Listening

Skills Input
Session
BelenBrunelli | 2021
 Context setting (Lead-in)
Pre-teaching Vocab
Prediction task
Brief OCFB – elicit/board predictions
RECEPTIVE
SKILLS
Listening for Gist
Pair check and OCFB
Listening for Specific info
Pair check and OCFB
FRAMEWORK
Listening for Detailed comprehension
Pair check and OCFB – justification
Follow up - Productive task (S/W)
Listening is more difficult for Ss than reading. Why?

ü Difficulty of hearing word boundaries

ü Difficulty in interpreting clues such as intonation
ü Background noise
ü Trying to / expecting to understand every word
ü Difficulty in interpreting because of absence of paralinguistic clues
ü Lack of previous exposure to range of accents/voices/genres of listening
ü Coping with fillers and ellipsis, e.g. um, er, you know… like…
ü Dealing with unknown lexis / grammar
ü Lack of strategies to ask for clarification/ repetition, etc
ü Coping with the speed
ü Difficulty in determining the type of listening they are supposed to be doing, e.g. gist or
detail?
Are the following good things or not when doing Listening skills lessons (in F2F and online
classrooms)? Why?
1. Listen to the recording before the lesson.
2. Before playing the audio, check the volume and the clarity. Cue the CD.
3. If the CD doesn’t work, give Ss the tape script to complete the tasks.
4. The amount the students have to write should be minimal: true / false statements, multiple-
choice questions, complete a grid, etc.
5. Pre-teach any vocabulary that is essential to do the tasks, and which cannot be worked out by
the students from context.
6. Spend half of your lesson in the lead-in and pre-teach stages.
7. Tell Ss that the audio is really easy or really difficult.
8. Doing a ‘live listening’ (where the teacher is the CD) is a bad idea.
9. Choose long listenings to work with. The longer the audio, the more practice Ss get.
10. Play the recording twice for each task. Then, Ss check answers.
11. If necessary, play the recording or a section of the recording again to clarify incorrect answers.
12. Have freer practice at the end of a listening/reading lesson.
13. Only use recordings where the speaker has a clear British accent.
14. Use the tape script to clarify difficult vocabulary / expand Ss’ vocabulary.