OVERVIEW
Listening consists of interactive listening when talking with others (e.g., asking for clarification) and receptive skills such as listening for gist or being aware of different sounds and patterns in English (such as weak and stressed forms). Students can often read English texts very well but have great difficulty in listening as they have had much less exposure in their school lessons. It is helpful, therefore, to encourage students to listen to many kinds of genres and to draw their attention to the ways in which English sounds change in the spoken form compared to the written. Students can also be encouraged to talk to each other in English as often as possible in order to improve their interactive listening ability.
DIFFERENT LEVELS
At lower levels in the first year the content of listening texts writing is likely to include short recordings on personal topics and genres such as conversation and public announcements. Higher level students can listen to more formal academic genres (e.g., mini lectures) on various issues, especially in the second year. Very high level students in the second year may be encouraged to listen to more extended lectures or presentations (such as TED talks).
TEACHING APPROACH
We encourage teachers to expose students to a variety of topics and genres of listening text and to raise awareness of various listening strategies and techniques: predicting key vocabulary, listening for main points, identifying individual sounds and connected speech, increasing awareness of intonation patterns and rhythm. Activities could include listening to texts several times, gap fills, dictation exercises, student recording of their own voices, and peer transcribing. Students will also talk to each other to improve their interactive listening skills. Teachers could assign the university’s self-study system (ALC) for homework. ALC has 50 listening texts at five different levels. Each text has eight stages that students can complete including shadowing and speeded-up listening tasks. One suggestion is that during a semester students should practice listening for 30 minutes a week and try to achieve 2,000 advanced points.
TRANSITION FROM YEAR ONE TO YEAR TWO
The main difference between first and second year lessons will be on the choice of listening topics and genres. In the first year students will listen to a variety of texts about general topics in a variety of genres such as conversations, telephone calls, radio programs, and podcasts. In the second year it is likely, especially for higher levels, that students will listen to topics related to their majors and academic genres such as lectures and presentations. This can be done in a variety of ways depending on student level and major and the teacher’s approach and choice of materials.