TEACHER TRAINING WORKSHOPS Module 1: Methodology Unit 3: “Teaching Listening Comprehension”   © English Highway Language Center 2012

What is LISTENING comprehension? Listening is one of the most challenging skills for esl learners to develop as it is probably the least explicit of the four language skills. Vandergrift, 2004

1. The Importance of Listening Listening is the most common communicative activity in daily life: "we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write.“ Listening is also important for obtaining comprehensible input that is necessary for language development.

2. What is involved in listening comprehension. Speech perception 2. What is involved in listening comprehension? * Speech perception * Word recognition * Sentence processing * Constructing the literal meaning * Holding the information in short-term memory * Recognizing cohesive devices in discourse * Infering the implied meaning and intention  

3. Principles of Teaching Listening ♠ Listening should receive attention in the early stage of instruction ♠ Maximize the use of authentic language. ♠ Vary the materials ♠ Ask students to listen with a purpose ♠ Do not present language material intended to be used for teaching listening comprehension skills visually first.

4. Using Authentic Materials and Situations Radio and television programs Public address announcements Speeches and lectures Telephone customer service recordings Procedure: Help students identify the listening goal Help students outline predictable sequences in which information may be presented Help students identify key words/phrases to listen for

5. Ideas and Activities for Teaching Listening Construct the listening activity around a context Define the activity's instructional goal and type of response Check the level of difficulty of the listening text Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view.

5.1. Sample pre-listening activities: ♠ Looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs ♠ Reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures ♠ Reading something relevant ♠ Predicting the content of the listening text ♠ Going over the directions or instructions for the activity ♠ Doing guided practice

5.2. Sample while-listening activities ♠ Listening with visuals ♠ Filling in graphs and charts ♠ Following a route on a map ♠ Checking off items in a list ♠ Listening for the gist ♠ Searching for specific clues to meaning ♠ Completing cloze (fill-in) exercises ♠ Distinguishing between formal and informal registers

5.3. Sample post-listening activities ♠ Problem-solving and decision-making: ♠ Interpreting ♠ Role-play ♠ Form/ chart completion ♠ Extending lists ♠ Sequencing/ grading ♠ Matching with a reading text