Listening+1

[[image:https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTLCH8eYz-px7qAub1ohjiJuM-RK5s0qpALA-PAXR8vuJ1VJ0uz align="right"]]Activity:
Using the listening activities in the textbook

Level:
Any level

Short description:
Using the textbook CD is a good strategy, even if it is not very original. The textbook CD gives the students the opportunity to listen to real English pronunciation and intonation. There are many other possibilities available: Podcasts, News websites...

Now many publishers have a lot of listening material students can access from their websites. Asking students to do some of these materials for homework is also a good idea.

Objectives:
Improving the students' capacity to understand oral English, according to the objectives of the lesson and the curriculum

Assessment:
Textbooks include listening activities in the exams they provide.
 * Exams **


 * Gold stars **

When we correct listening activities, students get gold stars. Students get up to 25 gold stars for participating in class. I have a template to record them, where I can see how well they are doing in the different skills and contents and attitudes. In this way, I try to focus in positive things.

Add your comments:
Hi, this is Lluís Miquel.

The problem I see with the good old textbook is that textbook English is not very natural, and it doesn’t really teach you conversation or words or phrases that native English speakers would say normally day to day when they speak English. So, some more natural things are watching movies. The really good thing about movies is that students may like watching movies and they’re fun. The problem is that for low levels watching a movie in English can be really tough, actors speak so quickly, so one possible solution to address this problem could be watching it with subtitles in English, or even with subtitles in the sts’ native language the very first time they watch the movie. Then, once they understand the movie and know what’s happening, they can change it to English subtitles and pay attention to pronunciation and vocabulary (and a lot of slang probably). The problem with movies is that they’re very long, so this is where the teacher comes in choosing scenes which feature relevant language, vocabulary and structures. The same could be done with TV shows. If sts spent twenty minutes a day watching TV shows in English with English subtitles, their listening would certainly improve. Another way to improve your sts’ listening skills is music. Most people love music. Having said that, when we listen to music we have to understand that music is not grammar, music is never (well seldom) grammatically correct, sometimes it’s absolutely crazy wrong grammar. Admittedly, the grammar is absolutely awful. However, the teacher or the student can get the lyrics to the song and play the song together with the lyrics. And if our students have the chance to travel to an English speaking country, they must go out, do things, make friends with people who speak English, listen to what people are saying around them on the bus, on the subway. Sometimes it’s hard to make friends in an a big city, but they can talk to sales assistants in clothes stores, any shop, or shopping mall or service centre. Sales assistants love bothering people even when they’re just browsing and want to be left alone, so students of English must take advantage of it to improve speaking and listening.

Hi, Lluís Miquel, this is Nuria

I chose to talk about listening activities in textbooks because it was difficult to me to think about an activity that was listening alone. My students watch one or two movies in English subtitled in English a year, but as reading and writing are as important as listening, I did not include that here. I agree that trying to convince them that watching TV in English is important. I think that by listening to real materials in the class, they realize watching original versions is not so difficult. You do not mention news. BBC is a great website, and it includes small videos about hot issues.

Hi Núria, this Lluís Miquel Of course the BBC website is great and the short videos can be used in many ways and are real and authentic material.

Publishers produce very good listening files. It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel!

Hi! I'm Glòria I think using the listening activities in the textbook is a good tool. Althought it is not very natural, as Lluis Miquel said, it is "correct" and "perfect" English. I teach in 6th of primary and we pass the "Competències Bàsiques" and I must say that the listening activity from "C.B" is getting better. They listen a "real" conversation and it is often more difficult than the listening activities from the textbook. That's why I think we must use a wide range of activities.