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LISTENING

WORKSHOP

APRIL 2009
Living tape recorder

Draw some tape recorder controls on the board. Check with students that they
understand what these symbols represent (play, rewind, stop). Explain that you
will play (or dictate) a listening text. The students should write down the text.
While you are reading it students can shout 'stop' at any point. You will then 'stop'
until you are told to continue ('play'). If a student wants you to repeat a particular
part, they should shout 'rewind to XXX'. You will then go back and continue from
that point until you are told to stop.*

This activity allows students to dictate the speed at which they listen to a
particular text. It allows them to focus on individual words when they need to and
gives them the confdence needed to develop their listening skills. Of course, it is
important that you don't overuse the activity, or students may become lazy
listeners!

And the next word is …

Choose a recording. Tell the students the topic of the recording. Play a short piece
and then press the pause/stop button. Ask the students to predict the next word
(they can do this by whispering their ideas to the student sitting next to them).
Press play and let the students hear the word. Don't make any comments at this
point. Play another piece and repeat the process. Do this with the whole of the
recording. At the end ask the students how successful they were in predicting the
next word. You will be able to tell from the students reactions how well they are
doing.

This activity is particularly effective to recycle language from a text, written or


spoken, that you have already studied. With the class.

Predicting vocabulary based on the topic is a skill that we all employ in our frst
language before and while we are listening. It is also important NOT to check or
comment on the accuracy of their predictions while the activity is going on. The
aim is not to get it right, but rather to concentrate on the content and vocabulary in
order to make it possible to guess.

My students won't listen to each other! What can I do?

This is a complaint that is often heard, especially in


multilingual classes. However, even in monolingual
classes students often complain that they shouldn't be
listening to each other (I can speak better than X, I
don't want to hear their mistakes, I want to hear 'real'
English speakers etc.). But one of the best sources of
listening material is for students to listen to each
other. Teachers often say to students that most of the
people they will use English with are non-native
speakers and so it is good to hear each other. Teachers
also point out how good it is for students to speak as
much as possible (and most students accept this). But,
if they are going to speak a lot, who is going to listen?
Other students, of course! It is therefore important to
try and make listening as important as speaking when students are doing pair-
work.

If you have any students who insist that speaking to their classmates who are less
fuent / accurate them, then direct them to Chapter 2 of Language Hungry which
accompanies this handout.

Different or the same?

Put students in pairs. Ask them to talk to each other about a topic e.g. last weekend.
Set a task, e.g. fnd three similarities or fnd three differences . This then focuses
their attention on what their partner is saying rather than it simply being a
monologue followed by a second monologue.

Alternatively, put the students in threes. Two of the students talk about the topic
and the third student just listens and makes a note of the similarities and
differences and then feeds back to the pair. Reverse roles.

Is it wrong for the teacher to talk a lot?

No. One of the problems here is that many training courses


and books on 'how to teach' talk about TTT (Teacher Talking
Time). They speak about how the more a teacher talks the
less opportunity there is for students to talk. However, this
makes the issue a very black and white one. It simplifes what
is quite a complex situation into a simple quantity one. For
the time being let's not focus on aspects such as QTT (Quality
Teacher Talk) versus TTT, or whether the percentage
time students and teachers speak is necessarily
complementary (i.e. the less a teacher talks automatically
means students will speak more). Instead, let's look at a
different aspect of Teacher Talk, that is TT as a source of
listening.

Every time a teacher talks they are providing their students with a listening
opportunity. Therefore, if they give their students a reason to listen to them, then
this can only be a beneft.

Anecdotes

Teachers telling personalized stories can often be an excellent source of listening


for the students. One idea is if you teach a class at the same time as a colleague
teaches a similar level / age group of students. Divide the two classes into half
(group A& B), you take all the group A students (half your class and half your
colleague's class) and they take all the group B students. Both of you tell a short
anecdote (two to fve minutes). Get students to make notes and compare in pairs or
groups. Repeat the anecdote if necessary. Then get all your students back with you
and send your colleague's students back to their class, so they have all their
students. Now pair them up so that in each pair one heard your story and the other
student listened to your colleague's. Get the students to retell the stories to each
other.
What did you hear?

Play a recording and ask students to note down who


was speaking, what they were speaking about and any
other things they think they heard. Emphasize that
there are no ‘correct’ answers and that you want them
to write down what they think and/or hear. Put
students in pairs or small groups and ask them to
discuss their ideas. Play the recording again, if
necessary. Discuss the ideas as a class, asking people to
explain why, but trying not to make judgements as to
whether their ideas (answers) are right or not.

Rationale: It is extremely interesting to fnd out what


students hear rather than focusing attention on what
they should hear according to a set of predetermined
questions. The activity probably needs to be used two
or three times with different recordings before students start to feel comfortable
and realize that they are not being tested (i.e. you really aren’t looking for correct
answers).

Add a third

Choose a coursebook dialogue (between two people). Play it and get the students to
think about who the people are and what they are talking about. Then ask the
students to think about the dialogue and imagine what it would be like if there was a
third person involved/speaking. Get the students to turn to the transcript and
rewrite the dialogue adding the third person (this can be done working in groups of
three). Finally, ask a few groups to read out their new dia(tria)logue.

Rationale: Coursebook dialogues are often ‘neat’ in a way in which real-life


conversations aren’t. Getting students to add a third person also demonstrates a
deeper understanding of the material than standard comprehension questions ever
could.

We often interrupt

Choose a dialogue from a coursebook, e.g. A phone conversation. Read the frst line
of the dialogue. Ask the students to take on the other role (but without referring to
the transcript). Once they have heard your line they should respond. Continue the
process (either by using the next line of the coursebook dialogue – this then forces
the students to readjust their thoughts, or simply by responding to what the
students have said). Finally, if you want, you can get everyone to look at the original
transcript.

Rationale: Most coursebook listening activities put the students in the position of
eavesdroppers. This is actually a very unnatural state of affairs in most real-life
listening. One aim of this activity is to make the listening activity much more
realistic by making the listener take on an active role.

Listening Bingo


Ask the students to draw a grid or table with six boxes (you can use more for higher
levels e.g. nine boxes at upper-intermediate). Tell them you will play a recording
and tell them the topic of the recording (if you want you can give a bit more
information e.g. You will hear two people talking about their plans for the
weekend.). Ask the students to write a word or phrase in each box. These should be
things they think they will hear during the recording. Monitor and check they have
completed their grids. Play the recording. Every time a student hears a word or
phrase in their grid they should cross it out. If they cross out all 6 they should put
their hand up in the air (or shout ‘Bingo’).

Predicting vocabulary based on the topic is a skill that we all employ in our L1
before and while we are listening. The task starts off with a top-down activity,
predicting based on what we already know about the topic, but during the actual
listening phase the focus is far more on a bottom-up process.

Dictogloss


Tell the students they are going to hear a short text (a few sentences or a short
paragraph). Ask the students to put their pens down and just listen. Play the
listening or read it out once and then ask the students to note down all the words
they can remember – this should be done focusing on key words and NOT trying to
remember everything verbatim. Play or read the text again and then ask the
students to work in pairs and reconstruct as much of the text as they can. Repeat
the process one more time and then pair the pairs and get them to compare their
texts. Finally, compare their texts to the original and discuss.
Initially this activity is bottom-up. However, as parts of the text are constructed
students will use the co-text (working out content and languages based on what has
already been said or surrounds a particular utterance) to help build the rest of the
text. This then moves from bottom-up to top-down strategies and often employs
both simultaneously.

I have used this very successfully for grammar work, in particular contrasting two
tenses. For example, active vs. passive: present perfect simple and continuous: used
to and would ('d – very hard for the students to hear).

An absolute life-saver activity for those days when the photocopier breaks down or
paper rationing is introduced. Listening, speaking, writing, grammar, vocabulary
and punctuation practice all rolled-up in one with minimal work on your behalf –
just the way it should be!

Gap-fll


Take a listening text and remove some of the words. Students predict the missing
words. Play the text and ask students to fll in the blanks and/or check their
answers.
Although this is a standard bottom-up approach it is amazing to see how
much can be predicted and therefore how even the most bottom-up activities
employ a degree of top-down processing.

Dictation

Prepare or adapt a list of phrases / sentences and dictate them to the class. Try
your hardest and read them as naturally as possible. Students compare with a
partner what they have written. Elicit back from the class and discuss any
differences. Highly recommended for work on features of connected speech such as
strong / weak forms, elision, intrusive sounds. And of course the schwa sound.

Note-taking

Get the students to divide the page into three columns. In the frst column write 'Im
sure I heard'. In the second 'I think I heard'. And fnally, in the third 'No idea'. In the
last column they write what they hear, but they have absolutely no idea what it is.
Get them to write it as they hear it. Students listen to the text and write
information / words, utterances into the three categories according to how sure
they are. You will need to play the recording a few times. It's the third column that
is the most interesting and the one that should be encouraged as a tool to help them
out of class. If they decide to do this, they can bring their scribbled language notes
to class and ask you about it. Cue natural conversation between teacher and
student (Where did you hear this? What were you doing there? I never knew you
were into women's shot-putting etc.). This activity can be done with or without a
lead-in or gist questions. Obviously without makes it a little more realistic and
better prepares them for out-of-class.

My way to work

Explain to the class that you are going to describe what you did from the moment
you woke up until the moment you arrived at work. However, their job is to stop you
completing the story. Set a time limit of two or three
minutes depending on the level and the number of times
you have subjected them to this type of activity. Then,
simply, begin to tell your story. They ask you questions, you
answer them and then carry on with the story. You can
adapt this to many of the texts found in course books and
supplementary books (spoken and written). It works best
with monologues – dialogues would be too confusing. If you
do do it with a dialogue invite one of the students to read
the other part and sit opposite each other. Make sure to
give a few examples frst, and expect it to be a bit slow to
start. They'll soon get the hang of it, and especially if they
discover that the 'Why' question can be used to devastating
effect - rather like my daughter. Once students have got the
idea, they can do it together in pairs. Works nicely with any
stories the students are telling (think Anecdote sections of Inside Out series)

What are you on about

Divide the class into groups of three or four. Send one student from each group out
of the class. Instruct the remaining students to have a conversation on a topic of
their choice (for more reticent groups, supply a topic). Let them get on with it and
after a minute or two bring the other students back into the class. They sit down
with their group and quietly listen to them speaking, when they understand what's
going on, they should join in.
Sound Effects

Prepare about 10 sound effects (see John, Alisdair, Mark or Dan). Students listen
and write down what they think they hear. Tell them that there is no right or wrong
answer. Therefore, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of ambiguity here. Elicit
from the class what they heard (you can tell them what the effects were supposed
to be) and then from the vocabulary you have built up on the board, the students
write a story in pairs, groups or individually.
Note – it helps to have a common 'theme' to the effects.

Questions

Rather than writing the questions yourself and spending all that time to read and
listen to the text when you could be doing so many better things, get the students to
write the questions. More work for them and less for you! Be careful that they don't
see through it though. We wouldn't want to be rumbled! Best to sell it to them with
the line about the photocopier breaking down when you were doing the questions
and that you had noticed that some of the students needed more practice with
question formation so you thought you could kill two birds with one stone, speaking
of which.....

The Last Thing

Ask the students to write down the last thing that you said.

Hearing vs. Listening


An example to outline the difference between hearing and listening

What a woman says:

C'MON...This place is a mess! You and I need to clean. Your pants are on the
foor and you'll have no clothes if we don't do the laundry now!

What a man hears:

C'MON....blah, blah, blah YOU AND I blah, blah, blah, blah, blah ON THE
FLOOR blah, blah, blah, NO CLOTHES blah, blah, blah, blah, NOW!

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