Module Overview: by the End of the Course, Trainees Will Be Able To

British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

Module Overview: By the end of the course, trainees will be able to:

Module Objectives By the end of the module, you will be able (to some degree):

To design an effective pre-listening activity.

To demonstrate an appropriate listening task.

To prepare a practical listening checklist.

Learning Outcomes Evidence of achievement Main Assessment Tasks By the end of the workshop, Demonstration: a 10 minute Informal Checks: trainees will be able to pair micro teaching session Which of the following demonstrate the effective set of activity statements are true in your task? up of an appropriate task by Effectiveness: A Observation/Dialogue: enabling students to discuss listening/speaking rubrics to How did you accomplish your visual, situational or audio check whether trainees task? clues to help students predict have fulfilled the task. What problems do you have? the contents before listening. Appropriateness: A check Do you think your task list to show whether the task appropriate and effective? is meaningful, authentic, (SMART) and coping with the National Performance Task: Curriculum Guidelines. Trainees demonstrate a 15- minute listening/speaking task. MT, self and peer feedback are required.

Materials:  Poster paper, markers, tape and post its  Ensure all worksheets are o included in the session plan, not in separate files o numbered in order used British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

Pre-session task: Ask Trainees to bring one or more of their textbooks and to think about a unit that they would like to adapt.

Setting Up a Listening Task Procedure Time Grouping 1st hour : Getting to know you…

Ice breaker (A) : Unpacking your suitcase – each trainee is given poster 20min I & P paper, pens, and has to draw a picture which starts with each letter of their names. Ice breaker (B) : (BINGO) Trainees find someone who ……. 10min W

Needs analysis: Ask trainees to write a ‘Hello letter’ individually. Ask them 15min to write down their hopes (expectations), and fears about the I workshop. ( adapted from Teaching English Primary Essentials)

MT to collect letters as a record to establish the needs of the group and as an assessment of the success of the course.

Information Gap & Heading Match : 15 min P Trainees complete Information-Gap activity in pairs about the importance of pre-listening activities. Trainees to change pairs and do heading match activity.

2nd hour : What’s on your mind… Academic prompt: Consider what difficulties children may experience when listening in a foreign language. (1) MT gives trainees an example shows one reason why children may 5min G4 find it difficult, e.g. they are not given a meaningful reason for talking… 5min G4 (2)Get groups to brainstorm briefly and elicit some of the reasons children may not like to talk or may find it difficult. 10min G4 (3)Within group, trainees write down the reasons on the poster. (4) Leave poster on the desk, group member move in clock-wise 5min G4 direction to other group and gather ideas. 10min (5) Groups get back to their poster to write up any extra ideas that they G4 “have stolen.”

Academic prompt: Now we all know the difficulties that children are facing when it comes to listening and speaking English. We would like 5min G4 to try something that might be useful to help work on those difficulties. Stirrer: Post the adjective: Re-arrange the groups – Choose the post-it on the board. (Adjectives- confident, excellent, creative, brilliant) 10min British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

Please come to the board to get a piece of post-it. “Are you G4 confident? …..”

(6) Mini warmer: Who’s got what? Resource : ball, book, pen, coin Web link: http://www.etseverywhere.com/category/games-involving-audios

Questions asked by trainer: “Is this adaptable to your textbook?” “ Why? Give examples.” “Work in group to write up your own ‘Who’s got what?’ ” 5min G4 (7) Create your own “Who’s got what?” in your group. 5min G4 (8) Play what you created in your group.

3rd hour Guided Teaching 25min W Guided teaching – MT will demonstrate a pre-listening task which makes use of situational, visual, and audio clues. This will lead to a listening activity found at http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/kids-talk 10min G4 After the activity, trainees will discuss and brainstorm the clues that they can identify from the teaching session-situational, visual, and audio). 25min I & G4 MT guides trainee through the checklist to evaluate the effectiveness of MT’s guided teaching which will serve as criteria for the trainees’ micro teaching. Lunch

4th hour Putting into Practice 10 min W 10min G Warmer (A): ball-toss-snake words Warmer (B): alliteration sentences 40 min P MT asks trainees to use their textbooks to find suitable listening activity which then can then set up effectively making use of visual, audio and situational clues which can satisfy the criteria in the checklist. Trainees produce a 10 minute micro-teaching session based on the input from the morning session.

5th and 6th hour Micro-teaching, Feedback and Assessment

100min P / I Trainees demonstrate their activities to the group. Other trainees to fill out the checklist while watching the demo. 15 min P/ W Group feedback and reflection from MT and trainees. British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

End of the session (Day 1)

Total: 6 hours British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

likes has visited can wiggle their has two brothers has one sister daydreaming another country ears

doesn't like to eat likes to eat Italian likes to eat can play the likes to eat pizza spaghetti food durians piano

favorite color is doesn't like to eat can swim does Yoga green fish

has read has read a Harry can blow a bubble can juggle has seen Avatar Shakespeare Potter book with bubble gum

has been to the Read bedtime has a cat can ski has brown eyes Phillipines story to kids British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

Pre-listening activities

Listening skills are hard to develop. Students can do a variety of work before listening to help them understand the listening.

← Why do pre-listening tasks?

← Aims and types of pre-listening tasks

← Selection criteria

Why do pre-listening tasks? In real life it is unusual for people to listen to something without having some idea of what they are going to hear. When listening to a radio phone-in show, they will probably know which topic is being discussed. When listening to an interview with a famous person, they probably know something about that person already. A waiter knows the menu from which the diner is choosing their food.

In our first language we rarely have trouble understanding listening. But, in a second language, it is one of the harder skills to develop - dealing at speed with unfamiliar sounds, words and structures. This is even more difficult if we do not know the topic under discussion, or who is speaking to whom.

So, simply asking the students to listen to something and answer some questions is a little unfair, and makes developing listening skills much harder.

Many students are fearful of listening, and can be disheartened when they listen to something but feel they understand very little. It is also harder to concentrate on listening if you have little interest in a topic or situation.

Pre-listening tasks aim to deal with all of these issues: to generate interest, build confidence and to facilitate comprehension.

Aims and types of pre-listening tasks British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

← Setting the context This is perhaps the most important thing to do - even most exams give an idea about who is speaking, where and why. In normal life we normally have some idea of the context of something we are listening to.

← Generating interest Motivating our students is a key task for us. If they are to do a listening about sports, looking at some dramatic pictures of sports players or events will raise their interest or remind them of why they (hopefully) like sports. Personalisation activities are very important here. A pair-work discussion about the sports they play or watch, and why, will bring them into the topic, and make them more willing to listen.

← Activating current knowledge - what do you know about…? 'You are going to listen to an ecological campaigner talk about the destruction of the rainforest'. This sets the context, but if you go straight in to the listening, the students have had no time to transfer or activate their knowledge (which may have been learnt in their first language) in the second language. What do they know about rainforests? - Where are they? What are they? What problems do they face? Why are they important? What might an ecological campaigner do? What organisations campaign for ecological issues?

← Acquiring knowledge Students may have limited general knowledge about a topic. Providing knowledge input will build their confidence for dealing with a listening. This could be done by giving a related text to read, or, a little more fun, a quiz.

← Activating vocabulary / language Just as activating topic knowledge is important, so is activating the language that may be used in the listening. Knowledge-based activities can serve this purpose, but there are other things that can be done. If students are going to listen to a dialogue between a parent and a teenager who wants to stay overnight at a friend's, why not get your students to role play the situation before listening. They can brainstorm language before hand, and then perform the scene. By having the time to think about the British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

language needs of a situation, they will be excellently prepared to cope with the listening.

← Predicting content Once we know the context for something, we are able to predict possible content. Try giving students a choice of things that they may or may not expect to hear, and ask them to choose those they think will be mentioned.

← Pre-learning vocabulary When we listen in our first language we can usually concentrate on the overall meaning because we know the meaning of the vocabulary. For students, large numbers of unknown words will often hinder listening, and certainly lower confidence. Select some vocabulary for the students to study before listening, perhaps matching words to definitions, followed by a simple practice activity such as filling the gaps in sentences.

← Checking / understanding the listening tasks By giving your students plenty of time to read and understand the main listening comprehension tasks, you allow them to get some idea of the content of the listening. They may even try to predict answers before listening.

Selection criteria When planning your lesson you should take the following factors into account when preparing the pre-listening tasks.

← The time available

← The material available

← The ability of the class

← The interests of the class British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

← The nature and content of the listening text

The choice of pre-listening task also gives you a chance to grade the listening lesson for different abilities. If you have a class who are generally struggling with listening work, then the more extensive that the pre-listening work is the better. If, however, you wish to make the work very demanding, you could simply do work on the context of the listening. Thus, the same listening text can provide work for different abilities.

Personally, I feel it is important to devote a fair proportion of a lesson to the pre- listening task, should the listening warrant it. For example, the listening about an ecological campaigner lends itself well to extended knowledge and vocabulary activation. However, a listening involving airport announcements may only need a shorter lead-in, as the topic is somewhat narrower.

Overall, training your students to bring their own knowledge and their skills of prediction to their listening work can only help them when listening to the language outside the classroom. These skills are as much a part of listening as understanding pronunciation or listening for details.

Gareth Rees, teacher and materials writer

Session 1 Information Gap Activity

【Student A】

Why do pre-listening tasks? In real life it is unusual for people to listen to something without having some idea of what they are going to hear. When listening to a radio phone-in show, they will probably know which topic is being discussed. When listening to an interview with a famous person, they probably know something about that person already. A waiter knows the menu from which the diner is choosing their food. British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

So, simply asking the students to listen to something and some questions is a little , and makes listening skills much harder.

Many students are of listening, and can be when they listen to something but feel they understand very little. It is also harder to on listening if you have little in a topic or .

Pre-listening tasks aim to deal with all of these issues: to interest, build confidence and to comprehension.

【Student B】

Why do pre-listening tasks? In real life it is for people to listen to something without having some

of what they are going to hear. When listening to a phone-in show, they will probably know which is being discussed. When listening to an interview with a person, they probably know something about that person already. A waiter knows the from which the diner is choosing their food.

In our first language we rarely have understanding listening. But, in a second language, it is one of the harder skills to develop - dealing at speed with

sounds, words and . This is even more difficult if we do not know the topic under , or who is speaking to whom.

So, simply asking the students to listen to something and answer some questions is a little unfair, and makes developing listening skills much harder. British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

Session 2 Heading Match Activity

Acquiring knowledge

Generating interest

Activating current knowledge - what do you know about…? Why do pre-listening tasks?

Activating vocabulary / language

Predicting content

Aims and types of pre-listening tasks

Setting the context ______In real life it is unusual for people to listen to something without having some idea of what they are going to hear. When listening to a radio phone-in show, they will probably know which topic is being discussed. When listening to an interview with a famous person, they probably know something about that person already. A waiter knows the menu from which the diner is choosing their food. British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

______

So, simply asking the students to listen to something and answer some questions is a little unfair, and makes developing listening skills much harder.

______

This is perhaps the most important thing to do - even most exams give an idea about who is speaking, where and why. In normal life we normally have some idea of the context of something we are listening to.

______

Motivating our students is a key task for us. If they are to do a listening about sports, looking at some dramatic pictures of sports players or events will raise their interest or remind them of why they (hopefully) like sports. Personalisation activities are very important here. A pair-work discussion about the sports they play or watch, and why, will bring them into the topic, and make them more willing to listen. British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

______

'You are going to listen to an ecological campaigner talk about the destruction of the rainforest'. This sets the context, but if you go straight in to the listening, the students have had no time to transfer or activate their knowledge (which may have been learnt in their first language) in the second language. What do they know about rainforests? - Where are they? What are they? What problems do they face? Why are they important? What might an ecological campaigner do? What organisations campaign for ecological issues?

______

Students may have limited general knowledge about a topic. Providing knowledge input will build their confidence for dealing with a listening. This could be done by giving a related text to read, or, a little more fun, a quiz.

______

Just as activating topic knowledge is important, so is activating the language that may be used in the listening. Knowledge-based activities can serve this purpose, but there are other things that can be done. If students are going to listen to a dialogue between a parent and a teenager who wants to stay overnight at a friend's, why not get your students to role play the situation before listening. They can brainstorm language before hand, and then perform the scene. By having the time to think about the language needs of a situation, they will be excellently prepared to cope with the listening.

______

Once we know the context for something, we are able to predict possible content. Try giving students a choice of things that they may or may not expect to hear, and ask them to choose those they think will be mentioned. British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

______

When we listen in our first language we can usually concentrate on the overall meaning because we know the meaning of the vocabulary. For students, large numbers of unknown words will often hinder listening, and certainly lower confidence. Select some vocabulary for the students to study before listening, perhaps matching words to definitions, followed by a simple practice activity such as filling the gaps in sentences.

______

By giving your students plenty of time to read and understand the main listening comprehension tasks, you allow them to get some idea of the content of the listening. They may even try to predict answers before listening.

______

When planning your lesson you should take the following factors into account when preparing the pre-listening tasks.

← The time available

← The material available

← The ability of the class

← The interests of the class

← The nature and content of the listening text

In conclusion

The choice of pre-listening task also gives you a chance to grade the listening lesson for different abilities. If you have a class who are generally struggling with listening work, then the more extensive that the pre-listening work is the better. If, however, you wish to make the work very demanding, you could simply do work on British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

the context of the listening. Thus, the same listening text can provide work for different abilities.

It is important to devote a fair proportion of a lesson to the pre-listening task, should the listening warrant it. For example, the listening about an ecological campaigner lends itself well to extended knowledge and vocabulary activation. However, listening involving airport announcements may only need a shorter lead-in, as the topic is somewhat narrower.

Overall, training your students to bring their own knowledge and their skills of prediction to their listening work can only help them when listening to the language outside the classroom. These skills are as much a part of listening as understanding pronunciation or listening for details. British Council East Asia Region Primary ELT Course Module Theme: Listening and Speaking

Pre-Task Activity Checklist

After the session, check out the following statements:

1. Is the material in the task organized around the theme in the textbook? □ Rarely □ Sometimes □ Often □ Always

2. Are the vocabulary words suitable for the students? □ Rarely □ Sometimes □ Often □ Always

3. Is the content of the task authentic? □ Rarely □ Sometimes □ Often □ Always

4. Is the content comprehensible? □ Rarely □ Sometimes □ Often □ Always

5. Is the content child-friendly? □ Rarely □ Sometimes □ Often □ Always

6. Can students take their learning off the page and into daily life? □ Rarely □ Sometimes □ Often □ Always

7. Can students build confidence through the materials/ activities? □ Rarely □ Sometimes □ Often □ Always

8. Are there enough teaching tips to help students develop their listening skills? □ Rarely □ Sometimes □ Often □ Always

9. Is the content motivated to the students? □ Rarely □ Sometimes □ Often □ Always

10. Does the activity match the principle of learning outcomes? □ Rarely □ Sometimes □ Often □ Always