HOW TO TEACH LISTENING

Dulce Vargas Daetz

Lourdes Cataln

LISTENING

Listening is the ability to identify and

understand what others are saying.

What does listening involve ?

Identifying information.
Searching memories.
Relating that information to those
memories.
Filling it in the proper spot.
Creating a new place for it.

WHY TEACH LISTENING?

Students hear different accents and
varieties.
Listening helps students to acquire
language subconsciously.
Listening is a receptive skill.
Education.
Mass communication.

PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING LISTENING

COMPREHENSION
Let students understand how foreigners
speak English and build students
sensitivities.
All teachers can do is give them some
guidelines provide an opportunity for
meaningful practice and trust they will
learn these things for themselves. (
Buck,1995)

HOW TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR LISTENING

TASKS?
Make it relevant to students
( interesting)
Provide background knowledge.
Pre-Listening exercise to activate content.
Use a variety of activities.

LISTENING ACTIVITIES TO OVERCOME THE

DIFFICULTIES

Giving them charts/categories

Asking questions ahead of time.
Showing pictures/charts.
Discussing the topic first.
Describing the context.
Role playing the situation.
Providing key word list.
Brainstorming(situations/pros/cons)
Predicting
Doing follow-ups that allows them to connect directly
with their lives.

WHAT A DIFFICULT TASK

Teaching listening skills is one of the most difficult

tasks for any ESL teacher.

Sometimes students feel frustrated because they

find listening difficult Why?

DIFFICULTIES

Students are trying to understand every word.

Students go back trying to understand what a previous
word meant.
Students just dont know the most important words.
Students dont recognize the words they know.
Students have problems with different accents.
Students get tired.
Students have mental block.
Students are distracted.
Students cannot cope without images.
Students have hearing problems.

TIPS

Pre-Listening

Encourage your students to do their best.

Make sure students know what they are listening for

before you start listening.

Give questions to check students comprehension.

Check for any words that your students may not know.

Check for any words that your students may not know.

Short listening.

Stop the recording.

TIPS
WHILE - LISTENING

Try to play the recording once for overall comprehension

and then for specific details.

Take notes ( dates, places, people).

Repeat the recording especially in the difficult parts.

TIPS
AFTER / POST- LISTENING

Compare their notes in small groups.

Encourage debates and answer questions.

Write a summary of the main points and then compare.

Make a list of any new vocabulary.

Important
Teachers have to try to use as many different sources of
listening material as they can.

Here are some suggestions :

advertisements, news programs, poetry, songs, extracts

from plays, speeches, lectures, telephone conversations,
informal dialogues.

IDEAS TO MAKE THE BEST LISTENING ACTIVITIES

EVER

Reduce distractions and noise during the listening segment.

2
3
4

make sure the equipment produces acceptable sound

quality.

Give students a listening task to do between classes.

Read or play the text a total of 2-3 times.

Play a video clip with the sound off and ask
students to make predictions about it.

OTHER LISTENING ACTIVITIES

Follow-up activities
-More listening
-Writing activities
-Role-playing

Use activities to wake up ss

-Jazz chants
-Jokes
-Puzzles
-Poems

HOW TO TEACH VOCABULARY

Dulce Vargas Daetz
Lourdes Cataln

Teaching Tips
Step 1 : Presenting new words
Step 2 : Helping ss remember new
words.
Step 3: Making sure ss make the new
words their own.
Online resourses.

Step 1
Presenting new words
Using visual images.
Using gestures & actions.
Showing lexicial relations.
Words in context.
Guessing Predicting
Other techniques.

Using visual
images
Realia
Pictures
Masking
Drawing
scales

Using
gestures &
actions
Mime
Gesture
Facial
expression
action

Showing
lexical
relations
Synonyms
Antonyms
Collocation
Prefixes &
suffixes

Words in
context
Dialogues
Role play
Drama
Stories
Songs
Rhymes &
poems
videos

Guessing /
predicting

Stories,
characters,
etc.

Other
techniques
Using a
dictionary.
Explaining
Describing
Defining the
context
translating

Step 2
Helping students remember new words
Using memorizing games & activities.
Using review games.
Learning with friends.

Review
Games

Using memorizing
games & activities
Giving directions
Picture dictation
Matching words
Labeling words
Searching words
Sequencing words
Guessing words
Eliminating words.
Classifying words.

Wordsearch games
Picture labeling
Crosswords
Bingo
Dominoes
Puzzles
Charts or survey for
their peers.

Socio-affectively
Students can :
Practice words with a classmates or in a
group.
Teach a word to a member of the family
or peer.
Make and play word game with friends.
Peer test.

Step 3
Making sure students make
the new words their own
Vocabulary records system.
Personalizing the new words

Vocabulary record system- 1

Vocabulary books
In a alphabetical order.
By topic or situation.
By grammatical groups.
By color sets.
By story features.

Vocabulary record system- 2

Personal dictionary ( word notebook)
Marking word stress.
Adding pictures.
Putting and L1 translation.
Putting the word into context.
Adding a synonym.
Mapping a word family.

Personalize the new words

Keeping a learning log ( blogs).

Keeping a diary ( blogs )
Creative writing by using newly learned
words or phrases.
Looking for recently learned words in
storybooks, the internet, the
newspapers, etc. and noticing how they
are used.

Meta-cognitively , learners learn how to

Self-test.
Look for patterns in words.
Plan & organize a vocabulary record
keeping system.
Learn words in their preferred ways .
Reflect on learning and reviewing
regularly.
Monitor vocabulary learning.

THANK YOU
FOR YOUR
ATTENTION