 Listening is considered to involve the active selecting and interpreting of information coming from auditory clues so that a listener can identify what is happening and what is being expressed. -Richards, JC “Listening Comprehension: Approach, design, procedure.” TESOL Quarterly 17:2. Passive or Active?

 monitor comprehension associate new information with background knowledge make inferences about unknown words continue listening even if they don’t understand certain words have metacognitive knowledge about the task manage to get the main idea rather than listen word-for-word Effective listeners

 What interferes with listening comprehension?

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 Make it relevant to ss (interesting) Provide background knowledge Pre-listening exercise to activate content Use a variety of activities Involve ss in focused listening

 giving them charts / categories asking questions ahead of time showing pictures/charts discussing the topic first describing the context role playing the situation providing key word list brainstorming (situations / pros / cons) Predicting Doing follow-ups that allows them to connect directly with their lives listening activities (with focus) to overcome the difficulties

 Why, when, what and how much to listen in the classroom? Why? - Complex skill of the language learning. - Important component of communication. - Learn how to interact in a foreign language. When? -From the beginner levels of learning. What? - Authentic material including real language - Appealing material for students How much? - In every single class. - The more we listen, the better.

 WHEN DOING LISTENING EXERCISES…. TRY THISAVOID THIS Apply meaningful input+1 but take into account your students’ level Taking listening exercises just from cassettes and cds Work with authentic materialHaving your students watch a whole movie with no purpose Find interesting and appealing material for your students (movies- songs- musical videos- interviews- trailers) Taking a very advanced material for your students, because they can feel demotivated and overchallenged

TRY THISAVOID THIS Minimize interruptions and external distractions Making your students aware of every single word Plan a warm up or a pre – listening activity Working with extense pieces of listening exercises Define what kind of exercise it is and what is it intended for. Including lots of unknown vocabulary Involve specific materials relevant for students’ reason of study Focusing only on the grammar topic you are working with Predict your students’ difficulties with the exercise Overchallenging your students Redesign some of the listenings from books Working with the material that you just can find in the books Make use of the technologyWorking on this skill in an isolated way.

 SONGS 1.Before listening activities: -Presentation of the new vocabulary (puzzles) -Talking about the band or singer’s background, how the author came up with the song. -How much the students know about the song 2.While listening activities: - Design completion exercises - Replace words by drawings - Scramble some words of the lyrics 3. After listening activities: - Matching exercises - Inferring the purpose, meaning of the song - Eliciting students’ points of view towards the lyrics - Talking about students’ experiences related to the lyrics EgEg

 MOVIES/ TRAILERS 1.Before listening activities: -Presentation of the new vocabulary (puzzles) -Talking about the students’ perceptions and points of view about the movie -How much the students know about the movie 2.While listening activities: - Questions about specific information - Design True and False exercises - Checking exercises 3. After listening activities: - Design open questions, matching or completion exercises - Design questions about more general information - Questions based on visual features EXAMPLE