7 Listening and speaking Developing Interactional Skills In this chapter we shall demonstrate techniques for developing epi communicative competence so they can talk about personal tings of Shout specific information wid someme ee. AS we have seen, snp providing pupils with opportunities olen new words and repeat em tl not develop communicative competence, Learning to listen in English The inal stages someone is giving you a message or opinion, then of course you hav to be able to understand It in order t respond. Listening to 3 fori language i hard work, especial for young chide. Inthe eal tae, ‘the pols may spend mach of hee time listening tothe teacher while playing simple games, singing song, saying tyme or lstening to ste Fev and simple stactions, an TP The teacher lL have nee igs sh 35 stn Tes important to remember that dsteaing Is not a passive actly Aways aking children to simpy ‘iste and remember" may make feel anslous, places a great strain on thelr memory and tends not develop listening skill. The teacher wil beable to support ch ‘understanding more efetvely if she. Aliya ave be sel a Shea ties that actively support learners’ understanding and guide tention to specific pat of the spoken txt This might ince the Se ela ees ee es oe ‘haps waten support such as the com chars a wesw in ter 6 ll ot bese techniques and procedures are what we mean whet talk abot Lets turn to mote specific guidelines which ‘be usefl when planning how to develop pupil Iistning sls. 1. Give the children confidence ‘We should not expect pupil to always understand every word and should know ths: Your advance planning will give you a clear 7 sein and speaking you expect the children tobe able to do, Fr example, do you want to get a general Idea ofa story, known asthe gist, the fist ime near it? Wl you expect them to pick out key words but not all the 7 Itmay only be on the second or third hearing that the ppl ll, Able to recall the exact sequence of events ina story. Your gestures, ‘of voice and visual aids will help children fel confident about Is important to concentrate on. Explain why the children have to listen Sure the learners are clear about why they are Istening, wat the in point or purpose ofthe activity i This means spelling out which ofthe mesage they need to focus on and what they are pong to do, hes to bulld up lamers confidence and reduce anally. Diflerent Kinds of listening purposes ae described below. Typically see pup: 0 cal them when they ae too boisterous. “There wil often be some form of mental engagement Tosti pup to stilt or allow them to physi “et of seam fthey Seem bored or ired (see chapter 16) To morove the gonea stein attitude: Usten for enjoyment, improve ‘oncentration span, or develop the memory To deep aspects of language: Ustening to improve pronunciation, sires rhythm and intonation, as well familiarity with new words structures. Listening to lear songs and thymes provides pro- ation practice, whe Tstening to stores may provide practice In oF vocabulary connected with the top rene conceptual development: some spoken texts, such 38 ties, {act a5 useful revision for reinforcing coneepts such as numbers, oF cause and effect, which wll have been covered In other areas the school curculu Itrat with hese avis which encourage children 10 work others eure the learners fo negotiate meaning by listening and ‘questions, checking menning agreeing, and 3000, provide support for Iteray: older children can be encouraged to onnections between spoken and written English by picking ‘erten words or statements which are part of spoken message children develop specific strategies for listening stant strategy thatthe teacher should teach is ‘nteligent guess Pupils ae used 0 drawing on thelr background knowledge to Something they are not sure of. Teachers need to be aware of »Par 2 Teaching leaning and argue tis this so that they can ensure they provide support and raise pupil awareness about the benefits of ding this. Some important Istening Strategies include ‘+ Pricing. Before leaner iste to something it is useful to encourage them to guess what they think they wil be Tistening to, Use pictures ‘to encourage them to guess the topic, the language or some ofthe ‘etal. While they ate inthe middle of listening, stop toast them ‘what they think might come next. In both ean this encourages learners to check whether their expectation matches the reality of ‘what they hear, which helps to keep motivation high. It aso allows ey words and ideas 1 be inteoduced which wl help to give lam 1 feling of sucess and confidence ‘© Working ou the meaning rom context. Although the teacher might Ike to-act out or even translate new words before the children listen to Something, she also needs to encourage them to use pictures, thet ‘eneral knowledge or the message itself to workout the meaning of Unfamllar words. (See chapter 6 for more on this) 4 Recagnizing scouse patterns and markers. Wowds such 3s fst, ten, finaly, but, and, 0 give important signals about what ts coming next ina spoken text, Sequence markers are especially important i ‘Mores and instructions Seta specific istening task 4 Wsuseul to think of listening in this stages: what pupils do prepa ton for istening (oesistening asties) while they Jsten so the i ain ative (while oii ete), eg produce a drawing, make tape, anowet {Questions and soon. For example i you ask learners olsen toa si le description and then label a plan of a bedroom, useful pelstenig work might focus on key nouns, adjectives or prepositions to show Where things ae. Ue point of grelistning activities 0 do some of the folowing peuonaizes conte, pow moieion end ae bulla up a plete of useful background knowledge and intodsce wel wow, structures and concepts. inorder to make Iistening an active, laming-fcused proces, each ers nee fo develop a psa diferent pee, while and posta which“ diferent types of language, When listening ta series of actions in anarative, for example, aIstening tsk which asks the children to earange a seis ofpetures, or put numbers by pictures ‘escibing diferent actions, supports the chil's understanding ery well: eamers ae asked to listen to along stretch of English with 100 7 sein and speaking ‘isl support and are asked to simply recall the facts, they are in eal elng tested rather than "taught There sa huge variety of whilei- ning activities which put nto place al the ideas we have discussed 50 ‘about the learning centred clasfoom. Table 2 shows you some ples, thelr purpose and the Kinds of materials that are required. All ofthe activities contain a earning to learn element. The activities are de according to lve of ailficly although this depends on the kind message, suc ais length, tpi, linguistic compleity and the mun ‘of ideas contalned within i. You might ke to go through the list See how many of these are relevant to your pupils’ needs and iter. sand which ones you regularly use. Organize listening development of Istening sills doesnot have to rely on the avall- iy of cave or precorded mater MSCS st However, i you do havea cassette of pubts in one part ofthe dasstoom for one oF fw0 gOUPS to use wile the test ofthe clase does something else This canbe created ereening off coener, witha cupboard oF seen, to provide a quet| for chitiren to liste in paso groups. cassette recorder i need- fortis purpose, leally accompanied by ase of materials such 35 pic- res, hook, of sentence strips fr lamers to use as they Isten. Tae "selt-correctng’, so thatthe children can find out stn and sequence activity, for example, bas been pleted accurately ning to speak in English ls sction will consider pupils’ expectations when they come to the lsh dasstoom, the nil stages of thelr Fearing and the organiza- of speaking activites. Also, a typology of activities to develop speak children equate learning an 12 with leaning to speak It and, ‘most come to the foreign language classroom with a good mas. fof thei Land leaning it seemed tobe elatively easy and etfor- they expect to be the same withthe foreign language. They want te results and even after thei first lesson, wll want to show et children in the school or members ofthese family that they can some English children ate to maintain inital motivation, they nor