Republic of the Philippines

OCCIDENTAL MINDORO STATE COLLEGE

Labangan, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro
website: www.omsc.edu.ph email address: [email protected]
Tele/Fax: (043) 457-0231 CERTIFIED TO ISO 9001:2015
CERT. NO.: 50500643 QM15

Learning Module
in
Teaching English in the
Elementary Grades
(Language Arts)

Compiled by:
MA. IMELDA C. RAYTON, MAEd LPT

The compiler does not own any of the contents of this learning module. Due credits and
acknowledgment are given to the authors, internet sources, and researchers listed on the
reference page. Such sources are reserved to further explain concepts and cannot be credited to
the compiler and the school. All diagrams, charts, and images are used for educational purposes
only. The sole objective of this instructional material is to facilitate independent learning and not
for monetary gains because this is NOT FOR SALE.

2020 Edition
 Republic of the Philippines
OCCIDENTAL MINDORO STATE COLLEGE
Labangan, San Jose, Occidental Mindoro
website: www.omsc.edu.ph email address: [email protected]
Tele/Fax: (043) 457-0231 CERTIFIED TO ISO 9001:2015
CERT. NO.: 50500643 QM15

APPROVAL SHEET

This Instructional Material entitled TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE

ELEMENTARY GRADES (LANGUAGE ARTS) compiled by MA. IMELDA C.
RAYTON (A.Y. 2020-2021), is recommended for production and utilization by the
students and faculty members of the Occidental Mindoro State College.

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 PREFACE

Language Arts is the term typically used by educators to describe the curriculum
area that includes the six basic categories of English that focus on ways of communicating
in the classroom namely: listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and visual
representing, which according to the International Reading Association and the National
Council for Teachers of English Language Arts (ELA), are essential to learning and to the
demonstration of learning in every content area.
English covers the same Language Arts’ skills, but it also covers reading
(comprehension, vocabulary, etc.). The main difference is that Language Arts is just
grammar and writing.
Listening and speaking involve oral language and are often referred to as primary
modes since they are acquired naturally in home and community environments before
children come to school. Reading and writing, the written language modes, are acquired
differently, although children from literate environments often come to school with
considerable knowledge about printed language. Reading and writing are widely
considered to be the school’s responsibility and are formally taught.
A different way of grouping the language modes is according to the processing
involved in their use. Speaking and writing require constructing messages and conveying
them to others through language. Thus, they are “expressive” modes. Listening and
reading, on the other hand, are more “receptive” modes; they involve constructing
meaning from messages that come from others’ language. For those who are deaf, visual
and spatial language modes – watching/viewing and signing – replace oral language
modes.
Most Language Arts programs include these specific skills: alphabet, listening
skills, phonics/beginning reading, parts of speech, rhyming words, sentence structure,
handwriting, punctuation, reading comprehension, capitalization, writing composition,
public speaking, vocabulary, proofreading, spelling, grammar, reference skills
(alphabetizing, using a dictionary, etc.), and word study (homonyms, synonyms, prefixes,
suffixes).
English Language Arts enables a student to learn material faster and more
effectively. It helps students think critically and abstractly about information.
Additionally, communication during class discussions and in essays teaches valuable soft
skills that students will carry with them throughout their lives. Teachers are charged with
guiding students toward proficiency in these six language modes. The goal is to be able to
use a language proficiently in order to communicate an idea.

This module is divided into six chapters that cover the essentials of teaching
English to children in the elementary grades.

-The Compiler
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Lesson 1: Listening

Lesson 2: Speaking

Lesson 3: Reading

Lesson 4: Writing

Lesson 5: Viewing

Lesson 6: Visual Representing

References
 LESSON 1
LISTENING

TOPICS
1. What is Listening?
2. Types of Listening
3. How to Teach Listening Skills
4. Testing Listening
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. explain how listening takes place;
2. identify the type of listening;
3. execute strategies on teaching listening; and
4. prepare sample test types for listening.
2. report and reflect on the processes in
accomplishing the collaborative project.
TOPIC 1: WHAT IS LISTENING?

LISTENING is receiving language through the ears. It involves

identifying the sounds of speech and processing them into
words and sentences. When we listen, we use our ears to
receive individual sounds (letters, stress, rhythm and pauses)
and we use our brain to convert these into messages
that mean something to us.

Listening in any language requires focus and attention. It is a

skill that some people need to work at harder than others.
People who have difficulty concentrating are typically poor
listeners. Listening in a second language requires even
greater focus.

Listening is usually the first language skill that we learn. Like babies, we learn this skill by
listening to people who already know how to speak the language. This may or may not
include native speakers. For practice, you can listen to live or recorded voices. The most
important thing is to listen to a variety of voices as often as you can.

To become a fluent speaker in English, you need

to develop strong listening skills. Listening not only helps
you understand what people are saying to you. It also
helps you to speak clearly to other people. It helps you
learn how to pronounce words properly, how to use
intonation, and where to place stress in words and
sentences. This makes your speech easier for other
people listening to you to understand.

Listening: the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken
and/or non-verbal messages. – International Listening Association
PRINCIPLES FOR GOOD LISTENING

Following are a number of listening skills, most of which not only benefit the second
language learner but also the native speaker:

 Basics: Pay Attention. Even native speakers need help with this. Focus on the
speaker. Look at him or her because facial expressions and body language can
communicate as much as language. For example, there will usually be more
engagement with the listener in making eye contact and use of hand gestures if
what the speaker is saying is of importance to him or her. In addition, it is easy to
mistake what someone actually said if you are not focusing on him or her and are
engaged in some other tasks, such as reading or texting.

 Practice Active Listening. Ask the speaker to slow down or repeat when you do not
understand or just want to be certain about what you heard. Repeat back what
you think you heard him or her say, as there can often be a gap between what we
thought we heard and what the speaker intended. This gap can be addressed by
letting the speaker know what you heard: for example, “So what I am hearing from
you is that you would like more quiet and fewer distractions after 9 p.m. so that
you can study.” This is called “active listening,” in which the listening portion of a
conversation becomes as active as the speaking part in communicating a message,
and not only helps the listener in understanding what the speaker is saying, but
also can help the speaker in organizing his thoughts and clarify what he wants to
communicate: e.g., the speaker may be spluttering something about the late hour
and her test tomorrow, and may not consciously know what she is trying to ask
for—or is too reticent—until the listener clarifies.

 Pay Attention to Structure. In a formal lecture or speech, the speaker will usually let
you know ahead of time the organization of the discourse: “Today we will
discuss the two types of diabetes, Type One and Type Two, although as we will
see, there is some overlap—” and then what will follow is a description of Types
One and Two, with the overlap probably addressed at the end. These devices,
called “discourse markers,” actually help the listener in organizing and
understanding the lecture. Even in less formal conversation, speakers will often
structure their discourse, especially if they want to make certain they are
understood: “Okay, there are a few issues I need to raise with you….” With this
informal marker of “there are a few—” and the use of the word “issues,” the
speaker signals the importance of what follows. “A few,” it may be noted, is a
vague expression, and what follows may be anywhere from two to five or six
issues. The listener may clarify when the “issues” are covered by asking “Is there
anything else?” when the speaker pauses.

 Listen for Key Words. What words does the speaker emphasize? Usually the
speaker will let you know by stressing the main point: “Let us talk about the TIME
we will meet tomorrow….” The stressed word “time” signals that the time of
tomorrow’s appointment is the main point, as does the marker “Let us talk
about—”. In addition, certain words signal importance by themselves, such as
“issues,” as seen above: whatever follows “issues” is of importance. Other key
words signaling importance are “concerns” and “points.”

 Key Phrases or Markers. In formal lectures the speaker usually also “marks” main
points with key phrases: “The main point is…” or “On the other hand, some
people take an opposing viewpoint….” But even in everyday conversation the
speaker often uses less formal markers: for example, “I guess what I am trying to
say is—” is often used before a main point.
 Task/Activity

1. Give two each of the following:

A. Definitions of listening
B. Trivias on listening
C. Quotes about listening
D. Significant statements about listening from significant people/experts
E. Tips on how to listen well
2. Cite do’s and dont’s in listening.
3. Share your own problems about listening.
4. Search how the listening process happens.

TOPIC 2: TYPES OF LISTENING

Most people, most of the time, take listening for granted, it is something that just
happens. It is only when you stop to think about listening and what it entails that you
begin to realize that listening is in fact an important skill that needs to be nurtured and
developed. Listening is perhaps the most important of all interpersonal skills. Effective
listening is very often the foundation of strong relationships with others, at home,
socially, in education and in the workplace.

 GENERAL LISTENING TYPES - The foundations of all listening sub-types are:

Discriminative listening is first developed at a very early age – perhaps even before birth,
in the womb. This is the most basic form of listening and does not involve the
understanding of the meaning of words or phrases but merely the different sounds that
are produced. In early childhood, for example, a distinction is made between the sounds
of the voices of the parents – the voice of the father sounds different to that of the
mother.

Discriminative listening develops through childhood and into adulthood. As we grow

older and develop and gain more life experience, our ability to distinguish between
different sounds is improved. Not only can we recognize different voices, but we also
develop the ability to recognize subtle
differences in the way that sounds are
made – this is fundamental to
ultimately understanding what
these sounds mean. Differences
include many subtleties, recognizing
foreign languages, distinguishing between
regional accents and clues to the emotions
and feelings of the speaker.

Being able to distinguish the subtleties of sound made by somebody who is happy or sad,
angry or stressed, for example, ultimately adds value to what is actually being said and,
of course, does aid comprehension. When discriminative listening skills are combined
with visual stimuli, the resulting ability to ‘listen’ to body-language enables us to begin to
understand the speaker more fully – for example recognizing somebody is sad despite
what they are saying or how they are saying it.

Example: Imagine yourself surrounded by people who are speaking a language that you
cannot understand. Perhaps passing through an airport in another country. You can
probably distinguish between different voices, male and female, young and old and also
gain some understanding about what is going on around you based on the tone of voice,
mannerisms and body language of the other people. You are not understanding what is
being said but using discriminative listening to gain some level of comprehension of your
surroundings.

Comprehensive listening is when you make judgments based

on what the other person says and determine the truthfulness
of the statements you hear. It involves understanding the
message that is being communicated. Also known as critical
listening or evaluative listening, you may also judge what the
person says compared to what your values are and decide if
they are good or bad. In this type of conversation, you might
discriminate between distinctions and try to grasp the inner
meaning of what the person said to see what his argument’s
advantages and disadvantages are.

In order to be able to use comprehensive listening and therefore gain understanding, the
listener first needs appropriate vocabulary and language skills. Using overly complicated
language or technical jargon can be a barrier to comprehensive listening. Comprehensive
listening is further complicated by the fact that two different people listening to the same
thing may understand the message in two different ways. This problem can be multiplied
in a group setting, like a classroom or business meeting where numerous different
meanings can be derived from what has been said.

Comprehensive listening is complimented by sub-messages from non-verbal

communication, such as the tone of voice, gestures and other body language. These non-
verbal signals can greatly aid communication and comprehension but can also confuse
and potentially lead to misunderstanding. In many listening situations, it is vital to seek
clarification and use skills such as reflection to aid comprehension.

 SPECIFIC LISTENING TYPES

Discriminative and comprehensive listening are prerequisites for specific listening types.
Listening types can be defined by the goal of the listening. The three main types of
listening most common in interpersonal communication are:

Informational listening/Listening to learn: Whenever you listen to learn something, you

are engaged in informational listening. This is true in many day-to-day situations, in
education and at work, when you listen to the news, watch a documentary, when a friend
tells you a recipe or when you are talked-through a technical problem with a computer –
there are many other examples of informational
listening. Informational listening is less active than
many of the other types of listening. When we are
listening to learn, we are taking in new information
and facts, we are not criticizing or
analyzing. Informational listening, especially in
formal settings, like in work meetings or while in
education, is often accompanied by note taking – a
way of recording key information so that it can be
reviewed later.

Critical listening/Listening to evaluate and analyze: We can be said to be engaged

in critical listening when the goal is to evaluate or scrutinize what is being said. Critical
listening is a much more active behavior than informational listening and usually involves
some sort of problem solving or decision making. Critical listening is akin to critical
reading; both involve analysis of the information being received and alignment with what
we already know or believe. Whereas informational listening may be mostly concerned
with receiving facts and/or new information - critical listening is about analyzing opinion
and making a judgement.
When the word ‘critical’ is used to describe listening, reading or thinking, it does not
necessarily mean that you are claiming that the information you are listening to is
somehow faulty or flawed. Rather, critical listening means engaging in what you are
listening to by asking yourself questions such as, ‘What is the speaker trying to say?’
or ‘What is the main argument being presented?’, ‘How does what I am hearing differ
from my beliefs, knowledge or opinion?’. Critical listening is, therefore, fundamental to
true learning.

Many day-to-day decisions that we make are based on some form of ‘critical’ analysis,
whether it be critical listening, reading or thought. Our opinions, values and beliefs are
based on our ability to process information and formulate our own feelings about the
world around us as well as weigh up the pros and cons to make an informed decision.

It is often important, when listening critically, to have an open-mind and not be biased by
stereotypes or preconceived ideas. By doing this, you will become a better listener and
broaden your knowledge and perception of other people and your relationships.

Therapeutic or Empathic listening/Listening to understand feeling and emotion

Therapeutic listening is when you let a troubled person discuss their problems. While
medical personnel, counselors and other types of professionals often employ this type,
other professionals may use it when listening to acquaintances or friends to let them
express their emotions or get advice. It is an especially effective skill to have
when building rapport with co-workers and potential clients.

Empathic listening involves attempting to

understand the feelings and emotions of the
speaker – to put yourself into the speaker’s
shoes and share his thoughts. Empathy is a
way of deeply connecting with another
person and therapeutic or empathic listening
can be particularly challenging. Empathy is
not the same as sympathy, it involves more
than being compassionate or feeling sorry for somebody else – it involves a deeper
connection – a realization and understanding of another person’s point of
view. Counsellors, therapists and some other professionals use therapeutic or empathic
listening to understand and ultimately help their clients. This type of listening does not
involve making judgements or offering advice but gently encouraging the speaker to
explain and elaborate on their feelings and emotions. Skills such as clarification and
reflection are often used to help avoid misunderstandings.

We are all capable of empathic listening and may practice it with friends, family and
colleagues. Showing empathy is a desirable trait in many interpersonal relationships –
you may feel more comfortable talking about your own feelings and emotions with a
particular person. They are likely to be better at listening empathetically to you than
others, this is often based on similar perspectives, experiences, beliefs and values – a
good friend, your spouse, a parent or sibling for example.

While this type of listening makes it mandatory to listen for information, the main point
of it is to emphasize that you understand the person you are talking to. Behaviors that are
commonly found with this are:

 Attending is a behavior that includes non-verbal cues that demonstrate how

interested you are with what the speaker is saying. Certain body language cues,
such as keeping arms uncrossed and bodies pointed toward the speaker, can show
you have the speaker’s attention. For example, if a co-worker is giving a
presentation, you can use eye contact and nodding to show that you are listening
intently.
  Empathizing is a type of listening where you think and feel what another person
does. Someone with more experience in certain or similar areas of life may be more
emphatic, but this type of listening allows you to learn more about a person’s
experience and perspective regardless of how similar it is to your own. For
example, if a customer expresses his frustration with a product, you can use
empathy to understand that his expectations were not met and determine how
you might feel in his position.

 OTHER LISTENING TYPES

Appreciative listening is listening for

enjoyment. A good example is listening to
music, especially as a way to relax.
Rapport listening is when we can engage in
a type of listening that encourages the
other person to trust and like us. A
salesman, for example, may make an effort to listen carefully to what you are saying as a
way to promote trust and potentially make a sale. This type of listening is common in
situations of negotiation.
Selective listening implies that the listener is somehow biased to what he is hearing. Bias
can be based on preconceived ideas or emotionally difficult communications. Selective
listening is a sign of failing communication – you cannot hope to understand if you have
filtered out some of the message and may reinforce or strengthen your bias for future
communications.
 EFFECTIVE TYPES OF LISTENING
You can benefit greatly from learning about the different types of listening, all of which
are important to understand both in personal relationships and at work. Here are the
types of listening you may experience and practice in the workplace:

 Comprehensive listening
 Discriminative listening
 Critical listening
 Full listening
 Deep listening

Full listening is when you pay careful attention to what the other person is saying. This
type of listening is where you aim to fully understand what the content of the
conversation is. You may pause and then summarize what you just heard or use
paraphrasing where you say back to the person what you just heard to see if it is correct.
When the conversation is over, the speaker and you may agree that you do have a full
understanding of the conversation. This type of listening is a useful skill to have when
trying to understand a lecture or presentation.

Deep listening is more involved than full listening. Deep listening requires you and the
other speaker to understand each other’s sides. You must carefully pay attention to the
details of a conversation and pick up on many cues. These cues can include watching body
language, identifying biases and preferences, figuring out goals and needs and perceiving
values and beliefs.

 INEFFECTIVE TYPES OF LISTENING

You can avoid the following types of ineffective listening by employing active listening—
when someone gives his full attention to the speaker and waits until he has finished to
think of a response. Selective listening
Partial listening
False listening
Partial listening is when you have the intention to listen to another person but are
distracted. This keeps you from hearing the other person completely. Stray thoughts
might have gotten in the way, or you heard something the other person said and began a
response in your mind. This type of listening may be interpreted as false listening or
impact a person’s ability to fully and accurately answer a question or follow instructions.

False listening is when you pretend you are listening to the other person but are not really
comprehending what you are hearing. These listeners may show they understand by
smiling, nodding and grunting when they think it is appropriate. This type of listening may
impact your ability to be effective in your job.

Task/Activity
Surf the net for more types of listening and classify them as general or
specific and effective or ineffective.

TOPIC 3: HOW TO TEACH LISTENING SKILLS

Teaching listening skills presents a series of challenges. It is perhaps the most

ephemeral of language skills, hard to understand, teach, and assess.
How do you really know that someone understood you correctly without asking after
every sentence “Do you understand?” (And students are often programmed to respond
“yes” even when they did not.) This problem may also apply to reading, the other
“receptive” language skill, in that its focus is largely on the comprehension of another
speaker’s production; however, while the teacher has some understanding of how to
teach someone to read in English by teaching context clues, for example, to help students
comprehend text, how do you really teach someone to listen better (especially when even
many native speakers of English often have difficulties with this)? However,
while teaching listening may seem ambiguous, there are actually a number of principles
that apply in teaching listening skills in English.

 TEACHING PRINCIPLES OF LISTENING

Teaching effective listening skills is, first and foremost, a process of learning how to listen to
yourself and then modelling that behavior. Perhaps one of the most oft-quoted steps in
Stephen R. Covey’s seminal work 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is seeking first to
understand. By listening well to your students, modelling it for them, and making them aware
of what you are doing, you make kids feel safe. Then they can practice listening with each other.

When it comes to teaching effective listening skills, it is not so much about the ears as it is about being
observant. “Listen” is a single word with such big implications. A good listener receives information,
processes it, gives feedback for clarity, and decides how he will act on it—and all this happens in a flash.
So how does one go about teaching effective listening skills? In a word, we model them.

1. Make it Explicit. Even native speakers, who actually use markers or key
vocabulary, may not have consciously thought about these
devices. Introducing some key markers and vocabulary is often welcome.
It makes explicit how to understand and manage conversations, which
may have been a mystery (such as why a friend reacts with anger at your
student ignoring a raised “issue”). In addition, key terms such as “active
listening” and “discourse marker” should be introduced and exemplified.
2. Model. For new concepts, such as active listening, a model is needed. This
can be provided by traditional print example dialogues as well as film clips,
and teacher modeling with volunteer students: e.g., the teacher might
say, “Gina, tell me something of importance to you, and I will listen
 actively. The rest of the class, pay attention, and then let us discuss what
goes into active listening.”
3. Practice. This might be especially important in active listening, which few
people, native or non-native speakers, really know how to do, as we are
used to either sitting quietly while a speaker finishes his speech (or
diatribe, if he or she is angry), or interrupting, when we think he or she is
wrong, or sitting and planning what we will say in response, etc. Active
listening takes practice, but is worth it in terms of improved listening skills
and relationships.

 PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS OF NEW WAYS TO TEACH LISTENING

There are a number of orthodoxies propagated about the teaching of listening and the
treatment of listening on teacher training courses. These include:

1. Use plenty of recorded material.

There are certainly plenty of good reasons for using recordings. It is a way of bringing
different voices into the classroom: male and female, different ages, different accents,
different voice qualities and so on. It means you can present dialogue as well as
monologue. If the recording is not scripted and rehearsed, it means you have 'authentic'
material. A recording can be played as many times as you like, and will sound exactly the
same every time. These can all be advantages.

But there are also some disadvantages and limitations. In practice, the range of accents
on commercially available listening material is fairly narrow. In particular, accents which
are close to British and American standard ones predominate, and non-native accents are
neglected, which is a serious shortcoming in view of the fact that most learners of English
nowadays are more likely to interact with other 'non-native' speakers than with 'natives'.
Ideally, listening work in the classroom should try to equip learners with the flexibility to
deal with a wide range of accents.

Recordings are particularly suitable for practising the kind of listening where the listener
has no opportunity to interact with the speaker: listening to the radio, listening to public
announcements at airports, stations, etc., or eavesdropping on strangers' conversations.
But this probably only accounts for a small proportion of the listening that most people
actually do. More typically, listening happens in the context of interactions such as
conversations and meetings, where both (or all) the participants act both as speakers and
as listeners, and, in the listener role, have the opportunity to give feedback to the speaker,
or to interrupt the speaker to signal understanding, lack of understanding, need for
repetition or reformulation, etc.

This suggests it would be helpful to give learners more opportunity to listen to 'live' voices
– visitors to the class, if feasible, or, most obviously, the teacher. This, of course, goes
against recommendations to 'reduce teacher talking time'. But the teacher's voice is a
neglected resource in providing listening practice in which the speaker can continuously
monitor the listeners' interest, attention and apparent comprehension, adding any
necessary repetitions, reformulations and explanations, and where the listeners can give
the speaker signals both non-verbal (e.g. nodding, frowning) and verbal (e.g. "I see", "So,
do you mean .....?", "I am not sure what you mean by .....") – so that the listener is not
just a passive, more or less successful, receiver, but understanding is mutually
constructed.
Even for the 'eavesdropping' kind of listening, it would probably be more helpful, and
more realistic, to make more use of video recordings rather than purely audio ones, since
we can usually see people we are listening to – whether we are listening to them 'live' or
on film or television. The visual component provides a wealth of information about the
setting, the characters and the relationship between them, without which a listener is
severely disadvantaged. In fact, by depriving learners of this visual information, we are
actually contributing to their feeling that listening is inordinately difficult.

Furthermore, there can be a substantial loss of acoustic information in the processes of

recording and, especially, playback, and this can also add considerably to the difficulty of
listening. Of course, listeners do sometimes need to deal with less-than-ideal acoustic
conditions, but it seems unfair to add too much too soon to the difficult task that learners
have to face when they start listening to a foreign language.

2. Prepare the learners for listening by setting the scene, introducing the
characters, pre-teaching vocabulary, etc.

This makes a lot of sense, particularly because it helps to compensate for the lack of a
visual element, and because when we listen we normally have some prior knowledge,
expectations and predictions about what we are going to hear. In other words, it helps
listeners to establish a 'schema' which they can use to interpret what they hear. On the
other hand, though, there are also occasions when we start listening without the benefit
of such a schema, and have to patch together our understanding of what we are listening
to as we go along. For instance, we might switch the radio on at random and hear
something that sounds kind of interesting, although it is not immediately apparent exactly
what is going on. Or we might ask someone a question and receive an answer so
completely at odds with our expectations that we cannot immediately interpret what we
are being told. It would seem useful to prepare learners to deal with this kind of situation.
In the classroom, this might mean letting them listen for a short time without any
preparation, then asking questions like "Who / Where are the people?", "What are they
talking about?", "What are they doing?", etc., then letting them hear a bit more before
asking the same questions again, and so on; the purpose of the questions, then, is to help
them piece together their understanding bit by bit, on the basis of the gradually
accumulating evidence of what they hear.

3. Before the learners listen, set a listening task which directs them to an overall
'gist' understanding of the passage.

The idea of this is to support and direct learners' listening, and the comments about
preparation for listening under 2 above are relevant here. Also, gist understanding does
not necessarily precede detailed understanding; the 'gist' sometimes only emerges from
a prior understanding of details. Teachers often tell learners that they do not have to
understand everything, just the main points or the key words, but it could be argued that
you sometimes need to understand everything in order to know what the main points or
key words are! And in any case learners, as listeners, might find a different interest in
listening from what the teacher or materials writer thinks is the 'gist'.

4. Check the answers to this task, playing the recording again if necessary.

Replaying a recording – perhaps several times – is fine as a pedagogic device. But

remember that outside the classroom people sometimes only have one opportunity to
hear something, and have to be satisfied with whatever understanding they can glean
from that single exposure. On other occasions, they can request a repeat listening from a
live speaker, but with the expectation that the speaker will not merely repeat, but clarify,
paraphrase and simplify.
 5. Set a further task, or tasks, which direct learners to a more detailed
understanding.

As with any teacher-imposed or materials-imposed task, there is a risk of disrespecting

the learners' own motivation and interest in what they are listening to. Very often, they
will be able to come up with their own listening tasks – and very often these will be to do
with language rather than content.

6. Only use the tape script (if there is one) as a last resort.

In L1 listening, it is unusual to read a transcript of what we listen to - whether before,

during or after listening. And clearly, learners need to gain experience and confidence in
listening without the support of the written word. But this is a gradual process, and there
is no reason why that process should not include, especially in the early stages:

 listening once, then using a transcript to clarify points of confusion before listening again.

 reading before listening, to establish understanding of content, before listening to what

that content actually sounds like.

 reading and listening simultaneously, tracking the relationship between the spoken and
the written forms of the language.

7. Make the recording, and the tasks, as 'authentic' as possible.

The notion of 'authenticity' is a complex one and has been widely commented on from
various points of view. Some points that seem relevant here include the following:

 A recorded (or written) text loses its authenticity when it is exported out of the
context in which it was created. For example, a conversation in a restaurant may
be authentic for the participants in that conversation, but not for a group of
language learners listening to it in a classroom thousands of miles away and years
later.
 Authentic recorded material is particularly likely to suffer from poor recording
quality.
 Even if the technical quality is fine, it may be too culture-bound for learners, or
simply not interesting.
 Even with very careful preparation and unambitious listening tasks, some learners
may perceive authentic recordings to be inordinately difficult, and this can have a
devastating effect on confidence.
 Tasks that simulate out-of-classroom listening activities may not necessarily seem
very relevant or motivating to learners. If you are in Britain or Canada for example,
and you are weighing up a number of alternative activities for the coming
weekend, then listening to a weather forecast, paying attention to the outlook for
your particular region and making plans accordingly is a real listening activity. But
if you are in China, you might not feel fully enthusiastic about imagining yourself
into that scenario. You might think it is more interesting to listen out for the tense
forms and modals used to describe a current weather situation and make
predictions; this could actually be a more truly authentic task for someone who is
listening as part of the process of learning the language. In other words, it might
be more interesting to pay attention to language rather than content.
 One aspect of language which is particularly crucial to listening skills is
pronunciation, but this receptive side of pronunciation is still rather neglected in
comparison with the productive side. This is perhaps where recordings of speakers
 with different accents – in conjunction with transcripts, can be particularly
valuable, in providing material for the study of what spoken English actually
sounds like: regional variations in vowel sounds, the compression and reduction
of unstressed syllables, elision and assimilation, intonation patterns and so on.
 More fundamentally, it could be questioned whether it is necessary to teach
learners to listen at all. After all, they have developed more or less efficient
listening skills in their L1, so if they learn English – the vocabulary, grammar and
so on – will they not be able to transfer their L1 listening skills to English? Well,
yes ..... but some people need quite a lot of practice and encouragement to make
this transfer happen. In particular, they tend to approach any instance of listening
to English in the same way – by trying to understand everything in detail – rather
than choosing from a menu of possible listening strategies according to what is
appropriate: listening for gist, listening for one specific bit of information, listening
for someone's mood or attitude, listening to identify someone's accent, listening
for the exact words someone uses to express a certain idea, etc.

Here are some barriers to watch out for which hinder the development and honing of
effective listening skills:

Distractions

 Many noises or conversations grabbing your attention at one time, or any other
close-by dominant noise such as television or music
 Physical appearances can certainly be distracting if they evoke extreme emotions of
pleasure or displeasure.
 Disinterest causes boredom.
 Personal habits such as fiddling with your hair, fingers, or a pen; also includes
daydreaming
 Unmet needs such as illness, tiredness, hunger, thirst, or need to use the toilet
 Personal issues keep us preoccupied.

Biases

 Facts take precedence over empathy.

 Feeling sorry for someone, rather than empathizing
 Personal prejudices such as race, gender, age, religion, accent, or any aspect of
personal appearance; and/or past experiences, pre-conceived ideas or biases which
make you perceive the other as unintelligent or uncredible.
 Having a closed mind and being unable to get past your own beliefs to see the other’s
viewpoint

Ten Ways of Teaching Effective Listening Skills to Your Learners

Now it is time to look at the ten ways of teaching effective listening skills with all your
students. As you employ them in your practices, be sure to take your kids along for the
ride by listening, observing, and telling them what you are doing where appropriate and
comfortable.
1. Stop talking: If you are talking, you are not listening. Quiet
yourself, your responses, and your interjections. Be open and
available to what is being sought by the other person through your
listening.

2. Get into your listening mode: Quiet the environment. Mentally

open your mind to hearing by getting comfortable and engaging in
eye contact.

3. Make the speaker feel comfortable: Examples of this might be nodding or using
gestures. Seating is also important. Decide if the speaker will feel more comfortable if you
stay behind your desk, or if you took a chair beside them. For smaller children, get at their
eye level instead of towering over them.

4. Remove distractions: This is something you might not think of at first. It means things
like clearing the room, quieting screens, and silencing your phone. If the speaker requests
privacy, honor that by closing the door or asking others to give you a few minutes in
private.

5. Emphatize: At the very least, try “learning instead to embrace and wonder at their
“otherness.”

6. Be comfortable with silence: Some people really need time to formulate a thoughtful
response. Rushing them through, or suggesting what they want to say, robs them of the
opportunity to communicate honestly.

7. Put aside personal prejudice: This is also quite difficult, as our experiences form who
we are. Putting all those experiences aside is a skill which requires help and practice.

8. Heed the tone: Sometimes the tone can hide the meaning of the words, and sometimes
the tone enhances the meaning of the words. Know which is which.

9. Listen for underlying meanings, not words: Listen first for comprehension, and then a
second time for ideas.

10. Pay attention to non-verbal communication: People communicate through body

language and facial expressions. This is why eye contact is necessary.

 Top 5 Listening Activities for Group Classes

When you have a medium-large group of people, it can sometimes be hard to get them
all to listen. Sometimes large groups can create more energy in the classroom, making it
harder for your students to focus. This is especially true for younger students. Even if you
do manage to get your entire class to quiet down, how do you know if they are really
listening?

Listening is a skill. Even when you listen to someone speak in your native language, it may
be difficult to stay focused and not let your mind drift. Imagine how much more difficult
it is for your students who are listening to a second or third language! So what are some
great exercises and activities to help your students get better listening skills? We have
compiled a list of five listening activities that work well for group lessons. These are some
tried and tested listening activities for group lessons or large classes. You may want to
modify the activities to fit the needs of your students.
1. Draw This. One way to get your group to listen is to make sure they are unaware of the
fact that it is a listening game. In “Draw This” your students will simply think they are
drawing. So how does it work? Give each of your students a blank piece of paper. Now,
give one drawing instruction such as “Draw a square”. Then, ask your students to pass the
paper to the next student so that everyone has a new paper. Now, give another drawing
instruction such as, “Under the square, draw a triangle.” Keep giving instructions until the
papers have made it all the way around the room. Now see which papers have turned out
correctly. You can modify the instructions according to the language level of your
students.

2. Daily Quiz. In order to get your students to pay attention throughout the lesson, it is a
good idea to give them a fun listening quiz at the end of the day. You can make the
questions entertaining. For example, if you told your students an anecdote about your
dog, one of the questions could be “What was the dog’s name?” The quiz should only be
2-5 questions long. The student(s) who get the most right answers get a gold star. At the
end of every month, the student with the most gold stars gets a prize like choosing a game
to play, leading an activity, or sharing with the class 15 minutes of his/her favorite film (in
the language you are teaching, of course). This reward system takes the heaviness out of
the word “quiz”. Even when you listen to someone speak in your native language, it may
be difficult to stay focused and not let your mind drift. Imagine how much more difficult
it is for your students who are listening to a second or third language!

3. Story Listening. Read your students a story. After the story, summarize the story as a
group. Call on one student to tell the first significant event in the story, then another
student for the next and so on. The students will have to work hard to listen so as not to
let their classmates down!

4. Landmine Listening. The name sounds scary, doesn’t it? Do not worry; this is a simple
game which your students will love! First, clear all the desks to the side of the classroom.
Then, choose two students to be blindfolded and two students to direct those students.
After the two are blindfolded, quickly pull chairs and desks into the center of the
classroom, creating an obstacle course or “landmine”. After the landmine is set up, have
the two blindfolded students start at one end of the room and have the other two give
instructions on how to get through to the other side. If the blindfolded student runs into
a landmine, they are out. The first one to the other side of the room wins!

5. Telephone. This is one of the oldest games in the book, but it is still a fun one! Have
your students get in a circle. One person will start the “phone call” by whispering a secret
message in the ear of the person next to him/her. That person then whispers it to the
next and so on. The listener only gets one chance to hear the message correctly; he/she
has to pass on whatever was heard. Once the message goes all the way around the circle,
the last person repeats the message out loud. Usually, it will be a scrambled up version
of the original message.

Task/Activity

1. Try doing the suggested listening activities with children in your place.
2. Give positive and negative comments about each listening activity.
3. Suggest more listening activities for children.
 TOPIC 4: TESTING LISTENING

The four language skills of speaking, listening, writing and reading are seen as interrelated
skills that occur simultaneously in oral or written communication. Tests for each skill may
involve not only one but two or more skills.

In general, the skill of listening may be tested in two ways: through sound discrimination
and listening comprehension.
1. Sound Discrimination
For beginners of language learning, it is important that they are able to distinguish the
sounds of the language clearly to help them understand the message they hear. In English
for example, there are several sounds that are phonetically similar but phonemically
different. Words that are the same except for one sound may cause confusion to the
listener who cannot discriminate these different sounds. A teacher who instructs his/her
students to bring a “mop” the next day may find a “map” instead.
 Phonological awareness is the ability to manipulate sounds and words, or “play”
with sounds and words. This includes recognizing rhyming words, blending of
sounds, and syllabication.
 Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and identify sounds in particular words.
A common task for students in testing auditory discrimination is distinguishing sounds in
minimal pairs. For beginning level groups, these are often formulated in selection test
types where the examinee identifies the different sounds in a group of similar sounds
except one.

Examples:

Write Yes if the two words heard

in each pair have the same vowel Write the letter of the word that has a different vowel
sounds; No, if they have different sound in each group. If all the words sound the same,
sounds. write S.

1. draw - draw 1. a. bean b. bean c. been

2. feel - feel 2. a. cap b. cop c. cop
3. green - grin 3. a. hymn b. hem c. hymn
4. meat - met
5. steel - still

Write Yes if the initial consonants in each

pair sound the same; No, if they sound
different.

1. best - vest
2. call - cool
3. fill - pill
4. sip - sit
5. taught - thought
For advanced level learners, the words may be used in sentences which students will
copy. Another way is asking students to identify from a group of pictures one which is
referred to by the teacher in her sentences using words of similar sounds. In this test,
students are expected not only to rely on their listening skills but also on their
comprehension and spelling skills.

1. His cat is small. His cot is small.

2. I placed the pen in my pocket. I
placed the pin in my pocket.
3. She bought a fan. She bought a pan.
4. The child drew a lamb. The child
drew a lamp.
5. The lady stood in front of the class.
The lady stood in front of the glass.
*The sentences may be accompanied by pictures
illustrating them, from which students will pick
the right choice.

2. Listening Comprehension
Tests on listening comprehension also vary according to learner’s proficiency. For the
intermediate group, tasks may consist of responding to requests, answering questions,
following directions, repeating messages, etc. Common test types for these tasks are
question – answer, stimulus – response, and listen – repeat.
Examples:
Do the following actions (Total Physical Response Strategy):
1. Erase the writings on the board and place the eraser on the table.
2. Face the student behind you and shake his/her hand.
3. Open the door and the window nearest to it.
4. Stand in front and place both hands on your head.
5. Take your bag and hold it with your left hand.
Answer the following questions:
1. How long have you been staying in your current address?
2. What are your parents’ occupations?
3. What do you often do during your free time?
4. Where would you want to travel, given the chance?
5. Why did you choose to study in this school?

These may be made even simpler for beginners. For the advanced level, tasks may consist
of drawing inferences, listening for the gist or intent, listening for specific information,
following a story line or sequence of events, etc.
Example:

Listen to the conversation (taped transcript) between Joanna and Kyle in school.
Circle the letter of the answer that best completes the sentence based on the
conversation.

Joanna: Hi, Kyle! Have you written your essay in English 101?

Kyle: Not yet. I had to attend the choir’s rehearsal last week.

Joanna: Ah, yes! I heard you are competing in Malaysia next month.

Kyle: Right. But I have been missing some classes because of it.

Joanna: You could probably ask our teachers for some make –up assignments.

Kyle: I’m planning to, this week. I’m going to the library now to write my essay.

Joanna: Good luck! See you in class.

1. Joanna and Kyle are classmates _____.

A. in all subjects
B. in some subjects
C. only in English 101
2. Kyle and company is scheduled to compete in Malaysia _____.
A. next month
B. next week
C. next year
3. Kyle has been absent from classes because he has been attending _____.
A. basketball practice
B. choir practice
C. dance practice
4. Kyle’s problem is he has not _____.
A. been attending his classes
B. passed his essay
C. spoken to his professors yet
5. Which statement best describes Kyle?
A. He is a happy-go-lucky student.
B. He prioritizes his extra-curricular activities over his academic
subjects.
C. He tries to balance his academic duties with his non-academic
interest.

Task/Activity
Prepare a sample test type for listening.