1. Teaching Listening Sonja Follett English Language Fellow
Play “This I believe”- Sarah Roahen. Ask Ts to take notes. Don’t give further instructions…revisit activity later to demonstrate the importance of context.
Sonja Follett
English Language Fellow
Khovd University, Khovd, Mongolia

2. Listening Is an ‘active’ skill Is a ‘receptive’ skill
Happens in real time
Is it a neglected skill?

3. Why Teach Listening?
It helps students acquire language  subconsciou sly
It provides vital information
– grammar structure
– contextualization of new vocabulary
– pronunciation, rhythm, stress, intonation
• Real communication requires both listening  compre hension and speaking

4. We Listen… Twice as much as we speak Four times more than we read
Five times more than we write
(Rivers 1981, Weaver  1972 in Celce- Murcia, M. Teaching English as a Second  or Foreign Language, p. 70)

5. Considerations in Teaching Listening
What are listeners doing when they listen?
What factors affect good listening?
What are characteristics of “real‐life” listening?
What are the many things listeners listen for?
What are some principles for designing listening  techniq ues
How can listening techniques be interactive?
What are some common techniques for teaching  listenin g?

6. Listening is a Complex, Interactive Skill
Processes in listening comprehension
Raw speech is processed into short‐term memory
Type of speech event is determined/assigned  (conv ersation, lecture, TV ad, etc.)
Assessment of speaker’s objective (inform, persuade ,  request, etc.)
Background information (schema) applied to aid in  comprehension
Literal meaning assigned to message

7. Listening is a Complex, Interactive Skill
Processes in listening comprehension
Intended meaning assigned to message; different  from  literal message
Determination to commit information to short‐term or  lo ng‐term memory
Original words, phrases, and sentences are (largely)  “pr uned” and the message concept is retained.
Listening is an interactive process and learners  may  have difficulty at any of these steps

8. What Makes Listening Difficult?
Clustering
- Spoken language is “chunked” into phrases and clauses
Redundancy
- Rephrasing, repetition, elaborations are helpful (extra information, extra time) but make “tracking” speech difficult
Reduced forms
-Phonological (“Jeet?”), morphological (“I’ll”), syntactic (“Finish yet?”)

9. What Makes Listening Difficult?
Performance variables
-Hesitations, false starts, pauses, corrections, ungrammatical forms
Colloquial language
-Idioms, slang, reduced forms, shared cultural knowledge
Rate of delivery
-Speed of stream of speech; little opportunity to “re- listen”

10. What Makes Listening Difficult?
Stress, rhythm, and intonation
-Prosodic features of English cause difficulty
Interaction
- Rules of conversation, negotiation, turn-taking, topic nomination and maintenance; two-way, interactive skill

11. How do we listen to listen to incoming incoming messages?
Top­Down Processing
Interactive Processing
Bottom­Up Processing

12. Bottom-Up Processing Knowledge of: -Vocabulary, grammar, sounds
Use background knowledge
Driven by text factors
– Sounds
– Words
– Phrases
– Stress/intonation patterns

13. Types of Listening Skills
Micro-skills
Sentence level
Retain chunks of language in short-term memory
Discriminate among the sounds of English
Recognize stress and intonation patterns
Recognize grammatical word classes
Process at different rates of delivery
Distinguish word boundaries
Recognize word order patterns

14. Top Down Processing Based on :
General Knowledge/Life experience (Content Schemata)
Knowledge of situational routines (textual schema)
Activate previous knowledge
Driven by learner factors: the listeners – Expectations
– Understanding of the topic
– Context
– Knowledge of the world (Rubin and Peterson)

15. Types of Listening Skills
Macro-skills
Discourse level
Recognize cohesion devices
Recognize communicative functions
Distinguish main and supporting ideas, new and understood information
Distinguish literal and implied meanings
Understand nonverbal communication signals
Use listening strategies: guessing from context, asking for help, signaling (lack of) comprehension

16. Types of Classroom Listening
Reactive (listen and repeat)
Intensive (listen for specific sounds, discourse  mark ers, intonation patterns, etc.)
Responsive (listen and respond – briefly)
Selective (listen for particular items in a longer  stret ch of discourse)
Extensive (listen for global comprehension)
Interactive (authentic communication; listening as  p art of discussion, conversation, debate, etc.)

17. Selective Listening ­­Prepositions­ Beatles: Eleanor Rigby
Warm up
Activity: Students listen and write  the prepositions 
Is one listening enough?

18. Extensive Listening: This I Believe
Listening for global comprehension
Listen to the “This I believe…” presentation and identify the main idea.
What is important to the speaker?

19. Principles for Teaching Listening
Integrate listening practice into the course
Don’t assume it “just happens”
Appeal to students’ intrinsic motivation
Include local culture and preexisting schema
Use authentic language and contexts
Highlight relevance to real-life needs
Consider how students will respond
Listening cannot be seen; infer comprehension
Teach listening strategies
Include both bottom-up AND top-down listening

20. Successful Listening Activities
Purpose for Listening
A form of response (doing, choosing, answering, transferring, condensing, duplicating, extending, conversing)
Repetition depends on T objectives and students’ level
A motivating listening text is authentic and relates to students’ interests and needs
Have the skills integrated
Stages: Pre-task , While-task, Post-task

21. Listening Strategies Teach student how to listen Looking for keywords
Looking for nonverbal cues to meaning
Predicting a speaker’s purpose by the context of the spoken discourse
Associating information with one’s existing background knowledge (activating schema)
Guessing meanings
Seeking clarification
Listening for the general gist
For tests of listening comprehension, various test-taking strategies

22. Easy-to-plan Pre-Listening Activities
Brainstorming
Think-Pair-Share
Word Webbing/Mind Mapping
Team Interview

23. Easy-to-plan Listening Tasks
Agree or disagree (with explanation)
Create Venn diagrams
List characteristics, qualities, or features
Strip story (sequencing game)
Match speech to visuals
Compare and contrast to another speech or text
Give advice

24. More Listening Tasks Compare and contrast to your own experience
Create your own version of the missing section
Plan a solution to the problem
Share reactions
Create a visual
Reenact your own version

25. Easy to Plan Post-listening Assessments
Guess the meaning of unknown vocabulary
Analyze the speaker’s intentions
List the number of people involved and their function in the script
Analyze the success of communication in the script
Brainstorm alternative ways of expression

27. References
Bailey, K.M. (2005). Practical English Language Teaching: Speaking . New York: McGraw- Hill.
Bishop, G. (2006). AP State English Lecturers Retraining Program Teacher’s Handboook . Senior ELF Seminar Series given in Hyderabad, India.
Brown, H.D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy . White Plains, NY: Longman.
Helgesen, M. (2003). Listening. In D. Nunan (Ed.). Practical English Language Teaching . New York: McGraw-Hill.
Liao, X.A. (2001). Information Gap in Communicative Classrooms. EL Forum, 39 (4). Retrieved from .
Lynch, T. (2003). Communication in the language classroom . Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Richards, J.C. & Renandya, W.A. (eds.) (2002). Methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Slagoski, J.D. (2006). Teaching Listening Skills. Senior ELF Seminar given in Samara, Russia. Retrieved from .