Reader Response #4

Teaching Listening
Murtaza Malekzada

Listening is the most fundamental component of communication skills. Listening is not something
that just happens, listening is an active process in which a conscious decision is made to listen to
and understand the messages of the speaker. For many students, listening is a complex task that
teachers require. However, many students are poor listeners, even in everyday life. They tend
to listen and think about something else at the same time, rather than carefully attending to
what the other person have said. According to Harmer (2007) you can make your listening
easier to comprehend by observing many points specially listening activities, using Audio
and video, and storytelling. And in the following paragraphs I am going to explain my
reflection on each of them.

The first point I noticed is listening activities. According to Harmer (2007) there are many
types of listening activities. Those that do not require learners to produce language in
response are easier than those that do. I strongly agree with this point because this step helps
the the students determine what they will listen about. Students can be asked to physically
respond to a command (for example, "please open the door"), as a teacher I can select an
appropriate picture or object, circle the correct letter or word on a worksheet, draw a route on
a map, or fill in a chart as the students listen. It is more difficult to repeat back what was
heard, translate into the native language, take notes, make an outline, or answer
comprehension questions. To add more challenge, learners can continue a story text, solve a
problem, perform a similar task with a classmate after listening to a model (for example,
order a cake from a bakery), or participate in real-time conversation. I agree with this point
because it helps students get a better understanding of the importance of teaching listening
and how listening is immediately related to speaking. To help my students become effective
communicators, I need to make an explicit connection between listening and speaking
through integrating skills in our daily teaching practice.

The the second point I noticed is the using of video and audio in teaching listening process.
According to Harmer (2007) the videos clips for teaching listening are very useful. The video
and audio should be interesting and appropriate for your class level. I completely agree with
this point this is because, I want to create a meaningful and memorable learning experience for
them as well to stimulate their participation in the listening activity conducted. According to
Harmer (2007) we should select video materials according to the level and interest of our
students. I agree because if we provide it too difficult or too easy, the students will not be
motivated and it may fail to engage them. As a teacher I can use video in my teaching in
variety ways. For instance, I can play a video clip with the sound off and ask students to
make predictions about what dialog is taking place. Then I play it again with sound and
discuss why they were right or wrong in their predictions. I can also play the sound without
the video first, and show the video after students have guessed what is going on. Refreshing
my understanding of the best structure for teaching listening skill has been very helpful. I felt
challenged by the quizzes at the end of various sections, but they reinforced the concepts and
points made. I felt the concept of listening for specific detail might have been clearer. I
absolutely agree because this method also makes me think carefully about my teaching
listening.
The third point I noticed in “Teaching listening” is storytelling. According to Harmer (2007)
when students listen to people teilling stories, there are a number of things we can have them
do. According to some, there is no such thing as “Perfect Strategy” but for me, every strategy
is perfect and useful, it’s just a matter of choosing what strategy will best suit a particular
topic, the kind and level of learners and their environment. In teaching listening, I believe that
it is important for the learners especially in the elementary level to be well motivated,
activated and be involved in the lesson. That’s why I consider the use of Total Physical
Response (TPR) as the best lesson presented in our class. TPR as an approach to teaching a
second language is based, first and foremost, on listening and this is linked to physical
actions which are designed to reinforce comprehension of particular basic items. In the
context of teaching listening in the elementary level, it is so hard for the teacher to allow
his/her pupil to easily learn the language, but through the use of TPR, the pupils gradually
understand the language in a holistic way. Learning is fun and enjoyable. It is also a good
tool for learning vocabulary. It resembles the way children acquire their first language as they
listen, watch and imitate long before they start speaking themselves. It follows the principle
of learning by doing, and I know techniques would benefit the students.

Reference:
Harmer, J. (2007). Teaching listening. How to teach English (pp. 133-145). Edinburgh:
Pearson Education Limited.