STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING COMPREHENSION SKILLS – LISTENING

COMPREHENSION

We all know the importance of making sure our students are comprehending

what they are reading, but why does it seem so difficult sometimes?  With first

graders, so much focus is put on “learning to read” at the beginning of the year.   As

the year progresses and students become more fluent readers, the shift needs to

move from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”  Many components need to go

into creating this shift in reading.  So, how can we make sure that our students are

comprehending what they are reading?

I’m starting a new series on the blog over the next couple of weeks focusing

on reading comprehension.  I am hoping to share some strategies that can be

implemented right away into your classrooms to help your students increase their

comprehension skills.  Today, we are discussing the importance of listening

comprehension.

Listening Comprehension

Sometimes, we forget the power of the read aloud when talking about

comprehension practice.  This is especially important for students that are not yet

readers.  If you have your own children, think about all of times that you have read

stories to them.  Even the simple color and number books you read to toddlers.  You

look closely at the pictures.  You talk about the colors.  You count the objects.  Most

likely, you make the noises that the trucks or the animals are making.  That is all

comprehension practice.  School aged children still need this practice.  When you
read books aloud to your class, really engage them in the story and make sure they

are comprehending what you are reading to them.  It is so important that your

students are active listeners during read alouds.

1. Preview the book prior to reading.  Make predictions based on the title and

cover.

2. Take talk breaks during a book to explain your thinking or review what might

be happening in the story.

3. Revisit parts that may be confusing or pages that you feel might need more

explanation.

4. Discuss unknown vocabulary in the book.

5. Ask comprehension questions after reading the book.  Talk about the

characters, the problem and solution, and their thoughts about the book.

Strategies for Listening Comprehension

1. Use Listening Centers.  I always purchase the book and CD Listening

Centers from the Scholastic Book Orders each month.  Then, I use my bonus

points to get a couple of additional books to go along with each CD.  Have

students complete an activity after the story to work on their comprehension

skills.  You can download a FREE Listening Center Response Sheet HERE.

2. Prepare comprehension questions or talking points prior to reading.  I like to

write discussion questions on Post-It notes and put them inside the front
 cover of my books that I’m reading aloud to students.  The majority of the

time, I can remember what discussion points I want to hit, but let’s be honest,

we have a million things going on in our heads at any given moment.  The

Post-It notes allow me to pick up a book and be able to very quickly know

what I want to discuss, so I don’t overlook a particular skill.

3. Have comprehension practice ready for any book.  Preparing discussion

questions and comprehension skills for every single read aloud you do in your

classroom would be very time consuming and overwhelming.  It is perfectly

fine to have general comprehension discussion points ready for any book.  I

know that plenty of times, I have received a new book from a Scholastic Book

order or from Amazon, and I just have to read it aloud right away.  For these

times, I like to have ways to get the students involved in the story.  I bought

these pinwheels from Dollar Tree a couple of years ago.  They make

wonderful Comprehension Wheels.  I just wrote with a Sharpie on each petal. 

After we read a book together, I spin the pinwheel and grab a petal to see

which question we will answer.  It’s an easy way to add some novelty to a

lesson. These Comprehension  Question  Cards  are also a great way to

have a quick discussion about a book.  After printing them, I laminate the

cards and place them on a metal ring.  These are easy to pull out during read

alouds to make sure that I am asking a variety of comprehension questions.  I

also like to keep a set at my reading table to use with my small groups. You

can click on the picture below to check these out.

 Remember that Listening Comprehension strategies need to be used before

reading, during reading, and after reading.  We need to look at the entire picture.

The ability to comprehend a text can make or break a student’s reading

success.  These are strategies that we need to work on over and over

again throughout the school day.  We really need to make sure that we are not

overlooking the power of building listening comprehension with our students.   I hope

you continue to join me as I discuss more comprehension strategies and skills in the

next couple of weeks.  Feel free to pin the image below or any of the images above

to remember this blog post for future reference.

Listening is key to all effective communication. To improve students’ listening skills,

we need to be able to gather data on their performance, target specific areas of need,

and then provide personalized instruction and targeted practice.

At Listenwise, we support teachers by providing instructional support in literacy and

other 21st century skills – particularly listening. In order to promote student proficiency

in listening comprehension, we have identified 8 key skills, which align to Common Core

State Standards and Smarter Balanced Assessment evidence statements. Listenwise

quizzes address the CCSS standards associated with SBAC ELA/Literacy Claim

#3: Students can employ effective speaking and listening skills for a range of purposes

and audiences.

We have developed multiple choice formative listening comprehension

assessments that accompany Listenwise lessons. These assessments include

questions related to these 8 key listening comprehension skills, so teachers can analyze

student performance data to get a more nuanced picture of listening comprehension

strengths and needs. By looking at the quiz data dashboard and analyzing performance

by skills, teachers and students can see patterns and identify learning needs, for

classes, groups, and individual students, and then design instruction to meet those

needs. Teachers who have been using Listenwise report that they are seeing growth in

their students’ listening performance on standardized tests.

How did we decide which 8 key listening skills we wanted to assess and track? We

identified comprehension skills that are included in reading assessments because we

know the important connection between reading and listening. While listening and

reading both require comprehension skills, many of which overlap, the application of

those skills can vary somewhat across contexts. For example, students need to practice

identifying the most important ideas in audio stories, which can be organized differently

than print stories. The natural speech found in these audio stories typically does not

follow the structure of a written article with a clearly articulated lead and a linear

progression of ideas. When students are listening to a speaker’s voice, they can also

pay attention to the tone, emphasis, and pacing of the speech to help them make

inferences or analyze the speaker’s argument. Thus, while building comprehension

skills through listening can also boost reading comprehension, there are additional

benefits to developing listening comprehension skills directly using audio passages that

are designed to be heard. 

8 Key Listening Comprehension Skills Assessed through Listenwise Quizzes:

  Recognizing Literal Meaning: Questions about facts, details, or information

explicitly stated in the audio story 

 Understanding Vocabulary: Questions about the meanings of words as they

are used in the context of the audio story 

 Making Inferences: Questions asking students to make inferences as they listen

to audio stories, interpreting what is said by going beyond the literal meaning 

 Identifying Main Idea: Questions asking students to identify the central idea or

gist of an audio story 

 Determining Purpose: Questions asking students to determine the purpose of

an audio story

 Drawing Conclusions: Questions asking students to draw conclusions by

synthesizing information in an audio story

 Analyzing Reasoning: Questions asking students to analyze reasoning

supporting a claim in an audio story

 Finding Evidence: Questions asking students to identify statements or details in

an audio story that provide evidence to support claims or conclusions

The first four basic listening comprehension skills are assessed on all Listenwise

quizzes. The second set of four higher order skills are assessed on a subset of quizzes

(those associated with secondary standards-aligned lessons). 

Here is an example of a question that assesses the skill of Recognizing Literal

Meaning:
 Here is an example of a question that

assesses the skill of Determining Purpose:

Here is an example of a question that assesses the skill of Finding Evidence:

Listening is the major part of learning a new language, indeed, a good speaker is

a good listener. If you want to learn English as a second language, I recommend you to

focus a lot on listening, beacause it’s the first module of learning a language and be

sure to check out the 5 best English listening apps for ESL learners below.
The 5 Best English Listening Apps

1. Learn English Conversation – Listening & Speaking

Contains ads

Rated by 17000+

Installs 1,000,000 – 5,000,000

The is one of the best apps to learn English conversation, listening and speaking which

will help you to improve your English listening. In addition, it contains add-on English

dictionary and auto scroll transcript.

Features:

 8 categories from BBC Learning English Program with audio, transcript,

exercise and quiz.

 Free download to use when you’re offline.

 Support English Dictionary.

 Chat with other English learners from all around the world.

 Auto update new lessons.

Hai Bà Trưng Hà Nội Vietnam

2. English Listening and Speaking

Contains ads

Rated by 20000+

Installs 1,000,000 – 5,000,000

Download

This is one the best apps among the 5 best English listening apps which helps you to

listen to native speakers and speak English more fluently. This app contains necessary

idioms and phrases used in day talk and suitable for all levels from elementary to

intermediate and advanced.

Features:

 Hundreds of English conversation and stories with audios and completed

transcripts;

 Common idioms and phrasal verbs in daily conversations;

 Essay for IELTS;

 Irregular verbs table with audio supported;

 English Pronunciation;

 Names and surnames pronunciation;

  Recognize and evaluate your pronunciation;

 Hundreds of listening tests that improve both your listening and vocabulary

abilities;

 Sentence Building Game

 Vocabulary Building Game

 Word Chain Game

 Listen to lessons online/offline;

 Bookmark lessons.

3. English listening daily

Contains ads

Rated by 6000+

Installs 1,000,000 – 5,000,000

Practice your English listening with this software in a convenient way. The voice from

conversations is quite slow. Therefore, you can listen to almost every word in the

conversation.

Features:

 English conversation with slow voice.

 Commonly-used English phrases & vocabularies

  Easy to store and manage your favourite items

 Pretty UI, simple and user-friendly, support multi-language

 Huge amount of audio content

 Remind learn English

 Easy to use, easy to understand, easy to practice!

 Improve quickly listening skills, gain more useful and practical English

 You can download audio to use OFFLINE.

4. English Listening

Contains ads

Rated by 3000+

Installs 100,000 – 500,000

This listening app is by TalkEnglish which will help you to improve your English

listening. The listening audios are recorded very clearly and slowly by professional voice

talents using high-quality studio equipment.

Features:

 Fill in the blank listening lessons

 What is in the picture listening lessons

 Listening to famous quotes

 Short Passages listening lessons

  Sentence Dictation

 Long Paragraphs

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5. English Listening

Contains ads

Rated by 2500

Installs 100,000 – 500,000

Each lesson in this app comes with audio, transcript and vocabulary list, which helps

you to improve your English grammar, speaking and expand your English vocabulary.

Features:

 Simple English conversation from BBC learning English

 Learn English at work

 Daily English we speak

Conclusion:

When learning ESL, listening is the first and foremost skill which needs to be

concentrated on. If you are a good listener then you will be a good speaker, then use

the 5 best English listening apps mentioned above and improve your listening skill. In
addition, don’t forget to check out the related posts below and put your comments in the

comment section below.

Practice Listening in English with These Apps and Tools

April 30, 2018 by Kevin Williams

When it comes to learning English, you must spend time developing your

listening skills. You simply cannot learn English without learning how to listen to it.

Listening is essential for communication in every language.

However, it is especially important when it comes to learning a foreign

language. This is because it is through listening that you develop your vocabulary and

learn how to pronounce words correctly. As you have probably already discovered,

many English words are not pronounced how they look. Therefore, listening to a native

speaker can make all the difference when it comes to mastering the language.

Fortunately, there are many apps and tools that focus specifically on helping you

learn English through listening. And, yet, it is important to remind readers that these are

only meant to be supplemental. Apps and online websites can never replace the

superior education you can receive at a Washington language school, such as

inlingua. Students who choose to study English in Washington DC will be

immersed in the culture and listening to locals speak English daily.

Additionally, those students attending language schools in DC will also be

preparing to take the IELTS test at an English test center. This English test includes
a listening section. Therefore, it is helpful to look for additional ways to improve one’s

English listening skills.

To help you get started, here is a list of some of the best online resources

and apps for listening in English.

Busuu

Busuu is a language learning app with English courses that teach speaking,

writing, listening, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. Part of what makes Busuu

stand out is that you can work on your listening comprehension by listening to English in

various dialects. Additionally, it includes features that allow listeners to pause, rewind,

and listen on repeat to master pronunciation.

Elllo.org

Elllo is a free English listening library online. It includes over 2500 English

language audio and video clips are broken down into simple lessons. Also, the website

provides study plans and worksheets.

English Listening and Speaking

Focusing on conversational English and daily speech, the English Listening and

Speaking android app is a great choice for those wanting to learn how to communicate

in English. For example, the app includes thousands of English conversations with
audio and transcripts. Additionally, the app includes games and tests to help you

become fluent quicker. Plus, the app is free!

EnglishListening.com

This is a website that is specifically designed for ESL teachers and students. It

includes over 500 passages at different levels. In addition to the various levels,

passages can be filtered by accent. The listening passages also include a summary,

transcript, and a test. Individual monthly subscriptions begin at $5.00.

English Listening Practice – World Talks

This Apple (IOS) product app is focused on teaching English through listening.

With over 1100 interviews, listeners also have the option of listening to mixer lessons.

These mixer lessons allow the listener to hear six different people respond to the same

question, which lets the listener hear various dialects. Plus, it has comprehension

quizzes to test what you have retained.

LearnEnglish Podcasts

The LearnEnglish Podcast is an app produced by the British Council. With

interesting and engaging interviews with people talking about real-life things (celebrities,

food, and more), the twenty hours of free podcasts will be ones that you will look

forward to listening to and learning from. Additionally, the audio comes with a moving

script and comprehension questions for each episode.

Learn to Speak English

The Learn to Speak English app is a popular one for building your English skills.

In addition to 900 lessons, as well as 8000 audio files. By listening to native English

speakers, you will learn to speak English. On top of the giant library of audio files, there

is also a recording tool for users to record their own words to hear their own

pronunciation.

Listen Pal

Designed to help English learners through entertaining subtitled videos, the

Listen Pal app allows Apple users to watch popular internet videos and read subtitles

while listening. The app utilizes YouTube and its popular channels, such as TED,

Mental Floss, Yoga with Adriene, Crash Course, and more.

Speak English Fluently

The Speak English Fluently app is designed to help users learn how to speak

English conversationally in an American accent. In addition to audio of conversations

and common sayings, there is also a recording tool for users to record themselves and

listen back to their pronunciation.

Tandem

For a completely different learning experience, there is the Tandem language

learning exchange community. In this community, you are paired with a native speaker
to practice listening and speaking to English. Users can choose to communicate with

their language partner through text, audio, or video. However, we recommend audio or

video to develop your English language skills over texting.

Other Ways to Improve Your English Listening Skills

Ultimately, the best way to develop your English listening skills is to spend time

listening to others speak English. Again, this is why language schools in places like

DC work exceptionally well. Students will be surrounded by native speakers and

encouraged to listen in English. For instance, students at the Washington language

institute, inlingua, spend most of their class time listening and speaking English rather

than translating English in a textbook. The difference is huge!

Additionally, look for ways to listen to the things you already enjoy. For instance,

if you love music, find English music radio stations and tune in to them regularly. If you

are a sports fan, search for English speaking sports commentators on television. If you

enjoy movies and television, make a point to watch them in English. Every little bit

helps. Over time, you will strengthen your listening skills.

For some, it is simply hard to listen – even in your native language! When it

comes down to it, listening is an essential part of communication; you cannot

communicate with others effectively if you do not listen to them.

References

Fun in First. 2022. Strategies for Teaching Listening Comprehension. [online] Available

at: <https://funinfirst.com/listening-comprehension/> [Accessed 5 January 2022].

Listenwise Blog. 2022. 8 Key Listening Comprehension Skills - Listenwise Blog. [online]

Available at: <https://blog.listenwise.com/2017/04/8-components-listening/> [Accessed

5 January 2022]

 Learn ESL. 2022. 5 Best English Listening Apps for ESL learners - Listening Software -

Learn ESL. [online] Available at: <https://www.learnesl.net/5-best-english-listening-

apps-esl-learners/> [Accessed 5 January 2022]

components-listening/> [Accessed 5 January 2022].

Williams, K., 2022. Improve your English Listening Skills with These Apps & Tools.

[online] Inlingua Washington DC. Available at: