Teaching Listening
Listening skills are vital for your learners. Of the 'four skills,' listening is by far the most frequently used. Listening and speaking are often taught together, but beginners, especially non-literate ones, should be given more listening than speaking practice. It's important to speak as close to natural speed as possible, although with beginners some slowing is usually necessary. Without reducing your speaking speed, you can make your language easier to comprehend by simplifying your vocabulary, using shorter sentences, and increasing the number and length of pauses in your speech.
Listening is divided into pre-listening, during listening and post listening. Before listening (pre listening), there are three things that we should be considered, how can we motivate students by making the topic relevant and interesting to them?, What knowledge is already known to the students and how can that knowledge be activated for new knowledge to be built upon? And What language support, e.g. key vocabulary and key structures, do students need in order to understand the text?
Beside that there are several term that we must give attention, for example prediction, a good listener is a good prediction, a listener need a guidance in this situation. A little explanation from teacher is good help. Teacher can use picture (if any) to make students focus and attract with the topic that is listening about. If there is no pictures find a picture or draw a picture that related to the listening text.
Setting the scene, to help students provide the background information to activate learners’ schema in order to be better prepared to understand what they hear. Another term is Listening for the gist to ask students one or two questions that focus on the main idea or the tone or mood of the whole passage.
After we prepare pre-listening we have to continue to while listening, here are some preparation :
- No specific response
To reduce anxiety by listening any kind of material that is interesting, humorous, or dramatic.
- Listen and tick
Example:
Directions: You are going to listen to three students giving their opinions about their school subjects. Listen carefully and decide if they like or dislike the subjects. Put a ‘√’ for ‘like’ and a ‘x’ for ‘dislike’.
- No specific response
To reduce anxiety by listening any kind of material that is interesting, humorous, or dramatic.
- Listen and tick
Example:
Directions: You are going to listen to three students giving their opinions about their school subjects. Listen carefully and decide if they like or dislike the subjects. Put a ‘√’ for ‘like’ and a ‘x’ for ‘dislike’.
| SUBJECT | LINDA | TUTY | DINA |
| ENGLISH | | | |
| BIOLOGY | | | |
| CHEMISTRY | | | |
- Listen and sequence
Asking students to find out the order of things based on what they hear. This helps students build up their confidence and prepare them for the real world where they will not be able to understand everything they hear.Example:
Directions: Listen to announcement of the order of the games at a sports meeting. Mark the following games with number 1-5 according to the order they are played.
- Listen and Act
The use of TPR, concentrating on learning language by listening and responding physically to commands or directions.
Examples:
- Stand up
- Pretend like you’re walking through mud.
- Listen and Draw
The students are asked to draw pictures, diagrams, etc. on paper. This activity works very well as an information gap activity . One student draws a simple picture and then tells his /her partner how to draw it.
After students have finish to listen all the content they have to do some activity to complete this session. Teacher can give one or more this activity:
- Multiple-choice questions
To prepare students to have MC question tests.
- Answering questions
- the answers found in the passage.
- questions about the attitude
(the person was angry, happy etc.)
- inference questions.
- Note taking and gap-filling
- Students take notes while listening.
- Students listen again and completing their notes.
- Students do not have to use original
words from the text.
- Dictogloss
- The teacher reads the text two or three times.
- The students make a summary on what they hear.
- The students discuss their notes with their friends to reconstruct the passage.
- The teacher gives the original passage to compare.
3. Reconstruction
Based on their notes, the students work in pairs or groups to reconstruct the passage
4. Analysis and correction
- The students compare their work with the original passage.
- The students discuss their mistakes and analyze them.
- The teacher reads the passage to enhance comprehension.
Or the teacher can give another activity such as role play debate discussion.
