While and post-listening stages

Task 1. Read the lecture and focus on different key points, Perform written tasks and be ready to talk
about the content in class.

The while-listening stage

Listening for gist

When they first meet with a passage in the classroom, students usually listen for gist - the main idea.
Before we can develop any discussion of themes, analysevocabulary, grammar and pronunciation
used in the listening passage,the students need to understand what the text is about. This forms the
basis and the context of all other work that we do on the text.
Here are some examples of typical gist questions:
What problem are they discussing?
What does the speaker think of the topic?
Look at the pictures. Who are the speakers talking about?
A simple gist exercise is to ask for basic information under the headings What? Who? Why?

Listening for detail

If we tend to ask our students to listen for gist the first time they listen, we usually ask them either to
listen in detail or to listen for specific information the second time.

Bingo: In this activity, which is particularlyenjoyable for young learners, the teacher
writes a list of words on the board, all of which occur during the listening passage.
These should be content words - nouns and some verbs, the students, working alone, choose and
write down seven of these words. They then listen to the passage.
Whenever their words come up, they tick them. They shout Bingo! When they have
ticked all seven. This activity is excellent for selective listening. It should only be done after an initial
listening has established the gist.

Times, dates, numbers: many listening passages are full of times, dates and numbers. We can ask our
students to note them down, also making a note of theirsignificance. A real-life application of this
exercise is writing down a phone numberor address.

Spot the difference (იპოვე განსხვავება): the students look at a picture and listen to a description
ofit. The oral description contains a number of differences from the picture. The students listen for
these differences, and mark them on the page.

A story told twice: similar to ‘Spot the difference’, this activity hinges on students
listening for changes to something they have already come across, in this case a story. The teacher
tells the story twice. The second time a number of details are changed.

Pause and predict: essentially, this involves creating gaps in the text, which thelistener tries to fill.
The teacher pauses the recording or narration frequently andasks students what they think will come

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next and why. One of the beautiesof the activity is that as the text gradually reveals itself - its story
line, tone, theme,style and register - the listener’s guesses tend to become more and more accurate.

Information transfer: the students complete a diagram or drawing based on whatthey hear. Here is a
simple, low-level information transfer activity: the students eachhave an illustration of an empty
plate. In pairs, they take turns to describe what theyate for lunch that day while their partner
attempts to draw the food on the plate.

Guidednote-taking: instead of starting with a blank piece of paper, the students aregiven subheadings,
numbers or unfinished notes to guide them.

Hidden picture: the students each have one picture of a person, which they keephidden from their
classmates. They describe the picture and their classmatestake notes. Each set of notes describing an
individual picture is numbered by thestudents. Afterwards, all the pictures are stuck on the board and
the students haveto match their notes to the pictures.

Types of dictation

Interactive dictation: before beginning the dictation, the teacher makes sure thestudents know these
phrases: How do you spell that? Can you repeat that? Can youslow down a bit?, and any others they
may need. During the dictation, the studentsare encouraged to interrupt the teacher to ask those
same questions. A good way toinduce shy students to interrupt like this is to read the passage
exaggeratedly fast.
This forces the students into action because they will be unable to cope unless theytake the initiative.

Dictogloss: this involves the teacher reading the passage at full speed several times.After a few
readings, in which the students make notes, the task is to work in groupsto reproduce a version of the
passage that is written in good English and containsall the main ideas of the original. This involves
much discussion and collaborationabout areas of grammar, link words, sentence structure, etc, which
tends to be veryinvolving. At the end, they compare their version with the original.

Picture dictation: the teacher describes a simple picture and the students drawit. The next step is to
get the students working in pairs doing the same thing withother pictures.
A final stage is to display the students’ drawings next to the pictures of the originals on the walls. The
students wander around as if in an art gallery and make comments either orally or in writing.

Running dictation: a good way to start a class, running dictation involves a text stuck on a wall
outside the classroom or out of view of the students. In pairs, the students decide who will be the
runner and who the scribe. The runner goes to the wall, memorises a chunk of text, runs back to the
scribe and dictates it. After a minute or two, the scribe and the runner change roles. The activity is
extremely lively, with students running to and fro.

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Grab the word: choose about fifteen key words from the listening passage and writethem on
individual cards. Stick the cards on the wall or board, or if there are a lotof students, place the cards
on the desks after making duplicate copies. The studentslisten as you read the passage or play the
recording, and they grab the words whenthey hear them. The winner is the person who grabbed the
largest number of cards.

Stand up if ...: this is a very simple drill-like listening activity that can energise aclass. The teacher
simply says imperatives beginning with Stand up if you . . . . Forexample, Stand up if you are wearing
blue/like potatoes/own a dog/have been to thecinema in the last month, etc, and the students follow
the instruction before sittingdown again. One useful element of the activity is that teachers can tailor
the activityto practise any grammar point. If you wanted to practise the present perfect plus
ever, you could say Stand up if you have ever: eaten sushi, been to the US, played aninstrument, etc.

Mime: this is recommended for young children especially. Teachers often have theirown store of
favourite songs that lend themselves well to miming, or you can searchthe Internet. Get the students
to read and listen to the song, then listen and sing along. Teach the verbs, and then get the students
to act them out or perform choreographed gestures in time with the song.

The post-listening stage

Post-listening activities include all the work which is done after the listening is completed. They are
extensions of the work done at the pre-listening and while-listening stages.
If the pre-listening stage has built up expectations in the listeners, and the while-listening stage has
satisfied these expectations, it is hard to sustain interest at the post-listening stage unless the post
listening activity is intrinsically motivating.
Problem-solving and decision making, role play, writing a summary or even an essay are popular post
listening activities and follow naturally from many while-listening activities.

Checking and summarizing

The first thing our students speak about, in pairs or small groups, will probably be the answers to pre-
set questions. The teacher’s role in this type of post-listening activity is to monitor the students’
discussion, perhaps asking for textual evidence of their ideas, confirming or denying these ideas and
answering queries.

Here are some other techniques for summarising:

Take it in turns: one student says one thing they understood about the passage;their partner does the
same; then the first student says a second thing, and so on.This is a very simple idea, and effective in
that it evens up the speaking time andprovides for a structured response: whenever it is their turn,
the student will offerone unit of information. It also gives quieter students an opportunity to speak.

Discussion

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Statements: the teacher can devise a number of statements based on the listeningpassage. The
students discuss whether they agree or disagree. Another way ofdoing this is for the students to mark
the statements with a number: 0 means theydisagree completely, 1 means they don’t really agree, 2
means they agree with somereservations, 3 means they agree completely.

Sorting lists: the teacher can list a number of aspects based on the topic and get thestudents to rank
them in order of importance, desirability, cost, etc. Alternatively,depending on the text, the students
discuss ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ based on the topic, andcome up with their own list.

Pros and cons: the teacher finds an area of debate contained within the topic ortouched on in the
listening passage and gets students to discuss pros and cons Pros and cons debates can be extended so
that they take the form ofroleplays. Two or more students argue for or against something. The
difference is that the

Hot seat: the students listen to some kind of narrative or situation in which thereis conflict. After a
lot of solid comprehension work with the recording, one of thestudents takes on the role of one of
the protagonists. This student sits in the ‘hotseat’, in front of other students whose job is to interview
them. The activity workswell as long as the student in the hot seat remains ‘in character’.

Illustrate: this activity is particularly enjoyed by children. The students listen - it might be to a
situation, story or description - and then draw an image that represents the passage. They then
explain their illustration in terms of its significance, and how it reflects what they heard.

Gap-fill: this is one of the most common text reconstruction activities. Some wordsin the text are
blanked out, and the student has to fill the gaps. This is a techniqueoften used in testing,

Disappearing dialogues გაუჩინარებული დიალოგები: the students listen to and then recreate a
dialogue, whichthe teacher writes on the board. The students act it out in pairs. After this, theteacher
erases certain key words. The students once again act out the dialogue (thistime playing different
roles, for variety) before the teacher then erases more wordsso that only a skeleton framework is left
of the original dialogue. As the students actit out for a third time, they find themselves relying far
more on memory and thechunks of language they have acquired in the previous stages. The class
rounds upthe activity by reconstructing the dialogue from memory, with the teacher acting asscribe
(დამწერი,მწერალი) Here’s an example:

Re-ordering: this is a different type of text reconstruction that works particularlywell with dialogues.
The teacher cuts the script into strips. After they have heardthe dialogue and done some while-
listening activities, the students put the strips inthe correct order.

Task .1.Reflection questions:

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WRITE about

1. What have you learnt?

2. How did you learn?
3. How would you use the learnt material in teaching practice?
4. It’s easy to teach listening skills. You just take CD into the classroom, play the text and sit in the
corner. The students will be doing work while you are relaxing. Express your point of view.

The lecture was very interesting. A lot of interesting information I received. In

this lecture, I have learned what is essence of listening? also learned dictation
types, which will definitely use in practice. I lecture on this knowledge to
realized in practice, because it will bring good results.
We also discussed the next stage of the listening or post-listening, which I think
is very interesting learning process. I heard a lecture post-listening activities
including all the work which is done after the listening is completed.
Practical application of the learned material is important because when you are
listening to the lesson, the student tasks give it everything you have to note that
this lecture learned.
This lecture I was assured that listen is important in class and CD using are
more absorbing the information of pupils.

Practical tasksListening activities

Task 2.Analyze Activity 1 : Life Changes

1. Which level is it appropriate for?
2. Which activities are for pre-listening stage, while listening stage and post listening
stage.
3. What is the aim of each stage?

ACTIVITY 1: LIFE CHANGES

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1.1 Make a note of three things that have changed in your life in the last ten years. Think
about your appearances / family / work / studies / free time. Work in pairs. Discuss. How
have your lives changed?

e.g. I’ve changed my hairstyle a lot.

1.2 Now read the sentences below, then listen to the recording where two women talk
about the changes in their lives. Are the sentences true (T) or false (F)?

Anita
1. Anita worked long hours in an advertising job.
2. She was nearly twenty years when she decided to change her life.
3. She wanted to travel around the world.
4. She gave up her job to follow her dream.
5. She worked on a farm in South America.

Jasmin
1. Jasmin worked more than a hundred hours a day.
2. She worked after children in hospital.
3. She played the piano well when she was a child.
4. She started piano lessons and learnt to write songs.
5. Now she plays her own music.

1.3. Work in pairs. Discuss these questions.

1. Do you think it was a good idea for the women to make these life changes?
Why/Why not?
2. Would you make (or have you made) any changes like this yourself?

Task 3.Analyze Activity2 : Wonderful World

1.Which level is it appropriate for?
2.Which activities are for pre-listening stage, while listening stage
3.What is the aim of each stage?

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4.Make up a post- listening activity ქვემოთ მოცეულ აქტივობას არ აქვს მოსმენის

შემდგომი დავალება. შეუდგინეთ თქვენ თვითონ.

ACTIVITY 2: WONDERFUL WORLD

1.1. Work in pairs. How many problems can you think of that are related to the world
environment?
e.g.The forests are getting smaller.

1.2. Listen to a radio programme about the environment. Does it mention your ideas? If,
yes, what? While listening make notes of the main facts.

1.3. Listen again. Find and correct the five mistakes in the FACTFILE below.

FACTFILE
The planet is in trouble. Let’s look at why.
Population
There are more than six billion people on the planet, and by 2050, there might be more
than fifteen billion. A big population means big problems for the planet.
Water
Many people in the world can’t get enough water. In Gambia, Africa one person uses four
and a half liters of water a day. But in the USA, it’s 6000 litres. And the deserts are growing.
Animals
People destroy the rain forest to make more space for businesses, roads and farms. In the
last ten years, we have destroyed more than 150,000 square kilometres – that’s an area
larger than Greece! Animals and plants will become extinct.
Weather
The worlds is getting warmer. The ice in Greenland is melting fast, and on Mount Everest,
there is more snow every year. Sea levels are rising. Soon some of the world’s most
important cities might be under water.