LISTENING ACTIVITIES

Audio activities are essential to the ESL learners since they bring other voices into the classroom and give the students valuable practice in listening to others.

Keep in mind that listening skill requires a great deal of concentration so continuous listening time has to be limited. Pause and ask comprehension questions.  

Listening activities are categorized within three groups:

PRE-reading
WHILE-reading
AFTER-reading 

Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view.

The activities chosen during pre-listening may serve as preparation for listening in several ways. During pre-listening the teacher may
assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text
provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their comprehension of the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge that the students possess
clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage
make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening
provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or class discussion activities

Sample pre-listening activities:
looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs
reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures
reading something relevant
constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing how they are related)
predicting the content of the listening text
going over the directions or instructions for the activity
doing guided practice
Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose, and students' proficiency level.

While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them do during or immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these points in mind when planning while-listening activities:

If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow them to read through it before listening. Students need to devote all their attention to the listening task. Be sure they understand the instructions for the written task before listening begins so that they are not distracted by the need to figure out what to do.

Keep writing to a minimum during listening. Remember that the primary goal is comprehension, not production. Having to write while listening may distract students from this primary goal. If a written response is to be given after listening, the task can be more demanding.

Organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text. Combine global activities such as getting the main idea, topic, and setting with selective listening activities that focus on details of content and form.

Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of the whole. Before the listening activity begins, have students review questions they will answer orally or in writing after listening. Listening for the answers will help students recognize the crucial parts of the message.

Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen. Do a predicting activity before listening, and remind students to review what they are hearing to see if it makes sense in the context of their prior knowledge and what they already know of the topic or events of the passage.

Give immediate feedback whenever possible. Encourage students to examine how or why their responses were incorrect.

Sample while-listening activities
listening with visuals
filling in graphs and charts
following a route on a map
checking off items in a list
listening for the gist
searching for specific clues to meaning
completing cloze (fill-in) exercises
distinguishing between formal and informal registers

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/developlisten.htm

The purpose of using songs in educations is to make the information memorable.
Students enjoy musical activities. Here are some suggestions.

Songs

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Listening activities for songs
Submitted by TE Editor on 23 June, 2002 - 12:00

Here are some tried and tested ideas I get my students to do when listening to a pop song. Activities need not require hours of preparation time and some of the best activities are spontaneous and simple. Below are a few suggestions. They are categorised into pre-listening, while listening and after listening activities.

Pre-listening activities
Give students the title of the song and ask them to predict words and phrases that they expect to hear.
Give students the words of a song with an "either/or" choice for certain words in each line. Students choose which word is more likely in each case and then listen and check if they were correct.
Dictate a list of words which appear in the song - in a random order and add one extra word which doesn't appear. Students write the words then listen to the song, ticking off the words as they hear them. They should end up with one word.


While listening activities
Students listen and delete extra words which they do not hear (you will need to prepare a song page with extra words)
Students listen and fill gaps (open cloze or multiple choice)
Students listen to a song, draw a picture to represent what they hear and then explain their pictures in small groups.


After listening activities



Students listen to a song and make a note of 6 or 8 words that they hear. Then they use these words as the basic vocabulary for composing a poem in pairs. Although students are often reluctant to write poetry, if you tell them that their poem has to be "corny", they will enjoy the task.
Students write another verse for the song in pairs or small groups.
Students brainstorm all of the words that they have heard and then listen again and check to see how many are correct.


Katherine Bilsborough, Teacher trainer, British Council, Spain