TOP 5 LISTENING

ACTIVITIES FOR GROUP

CLASSES
1. Draw This
One way to get your group to listen is to make sure they are
unaware of the fact it is a listening game. In “Draw This” your students
will simply think they are drawing. So how does it work? Give each of
your students a blank piece of paper. Now, give one drawing
instruction such as “Draw a square”. Then, ask your students to pass
the paper to the next student so that everyone has a new paper. Now,
give another drawing instruction such as, “Under the square, draw a
triangle.” Keep giving instructions until the papers have made it all the
way around the room. Now see which papers have turned out
correctly. You can modify the instructions according to the language
level of your students.
2. Daily Quiz
In order to get your students to pay attention throughout the lesson, it is a
good idea to give them a fun listening quiz at the end of the day. You can make
the questions entertaining. For example, if you told your students an anecdote
about your dog, one of the questions could be “What was the dog’s name?” The
quiz should only be 2-5 questions long. The student(s) who get the most right
answers get a gold star. At the end of every month, the student with the most
gold stars gets a prize like choosing a game to play, leading an activity, or sharing
with the class 15 minutes of his/her favorite film (in the language you are
teaching, of course). This reward system takes the heaviness out of the word
“quiz”. Even when you listen to someone speak in your native language, it may
be difficult to stay focused and not let your mind drift. Imagine how much more
difficult it is for your students who are listening to a second or third language!
3. Story Listening
Read your students a story. After the story, summarize the story as a
group. Call on one student to tell the first significant event in the story,
then another student for the next and so on. The students will have to
work hard to listen so as not to let their classmates down!
4. Landmine Listening
The name sounds scary, doesn’t it? Do not worry; this is a simple
game which your students will love! First, clear all the desks to the side
of the classroom. Then, choose two students to be blindfolded and two
students to direct those students. After the two are blindfolded,
quickly pull chairs and desks into the center of the classroom, creating
an obstacle course or “landmine”. After the landmine is set up, have
the two blindfolded students start at one end of the room and have the
other two give instructions on how to get through to the other side. If
the blindfolded student runs into a landmine, they are out. The first
one to the other side of the room wins!
5. Telephone
This is one of the oldest games in the book, but it is still a fun
one! Have your students get in a circle. One person will start the
“phone call” by whispering a secret message in the ear of the person
next to him/her. That person then whispers it to the next and so on.
The listener only gets one chance to hear the message correctly; he/she
has to pass on whatever was heard. Once the message goes all the way
around the circle, the last person repeats the message out loud.
Usually, it will be a scrambled up version of the original message.
Activity 1 – Final Term
1. Try doing the suggested listening activities with children in your
place.
2. Give positive and negative comments about each listening activity.
3. Suggest more listening activities for children.