Ways of teaching listening skills

Ways Of Teaching Listening Skills

Kambarova Gulnur Kanzharbekovna

English teacher of school №170 named after M.Mataev

Kent Aiteke Bi

Guni_85@mail.ru

Most students want to be able what people are saying to them in English, either face-to-face , on TV or on the radio, in theatre and cinemas, or on tape, CDs or other recorded media. Listening is good for our students` pronunciation, too, in that the more they hear and understand English being spoken, the more they absorb appropriate pitch and intonation, stress and the sounds of both individual words and those which blend together in connected speech . listening texts are good pronunciation models in other words, and the more students listen, the better they get, not only at understanding speech, but also at speaking themselves. Indeed, it is worth remembering that successful spoken communication depends on the effectiveness of the way we listen. One of the main sources of listening for students is the is the voice of the teacher. Students need to be exposed to different English, but teachers need to exercise judgment about the number of the varieties, which they hear. A lot will depend on the students` level of variety or varieties they have so far been exposed.

• Listening sources

A lot of listening is experienced from recorded extracts- on CD, tape or via MP3 players of some kind. Frequently this is commercially produced, either as part of a course book or as supplementary material. But there is no reason why teachers should not record their own listening materials, using themselves or their friends or colleagues. With modern recording technology available to produce recordings of reasonable quality. We can download a huge amount of extremely useful listening material from Internet, too, provided that we are not breaking any rules of copyright.

Recorded extracts are quite distinct from live listening the name given to real-life face-to-face encounters in the classroom. To some extent all teachers talk is live listening, but in particular the term “live listening ” is used to refer to situations in which the teacher brings visitors into the class or , if this not possible, role-plays different characters for the students to talk and listen to. The main advantage of live listening over recorded extracts is that the basic of what they are saying, making the whole listening experience for more dynamic and exciting.

• Listening levels

We want our students to hear listening materials in a number of different genres and registers. This may include news broadcasts, public announcements, recorded messages, and lectures, phone conversations, dramatic dialogue etc. But we will also have to decide whether what they listen to should be authentic or not. Authentic speech is speech not spoken just for language learners in other words, it is language spoken for native or competent speakers of English, with no concessions made for the learner. Much recorded speech on the radio or on the Internet , for example, is of this type. However, it is often far too difficult for lower-level students, and is, therefore, inappropriate for use with them. But we do not want to give our lower-level students inauthentic language (which doesn`t sound at all like the real thing) either. What we aim for instead is realist language use, which, while roughly tuned to match the students` level, nevertheless approximates to real-life language. But we will aim to get our students to listen to (and understand ) authentic English as soon as often they can.

Principle #1 Encourage students to listen as often and as much as possible.

The more students listen, the better they get at listening and the better they get at understanding pronunciation and at using it appropriately themselves. One of our main tasks, therefore, will be to use as much listening in class as possible, and to encourage students to listen to as much English as they can (via the Internet, CDs, tapes, etc)

Principle #2 Help students prepare to listen.

Students need to be made ready to listen. This means that they will need to look at pictures, discuss the topic, or read the question first, for example, in order to be in a position to predict what is coming. This is not so that they are in the right frame of mind (and are thinking about the topics), but also so that are engaged with the topic and the task and really want to listen.

Principle #3 One may not be enough.

There are almost no occasions, when the teacher will play an audio track only once. Students will want to hear it again to pick up the things they missed the first time-chance to study some of the language features on the tape.

In the case of live listening; students should be encouraged to ask for repetition and clarification when they need it.

The first listening to a text is often to give students an idea of what the speakers sound like, and what the general topic is so that subsequent listening are easier for them. For subsequent listening, we may stop the audio track at various points, or only play extracts from it. However, we will have to ensure that we don`t go on and on working with the same audio track.

Principle #4 Encourage students to respond to the content of a listening, not just to the language.

An important part of a listening sequence is for teachers to draw out the meaning of what is being said, discern what impression it makes is being said, discern what impression it makes on the students. Question such as “Do you agree with what they say?” and “Did you find the listening interesting? Why?” are just as important questions like “What language did she use to invite him?” However, any listening material is also useful for studying languages use and a range of pronunciation issues.

Principle #5 Different listening stages demand different tasks.

Because there are different things we want to do with a listening text, we need to set different tasks for different listening stages. This mean that, for a first listening, the tasks may need to be fairly straightforward and general. That way, the students` general outstanding and response can be successful and the stress associated with listening can be reduced.

Later listening, however, may focus in on detailed information, language use or pronunciation, etc. It will be the teacher’s job to help students to focus on what they are listening for.

Principle #6 Good teachers exploit listening texts to the full.

If teachers ask students to invest time and emotional energy in a listening text and if they themselves have spent time choosing and preparing the listening sequence then it makes sense to use the audio track or live listening experience for as many different applications as possible. Thus,after an initial listening, the teacher can play a track again for various kinds of study before using the subject matter, situation or audio script for a new activity. The listening then becomes an important event in a teaching sequence rather than just an exercise by itself.

• Listening suggestion

Jigsaw listening. In three groups, students listen to three different tapes, all of which are about the same thing (witness reports after an accident or a crime, phone conversation arranging a meeting, different news stories which explain a strange event, etc.) Students have to assemble all the facts by comparing notes. In this way, they may find out what actually happened, solve a mystery or get a rounded account of a situation or topic.

Jigsaw listening works because it gives students a purpose for listening, and a goal to aim for (solving the “mystery”, or understanding all the facts). However, it obviously depends on whether students have access to three different tape or CD players, or computer – delivered listening material.

Message- talking. Students listen to a phone message being given. They have to a phone message on a message pad.

There are many other kinds of message that students can listen to. For example, they may hear recorded message about what films are on at a cinema, when they are on, what rating they have and whether there are still tickets. They then have to decided which film to go to. They might hear the message on an answer phone, or a gallery guide (where they have to identify which pictures are being talked about), or message about how to place an order. In each case, they have to respond in some way.

It is also appropriate for students to listen to announcement in airports and on railway station, which they can match with pictures or respond to by saying what they are going to do next.

Music and sound effects. Although most audio track consists of speech, we can also use misic and sound effects. Songs are very useful, because, if we choose them well, they can be very engaging. Students can fill in blanks in song lyrics, rearrange lines or verses, or listen to songs and say what mood or message they convey.

We can use instrumental music to get students in the right mood, or as a stimulus for any number of creative tasks (imagining film scenes, responding to mood and atmosphere, saying what the music is describing, etc.) The same is true of sound effects, which students can listen to in order to build up a story.

News and other radio genres. Students listen to news broadcast and have to say which topics from a list occur in the bulletin and which order. They then have to listen for details about individual stories. If the news contain a lot of facts and figures, students may be asked to convert them into chart or graph form.

Other genres which students get benefit from are radio commercials (they have to match commercials with pictures or say why one on safety is different from the rest which are trying to sell things), radio phone-ins (where they can match speakers to topics) and any number of games and quizzes. In all of the above cases, the degree of authenticity will depend on the level of the radio extract and level of the students.

Poetry. Poetry can be used in a number of ways. Students can listen to poems being read aloud and say what mood they convey (or what color they suggest to them). They can hear a poem and then try to come up with an appropriate title. They can listen to a poem, which has no punctuation and put in commas and full stops where they should occur.

One way of getting students to predict what they are going to hear is to give them title of three poems will contain. As a result, when they listen, they are eager to see if they are right, and awake to the possibilities of what the poem might be like.

Literature:

1. Jeremy Harmer “How to teach English ”

2. Dudeney, Grand Hockly, N (2007)”How to teach English with technology”

3. Kelly, G (2000) “How to teach Pronunciation ”

4. J and Hadfield (1999) “Simple listening activities ” Oxford university press

5. Serivener ,J (2004) “listening teaching” (2^nd edition ) Macmillan ELT