What is listening? Define it in your own words.

1. What is listening?Define it in your own words.

2. Listening is an active, purposeful process of making sense of what we hear.

3. Why do we listen (in our own lives, everyday)?

4. Mainly to:Engage in social rituals (with family, friends, coworkers, merchants, taxi/bus drivers, etc.)Gather and exchange information Enjoy ourselves (pleasure)

5. What are some things people listen to everyday (that you could and should use as materials in class)?

6. Casual conversations (yours or someone else’s – eavesdropping)Recounts and narrativesExplanations, instructions, and procedures (e.g. how to use or operate something)Professional advice (e.g. hospital, bank, or law office)Announcements (e.g. at an airport or in a grocery store)Things on the Internet (e.g. news, information reports, or different viewpoints)Radio broadcasts (e.g. news, weather, talk shows, or stories)TV shows (commercials) and movies (trailers) Music (with lyrics)Things at school (e.g. lessons, lectures, teacher-talk, or student-talk)Things at work (e.g. meetings or presentations)Telephone conversations

7. What are some listening myths?

8. Listening is a passive skillListening is a one-way processLearners just need to listen a lotListening and speaking are separate skillsListening practice should be based on native speaker modelsListeners should be able to understand everything in the text

9. What are the types of listening we engage in on a day-to-day basis?

10. Listen for gist (general idea of what is being said)Listen for specific information (only need to understand specific, limited parts)Listen for details (for exact information that will help achieve a task)Listen for inferences (to know how a person feels)

11. What are some of the factors that come into play when we engage in the process of understanding spoken language?

12. Listener factors (purpose, proficiency, confidence, familiarity, interest, strategies)Linguistic factors (variety of English, colloquial language, speed, number of speakers, relationships to each other, length of segment, nonverbal communication, type of discourse)Situational factors (setting, contextual clues and affectations, participant roles, participants actions and reasons for these, how actions inform speech, connection or disconnection to context)

13. What should teacher’s objectives in the classroom be? What should teachers strive to do?

14. Expose students to a range of (everyday) listening experiencesMake listening purposeful/meaningfulHelp students understand the process of listening and how they might approach it (i.e. teaching listening strategies)Build students’ confidence in their own listening ability

15. How can a teacher successfully teach listening in class?

16. Make sure instructions are clearGive students a specific purpose/taskDo lots of pre-listening workProvide any necessary scaffolding while listeningTell students not to worry about understanding every word (at least initially)Review, recycle, and connect

17. What is the guideline when doing a listening task?

18. Process rather than product. The going is more important than the getting there. The goal is to work on the listening itself, not just get the right answer(s) or finish your lesson plan.

19. What does listening involve? What do people do when they are listening?

20. Get clues from the environment (facial expressions, gestures, background noise, setting, other people)Use background knowledge about the setting, topic, languagePredict what the speaker is going to say nextDistinguish which words are important and carry meaningUnderstand and interpret the meaning of those words and groups of words (pronunciation, colloquial vocabulary, ungrammatical utterances, redundancy)Ask questions when they don’t understandNote the meaning of silencesHave a goal in mind and try to achieve it

21. What are some features of a good listening activity?

22. Variety of situations (monologs, dialogs, announcements, etc.)Relevance to students’ needsListening processes (top-down, bottom-up, interactive)Linguistic level (vocabulary, grammar, length of text)Topics (interest, background knowledge)Tasks (realistic, useful, help improve skills)Sequence (before, during, after)

23. What are the elements of a good listening lesson?

24. Has pre-listening activitiesAllows students to know the kind of text and purpose for listening in advanceGives students a purpose for listening (e.g. to get general or specific information or to accomplish a task)Requires some kind of response from the listener such as taking notes, answering questions, or making a group decisionUses appropriate material (topic is of high interest or value, at right level, authentic, etc.)Gives students more than one chance to listen – each time with a different purposeHas follow-up activities which include other skills

25. What is the difference between top-down, bottom-up, and interactive processing?

26. Top-down [meaning level] describes how the listener’s background knowledge affects listening (i.e. our knowledge of the world and different kinds of texts – narratives, explanations, reports, etc.) Bottom-up [word level] emphasizes the decoding of the smallest units that lead us towards meaning (i.e. recognizing the words the input contains and using knowledge of the meaning of the words and grammar to determine the speaker’s meaning): phonemes > syllables> words > clauses/chunks > sentences > paragraphs > longer sections of text > whole text Interactive [both meaning and word level] moves between bottom-up and top-down processing (i.e. it utilizes both)

27. What is a typical route map for a listening activity?

28. 1. Before the lesson (familiarize yourself with the materials and activity, think about learners’ needs and challenges, plan for clear instructions, consider seating arrangements and use of the board, etc.)2. Lead-in (raise motivation or interest, focus on language items that might be useful in the activity)3. Set up the activity (organize students, give clear instructions – demonstrate/model/show vs. tell)4. Run the activity (allow students to do the activity while you monitor and facilitate)5. Close the activity (sense when the students are ready to move on; make a judgment about when coming together as a whole class would be useful to most people > time warning)6. Post-activity (hold some type of feedback session on the activity – address comments and questions about the topic and the language)

29. What is a typical framework for a listening lesson?

30. 1. (P) Predicting content2. (P) Warm-up questions3. (P) Vocabulary activity 4. (P) Task listening or listening overview5. (D) Listen for main idea(s)6. (D) Listen for details7. (D) Listen for inferences (what is not explicitly said yet implied)8. (P) Summarize9. (P) Discussion questions10. (P) Language work (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc.)11. (P) Extension activities (projects)

31. What are some types of listening activities?

32. No overt response (stories, songs, TV shows, movies, videos – students do not have to do anything in response to the listening; facial expressions and body language indicate whether they are following or not)Short responses (obeying instructions, ticking off items, true/false, detecting mistakes, cloze, guessing definitions, skimming and scanning – students respond by writing a word or symbol or by phyical movement)Longer responses (answering questions, note-taking, paraphrasing, translating, summarizing, long gapfilling – students write longer answers)Extended responses (writing or speaking – students have to combine skills in creative ways)

33. What are some typical pre-listening activities?

34. Brainstorming about a topic Warm-up (discussion) questionsSituations (e.g. What would you do if . . . ?)Pictures, maps, diagrams, graphs, videos or other visual aidsRealia related to the topic (e.g. menu or movie schedule)Vocabulary or grammar workListing, ranking, rating, categorizingGraphic organizer, chart or tablePrediction questions (about content)Task overview (e.g. What do you want to know about . . .?)

35. Why do pre-listening activities?

36. Set the contextEstablish a purpose for listeningGenerate interestActivate background knowledgeHelp acquire new knowledgeLearn lexis used in the listeningPredict contentPreview listening tasks

37. What makes a good listening text?

39. How can you check the level of difficulty of a text?

40. Check how the information in the text is organizedCheck how familiar students are with the topicCheck the vocabulary and expressions usedCheck if there is any cultural information Check if the text has multiple objects or individuals, and if they are clearly differentiatedCheck if the text offers visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the listeners hear

41. What three kinds of information does listening comprehension depend on?

42. Input (the sounds the listener hears)Linguistic knowledge (knowledge of sounds, vocabulary, grammar)Context (general knowledge, personal experience, knowledge of what precedes the text)

43. How should the during-listening tasks be graded or arranged?

44. Easy to difficultGeneral to specificConcrete to abstractExample: (1) main idea or gist (2) supporting details (3) inferences – not explicitly stated/between the lines (4) critical analysis (5) summarizing

45. What are some typical during-listening activities?

46. Main ideaDetailsInferences (identify what is not explicitly stated – e.g. speaker’s attitude)Cloze (fill in the blanks) exercise Graphic organizer, chart or tableOrdering, numbering, ranking, listing, matchingSelecting correct response or detecting mistakesMultiple choice, true/false, boxes, labeling, matchingNote-taking or dictationListen and do something (e.g. TPR, stand up or changes chairs if, etc.)Section summaries or short answers

47. What should teachers do in the post-listening part of the lesson?

48. Review students comprehension and provide remedial activities (to address learner difficulties) where neededLink comprehension to appropriate responses and follow-up (via tasks that mirror real-world listening purposes – e.g. role play, debate, etc.)Use listening texts for language development (i.e. acquisition-focused activities – lexis, grammar, extend to other language skills, etc.)

49. What are some typical post-listening activities?

50. Comprehension questionsSummaryContent discussion (i.e. critical response)Vocabulary reviewSurveysDebatesRole playsPresentationsSkill work (i.e. writing – paragraph, reading – passage , listening – video)Extension projects (i.e. creative content work)