Listening and Listening and assessmentassessment

More than just, “Do you understand?”

General ConsiderationsGeneral Considerations

Listening is not an isolated skill, but part of an integrated set needed for comprehension and overall learning.

However, listening can be developed by attention to strategies and practise.

Motivation has a high corollary effect in listening.

Listening in Real LifeListening in Real Life

We listen for a purpose and with expectations.

Most listening in real life requires a response.

Visual clues usually accompany verbal messages.

Environmental clues assist comprehension, in classroom this is usually visual aids

Most discourse occurs in chunks

Informality – colloquialisms, spontaneity, etc

Point is…..Point is…..

We must strive to incorporate the real life into the classroom.

Recorded texts with multiple choice response isn’t real life

10x and 10,000 hoursOur job is to provide venue and exposure

General thoughts…..General thoughts…..

Sounds – phonetic awareness is necessary for reading, spelling, speaking and listening. e.g. /θ/, /ð/

Intonation – in English has a few set patterns, but varies wildly. Focus on exposure, rather than teaching specifically

Noise – it is not necessary to understand every iota of speech to be a successful listener.

Predicting – activate schemata and listening comprehension will go up

Visual clues – do not stress perfection

ExercisesExercises

Recordings (pro) – ◦Native speaker◦Repeatable◦Students can focus on the sounds

Recordings (con) – ◦Lacks real life visual clues◦Lacks real life spontaneity – pauses,

corrections, responses, deliberations◦Often technical quality is bad

Recommend that recordings be part of a listening exercise unit

Exercises Exercises

Part of a lesson, frequent, over timeSet up around tasks – note taking (lecture

type long speech), responses (agreement/disagreement), information gap (with ability to negotiate for info)

Activate schemata

Listening for perceptionListening for perception

Word level –◦Games involving phonemes (flyswatter game,

categorise ā/ă)◦Which language is this?◦Repetition◦Tongue twisters (Fox in Socks)◦Rhyming play – goes well with reading◦How many times did I say X? ◦Minimal pairs exercises

Sentence level – ◦Repetition◦How many words did I way?◦Mark the stress◦Mark the intonation◦Dictation – spelling is not graded!!!◦Dictogloss -

Listening for comprehensionListening for comprehension

Listening – no response◦Follow along in the text – use a finger, best

paired with reading exercises◦Listen to a description of picture/person, while

students view the picture◦Storyboards ◦Read to them◦Show a movie/tv show

Listening – short response◦TPR ◦Yes/no questions◦Brick stacking – colored bricks made into a pattern

that needs to be reproduced by each student ◦Classify – students hear a list and mark one or the

other category◦Gap-fill – map exercise,

Gordon Lightfoot – this is also a way to link culture into the classroom i.e. Popular music and poetry

◦Sports Scores ◦Family trees

Listening – longer response◦Long gap fills (whole lines)◦Paraphrasing/summarising◦Predictions

Phrase: “If I had a nickel…..” Intonation: “She didn’t wear a RED dress….”

◦Comprehension questions

Listening for StudyListening for Study

Problem-solvingJigsaw listening

◦Maybe conflicting versionsInterpretive listening –

◦Half of a phone conversationStylistic listening and analysis

◦Interview◦Comedy◦Poetry◦Advertising

Integrated listenging – listen to one point of view, read a text of the other, and compare and contrast the points of view

AssessmentAssessment

Can you test listening?Assessment is the better term; we should

assess how well our students understand spoken English, rather than test.

In this case, any activity that we have mentioned could be used as an assessment tool – the student succeeds when he or she successfully accomplishes the goal.

Assessment should be on-going, it would be very easy to make one task high

stakes without the children even knowing about it.

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