Chapter 14

Chapter 14: In One Ear, Out the Other: Learning To Listen

Learning To Listen

In This Chapter

▶ Listening twice for good measure

▶ Finding a format

▶ Getting students ready to listen

▶ Playing it again, Sam

▶ Assigning follow-up activities

W

hen students are able to listen to texts in English and get the sense

of them, they feel a real sense of achievement. But how can you train

your students to listen without them feeling overwhelmed? In this chapter

you find out what to have students listen for and which activities make for an

engaging listening lesson.

Structuring Your Lesson

When you teach listening skills, it pays to remember that it takes most people

a little time to tune in before they listen well. Students need to pay full atten-

tion and have had some practice time before they can cope with detailed

information in a foreign language. So, to help your students feel relaxed

and prepared you can begin with a warmer activity lasting a few minutes. It

doesn’t have to be related to the listening activities but is a short game or

puzzle that focuses the mind.

Then you need two activities based on the same listening text but the first

should be easier than the second. With the first activity you set the task and

let students, read, discuss or work on it. Then you play the recording for

them to listen to. After that there’s a feedback session in which the students