Three Main Stages in a Listening Lesson and Activities Suitable For Each Stage - Essay Example

Part A: Three main stages in a listening lesson and activities suitable for each stage Listening is the most fundamental and alsoessential skills for learners, despite the fact that it can also be boring for the learners, if the lesson involving listening text is not planed accurately (Miller, 2005:27). Therefore, planning for a listening lesson is very vital on the part of a teacher, so as to ensure that the learners are actively involved and also motivated to engage in the listening lesson. This is due to the fact that; it is through the students being able to listen accurately, that they are able to reproduce the content of the lesson accurately (Macháčková, 2009:24). Additionally, when the learners have been able to listen accurately, they are in a better position to refine their understanding of the grammatical structure of the content being taught and also apply it to develop their own vocabulary. The planning of a listening lesson should be systematic, so that the teacher can prepare the students for listening just before the actual listening lesson begins, and continue to prepare them during the actual listening lesson and even after the lesson. The systematic planning is necessary, owing to the fact that learners can experience problems in understanding and the subsequent interpretation of the content of the listening lesson (Britishcouncil.org, 2014:n.p.). Thus, there are three main stages that a listening lesson should undergo in order to enhance the chances of the students’ understanding, comprehending and interpreting the content accurately. These stages are: Pre-listening Pre-listening is the first stage in a listening lesson, which occurs before the actual listening of the text by the learners begin (Hedge, 2000:12). Pre-listening is a vital stage in the listening lesson, due to the fact that it acts as a preparation stage for the learners to get an idea of what they are going to listen. One of the major goals why the Pre-listening stage is important in a listening lesson is that it is the necessary stage for offering the necessary motivation to the learners (Britishcouncil.org, 2014:n.p.). Motivation is important because it is the element that arouses the interest of the students in the text, making the students ready to listen keenly into the content. Therefore, the role of the teacher at the Pre-listening stage should be that of motivating the learners through creating interest and raising their curiosity regarding what the listening text contains (Macháčková, 2009:24). This way, the learners are prepared to get into the listening bit with some expectations of fulfilling their curiosity regarding the text. The other important aspect of the Pre-listening stage in a listening lesson is that it helps in contextualization of the lesson (Lynch, 2004:15). Context is a very fundamental aspect for learning and understanding. The kind of listening that happens in the natural everyday life context is quite different from the one that happens in a classroom setting. While the listening in an everyday natural environment does not require any sense of duty for the listeners, a classroom setting lesson requires that the students have a duty to listen and to understand the content. Therefore, the Pre-listening stage helps to put the content of the listening lesson in its appropriate context, owing to the fact that such a lesson entails a lot of linguistic information that the learners needs to hear (Britishcouncil.org, 2014:n.p.). Thus, through the Pre-listening stage of a listening lesson, students are prepared to move out of the usual natural environment listening mindset, and enter into a classroom mindset that requires much comprehension and expectations of learning the linguistic and grammatical aspects of the text. The Pre-listening stage is also an essential stage of a listening lesson, since it is the stage where the actual preparation is done. Under this stage, the teacher prepares the student through informing the students of the specific intentions and objectives of the lesson, as well as whether there are any unique expressions or vocabulary that they need to pay attention to (Macháčková, 2009:25). It is this preparation that makes the listening lesson an act of learning and understanding for the students, as opposed to merely listening to the text for fun. It is necessary that the teacher prepares the student regarding the actual objectives of the lesson, so that the learners are prepared to challenge the listening text on the vital grammar and linguistic aspects (Lynch, 2004:9). Relevant activities The necessary activities at the Pre-listening stage, which the teacher conduct, should include offering solid background information to the lesson, by relating the listening lesson to the areas of previous knowledge for the students, so that the students can relate well with the lesson (Hedge, 2000:33). The teacher can offer the students reading materials relating to the listening text, so they can form a clue and generate curiosity and speculation on the content of the text. The teacher offers the learners pictures related to the content of the listening text for visual aiding. The teacher discusses the relationship between the reading text, the pictures and the listening text, thus putting everything into context (Macháčková, 2009:25). The teacher then opens a question answer session to the listening lesson, where the learners can seek clarifications before engaging in listening to the text. Finally, the teacher should organize the learners on how to stay during the listening session of the text. While listening stage This is the second stage in a listening lesson, which refers to the stage where the actual listening of the text designed for the lesson takes place. This stage is necessary for the students, since it is the stage in which they catch the actual content of the text, and then gather enough information from the text for subsequent interpretation (Miller, 2005:41). It is at this stage that students get the important information that the listening text presents. The important thing at this stage is that the learners get the catch of the target language. Simply put therefore, the While listening stage is the stage of a listening lesson where the students get the reason for their listening, since the design of a listening lesson is definitely done with a specific reason. This stage is also the stage where the learners build on the expectations that were created at the pre-listening stage, through assessing whether they are being met in the course of the listening text presentation (Britishcouncil.org, 2014:n.p.). The most essential thing for the teacher to do when selecting and preparing a listening text is to keep it as short as possible, and prepare several variations of the listening texts that will keep generating the interest of the learners. The essence of the different variations is to give the learners a different feel of the same text, since it would be a bit boring to have the learners keep listening to the same text over and over again (Macháčková, 2009:27). Additionally, assessing the level of difficulty of the listening text is an important aspect that the teacher must do in selecting the appropriate listening text, owing to the fact that a very easy text can be demotivating to the learners, while a very difficult text can be frustrating. Therefore, the text should be prepared in a graded scale, so that the students can start listening to the easy and too obvious part of the text, as they graduate into listening the main grammar and linguistic aspect of the text slightly later, when their full attention has been turned into the text (Britishcouncil.org, 2014:n.p.). Lastly, it is important that the grammar and linguistic content presented through the listening text should be balanced, since too much or too little of this content can cause the learners to lose attention. Relevant activities The teacher can initiate a comparison of the listening text with the pre-listening expectations to see whether they tally for the learners. Offering the necessary instructions during the While listening is also an important activity, which entails the teacher giving the learners some directions and instructions regarding the listening text, and have the learners responds physically (Lynch, 2004:11). Filling in exercises and games should also form part of the While listening activities, where the learners can fill in a graduated scale of information through ticking or marking, to indicate their understanding of the text at different levels. Spotting differences is also a crucial activity during this stage, where the learners can spot some differences between the listening text presentation and what they already know, and then note such differences down (Macháčková, 2009:26). Information transfer can also form a relevant activity at this stage of the lesson, where the students can exchange their contents to see whether their understanding of the text match with that of their peers, before proceeding to a different level of listening. Offering immediate feedback is also an important activity at this stage. Here, the teacher offers the relevant clarifications regarding the text before proceeding to a different level of the listening text, so that the danger of postponed responses and delayed feedback is avoided. This ensures that the students are able to get clarifications at the time they need them most and at the time they have their full attention on the listening text (Britishcouncil.org, 2014:n.p.). Post-listening This refers to the final stage in a listening lesson, where the students use the information and knowledge gained during the While listening stage to complete some related grammar and linguistic exercises (Hedge, 2000:14). The Post-listening stage normally takes two forms; the reaction to the listening text and the analysis of the linguistic and grammar content. The reaction to the text aspect of the Post-listening simply entails the learners reacting to what they heard from the listening text, in terms of responding to questions such as how different was it from their expectations, what they learnt and what use the content learnt can be put into (Macháčková, 2009:28). On the other hand, the linguistic analysis aspect of the Post-listening entails now shifting the focus of the students on the grammar and linguistic features of the listening text (Britishcouncil.org, 2014:n.p.). This activity is important for both the development of knowledge of language for students and the advancement of the learner’s listening skills. The analysis of the linguistic structure of the listening text can take the form of analysis of the vocabularies, grammar and stylistic devices applied in the text, as well as the meaning of specific expressions and specific word positioning (Miller, 2005:36). The essence of this stage is to develop full understanding of the text for the students, and thus refine their listening skills. Relevant activities Listing and discussing all the important vocabularies, wording sequence and other grammar and stylistic content applied in the text can form an important activity at the Post-listening stage. Problem solving using the language of the listening skills can also form a part of the activities at this stage, where the vocabularies, words and grammar used in the listening text is applied to solve relevant exercises that the teacher has designed to have the learners refine their understanding of these elements of the text (Macháčková, 2009:29). Role-playing can also form an important part of the activities at this stage of the listening lesson, where the language, words, vocabularies and grammatical elements applied in the listening text can form the material of role playing for the learners, as they practice its use in different contexts and scenarios. Summarizing is another important activity at this stage, where the students can be asked to summarize the story or the text they listened to in class using their own words, so as to establish the level of understanding of the text by the students (Britishcouncil.org, 2014:n.p.). The post listening activity can also combine reading, writing and speaking on issues related to the listening text, to expand the horizon of learners’ understanding and application of the listened content. Part B: Problems learners might encounter when listening in EFL and how teachers can help students overcome these problems? Speed of the speaker The speed with which the speaker is presenting the EFL content is a major problem to the understanding of the students. This is because; the speaker can be speaking at a speed that is too fast for the students to be able to follow, which then means that he students will not be in a position to grasp every word the speaker says (Chen, 2005:n.p.). The result is that the students might not be able to therefore understand the content that the speaker was presenting. The problem of the speed of the speaker can be overcome through the teacher speaking at a speed and pace that is comfortable for the EFL students to grasp every word that the teacher speaks (Yousif, 2006:35). It is through the ability to grasp each word that the students are able to formulate the meaning of the full presentation that the teacher is making. Repeating essential parts or aspects of the presentation is also a strategy through which the speed challenge can be overcome, since the students who did not get it the first time can get it when it is repeated for the second time (Goh, 2000:56). Limited listener’s vocabulary The limited vocabulary of the listeners is yet another challenge that results in the EFL students failing to understand fully what the teacher is teaching (Chen, 2005:n.p.). The moment the listener’s have just a limited set of vocabularies, it becomes difficult for them to understand the content that is taught or presented in a wide and diverse set of vocabularies. Consequently, the students will only have limited appreciation of the content that the teacher is presenting, while most of the rest of the content passes as confusing and often irrelevant to the EFL student (Chen, 2005:n.p.). This challenge can be overcome through the teacher applying the most basic and common vocabularies when teaching EFL students (Goh, 2000:55). The application of the basic and most commonly used vocabularies allows the learners with the limited vocabulary problem to grasp most of the content that the teacher is teaching. This is due to the fact that there are only high chances that such students possess the knowledge of the basic and most common vocabularies (Yousif, 2006:36). Failure to recognize language signals Every single language has its fundamental signals, which are either explicit or implicit when spoken, written or physically expressed (Chen, 2005:n.p.). This simply means that there are certain times when a teacher addressing the EFL students may apply the basic signals, but the students may not understand them, since they are signals of a second language to the students. This would then mean that the students are not able to understand the signals or suggestions that the teacher may consider most obvious and basic in language communication. The teacher can address this problem that hinders EFL students understanding through applying open language when teaching, as opposed to the application of signals (Chen, 2005:n.p.). The teacher can also induct the students to the most basic language signals that the students may not be familiar with, since such signals form a bulk of the subconsciously communicated language. Unfamiliar accent The problem of unfamiliar accent, just like the problem of the speed of the speaker, forms another major challenge that the EFL students face while trying to understand their teacher or content presented to them through a speech (Yousif, 2006:37). Due to the fact that different languages have different accentuations, the EFL students may not be familiar with the accents of a second language, which then means that they have a problem understanding the spoken words in that accent. The problem of unfamiliar accent is one that a teacher should address through avoiding the use of deep accent while teaching the EFL students (Chen, 2005:n.p.). This can be difficult for the teacher, owing to the fact that language accent is mostly a natural or cultural characteristic that cannot be unlearnt easily. However, it is only essential that the teacher makes an effort to avoid the accent that may distort the actual pronunciation of words or phrases. This way, the EFL students are at a better place to understand. References Britishcouncil.org. (2014). A framework for planning a listening skills lesson. ESOL Nexus. Available at: http://esol.britishcouncil.org/content/teachers/staff-room/teaching-articles/framework-planning-listening-skills-lesson Chen, Y. (2005). Barriers to Acquiring Listening Strategies for EFL Learners and Their Pedagogical Implications. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language –English Journal. Available at: http://www.tesl-ej.org/ej32/a2.html Goh, C. C. M. (2000). A cognitive perspective on language learners listening comprehension problems. System, 28, 55-75. Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lynch, T. (2004). Study Listening. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 8-21. Macháčková, E. (2009). Teaching Listening. Masaryk University Brno. 24-29. Miller, J. (2005). Second Language Listening: Theory and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yousif, A. (2006). Listening Comprehension Difficulties as Perceived. J. Lang. & Transl. 19, pp. 35-47. Read More