assessing listening

The teachers consider some specific questions about listening comprehension:

1.       What are listeners "doing" when they listen?

2.       What factors affect good listening?

3.       What are the characteristics of "real-life" listening?

4.       What are the many things listeners listen for?

5.       What are some principles of designing listening techniques?

6.       How can listening techniques be interactive?

Ten keys to effective listening

–      Find areas of interest.
The Poor Listener: Tunes out dry topics.
The Good Listener: Seizes opportunities: "What's in it for me?"

–      Judge content, not delivery.
The Poor Listener: Tunes out if delivery is poor.
The Good Listener: Judges content, skips over delivery errors.

–      Hold your fire.
The Poor Listener: Tends to enter into argument.
The Good Listener: Doesn't judge until comprehension is complete.

–      Listen for ideas.
The Poor Listener: Listens for facts.
The Good Listener: Listens for central theme.

–      Be a flexible note taker.
The Poor Listener: Is busy with form, misses content.
The Good Listener: Adjusts to topic and organizational pattern.

–      Work at listening.
The Poor Listener: Shows no energy output, fakes attention
The Good Listener: Works hard; exhibits alertness.

–      Resist distractions.
The Poor Listener: Is distracted easily.
The Good Listener: Fights or avoids distractions; tolerates bad habits in others; knows how to concentrate.

–      Exercise your mind.
The Poor Listener: Resists difficult material; seeks light, recreational material.
The Good Listener: Uses heavier material as exercise for the mind.

–      Keep your mind open.
The Poor Listener: Reacts to emotional words.
The Good Listener: Interprets emotional words; does not get hung up on them.

–      Thought is faster than speech; use it.
The Poor Listener: Tends to daydream with slow speakers.
The Good Listener: Challenges, anticipates, mentally summarizes, weights the evidence, listens between the lines to tone and voice.

Teaching a listening passage

1- Teacher chooses a suitable passage to the students’ level.

2-Teacher prepares 2 or 3 easy questions ( pre-listening questions).

3-Teacher writes the pre-listening questions on the board, wall chart or in handouts and explains them to students

4- Teacher reads the text loud or plays the tape recorder and students listen.

5- Students answer the pre-listening questions.

6-Teacher gives more detailed post-listening questions.

7- Students answer the post-listening questions

8- Teacher and students discuss the answers.

Extensive listening

–      extensive listening, (where a teacher encourages students to choose for themselves what they listen to and to do so for pleasure and general language improvement) helps students to Improve their listening skills and pronunciation.

-     Extensive listening takes place outside the classroom, in students’ homes, cars………………….etc.

–      Material for extensive listening can be found from a number of sources; simplified readers with audio tapes, course book tapes and tapes of authentic material

- To help students experience a successful extensive listening activity, there is a need to select listening material that is appropriate to      their level and topic

 - To encourage extensive listening, we can ask students to perform a number of tasks;

     - They can record their responses to what they have heard in a personal journal

     - Fill in report forms after listening to a listening material

     - Summarize the contents of a tape

     - Write comments on cards

     - Add their responses to a large class listening poster

     - Write their comments on a student web site.