Silence is Golden…

Sometimes
Many of us who have trained in ELT remember being told to maximize STT: student
talking time. An ideal classroom would be a place where students get ample
opportunity to speak. At the same time, we also had to be aware of keeping TTT
down, otherwise the only voice one could hear was that of the teacher.

However, experienced practitioners might have a different perspective, especially

in the Primary classroom. Time is needed for students to gather their thoughts,
especially if higher order thinking skills are involved. When hand skills are needed,
a quiet environment may be in order. And many of us are finding mindfulness
techniques useful.

Here are seven ideas for providing time for reflection and improving listening
skills.
1. The “Pink Panther Routine” works when learners have to pay close attention
to something they have to observe so that they can describe it better.

For example, you may want to do an experiment that requires your pupils to watch
carefully or they perhaps have to listen to a secret object that is hidden from view
as it makes noise.

For early and mid-Primary, the toy version of the feline detective is taken out and
the class is encouraged to hum the tune, first loudly and then quietly. With
gestures, you indicate there is no talking and that the class must look, listen and
think. Training the children into this habit takes time, but does work to the point
that, when they reach later Primary, you only need to hum the tune to get their
attention. Then you can present that activity in silence and your learners are
focused, at least for a short period.

2. Listening is a skill that needs practice. Daría Fernández, a French teacher at a

language school in Spain, drew bingo boards to go with sound effect recordings.
Learners listen and then cross out what they think they hear on the bingo board.
These sounds were copied from a cassette, but now you can download sound
effects from Pixabay. As the students find an item on their bingo board, they have
to justify why they think it is a particular sound effect. “I think it is the shower
because I can hear the water.”

3. Similarly, sound machines are cheaply available and can sometimes be found
in charity shops.

They are small plastic boxes or panels with sound effects at the press of a button:
animal or vehicle sounds or catchy noises, like a coil bouncing or a person
screaming. With the sound box, learners can listen to a sequence and draw pictures
to represent and remember the sounds.
Alternatively, you can randomly play three sounds and the learners have to make
up a story.
With animal sounds, the children may hear those of three different animals and say
which one is the odd one out in. Two may be mammals and the third, a reptile, for
example. Or two may be wild animals and the other is domestic.

4. Another activity to activate listening skills is a word chain. Each student or a

group of students gets a sheet with “If you hear…” and a word on the left and “you
say…” and a word on the right. And that’s how this chain is built.

For example, a student has a sheet that says, “If you hear start, you say primary
colors.” You say “start” and that prompts the first student to say “primary colors.”
Someone else in the classroom has a sheet that says “If you hear primary colors,
you say secondary colors,” so they shout out “secondary colors,” and so on. It takes
time for learners to get the idea, but it’s worth your while.

5. Declan’s Game (thanks, Declan McCormick) works with learners of ten and
older. You read out a statistic related to a topic. For instance, the Earth has a
diameter of 12,740 kms, but instead of saying the number, you go “blah, blah, blah”
and then ask: “What is the diameter of Earth?” You give a range to go by: here,
between 10 and 15 thousand kms. In teams, student teams give an estimate and
you respond if the number is higher or lower until one group gets it right. It is a
fun, fast-paced activity and one must listen carefully to what the last team said.

6. Two ditties (sung to the tune of “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow”) to help
learners respond to questions better.

One is: “Listen before you answer the question (x3), you’ve got two ears and one
mouth.” That’s for the children who have their hands raised to answer even before
you have drawn your breath.

The other little song is “Think before you answer the question (x3), you’ve got a
really good mind.” Of course, you as the teacher have to provide thinking time.
Moreover, you have to find the right balance between allowing learners to think
out of the box and take risks in responding and just blurting out random answers.

7. You want to go from merely recalling facts in parrot fashion to getting

learners to apply knowledge with open-ended or more challenging
questions.

However, perhaps only the same pupils might answer on a regular basis. A good
classroom management technique is to ask, “Do you think you know the answer?”,
making sure that students know you are not asking for the answer. You then may
give more clues or scaffolding to get more on board. Finally, let neighbors whisper
to each other, until more students raise their hand to indicate they think they know
the answer.

These are tried and tested titbits for building listening skills.

What tricks have you got up your sleeve?

By Ana Demitroff

Bio: Ana has been in the classroom longer than she cares to admit, but she still gets
a kick from the experience and continues to learn from her colleagues and students
at the You First Language Centre.

• Anita Demitroff