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Listening to phonological differences

Auditory discrimination

For beginning level students, the teacher shows two visuals of a minimal-pair (i.e., glass vs. grass, bird vs. beard). The teacher dictates one of the words and asks the students which word was said. For more advanced level students, the teacher can give sentences which contain minimal-pairs. For example, the teacher asks the students which sentence makes sense: "If we pull our money, we can pay the rent," or "If we pool our money, we can pay the rent."

Practice with stress and intonation

Identifying stress, unstress and intonation

While the students listen to a passage, they mark on a written test where the stressed or unstressed words are. They can use a mark " - " for stressed words and brackets for unstressed words. It's better not to have students look for both stressed words and unstressed words at the same time. For example, when the teacher reads the passage for the first time, the students look for the stressed words only, and for the second time, they look for the unstressed words. Intonation can be identified in a similar way by using "" and "". (Based on Ur's activity, "identifying Stress and Unstress" in Teaching Listening Comprehension.)

Identifying meaning differences

The teacher reads a sentence twice as she puts the stress on the different parts of speech. For example, the teacher reads, "He didn't lose his new hat," for the first time and, "He didn't lose his new hat," for the second time. Students finish the first sentence by supplying, "he lost his gloves," and for the second sentence supplying, "he lost his old hat."

Help students think ahead of the speaker and try to predict where the discourse is leading

Explain to the students that there are certain key phrases that native English speakers use in their conversation, and that those phrases allow students to predict the remainder of the sentence. Introduce some of the frequently used phrases. For example, if someone says, "Well," on the phone, he means either, "Well, I better go," or, "Well, I have to say one more thing." If someone says, "anyway," he is going back to the previous conversation, and he changes the subject by saying, by the way." During a lecture, if the speaker says, "First," then there will be some additional important points following.

Help students acquire commonly-used U.S. colloquialisms. For example, if someone says, "He needs to get his life...", the students, by acquiring colloquialisms, can guess that "in order" is following even before they hear the rest of the sentence. The teacher can find a list of commonly used colloquialisms, idioms, and proverbs in a number of published books.

Teach students to distinguish literal versus figurative speech

Let students know that people sometimes say things that they don't actually mean. These figurative speeches are often signaled by tone of voice or circumstance. Introduce some of the figurative sentences and have students guess what the speaker really means. For example, a wife says, "Honey, I think I'm pregnant again," and the husband says, "Now, isn't that a pleasant thought." Students might guess that what the husband really wants to say is, "That's terrible. This is no time to have another baby." (Based on the Bowen, Madsen, and Hilferty's Exercise 3.5 in TESOL TECHNIQUES AND PROCEDURES.)

Listening to short presentations and looking for major points

Story reading

Story reading by the teacher is an excellent listening activity for the classroom. Well selected stories which suit students' interest can give students the pleasure of listening. Stories should not be too complicated linguistically, nor too long. During the reading students can ask about things they don't fully understand. The teacher should avoid manipulation activities, such as retelling the story. Stories recorded on tape serve well for this activity. Although it requires students to concentrate more, the use of different voices and the background effect makes the listening activity more exciting.

Answering comprehension questions

Students listen to a passage (the length of the passage varies depending on the level of the students) and answer the spoken questions. Answers can be given as written sentences or can be multiple-choice. Passages often contain so much information that this type of listening comprehension exercise can turn into a memory testing exercise. In order to avoid that, it is better to ask comprehension questions before the passage is read so that the students are guided to listen for particular information.

Listening for a specific purpose

Have students listen to recordings of weather reports, movie announcements, airline flight information, sports broadcasts, advertising, and news. Teach key words before listening. Have students write a report after listening.

Using toy telephones, have students practice answering the phone and taking a message. While they are taking the message, have them focus on Who?, What?, When?, Where?, How many?, etc.

Listening to lectures and taking notes

To prepare to listen to a real lecture, students need to be trained to take notes through some small exercises. One idea for such an exercise is that the teacher reads a long sentence, and the students rephrase it and write down as short a sentence as possible while keeping as many of the important words as possible. Another idea is suggested by Alan Maley, called "Patchwork listening". First, the students listen to a reading of a lecture and write down as much information as they can while the teacher turns down the volume at certain places. Then the students listen to the same lecture again while the teacher turns down the volume at different places than the first time. This process continues until the students have full notes. Students should be taught common symbols such as (& = and; = therefore; = become) and abbreviations (e.g., i.e.). They should also be taught common words and phrases which signal different ideas. The following list of signal words and phrases is suggested by Paulston and Bruder in Teaching English as a Second Language: Techniques and Procedures. Introduction of an Idea

Numerical Statements

There are
were
two
several
many
numerous causes
results
reasons
consequences...

Introductory Statements

First, I want to explain
talk
describe...

The idea
topic
subject
theory that I intend to discuss
define
describe
talk about is important
of interest
useful
significant

Development of Several Ideas

Although... Even if... However... Unless... Whenever...

Purpose or result

In order that... As a result of... Therefore...

Transition of Ideas Let us look at

consider
think about
turn to...
If these facts
what we have discussed
these ideas
our hypothesis is
are true
plausible
correct
verifiable then...

Transition Words

Consequently... For this reason... Nevertheless...

Chronology of Ideas

First...
Another...
In the beginning...
Before... Afterward...
Finally...
Subsequently...
At last... Prior to...
Again...
The next...
Following...

Emphasis of Ideas

Let me say again...
This is important because...

Summary of Ideas

To conclude...
In summary, let me say...
Let us review what we have discussed.
The reasons stated before are...
As we have seen...

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