Teaching Listening
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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?
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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?
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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
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Spontaneity
Context
Visual clues
Listener’s response
Speaker’s adjustment
4. Principles and models for
teaching listening
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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
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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:
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In pairs, check (√) the jobs in which people work with
animals.
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doctor
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dolphin trainer
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lawyer
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fisherman
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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
Betty
David
Since 1988
Pet shop owner
Work in the
dolphin show
Principles for selecting and using
listening activities (continued)
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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)
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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:
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How can we motivate students by making the
topic relevant and interesting to them?
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What knowledge is already known to the students
and how can that knowledge be activated for
new knowledge to be built upon?
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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.
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5. Pre-Listening Activities
(continued)
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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)
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Listening for specific information
To listen only for some specific
information and ignore the rest of the
entire message.
6. While-listening Activities
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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
History
Math
English
Justin
Lynn
Ben
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.
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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.
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6. While-listening Activities
(continued)
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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
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Multiple-choice questions
Answering questions
Note-taking and gap-filling
Dictogloss (dictation)
7. Post-Listening Activities
(continued)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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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)
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Other activities:
- role play
- debate
- discussion