CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS

The activities in this session will allow you to:

examine the issues in teaching listening and learning

to listen to English.
study some of the listening strategies which you can
use to develop good listeners.

Most of all this session will highlight the importance of developing listening skills in
your pupils.

ACTIVITY 1: Reflecting on practices in teaching listening

Task 1
Reflect on your current classroom practice in the teaching of listening.
You may want to consider the following in your reflections.

To what extent do you teach listening skill?

What do you normally do in your listening class?
Do you think it is effective? Why/Why not?

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Activity 2: Challenges in teaching listening

Task 1
Listening skill is often considered a difficult skill to teach and develop. Hence many
teachers avoid teaching this skill. What do you think? Why do you think listening
needs to be taught?

Task 2
Listening is considered an important skill that needs to be developed among our
learners. However, teachers and learners face difficulties in teaching and learning
this skill. What are the challenges faced by you in teaching listening? Suggest
solutions on how you will meet these challenges.
CHALLENGES

SOLUTIONS

Task 3
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Teachers are not the only ones who have problems teaching listening. Learners
have difficulties too in developing their listening skills. What are the challenges
faced by your learners in listening? Suggest solutions you would use to meet these
challenges.
CHALLENGES

SOLUTIONS

ACTIVITY 3: Listening strategies for effective listening

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Task 1
You can help your learners develop their listening skills by equipping them with a
repertoire of strategies. The more strategies they have, the more effective they
are in listening.
Study the list of strategies which your learners can use to develop their listening
skills. How many of these strategies have you taught your learners?
1. Take notes, writing down relevant information in shorthand.
2. Monitor performance while listening
3. Be ready and have a plan to achieve a given task.
4. Reconstruct orally or in writing
5. Note an approximation of a difficult word/name. Check later.
6. Use world knowledge to predict what will be said.
7. Ask for clarification.
8. Pick out only salient points, listening selectively and ignoring irrelevant
details.
9. Check with other listeners.
10. Use linguistic knowledge to predict what will be said.
11. Listen for key words for topic identification.
12. Listen for transition points.

Task 2
Different strategies are used to develop different listening skills / sub-skills and
they are taught using different texts and at different stages of a listening lesson.
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Study the information in handouts A, B and C on how and when to teach the
listening strategies.
Complete the table by doing the following:
(i)

Identify the strategies in column 1 (use the strategies listed in Task 1)

(ii)

Refer to the Curriculum Specifications and identify the listening subskills

that these strategies can help to develop. Write your answers in column 2.

(iii)

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Explain the strategies to your friend.

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Listening sub-skill (refer to How to teach it

curriculum specifications)
Read
the
following
and
identify the listening strategiesClarify
and listening
sub-skills.
A
what students
will need
to do with the information they
hear
by
asking
concept
questions (questions that ask
students
to
show
they
understand ideas rather than
show that they merely recall
facts). These encourage the
students to verbalise what they
need to do, thus clearing up any
ambiguities.

Handout
A
When to teach it/Type
of text

Before listening, discuss the

subject and how the speaker
might view it. Use KWL charts
(Know/Want to Know/Learnt) to
pool knowledge of the topic.
Give students headlines/titles.
They predict additional content
before
listening
to
the
recording.
Use gap-fill exercises (students
fill the gaps in a transcript). As
they listen, they can see how
accurate
their
predictions
were.

Teach it before the students

listen. It can be done with
factual texts, e.g. news,
discussion of a topic, lectures.

Pause at regular intervals during

the
listening
to
check
comprehension (students in
pairs, groups or as a whole
class). Ask questions such as
Who said X? Why? What is the
topic?
Ask students if their
answers are logical. (Does it

This is taught during listening.

The strategy should be taught
only occasionally as the
teaching of it interrupts the13
listening experience and can
frustrate students. It can be
done with any listening text,
especially if the students are

Listening strategy

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Teach it before the students

listen. It can be done with
any listening text.

This can be done either

before listening or after a first
listening.
If the latter, it
should be used to show which
words naturally follow other
words, rather than as a
memory test. It can be done
with
any
listening
text
containing
common
collocations (take your time,
make
an
effort,
Happy
Birthday, etc), idioms or
adjacency pairs (How are
you?
Fine,
thanks.
Thanks. Youre welcome.)

Adapted from: How to Teach Listening by JJ Wilson (2008)

Handout B
Read the following and identify the listening strategies and listening sub-skills.
Listening strategy

How to teach it

When to teach it/Type of text

Give tasks that require listening

for details, e.g. with train
timetables,
cinema
listings
information, etc, which consist
mainly of information that is
extraneous for the individual
listener. Use gap-fill exercises.

The strategy can be taught

during the setting of the whilelistening task, as the teacher
explains what the students must
listen for. It can be reinforced
during feedback after listening.
Use announcements and other
lists of information.

People cant remember details

such as telephone numbers, so
they need to practice writing
information quickly. Ask students
to identify key words (the
stressed words, which they
should note) in full sentences.
Give
students
Who/Where/
What/Why charts. They take
notes in the columns. Explain
that note-taking systems only
need to make sense to the note-

The strategy requires prelistening advice on what to note

down and how to write it. It also
requires
extended
feedback
after listening, as students
compare their notes.
Use
factual
texts,
e.g.
news,
discussion of a topic, lectures
and texts with information such
as phone numbers and addresses.

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Listening sub-skill (refer to

curriculum specifications)

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taker (notes are essentially

private aids for later recall).
G

Help students to make a guess

based
on
a
phonetic
approximation. News broadcasts
are excellent for this as they
often contain names of places
and people.

The strategy requires a hint

before listening Even if you
arent sure of the answer, write
down what you think you heard

and
then
post-listening
feedback.
Use factual texts,
e.g. news discussion of a topic,
lecture.
The
strategy
is
especially useful as practice for
exam situations.

Ask students to listen again and

pick out words belonging to a
lexical set.
Check with the
script, if available. Songs lend
themselves well to this.

Teach this after the first

listening, pointing out that the
key words clarify the topic. Use
factual texts and songs.

Adapted from: How to Teach Listening by JJ Wilson (2008)

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Handout C
Read the following and identify the listening strategies and listening sub-skills.
Listening strategy

How to teach it

When to teach it/Type of text

Regularly include a stage at which

students compare answers. This is
also valuable as a way to highlight
discrepancies in interpretation.

This strategy can be taught after

listening, and is built into many
published materials.
It can be
done with any listening text.

Teach phrases: could you repeat

what you said about? What did
you mean by? I didnt catch XXX.
Give opportunities for students to
use these, e.g. by telling an
anecdote, slightly above the
students level.
Do dictogloss activities: tell a story
or anecdote at full speed several
times. Students work together to
reconstruct the story, gradually
adding details.

The phrases need to be taught and

practiced before listening.
The
strategy
requires
face-to-face
communication, and works well
with stories (fact or fiction) and
anecdotes.

Teach linking expressions/devices:

so,
on
the
other
hand,
furthermore, etc.
Pause (a
recording) after the expression and

The phrases need to be taught and

practiced before listening.
The
text can be paused during a second
listening, once students have got

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Listening sub-skill (refer to

curriculum specifications)

The strategy is explained as the

teacher gives the while-listening
task. After listening, the students
evaluate their success in using the
strategy.
Use stories (fact or
fiction) and anecdotes.

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ask students what comes next.

the gist. Use factual texts, e.g.

news, discussion of a topic,
lectures. You can also use stories
(fact or fiction) and anecdotes.

Adapted from: How to Teach Listening by JJ Wilson (2008)

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