TEACHING LISTENING

I. INTRODUCTION
Listening is one of the four language skills. Like reading, listening is a receptive
skill. As it involves responding to a language rather than producing it. Listening involves
making sense of the meaningful sounds that we hear. We cannot develop speaking skill
unless we develop listening skills; to have a successful conversation, students must
understand what is said to them. Listening to spoken English is an important way of
acquiring the language – of ‘picking up’ structures and vocabulary. So we need to give
learners as many opportunities to listen to spoken English as possible.
II. LISTENING VERSUS READING
1. Differences between reading and listening
Written language in English Spoken language in English
disappears as soon as it is spoken. Sometimes
stays on the page and doesn’t disappear
it is spoken fast and somtimes slowly.
uses punctuation and capital letters to shows sentences and meaningful groups of
show sentences. words through stress and intonation.
consists of letters, words, sentences and consists of connected speech, sentences,
punctuation joined together into text. incomplete sentences or single words.
the speaker uses body language to support
has no visual support-except photos or
his/her communication; for example, gestures
pictures sometimes
and facial expressions.
is usually quite well-organized: is not so well-organized; e.g: it contains
sentences follow one another in logical interruptions, hesitations, repetitions and
sequences. frequent changes of topic.
usually uses quite exact vocabulary and often uses rather general vocabulary and
more complex grammar. simple grammar.
In other words:
A written text static, consumed at speed of reader, can read again and again; in form of
good writing.
A spoken text: on audio or video tape, repeated but still happens at its speed, not the
listener’s, students have to follow the “speech flow”; contains hesitation, reformulation,
redundancy, topic change.
2. Why is listening so difficult for students?
Both listening and reading are receptive skills, but listening can be more difficult than
reading because:
 Different speakers produce the same sounds in different ways, e.g: dialects and
accents, stress, rhythms, intonations, mispronunciations , etc.
 The listener has little/no control over the speed of the input of the spoken material.
 The spoken material is often heard only once (unlike the reading material).
 The listener cannot pause to work out the meaning.
 Speech is more likely to be distorted by background noise (e.g: round the classroom)
or the media that transmit sounds;
 The listener sometimes has to deal simultaneously with another task while listening,
e.g: note-taking, reading the questions and options, writing the answers...
3. Learners’ difficulties in listening:
 I have trouble catching the actual sounds of the foreign language.
 I have to understand every word; if I missed something, I feel I am failing and get
worried and stressed.
 I can understand people if they talk slowly and clearly; I can’t understand fast, natural
native-sounding speech.
 I need to hear things more than once in order to understand.
 I find it difficult to ‘keep up’ with all the information I am getting, and cannot think
ahead or predict.
 If the listening goes on for a long time I get tired, and find it more and more difficult
to concentrate.
III. LISTENING SKILL
1. Listening in real life:
In most cases, the listening materials in the classroom are daily conversations or stories,
but in reality, we listen to many different things:
 Telephone conversations
 Lessons or lectures given in English
 Instructions in English
 Watching movies/television programs in English
 Dealing with tourists
 Interviews with foreign partners
 Socializing with foreigners
 Listening to English songs
 Radio news in English
 Conversations with foreigners
In everyday life, there are two ways in which we often listen:
 ‘Casual’ listening: we listen with no particular purpose in mind and often without
much concentration. For example, we listen to the radio while doing some housework
 ‘Focused’ listening: we listen for a particular purpose, to find out information we
need. For example, we listen to someone showing how to operate a machine or how to
get to the post office.
2. Listening in class with the use of audio files
Using an audio file for listening activities does have some advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages:
- The audio file 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.
- Recorded materials is useful for listening to dialogs, interviews, discussions, etc. where
there is more than one person speaking. Otherwise, the teacher has to act the part of more
than one person.
Disadvantages:
- Listening to an audio file 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 an audio file these clues are
missing.
- In a large class with bad acoustics, listening to an audio file 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.
An important part of listening is being 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 have already know. The audio file is very useful for giving practice in this,
because it can be stopped and a phrase played over and over again. This kind of listening
practice is often called “intensive listening”.
This is a possible procedure for teaching a spoken text using audio file:
 Step 1: Introduce the listening, and give one or two guiding questions.
 Step 2: Play the audio file once without stopping, and discuss the guiding
questions.
 Step 3: Play the audio file again. This time, focus on important points, pausing and
asking what the person said each time. If teachers are unable to “catch” the
remark, replay the audio file.
Note that the aim is to focus on the most important remarks only, but not of course to go
through the whole of a listening text phrase by phrase!
IV. STAGES OF A LISTENING LESSON
A. Pre-Listening
1. Introduce the text (Lead-in + introduction)
Purpose:
- The teacher prepares students for the task and familiarize themselves with the topic.
- The teacher creates expectation and arouse students’ interests with the subject.
How:
- Introducing general content of the listening passage
- Using pictures & eliciting
- Asking students to predict the content of the listening from the title/vocabulary/ part
of the story/illustrations in the book
- Setting the scene: providing culture notes, etc...
2. Presenting vocabulary
The teacher presents some active vocabulary items, some words that have difficult
sounds or some proper names.
3. Giving guiding questions:
The teacher plays the tape once (non-stop) for students to get the general content of the
listening passage.
Some pre-listening activities:
T may need to give background information or necessary cultural information related to
the subject of the listening passage
 Ss can predict content from the title
 Ss can see a relevant object
 Ss can predict content from an illustration
 Ss can predict content form the T’s description of the situation
 Ss can discuss the topic or the situation
 Ss can contribute their own relevant experience
 T can give a pre-listening question which directs ss to the main points
 T can give a pre-listening question which directs ss to specific details

B. While-Listening:
- T provides clear instructions.
- Appropriate tasks are given to check major details.
- T plays the tape , ss listen to complete the task.
- T gets students to compare their answers with one another before checking with the
whole class.
- T checks the answer with the whole class and directs feedback.
- T plays relevant parts of the audio again when checking for students to confirm the
answers.
 T should bear these points in mind:
 Divide long scripts into short chunks to facilitate students’ listening.
 Set clear instructions to make sure students know what they are supposed to do for
each task: what to do (cross/tick/circle/give short answers, etc) + how many times they
are going to listen to the tape.
 Design various tasks (MC, T/F, gap-fill, comprehension Qs, complete a table....)
 Move from simpler to more complex ones
 Less difficult activities for low-level class
 Let students exchange their answers before checking with the whole class  they will
feel more secure when they give the answers to you.
 When checking with the students, rewind the audio file to relevant parts for
confirmation
 Some while-listening Activities
 Respond verbally (individual within class)
- T stops the audio file and asks questions about: the number, sex, age of people
speaking; the setting, the formality, the aim or topic of the text, what will happen next.
- Ss listen and answer comprehension Qs orally
- Ss answer referential Qs
→ These Qs personalize the lesson and make the listening interesting.
→ They integrate listening with the other skills, especially speaking.
 Respond physically
- Identification and selection: choose the right picture, spot mistakes in a picture
- Sequencing: put the pictures into the correct order
- Locating: something on a map or in a picture
- Drawing: draw something to complete a picture; draw or construct from scratch; label
a diagram or mark a route on a map
- Perform: mime, tick words or pictures as you hear
 Respond in writing
- Short answer comprehension questions
- Multiple choice questions (Qs about specifics or Qs about main ideas – listening for
the gist)
- Transferring information into a table, chart or diagram
- Mark statement as T/F
- Cloze exercise
- Dictation
....
C. Post-Listening:
T directs text-related tasks and lead to some activities to develop oral or writing skills
 Some post-listening activities
- In groups, reconstruct story sequences
- Further discussion based on the topic of the listening passage
- Role-play
- Paraphrasing
- Write a summary of the listening content
- Write a critique of what was heard
V. SOME SAMPLE QUESTION TYPES:
1. Multiple choice questions
You will have an interview about snowboarding. For questions 1 to 7, choose the best
answer A, B or C
The recording will be played TWICE.
1. How long has Liz been snowboarding?
A. one year
B. five years
C. every year since she was a child
2. According to Liz, if you want to be a snowboarder
A. you have to be naturally sporty.
B. You need to be born with good co-ordination and balance
C. you don’t need long to acquire the skills

2. Multiple choice questions with graphics

Choose the best answer to the following questions
1. What is the Students’ Union planning to produce?
A. a report
B. a leaflet
C. a newsletter
2. What is the student’s favorite food?

3. What is his least favorite food?

3. List selection
Circle TWO letters A-G
Which TWO of the following items must the girl take with her?
A. hiking boots E. gloves
B. pair of shorts F. tent
C. woolen jumper G. flashlight
D. inflatable mattress
4. Sentence completion
Listen to the recording and complete the sentences.
1. DJ-ing isn’t the same as it was in _________________________.
2. DJs often use _____________________ turntables at the same time.
3. Many DJs are also _______________________.

5. Summary completion
Complete the summary using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS or A
NUMBER for each answer.
The Flagship of the Royal Fleet
The Mary Rose sank in the year (11)______________. The king stood on the
shore and watched her go down. The ship then lay on the sea bed for
(12)______________ years. In 1982 she was (13)_______________ and
brought back to dry land. By analyzing the (14)_________________ of the ship,
scientists believe they are closer to learning why she sank.
6. Note completion
Questions 1-10
Complete the notes. Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
Healthy Eating
Very important to eat a (1)____________________ diet
People in Europe and USA eat (2)___________________ more sugar now than
in 1800.
Try to eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg- (3)__________________ servings a day,
if poss.
Avoid foods containing a lot of sugar, especially (4)_______________ drinks.
Cut down on fat - eat lean meat, poultry, fish and low-fat (5)_______________.
Eat no more than (6)_______________________ eggs a week.
In cooking, use lemon juice instead of (7)______________________.
Try to eat regularly (8)_________________ day.
Most nutritious fruit is an (9)_______________________
contains: 165 calories per 100g
(10)______________________ protein as milk
more vitamins A, B and C than milk.

7. Completing diagrams
Questions 4-6
Label the diagram.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

5 ……………
8. Completing flowcharts
Questions 8-10
Complete the flow chart. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.
You complete an application and send it with (8)…………………………….. .

We send “Welcome Pack” with: General information

Formal (9) ……………………………
A questionnaire for you to return

We use the questionnaire to match you to your job.

(10)………………………….. before departure we send full details of your

placement.

9. Labeling graphs
WASTING ENERGY
Listen to two students giving a presentation and answer questions 1-10
Questions 1 and 2
Label the two bars identified on the
graph below.
Choose your answers from the box.

List of cities: Mexico City

Calcuta New York
Los Angeles Tokyo

10. Completing tables, grids

Questions 2-7
Complete the table showing details of the projects.
Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS or A LETTER for each answer.
Period: S = Short-term M + Medium-term L = Long-term
Country Period Project Special information
Japan S Village (2) ………………….. Some knowledge of Japanese
requires
Poland (3) Renovating children’s holiday
…………. center
Mexico S Sea turtle conservation Accommodation in school with
(4) ……..
China (5) Architecture: planning and US$ (6) ………….. payable on
…………. design arrival
India M Medicine: center for (7)
…….. children
11. True / False (/ Not given)
You will hear a conversation between a boy, Cris and a girl, Amy in a computer shop.
Decide each sentence is TRUE or FALSE. In your answer sheet, write T for True and F
for False. The recording will be played ONCE only.
True False
1. Cris has to pay the full cost of a new computer himself.
2. Amy thinks it would be better to buy a laptop.
3. Amy thinks the printer they look at is expensive.

12. Detecting & correcting mistakes

Listen to the man’s opinion about the restaurant he stayed in. Correct seven mistakes.
You are allowed to listen ONE.
flew
My friends and I walked down here to the beach for spring vacation. Of course we’re
really excited about swimming, and partying, and surfing the internet. Our hotel is full of
families and little kids, though! The restaurants are excellent - really crowded with kids,
and noisy - and they’re really alow, too. The hotel should have one restaurant that’s just
for teachers, I think.

13. Ticking off items

Listen to four speakers talking about scams. Who is talking? Look at the chart, and check
() the correct column. You are allowed to listen ONCE.
Who…? Joe Rosa Peter Beth
did not think cautiously?
had lost his / her family members?
easily believed people?

14. Cloze
Listen to three people sharing their opinions, then fill in the missing words.
PHIL
I did like the fact that there were (1)_____________________ responsibilities when I
was twelve. I didn’t have (2)_____________________ to pay, and I could spend all my
time eating (3)___________________ and reading comic books and watching a lot of
television.

15. Answering questions

Dr. Alexander, an expert on the brain, is giving a lecture. Briefly answer the following
questions.
1. According to scientists, in what aspects are the brains of women and men the same?
________________________________________________________________________
2. Write ONE example of the task men are better at.
________________________________________________________________________

VI. LISTENING PRINCIPLES:

Principle 1: Encourage students to listen as often and as much as possible.
The more students listen, the better they get at listening - and the better they get at
understanding pronunciation and at using it appropriately themselves. One of our main
tasks, therefore, will be to use as much listening in class as possible, and to encourage
students to listen to as much English as they can (via the Internet, podcasts, CDs, tapes,
etc).
Principle 2: Help students prepare to listen.
Students need to be made ready to listen. This means that they will need to look at
pictures, discuss the topic, or read the questions first, for example, in order to be in a
position to predict what is coming. This is not just so that they are in the right frame of
mind (and are thinking about the topic), but also so that they are engaged with the topic
and the task and really want to listen.
Principle 3: Once may not be enough.
There are almost no occasions when the teacher will play an audio track only once.
Students will want to hear it again to pick up the things they missed the first time - and
we may well want them to have a chance to study some of the language features on the
tape.
In the case of live listening, students should be encouraged to ask for repetition and
clarification when they need it.
The first listening to a text is often used just to give students an idea of what the speakers
sound like, and what the general topic is (see Principle 5) so that subsequent listenings
are easier for them. For subsequent listenings, we may stop the audio track at various
points, or only play extracts from it. However, we will have to ensure that we don’t go on
and on working with the same audio track.
Principle 4: Encourage students to respond to the content of a listening, not just to the
language.
An important part of a listening sequence is for teachers to draw out the meaning of what
is being said, discern what is intended and find out what impression it makes on the
students. Questions such as ‘Do you agree with what they say?’ and ‘Did you find the
listening interesting? Why?’ are just as important as questions like ‘What language did
she use to invite him?’ However, any listening material is also useful for studying
language use and a range of pronunciation issues.
Principle 5: Different listening stages demand different listening tasks.
Because there are different things we want to do with a listening text, we need to set
different tasks for different listening stages. This means that, for a first listening, the
task(s) may need to be fairly straightforward and general. That way, the students’ general
understanding and response can be successful - and the stress associated with listening
can be reduced.
Later listenings, however, may focus in on detailed information, language use or
pronunciation, etc. It will be the teacher’s job to help students to focus in on what they
are listening for.
Principle 6: Good teachers exploit listening texts to the full.
If teachers ask students to invest time and emotional energy in a listening text - and if
they themselves have spent time choosing and preparing the listening sequence - then it
makes sense to use the audio track or live listening experience for as many different
applications as possible. Thus, after an initial listening, the teacher can play a track again
for various kinds of study before using the subject matter, situation or audio script for a
new activity. The listening then becomes an important event in a teaching sequence rather
than just an exercise by itself.
Principle 7: What if students do NOT understand the listening section
Introduce interview questions: Questions can be given first and students are encouraged
to role-play the interview before listening. This will increase their predictive power.
- Use “jigsaw listening”: Different groups are given different bits of the audio script.
When the groups hear about each other’s pieces of audio script, they can get the whole
picture.
- One task only: Non-demanding tasked can be assigned such as listening and deciding on
the sex, age, status of the speaker or the setting of the listening.
- Use the audio script:
  It can be cut into bits for the students to put in the right order as they listen.
 Students can look at the audio script to gain more confidence and ensure what the
listening is about
 Students can look at the audio script before, during or after they listen. The script
can also have words or phrases blanked out.
Principle 8: Including both bottom-up and top-down listening techniques.
Bottom-up processing proceeds from sounds to words to grammatical relationships to
lexical meanings, etc. to a final message. Top-down processing is evoked from “a bank of
prior knowledge and global expectations” and other background information that the
listener brings to the text.
Bottom-up techniques typically focus on sounds, words, intonation, grammatical
structures and other components of spoken language. Top-down techniques are more
concerned with the activation of schemata, with deriving meaning, with global
understanding, and with the interpretation of the text.
It is important for learners to operate from both directions since both can offer keys to
determining the meaning of spoken discourse. However, in a communicative, interactive
context, you don’t want to dwell too heavily on the bottom-up, for to do may hamper the
development of a learner’s all-important automaticity in processing speech.
VII. MORE LISTENING SUGGESTIONS:
1. Jigsaw listening: in three groups, students listen to three different tapes, all of which
are about the same thing (witness reports after an accident or a crime, phone
conversations arranging a meeting, different news stories which explain a strange event,
etc.). Students have to assemble all the facts by comparing notes. In this way, they may
find out what actually happened, solve a mystery or get a rounded account of a situation
or topic.
Jigsaw listening works because it gives students a purpose for listening, and a goal to aim
for (solving the ‘mystery’, or understanding all the facts). However, it obviously depends
on whether students have access to three different tape or CD players, or computer-
delivered listening material.
2. Music and sound effects: Although most audio tracks consist of speech, we can also
use music and sound effects. Songs are very useful because, if we choose them well, they
can be very engaging. Students can fill in blanks in song lyrics, rearrange lines or verses,
or listen to songs and say what mood or message they convey.
We can use instrumental music to get students in the right mood, or as a stimulus for any
number of creative tasks (imagining film scenes, responding to mood and atmosphere,
saying what the music is describing, etc.). The same is true of sound effects, which
students can listen to in order to build up a story.
3. News and other radio genres: students listen to a news broadcast and have to say
which topics from a list occur in the bulletin and in which order. They then have to listen
for details about individual stories. If the news contains a lot of facts and figures, students
may be asked to convert them into chart or graph form.
Other genres which students get benefit from are radio commercials (they have to match
commercials with pictures or say why one - on safety - is different from the rest - which
are trying to sell things), radio phone-ins (where they can match speakers to topics) and
any number of games and quizzes. In all of the above cases, the degree of authenticity
will depend on the level of the radio extract and the level of the students.
4. Poetry: Poetry can be used in a number of ways. Students can listen to poems being
read aloud and say what mood they convey (or what color they suggest to them).
They can hear a poem and then try to come up with an appropriate title. They can listen
to a poem which has no punctuation and put in commas and full stops where they think
they should occur.
One way of getting students to predict what they are going to hear is to give them the
titles of three poems and then ask them to guess what words the poems will contain. As a
result, when they listen, they are eager to see if they are right, and awake to the
possibilities of what the poem might be like.
5. Stories: A major speaking genre is storytelling. When students listen to people telling
stories, there are a number of things we can have them do. Perhaps they can put pictures
in the order in which the story is told. Sometimes we can let students listen to a story but
not tell them the end. They have to guess what it is and then, perhaps, we play them the
recorded version. A variation on this technique is to stop the story at various points and
say ‘What do you think happens next?’ before continuing. These techniques are
appropriate for children and adults alike.
Some of the best stories for students to listen to are when people are talking more or less
informally (like Diana Hayden on pages 140-141). But it is also good to let them hear
well-read extracts from books; we can get them to say which book they think the extract
comes from, or decide what kind of book it is (horror, romance, thriller, etc.).
6. Monologues: various monologue genres can be used for different listening tasks. For
example, we can ask students to listen to lectures and take notes. We can get them to
listen to ‘vox-pop’ interviews where five different speakers say what they think about a
topic and the students have to match the different speakers with different opinions. We
can listen to dramatic or comic monologues and ask the students to say how the speaker
feels. We can have them listen to speeches (at weddings, farewells, openings, etc.) and
get them to identify what the subject is and what the speaker thinks about it.