Teaching listening activities.

How to teach listening activities?

In a classroom, Ss are always listening. They listen to the teacher’s instructions, classmates’ opinions, etc. Even though they practice it in every class, they get a little scared when they are required to listen to a recording to do some task such as answering given questions, getting the main idea, and getting details. It is true that it is not the same to listen to the teacher’s instructions and follow it than to listen to a recording to do certain tasks.

To avoid and/or decrease these feelings on the Ss, T should prepare Ss. First of all T ought to introduce the topic and discover what Ss already know about the topic that they are going to listen to (it work as the lead-in). What teachers usually do is to ask to Ss questions about the topic so that they can predict what the listening will be about. If it is really necessary, T should provide any new vocabulary that Ss may need. It might be seen in Basic levels; some books have vocabulary that for Ss are impossible to find out the meanings. Once Ss have already discussed the questions, T has set the questions. If she wants the Ss to listen for the gist (skimming), she might give one or two questions. It is advisable that T tell the Ss that they don’t have to worry that they have to understand every word in the recording. Actually, understanding every single word on the audio is not the goal. After you do it all, Ss will be more confident. The recording should not be long. It will depend on the Ss’ levels. If it is a Basic 1 course, it must be less than a minute.

If Ss are going to skim, T has to play the recording only once. Then, T has to ask Ss the questions previously given. Ss get the right answers most of the time in this task so there not necessarily be comparing. Before playing the second time  T should be very specific about what Ss will listen for( this time for scanning) such as emotional tone, answering very detailed questions, finding out who says what, etc. T might need to play one more time. Since listening should focus more on the process rather than the product, it is crucial that T ask the Ss to get in pairs or in groups to compare and agree with the best answer. In case that Ss are not doing most of the tasks well, T has to play the recording one more time. Then the Ss will have to compare their answer again. There might be cases when Ss cannot get the right answer, in this case you will have to play the recording only on the relevant parts. Finally Ss should tell their answer to the class. It is important that T ask others if they agree with their classmate.

After that T has a variety of activities to choose. For instance, ask Ss to write a summary of the listening, work on new vocabulary, the pronunciation, grammar used, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91GL21bCjAE

Personally speaking I love this video because it has a complete listening lesson, from pre-, listening, listening itself to post listening. The lead-in is engaging because it includes competition. The procedure is almost similar to the one that I wrote above. You guys should watch this video. It is a good example of a listening lesson.