Teaching listening comprehension

Pre-listening phase

During this essential phase of the listening process, teachers prepare students for what they will hear and what they are expected to do. First, the teacher needs to help pupils bring to consciousness their knowledge of the topic, the organisation of the information in the text, and any relevant cultural information. Second, a purpose for listening needs to be established so that learners know the specific information they need to listen for and the degree of detail needed. This way when learners use all the available information, they can make predictions to anticipate what they might hear. Pre-listening activities can help students make decisions about what to listen for and, then, to focus attention on meaning while listening. Activities include:

• Predicting content from the title, pictures, drawings...
• Describing context.
• Revivsing characters, story so far, etc.
• Reading through the two or three comprehension questions in advance.
• A short reading text on a similar topic as preparation for listening.
• Working out your opinion on a topic.
• Pre-teaching vocabulary through various means.
• Giving clear instructions and establishing goals.
• Students guess what they have to do.
• Children tell the teacher the instructions after reading them.

Image: Listen, by Ky

While-listening phase

During the listening activity itself, students continue to monitor their comprehension and make decisions about strategy use. Teacher intervention during this phase is virtually impossible, because of the ephemeral nature of listening. Periodic practice in decision-making skills and strategy use can sharpen inferencing skills and help students to monitor more effectively. 

Students need to evaluate the results of decisions made during a listening task. The teacher can encourage self-evaluation and reflection by asking students to assess the effectiveness of strategies used. Group or class discussions on the approach taken by different students can also stimulate reflection and worthwhile evaluation. Students are encouraged to share individual routes leading to success, such as how someone guessed (inference) the meaning of a certain word, or how someone modified a particular strategy. An emphasis on listening comprehension, as well as the application of listening strategies, will help students to capitalise on the language input they receive, and to achieve greater success in language learning. Learning strategies are useful tools for students because they open up more reliable and less frustrating routes to language learning success.

In this phase, the teacher asks pupils to focus on tasks carried out during or after listening that directly require comprehension of the spoken material. Extensive listening/global comprehension (the practice that requires the listener to understand the general content) involves activities such as the following:

• Putting pictures in a correct sequence.
• Following directions on a map.
• Checking off items in a photograph.
• Information transfer (completing a grid, timetable, or chart of information).
• Carrying out orders.
• Matching.
• Cutting out.
• Chanting.
• Counting.
• Singing along.
• Colouring.
• Circling.
• Repeating.
• Discriminating between sounds.
• Listening for specific information.
• Listening to construct the context.
• Listening for the main idea.
• Listening to confirm expectations.
• Recognising functions.
• Problem-solving activities.
• Listening to promote learning strategies.
• Pronunciation practice.
• Pointing.

As proficiency develops, tasks will gradually become more language-based:

• Answering true/false or multiple-choice questions.
• Predicting what comes next.
• Inferring opinions across a whole text.
• Deducing meaning from context.
• Inferring opinion and attitude.

Post-listening phase

The post-listening stage is an opportunity for many kinds of follow-up work: thematic, lexical, grammatical, skills, developmental and so on. Possible activities include:

• Using notes made while listening to write a summary.
• Reading a related text.
• Doing a role-play.
• Writing on the same topic.
• Studying new grammatical structures.
• Practising pronunciation.
• Doing a project.
• Speaking practice.
• Playing a game.
• Singing a song.
• Making something (crafts).

Conclusion

Effective teaching involves (Rost, 2001):

• Careful selection of input sources, that is, tasks that are appropriately authentic, interesting, varied and challenging.
• Creative design of tasks, i.e. well-structured, with opportunities for pupils to activate their own knowledge and experience and to monitor what they are doing.
• Assistance to help pupils enact effective listening strategies.
• Integration of listening with other listening purposes, i.e. with appropriate links to speaking, reading and writing.

Image: Success, by zaraki.kenpachi