Teaching Listening
1. SKILLS FOR LISTENING
SKILL CLASSIFICATION ADOPTED BY NIHEI (2002) from RICHARDS (1987)
1. Ability to recognize reduced form of words;
2. Ability to distinguish word boundaries;
3. Ability to detect keywords
4. Ability to guess the meanings of words from the contexts in which they occur
5. Ability to recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse;
6. Ability to distinguish between major and minor constituents;
7. Ability to recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations,
participants, goals;
8. Ability to reconstruct or infer situations, goals, participants, procedures;
9. Ability to recognize markers of coherence in discourse, and to detect such relations as the main
idea, supporting idea, given information, new information, generalization, exemplification;
10. Ability to process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections;
11. Ability to make use of facial, paralinguistic, and other clues to work out meanings;
12. Ability to adjust listening strategies to different kinds of listener purposes or goals.
2. Listening to Comprehend and Listening to Acquire the Target Language
LSRW (Listening-Speaking-Reading-Writing) Method
Suggests that student learning a new language will be first taught how to listen. This is because
listening provides much aural input and data and enables the language learner to interact with spoken
communication.
3. Strategies in Teaching Listening
BOTTOM-UP STRATEGIES
Point out familiar words from the oral texts
Identify the meaning of unfamiliar words from texts listened to
Locate the syllable stress from words, and word stress from sentences
Identify rhyming words
Listen for pitch levels and intonation patterns
Determine synonyms and antonyms from texts listened to
Identify key words that occurred in a spoken text
Find which modal verbs occurred in a spoken text
Identify thought groups
Find collocations and idioms
Point out key transitions in a discourse
Identify grammatical relationships between key elements in sentences
Determine the order in which words occurred in an utterance
TOP-DOWN STRATEGIES
Write down as many words and phrases related to the topic they are about to listen to
Get the idea from the texts listened to
Discriminate between emotional reactions
Make predictions and inferences from stories heard
Listen for specific information
Listen for pitch levels and intonation patterns
Determine synonyms and antonyms from texts listened to
Identify key words that occurred in a spoken text
Find which modal verbs occurred in a spoken text
Identify thought groups
Find collocations and idioms
Point out key transitions in a discourse
Identify grammatical relationships between key elements in sentences
Determine the order in which words occurred in an utterance
Write down as many words and phrases related to the topic they are about to listen to
Get the idea from the texts listened to
Discriminate between emotional reactions
Make predictions and inferences from stories heard
Listen for specific information
Sequence information after listening to a literature piece
Follow directions
Share one’s ideas based on the topic heard
Give synthesis from texts heard
Summarize important points
Generate questions form topics heard
Identify conversation themes
Rewrite the listening texts using their own words
Share what the speaker’s purpose is and identify his/her speaking attitude
Ask about and/or describe other expressions they may have heard
Write a journal of their listening activities
THREE KEY STAGES IN TEACHING LISTENING
Before/Pre-listening
Prepares students for both types of processing through activities that require activating their
previous knowledge, making predictions, and revising key vocabulary
During/While listening
Focuses attention on comprehension through activities that require selective listening, listening
for main ideas, or understanding the sequence of events
Post-listening
Requires students to express their opinions on the topic and respond to comprehension. This
stage may also include a detailed analysis of some sections of the text that could not be understood
by the students.
GENERIC FORMAT OF A LISTENING LESSON
⊹ Pre-listening
-identify vocabulary needs
-activate interest and motivation
-put in context
-set the listening purpose
⊹ While-listening
-Provide opportunity for students to re-listen
-Promote guided listening
-Give students ‘thinking space’
⊹ Post-listening
-responding to the text
-analysing linguistic features of the text
-integrating speaking and writing
FREE LISTENING TESTS AND EXERCISES WEBSITES
⊹ TALK ENGLISH- You can access free listening lessons from different levels @
https://www.talkenglish.com/listening/listen.aspx
⊹ ELLLO- Offers over 3,000 free listening activities. Teachers and students can access lessons for
beginner, intermediate, and advanced listeners.
⊹ http://www.ello.org/
⊹ IELTS buddy- For more listening tasks created by native speakers of English, you can also access
the free materials across different levels @ https://www.ieltsbuddy.com/
⊹ ESL Lounge- You can also try this website which offers different kinds of comprehension
exercises after each listening task.
⊹ http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/listening.php
⊹ Breaking News English- On this website, you can listen to interesting news content. This news is
presented at different levels and can be read at different speeds.
⊹ http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html
⊹ TEDEd- You can look for relevant content to use as viewing and listening texts. Each lesson has
pre- and post-listening activities
⊹ http://ed.ted.com/lessons
