5. The guidelines for teaching listening

Keep the recording short

not more than two minutes or so

Play the tape

a sufficient number of time

Let students discuss

the answers together

Don't immediately

acknowledge correct answers with words or facial expressions

Don't be led

by one strong students

Aim to get thestudents to agree together

without your help

Give help if

they are completely stuck

Give them control of the tape recorder

to listen when and what they wish

Don't cheat them

by changing your requirements half way

Try to make sure

the task is just within their abilities

Keep the recording short

not more than two minutes or so

Play the tape

a sufficient number of time

Let students discuss

the answers together

Don't immediately

acknowledge correct answers with words or facial expressions

Don't be led

by one strong students

Aim to get thestudents to agree together

without your help

Give help if

they are completely stuck

Give them control of the tape recorder

to listen when and what they wish

Don't cheat them

by changing your requirements half way

Try to make sure

the task is just within their abilities

Keep the recording short

not more than two minutes or so

Play the tape

a sufficient number of time

Let students discuss

the answers together

Don't immediately

acknowledge correct answers with words or facial expressions

Don't be led

by one strong students

Aim to get thestudents to agree together

without your help

Give help if

they are completely stuck

Give them control of the tape recorder

to listen when and what they wish

Don't cheat them

by changing your requirements half way

Try to make sure

the task is just within their abilities

Keep the recording short

not more than two minutes or so

Play the tape

a sufficient number of time

Let students discuss

the answers together

Don't immediately

acknowledge correct answers with words or facial expressions

Don't be led

by one strong students

Aim to get thestudents to agree together

without your help

Give help if

they are completely stuck

Give them control of the tape recorder

to listen when and what they wish

Don't cheat them

by changing your requirements half way

Try to make sure

the task is just within their abilities

Kind of

material

advantages

disadvantages

Live-

listening

• Speech is spontaneous, with natural repetitions, hesitations, etc.

• Students can pick up a lot of information from facial expression and other body language.

• Students can interact with the speaker (ex. ask to explain).

• There are no problems with poor quality recordings or equipment breaking down.

• Students may hear not a perfect model of the language (esp. when they are talking with each other).

• Students will get familiar with their teacher’s pronunciation.

Recorded materials

• Allow to bring a variety of voices and accents of native speakers into the classroom.

• It’s possible to stop the tape where students wish or play it again.

• In real life we can’t see the speaker sometimes (telephone conversations, listening to the radio), so the tape’s lack of body language can be an advantage.

• Visual clues are not presented.

• Students do not participate but just overhear what other people are talking about.

Authentic materials

• Students are encountering a totally natural “slice of life” – a good sample of real English.

• Often difficult for students at lower levels to understand

• The passages are often too long and structurally difficult.

• The speech is not clear.

Video

• Visual clues are presented, so a lot could be understood from body language.

• Opportunity to listen to overlapping dialogues, unfinished sentences, interjections, etc.

• With visual senses engaged students pay less attention to what they are hearing, they can treat it as they treat watching TV – lazily, so the picture serves as a distractor.

• Speech is faster

• Acoustic signals are less clear

• Accents are harder to understand

• The amount of information increases

• The structure changes:

• Step by step text texts with cross references  texts with back and forward references.

• Number of the speakers changes:

• monologue  some people are talking

• Familiarity of the subject matter  unawareness of the subject matter

Kind of listening

New vocabulary

Listening for gist,

listening for specific information

not more than 10%

Intensive listening

not more than 5%