Teaching Listening Part Two

The Listening Lesson : Part Two: 

The Listening Lesson : Part Two Planning the Listening Lesson

Planning a typical listening lesson: 

Planning a typical listening lesson Move from top-down processing towards bottom-up processing – but you don’t always have to get all the way Move from general understanding to detailed understanding - but you don’t always have to get all the way Move from focus on ideas to focus on language – but you don’t always have to get all the way

You don’t have to get all the way …: 

You don’t have to get all the way … But if you never get all the way … Learners may be demotivated You won’t be able to develop bottom up processing skills

Stages of the listening lesson: 

Stages of the listening lesson Pre-teaching of any essential non-inferable items Activation of schemata Listening for gist Listening for specific detail Listening for language – may be language systems consolidation, or bottom-up processing skill development

Pre-teaching …: 

Pre-teaching … Will usually be lexis Could be done in a previous lesson or incorporated into homework exercises Could be done eg… - using visuals - by building the words into contexts in which they are inferable - using dictionaries – in activities which develop dictionary skills at the same time

Activation of schemata: 

Activation of schemata what do you know about X, prediction activities, vocabulary warm-ups (activation and/or feed-in) etc

Think about it ..: 

Think about it .. When might you decide … not to activate/pre-teach the vocabulary that came up in the text not to do any sort of warm-up/activation activity at all

Listening for Gist : 

Listening for Gist How do you decide what the gist of a text is? Why might one person’s gist be different from another’s ? How can you accommodate that in the classroom?

Is Gist Enough ???: 

Is Gist Enough ??? When might you want to stop after the gist stage and not go on to the next steps? Stopping after the gist stage can be dangerous. Why? How do you get round the problem?

Listening for specific detail – intensive listening: 

Listening for specific detail – intensive listening Three reasons why students (and native speakers) might not get everything the first time … Retention – ie they understood it when they heard it but didn’t remember it afterwards Top-down processing problems– eg understanding the words but not the implications Bottom-up processing problems (ie linguistic problems) – eg unknown words, structures, intonation, or phonological “blurring”

Solutions for this Stage: 

Solutions for this Stage Retention - Pre-set task with focus questions – allow students to take notes Top-down processing problems– elicitation questions (prepared or ad hoc), and more, focused, work on this area Bottom-up processing problems – if you know students won’t understand a word, pre-teach it or don’t set a question that necessitates its comprehension. Otherwise you’re just setting them up to fail.

What if they don’t understand?: 

What if they don’t understand? If you just give the correct answer it helps no-one – students need to hear it for themselves – and is demotivating : Ss know they were wrong but not why. Elicit answers from all the students and put them on the board – right and wrong – with no confirmation or comment. If there’s a mix of right and wrong answers : replay the recording stopping just before the phrase which gives each answer, and tell the Ss they’re now going to hear the answer to question X. Remind them of the alternative answers on the board and ask them to listen again to decide which is correct. Often the people who got it wrong will now “hear” the correct answer.

What if they don’t understand?: 

What if they don’t understand? If they don’t, or if everyone’s answers to a particular question were wrong, after replaying the phrase on the recording, repeat it yourself several times. Each time slow down slightly until they get it. Then go on repeating, this time gradually speeding up. When you’re back at normal speed, focus on whatever feature it was that blocked their comprehension – often features of connected speech. Analyse it on the board.

Listening for Language : focus on language systems: 

Listening for Language : focus on language systems Consolidation of previously taught language items Eg – gap fills : predict then listen or listen and complete Presentation of Language : Noticing activities with tapescript. Useful for … - recycling structures/lexis - initial presentation if comprehension of the items was not essential at earlier stages

Listening for Language : Language skills development: 

Listening for Language : Language skills development Focus on bottom-up processing – eg phonological features of connected speech : gapped tapescript - predict and listen to compare

After using the tapescript …: 

After using the tapescript … End with a final listening without the tapescript, so students can “hear” the words they now understand.

Slide17: 

O% comprehension Activation of schemata Gist listening Detailed Listening Listening for Language 100% comprehension

A recap - listening texts could be used to …: 

A recap - listening texts could be used to … Consolidate structure, function or lexis – but this is a language systems focus, not a skills focus Give general listening practice – which presumes either that the listening subskills have previously been taught or that they don’t need to be. Exposure of this kind is necessary but not sufficient? Develop listening skills and coping strategies – the T needs a realistic understanding of the listening process. NB – these may be both top-down or bottom-up processing skills Test listening competence NB : a text may be used to reach more than one objective