The irmpo'trtan€e of listenfing

For many people, speaking on the telephone is one of the scariest things to do in a
foreign l""g"tg. b..tot", *h"n you can't see the speaker, you just have to rely on u'hat
yor, li.r.. Itr a iace-to-face conversation we get clues from the speaker's facial
Lxpressions, gesfi.tres, etc., but when all we have is the sound of the voice, these clues
Teaching aren't there to help us.
listening 1 Many students feel the same about listening in classroomsl But listening is a rntal ski-Il in
langoage, and in language learning it also helps students ACQL.IIRE (and lrr,nt':) - 315
"rry
woRDS, LANGI.JAGE C [-ll-'it l<s, GRITMIVIAR and pnotrt tll''tciATloh!.

Tyopes o,f flistenning

Most of the listening that students do happens when their teacher is talking. This kind of
coMpqEptEhtstBlr lrupur
*i.35 is very usefui for language AcQl,llslTloh!. However, there are
two other main sources of listening input.
. We use when vre want our students to hear dialogues and
RECORDED n-lsTEN![t{G

monologues from counsraoors €:8fl, news broadcasts, radio Programmes' PODCASTS,

phone messages, film announcements, etc.
o Recorded listening TRAcrG are great for letting students hear different voices and
different accents. They are extremely useful because students can listen to them again
and again - and they will always hear the same thing.
n Recorded listening gives students potential access to the w'hole English-speaking world.
. Nthough rve hear recorded listening in real life (in phone messages, automated
information on company phones, on the radio, etc.), it sometimes seems unnarural to
have a class of 30 people all listening to the same audio track at the same time,
especially since speaker*listener interaction is not possible.
c We use LIVE LtsTENtNG when a speaker (the teacher or some other visitor to the
classroom) is in the same room as tfie students.
Live listening includesGEnIRES 43,2 such as lectures, conversations between two

teachers (which the srudents watch and listen to), face-to-face interviews, readings
from boola, poetr/r drama, etc.
Live listening works because the students can see who is talking, observe their body
language and their facial expressions and, sometimes, interact with the speakers.
When the speakers are in front of other people, they often speak differently from the
way they speak in front of a microphone'

Live listening is more likely to expose students to speech phenomena such as

hesitations, repetitions, interruptions, etc. than some recorded listening does
(especially in some coURSEBoot< DIALoGI.JEs). It is important for students to experience
speech phenomena.

\44ren students listen to audio

tracks (or a iive speaker) in the
classroom - and do activities and
exercises - we call this titretlslvr
i-tsTEht{t{c. When they listen
outside the classroom, often by
themselves and for pleasure, u'e
rt t'
c2ll rhrs :){:ili3lr'E
-----. L::-!1.:lli 3.

34
 Teaching listening 1

=ih
Aurali,o al,cviees anel lvlr,o uses c,

A wide range of ;,.i.;t!i ):)'ia:i can be used for recorded listening.

. ln some classrooms around the world teachers stili use cassette recorders. These are
extremely versatile, especially if they have counters, which can help you find where
you are on the cassette. Rewitzd, fast fonlnrd, play and stlp arc easy to use. However,
cassette machines are rapidly disappearing as newer devices take their place.
. Many teachers use CD and DVD players. These are easy to use when they have track
numbers, but can sometimes be more difficult (than cassette recorders) for fast
forwarding and rewinding within a track.
. Many teachers play audio (or vtoeo ;s,62) from computers or the interactive
whiteboard (wo) +:35. This is ideal since by using sliderswirh a mouse, a pen or
your finger it is easy to find your place on the track or control the volume.
. Students can listen to recorded audio in LANGUAGE LABoRATORIES. Sometimes the whole
class listens to the same thing at the same time, but at other times we can have
different students listen to different audio tracks. Language laboratories are now
much less common than they once were.
. Many students have their own listening devices. These can be used for lNIDtvlDl.,,AL
woRK *)(67 in lessons. The students can all download the same track, or listen to
different tracLrs for JTGsAW LrsrFI\nNtG (where each student listens to paft of a text so that,
by sharing what they have heard, they can reconstruct a story or a report).
n When we use audio devices it is vitally important to try them out before we go into
class so that we know how to find the track we are looking for and so that we don't
waste time and look unprofessional.
n Although teachers usually control the audio device, we can sometimes let our students
be the controllers, too.
o We can let the students become 'remote controllers'. They can tell a live speaker to
rewind or fast forward.
stop, paase,

ffiow oftera shoufid studemts Efistenn?

There is disagreement, sometimes, about how many times students should listen to the
same thing, whether recorded audio or live listening.
. In real life, students often only listen to something once and they need to practise
that skill. We can make sure that our students are given 'one-listening' tasks to help
them get used to this. These are often Grsr (LtsrENrNG FoR GENERAL uNDERS-IANDTNG) or
scANNtt\G-ty?e tasks (listening for specific information) +54.

' A language class is not, however, like the outside-the-class real world. In intensive
listening, we want to give our sfudents chances to listen more than once so that they
get the maximum benefit from what they are hearing. When they listen for the second
or third time, they can focus on different things, such as sounds, intonation or stress
or the way speakers use certain words or grammar.

135
 Teaching
listening 2

Pncdictfie;m

There is almost no limit to what can be done with !?ECoRDED AuDlo or l-lvE I-NSTEruING 4'6rCI].
However, it is important to give the students a chance to PFlEDlcT what they are going to
hear. This will allow them to get ready and to remember what they already know about
the topic and rhe listening genre that is coming. M/e call this knowledge scl-lEt/{AjlA.

Befon"e fifistenfimg

There are many things that we can do before the srudents actlally listen to the speaker
or the audio track:
. The students can look at the questions which accompany an audio recording (or a live
listening session). They have to predict u'hat the answers will be.
. The srudents see a picture or pictures related to the sllt-llrloN or topic of the listening
and they have to predict what they u'ill hear.
. We can give the students words or phrases from the audio - perhaps in the lesson
before - and ask them to guess u'hat it will be about.

' We can give the students a form, telephone message pad or chart v'hich they are
going to filI in rryhen they listen to the audio. They use this to predict what kind of
information they will hear on the audio before they listen to it.
u If u'e can bring a visitor to the lesson to speak to tlie srudents, we can tell the srudents
the general :c,:",.: that the visitor is going to talk aboul They then have to think of
quesrions to ask the risitor.
* The srudents are told the topic they are going to hear about. Thev have to do some
research (or forrn :, :: ::. - - : : - ,- .. ) about the topic. They can sav u'hat tiev know
about d're topic, u'hat they filttp tiey knou', and u'hat they rvould iike to knorv.
o from the audio recording and ask the srudents to teli us
\Are can piar,z 2 r1-ro., extract
an1'thing they heard - and v,hat they $tinp about the speaker(s). Thel'snn predict
s'hat is coming next.

36
 l:l:IiLe li:lsril-c-?

n lVe can plav the whole recording but teli the students not to listen for meaning.
Instead, we ask them to tell us about any other information they have understood: the
location, relationships between the speakers, etc. Using this, they predict the content
of what they will hear when they listen for a second time.

" Should we p?:-T:ACii ij'cc,q3:il,4,lY before the srudents listen? If we don't, there is a
chance that they will not understand enough. If we do, howeveq they may
concenffate too much on the words we have taught and so not hear all the other
words that are rushing past. A sensible compromise is to Pre-teach only that
vocabulary which is absolutely necessary for the topic - or vocabulary which is
impossible to g'uess from the ctrntext.

Lfistemfimg tasff<s

n If we are organising live listening, we can teach the students to be good listeners.
They do this by showing their agreement or disagreement, and by asking questions
when something is not clear.

' We can give the students a live listening lecture. Every minute or two we can stop and
let pairs or groups of snrdents reconstruct what we have said before moving on to the
next stage ofour talk.
. Each student can be given a bingo card with, say, 12 words from a listening text on it.
Each card has different words. The students cross out their words when tley hear
them. \44ro crosses out all their words first?
u We can choose a text to read to the class. We take some (not all) the words from the
text and arrange them in random order (or alphabetically) on the board. Each student
then has to choose one of the words, whichever one they like. They can talk to their
neighbour to make sure that they haven't both chosen tlte same one. We then divide
the class into rwo teams and get all the students to stand up. We read the text aloud
and each student can only sit down when they hear their word. Which team sits
down first? ffi
o We can ask different srudents to read different texts aloud (or tell different stories)
all at the same time. It will be very noisy! Other students have to try to listen to just
one of the speakers and write down what they say. How much can they hear and
understand? This st-rounrm DtcrATtoN =*48 is a way of making students feel less
arurious about listening in general ffi.
o We can play an audio track (or tell a story), but keep stopping. Each time, the students
have to say what they think is going to happen next. Then we continue and they see if
their predictions are right.

' The students can listen to a series of vox pop (mini) interrriews on a topic, such as
favourite hobbies. They have to match the speakers to different hobbies (football,
reading books, playing chess, going to t}re cinema, playing music, etc.).

" The students listen to a htEWS Et?oADcAsT and have to list the five topics they hear.
. The students listen to a picture description and have to choose which one of four
pictures is being talked about.
o The students listen and put a sequence of pictures in the right order.

' The students listen to an audio track and identifi' some differences between what they
hear and a wriften version of the same content.
u The students listen to phone messages. They have to fill in phone message pads.

" The students listen to an inrerview or a conversation and have to fiIl in a form, chart
or graph rvith the information they hear.

137
 Teaching
listening 3

When the sudents have listened to a live speaker or an audio recording for the first time,
we can ask them to listen again and do a variety oftasks.
, W-e can ask them to [sten again to try to identifit more detailed information, such as
names, facts, numbers, times and dates.
. We can ask them to listen again and transfer the information in the audio recording
(or what a live speaker has told them) to a different genre. For example, if they hear a

story they have to rewrite it as a newspaper article.

' \Alhen the students hear a t,lrws BROADCAST or a story we can ask them to retell it as if
they were one of the people in it.
o Students canact out the roles ofpeopie from the original audio recording.
o Students have to retell what they have just heard, making one (or more) mistake(s).
Can their colleagues find the mistake(s)?

" Like real filmmakers, the students have to draddesign sToRVBoARDs showing the
scene and dre camera angle for the speakers they have just heard. They film the scene
with video cameras or their mobile phones -ii'3i7'.

Lfistemfi mg agarEfl : [amguage matters

We can also ask students to listen (again) in order to smdy language.

' Students are given a section of the written TRt,!.lsclrlPT with blanks in it. They have to
complete the blanks and then listen again to check if they vrere correct.

' We give the students a 'lLroi?l,1sl-IEET with excerpts from the listening. They do a
language exercise. They then have to use the language in sentences of their own.
n The students look at a written transcript of what they have just heard. They rev'rite a
section so that any granmatical i,lis"r.t::s, hesitations and other speech phenomena are
cleaned up. \4/ith the teacher, they discuss the differences between speaking and
wrltlng - - :.
o The teacher and the snrdents iiit..! - the Iistening for interesdng language.
o \\4ren the students have listened to a dialogue, the teacher displal's it on the;:1:.:.
The students read it aloud. Then the teacher starts to remove u'ords and phrases one
by one. Each time, the students have to continue speaking the dialogue. By the end of
this :::,..i!:. : : : ,i:-: !- I actir.iqz, they can do the u-hole tling from memory

38
 I:l:lri le li:!sri l-c- -r

Ex'eensfive ilfistenfing

If srudents really want to improve their English (especially their l:C;',; 'l: j,j::::'; i -:?-1"
and speaking ;-'.=',:37), they should listen to as much spoken English as possible'
e !,{tit'tSlV: L::=:ii:i!-: means listening for pleasure, usually outside the classroom.
Most audio material can be heard on CDs, MP3 players or online via i3i!lPU;:Rs and
j\noBtL: D:i.itcES.

o Extensive listening is most successful if the students choose what roPlcs they want to
listen to and the level they w.-,:lt to listen (or feei comfortable listening) at.
n We can encourage our sfudents to listen extensively by talking about the advantages
of listening in this way and showing them where they can find material.
n We can ask our students to keep a record of what they have listened to, including
language that they have found interesting or puzzling. We can ask them to
recommend good listening material to other members of the class.
o Students can download popcnsrs :)87from English-language-learning sites (we can
help them find sites like these with a simple internet search), from news organisations,
radio programmes and any other podcast oudet.
, Students can listen to English-speaking radio online.
n Students can access the wide range of freely available vlDEo ct-tPs on sites such as
YouTitbe, Vimeo and Videojug.

' Students can listen to audio recordings of books, including GI?ADED [?E/\DEtts *54, and
audio material (although some teachers prefer them not to do this before
co{-.tx?sEnoot(
the lesson because it spoils the 'surprise' of coursebook-based lessons).

Usumg vfideo

vloro is an extremely useful resource for listening, especially now that we can share
F[N-M ct-tps on sites such as YouTube and Wmeo. But students can also watch video clips

from DVDS, coMpt-irrnss or fli{onlt-E DEVlcEs and twBs, for example -+85.
. We can play the students a video clip and then stop it so that they have to guess what
happens next. They can do this in PATRS or Gl?ollFS. When tley have discussed their
predictions, we show them the end of the video.
. If we are using a D\D, we can fast forward a video clip. Students then discuss what
they have seen and try to work out what happened and what the people in the video
said. Then we play the video clip at normal speed.
o We can play a video clip with the sound turned down. The students have to guess
what the people are saying and/ ot what background sounds they will hear.

' We can play a video clip so that the students hear the sound but don't see the picture.
They have to say where the speakers/participants are and what is going on.
o We can let the students watch a video clip without sould. They do this two or three
times. Then they have to invent their own conversations and speak along with the
people in the video clip. 'Doubling'like this can be very fui'ny.
r Students are given a list of the V:lrS -';..r (or i.tOUr\jS -=,'lf, etc.) from avideo clip.
They have to watch the clip and put them in the right order.
@ After the students have watched a video clip for the first or second time, we can give
them the transcript (if it is short enough) with :li.irs. They have to try to :i!-- :ir the
blanl<s before they watch again.

139