TEACHING LISTENING

• Listening is a familiar part of our everyday experience.

• Most people spend a large part of their working hours

listening, with varying degrees of attention to language and
other stimuli.

• However, despite the importance of listening it is not given

the attention it deserves in the classroom.
• Students are not trained to listen attentively since it is
assumed that listening skills will just develop as a matter of
course.
• Due to inability to listen proficiently, communication
breakdown in oral interaction occurs.
• It is therefore, important that listening skills be taught to
prepare students for effective functioning outside the
classroom.
Why Listen?

1. To be able to engage in social rituals.

2. To get information.
3. To be able to respond to controls.
4. To respond to feelings.
5. To enjoy.
What do we teach when we teach listening?

• We teach not only English but we need to teach

how it is used.

• Teach both the language system (grammar &

vocabulary, etc) and the use of the language
system (the skills of language use)
 The Listening Skills

Bottom up listening skills or bottom up processing refers to the

decoding process, the direct decoding of language into
meaningful units, from sound waves through the air, in
through our ears and into our brain where meaning is
decoded.

Top down processing refers to how we use our word

knowledge to attribute meaning to language input.
What Listening Teachers Need to do

• Give students practice in listening which ask students to

interpret and understand meaning. They need practice in
listening for meaning and instruction about how to do this.

• “Practice makes perfect plus a little grammar” approach is

still common.
 Integrating metacognitive strategies

Before listening: Plan for the listening task

– Set a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for
– Decide if more linguistics or background knowledge is needed
– Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to
the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words
&phrases)
Sample pre-listening activities:

• looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs

• reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures
• reading something relevant
• constructing semantic webs ( a graphic arrangement of
concepts or words showing how they are related)
• predicting the content of the listening text
• doing guided practice
During/while listening: Monitor comprehension

– Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses

– Decide what is and is not important to understand
– Listen/view again to check comprehension
Sample during/while listening activities:

• Listening with visuals

• Filling in graphs and charts
• Following a route on a map
• Checking off items in a list
• Listening for the gist
• Searching for specific clues to meaning
• Completing cloze (fill-in) exercises
After listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategy
use

– Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area

– Evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of
listening tasks
– Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose
and for the task
– Modify strategies if necessary
Using authentic materials and situations
 One-Way Communication

Materials:
– Radio and television program
– Public address announcement (airports, train/bus
stations, stores)
– Speeches and lectures
– Telephone customer service recordings
Procedure:
• Help students identify the listening goal
• Help students outline predictable sequences in
which information may be presented
• Help students identify key words/phrases to listen
for
 Two-Way Communication

• The listener focuses on the speaker’s meaning

rather then the speaker’s language
Some useful techniques to use when teaching
listening:
Pre-listening (purpose must be given at this stage)

• Tell your students they shouldn’t worry that they have to understand
every word they hear. Not every word is important!!
• If possible, check for any words that your students may not know.
• Brainstorm student’s ideas on the topic they are going to listen to.
This will help them focus.
• Don’t choose a listening that is too long. If necessary, stop the
recording at certain points and review what students have understood
so far.
While listening

• As a general principle, try to play the recording once for overall

comprehension. Then play the recording again for specific details.
• Tell students to note any dates, people, or places for specific details.
• Divide students into groups and give each group a different listening
task. (e.g. different questions). Then swap their answers and have
students listen again and check their classmates’ answers.
• Don’t be afraid to repeat the recording….especially the parts students
have most trouble understanding
Post-listening

• Tell students to compare their notes and discuss what they

understood in pairs or small groups.
• Tell pairs to write a summary of the main points. Then have them
compare their summaries and check if they covered all the main
points.
• Play the recording again and tell students to call out “Stop!” when
they hear the answers they were listening for.
• Tell students to make a list in their notebook of any new vocabulary
they feel is useful.
Listening Strategies
Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into
background knowledge of the topic. The strategies include:
• Listening for the main idea
• Predicting
• Drawing inferences
• Summarizing
Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language
in the message.

The strategies include:

• Listening for specific details
• Recognizing cognates
• Recognizing word-order patterns
Listening for Meaning

• To extract meaning from a listening text, students need to follow four

basic steps:
• Figure out the purpose for listening.
• Attend to the parts of the listening input that are relevant to the
identified purpose and ignore the rest. (focus is identified..)
• Select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the
listening task and use them flexibly & interactively
• Check comprehension wile listening and when the listening task is
over.
Here are some classroom activities. Decide which are listening activities
and which are not.

• Learners respond orally to a written exercise.

• Learners complete a task while listening to a taped conversation.
• The teacher explains some special arrangement for the following
week’s lesson.
• A learner asks the teacher a question about the meaning of a word.
• The teacher conducts a drill with the class.
• A learner formulates a sentence silently before uttering it.
• Two learners carry out a pair work activity.
• The teacher tells a story.
• The teacher converses with the class before the lesson starts.
• The class is engaged in a pronunciation exercise focusing on two
contrasting sounds.
The Listening Process (Devito, 1997)
 
 THE LISTENING PROCESS

2. Understanding
Making sense of what was said
(deciphering)

1. Receiving 3. Remembering
Hearing Recalling
Attending Retaining

5. Responding 4. Evaluating
Answering Judging worth
Giving feedback Critical review
of what was said
How People Listen
 
• Listening can be classified into several types
depending on how you pay attention to what is
being said or heard.
1. Marginal/passive listening – also called hearing, the listener hears
the sounds, often in the background but simply ignores them because
he or she is engrossed in another task.

2. Attentive listening – the listener focuses attention and shows

interest in what is being said. He or she takes note of the specifics
and how they relate to the main points made by the speaker.
3. Critical/analytical listening – in this type of listening one has to
decide on the truth of ideas, pass judgment on claims made and
make decisions on whether to accept what she/he hears, reject
it or take it with a grain of salt.

4. Appreciative listening - this type of listening gives the listener

pleasure maybe from the humor, or the blending of voices in
choric arrangements.
The TQLR Technique
Text about the Pains of Anger

1. Tuning in
• You are going to listen to a passage entitled “The
Pains of Anger”.
• What words can you think of in relation to anger?
Anger
TEXT:

THE PAINS OF ANGER

Anger causes pain. It is usually expressed in hurting comments, cutting remarks, and
sharp retorts. Many have been wounded by words or actions that have sprung from
a heart filled with wrath. But the greatest pain is felt by the one who is overcome
with anger.
One day as Leonardo da Vinci was painting “The Last Supper”, he became mad with a
certain man. His temper flared and he lashed at him with stinging words. Resuming
his work, he began to brush some delicate lines on the face of Jesus. But he was
so upset that he could not continue.
He laid down his tools and went to look for the man to ask for forgiveness. Only after he
apologized could Leonardo go back and complete the face of Christ.
Like da Vinci we are sometimes prevented from doing work effectively because of
unresolved anger. We can overcome it by being reconciled to the one we have
offended. His forgiveness will heal and relieve us from the pains of anger.
2. Generating Questions

• What questions come to your mind as you read the title?

• Possible questions try to elicit different question types.

• How does anger cause pain?
• Who will feel the pain more, the angry person or the
person he is angry with?
• Is it just physical pain? Why and why not?
• Do you think this is true in real life?
• Can something be done about it?
3. Listening to the text

• As the students listen, ask them to check the

questions that are answered. It might be pointed out
that all of the above questions were answered in the
text although for some of them, the answers will
have to be inferred.
4. Responding to what is heard

• Ask the students to give their answers to the questions

raised of these may be deducted from the text. Here are
the responses to the questions cited earlier.

• It upsets you
• The person who is angry
• No, it is mental and emotional as well
• Yes, it is, as shown in the incident about da Vinci
• Yes, something can be done about it. The angry person
can reach out to the person he is angry with.
End of the lecture
ACTIVITY:

Think of two listening activities. Write their

target lesson, objectives and mechanics.
Use one whole sheet of paper.