Instructor: Nguyen Thu Hien

ULIS, VNU
Contents
 Components of listening skill
 Reasons for teaching listening
 Types of listening
 Principles of teaching listening
 Stages of a listening lesson

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Discuss
 What is the difference between listening in the
real world and in the classroom as to:
 Why we listen?
 What we listen?
 When we listen?
 How we listen?
 What does listening involve?
 Does listening need to be taught? If students are
taught to speak, doesn’t it automatically follow
that they will learn how to listen?

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 Listening in the real world
• We listen when there is an information gap, i.e. when we
want some information that we don’t have
• We listen to what interests us
• We listen for different purposes different types of
listening:
– Listening for a general understanding,
– Listening for some specific information that we are
seeking
– Listening for the details of a story (Listening for detailed
information)
 Listening in the real world
• We make use of both verbal (i.e. discourse markers, intonation)
and non-verbal (facial expression, gestures, standing position)
clues to understand our interlocutors.

• We can ask for repetition, clarification and explanation.

• We often predict before we listen and as we listen.

• We may talk to people of different backgrounds and cultures

who have different accents.
What is listening?

 Listening is the ability to identify and

understand what others are saying. This
involves understanding a speaker’s accent or
pronunciation, his/her grammar and his/her
vocabulary, and grasping his/her meaning
(Goh, 2002)

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 What is listening?
 Listening consists of a series of micro-skills:
 Predicting what people are going to talk about
 Guessing unknown vocab without panicking
 Using one’s own knowledge to help one understand
 Identify relevant points; rejecting irrelevant information
 Retaining relevant points (note-taking; summarising)
 Recognising discourse markers (well, the thing is, etc.)
 Recognising cohesive devices (such as, which, etc.)
 Understanding different intonation patterns, stress
 Understanding inferred information (attitude, intention)
(Willis, 1981)
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Why teach listening?
 Listening is an important skill:
 Prepare students for real world listening
 Let them hear a variety of accents
 Use taped materials apart from the teacher such as
Broadcast news, announcement, advertisement, etc.
 Teach them effective listening strategies

 Help students acquire the language subconsciously

 Expose students to the target language (e.g., use of
recorded materials)
 Sts get information not only about vocabulary and
structure but also about pronunciation, rhythm,
intonation, pitch and stress
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Types of listening

Question to consider?
Do you listen to someone give instruction (e.g.,
how to make a drink) and listen to radio daily
news in exactly the same way?

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 Types of listening
 Listening for general understanding
 e.g., listening to news headlines

 Listening for specific information

 e.g., listening for gold price
 Listening for detailed information
 e.g., listening to news headlines

 Predicting and guessing

 e.g., listening to a lecture and predict the content of the
next part
 Interpreting
 e.g., listening to a friend giving comments on
somebody’s fashion and infer his attitude towards
that person
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Principles of teaching listening
 Expose students to different types of listening
 Teach a variety of tasks
 Train students to listen
 The tape recorder is as just important as the tape
 Preparation is vital
 Once will not be enough
 Students should be encouraged to respond to the
content, not just the language
 Different stages require different tasks
 Listening tasks should teach students to listen, not
test their listening ability
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Providing Top-Down and Bottom-Up
Listening Practice
 Top-down activities
 comprehension questions
 predicting
 listing
 listening practice
 Bottom-up exercises
 pronunciation
 grammar, and
 vocabulary
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Providing Top-Down and Bottom-Up
Listening Practice
 Top-down skills
 listening for gist, main ideas, topic, and setting of the
text
 listening for specific information
 sequencing the information
 prediction
 guessing
 inferencing

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Providing Top-Down and Bottom-Up
Listening Practice
 Bottom-up skills
 distinguish individual sounds, word boundaries, and
stressed syllables
 identify thought groups
 listen for intonation patterns in utterances
 identify grammatical forms and functions
 recognize contractions and connected speech
 recognize linking words

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Stages of a listening lesson
 Pre-Listening stage
 While-listening stage
 Post-listening stage

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Pre-listening stage
 This stage prepares Ss for the listening tasks:
 Gets Ss to think about the topic or situation
 Gets Ss to relate to what they already know
 Arouse their interest
 Teaching new words*** (if these words are essential to
understanding the material)
*** this is not a vocab lesson, you should develop passive
knowledge rather than getting sts to use the vocab to
communicate)
 Goals:
 Motivation
 Contextualization
 Preparation

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Examples of pre-tasks
 Introducing general content of the listening passage
 Making use of pictures (if any) to present new
vocabulary
 Presenting more words/phrases from the tapescripts
 Getting Ss to pronounce words/phrases carefully
 Reviewing already-presented grammatical patterns
 Presenting new grammatical patterns (if any)
 Asking Ss to predict content of the listening
 Etc,

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While-listening stage
 This stage helps Ss to listen better, more accurately,
thoroughly through carefully designed
comprehension tasks
 What should the teacher do at this stage?
 Giving clear instructions for the task
 Playing the tape once (non-stop) for Ss to get the
general content of the listening
 Providing easier activities for slower classes
 Moving from simpler tasks to more complicated ones
 Playing the tape again (non-stop or with pauses)
 Breaking long tapescripts into sections
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While-listening stage
 What if Ss donot understand the listening tape?
 Introduce interview questions
 Questions introduced and Ss role-play the interview
 Use “jigsaw listening”
 Different groups are given bits of the tapescript

 One task only

 Non-demanding tasks can be assigned (such as deciding the
age, sex, status of the speaker or setting of the listening)
 Use the tapescript
 It can be cut into bits to be put in the right order

 For Ss to look at before, during or after they listen

 It can have words or phrases blanked out

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Post-listening stage (p.230)
 This stage helps Ss take the information in the
while-stage and to do something meaningful with it:
 Two common forms of tasks:
 Reaction to the text
 Discussion as a response to what Ss have heard
 Agee/disagree/believe?

 Discussion using the information Ss have heard

 Analysis of the language

 Verb forms

 Vocabulary

 Collocations/fixed expressions/idioms

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Notes
 True-False questions and comprehension
questions
 Once is not sufficient
 Checking correct answers is very important
 Pauses and guides sts to listen to the words and
phrases that provide them the answers.

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Discussion
 Tiếng Anh 10
 Unit 2: Your body and you
 C. Listening
 Before you listen/Pre-listening

 While you listen/While-listening

 Task 1

 Task 2

 Task 3

 After you listen/Post-listening

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Audio script
The Healthy Eating Pyramid is a simple, reliable guide to choosing a
healthy diet. Its foundation is daily exercise and weight control, since
these two related elements strongly influence your chances of staying
healthy. The Healthy Eating Pyramid builds from there, showing that
you should eat more foods from the bottom part of the pyramid
(vegetables, whole grains) and fewer from the top (red meat, refined
grains, potatoes, sugary drinks, and salt). When it’s dining time, fill
half your plate with vegetables, the more varied the better, and fruits.
Save a quarter of your plate for whole grains. Fish, poultry, beans, or
nuts, can make up the rest. Healthy oils like olive and canola are
advised in cooking, on salad, and at the table. Complete your meal
with a cup of water, or if you like, tea or coffee with little or no sugar.
Staying active is half of the secret to weight control, the other half is a
healthy diet that meets your calorie needs – so be sure you choose a
plate that is not too large.
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Discussion
 Tiếng Anh 10
 Unit 3: Music
 C. Listening
 Before you listen/Pre-listening

 While you listen/While-listening

 Task 1

 Task 2

 Task 3

 After you listen/Post-listening

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 Audio script
 Anna: What are you listening to, Nam?
 Nam: ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ by Abba.
 Anna: Can you sing the song?
 Nam: Sure. Most Vietnamese teenagers can sing it.
 Anna: Really? How nice! What is your favourite kind of music, Nam?
 Nam: Inspirational.
 Anna: Could you give me the names of some inspirational songs you
like?
 Nam: ‘‘Tien Quan Ca’’ by Van Cao, ‘‘Noi Vong Tay Lon’’ by Trinh Cong
Son, ‘‘Circle of Life’’ by Elton John and Tim Rice, and ‘‘We Are the World’’
by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.
 Anna: Why do you like these songs?
 Nam: Because they inspire me, and I can learn lessons about things
such as patriotism, charity, hope, and love.
 Anna: Incredible! It seems you know a lot of English songs.
 Nam: Thank you. How about you? What are your favourite types of
music?
 Anna: Well, like most American teenagers, I like hip-hop or rap.
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