QUICK RESOURCE SHEET #71

Developing listening comprehension

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Imagine my relief, for instance, to discover that I am normal. That is, adults listen with just 25 percent efficiency (Hunsaker 1990). This means that as adults, we attend to and process what we hear just one quarter of the time! In fact, adults may be the worst listeners of all and, as Lundsteen notes, this is so because they have had little education on how to listen. This lack of education takes its toll, for as most know, bad habits can be difficult to change.

from http://pd.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00344/introduction.pdf

It is possible to create an interactive, questioning, learning environment in large, impersonal listening-comprehension classes.

from http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol32/no4/p10.pdf

Listening is the most common communicative activity in daily life: "we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write." (Morley, 1991, p. 82)  Listening is also important for obtaining comprehensible input that is necessary for language development.

from http://www.auburn.edu/~nunnath/engl6240/tlisten.html

To support the development of listening comprehension skills in your students, take a look at the following resources. Additionally, refer to Quick Resource Sheets #40: Sources for authentic materials and #51: Podcasting for English teachers. (Feel free to send a message if you need those forwarded to you.)

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/developlisten.htm

“Contextualized listening activities approximate real-life tasks and give the listener an idea of the type of information to expect and what to do with it in advance of the actual listening. A beginning level task would be locating places on a map (one way) or exchanging name and address information (two way). At an intermediate level students could follow directions for assembling something (one way) or work in pairs to create a story to tell to the rest of the class (two way).”

http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Ross-ListeningComprehension.html

“With the use of authentic listening materials, students learn to comprehend double meanings, predict meaning, make allowances for performance errors committed by other speakers, deal with interruptions, and so on. It is important, therefore, to take the opportunity wherever possible to expose students to examples of real language usage to help them become more communicatively competent.”

http://www.eslmag.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=20

“Although listening has been a relatively neglected skill in terms of research and how it is introduced to language learners, it is now beginning to receive more attention. In the past few years we have seen the publication of several major texts, both practical and theoretical, specifically dealing with listening skills: Mendelson and Rubin 1995; Nunan and Miller 1995; Buck 2000; Rost 2002; Flowerdew and Miller, in press. In conjunction with these books, there is now a greater awareness among teachers that we have to help learners develop their listening skills, rather than rely on the skill developing itself.”

http://www.ohiou.edu/esl/teacher/listening.html

A collection of links to websites with a multitude of resources to help you develop suitable listening activities for the classroom.

Previous editions of the QUICK RESOURCE SHEET

#1 – Creating quizzes (and more) online                                                         

#2 – Vocabulary builders

#3 – Online discussion groups for English teachers                                    

#4 – Grammar headaches – and how to cure them

#5 – Resources for new teachers                                                     

#6 – International Education Week

#7 – Mentoring programs                                                                    

#8 – Education publications online

#9 – Applied Linguistics                                                                   

#10 – English for Young Learners

#11 – World AIDS Day                                                                      

#12 – Online writing guides

#13 – E-mail exchanges                                                                      

#14 – Free online English courses

#15 – Effective e-mail communication                                             

#16 – Libraries online

#17 – American Studies                                                                     

#18 – Teaching methodologies

#19 – Internet tutorials                                                                       

#20 – Using the newspaper – Part I

#21 – Making books                                                                           

#22 - Using the newspaper – Part II

#23 – Human rights in language teaching

#24 – Blogging

#25 – Poetry and language teaching

#26 – The communicative approach

#27 -  Idioms

#28 – Earth Day

#29 – Alternative assessment

#30 – Peer assessment

#31 – Self-assessment

#32 – Portfolio assessment – Part I

#33 -  Portfolio assessment - Part II (Online Portfolios)

#34 – Intercultural communication

#35 – Teaching Adults

#36 – Learning disorders / Special needs

#37 – Using computers in reading instruction

#38 – Use of authentic materials

#39 – English for Medical Purposes

#40 – Sources for authentic materials

#41 – Education and technology

#42 – Academic writing

#43 – Teaching and stress

#44 – Back to school

#45 – Motivating students

#46 – Action research

#47 – Internet terminology

#48 – Fluency

#49 – Curriculum design

#50 – Pragmatics

#51 - Podcasting for English teachers

#52 – Critical reading

#53 – Learner autonomy

#54 – Scaffolding

#55 – Holidays

#56 – English for Academic Purposes

#57 – Mixed-level classes

#58 – The brain and language learning

#59 – Book clubs/Readers’ groups

#60 – Teachers and technology

#61 – Using video in the language classroom

#62 – Internet-based classroom projects

#63 – Observing student teachers

#64 – Digital literacy

#65 – Group work

#66 – Giving feedback on student writing

#67 – Vlogging

#68 – Educational leadership

#69 – The first five minutes: How to get a class warmed up

#70 – Managing test anxiety