ESL Teacher Networking

1. ESL Teacher Networking December, 2010 Teaching Listening

2. AGENDA General Announcements Brainstorming and categorizing ESL Case Study – Listen to me What should we know about teaching listening? BESLCURF - Connections Video viewing and discussion Problems of practive

3. BESLCURF – Carousel Brainstorming • What are some listening activities of strategies that you already use in your classroom? • What classroom activities or strategies can be connected to learning outcomes?

4. Case Study- Listen to Me • Divide into small grade level groups • Assign group roles – • Recorder • Reporter • Facilitator • Timekeeper

5. Why is teaching listening important? Receptive language Active language skill Construction of meaning Comprehensible input l .

6. What makes listening difficult? • The organization of information • The familiarity of the topic • The explicitness and sufficiency of the information • The type of referring expressions used (pronouns instead of noun phrases , e.g.) • Whether the text describes a “static” or “dynamic” relationship.

7. Variables of listening tasks • Listening purpose (gist, specific information, etc.) • Role of the listener (reciprocal, non-reciprocal) • Type of text being listened to (monologues, dialogues)

8. Stages of the Listening Process • Recognition of the target language • Recognition of isolated words • Recognition of phrase boundaries • Listening for the gist • True listening Source: E. Horwitz. (2008). Becoming a Language Teacher. Boston: Pearson

9. Recognition of Target Language • Songs, rhymes, etc. to get used to the sound of the language • Pretend to speak the language

10. Recognition of isolated words • Listen to short passages that contain familiar phrases • Listen for familiar phrases or words • Listen to a recombination of material presented in class

11. Beginning recognition of phrase boundaries • TPR • Narrow listening – Krashen • Listening to recombination materials in scripts • Computer programs

12. Listening for gist • Preview listening materials • Establish realistic listening goals • Students select pictures that correspond to oral descriptions • Narrow listening

13. True listening • Preview • Summarize • Ask opinions about what they heard • Relate what they heard to their own lives

14. Important listening strategies • Listening for the gist • Listening for purpose • Listening for main idea • Listening for inference • Listening for specific information • Listening for phonemic distinctions (first or fourth; can or can’t) • Listening for tone/pitch to identify speaker’s attitude • Listening for stress (what is more important)

15. Communicative activities: Listening • Listening and performing actions and operations • Listening and transferring information (spoken to written, spoken to spoken) • Listening and solving problems • Listening, evaluating, and manipulating information • Interactive listening and speaking: negotiating meaning through questioning and answering routines • Listening for enjoyment pleasure and sociability Adapted from: Morley, J. Aural Comprehension Instruction: Principles and Practices. In M. Celce-Murcia. (Ed.) (2001). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Heinle and Heinle: Boston.

16. Listening and performing actions and operations • Drawing a picture, design, or object. • Locating routes on a map • Selecting a picture from a description • Identifying something from a description • Performing movements • Operating a piece of equipment • Carrying out steps in a process (science, cooking)

17. Listening and transferring information • Listening and taking a message • Cloze activities • Completing a form or chart • Listening and summarizing • Listening to an explanation and writing down the sequence • Listening to a lecture and taking notes • Listening to directions and repeating others • Listening to a story and repeating to others

18. Listening and solving problems • Word games • Number games – arithmetic problems • Asking questions (20 questions) • Jeopardy or Password • Minute mysteries • Jigsaw listening • Comparison shopping with recordings • Descriptions of court cases

19. Listening, evaluating, and manipulating information • Making predictions • Evaluating cause and effect information • Summarizing • Evaluating arguments in order to take a position

20. Interactive listening and speaking • Reciprocal listening (using question cards) • Repetition • Paraphrase • Verification • Clarification • Extension • Challenge

21. Listening for pleasure • Songs • Stories • Poems • Jokes • Teacher talk • Anecdotes

22. Ways to help develop and improve listening comprehension • Background knowledge • Previewing • Advance organizer • Meaning support • Recall • Recall/Question • Inference question • Intonation • Source: E. Horwitz. (2008). Becoming a Language Teacher. Pearson: Boston.

23. Video viewing • Identify the instructional sequence of the lesson. • What were the listening tasks?

24. Possible lesson sequence • Build background/activate prior knowledge • Vocabulary preview • Listen for main idea • Listen for details • Listen for inference • Discussion • Looking at language Source: C.Numrich (2006). Tuning in: Listening and Speaking in the Real World. Boston: Pearson

25. For next time • Plan a listening activity for your class. • Write a language objective for it. • Include an advanced organizer, preview questions, inference questions, and a focus on language structure. • Teach the lesson if your situation allows. • Bring evidence or artifacts from the lesson to share next time.

26. Next time Oral language development: Is turn and talk all we need? • Fluency versus accuracy. • Academic versus social language.