Extensive Listening

Set a simple
listening
task.
Adopt a
relaxed
posture.
Lie down
and doodle
while
listening.
takes place materials how to handle
P
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F
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L
M
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V
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T
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N
What can teachers do to deal with levels
of difficulty and lack of motivation?
Keep a permanent collection of simplified readers.
Give reasons to make use of the resources available.
Explain benefits of listening extensively.
Recommend certains CDs or/and podcasts.
Get students to comment/write about what they have heard
or enjoyed the most and share with others.

Intensive listening: using audio material.
Advantages:

Offer a wide variety of
situations and voices.
Portable and readily
available
Disadvantages:

In big classrooms
students can not hear
equally well.
Speed is dictated by
the recording.
Lack of interaction.


Solutions
Check audio and machine quality
Change the position of the CD player to offset poor acoustics.
Replay two or more times to get the maximum benefit.
Make a good lead-in to activate students schemata.


How to deal with the speed of a recording material?
Strategies
+practise face-to-face interactions.
+practise repair strategies.
Formulaic expressions.
Repetition up to the point of
communication breakdown by rising
intonation.
Rephrasing.
Checking confirmation of rephrasing.
Response to prosodic and paralinguistic
clues.
L
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t
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Live listening forms
Teachers roles in intensive
listening
Organiser purpose, instructions. Machine operator track, segment.
Feedback organiser cooperative
checking, supportive comments.
Prompter awareness of language
items.
Film and
video
Students see
language in use:
Behaviour
Intonation
Gestures
Students pick up a
range of cross-cultural
clues:
Unspoken rules of
behaviour in
social/business
situations.
Viewing techniques:
Fast forward
Silent viewing
Freeze frame
Partial viewing
Listening and mixed techniques
Language
Music
Sound effects
Reception/
Production
mixture
Connection
between
English/Spanis
h

Pictureless listening




Picture of Speech




Subtitles







The sound of music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
7z33cRAYD24
References
The Practice of English Language Teaching. Jeremy Harmer. Chapter 18.
Teacher Knowledge. Core concepts in English Language Teaching. Jeremy
Harmer.
Section C: Teaching language and language skills
60 Teaching listening 1
61 Teaching listening 2
62 Teaching listening 3
64 Using music and drama
Section F: Teaching young learners
94 Chants, rhymes and songs
96 Young learner listening
500 activities for the primary classroom. Carol Read. Macmillan 2007.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z33cRAYD24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-XO4XiRop0
https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=1koa2xAxCAw
https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DBugVZ8Tp4


Activities
Activity: Trailer Maleficent
Level: Intermediate Age: 13-15 Organisation: pairs, whole class
Materials: trailer, worksheet
Aim: to watch a trailer, to understand what the video depicted in the trailer is about, to decide whether or not
you would like to watch the film and why, to develop critical thinking.
Procedure:
1. Teacher explains/elicits that a trailer is an advertisement for a film. A trailer includes short extracts of the
film to make it look as appealing as possible.
2. Teacher can also ask/elicit the names of different types of film, e.g. cartoon, thriller, comedy, etc.
3. Teacher tells children they are going to watch a trailer and then, answer a few questions.
4. Teacher writes the questions on the board as a prompt.
a) What is the title of the film?
b) What kind of film is it?
c) What makes the film look appealing?
d) Would you like to see it? Why? / Why not?
5. Students group in pairs.
6. Teacher plays the trailer.
7. Teacher gives the children time to talk about their answers to the questions with their partner.
8. Teacher asks the pairs to report back to the class.

9. Teacher hands out a worksheet with the script of the trailer presented in a jumbled order. Students
have to work out how to put the text back in the correct order.
10. Students listen and watch the video again to check.
11. Teacher makes students focus on one of the sentences of the script: There is evil in this world,
hatred, revenge.
12. Teacher elicits another example of feeling related to EVIL and then elicits just the opposite force in
the world: GOOD. She proposes the pairs to write feelings/sentiments related to both forces.
13. Different pairs report back to the class.
eg:
There is evil in this world. BUT There is good in this world.
hatred love
revenge forgiveness
war peace
pain comfort
death life
etc. etc.

Activity: Lets sing the colour song
Level: Elementary Age: 8 Organisation: whole class
Aim: to sing a song, to develop concentration skills, to promote enjoyment in communal singing.
Material: flashcards, song
Procedure:
1. Teacher puts a set of flashcards on the board, getting children to repeat each word as she does
so.
2. Teacher asks children to turn round with their backs to the board.
3. Teacher removes a flashcard from the board and tells the children to face the front again and says
which flashcard is missing!
4. Teacher hands out a colour-flashcard to each child in the class and explains they are going to
listen to the colour song!
5. When students hear the colour they have in their hands, they have to stand up, hold up the
flashcard and then sit down again. (teacher mimes: stand up, hold up, sit down)
6. Teacher plays the song while students perform the instructions.
7. Then, teacher and students sing the song all together, standing up and showing the colour-
flashcard as they did before. ( there is a poster on the board with the images mentioned in the song
to help students follow the lyrics. This vocabulary was already worked in class when learning the
alphabet.)