We were given two ears but only one mouth.
This is because God knew that listening was
twice as hard as talking.
People need to practice and acquire skills to be good listeners because a speaker cannot throw you information in the same manner that a dart player tosses a dart at a passive dartboard. Information is an intangible substance that must be sent by the speaker and received by an active listener. We learn a language through listening. If our students don’t learn to listen effectively they will be unable to take part in oral communication. Merely to hear what a speaker says is insufficient for communication to occur.
In this article we’d like to give some advice on how to make students involved and active listeners through different types of activities at an effective lesson. If we use only graded listening students don’t become accustomed to the features of normal speech. Some of our classes may not have had a great deal of listening training so we need to proceed gently and prepare tasks they can achieve. Once you show (not tell) the students that they don’t need to understand every word then they grow in confidence and accept more authentic material.
Teaching listening is especially important as it provides the perfect opportunity for students to hear voices other than the teacher’s. The story “Secret Seven” gives such opportunity in the best possible way as there are a lot of characters in the story, most of them are children and they are native speakers.
In real-life listening there is a great deal of background noise. You really have to concentrate. Be aware of the acoustics in your classroom and of the quality of your machine. Test it before the lesson and find the right place on the tape if you’re using a cassette. In real-life listening there is a great deal of redundancy – false starts, hesitations, repeating what you have said and verbal signals to the person speaking, e.g. ’mm…yes…er…um…yes…that’s right…went on…’At first this can be distracting for some students.
The aim of the audio book is to enable students to acquire good speaking habits as a result of the spoken English they absorb and to help them to improve their own pronunciation.
The project comprises a series of lessons aimed at developing listening skills on base of the audio book suggested as a part of the set by O. V. Afanasyeva, I. V. Mikheeva “English VII” for schools specialized in English. Moscow, Prosveshcheniye, 2000. The lessons are designed according to the following procedure which we find a good sequence for listening:
Preparing for listening
The points for preparing a reading text for discussion and an article for class use apply to listening as well. And similar tasks can be used. Anticipate the subject matter, without giving all the answers away and without revealing what the listening is about. Give a reason to listen, with a short task to use during the first listening. This task should be extensive. Only getting the gist and general shape of the text, e.g. ‘Who’s speaking? Where are they? What is the main topic?’
Adapting listening up or down the level
- Grade the task, not the tape. The speaker on the tape cannot change the speed of information delivery to suit the individual listener. Don’t feel tempted to slip into the students’ language when they are struggling to understand what they are listening to. This struggle is the part of learning and they need time and help to tune in to the tape. You main advantage is your role as a listening and speech model for students. We need to make them want to listen.
- Split the tape into shorter sections and listen a section at a time. The shorter the tape is, the easier for students to remember the details of the contents.
- Allow the students to listen to it as many times as they need. If you work with a group with poor listening skill or lack or listening practice allow them to listen to the tape at home before the lesson. Give students a say in how much to listen to or when to pause.
- Encourage plenty of checking with each other between listening. Arrange as many exercises to check the understanding of the contents in pairs or groups as possible.
- Anticipate the ideas or vocabulary in a pre-listening task which suits the level.
The better the pre-listening is done the more successful the listening will be.
- If it becomes clear they cannot deal with the comprehension details focus on just recognizing key words and the main topics. Be flexible and don’t plough on if your plan has proved to be too ambitious.
It’s usually recommended to listen to the story twice or even more times if it’s necessary and the time allows doing that. The first listening is listening for gist which is to get the general idea or meaning. The second listening is listening foe detail which is to get the specific facts. This means selectively extracting information to suit the purpose. There are specific tasks which train students in these types of listening skills and you need to decide what your aim is for each listening you use. Some tapes, songs and videos will be listened to numerous times until students are satisfied they have extracted what they need.
The lessons were successfully piloted in our classes. And we came to the conclusion that:
- It’s too easy if students can get all the answers straight away on first listening. Part of training the ear is the effort and concentration required to make sense of the stream of speech.
- Give the question before they listen so they have a reason to listen for something. Otherwise they will listen without focus, thinking they have to understand everything and feeling demotivated.
- Don’t accept the right answer from the strongest student and then go on to the next question. You will be in danger of leading the level with the strongest and losing the rest. Ask for suggested answers from everyone without indicating which ones are correct at this stage. Let them listen and check.
- Encourage pair-checking and try to pair weaker students with stronger so they help each other. This is especially useful in mixed groups where you could create strong divisions between those who have finished and those who are lost.
- Make it clear that they do not have to understand everything to get the information they need. Telling teenagers this will have no effect. Showing them, by providing a task they can complete, makes the point.
- The story “Secret Seven” is extremely exploitable.
From listening to speaking
Listening and speaking are usually practiced together. That is why assessment is logically produced in speaking in monologues, dialogues or even group talk. How to arrange this you’ll find the examples in the Lesson plans. (See:Приложение 1, Приложение 2)