Steps to Developing listening competence.
(Виступ на районній конференції – жовтень 2012р.)
I. Lead in: guessing the key word of the topic. “Listen” Acrostic.
Linguistics – The scientific study of language
Invent – to think or make something for the first time
Study – to look at smth very carefully, the activity of learning about smth.
Tutorial – a lesson at a college or university for an individual student or a small group of
students.
Equal – a person who has the same ability, rights, etc as you do.
Necessary – that is needed for purpose or a reason.
II. What is PET? Why should you taket hisexam?
Preliminary English Test (PET)
• suit the interests of pupils
• increases their motivation to learn English
• gives them the confidence to use their English
• inspires them to move on to further qualifications
The exam is set at Level B1, B1+ of the Common European Framework of Reference
(CEFR). B1 is the level of English needed to:
• deal with everyday events
• read simple textbooks or magazine articles
• write letters on familiar subjects
• take notes in a lesson
It shows that a pupil can use English to communicate with native speakers for everyday
purposes.
Success story
‘I took the exam because I wanted to find out how good I am at English. The day of the
exam I felt very nervousbecause I've never had a similar experience before. But when I saw
the tasks I felt safer and became calm.
Every task was explained well and I'm just glad that I had the chance to do the exam.’ (
Bernd Koch, Preliminary candidate)
III. Written language
& Spoken language
Listening is one of the four language skills, a receptive skill, as it involves responding to
language rather than producing it. Listening involves understanding spoken language which
is different from written one.
Group activity. What differences can you think of between the spoken and written
language of English?
List some before reading the table. Identify characteristics of Spl and WrL.
(divide the group in 2 smaller groups)
Written language
Stays on the page and doesn`t disappear
Uses punctuation and capital letters to
show sentences.
Consists of letters, words, sentences and
punctuation joined together into the text.
Spoken language
Disappears as soon as it is spoken.
Sometimes it is spoken fast and sometimes
slowly, with or without pauses.
Show sentences and meaningful groups of
words through stress and intonation.
Consists of connected speech,
sentences, incomplete sentences or single
Has no visual support – except photos or
pictures sometimes
Is usually quite well organized:
Usually uses quite exact vocabulary and
more complex grammar
words
The speaker uses body language to support
his/her communication: gestures and
facial expressions
Is not so well organized: contains
interruptions, hesitations, repetitions and
frequent changes on topic.
Often uses rather general vocabulary and
simple grammar
VI. Listening involves doing many things dealing with:
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The characteristics of SpL
The context and the knowledge of the world
Understanding different text types
Different speeds of speech and accents
Using different language subskills
VII. Listening subskills (a skill that is apart of a main skill)
 listening for specific information or scanning (we don`t listen to the whole text
attentively, we find the information we are interested in)
 listening for gist or skimming (listening quickly through a text to get a general
idea of what it is about)
 listening for detail (getting the meaning out of every word)
 listening for attitude (listening to see what attitude a speaker is expressing)
 extensive listening (listening to long pieces of text)
VIII. Practice task (Keys 1B 2C 3G 4D 5E 6A)
Instructions
Ways of listening
A listening for gist
1. Watch the video to see how the
woman looks. How do you think
B understanding body language
she feels?
2. Listen to each pair of words. Say if
C listening for individual sounds
they are the same or different?
3. What town does Jim live in? Listen
D listening for detail
and find out.
4. Listen to the description of the boy
E listening for sentence stress
and the girl and draw them.
5. Listen and underline the word in
F extensive listening
the sentence that the speaker says
most strongly.
G listening for specific information
6. Listen to the story and decide what
is the best title for it.
IX. The activities in a listening lesson often follow this pattern:
1. Introductory activities/pre-listening: an introduction to the topic of the text
and activities focusing on the language of the text.
2. Main activities/while-listening: a series of activities developing different
listening subskills
3. Post-activities/post-listening: exercises which ask learners to talk about how
a topic in the text relates to their own lives or give their opinion on parts of
the text. These activities also require learners to use some of the language
they have met in the text.
(Give examples of this activities.) See HO
X. Key concepts:
1. As you design listening tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the
information in an aural text is an unrealistic expectation to which even native speakers
are not usually held.
2. Listening exercises that are meant to train should be success-oriented and build up
students' confidence in their listening ability.
3. Each activity should have as its goal the improvement of one or more specific
listening skills. A listening activity may have more than one goal or outcome, but be
careful not to overburden the attention of beginning or intermediate listeners.
4. Check the level of difficulty of the listening text.
5. Comprehension activities should be in easier language than the language in the
listening text (you can understand all of the story but you can`t tell the story).
6. We can develop learners` listening skills by focusing regularly on particular aspects
of listening, e.g. problem sounds, features of connected speech, subskills, new
language)
7. Children learn well from listening the stories that interest them.
*Check the level of difficulty of the listening text.
The factors listed below can help you judge the relative ease or difficulty of a listening text
for a particular purpose and a particular group of students.
How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or instruction conform
to familiar expectations? Texts in which the events are presented in natural chronological
order, which have an informative title, and which present the information following an
obvious organization (main ideas first, details and examples second) are easier to follow.
How familiar are the students with the topic? Remember that misapplication of
background knowledge due to cultural differences can create major comprehension
difficulties.
Does the text contain redundancy? At the lower levels of proficiency, listeners may find
short, simple messages easier to process, but students with higher proficiency benefit from
the natural redundancy of the language.
Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly differentiated? It is
easier to understand a text with a doctor and a patient than one with two doctors, and it is
even easier if they are of the opposite sex. In other words, the more marked the differences,
the easier the comprehension.
Does the text offer visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the listeners
hear? Visual aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images in a video help
contextualize the listening input and provide clues to meaning.
*Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or
view..The activities chosen during pre-listening may serve as preparation for listening
in several ways. During pre-listening the teacher may
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assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text
provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their comprehension
of the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge that the students possess
clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage
make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will
play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening
provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or
class discussion activities
*Sample pre-listening activities:
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looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs
reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures
reading something relevant
constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing
how they are related)
predicting the content of the listening text
going over the directions or instructions for the activity
doing guided practice
*Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening
purpose, and students' proficiency level.
While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them during or
immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these points in mind when planning
while-listening activities:
If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow
them to read through it before listening. Students need to devote all their attention to the
listening task. Be sure they understand the instructions for the written task before listening
begins so that they are not distracted by the need to figure out what to do.
Keep writing to a minimum during listening. Remember that the primary goal is
comprehension, not production. Having to write while listening may distract students from
this primary goal. If a written response is to be given after listening, the task can be more
demanding.
Organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text. Combine global activities
such as getting the main idea, topic, and setting with selective listening activities that focus
on details of content and form.
Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to
comprehension of the whole. Before the listening activity begins, have students review
questions they will answer orally or in writing after listening. Listening for the answers will
help students recognize the crucial parts of the message.
Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen. Do a
predicting activity before listening, and remind students to review what they are hearing to
see if it makes sense in the context of their prior knowledge and what they already know of
the topic or events of the passage.
Give immediate feedback whenever possible. Encourage students to examine how or why
their responses were incorrect.
*Sample while-listening activities
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listening with visuals
filling in graphs and charts
following a route on a map
checking off items in a list
listening for the gist
searching for specific clues to meaning
completing cloze (fill-in) exercises
multiple choice
XI. Ideas and Activities for Teaching Listening
A. Listening and Performing Actions and
Operations
D. Listening, Evaluation, and Manipulating
Information
1. drawing a picture, figure, or design
2. locating routes of specific points on a map
3. selecting or identifying a picture of a person,
place, or thing from description
4. performing hand or body movements as in
songs and games such as "Simon Says" or
"Hokey Pokey"
5. operating a piece of equipment, such as a
camera, a recorder, a microwave oven, a pencil
sharpener
6. carrying out steps in a process, such as steps
solving a math problems, a science experiment,
1. writing information received and reviewing
it in order to answer questions or to solve a
problem
2. evaluating information in order to make a
decision or construct a plan of action
3. evaluating arguments in order to develop a
position for or against
4. evaluating cause-and-effect information
5. projecting from information received and
making predictions
6. summarizing or "gistizing" information
received
7. evaluating and combining information
a cooking sequence.
8. evaluating and condensing information
9. evaluating and elaborating or extending
information
10. organizing unordered information received
into a pattern of orderly relationship -chronological sequencing, spatial relationships,
cause-and-effect, problem-solution
B. Listening and Transferring Information
E. Interactive Listening and Negotiating
Meaning Through Questioning/Answering
Routines
Question Types
1. Repetition: Could you repeat the part about
...?
2. Paraphrase: Could you say that again? I don't
understand what you mean by...
3. Verification: Did I understand you to say
that...? In other words you mean.... Do you
mean ...?
4. Clarification: Could you tell me what you
mean by ...? Could you explain...? Could you
give us an example of ...?
5. Elaboration: What about ...? How is this
related to...?
6. Challenge: What did you base ... on? How
did you reach...? Why did you...?
1. listening and taking a telephone or in-person
message by either transcribing the entire
message word-for-word or by writing down
notes on the important items
2. listening and filling in blanks in a gapped
story game (in order to complete the story)
3. listening and completing a form or chart
4. listening and summarizing the gist of a short
story, report, or talk
5. listening to a "how to" talk and writing an
outline of the steps in a sequence (e.g.,how to
cook something, how to run a piece of
equipment, how to play a game)
6. listening to a talk or lecture and taking notes
C. Listening and Solving Problems
F. Listening for Enjoyment, Pleasure, and
Sociability
1. word games in which the answers must be
derived from verbal clues
listening to songs, stories, plays, poems, jokes,
2. number games and oral story arithmetic
anecdotes, teacher chat.
problems
3. asking questions in order to identify
something, as in Twenty Questions
4. classroom versions of password, jeopardy,
twenty questions in which careful listening is
critical to questions and answers or answers
and questions
5. "minute mysteries" in which a paragraphlength mystery story is given by the teacher (or
a tape), followed by small group work in which
students formulate solutions
6. a jigsaw mystery in which each group listens
to a tape with some of the clues, then shares
information in order to solve the mystery
7. riddles, logic puzzles, intellectual problemsolving
3. PET tests. What's in the exam?
Paper
Content
Marks
(% of
total) Purpose
Reading:
5 parts/35
questions
Reading and
Writing
(1 hour 30
minutes)
Listening
(about 30
minutes plus 6
minutes of
transfer time)
Speaking
(10–12 minutes
per pair of
candidates)
50%
Pupils need to be able to read texts from signs, journals,
newspapers and magazines and understand the main
points. They will need to show they can use vocabulary
and structure by completing tasks such as producing a
short message, and writing a story or letter of around 100
words.
25%
Pupils need to show they can understand the meaning of a
range of recorded spoken material, including
announcements, interviews and discussions about
everyday life. They will also need to be able to understand
the attitudes and intentions of the speakers.
25%
Pupils take part in a conversation, asking and answering
questions, and talking freely about their likes and dislikes.
They take the Speaking test with another candidate or in a
group of three.
Writing:
3 parts/7
questions
4 parts/25
questions
4 parts
Listening, p.107
Part1
Seven short monologues or dialogues each with a three-option multiple-choice
questions based on pictures
Part 2
One longer monologue or interview with six three-option multiple-choice question
Part 3
One longer monologue with six questions completing gaps in notes
Part 4
One longer informal dialogue with six correct/incorrect questions