A Map of Listening Skills and Sub-skills
Each basic listening skill comprises a set of sub-skills, a good command of which determines the high level of listening in a foreign language in general. Consider the most important sub-skills listed below and decide what kind of listening each sub-skill refers to. Put the appropriate number / numbers of the four main kinds of listening in the boxes on the left.
B asic listening skills or kinds of listening
1. Listening for gist 2. Listening for 3. Listening for detailed
specific information understanding
4. Critical listening
To distinguish main
information from peripheral details;
to differentiate between fact and opinion;
to find specific
information in the listening passage to complete a table;
to define the
speaker’s intention / attitude to the subject matter;
to follow the text (narration, lectures, etc.);
to define the topic / situation of the listening passage;
to identify the person / thing described;
to compare facts from two or three texts for listening;
to express one’s opinion about the content of the text;
to agree / disagree with the idea of the listening passage;
to use the text clues, such as meaningful pauses, intonation, emphasis, to
guess about the content of the text;
to guess the meaning
of new words using the context / one’s knowledge of
the language system;
to predict how the text will unfold.
What is special about the last three sub-skills?
What communicative competence do they develop?
4. Task types and text types to accompany different kinds of listening
Activity 6
Look at the bank of text types for listening and choose the most relevant to develop each of the four kinds of listening. Discuss and complete the table below.
Text types: announcements, advertisements, instructions, weather forecast, songs, news, documentaries, radio plays, TV / video films, talk shows, cartoons, conversations, interviews, speeches, lectures.
Listening for gist |
Listening for specific information |
Listening for details |
Critical listening |
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Activity 7
What should we do with these texts to improve the basic listening skills? Tasks for teaching listening - what are they?
Divide the listening tasks into four groups according to the kind of listening the task is designed to develop.
Listening for gist |
Listening for specific information |
Listening for details |
Critical listening |
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Which tasks are more appropriate for testing students' ability to understand oral discourse in a foreign language and which are more effective for improving it?
Activity 8
The analysis of sample tasks
a) You are going to listen to three people talking about their holiday plans. Listen to the discussion once and decide which of the three types of holiday in the photographs above each of the speakers want.
Alistair:__________
Barbara:_________
Mike:____________
b) Listen again and make notes on where these people are going to go, and what they are going to do there.
Name |
Where? |
How to spend their time? |
Alistair |
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Barbara |
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Mike |
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c) Can you remember exactly how the people talked about their future plans? Try to complete the sentences below.
Alistair: ____________________at eight tomorrow morning.
Barbara: ___________to Tenerife ____________to Greece.
Mike: ________________________________ in the car.
Now listen again to check your answers.
(based on the materials from “Soundings” // Jan Bell)
Activity 9
Jigsaw listening
A Day in the Life of …
Participants work in three groups (A, B, C) to solve a communicative task – to define the job each speaker has.
(based on the materials from “Soundings” // Jan Bell)
Name |
hours |
duties |
advantages |
disadvantages |
job |
Ivy |
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Heather |
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Stephen |
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1) Listen to a person describing his / her job. As you listen, fill in the information about the person in your part of the box. Compare your notes within your group.
2) Form new groups. Each group must contain at least one member of group "A", "B " and "C". Exchange the information and fill in the whole box.
3) Return to your initial group, share the information and guess about the job of each speaker.
4) Listen to the whole passage together to check your answers.
Listening tasks examples
You will hear a man talking about his first visit to Italy. As you listen, decide which of the statements are true (T) and which are false (F). Put a tick in the appropriate box. You will hear this story twice.
T/ F
1. The storyteller was complaining about a bad luck time that he had in Italy.
2 .He had lost his camera at the very first day of his stay.
3. The frequent breaking down of his car caused him little surprise.
4. His car had been repaired at the garage four times for that period in Italy.
You will hear a woman telling a story about the period of bad luck in her life. You will hear the story in five sections. Each time the tape stops, try to guess what will happen next by completing the sentences.
Section 2 It was a great surprise for me that my car …
Section 3 When at last I took it from the garage, it appeared to be …
Section 4 Do you remember my lovely necklace? It …
Section 5 The last straw was …
- Look at the key words from the text you are going to listen to. Predict what the text might be about.
destruction chaos
rescue nature
collapse unpredictable
Think of at least three questions the answers to which you would like to get from the text.
On the tape, which you have just listened to, two young people were discussing their holidays. In groups of three, plan the holiday of a lifetime for you. Write down the necessary details under the following headings:
Destination______________
Way of travelling__________
Accommodation__________
Duration of your stay______
Activities on holiday______
Tell the rest of the class what you have planned.
Aims for the 2nd series of lessons:
to emphasize stages of a listening lesson;
to consider different types of listening materials;
to discuss some criteria for choosing the text;
to assess the difficulty of listening passages;
to discuss the guidelines for teaching listening.