206 Part III: Teaching Skills Classes
Students don’t need to understand every word. After all, in real life we often
just let phrases go over our heads. You may understand a particular expres-
sion only after hearing it many times – this is a natural way to acquire lan-
guage. So instead of analysing the text to death, just choose specific things
you want to highlight.Listening activities to try
Here a few suggestions for you to try in your
listening skills lessons:
✓ Working with a picture. Students can
examine a picture to see if it matches up
to the listening text. Does the picture show
the correct number of people in the right
place? Is each person in the picture wear-
ing the clothes the listening text described?
In a picture story students can choose the
picture that doesn’t fit. They may have four
pictures that show scenes from a story but
one picture shows the same characters
doing something that doesn’t happen in the
story. By listening carefully the students
can weed out it out.✓ Labelling: Students put labels on various
parts of a diagram based on what they
hear. Suppose the listening text describes a
machine with four of five distinct parts and
only one part is labelled on the diagram. As
the students listen to the text they hear that
Part A is rectangular not round, or that Part
D is the only one connected to Part C on the
right. By listening to the text the class can
identify and eliminate the various parts.
✓ Following a map: After a description or
directions, X can mark the spot.✓ Short teacher monologue: Tell a story about
an episode in your life while students take
notes. They can ask you questions about it
afterwards or retell the story to each other.
✓ Traditional stories: Folk tales and fairy stories
are great because there are often similarones in other cultures so the students may
want to tell their own afterwards. If you
can’t find a professional recording, get a
friend to read and record it for you.
✓ Songs: Music is great for fixing words in
your mind. It’s a painless way to practice
grammar. I recently used Beyonce’s ‘If I
Were a Boy’ to practise the second condi-
tional tense.✓ Physical response: Get students to follow
instructions through movement. They can
practice words like prepositions and parts
of the body. They can also manipulate
objects in accordance with the listening
text.
✓ Dictation: This traditional activity can be liv-
ened up by dictating a diagram for students
to draw.✓ True or false: Have a series of true or false
comprehension questions after listening for
detail.
✓ Gap fill: Leave gaps in the tape-script or in
the summary you prepare.✓ Putting information in order. The listening
text may describe a process such as baking
a special cake. On the students’ worksheet
you list all the stages in the wrong order.
As they listen, the students can number the
stages of the process from first to last.
✓ Complete information on a timetable or
schedule.