b. in the form of a drawing
CHAPTER 4 Teaching listening
his is a fun cookbook of easy recipes for activities. As the title suggests this book contains helpful advice faced forty students and wondered how to ducate and entertain without any textbooks at hand.
This chapte posure to
the spoken aker. The
resources f f English,
and tapes. ined, and exercises exemplifying
these chara
he reason w d talk less." This
chapter looks at the implications of this quotation from Diogenes on the teaching of listening. How much listening goes on in your classroom? Is your classroom a place where listening is considered an opportunity
ngman Inc., 1988
ny of the ideas on interactive teaching and addressing the whole person which you found in this chapter ve also been addressed in this book. Part II, Exploring Methods and Activities, may he of particular
rest to you.
ep Talking F
Cambridge University Press, 1984
This book contains over a hundred games and activities, divided into t A
aching English Pronunciation nne Kenworthy
ngman Group Ltd., 1987
is book is part of the Longman Handbooks for Teachers Series. The aim of this book is not to produce an al English pronunciation, but to focus on producing speech that is easily understood.
at to Do Before the Books Arrive (and After) n D'Arcy Maculaitis and Mona Scheraga many Press, 1981
T
plus a good dash of encouragement to anyone who has ever e
CHAPTER 4 Teaching listening
r discusses the role of listening in language learning. It focuses on the need for ex language and for meaningful "real life" interaction between listener and spe or teaching listening comprehension are discussed: the teacher, other speakers o The characteristics of good listening exercises are expla
cteristics are presented.
"T hy we have two ears and only one mouth is so that we may listen more an
to learn some for your
students' mista nged by
what you hear s say? If so, do your students realize the extent of your receptiveness? Do your
tudents listen This kind
of listening is extbooks. This
ind of listening involves listening for real messages.
working in a country where the majority of your And they didn't necessarily learn these languages at school. If you ask them how they learned, they will probably shrug their shoulders and say they just picked them up. Ask a little more about this process of picking up a language and you will find two common
fea d to the language by people who were using it as they went about
the students were required to do something which necessitated
understanding and responding to messages in this language. Someone might have shouted at the may have been asked to pay for a bus fare, they may have had to ask the ric r students may not have understood every word that was said to them, the
in a classroom or giving lessons at someone's work lace. But this does not mean that you should ignore the features that go into successful informal language consider is exposure to the language. Babies and young children are exposed in their acquisition of a language. This same concept of listening in the early
that you have to be prepared to include in your lessons segments where you talk a lot to ou
pro practices.
em ints and negative
feelings about your host country, but the classroom is ow
ts' brains work while they are doing something else
thing useful? Do you ever catch yourself listening for long periods of time only kes? Or do you really try to listen to what they are saying? Are you willing to be cha your student
s to each other? Do you give them activities which lead to real exchanges of views?
a lot different from the listen-and-repeat drills you may have come across in t k
he role of listening in language learning T
he majority of Americans are monolingual. But you are now T
students may speak two, three, or even four languages.
tures. One, your students were expose ir daily lives. Two, at some point your
meaningful m to get out of the way, the
e of food. And though you y p
context made the meaning perfectly clear.
Exposure
ou are working in a more formal environment, either Y
p
learning. The first feature to massive amounts of talk to
stages of language learning is central the Natural Approach and Total Physical Response discussed in Chapter Two. In both these approaches, learners are allowed large blocks of time to listen before they are asked to speak. Learners' brains are allowed to assimilate, store and process aural information with the learners hardly being aware of what is going on. Think back to your first few days in country. If you didn't know the language which was being spoken all around you, you probably couldn't even tell where one word ended and another began. But after a week or so, while still not understanding most of what was being said, you had probably started to recognize units of sound as individual words. Your brain had been registering, sorting, and classifying thousands of impressions without your realizing it. When teaching English, provide
our students with similar opportunities to absorb the sounds of English and to accumulate understanding.
y
Provide plenty to listen to hat this means is W
y r class. Talk about yourself and your family; talk about the Peace Corps, its goals and its different grams; talk about the United States, its educational system, its demography, its diverse agricultural Obviously you will not want to abuse your position by sounding forth on topics which might barrass or offend your students. It would be almost unnatural not to have some compla
not the place for you to want your feelings.
L er stress
Stress can and does block learning. By making sure that your lessons are motivating you can relieve your tudents of the stress and boredom that often blocks learning. A teacher can be very informed, meticulously s
organized, and professionally conscientious, but much of this counts for nothing if her lessons are boring or are inappropriately difficult. Your energy and the pleasure you take in your job can transform a dull textbook and put life into a deadening syllabus, and at the same time lower your students' stress level. Your planning and awareness can ensure that your classes are pitched to promote progress and successful learning for your students.
et your studen L
Pla
related to English language learning gives your students exposure to the language. For example, if you have a secondary project running the school's home economics club and your students are sewing or cooking, pla
lea
These ideas are discussed at greater length in an essay "Learning by Listening," by Eugene A. Nida, in the
book I ed by Robert W. Blair.
Mean
Th to consider is meaningful messages. In the first
step your students were exposed to the language, but were not necessarily expected to speak. In this sec
reason for doing so. The cyclist wanted room to pass, the bus conductor wanted a fare, the vendor in the market gave a price. The speakers' purposes were clear. The responses expected of the listeners were
eq correct fare, or pay for food. Unfortunately
many listening exercises in the classroom do not possess the reality of meaningful messages. The give and tak
or
passage. In order to promote listening for meaningful messages you will need to include a number of real life features when developing your listening activities.
Build in response time
Many listening exercises are transformed into memory exercises because the listeners' responses come nly after long stretches of speech. You can avoid this by requiring short active responses occurring during ould develop an exercise alled "Detecting Mistakes," in which you tell a short story about the school in which you have included some info
a m
marked down the correct number of mistakes. Here is an example of a "Detecting Mistakes" story.
ed out of the taff room and turned right down the corridor past the art room and the science laboratory
to listen for information. Your tory should not be more than about twelve sentences long.
eaker
he phone, or do not listen to English on the radio, then most of the time the speaker should e visible in your listening exercises. Only if your students need English for the phone or radio should you con
see Pro
Clu use these clues unconsciously
when they are talking to each other in their own language. Remember to provide clues and to help your stu
pla
you could draw the bus and its features, which you bring to your students' attention. ("It has six wheels. This ying a cassette of songs with English words while you are working with your students on a project not y one of your favorite tapes. Without paying attention to the music, your students will almost inadvertently rn the words and intonation of the song as they get on with their other work.
nnovative Approaches to Language Teaching, edit
ingful "Real Life" messages
e second feature of successful informal language learning
ond phase, your students were expected to respond. The people who spoke to your students had a ually clear. Your students had to get out of the way, give the
e of real life communication is removed from exercises in which students are asked to "listen and repeat,"
asked to complete listening exercises without any preparation on the content and situation of the listening
o
or between parts of the listening passage rather than at the end. For instance you c c
rmational mistakes. Your students are required to listen to your story and to raise their hands if they hear istake, or to mark on a paper the number of mistakes they hear, and then to check that they have Yesterday was Tuesday (mistake # 1, it was Wednesday) and I decided to go and visit my friend Mr. Ngugui, the history teacher (mistake # 2, Mr. Ngugui teaches geography). I walk
s
(mistake # 3, the science laboratory is in another building). etc.
In an exercise of this sort you should include approximately ten informational mistakes. Do not include grammatical mistakes in this exercise. Your only aim is to teach your students
s
Allow for the visibility of the sp
In real life situations, listeners can usually see the person or people speaking, and the visual clues offered by the speaker, such as facial expressions and gestures, help the listeners understand what is being said.
The exceptions to this visibility come when using the phone or listening to the radio. If your students do not use English on t
b
sider sometimes using recordings as the basis of an exercise. (For further discussion on use of tapes, the section of this chapter which deals with resources for listening comprehension.)
vide background clues
es provide a framework and context for a spoken message. Your students
dents use them when they are listening to English. Your clues could be as simple as a picture of the ce or thing you are talking about. For instance if your exercise involves talking about travelling by bus,
is t
top of the bus and strapped down.") It m
are
stu if they do not understand each and every word. Pictures and other background clues will provide a framework and help them listen globally to the whole message. Gradually, as they begin to rea
the stand the whole
essage just as they do in their native language.
s help them nderstand, they will also help your students to retain any new words they may hear.
s
You would be doing your students a isservice if you only gave them exercises in which the listening passage had been cleaned up and no lon
students are asked to listen to the teacher and to complete a chart describing the sources of vitamins and the diseases caused by diets deficient in these vitamins. (See Figures 4.1 and 4.2.)
Fig
Listen to your teacher talking about sources of vitamins and the diseases which can result from not having enoug