Listening involves being able to understand a range of different ‘spoken texts’ and to take meaning from them.
In the classroom we can expose students to a variety of these text types via CDs, DVDs and, of course, our own speech. As we’ve already mentioned, when listening to a recording, whether authentic or otherwise, we can’t see the speakers and therefore can’t infer context, whereas in real life we usually have at least some idea of what we’re going to hear.
So, when using CDs in the classroom it’s a bit unfair to expect students to “listen to the recording and answer the questions” without any introduction at all. If we approach listening lessons like this, students are either able to understand and get the right answers or not, but if not then there’s no way for them to improve.
Instead, there are a number of ways we can actually develop listening skills. The British Council gives some really fun and interesting pre-listening tasks which can really help. They include:
- Setting the context – giving students an idea of who is speaking, where, when and an outline of the situation
- Warmers to generate interest – if you’re listening to a dialogue about food, you could start off by asking students their favorite foods etc.
- Activating knowledge – asking students what they already know about the topic to bring relevant vocabulary to the forefront of their minds or giving them a short, fun quiz
- Predicting content – once they know the context they can guess what might/might not be mentioned
- Giving students the questions before they listen – this means that they can focus and listen out for cues in the dialogue rather than being overwhelmed trying to listen for absolutely everything
- Predicting answers – give students time to read all the questions and make notes on possible answers so that they’re not concentrating on reading a question when they should be concentrating on listening!
While listening, learners often have to answer a variety of questions. It’s usually best to start with questions which assess the students’ understanding of the general gist of the dialogue, such as ‘why did the girl phone her friend?’, before asking them to concentrate on more specific details i.e. ‘what time did they arrange to meet?’. This way they are less likely to become overwhelmed and think, ‘I don’t understand anything at all!’.
Additionally, some students may have understood what they heard but may be unable to vocalize it. For example, if they listen to a story which they have understood, they might not necessarily be able to re-tell that story. It’s unreasonable, therefore, to ask hugely generalized questions such as, “Okay, so what did you hear?” that students may not be able to respond to.
Use tasks such as true/false questions or table completion to help focus students’ attention and allow you to assess accurately whether they have understood.
After listening, the students need to feedback the answers and this can be done in several ways.
A good one is getting students to check what they’ve written in pairs and if they have wildly different responses you may need to play the recording again. If there are still problems then you need to grade the questions or activities to a more appropriate level and then build up.
You can grade tasks rather than the recording so that students are exposed to authentic material from an early stage but aren’t asked to complete overly-complicated activities.
Even a BBC radio interview could technically be used as a listening exercise for lower levels where you ask them just to listen for who is being interviewed, for example. The same piece can then be used for more advanced levels as they can be asked to identify attitudes, opinions and more specific details.
