Students often listen to spoken texts and answer comprehension questions. However, these tasks are considered of limited benefit as they may test students’ listening abilities rather than teach them how to listen effectively. To truly enhance listening skills, we should rethink how we use comprehension questions and explore more creative and purposeful ways of teaching listening.
One approach is to integrate practice in sub-skills, such as listening for gist, listening for specific information, or listening for inference. These skills empower students to approach listening tasks with confidence and strategy. Below are some practical and creative techniques:
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Prediction
Before listening, allow students to predict what they are about to hear. That activates their prior knowledge and helps them get into the right mindset. Pre-teaching key vocabulary can also support comprehension, enabling students to anticipate the content and engage actively with the listening material.
2. Getting the General Idea
Encourage students to identify the main idea without worrying about understanding every word. That builds their confidence and helps them focus on the overall message rather than getting lost in details.
3. Maintaining Attention
To sustain students’ focus during listening tasks, assign engaging activities. These can include:
- Listening to the speakers’ message.
- Inferring meaning from context or tone.
- Completing forms, drawing diagrams, following maps, or creating mind maps or spider grams.
4. Multiple Listening
Provide opportunities for students to listen to the audio multiple times. Each repetition, paired with appropriate guidance, enhances their understanding and helps them identify patterns in speech, such as how words and phrases combine into coherent texts.
5. Collaborative Work
Encourage students to discuss their interpretations with peers after listening. Collaborative discussions deepen their comprehension and provide different perspectives on the audio material.
6. Dictation
Use dictation exercises to expose students to specific language features. Repeat sentences as needed, and have students compare their notes with peers to refine their understanding of sounds, words, and sentence structures.
7. Dictogloss
This interactive activity involves reading a short text aloud while students jot down keywords. After a few rounds, they work with partners to reconstruct the text. That promotes active listening and collaboration.
8. Micro Listening
Focus on problematic phrases or elements in the audio. Repeat these small sections multiple times to help students decode challenging parts and improve their comprehension of longer texts.
9. Narrow Listening
Provide students with several short texts on the same topic or genre. This repetition familiarizes them with recurring vocabulary and expressions, reinforcing language acquisition.
10. Using Transcripts
Allow students to read transcripts of audio texts, either before or after listening. It helps them connect spoken words with their written forms, making it easier to grasp the flow of language.
Expanding Listening Activities
1. Jigsaw Listening
Divide students into groups, each listening to a different segment of an audio related to the same topic. They then collaborate to do a listening task to demonstrate a complete understanding, solve a mystery, or reconstruct a sequence of events.
2. Message Taking
Students listen to a message and write it down accurately on a message pad, honing their note-taking and summarizing skills.
3. News and Radio Genres
Play news broadcasts and have students identify topics, sequence events, or convert numerical details into charts or graphs. These activities link listening with analytical skills.
4. Poetry
Incorporate poetry into listening lessons by exploring mood, tone, and imagery. Students can match titles to poems, predict content, or infer emotions conveyed through the reading.
5. Stories
Listening to storytelling allows students to engage with narrative structures. They can summarize the story, identify key themes, or connect characters’ emotions to their actions.
6. Monologues
Expose students to different monologue types, such as lectures, interviews, or speeches. Activities might include taking notes, matching opinions to speakers, or analyzing the speaker’s mood and intent.
By diversifying listening tasks and incorporating these strategies, we can transform listening practice into an engaging and skill-building experience. Students will improve their comprehension and become more confident and strategic listeners.
Reference
How to Teach English by: Jeremy Harmer, New Edition
