Topic: Teaching Listening

In this session, we introduce three different lesson patterns to use to fully exploit all of the language learning potential in a listening text. The first lesson pattern exploits the listening text for both meaning and form. The second lesson pattern exploits the content of the listening text for meaning. Finally, the third lesson pattern exploits the language of the listening text for form. With these three lesson patterns in your planning repertoire you can make strategic decisions about how to use a listening text for maximum learning effect with a specific group of students.

Teaching low level students is very challenging because these students have a very limited amount of language knowledge to draw upon in order to complete even the most basic of language learning tasks. When teaching listening to low level students, we have to keep two main strategies in mind. The first is to make sure that we use every opportunity in the class to provide students with exposure to the language. The more English they hear and see, the more familiar they will become with it. The second strategy is to give students ways to demonstrate understanding of what they have heard that do not require them to produce a lot of original language. Students rapidly gain confidence if they are able to successfully complete tasks. We can make students successful with listening tasks by taking away the pressure of language production. In this session, we will take a look at these two strategies in more depth.