – EVALUATION :
1) What was your listening activity ? Briefly describe it .
2) What steps did you follow : before listening ? after listening ?
Think about these questions :
1) In general , how successful was the activity ?
2) What did the students learn from it ?
3) How much did the students understand the first time they listened ?
4) How much more could they understand by the end of the activity ?
5) Think of one student at the front of the class , one at the back ,
and one sitting by a window .
6) What were they each doing during the activity ?
7) Could they understand ? How do you know ?
8) Think of one good student and one weaker student .
9) What did you do to keep each of them involved ?
10) By the end of the activity , how do you think they each felt ?
Pleased with their progress ? frustrated ? interested ? bored ?
11) Think of the conditions in your classroom . Is there anything
that makes listening difficult ? ( size, echo , noise from outside )
12) Could you improve the conditions in any way ?