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Mihaela Tanase-Dogaru
Spring semester 2017

TEFL, 5

TEACHING LISTENING

I. Why Teach Listening?

In the previous lecture, we tried to demonstrate that the need for teaching students how to read in
English is a real and significant one. The conclusion we drew was that the students already possess
reading skills in their own language, but that they have to be activated and transferred in the second
language. Things are quite the same when it comes to listening skills. Students already have the basic
listening skills in their mother tongues, but they have to be taught how to cope with the information
presented in the second language.
a) As for the reasons for teaching listening, one of the main objectives is to expose students to a
whole range of different varieties and accents – rather than just the voice of the teacher. In today’s
world, students need to be exposed not only to one variety of English, (British English, for example)
but also to varieties such as American English, Australian English, Caribbean English, Indian English
or West African English. When people of different nationalities speak to each other, they often use
English, so that a Romanian student needs to be able to understand a Swiss or Japanese variety, a.s.o.
Despite the desire to expose students to many varieties of English, however, common sense in
choosing the listening material has to prevail. The number of different varieties will be a matter for the
teacher to judge, based on the students’ level, where the classes are taking place, etc. But even if they
only listen occasionally to very moderate varieties of English that are different from the teacher’s, they
are much more likely to learn English successfully (in the sense of becoming successful
communicators in English).
b) The second major reason for teaching listening is because it helps students acquire the language
subconsciously even if teachers do not draw attention to its special features. Exposure to language is a
fundamental requirement to the language learner. Listening to appropriate tapes provides such
exposure, through the use of taped material which can exemplify a wide range of topics, such as:
advertisements, news broadcasts, poetry reading, plays, pop songs with lyrics, telephone
conversations, etc.
c) A third major reason for teaching listening is the need to practise the skill in itself. Just as with
reading, students get better at listening the more they do it. Listening skills are probably the most
neglected skills in teaching. Teachers often forget that listening to taped material in a foreign language
is not easy, in the sense that students find it difficult to follow the amount of information on the tape.
Listening in one’s own language may be done for different reasons, for information or for pleasure.
Moreover, when listening to their own language, students employ a number of unconscious strategies
like using the context to recreate the text. In an actual communication (face to face), speakers rely a lot
on the so-called redundancies, which help them get the meaning without paying attention to each and
every word. Such redundancies may be:
- situational or contextual: gestures, feedback
- linguistic: intonation, stress on key-words
When listening to the tape, however, there is no feedback, nor any extra redundancies. That is why
students have to be taught how to listen, they have to understand that there strategies that help them
cope with listening material.
Usually, students experience a feeling of panic during the listening activities, because all students
have to go with the speed of the voices they are listening to. Unlike reading, listeners cannot go back
to a previous paragraph, they cannot stop a bit to think before continuing etc. More often than not, if
they fail to recognise a word or phrase – and if, therefore, they stop to think about it – they often miss
the next part of the tape and fall behind in terms of comprehension. It is especially for this reason
that students need to be encouraged to listen for general understanding first rather than trying
to identify all the details. When first listening to the tape, they have to achieve general
comprehension before returning to listen for specific detail.
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Another thing that teachers should make sure the students understand before actually listening to the
tape is the uniqueness and peculiarity of spoken language. If students are only used to reading texts of
an artificial kind (whole sentences, etc.) or to listen to teacher’s articulate instructions, etc., their
attention should be drawn to the unique features of the spoken language, like: the use of incomplete
utterances (e.g. “Dinner?” is a perfect way of asking “Is dinner ready?”), repetitions (e.g. “I’m
absolutely sure, absolutely sure you know she’s right”), hesitations (“Yes, well, umm, yes, possibly,
but, err…”), etc.
d) Another reason for doing listening in the English class is to give further practice and revision of
previously taught language in new contexts.
e) To introduce new language items in context.

II. Before establishing together some of the more important principles that lie behind the teaching of
listening, it might be helpful extract or deduce such principles from actual examples of teaching
listening, of both the negative and positive kind.
This is a two-minute recording of a scene in a wine bar (1 on your handouts – tape-script). Although it
has been specially recorded for students of English, it sounds reasonably authentic (it sounds
spontaneous rather than scripted). We hear a couple briefly discussing the menu, then ordering two
meals and some wine. The waitress explains that one dish is “off” so the man re-orders.
MAN: Don’t think I want meat today.
WOMAN: There’s trout…
MAN: Can’t stand it.
WOMAN: Could you just move the … thanks
MAN: Fresh caught cod – sounds good.
WOMAN: Should be at ₤ 7.95! Beef and stout pie – yuk! Mm lasagne – d’you think that’s meat?
MAN: You’re not a vegetarian, are you?
WOMAN: No, not really. Sort of 50/50. Excuse me. Is the lasagne vegetarian?
WAITRESS: We do a vegetable one.
WOMAN: Can I have that, please?
MAN: And a cod and chips.
WAITRESS: Sorry. The cod’s finished. We do have trout left.
MAN: Oh – well – I’ll have the same as her.
WAITRESS: Right – anything to drink with the meal?
MAN: I’ll stick to wine, I think.
WOMAN: I’ll join you.
MAN: A bottle of house red, please.
WAITRESS: Thank you.

Here is the opening of a lesson procedure intended to improve students’ listening skills:
Say to students: Listen to this. Play tape once. When finished, quickly ask individual students the
following questions: 1. What price was the cod? 2. What was in the pie? 3. Why does the man choose
lasagne? 4. What words did the man use to order the drink? Look coldly at students who get the
answers wrong and tell them that they should have listened harder.
Apart from the insults, in what other ways might this lesson plan be unsatisfactory?
- The questions are pointless; they are not necessarily what one would listen for if he heard the
conversation in real life
- The questions seem more like a memory test; when listening to the tape, the students feel that
there are some comprehension questions on the way and they struggle to listen to everything and
to remember everything. The consequence – they remember very little.
- There is nothing in this plan to help students learn to listen better

Here is a second version of the same lesson plan:

Hand out a copy of the text of the conversation to all students. Play tape. When finished, ask
individual students the following questions: 1. What does the man order? 2. What does the woman
order?
There still seems to be a serious problem with that. What?
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- Although the questions are a lot more reasonable and the tone is less threatening, the problem is
that students do not actually need to listen at all.
- Giving out the text turns it into a reading exercise

From these two negative examples, what do you think are the most important things to remember
when devising a listening activity?
1. The activity must really demand listening.
2. It mustn’t be simply a memory test.
3. Tasks should be realistic or useful in some way.
4. The activity must actively help students to improve their listening skills.
5. The activity shouldn’t be threatening.
6. Help students work around difficulties to achieve specific results.

The simplest way to achieve these goals is by setting the questions before the tape is listened to (rather
than after). This way the students listen with a clear aim in mind. In everyday life we usually have
some purpose in mind when we listen: to find out today’s weather, to learn something, to be
entertained, etc. By giving the learners a clear purpose in listening we turn the exercise from a
memory test into a listening task.

Now, think again about the lesson procedures we have just discussed. Can you redesign them so as
include the checklist of features above?
A simple plan would be as follows:
1. Set questions.
2. Play tape.
3. Check if the students have found the answers.
4. If not, go back to step 2 as often as necessary.
5. Use follow-up exercises based on the tape.
This an example of the ‘question first’ technique or the ‘task before tape’ technique

III. Some Principles behind the Teaching of Listening.

After having talked about both negative and positive examples of lesson procedures when teaching
listening, we will try to extract some general principles to be kept in mind whenever using listening
material in the English class.
a. The tape recorder and the tape should be in good condition.
b. Preparation is very important.
Listen to the tape before going to class and be prepared for all difficulties that you may encounter.
Also, engage students in pre-listening activities that prepare them for listening.
c. Once is not enough.
Students need to listen to the tape first to get the general idea and then to look for specific bits of
information.
d. Students should be encouraged to respond to the content of a listening, not just to the language.
Questions like ‘Do you agree?’ are just as important as ‘What language did she used to invite him?’
e. Different listening stages demand different listening tasks.
For a first listening, the task needs to be very general and straightforward. Later listening may focus
on details regarding information, language use, pronunciation, etc.
f. Exploit the listening material to the full.
Listening should not be an exercise in itself, but should be integrated in a teaching sequence. The
teacher may use the subject matter, situation or tape-script for new activities.
g. Let students discuss their answers together (perhaps in pairs).
h. Don’t be led by one strong student (don’t fly with the fastest). It’s important that all should get the
answers.
i. Play little bits of the tape (a word, a phrase, and a sentence) again and again until it’s clear.
(during later stages of listening)
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j. Give help if they are completely stuck – but still with the aim of getting them to work it out if at
all possible (e.g. There are three words in the sentence or Listen to what she says here, rather than
giving them the answers).
k. Grade the task – not the tape.
In theory it is possible to use any tape with any level, if the task is set for the right level. We can use a
recording of BBC news eve with beginner levels (ask them to catch the names of every famous person
they hear). At much higher levels the tasks should be much more complex.

IV. Ways of Listening

The receptive skills that we discussed in the previous lecture apply to listening in much the same
manner as they apply to reading. They are: predictive skills, extracting specific information, getting
the general picture, extracting detailed information, recognising function and discourse patterns, and
deducing meaning from context.
With reading, there were four basic techniques or ways of reading: skimming (reading to get the main
idea), scanning (reading for specific information), intensive reading (reading for detailed information),
and extensive reading (reading for pleasure).
These four basic techniques apply to listening as well. Students may listen to a text:
a. to get the general picture or the main idea or the gist of the recorded text – usually, when first
listening to the taped material
b. to find specific pieces of information – when listening to the tape the second or third time
c. to find detailed information – intensive listening
d. for pure pleasure – extensive listening (some students listen to sports commentaries on Eurosport
or to MTV language or to other commentaries on Discovery Channel for pure pleasure).

V. Stages of Teaching Listening

I. Pre-Listening Activities.
Just as with reading, such activities are extremely important. You don’t just play the tape and ask
students to listen to it. The aims of pre-listening activities are:
- to activate the students’ background knowledge related to the topic
- to allow students to make predictions and develop strategies of coping with the taped material
- to activate the vocabulary set associated with the topic
- to provide a reason for listening as well as a context.
a. brainstorming
b. looking at pictures and talking about them
c. making lists of possibilities/suggestions/ideas, etc.
d. reading a text
e. class discussion – predicting, speculating
f. reading through questions (to be answered while listening)
g. labelling
h. completing part of a chart
i. informal teacher talk

II. While Listening Activities

The teacher should always set a task for the students to complete while listening, because this gives
them a reason to keep on listening – usually take the form of note-taking
a. marking/checking items in pictures
b. matching pictures with what is heard
c. story-line picture sets
d. putting pictures in order
e. completing pictures
f. picture drawing
g. carrying out instructions
h. making models/ arranging items in patterns
i. following a route
j. completing grids, forms or charts
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k. labelling
l. using lists
m. true/false
n. multiple-choice questions
o. gap-filling or text-completion
p. spotting mistakes
q. seeking specific items of information

III. Post Listening Activities

a. answering comprehension questions
b. extending lists
c. form/chart completion
d. extending notes into written responses
e. using information for problem-solving and decision-making activities
f. jigsaw listening – students listen to different tapes and, by comparing notes, they have to work out
the truth
g. establishing the mood/attitude/behaviour of the speaker
h. identifying relationships between speakers
i. role play

Now, let’s go back to our couple in the restaurant and try to set while-listening tasks (other than
finding answers to comprehension questions) to set students before listening to the restaurant scene.
Some ideas:
- From a selection of pictures of food in the book, students pick out the items actually chosen by the
couple.
- The waitress is new and has made a lot of mistakes. Students correct mistakes on a copy of her
notepad (e.g. beef lasagne)
- Students have a copy of the dialogue but with sentences in the wrong order; they must listen and
arrange them in the correct order.

VI. The Video

Almost everything we said applies to video, too. We have to choose material according to the level
and interests of our students. However, the video is richer than the audiotape. Speakers can be seen.
Their body movements give clues as to meaning, so do the clothes they wear, their location, etc.
Teachers have developed a number of special techniques for videos:
1. Playing the tape without sound.
Students discuss what they see and they guess what the characters are actually saying. Then the tape is
played with sound and the students can see if they were right.
2. Playing the tape but covering the picture.
While students listen, they try to judge where the speakers are, what they look like, what’s going on,
etc. Then, they see the images and whether their predictions were correct.
3. Freezing the picture.
The teacher presses the pause button and asks the students what’s going to happen next.
4. Dividing the class in half.
Half the class face the screen. The other half sit with their backs to it. The ‘screen’ half describe the
images to the ‘wall’ half.

VII. Listening Sequences

We are going to look at a very straightforward listening sequence for beginner levels. Before the
listening takes place, the students have been introduced to (and practised saying) words like ‘coffee’,
‘tea’, ‘breakfast’, etc. They have also done a quick question-and-answer drill with ‘What do you have
for breakfast?’
They now look at three photographs; a woman at a counter of a café giving her order, a woman in an
office holding a coffee pot and offering coffee to a man, and a woman at a restaurant table being
attended to by a waiter.
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The students look at the pictures and say what they are (café, an office and a restaurant). They are then
asked to listen to three conversations. All they have to do is match the conversations to the pictures
(e.g. Conversation 1 is in …). When the teacher has made sure they understand the task, she plays
them these tapes:
Conversation 1
WAITER: Good morning, madam.
WOMAN: Good morning. An English breakfast, please.
WAITER: Tea or coffee?
WOMAN: Tea, please.

Conversation 2
WOMAN: Cup of coffee?
CLIENT: Oh yes, please. That’d be lovely.
WOMAN: Sugar?
CLIENT: Just one, please

Conversation 3
CUSTOMER: A tea, 2 black coffees and an orange juice, please.
WAITER: Anything else?
CUSTOMER: No, thank you.

While the first task is very general and straightforward, the students are then going to listen in more
detail.

Listen again. Tick (√) the drinks they have.

conversation 1 2 3
Coffee
Tea √
Hot chocolate
Orange juice

A further listening task asks the students to say how many drinks the people had.
The students can now do a post listening activity such as role-play (offering and accepting various
kinds of drinks).

VIII. More listening suggestions.

A. Suggest the appropriate level for the following activities:
1. Students listen to a phone massage being given. They have to record the message on a message
pad – elementary.
2. Students hear sound effects. They use them to construct a story of what actually happened –
elementary.
3. Students listen to a narrative and have to plot the characters’ movements on a map. – Upper
intermediate.
4. Students listen to a news broadcast and compare it with a newspaper report. What are the
differences? – advanced
5. Students listen to three poems being read by three different people. They have to choose a mood /
colour / for each and say which they like best – advanced.
6. Students listen to people describing their occupations. They have to decide what the people look
like and what the occupations are – (upper) intermediate.
7. Students listen to a story. They have put some pictures in the correct order to match the story –
elementary

B. Here is a lesson to exemplify many of the techniques described. The tape is a conversation between
two people in a bus station. At one point we hear the announcer list the buses about to depart.
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The procedures in the lesson plan are jumbled; put the items back into their original order.
a. Play tape; students then compare answers in pairs; tell me their answer. If correct – continue; if
not play the tape again.
b. Play tape; students then compare answers in pairs; tell me their answer. If correct – continue; if
not play the tape again.
c. Show picture of a bus station. Where do you think this is? What’s happening? Etc.
d. Lead into a communicative activity based around the topic of travel problems.
e. Set task: how many people are speaking? Where are they?
f. Introduce topic: long distance buses; discuss a little – Anyone been on one in England or the
United States?
g. Set task: Here is your bus ticket (different destinations for different students). Which bus number
must you catch?
h. Set task: Why is the old lady worried? What suggestion would you make? (The task requires
listening to and interpreting a longer section of the tape)
i. Play tape; students then compare answers in pairs; tell me their answer. If correct – continue; if
not play the tape again.
The original order is : c, f, e, i ,g, a, h, b, d. The stages a, b, and i are of course interchangeable.