HORIZON TESOL – TEACHING LANGUAGE SKILLS AND LANGUAGE AREAS

TEACHING LISTENING
I. WHAT IS LISTENING:
Listening is one of the four language skills. Like reading, listening is a receptive skill. As
it involves responding to a language rather than producing it. Listening involves making
sense of the meaningful sounds that we hear. We cannot develop speaking skill unless
we develop listening skills; to have a successful conversation, students must understand
what is said to them. Listening to spoken English is an important way of acquiring the
language – of ‘picking up’ structures and vocabulary. So we need to give learners as
many opportunities to listen to spoken English as possible.
II. WHY IS LISTENING SO DIFFICULT FOR STUDENTS?
Both listening and reading are receptive skills, but listening can be more difficult than
reading because:
 Different speakers produce the same sounds in different ways, e.g: dialects and
accents, stress, rhythms, intonations, mispronunciations , etc.
 The listener has little/no control over the speed of the input of the spoken material.
 The spoken material is often heard only once (unlike the reading material).
 The listener cannot pause to work out the meaning.
 Speech is more likely to be distorted by background noise (e.g: round the classroom)
or the media that transmit sounds;
 The listener sometimes has to deal simultaneously with another task while listening,
e.g: note-taking, reading the questions and options, writing the answers...
III. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN READING AND LISTENING
Written language in English Spoken language in English
Stays on the page and doesn’t disappear Disappear as soon as it is spoken.
Sometimes it is spoken fast and somtimes
slowly.
uses punctuation and capital letters to shows sentences and meaningful groups
show sentences. of words through stress and intonation.
consists of letters, words, sentences and consists of connected speech, sentences,
punctuation joined together into text. incomplete sentences or single words.
has no visual support-except photos or the speaker uses body language to support
pictures sometimes his/her communication; for example,
gestures and facial expressions.
is usually quite well-organized: sentences is not so well-organized; e.g: it contains
follow one another in logical sequences. interruptions, hesitations, repetitions and
frequent changes of topic.

IV. LEARNERS’ DIFFICULTIES IN LISTENING

1. I have trouble catching the actual sounds of the foreign language.

2. I have to understand every word; if I missed something, I feel I am failing and get
worried and stressed.
3. I can understand people if they talk slowly and clearly; I can’t understand fast,
natural native-sounding speech.
4. I need to hear things more than once in order to understand.
5. I find it difficult to ‘keep up’ with all the information I am getting, and cannot think
ahead or predict.
6. If the listening goes on for a long time I get tired, and find it more and more difficult
to concentrate.

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V. LISTENING IN REAL LIFE

In most cases, the listening materials in the classroom are daily conversations or stories,
but in reality, we listen to many different things:
 Telephone conversations
 Lessons or lectures given in English
 Instructions in English
 Watching movies/television programs in English
 Dealing with tourists
 Interviews with foreign partners
 Socializing with foreigners
 Listening to English songs
 Radio news in English
 Conversations with foreigners
......
In everyday life, there are two ways in which we often listen:
- ‘Casual’ listening: we listen with no particular purpose in mind and often without
much concentration. For example, we listen to the radio while doing some
housework
- ‘Focused’ listening: we listen for a particular purpose, to find out information we
need. For example, we listen to someone showing how to operate a machine or
how to get to the post office.
VI. STAGES OF A LISTENING LESSON
1. Pre-Listening
1a. Introduce the text (Lead-in + introduction)
Purpose:
- The teacher prepares students for the task and familiarize themselves with the
topic.
- The teacher creates expectation and arouse students’ interests with the subject.
How:
- Introducing general content of the listening passage
- Using pictures & eliciting
- Asking students to predict the content of the listening from the
title/vocabulary/ part of the story/illustrations in the book
- Setting the scene: providing culture notes, etc...
1b. Presenting vocabulary
The teacher presents some active vocabulary items, some words that have
difficult sounds or some proper names.
1c. Giving guiding questions:
The teacher plays the tape once (non-stop) for students to get the general
content of the listening passage.
Ex: The listening passage mainly discusses
a. The man’s experience
b. The shortage of water
c. The water pollution
Pre-listening activities:
T may need to give background information or necessary cultural information
related to the subject of the listening passage
 Ss can predict content from the title
 Ss can see a relevant object

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 Ss can predict content from an illustration

 Ss can predict content form the T’s description of the situation
 Ss can discuss the topic or the situation
 Ss can contribute their own relevant experience
 T can give a pre-listening question which directs ss to the main points
 T can give a pre-listening question which directs ss to specific details
2. While-Listening
- T provides clear instructions.
- Appropriate tasks are given to check major details.
- T plays the tape , ss listen to complete the task.
- T gets students to compare their answers with one another before checking
with the whole class.
- T checks the answer with the whole class and directs feedback.
- T plays relevant parts of the audio again when checking for students to
confirm the answers.
T should bear these points in mind
 Divide long scripts into short chunks to facilitate students’ listening.
 Set clear instructions to make sure students know what they are supposed
to do for each task: what to do (cross/tick/circle/give short answers, etc)
+ how many times they are going to listen to the tape.
 Design various tasks (MC, T/F, gap-fill, comprehension Qs, complete a
table....)
 Move from simpler to more complex ones
 Less difficult activities for low-level class
 Let students exchange their answers before checking with the whole class
 they will feel more secure when they give the answers to you.
 When checking with the students, rewind the audio file to relevant parts
for confirmation
While-listening Activities:
 Respond verbally (individual within class)
- T stops the tape and asks questions about: the number, sex, age of people
speaking; the setting, the formality, the aim or topic of the text, what will
happen next.
- Ss listen and answer comprehension Qs orally
- Ss answer referential Qs
 These Qs personalize the lesson and make the listening interesting.
 They integrate listening with the other skills, especially speaking.
 Respond physically
- Identification and selection: choose the right picture, spot mistakes in a
picture
- Sequencing: put the pictures into the correct order
- Locating: something on a map or in a picture
- Drawing: draw something to complete a picture; draw or construct from
scratch; label a diagram or mark a route on a map
- Perform: mime, tick words or pictures as you hear
 Respond in writing
- Short answer comprehension questions
- Multiple choice questions (Qs about specifics or Qs about main ideas –
listening for the gist)
- Transferring information into a table, chart or diagram

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- Mark statement as T/F

- Cloze exercise
- Dictation
....

3. Post-Listening
T directs text-related tasks and lead to some activities to develop oral or writing
skills
Post-listening activities
- In groups, reconstruct story sequences
- Further discussion based on the topic of the listening passage
- Role-play
- Paraphrasing
- Write a summary of the listening content
- Write a critique of what was heard
TASK 1:
For questions 1-6, match the instructions with the ways of listening listed A-G.
There is one extra option which you do not need to use.
instructions ways of listening
1. Watch the video to see how the woman looks? A. Listening for gist
How do you think she feels?
2. Listen to each pair of words. Say if they are B. Understanding body language
the same of different?
3. What town does Jim live in? Listen and find C. Listening for individual sounds
out,
4. Listen to a description of the boy and the girl D. Listening for details
and draw them
5. Listen and underline the word in the sentence E. Listening for sentence stress
that the speaker says most strongly
6. Listen to the story and decide what is the best F. Extensive listening
title for it G. Listening for specific information

TASK 2: Match each listening text type (1-8) with appropriate tasks (a-k). There
are often several tasks which would be suitable for each text type.

listening text types listening tasks

1. A news broadcast a. Answering wh-questions(where?
Who? What? Why? Etc)
2. The directions to a person’s home b. Putting a series of pictures in order
3. The description of a missing person c. Ticking the items on a list of names
of people and places
4. An embarrassing personal story d. Drawing on a map
5. A shopping dialogue (sales assistant e. Filling in a grid of table information
and customer)
6. A pop song f. Choosing one of several pictures
7. Recorded entertainment (e.g: movies, g. Taking notes
plays...)
8. A weather forecast h. choosing one of several adjectives
i. writing the exact words

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j. drawing a picture
k. filling in gaps in a transcript

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