Teaching Listening

Pre-Listening
Goals Activities
Set a purpose T/F statements for prediction

Motivate Open prediction

Activate background knowledge Pre-questions

(using context)

Pre-teach necessary language points Ordering, matching, ect…

(vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation)
Activities to activate prior knowledge
- Brainstorm: give students the topic & ask for vocabulary/ ideas
- What’s your guess?: show pictures for students to guess the topic,
provide guiding questions if needed
- Have your say: students look at a picture and state out their opinions
- Anticipate guide: students choose one among options provided
Activities to acquire knowledge
- Quizzes
- Simplified reading
Practice
- Key words
- Using pictures
- Matching
- Guessing
- Presenting new grammar patterns
While-Listening
Goals Activities

Verify prediction and check for inaccurate guesses Comprehension questions

(T/F, MCQ, Wh-Q)

Decide what is and what is not important to listen Grid

(student listen and fill in table, …)

Listen again for checking comprehension Listen & draw

(Teacher gives students a map/house/pictures.
Students listen in to the text and respond by drawing,
filling in, numbering,…)
Types of Listening
- Listening for general information (gist)
- Listening for specific information
- Listening for detailed information
- Predicting and guessing
- Interpreting (inferencing, understanding author’s purpose,…)
E.g. Types of Listening in Grade 11
- Listening for specific information: All units
- Listening for general information: Unit 2, 5, 8
- Listening for author’s purpose & attitude: Unit 6
Teach Strategies & Organization
- Instruct students the strategies before they start to listen
- encourage students to predict what they will hear
Strategies & Organization
Listen for specific information:
Instruct students to decide the type of information they need to listen
for by:
. reading the questions before listening
. identifying the keywords (V, N, Adj, Adv, Prep, connectors)
. identifying parts of speech needed (for the blank)
Strategies & Organization
Listen for specific information - Tips:
. Keywords on the board
. Strong class: elicit synonyms/ antonyms of keywords when
appropriate
. Weaker class: explain synonyms/ antonyms of these keywords (from
the transcript)
. Pairwork to analyze the questions before listening
Strategies & Organization
Listen for gist (main idea):
- Where: at the beginning of the talk or conversation
- Teach students the organization of different text types
- Focus students on the questions (if any) and use keywords in the
questions to guide their listening
Strategies & Organization
Listen for gist (main idea) - Tips:
. Signpost phrases
“today I'm talking about…
I'd like to have a few words about…
I'm looking for…
Do you happen to know…”
. Gist question -> specific information question
. Get student use this signpost phrases when they speak (Post-listening
stage)
Techniques to help students’ listening
• - Giving clear instructions for the task
• - Playing the tape once for students to get general content of the
listening
• - Providing easier activities for slower classes
• - Moving from simpler tasks to more complicated ones
• - Playing the tape several times for students to listen
• - Breaking long tapescripts into sections
Techniques to check students answers
• Letting Ss compare their answers first
• Asking for volunteers and nominating Ss to give answers alternately
• Asking Ss to answer the questions in random order (to keep them alert)
• Giving Ss the tapescript to find the clues for their answers
• Designing fun games to check the answers (such as reordering the
correct answers)
• Exploiting the vocabulary in the listening texts
• Working with mistakes (pointing out the mistakes and giving them
advice on how to avoid later)
Post-Listening
Goals Activities

evaluate comprehensive and progress reaction to the content

(role play, recall the story, write it up…)
reflect on evaluate listening strategies

practice integrated skills analysis of the linguistic features

(vocabulary, collocation, verb forms,
focus on language pronunciation…)
Post-Listening
Follow up with speaking and writing activities:
. improving background knowledge
. raise awareness and simulate the organization of different speaking
genres
. reinforce linguistic features