1. Stages of a listening / reading lesson

Every listening/reading task will achieve its purpose if it is deliberately integrated into a carefully planned route-map of a listening/reading lesson on a definite topic and with a clear aim. Study the following working procedure (adapted from J. Scrivener, 1998) for listening/reading lessons and comment on the objectives of each stage.

In most books on teaching listening/reading three lesson stages are singled out:

• Pre-listening Pre-reading

• While-listening While-reading

• Follow-up / Post-listening Follow-up / Post-reading

Consider several tasks that were probably used at the listening lessons with you as students, discuss them in groups and agree on the stage you would use each of them as teachers in future.

2. What listening materials can be used in developing different kinds of listening?

Activity 1

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the materials suggested?

Kind of material	advantages	disadvantages
Live-listening
Recorded materials
Authentic materials
Video

3. What criteria should the teacher bear in mind for choosing the text for listening in the classroom?

Activity 2

Answer the following questions about the use of listening materials, they will help you to deduce a set of criteria for choosing the text.

Questions	Criteria
1. Do you think the content of the text should be interesting?
2. Should the content allow students to compare what is happening in the text with their life?
3. Should the text bring any information about the target culture?
4.Should students have enough background knowledge to understand the text? Should language load be suitable?
5. Is it necessary for students to have the experience of listening to the same text type in Russian?
6. Is it enough to listen to 2-3text types?
7. Should the text suit your aims and objectives?
8. Should the text be "real"? Should it sound natural?

4. How is it possible to assess the difficulty of the text?

What makes the listening passage easy or difficult?

Activity 3

Consider the following areas which are relevant for assessing the difficulty of the listening passage. Discuss what will increase / change / become faster etc. and fill in the grid.

- Speech - The structure of the text

- Acoustic signals - Number of the speakers

- Accents - Familiarity of the subject matter

- The amount of information - New vocabulary

Easy Difficult

Activity 4

Let's try to pool together the things we have just discussed in order to evaluate some listening materials. Listen to two texts on the topic of "Travelling" and assess the difficulty of both of them according to the criteria suggested above.

Which text would you choose to develop "listening for specific information" skill in your class of intermediate-level students? Give your reasons.