Listening is one of four language skills along with reading, writing and speaking which learners need to develop in order to become competent language users.
Often associated with the use of audio cassettes/CDs in the classroom, effective listening involves mastery of a range of sub-skills including:
- recognizing individual sounds, individual words, phrases and blocks meaning
- understanding the use stress, rhythm and tempo to convey meaning
- identifying linguistic sign-posts or discourse markers which highlight (changes of) meaning
- relating what is heard to what is already known
- coping with the unknown and guessing the meaning of unknown words
In theory, learners will be equipped with these sub-skills from their mother tongue (L1) but nevertheless low learner confidence in the foreign language combined with an absence to interact with the speakers on the audio cassette/CD dictate that listening activities are approached with due care and attention in the classroom:
- Ask learners to predict what they will hear either by providing a title/associated visual(s) or selected part(s) of the tapescript.
- Identify key-words necessary for learner understanding. Pre-teach if unknown to learners but avoid pre-teaching more than 4/5 words as this will simply add to learner anxiety. Try to find a common thread or schema linking these unknowns to aid understanding and retention.
- Play the recording right through and ask the learners to summarise what they have heard. This will give them an opportunity to understand the gist and familiarize themselves with the different voices and accents.
- Set a more specific task and play the recording once again, asking the learners to listen for the specific pieces of information required.
- Identify any areas of particular interest in the recording, re-play the recording but this time allow learners to refer to the transcript so that they can match what they hear with what they then read.
Clearly, the approach suggested above will need to be adapted depending not only on the length/difficulty of the audio recording but also the level of the learners. Advanced/older learners should be encouraged to develop their own strategies for dealing with the unknown and thus pre-teaching of unknown words may be counter-productive whereas young(er) learners may find more comfort and confidence in knowing all the words encountered and listening to the recording several times.
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