How to teach listening like a pro

How to Teach Listening: отзыв

Пройдусь по содержанию книги; расскажу о том, что понравилось и показалось небезынтересным лично мне; поделюсь цитатами; не удержусь от собственных комментариев на How to Teach Listening))

Спонсор этого отзыва – снег в Москве 8 мая. Вот чесс слово, если бы не снег, я бы не взялась ни за ум, ни за клавиатуру)) Так бы и откладывала.

Книгу How to Teach Listening я упоминала, когда составляла список книг по методике преподавания из курса DELTA. Подробнее о списке и других книгах для преподавателей английского – здесь.

А теперь, собственно, отзыв.

How to Teach Listening: отзыв

Глава Listening in the world and in language learning

В этой главе рассказывается о роли listening вообще по жизни и на уроке английского, а также подход к listening в истории ELT. А также.

Трудности аудирования

Также подробно разбираются трудности понимания речи на слух, связанные с

…и как все это нужно учитывать и учить обходить в процессе обучения аудирования.

Стереотипы об аудировании

Также здесь разбирают несколько популярных стереотипов об аудировании, например:

You can’t teach people how to listen

. и многие другие стратегии и моменты, облегчающие понимание.

Ну а за myth-busting по остальным вопросам – пожалуйста в книгу))

Глава Listening texts and listening strategies

Аутентичные VS неаутентичные материалы

Здесь же автор касается вечного дебата «Аутентичные материалы VS неаутентичные материалы». Отголоски этого дебата звучат то тут, то там по всей книге и, признаюсь, именно они мне помогли по-новому взглянуть на учебники английского.

Также показалась ценной мысль: важнее, чем аутентичность самого материала для аудирования, то, что мы с этим материалом делаем, как с ним работаем, как на него реагируем = authentic responce.

Semi-scripted material

Еще было интересно узнать, что помимо authentic material и pedagogic / scripted material, бывает semi-scripted material, где актерам дают задание и некоторые guidelines, а они уже импровизируют на заданную тему. Правда, я не встречала таких материалов (или, может, не знала, что это были они?) Кто встречал?

Технологии и обучение языкам

Я раньше почему такой злой был? Потому что у меня велосипеда не было)) Язык в учебниках раньше почему такой малореалистичный был? Да потому что записывающих технологий не было!

Стратегии аудирования

В этой же главе подробно рассматриваются стратегии аудирования и как им обучать. Очень полезно.

Глава Listening sources, listening tasks

В третьей главе автор обсуждает разнообразные источники аудирования, в том числе:

. преимущества каждого и как со всем этим работать с примерами заданий.

Teacher Talk

Что мне понравилось в отрывке про Teacher Talk, так это признание его роли. В современной методике как-то принято клеймить его позором и пытаться свести к минимуму Teacher Talking Time. Мол, все то время, что говорит преподаватель, ученики НЕ говорят.

(В сторону: а кто вообще сказал, что ученики должны безостановочно говорить?)

Так вот, у преподавателя и у Teacher Talk как источника input, есть куча преимуществ.

В общем, есть Quality Teacher Talk, а есть бестолковое преподавательское бла-бла))

А, ну и важный момент, определяющий то самое quality– уровень языка преподавателя. Иногда все же лучше, когда говорят дикторы из учебника.

Главы Pre-listening, While-listening, Post-listening

Дальше идут еще более практические главы по каждому этапу общепринятой pedagogic sequence:

В них рассказывается о том:

Все три главы мне показались очень полезными, в том числе бывалым преподам, у которых есть иногда тенденция немного застревать в привычных способах работы. А тут – отличная возможность обновить свой репертуар.

Creative and critical responses

Например, в главе, посвященной post-listening, мне особенно понравилась мысль о том, что response– это не только обсуждение услышанного. А именно к этому все частенько и сводится, что уж греха таить. Чтобы разнообразить набившие оскомину discussions, можно посмотреть в сторону creative и critical responses.

Примеры creative responses:

Примеры critical responses:

A mistaken assumption is that listening comprehension consists of understanding what words and sentences mean. It doesn’t. It consists of understanding what speakers mean.

Глава Preparation and planning

В этой главе автор обсуждает:

Глава Listening in the wider context

В заключительной главе автор пишет о том, что Listening практически никогда не бывает сам по себе – он обычно связан с другими навыками, будь то speaking, reading или writing. И в этом одна из сложностей оценки и тестирования: как оценить один только Listening без вовлечения других skills?

Дальше автор подробнее останавливается на ongoing assessment / formative assessment VS testing / summative assessment.

А так как большинству преподавателей не приходится составлять тесты, дальше автор немного останавливается на подготовке к официальным тестам, вроде CAE, IELTS, TOEFL и др.

В этой же главе я нашла название одной рабочей техники, которую я использовала, но не знала, как она называется.

Приятно, черт побери, иногда узнать, что ты все делаешь правильно по какому-то своему наитию. Но жаль, что не я изобрела этот способ работы, как выяснилось))

Task file

В конце книги есть Task File с вопросами, заданиями для проработки и аудио. Можно работать с ним самостоятельно (есть примерные ответы), а можно использовать на teacher development courses.

How to Teach Listening: резюме

В общем и целом, книга How to Teach Listening показалась мне полезной и для новичков в преподавании английского, и для матерых преподов. Главное – keep an open mind, тогда точно узнаешь что-то новенькое или в очередной раз вспомнишь что-то новенькое-старенькое.

В книге есть как конкретика, так и общеразвивающее бла-бла теоретические аспекты аудирования. Последнее мне кажется если не более, то уж точно настолько же полезным, как и примеры упражнений. Потому что хорошо бы, когда преподаватель начнет подбирать материалы для аудирования и составлять к ним pedagogic sequence, он руководствовался какими-то принципами, а не сочинял задания от балды.

Коллеги, а вы читали How To Teach Listening? Что понравилось и показалось полезным? А с чем не согласны? Давайте обсудим!

Какой был бы ваш отзыв на How to Teach Listening?

How to Teach Listening Skills

Teaching listening skills presents a series of challenges. It is perhaps the most ephemeral of language skills, hard to understand, teach, and assess.

How do you really know that someone understood you correctly without asking after every sentence “Do you understand?” (And students are often programmed to respond “yes” even when they didn’t.) This problem may also apply to reading, the other “receptive” language skill, in that its focus is largely on the comprehension of another speaker’s production; however, while the teacher has some understanding of how to teach someone to read in English by teaching context clues, for example, to help students comprehend text, how do you really teach someone to listen better (especially when even many native speakers of English often have difficulties with this)? However, while teaching listening may seem ambiguous, there are actually a number of principles that apply in teaching listening skills in English.

Principles for Good Listening

Following are a number of listening skills, most of which not only benefit the ESL student but also the native speaker.

Basics: Pay Attention

Even native speakers need help with this. Focus on the speaker. Look at him or her because facial expressions and body language can communicate as much as language. For example, there will usually be more engagement with the listener in making eye contact and use of hand gestures if what the speaker is saying is of importance to him or her. In addition, it’s easy to mistake what someone actually said if you are not focusing on him or her and are engaged in some other task, such as reading or texting.

Practice Active Listening

Ask the speaker to slow down or repeat when you don’t understand or just want to be certain about what you heard. Repeat back what you think you heard him or her say, as there can often be a gap between what we thought we heard and what the speaker intended. This gap can be addressed by letting the speaker know what you heard: for example, “So what I’m hearing from you is that you would like more quiet and fewer distractions after 9 p.m. so that you can study.” This is called “active listening,” in which the listening portion of a conversation becomes as active as the speaking part in communicating a message, and not only helps the listener in understanding what the speaker is saying, but also can help the speaker in organizing his thoughts and clarify what he wants to communicate: e.g., the speaker may be spluttering something about the late hour and her test tomorrow, and may not consciously know what she is trying to ask for—or is too reticent—until the listener clarifies.

Pay Attention to Structure

In a formal lecture or speech, the speaker will usually let you know ahead of time the organization of the discourse: “Today we will discuss the two types of diabetes, Type One and Type Two, although as we will see, there is some overlap—” and then what will follow is a description of Types One and Two, with the overlap probably addressed at the end. These devices, called “discourse markers,” actually help the listener in organizing and understanding the lecture. Even in less formal conversation, speakers will often structure their discourse, especially if they want to make certain they are understood: “Okay, there are a few issues I need to raise with you….” With this informal marker of “there are a few—” and the use of the word “issues,” the speaker signals the importance of what follows. “A few,” it may be noted, is a vague expression, and what follows may be anywhere from two to five or six issues. The listener may clarify when the “issues” are covered by asking “Is there anything else?” when the speaker pauses.

Listen for Key Words

What words does the speaker emphasize? Usually the speaker will let you know by stressing the main point: “Let’s talk about the TIME we will meet tomorrow….” The stressed word “time” signals that the time of tomorrow’s appointment is the main point, as does the marker “Let’s talk about—”

In addition, certain words signal importance by themselves, such as “issues,” as seen above: whatever follows “issues” is of importance. Other key words signaling importance are “concerns” and “points.”

Key Phrases or Markers

In formal lectures the speaker usually also “marks” main points with key phrases: “The main point is…” or “On the other hand, some people take an opposing viewpoint….” But even in everyday conversation the speaker often uses less formal markers: for example, “I guess what I’m trying to say is—” is often used before a main point.

Teaching Principles of Listening

Make it Explicit

Even native speakers, who actually use markers or key vocabulary, may not have consciously thought about these devices. Introducing some key markers and vocabulary is often welcome it makes explicit how to understand and manage conversations, which may have been something a mystery (such as why a friend reacts with anger at your student ignoring a raised “issue”). In addition, key terms such as “active listening” and “discourse marker” should be introduced and exemplified.

Model

For new concepts, such as active listening, a model is needed. This can be provided by traditional print example dialogues as well as film clips, and teacher modeling with volunteer students: e.g., the teacher might say, “Gina, tell me something of importance to you, and I’ll listen actively. The rest of the class, pay attention, and then let’s discuss what goes into active listening.”

Practice

This might be especially important in active listening, which few people, native or nonnative speakers, really know how to do, as we are used to either sitting quietly while a speaker finishes his speech (or diatribe, if he or she is angry), or interrupting, when we think he or she is wrong, or sitting and planning what we will say in response, etc. Active listening takes practice, but is worth it in terms of improved listening skills and relationships.

Teaching good listening skills is difficult as it is so difficult to define and exemplify, and few of us, even native speakers of English, really do it well.

But by making explicit the qualities of good listening and then practicing it, our ESL students can become good listeners in English, and often better than their native speaker peers.

Teaching listening activities according to CELTA

As you might know CELTA is among the most popular courses in the professional development plan of a teacher. From experience, it’s a great course giving you a nice insight into teaching English as a foreign language, equipping you with the necessary tools and knowledge to take your first steps into the teaching community.

Some teachers do it at a later stage in their career, which, if you ask me, is probably a better choice as you already have some experience in teaching, know the challenges you face in the classroom, have some knowledge of lesson planning and material development. In this case CELTA greatly helps to polish those skills and gives you closure of why we do what we do in the classroom.

Among practical teaching sessions, theoretical input and more, CELTA teaches you to work structurally and meet the needs of your students as best as possible. Here we will be talking about one of the language skills covered by the CELTA course — teaching listening skills.

As one of the receptive skills, listening can sometimes be “ignored” in the ESL/EFL classroom, as the ultimate goal of the students is to improve their production skills and this can affect the flow of the lesson, the accent that should be put on that, etc. However, CELTA (and all the other PDP courses) stresses the importance of paying due attention to all the language skills as they form the language on the whole. Here is a lesson structure/procedure that was mostly practiced in my CELTA course.

PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production)

Stage 1 — Presentation

To begin with, you should set the context of the lesson. In other words it’s known as the “Lead-in” where we introduce the students to the context of the lesson and prepare them to dive in. It can be done in many different ways. My personal favourites are the ones below:

Use pictures to introduce the people and the conversation in the listening track. Let’s say there are 2 people talking, the situation is happening in a cafe and they are arguing about something. Here are some sample pictures that you can use to elicit what the listening is going to be about.

You can use any of the pictures and ask the following questions for the students to brainstorm:

This will allow your students to get into the topic of the lesson, generate a lot of language on the situation (you can even provide some sample language from the dialogue at this point to make the students’ job easier) and feel more involved while already listening to the track.

Another interesting way to set the context up is to print the script of the conversation, remove some parts of it and give it to the students to read, act it out and fill in the missing information as best as they can. This normally ends up in some interesting dialogues, sometimes even better that the original one.

Once the students are done brainstorming (in both cases), elicit their stories and encourage them to listen and check whose story was closer to the original one. This is the second stage, the so-called “Listening for gist”, where students need to listen for general information without focusing on the details. At this point it is generally not necessary to present some language unless it will distort understanding.

Next step is the presentation of the language. Here, you will need to identify the language that can be new to your students and elicit the meaning, form and the pronunciation. You can read about vocabulary presentation more here.

It should be highlighted that teaching pronunciation, sentence stress and legation is of utmost importance when teaching listening skills, as students can have a lot of trouble understanding the speech if they are unaware of how the words are connected to each other in speech, the silent letters, the stress patterns, etc. One of the the best example here is the difference between:

“Would you like some coffee?” — this is what you see.

“Wʊdjə laɪk səm ˈkɔːfi/” ↗ — this is what you hear.

A lot more similar examples can be found which, if not trained to listen to, can be missed by the students and result in complete misunderstanding.

Stage 2 — Practice

At this point, where the students have covered the target language and are more or less aware of the context of the listening, you will need to proceed with the “Listening for details”. This stage is also known as “Controlled practice.” Here, you can ask the students to:

Almost all the textbooks offer a variety of these types of exercises. This step helps the students understand the listening in more detail and be ready to speculate on it. In cases when the students are still having some doubts, it’s a good idea to listen to it one more time.

This brings us to the next step, where the students will need to practice the language and the situational context they were working with before. There are several activities that you can try here:

This step prepares the students for the next stage.

Stage 3 — Production

This stage shows the end result of your work. If students are able to produce the language they have covered during the previous stages to create a situation of their own and manipulate with the language then, you have been successful.

I personally ask my students to create a situation of their own, using the target language. They are free to write it down, act it out in pairs and then present to the whole class.

To keep the rest of the class busy, when one of the pairs is presenting, is to ask the rest of the students to write down the new words/phrases once they hear them. In the end, the lists can be compared and the pair with most of the words wins. It is important to pay attention to the intonation patterns as well while assessing the production.

This would successfully conclude the stages of teaching listening according to the CELTA course I did in 2015.

Tips for teaching listening – How to teach your students to listen with purpose

Listening in a second language is so much more than simply understanding what someone is saying. We listen to different people in different ways depending on how, where and when we are interacting, or whether we are interacting at all.

In the field of ESOL, learners typically listen to three different sources of information in their lessons: the teacher, each other and, most commonly, an audio recording of one or two people speaking.

As teachers looking to develop the complicated range of communicative skills involved in listening, we have to consider several factors related to the message we are asking our students to listen to, the medium through which it is being delivered and the methodologies we can use to lead our students through this potentially daunting task.

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Medium and Message

Think for a moment about an average week in your life – how many different people and sources of information do you listen to, and how many of these do you listen to consciously, or actively, where some kind of thought is required to decode or retain a message?

I would argue that most of the listening we do in our everyday lives is semi-conscious; we don’t really have to think about what we are listening to, as we are taking part in everyday situations such as talking with friends, interacting in formulaic service encounters (speaking with shop assistants, waiters, bank clerks, etc) or talking about familiar aspects of work.

This begs the question: why do we ask our students to think so carefully about the minute details of the listening recordings that we play for them?

Also, do we expect the same amount of attention from students as they interact with each other, or us as teachers? Do we see video tasks as a form of listening? Or work that we do in class with songs?

The medium (the way in which information is transmitted, as represented by these different listening situations) greatly affects how we perform listening activity – we listen to other people in a discussion quite differently to when we are taking notes for a specific task during a lecture or presentation.

For this reason, it is useful for students to develop different styles of listening for different tasks. This is something which can be highlighted to them through developmental listening activities in the classroom, and practised in our learners’ everyday lives (or for homework with different types of listening input).

Preparation, pre-teaching and task design

Bringing listening into the classroom, we have to remember that our learners are performing this work in a second language; this means that there is automatically more strain on their listening brains, more language work to be done, and often confidence issues in weaker listeners as the message flies past from the speakers.

These important considerations mean that we have to scaffold listening activity in most situations where students will be hearing something for the first time (unless they are in a test setting, in which case the test is how they deal with the lack of support).

Pre-listening stages are crucial to the development of good habits while listening activity takes place.Some ideas for pre-listening tasks are:

Beyond comprehension

Most listening activity focuses on comprehension: recognising factual information from a speaker or speakers.

However, this may not fully prepare students to listen spontaneously to a range of different spoken media, or as an active participant in interaction in English. Go beyond facts and figures and ask more contextual questions about the setting, the speakers’ emotions and their reasons for saying certain things.

-‘What does the man tell the woman to do at the end of the conversation’ involves much shallower processing of information than

-‘Why was the woman surprised at the end of the conversation’ or

-‘Why did the man ask the woman the final question in their conversation?’.

Context-based questions can get learners engaged with deeper levels of meaning and interaction than simple comprehension enables.

Revitalising listening activities – don’t just press play

Finally, a point on the mechanics of playing listening tracks for students. Remember that an audio track is fleeting and transitory when played through from beginning to end, but is recorded, so does have some permanence for teaching purposes.

Think about times when it is appropriate to have students listen to a recording all the way through, getting what they can along the way, and when it might be better to play it in chunks, to build the information and give time for more processing of the message.

If you are aiming to develop broader listening skills in learners, playing the recording twice, with one listening for general, gist-level questions, followed by another listening with more detailed questions, is effective.

Do not be afraid to focus on specific sections of the recording to play again after the main task has been finished for key words or signposting language, asking staged questions along the way.

This is just the kind of support students need, and will lead to more informed comprehension than a single listen.

Conclusion:

Overall, we have to remember how stressful listening in another language can be, so any developmental support we can provide will free up our students to focus on the deeper skills that we all use without realising it when we listen.

When planning a listening task, think about what language to pre-teach, identifying contextual information, setting clear and wide-ranging tasks, and how you will manage the recording when it comes time to listen. These points will give your students the support they need in class, and raise their confidence to listen with purpose as they practise.

Further Readings:

This article was originally published on January 9, 2019 and was last updated on December 17, 2020.

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How to Teach Listening in the ESL Classroom: 15 Valuable Activities That Create Solid Skills

Teaching listening skills can be tricky, as all students learn at different paces.

Some students will “get it,” others may struggle… and what if a student is hard of hearing?

In this post, we’ll tackle some questions about listening and we’ll discuss how to teach ESL listening skills in the classroom.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

What Exactly Is “Listening,” Anyway?

Even more to the point, what is the difference between “hearing” and “listening”?

In ESL teaching and learning, “listening” is a skill that involves more than just hearing.

We want our students to be able to listen to English with confidence and understanding.

From time to time, teachers try to test and evaluate their students’ level of skill in listening, but this can be quite stressful for students for a number of reasons.

Teachers should be aware that…

So, how can we teach the skill of listening?

It is easier to teach facts and knowledge than to teach a skill. But teachers can improve students’ listening skills and confidence by…

3 Ways to Increase Listening Skills and Confidence

First of all, here are three basic principles.

1. Limit the use of translation.

Your students need to be able to understand and respond without having to translate in their heads all the time, especially when they are listening rather than reading. At first it might seem like the easy, comfortable way to learn a language, but if it develops into a habit then they will never be able to speak English fluently.

Translation is a habit that needs to be limited because…

This doesn’t mean that you never let them translate. Sometimes having an equivalent from their first language is the only way to move them forward, but quickly move on and don’t allow them to keep returning to it.

In general, there are better ways to handle running into new vocabulary while listening.

When students hear a new word or expression, they need something to tie it to.

As their teacher, you can help them with this by providing…

Help students to relax, and not to panic, as they listen to material (especially the first time) and to find out how much they can understand. They will probably be pleasantly surprised. For some students, this in itself can be a real confidence booster.

2. Avoid confusing listening skills with literacy skills.

When you first introduce a new listening “text” (e.g., video, story, song, podcast…) concentrate on listening and don’t provide subtitles or written script (yet). In real life, there are no subtitles, so let your students have a go just listening. (Later you can add subtitles or a written script as well as literacy-related activities.)

The reasons for this are as follows:

Once they have listened without seeing subtitles or script the first time, and you have discussed some issues, then you can listen and watch again with the assistance of subtitles or text.

3. Use videos because students can watch and listen.

We want to prepare our students to take part in conversations. We want them to be able to listen, understand and respond. A large part of that listening involves reading a speaker’s facial expressions and body language, which can vary from culture to culture. So, most of the time, your students need to practice their “listening” skills by watching videos, or watching you talk or tell stories.

If your students are intimidated by authentic content or aren’t quite high enough level to understand what they’re watching, no worries: Just listening and watching can teach them a lot about the flow, intonation and body language that comes with speaking naturally.

You can also use FluentU to give students a leg up in this challenge. FluentU teaches English with the same videos that native English speakers watch, like movie clips and trailers, vlogs, news segments and inspirational talks.

But it does so with the addition of learning tools that make the content approachable for learners of any level.

In fact, videos are organized into six difficulty levels, as well as by topic and format, allowing you and your students to cherry-pick videos that are at the right level but also engaging to each individual learner.

Students will have a number of other tools at their disposal with FluentU, including transcripts, interactive subtitles with a built-in contextual dictionary and personalized quizzes.

There are two situations in which students are likely to be listening to English without seeing the speaker(s):

But even in these situations they still need to be able to imagine the body language being used.

So do you just play the video, and see what the students make of it?

Just as you would for a reading text, you need to prepare your students to deal with something new to concentrate on and listen to, whether they are watching a video, listening to someone read or tell a story, listening to a song or just listening to a live talk.

There are several activities you can use before, during, and after listening, and then later in the lesson or another day. All of these are designed to improve the students’ skills and confidence in listening.

Pre-listening activities

1. Predicting and guessing

In normal conversation, what we hear tends to fit in with what we expect to hear, and without necessarily thinking about it we tend to listen for specific details. It’s telling that when someone says something totally unexpected or out of context, many people respond in surprise with “What?!” as if they didn’t actually hear the words. While listening to people we are familiar with in a particular context, we can easily guess what they will say.

So before playing the “text,” prepare your students for the experience, and get them thinking about the topic:

Hopefully, they might even remember relevant English words they have previously learnt. All of this will help to review known vocabulary, and introduce some new vocabulary.

2. Vocabulary preparation

When you choose something for your students to study in the context of a listening lesson, you need to consider its suitability for the age and maturity of your students and whether it is at an appropriate difficulty level. This could be based on the amount of “new” vocabulary in the “text.”

Make sure you have watched or listened right through (never use something you haven’t thoroughly examined!) and note down words or expressions that they might find challenging. Obviously, if there are a great many new words, maybe it’s too difficult—unless maybe the meaning is really obvious from the visuals.

Make a list of words from your movie or story that some or all of your students may have difficulty with, especially words that are key to the story. You don’t have to teach the students all of the new words the first time through. Just choose a few that are essential and teach them before playing the “text.” Of course, including one or two that they already know will probably boost their confidence, too.

Remember: When you are introducing new words, translate only if absolutely necessary. Where possible, connect the words with pictures, actions and other English words.

During listening activities

While students are watching and/or listening, it’s sometimes hard to tell whether they are really still paying attention or just relaxing and daydreaming. (At least if it’s a video, they are more likely to stay focused.) So it’s a good idea to give them tasks to do while playing the “text.”

Here are some ideas.

3. Listen for specific words and expressions, or even watch for specific items.

Obviously, your students need to be listening specifically for the words and expressions you have just taught them. They should also have some words they already know to listen for, to help them focus and improve the skill of listening.

Give them specific questions to focus on, such as…

You can even give them a small “Bingo!” card with the target words for them to mark off as they hear them.

They could also be looking for specific visual items. On the board or a worksheet, put the things they are looking for into chronological order as they appear: This could be in the form of English words or pictures.

4. Listen for sequence and order.

Students could be asked to work out the order that things happen. They could, for example, have several pictures on a worksheet that they have to put into the right order as they notice them happen. (Before listening, they could guess the order, and then check as they go along.)

5. Listen and watch for specific events.

Ask the students to watch out for specific happenings.

After listening activities

Right after watching the video or listening to the story for the very first time is a very important moment. At this moment, you want to…

Here are some ways to cover that ground.

6. Refer back to pre-listening vocab and sequences.

This could take the form of a class discussion, a prepared worksheet, discussion in pairs or even a quiz-type game.

7. Notice collocations.

Draw attention to the context of the newly-acquired vocabulary and ask if they noticed any familiar or unfamiliar words that might tend to collocate with them. The ability to notice this can become a valuable skill for students.

This is also a preparation for the second time they listen or watch. Now that they have noticed specific words, expression and characters, get them to widen their observation to see what is around.

For example: Let’s say you are watching “Finding Nemo,” and your students have been listening for the word “ocean.”

Students could notice that…

Of course, if you are going to try to talk about specifics like this you could also…

Activities for later practice and reinforcement

Depending on your class setup, how long your lesson is, how old your students are and how long the video or story is, you could listen again immediately to reinforce all of your recent learning.

If that is not possible, then make sure you do take time later to listen again—more than once!

Here are some things to try:

8. Listen again for the same things (maybe some students missed them) and new things.

Listen (and watch) again, with the same instructions as the first time, to make sure that every student enjoys success.

Here are some additional ideas:

9. Listen for particular words and expressions in new environments.

Learning increases when students can start using new vocabulary in new situations. If possible, let them listen to something else that uses some of the new expressions. Maybe you could use a different medium. For instance, tell them a story (made up, if you like) that uses some of the new vocabulary. You could tell a story about a place that has great “ocean views,” referring to the Nemo example above.

10. Listen to new expressions and compare them with similar ones.

Now take the newly acquired words and expressions and change them a bit, making substitutions for parts of them. Let students listen and notice the differences. Again, you could tell a story and change some parts. For a simple example: Instead of Goldilocks and the three bears, there could be three frogs, or Goldilocks could be a boy, etc.

There could be other changes in the language, such as gender of pronouns, or tense.

11. Play “listen and do” games.

The addition of movement to a learning activity can improve and cement the learning. So practicing newly-acquired words and expressions using action is both fun and beneficial. If students have learnt some verbs, these can be mixed with already familiar verbs in an activity that involves responding to the words with actions. For example, a “Simon Says” type game.

12. Use technology for listening practice at home.

If students only think about English during class time, then it will take them a very long time to learn it well because they need to learn to think in English. Nowadays, it is not difficult to provide them with a video, or story podcast, to listen to again at home. They could be so enthusiastic about it that it doesn’t even feel like “homework”! They can be given set exercises or questions to help them focus, or they can simply relax and enjoy it, soaking up the language.

Extra activities for after listening

There are other ways that students can be reminded of words and expressions taught during a listening session.

13. Dictation

The teacher can dictate quotes from the video or story that they have already watched and enjoyed, and the students can try to write them down. This helps to tie in their literacy skills with their listening, as well as reinforcing what they have learned through watching.

This could also be a “running dictation” where students are in pairs—one to run and dictate, the other to listen and write—and the written text to dictate is posted somewhere at a distance such as outside the classroom. The running student goes and reads and remembers as much of the text as he can, then runs back and dictates it to his partner to write down.

14. Bingo!

Words or expressions focused on in the video or story can be incorporated into a “Bingo!” game. Go to a website such as ESLactivities.com to create enough cards for the whole class, each containing the same words but in random order. Give students objects such as small stones or sunflower seeds to use as markers. Students place markers on their cards as you call out the words, and when someone gets five in a row in any direction they call “Bingo!” The winner becomes the next caller, the markers are removed and the game starts again.

15. Flashcard games

Words and expressions to be focused on can be written on flashcards and used for many different games. For example, students could have their own small set of cards and hold up the appropriate one when it is heard while listening to the “text.” Or pairs of words could be placed on the boards with students in pairs racing to claim the right one when it is heard.

Listen again and again

It is very important for students to listen to the story or watch the video again, as soon as possible after the first time.

But it’s also important to keep doing this later at greater intervals.

With every repeat, old information will be reinforced and new things will be learnt, too!

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