Learning to listen: developing students’ listening skills Learning to listen: developing students’ listening skills Mike Carter CLIC International House

Session preview 1. An anecdote 2. Listening terminology 3. What’s wrong with our listening materials and procedures? 4. Solutions 5. Using listening transcripts 6. Conclusions 7. Appendices

1. An anecdote I’m going to tell you a true anecdote about a listening lessons I observed: What thoughts does it provoke about teaching listening? What thoughts does it provoke about teaching listening?

2. Terminology: ANSWERS 1. Top-down 2. Transactional 3. Interactive 4. Schemata 5. Interactional 6. Non-interactive 7. Bottom-up 8. Interactive

3. What’s wrong with our listening materials and procedures? 1. Lack of listening to conversation 2. Testing not teaching 3. Unnatural discourse 4. Too much TD, not enough BU 5. ‘Top-heavy’ 6. Lack of variety of spoken genres 7. Mostly non-interactive 8. Little variety of accents 9. Class listenings actually more difficult 10. Inappropriate tasks

4. Solutions We’ll now look at solutions to the problems. We’ll work in the following areas: We’ll now look at solutions to the problems. We’ll work in the following areas: 1.Teacher talk 2.Live listening 3.Recordings

Solution 1: Teacher talk 1. QTT 2. Language grading 3. Be the example 4. Read the recording more naturally 5. Ss interview the T 6. Teach conversation strategies 7. Talks and presentations

Solution 2: Live listening 1. With another teacher 2. Let Ss control the recording 3. Guest speakers 4. Community Language Learning variant

Solution 3: Recordings 1. TV, radio, DVDs and Internet audio and video are current and topical 2. Authentic – natural language source 3. DVD subtitles & pause, rewind etc 4. Visuals 5. Song lyrics, chorus, rhyme, Karaoke 6. Podcasts 7. Audio books (Internet) 8. ‘narrow’ listening

5. Using listening transcripts There are 3 main purposes for using listening transcripts: a. a. For further bottom-up listening practice b. b. To identify where problems of comprehension occurred and redress these c. c. For language work

5. Using listening transcripts: task 1. Read pp “Using transcripts” 2. Select/adapt 1 transcript activity from each section to use as post-listening activities 3. IF TIME, compare your sequence with another group

Conclusions 1 Don’t just focus on the right answers! Don’t just focus on the right answers! Encourage Ss to listen outside class Encourage Ss to listen outside class Transcripts, transcripts, transcripts!! Transcripts, transcripts, transcripts!! Record and use natural English Record and use natural English QTT!!! QTT!!! Dictation – to identify problems and to remedy them Dictation – to identify problems and to remedy them ‘notice the gap’ – reconstruction & reformulation ‘notice the gap’ – reconstruction & reformulation

Conclusions 2 Visual clues while listening Visual clues while listening Less ‘top-heavy’ listening Less ‘top-heavy’ listening Less TD, more BU Less TD, more BU Listening homework! Listening homework! More interactional, less transactional More interactional, less transactional More interactive, less non-interactive More interactive, less non-interactive Authentic texts can be easier! Authentic texts can be easier! Link listening-speaking: teach conversation strategies Link listening-speaking: teach conversation strategies

Food for thought 1 If the typical classroom listenings we do at present are purely testing and not helping students to listen better, then are they a waste of class time? If the typical classroom listenings we do at present are purely testing and not helping students to listen better, then are they a waste of class time?

Food for thought 2 Should this type of listening be for homework or self-study, so Ss can listen with transcripts as many times as they like and gradually match the written and spoken word? Should this type of listening be for homework or self-study, so Ss can listen with transcripts as many times as they like and gradually match the written and spoken word?

Thanks for coming!!!