Help! I’m Teaching Listening
Most foreign teachers will teach oral English classes, but every once in a while, you might be surprised with a listening course. How do you teach it? How do you get students interested while still using the textbook?
I break my listening classes down into four different parts. Then I rearrange the sections as needed to fit each lesson. Sometimes a part will be repeated, if I want to have two chances to practice that technique in class.
1) The Textbook
Usually listening textbooks are terribly outdated, boring, and overall unuseful. The textbook is usually designed around recordings included on a CD. Each chapter will have a topic, and students will have to listen to the recording and answer some fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice questions. Sometimes I’ve been able to throw out the book altogether, and other times, I’ve been required to use the book. I made sure every part of my class has a purpose, and that goes for the textbook as well.
First, I choose a topic for the lesson that corresponds with the chapter. Sometimes we’ll use the same chapter for two weeks, but I generally don’t do more than two lessons for each chapter. I pull the most useful recordings out to use in class. With most textbooks, if you used each one, it would take weeks to get through the book. That’s boring and mindless for most students. My main criteria are: Is the vocabulary useful and native? Is the vocabulary and topic relevant? Will students possibly use these words and phrases in the future? That means a lot of the news articles and medicine discussions get removed, and I instead use more conversational type recordings.
2) Vocabulary
Using the recording, I will pull out some vocabulary words my students might not know. I also add a few native or useful choices to the list so they more to help guide them as they think of things to say during the speaking practice. I give them the list on the screen or chalkboard and give them a minute to look up any words they don’t know. Then we practice pronouncing them, and I might give a few usage notes as well.
3) Videos
Often the recordings are done by non-native speakers or speakers who don’t have experience with ESL students. Sometimes they mumble, sometimes they speak so quickly I have trouble catching what they’re saying, and sometimes they over enunciate and slow down so much it’s not authentic English anymore. To supplement this issue, and to add more interest, I download videos from YouTube that are related to the topic. This way, they can practice hearing native speakers use native vocabulary and speak at a native speed. At the beginning of the semester, students are generally a little freaked out and think it’s really challenging to hear a video that a native speaker made for other native speakers. But it’s amazing to see how much they can improve and how used to it they can get when they’re not being coddled by recordings.
4) Speaking Practice
Even though it’s not an oral English class, I always include a short time to practice speaking. Students hardly get any time to practice speaking in their other classes, and I want to give them the chance to use the vocabulary they just learned. And, they are still listening to their partner, so it’s still listening practice! Often this is a discussion instead of a full-out role play. I want them to answer questions or share their opinions about the topic or the video.
I hope this helps you plan your listening classes! At first, listening classes intimidated me, but now I love them. I love that students are able to practice a variety of skills in one class period, and I love how much exposure they can get to hearing natives speak. Again, each class is a little different. Sometimes I have two small speaking practices or sometimes I just have one recording and two videos, but I always use a combination of these four practices.