A chapter from A course in Language teaching, Penny Ur

1. TEACHING
LISTENING
ENGLISH II
A course in language teaching , Penny Ur

2. WHAT DOES REALLY- LIFE
DOES LISTENING INVOLVE?• The objective of listening comprehension in
classroom is that students should learn to
functions successfully in real-life listening
situations.

3. LISTENING SITUATIONS.
• Make a list of many situations as you think of where
people are listening to other people
Yours
Interview
Instructions
Loud speaker announcements
Radio news
Committee meeting
Shopping
Theatre show
Telephone chat
Leeson,lecture
Conversation, gossip
Watching television
Story-telling

4. be common to most of the
situation:
• For example: kind of language,
interaction, etc.
• 1. Informal spoken discourse
features:
o BREVITY OF CHUNKS: a conversation where
people take turns
o PRONUNCIATION: the pronunciation of words
is often slurred
o VOCABULARY: is often colloquial
o GRAMMAR: tends to be somewhat
ungrammatical
o NOISE: certain amount of noise, bits of the
discourse is unintelligible, words that are no clear
o REDUNDANCY: the use of fillers such as I
mean, well, er, em, etc.
o NON-REPETITION: the discourse will not be
repeated verbatim

5. • 2. Listener expectations and purpose
o Listener always knows in advance something
about what is going to be said: the basic topic,
linked to his or her purpose. We expect to hear
something relevant to our purpose.

6. • 3. Looking as well as listening
o Normally , we have something to look at that
is linked to what is being said: the speaker,
map, scene, object or the environment in
general.

7. • 4. Ongoing, purposeful, listener
response
o The listener is usually at intervals a discourse is going. The
responses are more over are normally directly related to the
listeners purpose as a simple demonstration of comprehension.

8. • 5. Speaker attention
o The speaker usually directs his o her speech to the
listener. By changing or adapting the discourse,
whether the listener´s character, intention, etc.

9. Application
• Think of situation where you yourself have
recently been listening?
• How many of the above features in fact
apply?

10. REAL-LIFE LISTENING
IN THE CLASSROOM• “CLASSROOM LISTENING IS NOT REAL-LIFE
LISTENING”
o READ ALOUD FOLLOW BY COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
• IN ORDER TO PROVIDE STUDENTS WITH TRAINING IN
LISTENING COMPREHENSION THAT WILL PREPARE
THEM EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONING OUTSIDE THE
CLASSROOM, ACTIVITIES SHOULD GIVE LEARNERS
PRACTICE IN COPING WITH AT LEAST SOME OF THE
FEATURES OF REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS.
o LISTENING ACTIVITIES BASED ON SIMULATED REAL-LIFE
SITUATIONS ARE LIKELY TO BE MORE MOTIVATING AND
INTERESTING TO DO ≠ CONTRIVED TEXTBOOK
COMPREHENSION EXERCISES.

11. GUIDELINES
• 1. LISTENING TEXTS
o INFORMAL TALK. Most listening texts should be based
on discourse that is either genuine improvised,
spontaneous speech, or at least a fair imitation of it.
o SPEAKER VISIBILITY; DIRECT SPEAKER-
LISTENER INTERACTION: It is useful to the learners to
improvise at least some of the listening texts yourself in
your presence. Video also makes a positive contribution to
the effectiveness of listening
o SINGLE OF EXPOSURE: Learners should be
encouraged to developed the ability to extract the
information they need from a single hearing.

12. Listening tasks
• EXPECTATIONS: Learners should have in
advanced some idea about the kind of text they are
going to hear.
• PURPOSE: A listening purpose should be provided
by the definition of a pre-set task, should involve
some kind of clear visible or audible response.
• ONGOING LISTENER RESPONSE: The task
should usually involve intermittent responses during
the listening, encouraged them to respond the
information they are looking for as they hear it not to
wait to the end

13. COMPLETE THE NEXT CHART
IN YOUR OWN OPINION
ADVANTAGES PROBLEMS OR
RESERVATIONS
CONCLUSION
1. LISTENING
TEXTS
2. LISTENING
TASKS:
EXPECTATIONS
AND PURPOSE
3. ONGOING
LISTENER
RESPONSE

14. UNIT THREE: LEARNER PROBLEMS
Learners
problems
Trouble with
sounds
Have to
understand every
word
Can`t understand
fast, natural
native speech
Need to hear
things more than
once
Find it difficult to
keep up
Get tired

15. Make some suggestions as to what the teacher can
do to help solve them

16. Unit Four:
Types of
activities
The learners do not
have to do anything in
response to the
listening; however,
facial expression and
body language often
show if they are
following or not.
Stories
Songs
Entertainment:
films, theatre,
video.
Types of
listening
activities
1. No overt
response

17. Short
responses:
•Obeying instructions: Learners
perform actions, or draw shapes
or pictures, in response to
instructions.
•Ticking off items: Listeners mark
or tick off words/components as
they hear them.
•True/false: Learners indicate
whether statements are right or
wrong; or make brief responses
(‘True!’ or ‘False!’ for example).
•Detecting mistakes: Listeners
raise their hands or call out when
they hear mistakes.
•Cloze: The listening text has
occasional brief gaps, represented
by silence or some kind of buzz.
The learners write down what
they think might be the missing
word.
•Guessing definitions: The
teacher provides brief oral
definitions; learners write down
what they think it is.
•Skimming and scanning:
Learners are asked to identify
some general topic or information
(skimming), or certain limited
information (scanning).

18. Longer questions:
•Answering questions: Questions
demanding full responses are given in
advance.
•Note-taking: Learners take brief notes
from a short talk.
•Paraphrasing and translating: Learners
rewrite the text in different words.
•Summarizing: Learners write a brief
summary of the content.
•Long gap-filling: A long gap is left
somewhere in the text for learners to fill
in.

19. 4. Extended responses
Here, the listening is only a
‘jump-off point’ for extended
reading, writing or speaking: in
other words, these are ‘combined
skills’ activities.
•Problem-solving: Learners hear about a
problem and try to solve it.
•Interpretation: An extract from a piece
of dialogue or monologue is provided,
with no previous information; the
listeners try to guess from the words,
kinds of voices, tone and any other
evidence what is going on. Alternatively,
a piece of literature that is suitable for
reading aloud can be discussed and
analysed.

20. Unit Five: Adapting activities
LISTENING ACTIVITY 1
Instructions
1. Listen to the recording of someone giving instructions. What are they talking
about?
2. Look at the words below. Use a dictionary to check the meaning of any you
are not sure about.
Nouns: switch, slot, disk, handle, key, arrow, screen
Verbs: lock, type Adjectives: bent, capital
3. Listen to the cassette again, and use the words to complete these notes:
Turn it on, here is the__________ at the side. Then you’ll see some words and
numbers on the ________and finally a ___________C.
Take your__________ and put it in the_____________ , and ___________it in;
you have to close this_________ . Now______________ in ‘A’ and press the
________with the sort of _________ ___________at the side.
The listening text
First you turn it on, here’s the switch at the side. Then you’ll see some words
and numbers on the screen, and finally a capital C and a sort of V sideways on.
OK, now take your disk, this one, and put it in the slot – it’s called a ‘drive’ –
and lock it in, you have to close this little handle here. Now type in ‘A’ and press
the key with the sort of bent arrow at the side.

21. Activity 1
The teachers need to pre-teach some of the vocabulary in order
to make sure the listening is successful. Note that the text,
although an imitation of spontaneous speech, is in fact very
dense, with little redundancy and not much opportunity to make
up for anything teachers have missed; it is also ‘blind’ listening –
which it obviously would not be in real life.
The second task is basically a vocabulary exercise, entailing
learning or looking up words many of which they will already
have needed for the previous activity: if the students are only
learning them now, they must have had unnecessary difficulty
before.
The final exercise demands recycling of the words they have
learned: useful for vocabulary practice, but not so good for
listening. If they understand and have the items before them,
and have already heard the text, then they can probably do the
exercise by reading; there is no logical necessity for listening.

22. LISTENING ACTIVITY 2
Instructions to student
Your worksheet shows a map of a zoo; write in the names of the animals in the
appropriate cages as your teacher tells you.
Instructions to teacher
Using your filled-in map of the zoo, describe to the class where each animal
lives; they may ask you to repeat or explain anything they did not catch or
understand.
Student’s map Teacher’s map

23. Listening Activity 2:
Where the actual words of the text can be adapted to the
level of missed or clarifications.
Note, however, that this is not a particularly ‘authentic’ type
of interaction: it is more of a game, than a real attempt at
simulation of a natural communication situation.

24. LISTENING ACTIVITY 3
Instructions
Listen to the following recorded talk, and then answer the multiple-choice
questions below.
The listening text
Crash! was perhaps the most famous pop group of that time. It consisted of
three female singers, with no band. They came originally from Manchester, and
began singing in local clubs, but their fame soon spread throughout the British
Isles and then all over the world. Their hairstyle and clothes were imitated by a
whole generation of teenagers, and thousands came to hear them sing, bought
recordings of their songs or went to see their films.
The questions
1. ‘Crash!’ was a) notorious b) well-known c) unpopular d) local
2. The group was composed of:
a) three boys b) two girls and a boy c) two boys and a girl d) three girls
3. The group was from:
a) Britain b) France c) Brazil d) Egypt
4. A lot of young people wanted to
a) sing like them b) look like them c) live in Manchester d) all of these

25. Listening Activity 3:
It can be improved to some extent as a listening activity if
you go through the loas when are answering the questions
and gives some previous information, expectation and
purpose with which to approach the listening.
To practice selective listening, learners can be asked to
answer only one or two specific questions each time they
hear the text.