3. PROCEDURES

Listening is a skill in which learners are most dependant on their own skills and strategies. While the teacher can guide while-reading or writing or even interrupt the speaking process, in the very moment that the learner is listening they are own their own.

This fact makes the preparation stage (pre-listening) of utmost importance.

How can we check understanding? (Based on Lund’s , 1990)

The learner can be asked to respond to the listening activity in many ways.

1. Doing (physically responding e.g: Stand up, raise your hands, If it’s true raise your left hand…)
2. Choosing (Selecting from multiple options: pictures, objects, texts e.g. Pick the object I am describing)
3. Transferring (drawing/completing a picture e.g. Listen and colour the animals, Listen and complete the map)
4. Answering questions (Both explicit and implicit meaning e.g. Listen and answer using one or two words)
5. Summarizing (taking notes on a long aural piece e.g. Listen and list what the person is doing next holidays)
6. Speaking (engaging in conversations e.g. Debates, discussions, dialogues)
   

What teachers should do to help students learn listening strategies:

• Teachers should model the process aloud: report as they go through the different stages of the listening process.
• Teachers should use certain teaching techniques to facilitate the development of listening strategies.
• Students practice listening strategies in class, and have enough time for discussing listening strategies with teacher and peers.
• Students should be encouraged to talk about strategies: mention the ones that can be used and those that they actually use.
• Teachers should promote the development of listening habits outside the classroom, encourage learners to listen to Podcasts, Youtube videos, films in L2, TV commercials, etc.
• Students should be able to identify the purpose of listening in order to choose the strategies they need to use.
• The best way to foster the sustained use of strategies is by planning  pre-, while, and post listening activities. 
  
• Pre-listening:  in order to prepare students for what they are going to listen as a way to expose them to new vocabulary and predict  what the recording is about
• While-listening: to help students understand the recording
• Post-listening: to connect their ideas/life with what they have listened to, to discuss the necessary strategies to succeed.

Pre-listening activities :

• Setting a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for
• Planning before listening
• Using graphic organizers
• Predicting what will be heard
• Using prior knowledge
• Looking for regular patterns in intonation
• Discussing what type of strategies are necessary (top-down/overall meaning or bottom up/specific words or phrases)
• Explaining cultural differences when necessary
• Reading and explaining instructions carefully
• Using pictures related to recording
• Writing questions before listening

While listening activities:

• imitating native speaker´s language
• monitoring understanding
• confirming predictions
• correcting mistakes
• Deciding what is and is not important to understand
• filling in graphs and charts
• following a route on a map
• checking off items in a list
• listening for the gist
• searching for specific clues to meaning
• completing cloze (fill-in) exercises
• ordering lines in songs
• choosing between options
• distinguishing between formal and informal registers
• taking notes
• answering questions

After listening activities:

• Evaluating comprehension in a particular task or area
• giving opinions
• relating to similar experiences
• Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task
• Modify strategies if necessary
• role-playing a similar interaction
• debating/discussing the topic

Factors that enhance understanding aural messages

• Slow pace
• Careful pronunciation
• Complete utterances
• Clear turn taking
• Absence of background noise

How can we help students practice listening?

Expose students to listening material regularly: in addition to teacher´s talk, use audio and video files in class, movies with English subtitles, set a listening activity as a piece of homework and organize a school trip to see a play in English with pre-listening, while listening and post-listening activities.

Choose appropriate materials: find materials that were specifically prepared for teaching listening comprehension or create your own taking into consideration students´background knowledge, listening strategies, activities sequence and difficulty levels.

Find the right level of difficulty: start with a video rather than with an audio material since visual support helps the message get across. Start with a very short TV segment on familiar topics such as ads, announcements, weather reports, interviews or short news reports.

Choose materials that students will enjoy: students listen for information or entertainment. Their attention will be greater and they will probably understand more if the material is motivating for them. For instance, if students are interested in sports, make students watch the sports they like on TV or listen to sports reports on a website. If students love a certain American sitcom, watch it with them to do listening activities.

Frequent Listening Problems and Possible Solution