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Observation Report # 3 - Teaching Listening

The document provides an observation report of a listening lesson for intermediate English learners. It summarizes: 1) The teacher led a whole-class discussion to introduce the topic of free time activities and clarify key vocabulary. Students then completed a chart to prepare for the listening task. 2) Students listened to 3 dialogues twice each and completed tasks to demonstrate global comprehension, such as identifying words and answering questions about opinions. 3) While post-listening activities could have reinforced vocabulary and personal engagement, the focus on general meaning made this less critical, and over-listening may have bored students.

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947 views4 pages

Observation Report # 3 - Teaching Listening

The document provides an observation report of a listening lesson for intermediate English learners. It summarizes: 1) The teacher led a whole-class discussion to introduce the topic of free time activities and clarify key vocabulary. Students then completed a chart to prepare for the listening task. 2) Students listened to 3 dialogues twice each and completed tasks to demonstrate global comprehension, such as identifying words and answering questions about opinions. 3) While post-listening activities could have reinforced vocabulary and personal engagement, the focus on general meaning made this less critical, and over-listening may have bored students.

Uploaded by

RDRI
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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LCB Teachers Training College Rodrigo Rouco

Taller Didáctico p. la Enseñanza de Inglés en N. Medio


______________________________________________________________________________________

Observation Report # 3: Teaching Listening

Class: 1st year secondary school Number of learners: 13 Age of learners: 13 Length of lesson: 40 m.
Level: Intermediate (B1) Teacher observed: M
______________________________________________________________________________________

Observation table: Teaching listening

Kind of Time spent on Purpose stated Type of passage, No. of times


preparation preparation (Yes/No) topic and length passage heard
(min)
For the whole ‘Get ideas’ Ex. 2: Yes Dialogues: 2 each passage.
listening task: exercise (1): 4 Exs. 3, 4, and 5: 2/3: between two
Teacher & min. Yes, by the book, friends.
students discussed Vocabulary not by the teacher. 4: between two
ex. 1 as a whole exercise (2): 2 sisters.
class discussion. min approx. 5: between father
Then, they did & son.
some pre-work on
key vocabulary.

Post- observation questions

1) a) The teacher led a whole-class discussion based on exercise 1 (‘Get ideas’). This served as a lead-in
into the topic of free time activities. She asked students which of the activities in the pictures they often did
and which they had done recently. As some students volunteered answers enthusiastically, the teacher
would react and ask further questions to go on with the conversation.
Then, she directed sts to exercise 2 (‘Time to listen’) - the class as a whole, with the teacher, completed the
chart. First, she reminded sts of some words they had seen the class before, that’s why sts were already
familiar with the vocabulary.
b) All this preparation seems to have paved the way for the listening task quite effectively. It set the
learners’ minds into the topic and clarified some key vocabulary that they encountered in the dialogues. All
in all, sts were well-equipped to tackle the task and, from what I observed, didn’t have much trouble with
it.

2) a) For the first dialogue, sts first had to hear which words from the chart they could hear. For the second
time they listened, they did ex 3 - choose the best option for each question. For the 2 nd & 3rd dialogues they
carried out the similar multiple choice tasks.
b) In the case of the first dialogue, the aim of the first while-listening activity was ‘global comprehension’ -
to make sts follow the general context by asking them to recognise a few words. In the case of the multiple-
choice tasks, it was also understanding the gist and getting a general impression from the dialogues - e.g.
asking about people’s reactions, opinions, attitudes, etc. They are not being asked for specific details, but
for the general meaning of the situation and the speakers’ comments.

3) a) The learners did not experience a post-listening activity which drew from the contents of the extracts.
c) First of all, as each extract presented different dialogues, it would have been rather impractical to carry
out a post-listening after each situation. As the purpose of the tasks was to develop general meaning
comprehension, I don’t think a post-listening based on more specific understanding - such as vocabulary
work on the extracts - could have helped sts somewhat more. Perhaps a brief discussion on some of the
extracts could have aid ‘internalising’ meaning. For example: ‘Who do you agree more, Anya or Jack?’, or
‘What do you think of chess?’, or ‘What do your parents think of your music?’ Here, learners could have
been directed towards using some words/phrases from the pre-listening activity - thus bringing the activity
full circle and enhancing its learning value, by using the key language to personalise the topic.

4) a) The learners listened to each extract twice.


b) It is possible that a third listening of each dialogue may have helped them be more certain about some
passages. However, when some parts run faster, are unclear, or contain unknown or unrecognizable
language, it does not matter how many times sts try to listen. If they make repeated efforts to listen and still
can’t make sense, they will only feel discouraged and lose interest - something we want to avoid! But
again, the purpose of the listening was for general meaning, so more tries may have prompted the learners
to focus on more details and conveyed the wrong idea that you do always have to listen for every detail.
Moreover, as sts managed the task quite well, listening again could also have bored or tired them.
c) Each extract was heard separately, with sts carrying out each corresponding multiple choice task at a
time. I believe that it was helpful because, all in all, learners managed to succeed at the task. On the other
hand, listening to all the dialogues at once may have assisted them in an even more global understanding,
as sts would not have been able to stop and think about each situation. They would have had to resort to a
more ‘global memory’. However, this could also have been counter-productive, as they may have forgotten
more than what they remembered, confused the speakers and situations, and possibly got tired and
switched off along the way, as it would have been quite a long listening to sustain their attention.

5) Possible advantages of the pre-, while-, post- model for listening:


It resembles real-life listening, as a context is provided for students.
Activation of schemata helps students face the task with more confidence and resources, and it builds on
what sts already know.
Learners are more likely to succeed if they approach a listening text with some previous knowledge and
interest raised.
Possible disadvantages of the pre-, while-, post- model for listening:
In real life, there is often no time to be carefully prepared for what one is going to listened to - a lot of
listening is done without preparation, e.g.: unexpected phone calls, announcements in public places.
Listening more than once to exactly the same and then react to it is not very realistic. We either interact
with an interlocutor in real time or we listen to a stretch of listening text just once (announcements, radio).

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