Teaching Listening - IS MUNI

Masaryk University Brno

Pedagogical Faculty

Department of English language and literature

Teaching Listening

Bakalářská práce

Brno 2009

Author: Eva Macháčková Supervisor: Mgr. Naďa Vojtková

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Prohlášení:

Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci zpracovala samostatně a použila jen prameny

uvedené v seznamu literatury.

..................................

Podpis

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Acknowledgements:

I would like to express my thanks to Mgr. Naďa Vojtková for her help, guidance,

inspiring and valuable comments on my bachelor thesis, and time she devoted to me as

the supervisor.

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Anotace

Bakalářská práce se zabývá výukou poslechu. V průběhu poslechových aktivit se často

učitelé setkávají s problémem, že studenti mají problémy s řádným porozuměním a

následné interpretaci slyšeného textu. Cílem bakalářské práce je zaměření se na úlohu

učitele a studentů během poslechových aktivit, proces poslechu a jednotlivé stupně

poslechu, různé styly a strategie učení.

Bakalářská práce je rozdělena na dvě části.

Teoretická část poskytuje shrnutí procesů a aktivit poslechu, jednotlivé stupně poslechu,

styly a strategie učení a roli učitele a studentů při poslechových aktivitách.

Praktická část je zaměřena na samotnou výuku poslechu a poskytuje náhled

poslechových aktivit a jejich výsledky.

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with teaching listening. During listening activities teachers

encounter a problem that students have difficulties with proper understanding and

subsequent interpretation. The objectives of the work are to focus on the role of the

teacher and students during listening activities, listening process and stages of listening,

different learning styles and individual learning strategies.

The work is divided into two parts.

The theoretical part provides an account of the listening process and activities,

individual stages of listening, learning styles and strategies and a teacher’s and students’

roles. The practical part demonstrates listening activities and presents the results of such

activities.

Klíčová slova

Strategie učení, učební styly, poslechové aktivity, průběh poslechu, důvody pro poslech,

fáze poslechu, role učitele při poslechu, problémy při poslechu.

Key words

Learning strategies, learning styles, listening activities, listening process, purposes for

listening, stages of listening, the teacher's role and difficulties during listening.

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Content

Introduction ................................................................................................. 6

1. Theoretical Part ....................................................................................... 8

1.1 The importance of listening comprehension ............................................. 8

1.2 Purposes for listening .................................................................................. 9

1.3 Process of listening .................................................................................... 10

1.3.1 Bottom-up listening process ........................................................................... 10

1.3.2 Top down process .......................................................................................... 11

1.4 Difficulties during listening ...................................................................... 12

1.4.1 Problems caused by pronunciation ................................................................ 12

1.4.2 Problems caused by the lack of control of a speaker’s speech speed ............ 13

1.4.3 Problems caused by the inability to get things repeated ................................ 14

1.4.4 Problems caused by the listeners’ limited word stock ................................... 14

1.4.5 Problems caused by the failure to concentrate ............................................... 14

1.4.7 Problems caused by the interpretation ........................................................... 15

1.4.8 Problems caused by the inability to identify the signals ................................ 15

1.4.9 Problems caused by the language .................................................................. 15

1.4.10 Problems caused by the lack of visual support ............................................ 16

1.5 Learning styles and strategies .................................................................. 16

1.5.1 Learning styles ............................................................................................... 17

1.5.2 Learning strategies ......................................................................................... 19

1.6 Teacher’s role during listening activities ................................................ 20

1.6.1 Teacher’s role preceding the listening ........................................................... 22

1.6.2 Teacher’s role during the listening ................................................................. 22

1.7 Lesson Planning ......................................................................................... 23

1.7.1 Pre-listening stage .......................................................................................... 24

1.7.2 While-listening stage ...................................................................................... 26

1.7.3 Follow-up stage .............................................................................................. 28

1.7.4 Types of listening exercises ........................................................................... 29

2. Practical part ......................................................................................... 33

Lesson plans ..................................................................................................... 33

2.1 Lesson Plan 1-Too Many People ...................................................................... 34

2.2 Lesson Plan 2-The Right Job ............................................................................ 38

2.3 Lesson Plan -Football Clubs ............................................................................. 41

2.4 Lesson Plan 4-Death Trap ................................................................................. 43

2.5 Lesson Plan 5- The Woman without a name .................................................... 45

Conclusion .................................................................................................. 48

Summary .......................................................................................................... 50

Resumé ............................................................................................................. 50

Bibliography .............................................................................................. 52

Appendix .................................................................................................... 54

Appendix 1 Reflective Journal ....................................................................... 54

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Appendix 2 Students’ Journals ........................................................................ 545

Appendix 3 Pictures for lesson 3 ....................................................................... 55

Appendix 4 Listening Exercises ......................................................................... 58

Appendix 5 Tapescripts ...................................................................................... 62

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Introduction

Learning English as a foreign language has become an essential part of our lives. Being

a part of the European Union is closely connected with a need to communicate in

English. The Czech Republic has also accepted the Common European Framework of

Reference for languages which does not describe what to teach but how to teach the

target language in the easiest and most efficient way. The other important aspect of

teaching languages is that the concept of CEFR has become a part of the National

Curriculum. On the basis of the National Curriculum pupils are supposed to start

learning languages in their third year and teachers are expected to teach their pupils the

four basic skills e.g. Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing. Because of the recent

trend I focus on teaching listening in my bachelor thesis.

In teaching practice I encounter several difficulties such as classes contain more

students that it would be ideal for teaching languages as such and this leads into another

problem that in these large classes there are learners with a lot of different learning

styles and diverse needs. Since listening comprehension belongs among the most

difficult skills it is crucial for teachers to help their students to learn good listening

strategies because without proper understanding people can not contribute to various

discussions and more over listening provide exposure to the target language.

The aim of my work is to centre not only on teacher’s role during the listening activities

and various stages and processes of listening but also on students’ role and their

personal needs and different learning styles. The main objective is to present listening in

the most efficient ways of teaching listening comprehension representing students’

needs and learning styles.

The theoretical part of my bachelor thesis concentrates on the organization of the

listening in the most accessible way so that learners can be successful in a variety of

listening exercises. This part of my work is also focused on a diverse choice of listening

strategies that I suppose could help student with proper understanding of listening

exercises. Furthermore I would like to pay attention to students’ motivation, interests in

diverse topics and their actual reasons for listening. Moreover I would like to focus on

different learning approaches that influence the whole learning and listening process.

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The practical part of my bachelor thesis is focused on teaching listening and provides

five lesson plans for teaching listening. All lesson plans include self-reflection and

students’ feedback. In the practical part I will also deal with three main hypotheses.

Firstly, from my experience I know that the majority of the students are visual learners

and due to this fact I will use pictures as a visual support in the lessons.

Secondly, the students need a lot of language support and because of their need I will

provide them with key vocabulary before each listening. But on the other hand I know

that they will not be given this support at the FCE exam and due to this fact I will

reduce the number of the words gradually.

Thirdly, I would like to help my students to learn good learning strategies. I will focus

on teaching guessing and predicting the possible answers in the listening exercises

because I think that this will be helpful during the exam.

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1. Theoretical Part

1.1 The importance of listening comprehension

The importance of listening in language learning has changed over the past years.

Listening used to be overlooked and educators supposed that listening abilities would be

acquired during the grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation practice (Hedge). This was

quite surprising as abilities to listen play an equal role as abilities to speak in successful

communication.

There are a lot of reasons why educators are now focused on the ability to understand

and contribute to communication. Firstly, pupils at basic schools are encouraged to

develop good listening abilities in their mother tongue so that they can be successful in

everyday communication. Secondly, students have to develop effective listening

strategies that will enable them to learn another language.

Underwood points out that listening is an activity of paying attention to the speaker and

subsequent attempt to understand what we hear (1989: 1). Even though listening may

be seen as a passive process it is not true because we as listeners have to concentrate on

the message to be able to decode it. Underwood argues that hearing can be thought of

as a passive condition, listening is always an active process (1989: 2).

There are three main stages involved in the auditory process. During the first stage

sounds are structured into meaningful units. The process of organising the sounds into

the units is based on learner’s previous knowledge about the language. During the

second stage we work on the new information. This means that we compare and

contrast words or phrases we heard with already known information. The last step

includes transmitting the newly acquired information into the long term memory so that

we can use this information later (Underwood).

The importance of listening in language learning is worth considering since when you

do not listen you will never learn anything new.

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1.2 Purposes for listening

In real situations we rarely listen to somebody without any expectations what we are

going to hear. This means that we usually have preconceived idea of the content (Ur

1984: 3) and these ideas are based on our knowledge about the heard information.

These expectations are usually connected with the purpose of listening e.g. if we want

to know what the time is we have to ask somebody. According to Ur the heard

information which corresponds with the listener’s expectations and needs is more likely

to be correctly apprehended and understood than the information that is not relevant or

useful. That is why it is so important to provide the learners with some information

about the content before listening.

In almost all real-life situations listeners are supposed to give an immediate response to

what they just heard. To respond to the information they can use either verbal or non-

verbal ways of expressing their opinions. But this is not a case of classroom recordings

since they consist of long parts of speech and the response to them is demanded at the

end rather than between individual parts and Ur argues that listening tasks should

consist of short parts demanding immediate answer.

In everyday situations there are a great number of reasons for listening.

Brown and Yule divided the purposes into two main categories interactional and

transactional. Interactional purpose convey social reasons of communication such as

chatting at a party whereas transactional is used to express exchange of information

such as to follow instruction (Hedge).

Galvin claims that there are five main reasons for listening such as to engage in social

rituals; to exchange information; to enjoy yourself; to share feelings and to exert

control (Hedge 2000: 243).

And according to Underwood teachers should prepare their students for these situations:

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� Attending a lesson or a lecture. The aim of this activity is to understand the main

concept and to be able to distinguish the main information.

� Listening to announcements, news and weather forecast. In this situation

listener’s objective is to get relevant information.

� Listening to live situation in which one takes no part. This type of situation is

usually connected with eavesdropping. The person listening to the conversation

is usually unaware of the context so that he or she cannot interfere into the

conversation.

� Listening to or watching plays, watching TV or listening to a radio for pleasure.

The aim of this activity is to entertain oneself.

� Listening to someone giving a speech. The listener is often interested in views

and attitudes of the speaker.

� Following the instructions. The listener’s objective is to accomplish the task

successfully.

Since it is difficult to provide listening that contains natural speech and is highly

interesting I consider this list of purposes of individual listening as a support for

teachers when they are choosing the listening text for their students.

1.3 Process of listening

When listening to somebody or something we use different strategies in order to

understand the message and that is why it is so important for teachers to help their

students to learn how to listen.

There are two main views of listening bottom-up process and top-down listening

process.

1.3.1 Bottom-up listening process

This type of process is linear as the meaning is gained at the end of the process.

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Hedge (2000: 230) points out that we use our knowledge of the language and our ability

to process acoustic signals to make sense of the sounds that speech presents to us. In

other words we create the message from the individual parts e.g. from sounds to words

to grammatical units to lexical meaning. And at the same time with this process we use

any clues that can help us with the meaning.

Hedge claims that there are several clues such as the stress implied on certain

meaningful units, relationship between stressed and unstressed syllables; we also use

our lexical and syntactic knowledge to get the meaning of the words.

1.3.2 Top down process

Previous background knowledge of the topic of the conversation help the listener to

explain and interpret what the speaker is talking about and this prior knowledge enables

him or her to predict what may come next. The prior knowledge was also termed as

schematic knowledge. The top down process also allows the listener to avoid some

aspects of the bottom-up process (Celce-Murcia).

According to Brown and Yule the listener must put the language in a context of

situation to get the meaning. Native speakers usually use their background and cultural

knowledge; and their previous knowledge for listening situations as they expect that

certain situations are connected with typical features and language. These above

mentioned facts make the listening comprehension easier as they help them to interpret

what is being spoken about and what will probably follow (Underwood).

It is teacher’s responsibility to teach their students to pay attention to what they hear, to

get the main idea and interpret it and subsequently respond to the information.

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1.4 Difficulties during listening

A great number of students believe that listening is the most difficult skill and they start

to panic when they hear the word listening or see a CD player. But on the other hand

students, who learn from what they hear, usually achieve better results at listening.

Underwood argues that students whose mother tongue contains similar or same

intonation and stress patterns have fewer problems in comparison with students whose

mother tongue is based on different rhythms.

According to Anderson and Lynch the first thing that learners have to develop is an

ability that will enable them to identify the topic of the conversation and help them to

find a relevant reaction.

Secondly, learners should also develop an ability to predict the development of the topic

as this ability will help them to prepare a suitable response in advance.

Thirdly, they ought to recognize and also indicate when they do not understand enough

to make a relevant response. Learners have to learn how to cope with problems of the

topic clarification by using expressions such as “excuse me?, pardon? or Sorry, I do not

understand?” or simply by repeating the speaker’s words to show that they are having

problems.

As students encounter a lot of problems during listening I provided a list of the most

common ones.

1.4.1 Problems caused by pronunciation

One of the most common problems encountered by students is the way English words

are pronounced but unfortunately this aspect of English cannot be overlooked as

pronunciation of English can cause students problems in recognition, and therefore in

comprehension (Rixon 1986: 38).

Firstly, students can find it difficult to comprehend with the fact that there are different

ways how to pronounce the same sound. For example there are two ways how to

pronounce sound /t/. In so called BBC English one of the ways engages aspiration, a

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hissing sound, this happens if the /t/ is placed at the beginning of the syllables. Students

who have no experience with aspiration in their mother tongue can hear /st/ (Rixon).

Secondly, learners can encounter a difference between sound and spelling. As there is a

difference between the spoken and written form of words in English students can fail to

identify the pronounced form of words they know in written form.

Thirdly, learners must be aware of the fact that words are not pronounced in isolation.

The way they are used is called connected speech and this aspect of English can cause

students problems to recognize individual words. In natural speech listeners can

encounter three main types of a change in sound involving weak form of vowels. This

means that words that are in unstressed positions have different pronunciation in

comparison with stressed vowels e.g. when to is said in isolation it is pronounced as

/tu:/but on the other hand in connected speech the pronunciation changes into /tə/.

Another factor of connected speech is called elision. This means a loss of sounds

appearing in natural speech e.g. the word probably is pronounced /probli/. The third

factor of connected speech is called assimilation. Assimilation means that a

pronunciation of a letter can be influenced by the letter before or after it so that it

changes its sound e.g. ten bikes can be pronounced /tem baiks/ (Rixon).

Finally, students can deal with the rhythm of English. English belongs among stressed

timed languages this means that stressed syllables occur in regular rhythms also in case

when there are a different number of syllables between the stresses. This fact can cause

that listeners can fail to hear unstressed syllables (Rixon).

1.4.2 Problems caused by the lack of control of a speaker’s speech speed

Many students feel that one of the greatest difficulties they have to deal with during

listening exercises in comparison with reading exercises is the lack of possibility how to

control the speed of speakers’ speech. Students believe that during the listening they can

miss important information and in contrast to reading they cannot re-listen to it. Some

students can be busy with the meaning of certain words from the first part that they miss

important information from the second part or they can stop listening as they are not

able to select the correct information so quickly (Underwood). According to Ur students

can ask their teacher to speak clearly and slowly but if the teachers decide to do this

they will not help their students to cope with the everyday speech. Ur suggests that

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students should be exposed to as much as natural informal speech as they are able to

understand.

1.4.3 Problems caused by the inability to get things repeated

Another problem connected with listening is the fact that listeners cannot always make

the speaker repeat what they have just said. If the recordings are under the students’

control they can be played over and over again but this is not possible in everyday

classroom environment where the teacher decides whether they will listen to the

recording again or not (Underwood). Ur argues that learners should be exposed to the

recording more than once in order to understand the discourse.

1.4.4 Problems caused by the listeners’ limited word stock

For listeners who do not know all vocabulary used by the speaker, listening can be very

stressful as they usually start thinking about the meaning and as a result of this they

miss the following information. Ur claims that learners believe that everything that is

said on the recording is equally important to the main meaning and their efforts to

understand everything lead in ineffective listening and can also cause that students feel

that they did not succeeded. Students ought not to dwell on what exactly has been said

but focus on the next information and the context as they do it in their mother tongue

since this strategy will help them to be more successful (Underwood).

1.4.5 Problems caused by the failure to concentrate

There are many factors influencing learners concentration e.g. selection of a good topic

is very important as it is easier for students to concentrate if the topic is appealing for

them. The length of the listening exercise plays an important role as well. According to

Ur if the exercise is too long it would be more suitable to break it up into shorter parts

by pausing or a change of the speakers. Listeners can also lose their concentration if the

recording is in a poor quality or they are disturbed by outside noises (Underwood).

1.4.6 Problems caused by the students’ learning habits

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Underwood claims that teachers think that their students must understand everything in

their lessons so that is why they pronounce words carefully and repeat everything over

and over again. But because of this approach students can become worried if they do not

understand every word or phrase and only when learners accept the fact that they do not

or probably cannot understand everything they are prepared to work with partial

understanding (Underwood 1989: 19).

1.4.7 Problems caused by the interpretation

A listener who is not familiar with the context and background knowledge of the

speaker’s experience can have difficulties in communication. Now learners’ inability to

understand is not caused by limited word stock and learning habits but by the fact that

the listener and speaker do not share the common meaning. But on the other hand this

can even happen to people who use the same language and are from the same

background (Underwood).

1.4.8 Problems caused by the inability to identify the signals

For a learner listening to the foreign language is not usually easy to recognise the

indications of giving examples, repeating a point and so on so their task is to learn how

to listen for these signals which will enable to understand better (Underwood).

1.4.9 Problems caused by the language

A majority of recordings played in the classrooms contain language that is slower,

formal and speakers speak clearly but the listening outside of the classrooms does not

posses these qualities and contains informal colloquial phrases and teachers preparing

their students for real-life listening should know about these features. According to

Hedge there are a lot of differences between classroom recordings and natural speech.

For example the language used is classrooms have these characteristics slow pace of the

speech with very limited variation, clear intonation patterns, words are carefully

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articulated, the language is more formal and background noises are usually missing,

whereas natural speech have these features such as a vast variety of the speed of the

language, is very often fast; contains natural intonation and the common features of

connected speech, is full of colloquial language and background noises (Hedge). In my

opinion teachers ought to expose their students to real life listening but on the other

hand classroom books do not contain natural speech that is why I think that the best

solution is to bring a mixture of both real-life recordings and classroom recordings since

this way of presenting listening would help students to develop good listening skills.

1.4.10 Problems caused by the lack of visual support

In real life listening is not only about hearing some information but also about seeing

the other people e.g. their gestures and body language. But in classroom environment

teachers usually use audio not video recordings and this can cause problems to some

learners since they must focus only on what they hear, which can be restricting for

them. This means that teachers must spend time on a good presentation about the

background so that the context is presented to the students (Hedge).

1.5 Learning styles and strategies

Learning styles and strategies influence and determine the objectives in teaching and

learning. The styles and strategies also influence students’ perception and subsequent

recalling of information and also determine the way how people react. For teachers it is

vitally important to aware of different learning styles especially when planning and

organising the language lesson. Being aware of these differences enables teachers to

take them into account and respect them during their lessons.

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1.5.1 Learning styles

Multiple intelligences

The theory of multiple intelligences is associated with Dr. Howard Gardner, an

American psychologist. The whole concept of this theory was described in Gardner’s

book called Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. The theory of

multiple intelligences states that the traditional division of intelligence, measured by IQ

tests, is not sufficient since it does not cover all learners’ abilities and skills. In his book

Gardner introduced seven basic dimensions of learners’ intelligences and I would like to

comment on them in connection with listening.

� Linguistic intelligence- Learners with linguistic intelligence need to be exposed

to the language as much as possible because they are able to acquire new phrases

easily than students with other types of intelligences.

� Logical-mathematical intelligence- Students with logical-mathematical

intelligence need to put everything into classes, charts and categories. This

system contributes to their learning progress and that is why mind maps are

suitable for them.

� Spatial intelligence- Learners with spatial intelligence need to visualize objects

and it is important for them to use pictures or visualize stories in their minds.

� Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence- Students with bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence

learn through doing and performing. It is important for these learners to

incorporate total physical response into the lessons.

� Musical intelligence- These learners are sensitive to sounds and rhythms and

they need listen to different songs or chants.

� Interpersonal intelligence- For these learners it is vital to discuss with other

learners and teachers should try to incorporate group activities and

brainstorming into their listening lessons.

� Intrapersonal intelligence- These learners prefer to work alone and it is

suitable to let them think about the tasks carefully and reflect on their learning

process or let them visualize stories in their minds.

After publishing Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences Gardner added

another type of intelligence. The last type of intelligence is called naturalistic.

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Naturalistic intelligence

Naturalistic intelligence is a new type. Learners with the naturalistic intelligence need to

be in touch with nature and because of this fact the teacher should try to bring listening

materials that are connected with environmental issues.

Another division of learning styles is according to different approaches.

Flowerdew and Miller describe these learning styles:

� Deep approach- These students consider all information worth learning.

� Surface approach- these learners prefer to learn only enough information to

finish their tasks.

� Strategic approach- Students who prefer strategic approach focus only on

passing their tests.

� Holistic (field-independent) approach- Learners who need overall picture and

focus on general information belong to this group.

� Field-dependant approach- these learners want to learn gradually, step by step

learning.

� Converger- These students developed their ways of learning and they follow

them.

� Diverger- These learners are creative and prefer less formal way of learning.

� Concrete approach- these learners want their own learning experience to be a

part of the learning process.

� Abstract approach- These students prefer abstract theories.

� Reflective approach- Those students who like to consider their learning

progress belong into this group.

� Active approach- These learners like to experiment in the learning process.

� Solitary approach- These students prefer learning by themselves.

� Social approach- These learners love face to face interaction (Richards).

Teachers should be aware of the fact that learning styles overlap with the theory of

multiple intelligences as the theory not only covers basic students’ abilities and skills

but also the whole area of learners’ thinking.

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1.5.2 Learning strategies

Willing points out that a learning strategy is a specific mental procedure for gathering,

processing, associating, categorizing, rehearsing, and retrieving information or

patterned skills (2005: 62).

To assist students in acquiring new knowledge in a better way, teachers should support

them to develop learning strategies.

According to Harmer developing new learning strategies incorporates teaching students

to:

� use textbooks. This involves guiding students; show them how to work with

their textbooks.

� use communicative approach. Teachers should try to discourage students from

using the mother tongue during speaking activities.

� read for the gist. Teachers have to explain and show their students how to deal

with texts.

� deal with unfamiliar vocabulary. Teachers are supposed to provide their

learners with the suitable context.

� use dictionaries. Teachers ought to explain how to make the best use of them.

Learning strategies can be branched into many areas but I will concentrate only on the

three main.

According to Flowerdew and Miller learning strategies are distinguished as:

� Metacognitive strategies. Metacognitive strategies can be described as

strategies that are used by the learners to organize, monitor and evaluate their

learning process.

� Cognitive strategies. Cognitive strategies are the ways that the students use to

acquire the language.

� Socioaffective strategies. Socioaffective strategies are the processes in which

students employ others to improve their learning.

Being aware of students’ learning styles and strategies and respecting them can help

teachers to organise more effective language lessons and to encourage their learners.

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1.6 Teacher’s role during listening activities

Teachers carry a big responsibility in their classrooms; they have a huge impact on their

learners either positive or negative and it is the teacher’s responsibility to create friendly

and supportive atmosphere.

According to the division suggested by Harmer there are eight main roles:

� A teacher as an organiser- one of the most important roles of the teacher since

the whole success depends on the teacher’s organization skills. They have to

explain what their students are going to do, give clear instructions and at the end

of the lesson they must give a constructive feedback. Teachers as organisers

prepare the listening lesson covering all three stages and give clear instructions.

� A teacher as a controller- is a teacher who conducts the whole lesson. It is their

responsibility to organize what students do, when they should speak and what

language they use. Teachers whose roles are to control the lessons specify what

students should do throughout the listening stages.

� A teacher as an assessor- another important part of teacher’s job is to assess

their students, to give the students a feedback on their performance. They should

evaluate how good students were.

� A teacher as a resource- such teacher can facilitate their students by giving

advice and is available when the learners need to consult some problems. They

usually help with unknown vocabulary or grammatical patterns.

� A teacher as a tutor- is a teacher who acts as a coach and as a resource

(Harmer 1991: 242) and is able to help their students to develop ideas. Teachers

as tutors can help their students during each stage and their help is very valuable

during the while-listening stage during which they should help their students

with prediction of the missing information.

� A teacher as an investigator- a teacher, who observes the activities in their

lessons and subsequently evaluates their efficiency, belongs into this group.

They keep reflective journals and evaluate the benefits of each listening activity.

� A teacher as a prompter- is a teacher who encourages their students and offers

suggestions about activities that are being done by the students. They ought to

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support their students during each stage so that the students can be more

successful.

� A teacher as a participant- a teacher can participate as an equal in the set

activities but they must beware of leading in these activities. Their participation

can also improve the classroom atmosphere. Teachers as participants can

participate in pre and post-listening task such as discussions role-plays and so

on.

Underwood suggests that teacher’s aims of supporting the students to become better at

listening should contain:

� Introducing learners to a variety of listening experiences. Teachers can use a

great number of listening texts that contains range of the usage of the target

language. This will prepare their students for different situations in their lives.

� Helping listeners to gain the insight what listening represents. Teachers

ought to make their students change their attitude towards listening and explain

the process of it to them.

� Making listening meaningful for the learners. Teachers should try to bring

recordings that are as realistic as possible, contain normal speech, so that the

listeners are in touch with the outside classroom listening.

� Raise learners’ confidence. Teachers must encourage their students during the

listening texts to help them to continue with listening. They should also try to

bring such listening texts in which the learners can be successful but on the other

hand are not too easy.

Other aspects of the teacher’s role that will help their students to become better at

listening are to include areas into listening course such as employing strategies used in

mother tongue during listening activities, building up knowledge of the cultural

background of the target language and helping the learners to accept partial

understanding (Underwood).

Underwood claims that there are other things teachers have to take into consideration

while preparing the lesson plan:

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� Whether teachers should prepare a separate listening lesson, which will be

focused on listening practice, or incorporate listening into more language lessons

which would be more or less focused on general knowledge.

� The availability of the equipment. During the listening practice teachers usually

serve as technical support and that is why they should check before the lesson

whether a player is working or not or whether they can handle with the new

equipment or not.

� Amount of time spend on listening practice. Nowadays teachers are required to

reserve a part of a lesson for listening and therefore it is their responsibility to

outline the time for listening practice.

� Whether the learners are going to sit for an exam or not, which consists of

listening tests. If yes teacher must cover this in their plans.

1.6.1 Teacher’s role preceding the listening

Before the lesson itself teacher should think about several steps.

First of all they have to choose appropriate listening text and check the quality of the

recording since bad quality recordings can cause serious problems to the listeners.

Secondly, they have to take into consideration visual support as the visual aids are

helpful for majority of the learners.

Thirdly, they ought to think about special equipment which their students will need e.g.

scissors, coloured pencils and so on. If the teachers decide that their students will need

them it is their responsibility to tell them in advance.

Lastly, teachers have to consider the listening procedure e.g. how to organise the stages,

whether to use real-life recording or not and so on (Underwood).

1.6.2 Teacher’s role during the listening

At this stage teacher just makes sure that the lesson follows the lesson plan and works

mainly as a facilitator. The main aim of the teacher is to encourage their students and

help them if needed.

23

According to Underwood there are a various ways of creating an encouraging classroom

atmosphere:

� Teachers should offer help if it is needed and they ought to beware of marking

the listening activities.

� Learners ought to be encouraged to change and modify their answers and write

down any helpful information they heard.

� It is also better to omit one or two activities than to hurry since then students

will not feel stressed and under pressure.

� Teachers ought to support their students to cooperate with their classmates and

they should include pair or group work since knowing that they can work and

compare their answers with their classmates will help them to release the stress

caused by listening.

� Teachers are supposed to give immediate feedback since the later feedback is

not efficient as students do not remember what was in the listening text.

All teachers have different approaches to their lessons but I fell that not only teachers

but also students can benefit from a supportive atmosphere.

1.7 Lesson Planning

Before starting planning a listening activity teachers first of all should consider three

things.

Firstly, they ought to choose a type of a listening activity that they find interesting and

suitable for their students.

Secondly, teachers should select an activity that will practise those listening skills that

are relevant for the students.

The last thing, but in my opinion one of the most important, that has to be borne in mind

is to compile a coherent lesson. This can be done by scaffolding. The term scaffolding

means helping students during the listening process when teachers provide their

students with support. Nikolic states students of any level can deal with almost any

24

short listening passage, providing that the task is simple enough for them to experience

success (19). When students do not need this support any more it can be easily removed.

Once all three main considerations are taken into account teachers should focus on the

lesson planning.

According to Rixon a listening is then further divided up into three phases:

� The first phase, called pre-listening stage, consists of things that students do

before the listening, to help students to get the most out of what they are going

to listen to. In other words this stage serves as a preparation for listeners in order

to get the most from the listening passage.

� The second phase, called while-listening stage, consists of activities and

exercises to be carried out while the learners listen to the listening text, to direct

them as they try to seize the main information of the passage. In other words it is

the way the teacher controls the listening activity.

� The last phase, called follow-up stage, contains things to do once the students

have apprehended of the meaning and content of the passage and are prepared to

look back, to reflect on some aspects of language in it, or to do some additional

work based on the content of the listening text.

According to Underwood the phases are called pre-listening, while-listening and post-

listening stage.

1.7.1 Pre-listening stage

It would not be fair towards students to draw them straight into the listening without

introducing the topic or the type of activity they are going to work on, since in the real

life there are not many situations when people are supposed to listen with having no

idea what they are going to hear so that is why students should be given a substantial

pre-listening support. This pre-listening support will help them to become more

confident and successful. Underwood claims that at the very beginning of the while-

listening activity the students should be helped to concentrate on what they are going to

hear.

25

According to Rixon at this stage, teachers should arrange such challenges that will give

the students reasons for even bothering to listen to the listening text. All this involves

outlining the setting and giving background information but it is not advised to tell the

students too much otherwise the whole listening will be spoiled. At this stage it can be

extremely useful to ask the students to predict missing information or the context.

Underwood declares that pre-listening task can consist of a variety of activities, which

can help the teacher to focus the students’ minds on the topic by narrowing down the

things that the learners anticipate to hear and stimulating relevant previous knowledge

and already known language, including:

� The teacher providing background information;

� the students read something relevant to the listening text;

� the students look at some pictures;

� discussing the topic or situation to the listening text;

� a question and answer session to the listening text;

� written exercise to the listening text;

� following the set of instructions relevant for the while-listening activity;

� students think about how the while-listening activity will be organised.

Yagang presents a number of tasks for pre-listening stage that can enable the students to

gain knowledge that is needed for the listening task. This gained knowledge gives the

students confidence that is necessary for successful listening. The tasks include:

� Starting a discussion about the topic (possibly based on visuals and titles). In

this sort of exercise students are asked to make a discussion about a set topic.

� Brainstorming. In this activity the students are asked to predict vocabulary that

is associated with the set topic and the teacher is supposed to write them on the

board. Another form of brainstorming activity can be making mind maps.

� Game. A nice example of warm up activity where either the students or the

teacher mimes the words and the rest of the class is supposed to guess the

meaning.

� Guiding questions. Teacher either writes or asks questions that will help students

with the listening passage.

26

Other aspects of pre-listening activities are to prepare materials that are authentic, thing

that can imitate the real life situations; give the students clear instructions so that they

know what to do e.g. if they are asked to answer a question teachers have to specify

whether the students can use yes/ no answers or more complex answers. There are also a

lot of factors affecting the choice of pre-listening activities such as the time, material

and class ability. All these factors mentioned above influence the whole process of

lesson planning.

1.7.2 While-listening stage

This stage, as it arises from the name, contains activities done by the students during the

listening passage. The aim of activities done during this phase is to help the students to

catch the main meaning of the text so that they have enough information to interpret the

text. Teachers have to point out that at this stage students should not worry about

interpreting long and difficult questions and subsequent production of complex answers,

but they should be concerned with demonstration of the important information (Rixon)

One of the most important functions of while-listening activities is to present the sound

of the target language. This presentation enables students to develop their listening

comprehension skills and it also serves as a model of their speech.

When choosing a while-listening activity teachers consider several criteria. Underwood

(1989: 46) points out that good while-listening activities help listeners find their way

through the listening text and build upon the expectations raised by pre-listening

activities.

First of all they should choose an activity that would be interesting and challenging for

the students at the same time as this will draw their attention and they will be able to

concentrate on the listening task.

Other criteria that ought to be born in mind are keeping the while-listening activity short

enough and trying to do different types of listening exercises, since it would be

unsatisfactory and maybe boring to do the same activity over and over again.

27

Also knowledge based exercises ought to be omitted since such activities can lead to

time consuming revision and students who already know can loose their interest.

Another very important issue of while-listening activities is the level of difficulty. That

is why exercises have to be selected according to the student abilities as a difficult or

too easy listening text can be demotivating and frustrating for the learners. When

choosing while-listening activities teachers should also consider graded tasks. Nikolic

claims that you can use graded tasks, increasing the task complexity with each

consecutive round of listening (19). This means that the learners start with listening to

the main gist and then move to more and more complex listening activities, in other

words from easy to more difficult exercises and from a lot of teacher’s support to little.

There are also a number of other things that can lead into frustration and lack of interest

such as exercises containing both listening and writing at the same time as these

exercises can be extremely difficult for beginners who have problems with spelling and

writing as such. Another discouraging type of a while-listening activity can be putting a

great amount of sentences into the correct order according to what the students heard.

It is also important to provide the students with some kind of introduction but again the

amount of the information should be balanced since too much or too little information

can cause the loss of the students’ attention.

The following paragraph provides some examples of while-listening activities.

� Comparison of the listening passage with the pre-listening stage;

� following instructions-learners are given a set of instructions and are supposed

to show whether they understood them by a physical response;

� filling in exercise-students listen to a dialogue and are asked to fill in the

missing information;

� spotting the difference- learners make responses only when they hear something

different to what they already know about the topic or the speakers;

� information transfer- learners are asked to fill, forms, lists, maps or plans;

� sequencing- students are given a set of pictures and they have to put them into

the correct order;

� information search- during the listening learners focus on specific items;

� Matching- students are asked to match items according to the recording.

28

It is also important for teachers not to forget to give their students immediate feedback

as it would be quite problematic, not only for the teacher but also for the students, to

talk about the listening tasks during the following lesson. This postponed feedback

would mean replaying or repeating the listening text and it could be difficult for the

teacher to regain the students’ attention. The immediate feedback can be done by

providing them with the correct answers, by asking them to talk the solutions over in

small groups or by both.

1.7.3 Follow-up stage

During the follow-up activities students use their knowledge gained during the previous

stage, while-listening stage, for completing the exercises.

There are a number of purposes why to incorporate follow-up activities into the lesson

plans. One of them, in my opinion the crucial one, can be checking if the learners

understood the listening passage or whether they finished the task successfully.

According to Underwood another reason for a follow-up activity can be a reflection on

why some students have not been successful or missed some parts of the text. A good

activity for finding a solution to this problem can be a discussion about the problematic

parts of the listening text; teachers can draw students’ attention to various lexical forms

or features of the sound system. When dealing with some grammar forms teachers can

find showing the examples of the grammar structures in the listening text extremely

useful as this shows their student the natural form and usage. But on the other hand it

would be problematic to deal with the whole text again.

Thirdly, during the follow-up phase learners can be given a possibility to think about the

attitude of the speaker or speakers since this can be found very difficult by the students.

One of the other reasons for incorporating the follow-up stage is to broaden students’

knowledge about specific topics. This could be done by a decision making or asking

them to express their views.

There are several activities that can be used in the follow-up stage:

29

� Problem solving and decision-making tasks- where students are trying to find

out a solution for a problem from the recording.

� Role play- students can be asked to try out newly acquired things.

� Summarizing- students can be asked to summarize a story they heard. This

activity can be linked with problem solving.

� Written work- students can be asked to write the end of the story.

Underwood presents that when selecting follow-up activities teachers ought to consider

the following factors as they may find to keep students’ attention difficult:

� Whether the teacher has enough time for a post-listening activity

� How much language work the teacher wants to do in connection with the

listening text.

� Whether the post-listening work should consist of speaking, reading or writing

� Whether the post-listening phase can be done as pair/group work or individual

work

� Possibility of doing the activity as homework

� The level of motivation and a possibility to increase students’ motivation

Underwood argues that although teachers are not always able to organise lessons and

choose suitable materials but they have some opportunities to give their students

listening experience.

1.7.4 Types of listening exercises

Types of listening exercises can be divided into four main groups listening with no

respond, with a limited respond, with a long respond and with an extended respond

(Ur).

Listening without any respond

This mirror a real-life situations as there are some situations when no response is

demanded. This type of exercise is useful when teachers provide their students with a

vast amount of listening experience. During such exercises no response is needed but

30

there are several ways how teachers can detect whether the students are listening or not

such as body language.

Listening without any respond involves these activities:

� A written text- this type contains reading a text and listening to it at the same

time. The advantage of this activity is that students can acquire the

pronunciation of different phrases and words but on the other hand students will

not develop strategies for listening comprehension without any text support.

� Listening to book based materials- this is mainly based on students’ previous

knowledge about well known stories. Although it is quite difficult to find out

how good or bad the students were in the listening comprehension this type of

activity is useful as hearing a familiar material certainly has value as a sort of

easy transition between listening for perception and listening for comprehension

(Ur, 2000: 52).

� Listening with visual support- the visual support involves pictures, graphs,

maps and so on. While listening to a listening passage students have to follow

the visual aid.

� Listening for pleasure- such activities contain listening to songs, stories

watching films and TV programs. The advantage of these activities is that

students will enjoy them and the target language is presented in different way

but on the other hand students can just listen for pleasure without any

willingness to understand it (Ur).

Listening with a limited respond

Exercises that are based on limited responds are usually made of long listening parts but

are cut into short chunks and students are supposed to give a limited response to them.

During these exercises students give short and simple verbal or non-verbal answers.

Listening with limited respond contains these activities:

� Following the instructions- students are supposed to act according to the

instructions either by physical movements, drawing a picture this task is more

suitable for beginners.

� Ticking of the words they heard- students are usually provided with a list of

words or phrases and they must tick them of when they hear them. This activity

is suitable for beginners especially for vocabulary practice.

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� True or false activities- students have to decide whether the information was

true or false.

� Spotting the difference- students listen to a text and when they hear wrong

information they make a response.

� Guessing- teachers or students describe somebody or something and the class

guesses what it can be.

� Describing - in this type of an activity students are given a set of pictures, maps

and so on and they are supposed to either order the pictures or identify the main

features (Ur).

Listening with a long respond

For these activities students are demanded to give comprehensive answers that prove

that they understood the main idea of the text.

Listening with long respond involves these activities:

� Summarizing, paraphrasing and translating- for these activities students are

demanded to either to summarize the main ideas of the text or retell the story in

their own words in the target language or in their mother tongue.

� Gap filling- during the listening students are supposed to fill in missing

information according to what they heard.

� Answering questions- students are asked to answer questions according to the

listening text. The most common form of this exercise is a multiple choice

exercise where only one answer is the correct one. This activity represents one

of the most difficult ones as the listener has to store the information from the

recording for a long time (Ur).

Listening with an extended respond

This last group involves more skills than just listening since students are demanded to

analyse and interpret the listening text (Ur).

Listening with an extended respond involves these activities:

� Problem solving- students listen to a text where a problems is mentioned after

listening to the recording they have to discuss the issue and try to find an

appropriate solution to it.

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� Jigsaw listening- students are divided into groups and each groups is given

different part of a listening text. After the listening they find partners from

different groups and exchange the information in order to complete the task.

� Interpreting the listening text- students are asked to interpret various areas of the

listening text such as the speaker’s attitude, the meaning of the passage and so

on (Ur).

This sub-chapter provided a list of the most common listening activities used in

language classes for teaching listening comprehension. In my opinion every teacher

who is planning a listening lesson should take into consideration not only the above

mentioned list of listening activities but also graded tasks since this will unable their

students to develop their listening skills.

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2. Practical part

Lesson plans

Since I teach at a language school I work with students from different age groups, with

different learning styles and my classes usually contain from 15 to 18 students. Because

of this fact it is always difficult to prepare suitable listening activities that could develop

their listening skills and help them to acquire good learning strategies.

In this chapter I prepared five lesson plans for a group of students attending Pomaturitní

studium, and who are going to sit for FCE exams. I chose this group because the

students have so many different learning styles and strategies, and have mixed level of

English. But what they had in common were unsatisfactory results of listening.

Statistically expressed about forty percent of the students would not passed the listening

part of the exam. This is an average percentage resulting from the listening tests done at

the beginning of the term.

Before organizing the listening lessons I did a survey in this class. I asked the students

to describe their problems they face during listening exercises. According to the

students the most common problems connected with listening are not being accustomed

to speakers’ pronunciation, difficulty to concentrate when the listening text is long, not

knowing the vocabulary, too fast speech of speakers and disturbing noises on the

recording.

Results of the survey corresponded with my personal experience from the previous

lessons. I realized that the students had the biggest problems with sentence completion

and because of this fact I focused on this type in the thesis and prepared three lesson

plans that are focused on the sentence completion. I think that the reasons for their

failure in sentence completion exercises were that the students did not have any strategy

for listening and they had difficulties with orientation in the listening text and they did

not realize the key information which let into bad interpretation of the listening text and

subsequent unsatisfactory results.

The second type of listening which caused problems to the students is a multiple choice

exercise. In my opinion this was caused by the fact that they could not find the key

information in the listening text and were not able to interpret the listening text

correctly, which was similar to the sentence completion, whereas the strategy did not

34

cause any serious problems to the students. That is why I devoted only two lessons to

this type.

On the basis of these findings my aim was to help my students with the understanding

of the listening text and help them to acquire strategies suitable for these types of

exercises and that is why the practical part of my work is focused on the sentence

completion and multiple choice exercises which are similar in their forms. Due to the

similar form and frequent re-run of the exercises the students should acquire suitable

skills and strategies that are necessary for successful listening.

I used listening texts from the textbooks and I tried to invent exercises that could be

connected with the listening. The lessons tend to follow the same pattern because I have

found out throughout the term that the majority of the students are visual and auditory

types and they need the visual stimulation and because of this fact I provided them with

the pictures. Since their range of vocabulary is not vast and they need a lot of language

support and that is why I included the brainstorming and pre-teaching of key vocabulary

in each lesson. I think that this strategy will help them to build up their confidence and

they will not feel under the pressure because I tend to think that the majority of mistakes

are caused by stress. But on the other hand I am aware of the fact that at the FCE exam

nobody will help them with translation and that is why I decided to reduce the number

of words gradually so that they could learn to predict the words from the context.

During the original teaching I kept a self-reflective journal (see appendix 1) in which I

evaluated each lesson and because I use journals with my classes I also asked the

students to assess the lessons in their journals (see appendix 2). My self-reflection and

students’ feedback are provided after each lesson plan. Moreover I monitored the

students’ progress after each listening lesson and their results are mentioned after my

self-reflection.

2.1 Lesson Plan 1-Too Many People

Materials: CD, handouts, CD player, pictures

Assumptions: though the level of their knowledge is sufficient they will not know some

key vocabulary, the topic can be interesting for them since some of them could have

visited some of these places.

35

Aims: to help them to find suitable listening strategies and prepare the students for the

FCE listening paper that is focused on sentence completion. During this type of an

exercise students are asked to listen for specific words or phrases and give written

answers.

Stages and Procedures

Pre-Listening Stage

a, Introduce the topic: Show the students the set of pictures and ask them to identify the

places (a group activity- each group will be given a set of four pictures). If they need

some help, write down names of several cities and places (e.g. Paris, London, New

York, The Great Wall of China, The Pyramids in Giza, and the Colosseum in Rome,

The Tower of London and The Grand Canyon).

b, Brainstorming: ask students to brainstorm as many words or phrases as they can

about the pictures and the topic. Teacher writes down the ideas.

c, Discussion: ask students to discuss these questions in their groups.

Have you ever visited these places? If yes can you describe your experience?

Would you like to visit them? Why/ Why not?

Can you name and describe your experience of the scenic views, the wildlife, the flora,

outdoor recreation other interesting places you have visited?

d, Pre-teaching: pre-teach the vocabulary you expect that the students will not be

familiar with.

Wonders, accessible, vegetation, first sight, drop, declare, safeguard, draw up, tackle,

boundaries, availability, pipeline, upstream, profound, river flow, release, extinct,

boulders, downstream, awesome, a lack of.

While-Listening Stage

a, Now, you will hear a woman talking about a problem faced by the Grand Canyon

National Park Service and your first task is to read the article (see appendix 5) and

try to predict the possible answers (a group activity- Teacher goes round the class

monitors and helps).

b, Listen to the woman and complete the sentences. After the listening check you

answers with your partner and discuss your answers.

c, Listen to the woman again and fill in the rest and check your answers. Check your

answers with your partner.

d, Group check- check the answers and explain why.

36

e, Listen for the third time with the tapescript.

Post listening Stage

There are a number of beautiful national parks in the United States including Alaska

National Parks, East Coast National Parks, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite, and

Yellowstone and so on. What things would you consider most when planning a vacation

to this area? Rank the ideas below from the most important to the least important:

� ___ price of trip

� ___ destination

� ___ accommodations

� ___ sites and attractions

� ___ length of stay

� ___ travel companions

� ___ language(s) spoken at destination

Self-reflection:

Pre-listening stage- Introduction: At the beginning I had to deal with was a bad quality

of the copies of the pictures. One of the pictures was difficult to identify but I stuck the

colourful pictures on the walls which helped them to identify the place. I did not have to

write down any names of famous cities or places as my students were able to identify

the pictures without this help. I suppose this activity as useful because the students have

different learning styles and the majority of them are visual types that need to be

supported by various visual aids as I was describing in chapter 5.

Next time I would transform the activity and would bring more pictures and divide the

students into groups of three or four and each group will be given one picture. I will ask

them to talk about their pictures and their personal experience with the places then they

can describe the picture to their classmates.

Discussion: They spoke about their personal experience and in their groups they chose

their favourite place and they also expressed their opinions about the issues.

I think this is a good way of introducing the topic because this will prepare them for the

listening. And as some students mentioned in their journals the fact that they were using

vocabulary especially about Grand Canyon which helped them with the listening text

37

because they knew the context of some vocabulary. In my opinion the personalization

of the language plays a great role because it can draw their attention and moreover they

are interested in the topic. In my opinion pre-teaching the vocabulary was a big support

for them as they did not know the majority of them and in the survey, I did before, they

mentioned that they had problems when they did not understand the important

vocabulary.

While-listening stage- Before the listening we tried to guess and predict what the

missing information in the exercise could be because I think that guessing and

predicting words from the context is a very useful learning strategy and this strategy can

be used by the students during the exam. Students found this strategy very useful too

and wrote about it in their journals. After the first listening I gave them enough time to

compare their answers with their partners and I let them talk about their answers in

order to make them feel more comfortable because they could exchange the missing

information. Then I asked them whether they want to listen to the recording with a tape

script or without and out of 15 students 13 voted for the tapescript. In my opinion it was

a useful support for the majority of them at this stage because they had had problems

with the listening in the previous lessons and complained that it was difficult for them to

listen and write at the same time and I found it useful to provide them with a visual

support.

Post listening stage was firstly done in their groups and then we had a class discussion

about their opinions and suggestions but again this activity was limited by lack of time.

I think that this activity had a value because it enabled the students to use the new

vocabulary.

Students’ results of the listening: The listening was completed by 15 students,

thereof one student got the maximum number of points (e.g. 10 points), other student

got nine points, three students got eight, other three students seven, four students got six

points and three did not reached the borderline sixty per cent.

Students’ feedback: According to the students pre-teaching the vocabulary was

extremely useful for them as they could hear and see the form and the meaning of the

words. The majority of students thought that using the pictures was a useful way of

introducing the topic and just 3 students said that it was not needed. After the lesson I

38

decided that the following lesson I would explain the benefits of a partial understanding

since it is not a disadvantage for them because this is common in the real-life and they

will have to deal with it during the exam.

2.2 Lesson Plan 2-The Right Job



key vocabulary the topic can be interesting for them since it is connected with their

future occupations.


FCE listening paper is focused on sentence completion. During this type of an exercise

students are demanded to listen for specific words or phrases and give written answers.


Pre-Listening Stage

a, Introduce the topic: Show students the set of pictures and ask them to identify the

jobs: a window cleaner, a vet, a detective, a plumber, a singer, a dentist, a surgeon, a

chef and an astronaut (a group activity). If needed help them to identify the jobs either

by explaining or miming.

b, Brainstorming: ask students to brainstorm as many words or phrases connected with

these particular jobs as they can. Teacher writes down the ideas. This should be a

revision of vocabulary connected with jobs.

c, Discussion: ask students to discuss this question in their groups. How do you feel

about each job? Would you be interested in doing this kind of job? Why/ Why not?

d, Pre-teaching: pre teach the vocabulary you expect the students will not be familiar

with. Explain or mime the meaning.

Range from, cookery school, confident, vital; come about, lucky break, fairly.

39

While Listening Stage

a, Now, you will hear a part of a radio interview with a woman, called Christine

Whitelaw, talking about her job and your first task is to read the article (see appendix 5)

and try to predict the possible answers (a group activity- teacher goes round the class

monitors and helps).

b, Listen to Christine and complete the sentences. After the listening check your


c, Listen again and fill in the rest and check your answers. Pair-check.



Post Listening Stage

What job do you do? Do you enjoy the job? If they are not working ask about their part

time or weekend jobs or what they would like to do after they finish their studies.

Which factor do you consider as the most crucial when looking for a new job?

Can you order the following points according to importance and then explain your

reason:

� ___ opportunities for promotion

� ___ working hours

� ___ holiday

� ___ interest level

� ___ salary

� ___ benefits such life insurance, car and so on

� ___ sick or maternity leave

� ___ possibility of part time job

If you want you can add your own possibilities

Self reflection:

Pre-listening stage- The topic jobs was mainly a revision and students proved to

remember quite a lot of the phrases and that is why I think that it was easier for them to

talk about the professions and again the personalizing of the language enable them to

discuss the questions and express their views in an appropriate way. Maybe the only

thing I would change next time is the description of the pictures, it would be possible to

40

give each group one picture and ask them to describe the job and the rest of the class

would guess the job because it will be a change for them. Due to my previous

experience with pre-teaching the key vocabulary I pre-taught the vocabulary so that the

students could get familiar with the form and the meaning of the vocabulary but as I

have mentioned in the introduction I kept reducing the number of key vocabulary.

While-listening activities- After the first listening I asked the students whether they

wanted to listen to the recording with the tapescrip or whether they wanted me to stop

the recording at the key information and all of them chose the second option. I decided

to offer this option because some of the students mentioned this in their journals and I

thought that it was a good and helpful support in this case because I realized that the

speaker spoke fast for them and I did not want to discourage them by it. I am aware of

the fact that this will not happen at the exam and that is why I explained them the

disadvantage of this and explained the advantages of partial understanding because at

the exam they will not know every word and that is why they should get used to the

partial understanding.


thereof one student got the maximum number of points (e.g. 10 points), other two

students got nine points, two students got eight, other four students seven, three students

got six points and one student did not reached the borderline sixty per cent.

Students’ feedback: The students really appreciated that I pre-taught the vocabulary

as this helped them to get used to the pronunciation and I knew that they still needed the

language support. They also mentioned that they liked the lesson as the topic was

interesting and they had something to say about it, which I think is important because if

the students are personally involved in the topic they will be more focused on the

listening text and it is one of the teacher’s tasks to try to choose an interesting topic as I

was writing in chapter Teacher’s roles. Although the majority of the class welcomed

that I was pausing the recording at the key information since it was easier for them to

remember and write down the words I decided that I would use this strategy into the

third listening in the following lesson.

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2.3 Lesson Plan -Football Clubs



key vocabulary the topic can be interesting not only for boys but also for girls.


FCE listening paper that is focused on sentence completion. During this type of an

exercise students are demanded to listen for specific words or phrases and give written

answers.


Pre-Listening Stage


sports (a group activity). If needed help them to identify the jobs either by explaining or

miming.


these particular sports as they can. Teacher writes down the ideas. This listening lesson

should be a revision of vocabulary connected with sports.

c, Discussion: ask students to discuss this question in their groups. How do you keep

fit? What advice would you give to someone who is not fit?

d, Pre-teaching: pre teach the vocabulary you expect the students will not be familiar


Promote, scarf, reward, sold out, allowing, enormous, associated with.


a, Now, you will hear a part of a radio interview with a woman, Amelia Unwin, talks

about one of the most successful football clubs in the world, your first task is to read the

article (see appendix 5) and try to predict the possible answers (a group activity- teacher

goes round the class monitors and helps).

b, Listen to Amelia and complete the sentences. After the listening check your answers

with your partner and discuss your answers.

c, Listen again and fill in the rest and check your answers. Pair-check.


42



Why do you think football is the most popular sport? Do you like football?

In 30 seconds, can you explain what football is? Do you think professional footballers

get paid too much?

Can football authorities change the rules to make the game more exciting?

Self reflection:

Pre-listening stage- Since I know that there are two student with logical-mathematical

intelligence in the class I decided to try to use mind maps instead of brainstorming

because I think that mind maps enabled them to organise words and phrases into well-

arranged units which are needed by learners with logical-mathematical intelligence who

need to put everything into classes and categories as I was describing in chapter five.

Because of the fact that the students still needed some language support I pre-taught key

vocabulary but again I reduced the number because I wanted the students to be more

dependant on the context of the listening rather than on the words. Before listening to

the recording we tried to predict what the missing information could be because I

believe that the strategy is very useful and can be used at the exam.

While-listening stage- After the first listening I asked them whether they wanted to

listen to the recording with the tapescript or not and the majority, 14 out of 16, did not

want the support. During the third listening I stopped the recording at the key

information so that the students could realise where the right answer was. I employed

this strategy as it showed the students that everything was on the recording and they did

not have to make up the answers and the students admitted that this helped them to

realize their mistakes.

Post-listening stage- Due to the fact that nearly nobody was interested in football I

introduced a new question “What do you think about the recent situation in football?”

(The aggression, alcohol and so on). I think that changing the topic was a good idea

because they were interested in the question and were willing to express their thoughts

and points of view.

43


thereof two students got the maximum number of points (e.g. 10 points), other two

students got nine points, three students got eight, other four students seven, five students

got six points. All of the students reached the borderline in the listening.

Students’ feedback: Again they welcomed pre-teaching the unknown vocabulary

because they still needed the language support and they praised that we tried to predict

the missing words as they found it so helpful. They appreciated the mind mapping

activity since this helped them to retrieve vocabulary connected with sports. They only

thing the complained about was the fast speech of the speaker.

2.4 Lesson Plan 4-Death Trap



key vocabulary, the topic can be interesting.


FCE listening paper multiple choice exercise. During this type of an exercise students

are supposed to listen for an opinion, attitude or specific information expressed in the

main idea of the listening text. This type of an exercise is based on a long text.


Pre-Listening Stage


natural disasters (a group activity). If needed help them to identify them.


these natural disasters as they can. Teacher writes down the ideas.

c, Discussion: ask students to discuss this question in their groups. What is a disaster?

Have you ever been in a disaster? What are the different kinds of disasters? What kinds

of disasters are common in our country?

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d, Pre-teaching: pre-teach the vocabulary you expect the students will not be familiar


Riot, flames, heat, shout, scream, fear the worst.


a, Now, you will hear a man and woman talking about how the fire affected them, your

first task is to read the questions and options (see appendix 5) and try to predict the

possible options (a group activity- teacher goes round the class monitors and helps).

Point out that questions 1-2 are about the man, while 3-5 are about the woman.

b, Listen to the recording and choose the best option. After the listening check your


c, Listen again and choose the best answer and check your answers. Pair-check.




Do you know anyone who has done any voluntary work? What was it? Did he or she

enjoy it? How can you help after a disaster? If you could volunteer to help after a

disaster, what could you do? What is the difference between natural disasters and man-

made disasters?

Self reflection:

Pre-listening stage- Due to my positive experience with mind maps I decided to use

them again because they proved very helpful for the students with logical-mathematical

intelligence and the other reason for using the activity was to organise vocabulary

connected with natural disasters. Although I had chosen an easier listening text I pre-

taught several words because I knew that the students still needed the language support.

I followed my plan to reduce the number of the vocabulary and pre-taught just six

words because I wanted my students to get used to being dependant on the context

rather than on words.

While-listening stage- Because of the outside noises on the recording the students did

not feel comfortable and were quite stressed by that so I decided to use the tapescripts

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during the second listening. In my opinion the tapescripts served as a visual support and

enable them to feel more comfortable and be more successful. I know that this will not

be possible at the exam but I decided that I will adopt the listening text according to

their needs during the exam preparation in order to build up their confidence.


thereof five students got the maximum number of points (e.g. 5 points), other five

students got four points and six students got three points. All of the students reached

the borderline in the listening.

Students’ feedback: The students admitted that the listening text was easier but they

also mentioned that the background noises were quite disturbing and said that using the

tapescripts was helpful in this case.

2.5 Lesson Plan 5- The Woman without a name



key vocabulary and the topic can be interesting.


FCE listening paper multiple choice exercise. During this type of an exercise students

are supposed to listen for an opinion, attitude or specific information expressed in the

main idea of the listening text. This type of an exercise is based on a long text.


Pre-Listening Stage

a, Introduce the topic: Show students the set of pictures (names of plays and pictures of

famous writers and actors) and ask them to identify the topic of the lesson (a group

activity). The teacher helps with the pictures if needed.


the topic as they can. Teacher writes down the ideas.

46

c, Discussion: ask students to discuss this question in their groups. When do you usually

listen to the radio? What do you usually listen to? Where do you usually read? What do

you usually read? Who is your favourite author? Have you ever been to a play? If so,

when was the last time?

d, Pre-teaching: pre-teach the vocabulary you expect the students will not be familiar

with. Explain or mime the meaning- easy listening.

Research into, make up.


a, Now, you will hear a scene from a radio play, your first task is to read the statements

(see appendix 5) and try to predict the possible answers (a group activity- teacher goes

round the class monitors and helps). Point out that they have to decide whether the

statements are true or false.

b, Listen to the recording and choose the best option. After the listening check your


c, Listen again and choose the best answer and check your answers. Pair-check.




Now discuss these questions: Why is the woman talking to the man? What do you think

is going to happen next?

Self reflection:

Pre-listening stage- I think the topic “The Film Stars” was interesting for the students

because they were engaged in their discussions and they tried to use new words and

phrases. It was nice to see them involved in the discussions and again I had to praise the

personalizing of the topic because it really helps with listening and other activities. I

followed my plan to reduce the number of pre-taught vocabulary and this time I reduced

it to two new phrases. I must admit that students were quite surprised and wanted more

words but I explained the importance of partial understanding to them and I

remembered that they did well in the previous lessons. I did it because I think that they

47

needed to be praised for their previous successes since this built up their confidence and

also I wanted them to realise the benefits of partial understanding because at the exam

they will have to use this strategy.

While-listening stage- After the first listening I gave them time to compare their

answers with their partners because in my opinion this helped them to calm down and

feel more comfortable. I think that at this stage they did realise the importance of partial

understanding because they tried to imply the strategy of prediction from the context

and they were really focused on the listening.

Post listening stage- I asked them to write a short paragraph about the question “What

do you think is going to happen next?” because I think that this is a good way of

practicing writing skills.


thereof two students got the maximum number of points (e.g. 8 points), other three

students got seven points, three students got six points and five students got five points.

All of the students reached the borderline in the listening.

Students’ feedback: They praised the topic as they had a lot to say, which is always

good when the students personalise the topic because it draws their attention and they

are more focused on the listening.

The results of the practical part provided me with a constructive feedback and helped

me to identify my strong and weak points. During the listening lessons I learner a lot of

interesting facts about my students and I hope that I will be able to help them to acquire

good listening strategies. I also learned how important it is to help the students to find

suitable learning strategies and how important role the learning styles play in language

learning.

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Conclusion

My bachelor thesis focuses on teaching listening and outlines the features and benefits

of listening. In the work I tried to concentrate on different learning styles and strategies

as they influence the whole teaching process and teachers should be aware of them.

The first part of my work involves the theoretical background of teaching listening.

In this part I have outlined the teacher’s role; looked at student’s learning styles and

strategies; touched purposes for listening and the listening process; summarized the

most common problems connected with listening; and focused on the process of

listening as such.

The practical part is based on the original teaching listening to a class of 18 students in

which scaffolding is needed.

In this part of the thesis I have framed five lesson plans that are based on a survey. In

the survey I asked my students to describe their most common difficulties they have to

deal with during a listening exercise. According to the students the most common

problems connected with listening are not being accustomed to speakers’ pronunciation,

not knowing the vocabulary, too fast speech of speakers, difficulty to concentrate when

the listening text is long and disturbing noises on the recording.

During the listening practice I kept a self-reflective journal in which I reflected on each

listening lesson. I also asked my students to evaluate each lesson in their journals. I

found this way as a very useful as my reflections and their evaluation helped me to

realize the importance of listening in language teaching.

Thanks to the original teaching I have learnt how important it is for the students to be

provided with language support which is regularly reduced because they will gradually

get used to the partial understanding and focus on the prediction from the context of the

listening text rather than on the meaning of the individual words.

I also learnt how efficient the strategy of guessing and predicting the possible answers is

for the students because it will enable them to concentrate on specific information

during the listening and they can use this strategy during the listening part of the test.

49

My last hypothesis was about using visual aids and to be honest was not confirmed

entirely because some of the students, predominantly students with linguistic

intelligence, did not find it relevant to the listening. On the basis of these findings I will

alter this activity. Instead of describing pictures I will tell students a story or a joke that

will be related to the topic and then write down some words from the story on the board

and let my students guess the theme of the listening. I think that this will not only help

to the students with language intelligence, because they need to be exposed to the

language as much as possible, but also to the students with visual because they can

visualize my story. With respect to this fact I will try to combine both approaches in

order to prepare all my students for the listening.

Due to the frequent re-run of the exercises which have the similar form the students

achieved better results with every listening and their improvement has had a positive

influence on their motivation. Additionally, the students feel more confident and are

less stressed during the listening. Their progress was evident during the five listening

lessons as it arises from their results of listening.

The thesis helped me realize the importance of scaffolding and its gradual reduction

when teaching a class in which a language support is needed. I also found out how

important it is to plan the listening lesson carefully and pay attention to each step in

order to help students to develop good listening skills and strategies which are necessary

in today’s multicultural world.

50

Summary

The bachelor thesis is called Teaching Listening and the aim of this work is to outline

the main features and benefits of listening in language teaching. The thesis is divided

into two parts, theoretical and practical.

The theoretical part focuses on the listening comprehension, purposes for listening,

possible problems encountered by the listeners, and this part also deals with the process

of listening and the purposes for listening. The last chapter provides information about

how to organize a listening lesson and covers both stages of listening and the types of

listening activities.

The practical part concentrates on the original teaching of listening. The teaching

practice, which was based on these lesson plans, was realized with students attending

Pomaturitní studium at a language school. This part is also provided with the self-

reflection and students’ feedback of the five lesson plans.

Resumé

Bakalářské práce je nazvána Výuka Poslechu a jejím cílem je nastínit hlavní znaky a

výhody poslechu ve výuce jazyka. Bakalářská práce je rozdělena do dvou částí,

teoretické a praktické.

V teoretické části se zabývám porozumění slyšenému textu, důvody poslechu a

pravděpodobnými problémy se kterými se studenti mohou setkat při poslechu. Tato část

se také zaměřuje na proces poslechu a samotnými důvody poslechových aktivit.

Poslední kapitola praktické části je věnována organizaci poslechu v hodinách

anglického jazyka a obsahuje jak jednotlivé stupně poslechu tak i druhy poslechových

aktivit.

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Praktická část se zaměřuje na samotnou výuku poslechu. Výuka poslechu, která je

založena na pěti výukových plánech, byla realizována se studenty pomaturitního studia

na jazykové škole. Tato část bakalářské práce také obsahuje zhodnocení přínosu hodin a

to nejen z mé strany, ale i ze strany studentů.

52

Bibliography

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Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

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4. Underwood, Mary. Teaching Listening. New York: Longman, 1989.

5. Rixon, Shelagh. Developing Listening Skills. London: Macmillan, 1986.

6. Rost, Micahel. Listening in Language Learning. New York: Longman, 1990.

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17. Smith, Mark K. “Howard Gardner and Multiple Intelligences”. The

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Explained>.

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Recipes. 2001. 17 November 2008.

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21. O’Neill, Robert. New Success at First Certificate. Oxford: Oxford University

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Appendix

Appendix 1 Reflective Journal

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Appendix 2 Students’ Journals

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Appendix 3 Pictures for lesson 3

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Appendix 4 Listening Exercises

Figure 1: Listening Exercise 1

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Appendix 5 Tapescripts

Figure 6: Tapescript 1

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Teaching Listening - IS MUNI

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