Transcript Teaching Listening in TEFL classes KAU/ELC Summer 2008

KAU/ELC
Summer 2008
Teaching Listening in TEFL classes
Proposed by: Mrs. Neila Ben Rejeb
Plan
Introduction:
1) What is listening ?
2) Why it is the hardest skill to master
What are the possible solutions?
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Importance of warming up Tasks
While listening Tasks
Post listening Tasks
Difficulties met by listening teachers and useful tips
Workshops: Group work
1) Preparation of a listening lesson
2) presentation of the work by groups spokeswomen
3) Peer observation feedback and discussion
Conclusion:
To what extent can a teacher be successful in a listening class ?
How to transmit successfully information to
learners is of a major importance to us as
practitioners in the classroom not theorists
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What is the main topic of the passage?
How many types of health care systems are
there in Britain?
The general practitioner has many roles in
Britain (True / false)
“family medicine’’ is popular in:
Britain / USA / both of them / all over the
world
Introduction
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Listening to any material requires some
particular kind of preparation prior to the act
of listening
1) What is listening in the first place?
Listening is the ability to identify and
understand a speaker’s accent or
pronunciation , his vocabulary and his
grammar, and grasping his meaning .
An able listener is capable of doing these
things Simultaneously (Howatt and Dakin)
2) Why is listening the hardest skill to
develop?
Wills lists a series of listening micro skills, she calls:
Enabling skills:
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Predicting what people are going to talk about.
Guessing at unknown words.
Using one’s own knowledge of the subject that helps
understand.
Identifying relevant points (note – taking, summarizing)
Recognizing cohesive devices
Understanding different intonation patterns and uses of
stress that gives clues to meaning and social setting
Understanding inferred information, speaker’s attitude or
intention.
Listening is a challenging activity for students
because:
1. They are trying to understand every word
2. They get left behind trying to work out what a previous
word meant.
3. They just don’t know the most important words
4. They don’t recognize the words they know
5. They have problems with different accents
6. They lack listening Stamina , they get tired .
7. They have a mental block
8. They are distracted by background noise
9. They can’t cope with not having images
10. They have hearing problems
11. They can’t tell the difference between the different voices
What are The possible
solutions?
1- Importance of pre-listening tasks:
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In real life, it is unusual for people to listen to something.
Without having some idea of what they are going to hear.
To avoid boring students.
To arouse interest among students, by using a picture or a
Humor story.
To make the students familiar with the context.
Warm-up exercise step is an important preparation for the
while listening stage.
We can say how well students had done in class depends
mostly on how well they had been warmed up.
Examples of warming -up
tasks
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Setting the context
Generating interest
Activating current knowledge , what do you know
about …?
Acquiring knowledge
Activating vocabulary
Predicting context
Pre-learning vocabulary
Checking/ understanding the listening tasks
Selection Criteria
Selecting the appropriate tasks depends on:
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The
The
The
The
time available
material available
ability of the class
interests of the class
While-listening activities
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“How to listen” Tasks:
Listen for gist (general idea, skimming)
Listen for specific detail ( scanning)
Listen for implication (What a statement
implies)
Listen for speaker’s attitude
“Listen and …” Activities
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Listen and repeat
Listen and record
Listen and memorize
Listen and transcribe
Listen and take notes
Visual support: Pictures, maps, graphs,
diagrams, supplying cultural notes
Post-listening Activities
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Role-plays
Group discussion
Making researches on the Net
writing essays on the same topic
Fill in the blanks, cloze test using the
vocabulary acquired in the listening.
Difficulties met by listening
teachers and useful tips
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Successful listening skills are acquired
over time and with a lot of practice
There are no rules in listening that can
lead to improved skills as in grammar ,
writing or speaking
Mental Block is a main inhibitor
A large number of learners are unable
to understand something unless they
see it
Useful tips
Ask questions about stressed words
 Give them an easy task that you know
they can do even if they don’t
understand 90% of the words
 Cut the listening into short segments
and use pause button to give their
brains a chance to catch up
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Make sure the quality of the tape
CD, and the recording is fine
Plan listening for when you know it
will be quiet outside, e.g. not at a
lunchtime or when the class next-door
is also having listening
Make students who have hearing
problems sit in the front
Convince students to listen to English as
often as possible but for short periods
Conclusion
The role of the listening teacher is:
 A guide who is to give students help
 A diagnoser who can identify
listening problems and put them right.
 A designer who is able of selecting
the adequate techniques, suitable tasks
for students
Reminder
Do not over-stuff your students,
 Remember they are a captive audience
for a limited lapse of time , so you have
to give them the fundamental
knowledge that a student must walk
away with
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To what extent are you able to make
your students: enjoy the listening,
acquire as much as they can the skill
you’re teaching?
That’s all what teaching is about.