Live Listening Putting Teacher Back In the Classroom

Does this ever happen when you do listening comprehension in class?

“Live” vs. recorded _____________________________________________ intrinsically motivating more interactive / reciprocal authentic requires no preparation almost make sure Ss have a clear task while listening!

Suggested topics _____________________________________________ Travel Music Friendship Sports Leisure Film Issues Your last / favourite trip Your favourite band / singer Your best friend Your favourite sports team or sport that you do Your last / ideal weekend Your favourite film / last film you saw Living in a big city vs. in the country

More active listener _____________________________________________  Speaker (Teacher) can:  monitor the listeners' interest, attention & comprehension  add any necessary repetitions, reformulations and explanations  Listeners can:  give the speaker non-verbal signals (e.g. nodding, frowning)  react verbally (e.g. "I see", "So, do you mean.....?", "I'm not sure what you mean by.....")

Lexical Approach _____________________________________________ Language consists of primarily chunks and grammar merely helps them hold together Native speakers’ vocabulary consist of roughly 500,000 chunks Help students develop vocabulary by building awareness of vocabulary patterns

Procedure _____________________________________________  Stage 1  Ss ask each other questions on a topic – in pairs  T monitors, notes down errors and gaps in lexical repertoire  Stage 2  Ss write questions to ask T about the same topic  T gives an extended talk on the topic  Ss listen and note down useful “chunks”  T elicits the chunks from Ss and boards them  Stage 3  Ss repeat the task with new partners using the extracted “chunks”

Conclusion _____________________________________________ For many students listening to their teacher is the most significant exposure to the language they will get. Live listening not only gives them such an opportunity, but also provides language input and inspires learner output.

Bibliography _____________________________________________ Field, J. (2000). ‘Finding one’s way in the fog: listening strategies and second- language learners’, in Modern English Teacher, Vol 9, no. 1, Harmer, J. (2003). ‘Listening’, in English Teaching professional, Issue 26, January 2003, Lackman, K. (2007). ‘The teacher as input’, in English Teaching professional, Issue 48, January 2007, Lewis, M. (1997). Implementing the Lexical Approach. Hove UK: LTP Olshtain, E. & Celce-Murcia, M. (2000). Discourse and Context in Language Teaching. CUP