Jeremy Harmer (2007) Chapter 10 : Teaching Listening

Specifically covered are the reasons for listening, different kinds of listening, listening levels,
listening skills, listening principles, listening sequences and other listening suggestions. Each of
these elements are important aspects of this topic for the teacher to carefully consider as she
approaches teaching the skill of listening.

Understanding spoken words is different than understanding written communication. Thus the
prime reason to learn and perfect the skill of learning is to better understand what is spoken by
others either face-to-face, on T.V. or on the radio. Another reason for learning to listen is that
the students own pronunciation skills can be apprehended better as listening is fine tuned. As in
reading instruction, listening activities can be intensive or within the classroom where the
student listens in order to work on the listening skill or study how English is spoken. Extensive
or out-of-the-classroom activities occur away from the classroom. Sources of these types of
experiences may come through CD, DVD, live recordings, films or podcasts. These types of tools
allow the student to replay and relearn what is heard. Other sources such as T.V. and radio
which cannot be stopped are a good way for students to test their skill as they are progressing.
The teacher must be aware of different listening levels involving different genres and registers.
These would include newscasts, announcements and lectures for example. The teacher should
also incorporate authentic speech (that which is not intended for listening learners) and
inauthentic speech activities. Lower learners may need to begin with inauthentic activities only
to match their current skill level.

The teacher should present the students with a variety of things to listen to and in many
different ways. These opportunities would help the student to recognize paralinguistic clues,
listen for specific information as well as listen for general information. The teacher should mix
lesson requirements so as to help the student multi-task between these objectives. This chapter
presented 6 listening principles which are:

1. Encouraging students to listen as often and as much as possible,

2. Help students to prepare to listen,
3. Listening once may not be enough,
4. Encourage students to respond to the content of a listening and not just the language,
5. Different listening stages demand different listening skills, and
6. Good teachers exploit listening texts to the fullest.

This chapter gives 3 complete listening sequences or activities geared for different learning
levels. Each should lead the student into working on other skills and opportunities to
personalize their listening skills. These examples include one for beginners that involves a live
interview, another for pre-intermediate learners about buying tickets, and the last is an activity
involving a prerecorded authentic interview narrative for upper-intermediate students. The
author gave more suggestions for listening activities including: jigsaw listening, message-taking,
music and sound effects, news and other radio genres, poetry, stories, and monologues. Finally,
the chapter offered views on the use of video in the language learning setting. Material should
be chosen based on the level and interests of the students. Four techniques for profitable use
of video were given including: playing the video without the sound, playing the video without
the picture, freezing the frame and dividing the class in half with some viewing the video and
some not. As the teacher makes good consideration of all of these different views and
suggestions, she will be able to more successfully guide her students to a better understanding
of the spoken word through listening skills.          

Students can benefit in big ways from activities centered on listening. Teachers should consider
using such activities or consider carefully how they will involve listening in their lessons.
Listening helps language students to analyze, break-down, and understand better the spoken
word in a controlled way. It helps them focus on pronunciation. Also related to pronunciation is
the tone in which people speak. Students can pay attention to this and learn from
conversations what certain tones and intonations insinuate. In high levels they can even explore
different accents. Having material that is recorded, whether on video or only audio, is very
useful for stopping and re-playing to repeat and analyze further or even just so that the
information or key aspect of the listening sticks better in the students’ memories.         

  The hard part about teaching through listening is the material. It may be hard to find audio
materials that are interesting, age and language level appropriate, and usable for lessons or
relatable to the subject or grammar focus. It takes time and research to build up a good audio
library and pick and choose what’s best for your class and syllabus. This can deter many
teachers from using listening material. Whatever type of audio is found or decided on for use in
class, another important decision to make as the teacher is how often will you stop the
recording and will you rewind, or how many times will you rewind for the students to hear the
same part of the audio. We have to challenge them, but not make it impossible so as to not
discourage them as well. As the course goes along I believe that becomes part of the regular
gauging and diagnosing of our class. Besides considering level and difficulty, we also must take
into account if it’s relevant or interesting for the students. These obstacles or difficulties will
hinder the use of listening focused activities or lessons.        

   No matter how hard it may be to choose and involve audios or listening related activities in
our lessons, it is so important to find a way somehow. Listening, like reading, helps the
language learner take in new and old language, analyze it, let it become part of the new lexicon
for later use, as well as be exposed to authentic language. The hope is that teachers would
expand their horizons when it comes to listening and not only use the textbook based recorded
materials. Teachers should explore radio shows, podcasts, or any other sound based material
they can use. Especially, if it’s unique, entertaining, or interesting. Whatever they can find that
will motivate the learners and engage them.