Teaching Listening Why does listening seem so difficult? What do we listen to in everyday life? Characteristics of the listening process Principles and models for teaching listening Pre-listening activities While-listening activities Post-listening activities

1. Why does listening seem so difficult? Quickly forget what is heard. Do not recognize words they know. Understand the words but not intended message. Neglect the next part when thinking about meaning. Unable to form a mental representation from words heard. Do not understand subsequent parts of input because of earlier problems.

2. What do we listen to in everyday life? Telephone conversations about business Radio news in English Lessons or lectures given in English Conversations with foreigners Instructions in English Watching movies in English Shop assistants who sell goods to foreigners Deal with tourists Interviews with foreign-enterprises International trade fairs Socialize with foreigners Negotiations with foreign business Listening to English songs Hotel and restaurant services

3. Characteristics of the Listening Process Spontaneity Context Visual clues Listener’s response Speaker’s adjustment

4. Principles and models for teaching listening Focus on process Combine listening with other skills Focus on the comprehension of meaning Grade difficulty level appropriately

Principles for selecting and using listening activities Having a real, communicative purpose. Using authentic language without significantly slower or simpler speech than would normally be used in everyday life. Using pre-listening tasks (e.g. discussing the topic, brainstorming, presenting vocabulary, sharing of related articles) to stimulate the appropriate background knowledge and help learners identify the purpose of the listening activity. Offering content that is personally interesting and motivating to learners.

Principles for selecting and using listening activities (continued) 5. Inferring meaning from body language and related context clues, the speaker must be visible whenever possible. 6. Offering many environmental clues to meaning, just as in real-life listening. 7. The whole listening text should be given, and then it should be divided into parts that can be repeated. This sequence gives listeners time to think and rethink their hypotheses about the meaning of what is said.

Principles for selecting and using listening activities (continued) 8. At the end, the whole text should be given again, and learners should have the opportunity to discuss their hypothesis and how they tested and altered them. 9.The listening activity must require listeners to respond in some meaningful fashion, either individually or in small groups or pairs by saying something, following a command or request, asking a question, taking notes, and so on. 10. The listening activity must be fashioned so that listeners with normal background knowledge are able to understand the topic without doing specialized research, comprehending the messages. So it is very important to design tasks the performance of which show how well the students have comprehended the listening material.

Principles for selecting and using listening activities (continued) 11. The text of the listening activity must be typical for its own speech type; that is, an informal conversation must have short, redundant, rapid chunks of speech, while a lecturer must be more formalized and orderly. 12. The classroom climate surrounding the listening activity must be non-threatening and positive, and simple affective strategies should be used to reduce anxiety if it is present before or during the listening activity.

Principles for selecting and using listening activities (continued) Example: In pairs, check (√) the jobs in which people work with animals. doctor dolphin trainer lawyer fisherman Mechanic 2. Listen to the interviews with people who work with animals and number the pictures in the order they are mentioned.

Principles for selecting and using listening activities (continued) 3. Listen again and complete the table Name Occupation How long has he/she worked there What does he / she do? Joe Sally Since 1988 Betty Pet shop owner David Work in the dolphin show

Principles for selecting and using listening activities (continued) Bottom-Up Model - Listening comprehension starts with sound and meaning recognitions. - Listeners construct meaning of what they hear based on the sound they hear. - It has short term memory as they have to make sense of every sound in order to figure out the meaning of words, phrases, and structures. - If there are unfamiliar sounds, listeners will find it very hard to keep up with the speaker.

Principles for selecting and using listening activities (continued) Top-down Model - Listening for gist and making use of the contextual clues and background knowledge to construct meaning. - Listeners can understand better if they know something about the speaker, the setting, the topic and the purpose of the talk.

5. Pre-Listening Activities Before listening, there are 3 things should be considered: How can we motivate students by making the topic relevant and interesting to them? What knowledge is already known to the students and how can that knowledge be activated for new knowledge to be built upon? What language support, e.g. key vocabulary and key structures, do students need in order to understand the text?

5. Pre-Listening Activities (continued) Prediction - Good listeners are good predictors. - Teachers should train students to predict. Examples: If there is a picture, discuss it to predict ( Picture can attract students and make them focus). If there is no picture, find a picture or draw a picture that relates to the listening text.

5. Pre-Listening Activities (continued) Setting the scene To help students provide the background information to activate learners’ schema in order to be better prepared to understand what they hear. Listening for the gist To ask students one or two questions that focus on the main idea or the tone or mood of the whole passage.

5. Pre-Listening Activities (continued) Listening for specific information To listen only for some specific information and ignore the rest of the entire message.

6. While-listening Activities No specific response To reduce anxiety by listening any kind of material that is interesting, humorous, or dramatic. Listen and tick Example: Directions: You are going to listen to three students giving their opinions about their school subjects. Listen carefully and decide if they like or dislike the subjects. Put a ‘√’ for ‘like’ and a ‘x’ for ‘dislike’. Subjects Justin Lynn Ben History Math English

6. While-listening Activities (continued) Listen and sequence Asking students to find out the order of things based on what they hear. This helps students build up their confidence and prepare them for the real world where they will not be able to understand everything they hear. Example: Directions: Listen to announcement of the order of the games at a sports meeting. Mark the following games with number 1-5 according to the order they are played.

6. While-listening Activities (continued) Listen and Act The use of TPR, concentrating on learning language by listening and responding physically to commands or directions. Examples: Stand up Pretend like you’re walking through mud. Listen and Draw The students are asked to draw pictures, diagrams, etc. on paper. This activity works very well as an information gap activity . One student draws a simple picture and then tells his /her partner how to draw it.

6. While-listening Activities (continued) Listen and fill The students read along while they listen to something and fill in the blanks with the words they hear. Listen and take notes It is done with a guide of a table with headings given. Students need to listen to the passage carefully and fill in the information with key words under appropriate headings. Example: Listen to the information and complete the chart. Name Pet Pet’s name Reason So he doesn’t feel lonely mouse Thomas Dingo

7. Post-Listening Activities Multiple-choice questions Answering questions Note-taking and gap-filling Dictogloss (dictation)

7. Post-Listening Activities (continued) Multiple-choice questions To prepare students to have MC question tests. Answering questions - the answers found in the passage. - questions about the attitude (the person was angry, happy etc.) - inference questions.

7. Post-Listening Activities (continued) Note taking and gap-filling - Students take notes while listening. - Students listen again and completing their notes. - Students do not have to use original words from the text.

7. Post-Listening Activities (continued) Dictogloss - The teacher reads the text two or three times. - The students make a summary on what they hear. - The students discuss their notes with their friends to reconstruct the passage. - The teacher gives the original passage to compare.

7. Post-Listening Activities (continued) 4 stages in dictogloss: 1. Preparation The teacher introduces the topic, gives key words, asks some questions related to the topic. 2. Dictation - The teacher reads the text two or three times. - On the first listening, the students just listen. - On the second or third, the students take extensive notes. - The teacher reads the passage in a normal speech. 3. Reconstruction - Based on their notes, the students work in pairs or groups to reconstruct the passage 4. Analysis and correction - The students compare their work with the original passage. - The students discuss their mistakes analyze them. - The teacher reads the passage to enhance comprehension.

7. Post-Listening Activities (continued) 3. Reconstruction Based on their notes, the students work in pairs or groups to reconstruct the passage 4. Analysis and correction - The students compare their work with the original passage. - The students discuss their mistakes and analyze them. - The teacher reads the passage to enhance comprehension.

7. Post-Listening Activities (continued) Other activities: - role play - debate - discussion