Lesson

How to Teach listening Actively

Trainer: Lhoussine Qasserras

 Aims
Introduction

Recommendations Challenges

Classroom Types of listening

Implications texts

Sub-skills and
stages
What is listening?
 What is listening?
• Listening is a receptive skill.
• Listening is about responding to
language more than producing
it and making a meaning of the
language sounds.
• Listening refers to your understanding of spoken
language.
• Spoken language and written language are two
different types.
What makes listening challenging?
 Why listening is more difficult than reading?

1. Learners have no control over the speed of the text.

2. There is noise in the recording.
3. Listening takes place in real life.
4. Speakers in the listening have different accents.
5. Learners have no time to pause and think about the
content of the text.
6. Speakers in a conversation speak quickly.
The process of listening Nature of listening texts
 Situation
Laura told her colleague about yesterday’s listening
lesson. Laura said I was very happy to teach a listening
lesson about three people talking about their vacations.
I wanted to help my learners and said they could listen as
many as they like to understand every thing about the
conversations. After listening several times, she was
shocked that all students complained saying they
understood nothing. They are now frustrated because
they think that listening is too challenging!
1. What was wrong with Laura’s way of teaching?
2. What could she have done?
 Feedback

The teacher did not know how:

1. To use the listening sub-skills to practice
2. To order different listening activities

Students did not know how to listen effectively:

1. They focused on details.
2. They tried to understand every single word
rather than the main ideas.
Types of listening texts!
 conversations

announcements stories

Listening
text
types
songs lectures

instructions
 Sub-skills

Listening
Listening
for specific
for gist
information

Infer
Predicting attitude,
mood

Pre-teach
vocabulary
Read the listening
lesson taken from
‘Ticket to English’
Moroccan
textbook.

Identify the stages

and purpose of all
tasks.
 Listening steps
Pre-listening activities Introduce the topic
Visual aids
Predicting
Focus questions
Key vocabulary
Activating prior knowledge

While listening activities Different listening activities:

Wh-question/true or false statements/multiple choice answers
Activities are based on listening sub-skills
From general to specific

Post listening activities Relating the topic to students’ lives

Giving opinions
Comparing and contrasting
Writing a short paragraph, etc.
 Stages of a reading or listening lesson
• Put these stages in the correct order.
a. The teacher sets a task for free practice asking students to write a dialogue about
their favorite hobbies
b. The teacher sets a gist listening task: who likes flying a kite, Why does she like it? He
plays the tape to check answers.
c. The teacher presents some key vocab in the listening text such as flying a kite,
karate, boxing etc.
d. The teacher generates interest in topic, asking the class about their favorite
hobbies.
e. Students read the transcript of the recording and listen at the same time.
f. The teacher sets a listening task for specific information. She plays the tape again
and checks the answers.

Pre listening tasks While listening tasks Post listening tasks

• Suggested answers:

• Put these stages in the correct order.

a. The teacher generates interest in topic, asking the class
about their favorite hobbies.
b. The teacher presents some key vocab in the listening
text such as flying a kite, karate, boxing etc.
c. The teacher sets a gist listening task: who likes flying a
kite, Why does she like it? He plays the tape to check
answers.
d. The teacher sets a listening task for specific information.
She plays the tape again and checks the answers.
e. Students read the transcript of the recording and listen
at the same time.
f. The teacher sets a task for free practice asking students
to write a dialogue about their favorite hobbies
 Classroom application
Receptionist: Mr. Jones, the doctor will see you now. Please go to consulting room
number 3.
Doctor: Good morning Mr. Jones. What is wrong?
Andrew: Morning. I feel very ill. I am coughing and sneezing, I feel hot and cold all the
time and eating makes me feel sick.
Doctor: Let me take your temperature. How long have you had the symptoms?
Andrew: They started about a day ago.
Doctor: Yes your temperature is very high. You have the flu. You’ll have to go home
and stay in bed until it gets better. Drink lots of water.
Andrew: Can you give me some medicine?
Doctor: I can give you something to reduce your fever but you just need to get bed
rest. I will write you a prescription and you can collect the medicine from the
pharmacy.
Andrew: Ok, thank you.

Design a sequence of tasks for this recorded text that you could use with a
group of beginner learners.
Write at least two pre-listening tasks, two while-listening and one post-listening
task.
Recommendations
 Motivate
Involve

Activate Use
Involve students
prediction knowledge

Set
Task
Create
Facilitate
interest

Pre-teach
key
vocabulary
 Active listening task

Prediction • Use students life knowledge of life

Tasks

Recognition •
•
True/false
Tick
• Order numbers
Tasks • Sequence
 Thank you

Email:
Lhoussine_qasserras@yahoo.com