The guidelines for teaching listening

Activity 5

Compile a set of the guidelines for teaching listening by matching the parts of the sentences on the cards (adapted from J. Scrivener, 1998, p.149).

Keep the recording short	not more than two minutes or so
Play the tape	a sufficient number of time
Let students discuss	the answers together
Don't immediately	acknowledge correct answers with words or facial expressions
Don't be led	by one strong students
Aim to get thestudents to agree together	without your help
Give help if	they are completely stuck
Give them control of the tape recorder	to listen when and what they wish
Don't cheat them	by changing your requirements half way
Try to make sure	the task is just within their abilities

Keep the recording short	not more than two minutes or so
Play the tape	a sufficient number of time
Let students discuss	the answers together
Don't immediately	acknowledge correct answers with words or facial expressions
Don't be led	by one strong students
Aim to get thestudents to agree together	without your help
Give help if	they are completely stuck
Give them control of the tape recorder	to listen when and what they wish
Don't cheat them	by changing your requirements half way
Try to make sure	the task is just within their abilities

Keep the recording short	not more than two minutes or so
Play the tape	a sufficient number of time
Let students discuss	the answers together
Don't immediately	acknowledge correct answers with words or facial expressions
Don't be led	by one strong students
Aim to get thestudents to agree together	without your help
Give help if	they are completely stuck
Give them control of the tape recorder	to listen when and what they wish
Don't cheat them	by changing your requirements half way
Try to make sure	the task is just within their abilities

Keep the recording short	not more than two minutes or so
Play the tape	a sufficient number of time
Let students discuss	the answers together
Don't immediately	acknowledge correct answers with words or facial expressions
Don't be led	by one strong students
Aim to get thestudents to agree together	without your help
Give help if	they are completely stuck
Give them control of the tape recorder	to listen when and what they wish
Don't cheat them	by changing your requirements half way
Try to make sure	the task is just within their abilities

Appendix 1

Kind of material	advantages	disadvantages
Live- listening	· Speech is spontaneous, with natural repetitions, hesitations, etc. · Students can pick up a lot of information from facial expression and other body language. · Students can interact with the speaker (ex. ask to explain). · There are no problems with poor quality recordings or equipment breaking down.	· Students may hear not a perfect model of the language (esp. when they are talking with each other). · Students will get familiar with their teacher’s pronunciation.
Recorded materials	· Allow to bring a variety of voices and accents of native speakers into the classroom. · It’s possible to stop the tape where students wish or play it again. · In real life we can’t see the speaker sometimes (telephone conversations, listening to the radio), so the tape’s lack of body language can be an advantage.	· Visual clues are not presented. · Students do not participate but just overhear what other people are talking about.
Authentic materials	· Students are encountering a totally natural “slice of life” – a good sample of real English.	· Often difficult for students at lower levels to understand · The passages are often too long and structurally difficult. · The speech is not clear.
Video	· Visual clues are presented, so a lot could be understood from body language. · Opportunity to listen to overlapping dialogues, unfinished sentences, interjections, etc.	· With visual senses engaged students pay less attention to what they are hearing, they can treat it as they treat watching TV – lazily, so the picture serves as a distractor.

Appendix 2

Criteria for choosing texts for listening:

· have interesting content

· have a connection with the real life

· inform about the target culture

· the difficulty of the text must correspond to the level of the listener(the level of the language competence of the listener and his background knowledge – factual, sociocultural – schematic knowledge)

· be of different text types,

· text types are only those that the listener came across in Russian

· suit the aim of the lesson

· sound “real”

Appendix 3

· Speech is faster
· Acoustic signals are less clear
· Accents are harder to understand
· The amount of information increases
· The structure changes:
· Step by step text àtexts with cross references à texts with back and forward references.
· Number of the speakers changes: · monologue à some people are talking
· Familiarity of the subject matter à unawareness of the subject matter