CHAPTER 1

Listening is primarily viewed as the foundation for language acquisition process. Since communication
is basically oral, people mostly learn, understand, and respond effectively by listening to what others have to say.
According to Nation and Newton (2009) in Nemtchinova, 2013, it has been "the least understood and the
most overlooked of the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing).
Listening skills in language classrooms are more often tested through students’ ability to respond
effectively to what has been heard. However, this skill is seldom taught.

HEARING AND LISTENING

Although hearing and listening are most of the time regarded as synonyms, the two terms are quite
distinct. The former is passive, and the latter is active.

From the dictionary:

• Hearing - the process, function or power of perceiving a sound.
• Listening - to hear something with thoughtful attention.

From the book Stand up, Speak out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking:
• Hearing - accidental and automatic brain response to sound that requires no effort.
• Listening - purposeful and focused to understand the meanings expressed by a speaker.

According to Kline (1996):

•Hearing - the reception of sound
•Listening - the attachment of meaning to the sound

According to Rost (2002):

•Hearing - a form of perception.
•Listening - an active and intentional process.

Vandergrift (1999) in Yildirim (2016):

•Listening - a complex, active process in which the listener must discriminate between sounds,
understand vocabulary and grammatical structures, interpret stress and intonation, retain what was
gathered in all of the above, and interpret it within the immediate as well as the larger sociocultural
context of the utterance.

According to Maureen (2017):

•Hearing - act of perceiving sound and receiving sound waves or vibrations through your ear.
•Listening - act of hearing a sound and understanding what you hear.

According to Surbhi (2017):

• Hearing - natural ability or an inborn trait that allows us to recognize sound through ears bycatching
vibrations.
•Listening - learned skill, in which we can receive sounds through cars, and transform them into
meaningful messages.

Flowerdew and Miller (2005)

1.Listening
2. Speaking
3. Reading
4. Writing

Listening- is more than just hearing sounds and words.

-an active process wherein language learners receive, construct meaning from, and respond to
both verbal and non-verbal messages.
- As you listen, you interpret the sounds and get the important words and construct meaning.

ACTIVE LISTENING
This skill may not come naturally for many of us. You have to understand that there is a line that separates passive
listening and active listening.
• Passive listening - is regarded as one-way communication wherein the receiver does not respond nor
give feedback to the speaker in anyway.
• Active listening - responding and providing message but even to the verbal and non-verbal messages. It is
listening accurately, effectively, and responding appropriately to the various communicative context. It is
gaining information, learning, and understanding things.
- a key to effective communication.

The importance of active listening

• Listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner. Without understanding input
at the right level, any learning simply cannot begin.
• Spoken language provides a means of interaction for the learner. Because learners must interact to
achieve understanding. Access to speakers of the language is essential. Moreover, learners' failure to
understand the language they hear is an impetus, not an obstacle, to interaction and learning.
•Authentic spoken language presents a challenge for the learner to understand language as native
speakers use it.
•Listening exercises provide teachers with a means for drawing learner's attention to new forms
(vocabulary, grammar, new interaction patterns) in the language.

Barriers to active listening

• Noise. It is the most common distraction when listening. Noise does not only refer to
something physical, but also psychological (internal thoughts). physiological (basic needs), semantic nois
e, and (word meanings and interpretation).
•Attention span. Students can only maintain focused attention for a finite length of time. Thus, classroom
lectures should be short, interesting, and engaging.
•Receiver biases. One's preconceived ideas and opinions, whether about the speaker or the message/topic,
can be considered as noise and may interfere in the listening process. It may hinder one from receiving
new points of view and information.
•Listening or receiver apprehension. Listening or receiver apprehension is the fear that you might be
unable to understand the message or process the information correctly or be able to adapt your thinking
to include the new information coherently.

Key Active Listening Skills

1. Pay Attention. It is concentrating on the speaker's message while integrating one's own
prior knowledge and experiences. It also involves paying attention
not just to the speaker's message but also to the non-verbal gestures.
2. Withhold Judgment. It is important to stay open-minded and to welcome varied ideas,
new perspectives, and different opinions. Good listeners know how to respond appropriately without
criticizing, judging, and insisting on their point of view.
3. Reflect. Reflecting during the
communication process allows you to understand the speaker'sexperiences and the emotions that
come with them. Reflecting in this context refers to rephrasing and repeating or reaffirming both the
words and the feelings of the speaker. The purposes of this are as follows:
 to allow the speakers to hear their thoughts and to focus on what they say and feel;
 to show the speakers that you are trying to perceive the world as they see it and that you are
doing your best to understand their messages;
 to encourage them to continue talking.
4. Clarity. To able to provide accurate and relevant feedback, the listener has to clarify information that has not
been clearly understood; or to ask for more information or details about the topic.
5. Summarize. Restate key points in the conversation to ensure that you have the same understanding of the
intention and message of the speaker. It is one way for the speaker to "listen to himself/herself" and to review
his/her thoughts and feelings.
6. Share. As you listen intently to the other person and maintain open-mindedness, you’ll be able to
understand his perspectives and feelings. You can begin to introduce (without imposing) your perspectives,
ideas, and feelings without judgments.

ETHICAL LISTENING
Ethical listening highlights the importance of listening with honest intentions. Respect is the key to active
listening. If you want to be heard and respected when it is your turn to speak, you should also extend the same
degree of respect to others whether you agree with the mor not.

Stages of Listening (RURER)

DeVito (2000) has divided the listening process into five mental tasks or stages namely: receiving, understanding,
remembering, evaluating, and responding.
Stage 1. Receiving. Involves two other activities like hearing and attending. In this stage, you must pay
attention to the speaker and avoid accommodating other thoughts to ensure that you have not missed
any information, or messages both verbal and non-verbal.
Stage 2. Understanding Determine the context and assign meaning to the words and utterances beard.
In this stage, you should also be aware of some factors that may affect your understanding like the choice
of words, accent, language fluency, physical noise, perceptions, experiences, and the like.
Stage 3. Remembering. Remembering all details is vital to be able to move forward in the conversation.
Sometimes listening attentively is not enough since there might be a message that is too complex and thus needs
highly developed listening skills.
Stage 4. Evaluating. The listener assesses the information after making reasonable objective
interpretation of the message. In this stage the listener tries to review mentally and determine the
veracity of the information (with considerations of the speaker's context) against his/her knowledge and
experiences.
Stage 5. Responding. Giving feedback is an important aspect of the communication process. It is at this
stage where you will signify your participation. Feedback can either be verbal and non-verbal reactions. Take
note as well that not all feedback occurs at the end.
•Formative Feedback - listener may offer non-verbal signals like nodding while the speaker is
talking to show involvement.
• Summative feedback - on the other hand is given at the end of the communication.

The Process of Listening

Most literature would point out two common terms related to the process of listening top-down and
bottom-up. Top-down and bottom-up describe how a person processes a listening text.
• bottom-up process - uses the information he she has about sounds, word meanings, and
discourse markers, then after, tries to assemble his/her understanding of what he/she reads or
hears one step at a time.
• top-down process - learners use their background knowledge to comprehend the meaning by
considering previous knowledge and schemata.

Skills for Listening

Skills - competencies which native listeners possess and which non- natives need to acquire concerning the
language they are learning. The following skill classification is adopted by Nihei(2002) from an article by Richards
(1987):
1. ability to recognize reduced forms of words
2. ability to distinguish word boundaries
3. ability to detect keywords (ie., those which identify topics and propositions)
4.ability to guess the meanings of words from the contexts in which they occur
5. ability to recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse,
6. ability to distinguish between major and minor constituents;
7.ability to recognize the communicative functions of utterances, according to situations, participants,
goals
8.ability to reconstruct or infer situations, goals, participants, procedures
9. ability to use real-world knowledge and experience to work out purposes, goals, settings, procedures
10. ability to predict outcomes from events described;
11. ability to infer links and connections between events;
12. ability to distinguish between literal and implied meanings
13. ability to recognize markers of coherence in discourse, and to detect such relations as the main idea,
supporting the idea, given information, new information, generalization, exemplification
14. ability to process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections
15. ability to make use of facial, paralinguistic, and other clues to work out meanings
16. ability to adjust listening strategies to different kinds of listener purposes or goals
Listening to Comprehend and Listening to Acquire the Target Language
The LSRW (listening-speaking-reading-writing) method suggests that students learning a new language
will first be taught how to listen.

Lesson 2: Strategies in Teaching Listening

Teaching Listening

Listening- important foundation for the language acquisition process.

- teaching this skill provides an avenue for students to be exposed to rich input and an authentic
sample of oral texts.
- allows them to be familiar with what constitutes oral text like pronunciation, stress, pitch, and
intonation; and, to be exposed to rich vocabulary and language structure that is used in varied
communicative settings.

Vandegrift (2004) mentioned that students may use either top-down or bottom-up processes. As one
listens, he/she may consciously or unconsciously use one or both processes.
Cahyono and Widiati (2009) mentioned that "successful listeners are those who can use both bottom-up
and top-down processes by combining the new information and the knowledge that they already know."
Brown (2006) in Yildirim (2016) elaborated on this: “……students must hear some sounds (bottom-up
processing), hold them in their working memory long enough (a few seconds) to connect them, and then
interpret what they've just heard before something new comes along. At the same time, listeners are using
their background knowledge (top- down processing) to determine meaning with respect to prior
knowledge and schemata"
●As (future) language teachers, you should ensure to provide activities that would involve students
processing and decoding the text (bottom-up), and then comprehending using one's schema (top-down).
Vandergrift (2011), "the greater use of one process over the other will depend on the listening purpose,
the listeners' characteristics, and the context where the listening act takes place".
Richards (2008) in Lopez et al. (2020) states that: “In real-world listening, both bottom-up and top-down
processes generally occur together. The extent to which one or the other dominates depends on the
listener's familiarity with the topic and content of a text, the density of information in a text, the text type,
and the listener's purpose in listening.”

The following are some of the exercises you can use which would develop students' top-down and bottom-
up processing:
Bottom-up
Teachers may ask students to:
 point out familiar words from the oral texts
 identify the meaning of unfamiliar words from texts listened to
 locate the syllable stress from words, and word stress from sentences
 identify rhyming words
 listen for pitch levels and intonation patterns
 determine synonyms and antonyms from texts listened to
 identify key words that occurred in a spoken text
 find which modal verbs occurred in a spoken text
 identify thought groups
 find collocations and idioms
 point out key transitions in a discourse
 identify grammatical relationships between key elements in sentences
  determine the order in which words occurred in an utterance
Top-down
Teachers may ask students to:
 write down as many words and phrases related to the topic they are about to listen to
 get the idea from the texts listened to discriminate between emotional reactions
 discriminate between emotional reactions
 make predictions and inferences from stories heard
 listen for specific information
 sequence information after listening to a literature piece
 follow directions
 share one's ideas based on the topic heard
 give synthesis from texts heard
 summarize important points
 generate questions from topics heard
 identify conversation themes
 rewrite the listening texts using their own words
 share what the speaker's purpose is and identify his/her speaking attitude
 students to ask about and/or to describe other expressions they may have heard
 write a journal of their listening activities

Three key stages in teaching listening:

Richards (2008) in Lopez, et.al. (2020) explains that:
 before-listening- stage that prepares students for both types of processing through activities that
require activating their previous knowledge, making predictions, and revising key vocabulary
 while-listening- focuses attention on comprehension through activities that require selective
listening, listening for main ideas (gist listening), or understanding the sequence of events
(sequencing)
 after/post-listening- students should express their opinions on the topic and respond to
comprehension.
- stage include a detailed analysis of some sections of the text that could not
be understood by the students

The following are some of the exercises using the principle of interactive approach in listening:
1. Pre/Before- Listening
Suggested Activities:
 Introduce some vocabulary words from the text.
 Encourage students to write down questions which they would want to answer after listening.
 Have students sort a text from a jumbled version.
 Ask them to predict what the oral text will be based on its title.
 Ask students questions related to the oral text to activate prior knowledge.
Pre-listening tasks may include but are not limited to discussion questions, true or false statements,
vocabulary work, prediction tasks and brainstorming the topic, eliciting real-world knowledge related to
the content.
2. During/While- Listening
Suggested Activities:
 Instruct students to list down important words.
 Let students guess the meaning of unknown words from the oral texts.
 Ask students to list expressions that occurred while listening.
 Ask students to do cloze exercises while listening.
 Let them show evidence of understanding or non-understanding through gestures (thumbs up or
thumbs down) while listening.
  As the teacher reads the text, or as the audio recording plays, the teacher may stop at some parts
to ask students to write down important points or give descriptions, etc..
3. Post/After Listening
Suggested Activities:
 Ask students to think and talk about what they heard.
 Let them create and share their dialogues from what they have listened to.
 Let them write their own opinions and share them with the class.
 Ask them to sequence important events from the stories listened to.
 Let them complete gaps in the text, tick words, and phrases that are heard, or match and choose
pictures.
 Ask questions for comprehension.
 Introduce memory games.
 Let students complete tables, charts, diagrams, sentences.
 Let them answer multiple-choice and true/false questions.
 Let them do character portrayals.

Format of a Listening Lesson

In the previous discussion, we have established the following points:
 Teachers have to provide activities that supplement comprehension goals with acquisition goals.
 Successful listeners are those that can use both bottom-up and top-down processes thus,
teaching-learning activities should provide students the opportunity to practice both.
 The three key stages in listening may be used as an outline in designing a listening lesson that
ensures an interactive process approach in teaching listening.

Pre-listening
This stage sets the context of the listening activity that will be given to students. In this stage, the
following will help you in getting your students ready for the listening task:
1. Identifying vocabulary/comprehension needs. As language teachers, you should have information on
your students' listening skills as well as their vocabulary level. Teachers should help students better
understand the listening or oral texts by identifying possible difficult words or presenting specific
vocabulary expressions which students would need while listening.
2. Activating interest. Teachers would always start with motivational activities to set the classroom mood.
The goal is for students to be ready and be motivated to listen.
3. Putting it in context. Teachers should choose oral and listening texts that are relevant and interesting
to the students. During pre-listening, the teacher should be able to design contextualized listening
activities that would activate students' prior knowledge and help them form appropriate inferences which
they need to comprehend the message. According to Vandergrift (n.d), teachers need to help students
organize their thoughts, activate appropriate background knowledge for understanding and to make
predictions to prepare for listening.
3. Setting the purpose. At the onset, the purpose of the listening activity should be made clear to the
students. What is the purpose of listening - to gain information, or to be entertained, or to evaluate, or to
give support or understanding to the speaker?
Remember as well that before starting the while-listening activities, you have to ensure that students will
have no distractions.

While-listening
In planning the while-listening activities, you may need to consider the following:
1. Listening and re-listening. Most students may need to listen to a text several times before they can
understand.
2. Guided listening and Scaffold note-taking. If you need your students to complete something while
listening, you have to make sure that they have previewed and understood the written task first before
listening begins. Remember that these tasks are given to guide your students in the listening task and not
to distract them. Thus, you also have to keep writing tasks to a minimum especially if your goal is
comprehension.
3. "Thinking space'. Just like any classroom activity, students need 'breathing' or *thinking space' between
and after listening activities.
There's a lot of listening texts you can use in your classroom. However, providing students with a
"more real act of communication" through authentic listening texts provides a better way for students to
understand the language when used in the real context. Your listening texts may be from any of the
following

 spoken poetry ●radio programs (news, advertisements etc.) ●song lyrics

 a lecture ●tutorial videos ●video segments like TED Talks, etc
 'recorded' announcements in airports, bus terminais etc. ●an anecdote, short stories etc
 podcasts and vodcasts

Post-listening
As there are many post-listening activities that you can give, remember that this stage serves as a
follow-up to the listening activity done while taking into account the primary purpose of the listening task.
Thus, post-listening activities may focus on:
1. Responding to the text. It is important that students share their reactions to the content. They can give
opposing views, connect their ideas based on their experience, or even answer the questions they have
raised during pre- listening.
2. Analyzing linguistic features of the text. Ask students to analyze language forms from the script. You
can also use the listening script/task as a springboard in teaching grammatical functions.
3. Integrating speaking and writing. They may write dialogues and short compositions, role-play a certain
scene, or express their appreciation and reaction through written and oral tasks.

Generic Format of a Listening Lesson

Pre-listening
 Identify vocabulary needs
 Activate interest and motivation
 Put in context
 Set the listening purpose
While-listening
 Provide opportunity for students to re-listen
 Promote guided listening
 Give students 'thinking space
Post-listening. Activities may focus on:
 Responding to the text.
 Analysing linguistic features of the text.
 Integrating speaking and writing.

Strategies and Examples in Teaching Listening

Effective and successful listening skill requires practice and you need lots of it. As a language
teacher, you need to provide varied and relevant listening opportunities for your students in and outside
the classroom. Here are some examples that you can use.
Listening Strategy: Pre-listening
1. Identifying vocabulary/ comprehension needs
Examples:
 Word webs: Inform the students of the listening topic and using semantic webs; ask them to
provide words, topics, or sub-topics with which they are expected to come up during the listening
activity.
 Mind maps. Have students generate ideas and create word associations from a given central
idea/theme or topic.
  Ask me. Give students words or expressions and let them explain these to a partner. Roam around
and check for students understanding of these words or expressions. They can use that list in the
while-listening stage and tick the words they hear in the listening passage.
 Words on the board. Write different words on the board and ask students to choose two-three
words. From these two words, they will have to create one sentence.
 Gap-fill. Write sentences with missing words. Ask students to choose one of the sentences and
complete it with their ideas.
2. Activating interest
Examples:
 Brain Walking. Put posters around the classroom. Ask students to move around and go to each
poster then talk about what comes to mind after taking a look at the posters. Students may do
this by pair or by small groups.
 Guess the Theme. The teacher may show eye-catching images, graphics, maps, or diagrams as
clues to help students guess the theme of the listening text.
 Solve the puzzle. Students guess what could have happened using some pieces of a puzzle picture
related to the listening passage.
 Sing along. Provide certain lines, expressions, words from the /listening text and ask volunteers
to sing a song containing these words or expressions.
 Meme it. Show students some memes from the listening text to arouse their interest. They may
also create their own after the listening activity.
 Discussion Questions. Students may work by pair or in small groups. Provide them with discussion
questions related to the listening task. They will share their answers with their partner/
groupmates.
 WH Questions. Questions - Give students a topic and have them generate as many questions as
they can within 2 minutes. Let them use the WH questions - Who? What? When? Where? Why?
How?
2. Putting it in context
Examples:
 Post It. Students brainstorm ideas about a topic related to the listening task. By pair or by group
they share what they know of the topic relating it to their prior schema. Students write these
down in small papers and post these on the board.
 Make up a Story. Based on what they know, provide students with some pictures and ask them to
put these pictures in an order that makes sense.
 Let's Draw. Give students a topic (refer to the listening text) and ask them to draw something
related to it providing as many details as they can. You may also ask them to post their work after
for everyone to see.
 Using Poll. For listening topics that may involve controversies, you can have a quick 'anonymous
poll' (ex. in google form) and reveal the result after they're done listening. Students will later know
what opinions are voiced in the listening text.
 KWL. Provide the title or the topic of the listening activity. Then ask students to write on what they
currently know about the topic (K), and what more they want to know (W). After listening, you
can then let them complete the last column on what they have learned (L).
 Exploring pictures. Post pictures on the wall and let students go see each picture. Have them write
their reactions to these pictures.
2. Setting the Purpose
Examples:
 Brainstorming. Discuss the topic with students and have them brainstorm headings to take notes
under. This will help them understand what specific task they will do while listening.
 Listening for pleasure. Inform students of the title of the listening text and ask them to list down
the interesting things that they think they can find out from the listening activity.
 What I want to do. Give the listening topic. Ask students what they would want to do after they
are done listening to the text.
Listening Strategy: While listening
1. Provide an opportunity for students to re-listen
Examples:
 Let me read it first. You let students read the listening transcript first for a very short time. Then
work on listening for specific information, this time without the script.
 Take two. Read the listening text first, then let students listen to the audio recording. This way,
you are giving them varied sources of listening text especially if the audio recording is from a native
speaker. Or if these are individual listening tasks, you may give your students a chance to replay
the recordings especially if they are listening for specific details.
2. Promote guided listening and scaffold note- taking
Examples:
 Graphic organizers. Give students a blank graphic organizer which summarizes the information in
the text under headings. Students listen and fill-in key words that they hear in the correct places.
 Who's who? If students are going to listen to a dialog with several characters and, of course, if
identifying the characters is not going to be one of the tasks in the listening, give them an overview
of who's who in the listening. A dialogue with several speakers can be difficult sometimes, so the
following tasks can help them have a higher rate of success.
 Dictogloss. The teacher first prepares a text that contains examples of the grammatical form to be
studied. As the teacher reads the text at a normal speed, students will take notes and continue
the task after listening.
 Look for the meaning. Provide a list of words to students before listening. Have them read it and
instruct them that as you play the audio track, they also have to write the words that have the
same meaning.
 Editing tasks. Students discern discrepancies between what they hear and the printed text.
3. Give students 'thinking space'
Examples:
 Listen and describe. As the teacher tells a story, he/she can stop regularly and then asks students
to give or write descriptions.
 What's next. The teacher plays the audio track and then stops it in the middle. He/she then asks
students to predict which word comes next. Then continues with the audio track and repeats the
process several times allowing students to have time to respond.

Listening Strategy: Post listening

1. Responding to the text
Examples:
 True or False. Prepare a series of statements and ask students whether they are true or false.
 Checking and Summarizing. You can check for students' understanding by letting them summarize
the information they heard orally or in writing.
 Discussions. You can also ask students to have a short discussion about the topic taken from the
listening task. It should be something interesting that would prompt them to give comments.
 Test your classmate. Students may be asked to prepare questions from the listening task (yes-no,
multiple-choice, short answer, etc.) and have other students answer these questions.
 Open questions. Ask students open questions so that they can elaborate on their ideas even more.
 What Do You Recall? Put students into pairs. Ask them to take turns recalling one bit of
information from what they have listened to without repeating anything. Challenge students to
continue as long as possible.
 Reflective and Self-assessment activities. Let students reflect on the process and what helped/not
helped them understand the listening text.
 Interpretive tasks. Students attend to a unit of discourse and respond to questions, thereby
encouraging them to provide evidence of their inferential thinking skills.
*You can also encourage your students to keep a record of conscious strategies/techniques they can
use to understand texts when they are outside the classroom.
2. Analyzing linguistic features of the text
Examples:
 Disappearing Dialogues. Another activity students can do to promote critical thinking skills is
erasing parts of the dialogue and then asking students to fill in the blanks with phrases they
remember or other phrases that might fit perfectly into the dialogue.
 Synonyms and Antonyms. Let students identify vocabulary and find its synonyms and antonyms
from the listening script.
 Listening script as a springboard. You can also take out some sentences from the script and let
students analyze word functions and expressions.
 Dictogloss. After the while-listening activity, students will prepare a summary of their work using
the correct grammatical structures.
 Sequencing events. Students may be asked to sequence events from the listening passage using
appropriate transitions.
 Reviewing the transcript. After the listening activity, students may be provided the transcript and
let them identify which part they did or didn't understand. Ask them to write the sentences or
phrases that they didn't understand so that the teacher can elaborate on them.
 Multiple-choice tests. Students listen to passages and demonstrate their understanding by
choosing the correct answer from a multiple-choice type of test. This may also be used during pre-
listening or while-listening depending on the purpose.
3. Integrating productive skills: speaking and writing.
Examples:
 Deconstructing a Listening Passage. Students may be asked to deconstruct certain passages and
dialogues from the listening text.
 Writing a Short Composition. Students may share what they have learned from the listening
passage through a short composition.
 Time to Act. Students may also be asked to identify certain scenes from the listening passage,
then create and present a skit.
 Retelling. Students are asked to retell what has been heard incorporating main ideas, supporting
details, key phrases, and sequence.
Teachers can provide other activities which integrate the use of speaking and writing. This will also
help students develop their ability to use two or more of the skills within real contexts

Free Listening Tests & Exercises Websites

1. TALK ENGLISH. You can access free listening lessons from different levels
2. ELLLO (English Listening Lesson Library Online). Offers over 3,000 free listening activities. Teachers and
students can access lessons for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners. You can access this site @
http://www.elllo.org/
3. IELTS buddy. For more listening tasks created by native speakers of English, you can also access the free
materials across different levels.
4. ESL Lounge. You can also try this website which offers different kinds of comprehension exercises after
each listening task.
5. Breaking News English. On this website, you can listen to interesting news content. This news is
presented at different levels and can be read at different speeds.
For listening and viewing
6. TEDEd You can look for relevant content to use as viewing and listening texts. Each lesson has pre- and
post-listening activities these parts watch think and discuss.
Other than these provided here, there are still a lot of free websites and applications that you can
find online. Aside from these, you can also create your content for the listening tasks. You can record
yourself reading poems or stories, then upload in your google classroom or messenger group for your
students to listen to anywhere, anytime.

Lesson 3: Assessment in Teaching Listening

Why do we assess
Assessment- is an integral part of the teaching-learning process.
 - involves "collecting evidence and making judgments or forming opinions about learners'
knowledge skills and abilities" (Tsagari et.al., 2017).
- serve as a basis for teachers to make informed decisions as to his/her teaching practices.
Assessment in listening is as important as assessment in other macro skills. Teachers have to employ
mechanisms on how to monitor students' progress and performance at different stages of the listening
process. Thus, activities are provided in pre-, while-, and post-listening stages.

Initial assessment- may be done during pre-listening tasks

- teachers can determine students' strengths and weaknesses.
Formative assessment- is done throughout the listening tasks
- check for students' progress and ability to complete the listening tasks.
Summative assessment- may be given as part of the post-listening activities
- find out how successful learners have been in the listening tasks
-find out what they can or can't do.
What do we assess
What is the purpose of the listening tasks and what particular aspect of listening skills are you going to
assess? To help determine this, you have to consider the competencies under Listening Comprehension
(LC) in the K to 12 Curriculum Guide for English.
Brown (2004) identified the types of listening.
Types/Purpose of Listening
1. Intensive listening (focusing on the form of the language)
Listening tasks and tests may focus on listening for the perception of the components of language such as
sounds, words, discourse markers, etc.)
Examples:
 Recognizing Phonological and Morphological Elements- form of listening assessment that
assesses students' ability to identify different phonemes correctly and morphemes commonly
found in the English language.
 Paraphrase Recognition- type of assessment focuses on students ability to paraphrase the short
sentences they hear.
2. Responsive listening (showing understanding)
Listening tasks or tests may focus on student's ability to create an appropriate short response after
listening to short conversations/utterances.
Examples:
 Open-ended Response- type of assessment requires students to answer by using vocabulary
stored in their lexicon.
 Appropriate Response to a question- type of assessment focuses on the students ability to
understand what is being said by responding to a question that has been asked.

3. Selective listening (picking out important information such as dates, times, locations)
Listening tasks or tests involve listening to scan for specific information. Students may be directed to listen
for directions, names, numbers, and figures, facts, events, or grammatical categories.
Examples:
 Listening Cloze- This form of listening assessment assesses students' ability to identify key
vocabulary from within a brief monologue.
 Information Transfer, Chart Filling- This type of assessment forces students to listen carefully to
details while writing them down into a chart; it creates an authentic environment from which
students can learn English practically.

4. Extensive listening (understanding longer texts and connecting the ideas)

Listening tasks or tests may focus on developing a top-down process or global understanding of spoken
language.
Extensive performance ranges from listening to lengthy lectures to listening to a conversation and deriving
a comprehensive message or purpose. Listening for the gist, for the main idea, and making inferences are
all part of extensive listening.
Examples:

 Dictation- This form of listening assessment assesses students' ability to identify phonemic
differences within a normal conversation.
 Dialogue and multiple-choice comprehension questions- This form of assessment tests students'
ability to gather the information they just listened to and apply it in answering questions.
How do we assess
Regardless of macro skill, certain principles serve as guidelines when assessing.
1. Reliability.
Reliable test is consistent and dependable.
Bachman & Palmer (1996) describes it as getting the same results when the same tests were to be
administrated to the same group of individuals on two different occasions in two different settings.
Considerations may include:
 choosing listening tasks and tests that are practical and anchored on real-life situations;
 considering a range of short tasks rather than very long texts and tasks; and
 making sure that the tests assess the actual skill of the students.
2. Validity- states that validity reveals the extent to which the test measures what it is supposed to
measure and nothing else (Brown, 2006).
- the most complex criterion of a good test. You need to make sure that assessment tasks reflect
or measure the competencies or objectives as stipulated in the curriculum guide.
3. Practicality- means that the tests should consider constraints like limitations, time constraints, ease of
administration, scoring, etc.
-teachers should also consider the quality of the listening tasks over quantity.
4. Authenticity- describes the relationship between the test and the real world.
- assessment tasks should be reflective of real-life situations which would trigger mental processes
similar to that of what students hear and use in their daily life.
Galaczi (2021) further explained that "tasks that have interactional authenticity may not necessarily
replicate a real-world context, but they elicit a cognitively authentic linguistic experience since they create
a context in which realistic uses of language can occur".

Language teachers, particularly in teaching listening, should consider the level and the assessment
methods appropriate for the students.
Feedbacking is also an important aspect of assessment.
For students to know how to improve, Grant Wiggins (1998) in Tsagari et.al., (2017) suggested that they
need to understand three things about their performance:
 what they are doing well,
 what they are struggling with, and
 what they need to do differently to be more successful.

Chapter 2: Teaching and Assessing Speaking

The ability to communicate in a second language helps learners deliver the message successfully in their
day-to-day interaction.
Speaking as an expressive skill is important for personal and professional success.
Effective speaker captures attention and successfully gets the message across.
Effective speaking reflects clear thinking.
Dale Carnegie said, "There are always three speeches. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the
one you wish you gave."

Lesson 1: Understanding Speaking

Speaking and its Importance
Speaking- is the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal
symbols, in a variety of contexts (Chaney, 1998).
 - is complex because speakers are involved in a rapid and dynamic process incurring a high element
of doing various things at the same time (Johnson, 1996).
- describes as a "combinatorial skill" that involves doing various things at the same time including
non-verbal communication skills like listening, eye contact, and body language. (Johnson, 1996)
Why do we speak? People speak for the following reasons:
1.) convey thoughts,
2.) persuade people, and
3.) inspire people and spur them into action.

The following skills need to be developed for effective speaking in a second language.

1. Vocabulary- To be able to speak effectively, you have to acquire enough words to say what you want to
say and to make you more capable of delivering exactly what you want to convey.
Being a good speaker means constantly expanding your vocabulary.
Reading is an effective way to improve your vocabulary. The more you read, the more you learn unfamiliar
words.
Watching movies is another way to improve your English vocabulary. Movies provide you with the
opportunity to learn many words, phrases, and grammar as used in real-life conversations.
Playing word games is effective and fun. At the same time, it improves your vocabulary.

2. Grammar- The fewer grammar mistakes you make, the more effective is your speech. However, your
grammar doesn't need to be 100% accurate to be an effective speaker. What is important is the accuracy
of the message that you convey while speaking. You may need to learn specific grammatical structures like
the different tenses, comparative forms, relative clauses, conditionals, passive and active voice, to name
a few.

3. Pronunciation- divided into two large categories: segmentals and suprasegmentals.

1. Segmentals- are also called phonemes. Individual sounds of the consonants and vowels are segmentals.
Segmental features of speech are discrete units that can be auditorily identified in the speech stream such
as consonants and vowels (Crystal, 2015)
2. Suprasegmentals- are speech techniques that apply to multiple segments such as stress, intonation,
and rhythm.
- the musical aspects of pronunciation.
- are important for marking all kinds of meanings, in particular speakers' attitudes or
stances to what they are saying (or the person they are saying it to), and in marking out
how one utterance relates to another (Ogden, 2009)
Suprasegmental features (also known as prosodic features) refer to "the phonetic and phonological
aspects of spoken language that cannot necessarily be reduced to individual consonants and vowels, but
generally extend across several segments or syllables" (Fletcher, 2013)
●Competent speakers possess various skills of pronunciation to emphasize and make the communicative
effect of their speech more effective.

Speech Register- refer to the level of formality and style in speaking anchored on different situations and
contexts.
In determining the type of speech register, you have to consider
 the purpose of your speech (Why am I speaking?),
 the audience (Who am I speaking to?), and
 the occasion (What is the event?).

The following are the types of speech registers:

1. Frozen or Fixed Register- is often used in very formal ceremonies and must be said the same each time
we say it.
- is frozen in time, form, and content.
-Some examples are Shakespearean plays, the Philippine National Anthem, the
Lord's prayer, the Preamble of the Philippine Constitution, and laws.
2. Formal Register- often follows a prescriptive format. It is used in formal settings and is usually
impersonal.
- includes academic language.
- are speeches, announcements, sermons, and pronouncements by the judges.
- speaker uses technical and academic vocabulary, uses complete sentences, avoids slang,
and may use technical or academic vocabulary.
3. Consultative Register- is the standard form of communication.
- speaker uses the participation and feedback of the listener.
- Situations using consultative registers are doctor and patient, lawyer and client, teacher
and student, and counselor and client.
4. Casual Register- is an informal speech, usually used between, friends, or colleague who have things to
share.
- there is free and easy participation of both speaker and listener.
- happen among buddies, teammates, group chats, blogs, and messages to friends.
5. Intimate Register- is a conversation between two very close individuals.
- is described by an economy of words, with a high chance of nonverbal communication.
- usually occur between husband and wife. boyfriend and girlfriend, parents and children,
and siblings.

Speech Act- refers to an utterance expressed by an individual that presents information and performs an
action as well.
Speech act theory of Austin and Searle (1971)- captures all the possible functions of language by
classifying the kinds of action that can be performed by speech. It is categorized as locutionary.
illocutionary, and perlocutionary.
Locutionary act- is the act of making an expressive meaning.
- is an utterance that produces literal meaning based on what is said by the speaker.
Illocutionary act (force)- is the meaning one wishes to convey.
-an utterance that has a social function in mind.
- it is not just the act of saying something in purpose of:
 stating an opinion, confirming or denying something
 making a prediction, a promise, request;
 issuing an order or a decision; and
 giving advice or permission.
Perlocutionary act- is the effect of our words that entails a person to do something.
-what the hearer does in response to the utterance.
Take this as an example:
Locution: Stop smoking.
Illocution: The locution can be interpreted as a request to stop smoking, an order, or a warning.
Perlocution: The person stops smoking as an effect.
The Speech Act
Illocution (intended meaning) → Locution (specific words) → Perlocution (effect)

Speech Delivery
One way of categorizing a speech is the way it is delivered.
Types of speech delivery
1. Impromptu speaking- involves delivering a message on the spur of the moment without preparation
and predetermination.
- speaker is provided on the spot with a topic and she/he will say something about it.
- speech could be as professional as feedback on a project or as informal as a message
during birthdays and other celebrations. While it might feel nerve-wracking even to the
most experienced speaker, giving an impromptu speech is a test of an excellent
communicator.
2. Extemporaneous speaking- consists of delivering a speech in a conversational fashion using notes.
- planned and prepared but the speaker uses an outline only as a reference while speaking.
 - the style most professional and experienced public speakers prefer since the
extemporaneous method of delivery has a more natural flow.
- style of speech delivery for speaking contests.
- Speakers are given topics 20 minutes prior to their speech after which they deliver a five
(5) minute talk (depends on the guidelines set for the extemporaneous contest.)
3. Manuscript speaking- consists of reading a fully scripted speech.
- useful when a message needs to be delivered in precise words like the state of the nation
address of the President of the Philippines.
-used when people read important statements or when people deliver reports in public
that would require exact words in the correct order.
4. Memorized speaking- is delivering a scripted speech from memory
- there is stress associated with it since it will entail the speaker to commit to memory
what she/he has to say.
Memorization- allows the speaker to be free of notes.

Lesson 2: Teaching Speaking

Teaching speaking in a second language can be challenging for both teachers and learners.
Speaking- is complex because speakers are involved in a rapid and dynamic process incurring "a high
element of doing various things at the same time" (Johnson, 1996, p. 55).
To teach speaking in English entails consideration of the English speech sounds, intonation patterns,
rhythm, the use of words and sentences accurately in a social setting, and the organization and expression
of such thoughts.
Teaching and Learning Speaking
Competence in speaking involves the following components:
1) knowledge of language and discourse- requires mastering the sound patterns of the language and
being able to pronounce the language intelligibly at segmental and suprasegmental levels,
knowing the grammar and vocabulary of the language (spoken structures, grammatical features, lexis),
and understanding how stretches of connected speech (discourse, genre) are organized so that they are
socially and pragmatically appropriate (register) (Goh and Burns, 2012).
2) core speaking skills- include the ability to process speech quickly to increase fluency (e.g. speech rate,
chunking, pausing, formulaic language, discourse markers), being able to negotiate speech like initiating
topics, turn-taking, signaling intentions, etc.
3) communication and discourse strategies- involve developing cognitive, strategies to compensate for
limitations in language knowledge (e.g. circumlocution, paraphrasing, gestures, word coinage,
approximation, avoidance), and interaction strategies like asking for clarification/repetition, reformulating,
and rephrasing.

Knowing these components would enable the teacher to understand that every speaking lesson has to be
supported with learning opportunities that develop the speaking competence of the learners across the
three categories of knowledge of language and discourse, core speaking skills, and communication
strategies.
Speaking lesson- the teachers have to be very observant since students may need guidance on a specific
aspect of language to become effective speakers.
The teachers need to remember that for students to be competent and effective speakers, they must at
the same time be listeners who can take into account the interactional and unpredictable dynamics of
speech (Ellis, 2014).
Goh and Burns (2012)- proposed a model of teaching the speaking cycle as a basis in the teaching of
speaking.
Teaching speaking cycle- is not meant to be completed in just one or two lessons.
- an overall approach to supporting and scaffolding the learning of speaking skills and
strategies that can be introduced and extended over several lessons or even a unit of
work.
Teaching-Speaking Cycle, Goh and Burns (2012)
1. Focus learners' attention on speaking- Students are guided to prepare themselves for speaking. The
purpose of this is to encourage learners to plan for overall speaking development and to prepare learners
to approach a specific speaking task. Preparing for speaking includes talking with students about what
difficulties they have encountered while speaking and ways on how to improve their speaking ability.
2. Provide input and/or guide planning- The teacher needs to allow the learners to plan before the real
speaking task. In this stage the teacher may ask the students to choose a topic they are familiar with, then
list down main ideas and supporting details, think of phrases that would connect one idea to another, and
plan for a good conclusion. Another way to prepare students for the speaking task is to encourage the
students to read about his/her topic of interest and gather vocabulary related to the topic, The teacher
can also provide inputs to activate or reactivate learners' linguistic knowledge.
3. Conduct speaking tasks- Teachers provide speaking tasks for students to practice. As students are
guided on how to plan their speech in stage 2, they are expected to practice speaking in this stage focusing
on how to say it that encourages fluency of expression.
4: Focus on language/skills/strategies- This cycle aims at creating opportunities for learners to improve
language accuracy, as well as to enhance their effective use of skills and strategies (Burns, 2019). In this
stage, the teacher draws learners' attention to selected parts of the fluency task which may include
pronunciation, grammar, and text structures, as well as vocabulary.
5. Repeat speaking tasks-, learners carry out the speaking task(s) from Stage 3 again. The difference
between Stage 3 and Stage 5 is that learners now have a chance to analyze and practice selected language
items or skills during Stage 4, thus learners can apply this knowledge to enhance their performance (Burns,
2019)
6. Direct learners' reflection on learning- The students need to monitor their speaking activity. This stage
enables the learners to reflect on their experiences when doing the speaking tasks. Reflection can be done
individually, in small groups, or in pairs which can focus on the following (Burns, 2019):
 demands of the speaking tasks which students have become aware of;
 strategies that are useful to meet the demands of the task;
 their informal assessment of their capabilities and performance;
 areas of their performance that show improvement;
 areas to be further improved; and
 plans for improving a specific area.
7. Facilitate feedback on learning- The teacher in this stage gives feedback on the performance of the
students in the speaking tasks either through qualitative comments, grades, narratives, rubrics, and other
assessment measures.
Kayi (2006) proposed suggestions in teaching speaking that teachers might further consider. They are
the following:
1. Provide a maximum opportunity for students to speak the target language by providing a rich
environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks, and shared knowledge.
2. Try to involve each student in every speaking activity.
3. Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time. Step back and observe
students.
4. Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student's response.
5. Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?" in order to
prompt students to speak more
6. Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was great. It was a good job. I really appreciated your
efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of your voice..."
7. Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking. Correction should
not distract the student from his or her speech
8. Circulate around the classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and see whether they
need your help while they work in groups or pairs.
9. Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities.
10. Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in the target
language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken language.

Speaking tasks
For many years and even until now, English language teachers have continued to teach speaking through
repetitive drills or memorization of dialogues.
Goal of teaching speaking is to make students express themselves correctly and effectively to be
understood.
To teach speaking communicatively is to provide varied speaking tasks that enable students to
communicate in real-life scenarios.
The main aim of speaking tasks is to help students develop fluency.

To develop students' speaking skills, they need intensive practice. Below are suggested activities that
facilitate speaking practice.
Below are some examples of speaking tasks that teachers can employ in their classes.
1. Discussion- is carried out to arrive at a conclusion, to share ideas about an event, or to find solutions.
The teacher needs to orient the students on the purpose of the discussion so time will not be wasted on
talking about other things.
2. Your last word is mine - The first student starts telling a story; another continues using the last word
uttered by the first student, then another student continues until the whole story is finished.
3. Short Speeches - Given a time frame, students are given a topic and deliver a speech before the class.
4. Guess the picture - One student has the picture and the partner needs to guess what's in the picture by
asking probing questions and clarifications.
5. Role Play- students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles. This
exercise will encourage the students to speak in real-life situations.
6. Interviews. Students interview an interesting personality in the community and report to the class the
results of the interview.
7. Narrating or telling a friend about an amusing weekend experience
8. Playing games that engage students in conversation
9. Conducting class debates

Lesson 3: Assessing Speaking

Assessing the speaking skills of students can be very challenging for teachers of English. It is because when
a person speaks, it involves doing various skills at the same time like using appropriate vocabulary, correct
grammar, pronunciation, and other non-verbal communication skills.

Porto (1997) and Omar (2001) indicated that developing oral skills is a real challenge for many teachers of
English as a second language since the students do not live in an English-speaking environment.
Success in speaking is being able to communicate the message effectively using accurate and acceptable
use of the language.

Important components of students' overall speaking competencies.

 Pronunciation,
 vocabulary,
 accuracy,
 interaction, and
 fluency

Assessing speaking skills entails teachers to pay attention to the following:

1. Fluency- means speaking easily, reasonably quickly without having to stop and pause a lot.
- refers to how many languages a student can speak, as opposed to accuracy which focuses on
whether that language is correct or not.
-A lot of conversation classes, especially more informal conversation classes, focus solely on
- frequently defined in terms of speed of spoken delivery as for example, 'the capacity to produce
speech at a normal rate and without interruption (Skehan, 2009, p. 510). As a teacher, it is
important to assess your students' fluency, whether your only goal is that your students can
communicate in English, or whether fluency is one of the many goals in your conversation class.
 In the same way that some students have trouble reading out loud, some students also have
trouble with fluency. These students may speak unnaturally slowly and pause frequently while
speaking to search for words.
2. Pronunciation- is the act of producing the sounds of speech, including articulation, stress, and
intonation.
- is important in speaking, however, when it comes to speaking assessments, the utmost
consideration is whether the learner's pronunciation makes communication easy or
difficult.
Pronunciation Assessment- teachers must therefore consider more than just how the words and letters
sound. Other considerations are the changes in the tone of voice, pronouncing words with greater
emphasis than the other), and how words can sound different when they are joined together in natural
speech.
- is making sure that listeners can fully understand what the speaker is communicating
observing correct pronunciation, proper intonation, stress, and connected speech. The teacher
may require students to record while reading a passage or paragraph or short story. This provides
teachers the opportunity to listen to the student's pronunciation and provide feedback and
identify areas for improvement. The teacher may also initiate conversations with students to
assess their pronunciation skills.
3. Vocabulary- refers to the body of words used in a particular language.
- usually assessed through vocabulary tests, using multiple choice or fill-in-the-blanks. However,
in the context of speaking, it is the consideration of the breadth and depth of the vocabulary used
by the speaker. Breadth refers to the number of words a student knows. Depth is what the learner
knows about the words.
4. Accuracy- refers to the correct use of the language system. Language teachers expand grammatical
constructs by going beyond the assessment of grammatical form and meaning to grammatical use.
5. Interaction- refers to the ability to interact with others during communicative tasks.

Types of Speaking Assessment Tasks

Brown (2004:141) provides five types of tasks that teachers can use to assess the speaking ability of
students.

1. Imitative

This involves repeating a small stretch of language and focusing on pronunciation. Test maker considers
using this type of assessment if he is not interested in the test taker's competence in understanding. The
competence assessed is that of purely phonetic, prosodic, lexical, and grammatical (pronunciation).

2. Intensive

 Reading aloud- Brown (2004) suggests that reading aloud can be used as a companion for other
more communicative tasks.
 DRT is beneficial to elicit a specific grammatical form or a transformation of a sentence which
requires minimal processing like producing English stress patterns, words in stressed and
unstressed positions, rhythmic structure, and intonational contours; produce reduced forms of
words and phrases and using an adequate number of lexical units (words), grammatical word
classes (nouns, verbs, etc.), systems (e.g., tense, agreement, pluralization), word order, patterns,
rules, forms. (Brown, 2004)
 Sentence/Dialogue Completion- This type will probably be beneficial only for assessing the test
taker's micro skill of providing the right chunks of language and other pronunciation feature

3. Responsive- These are speaking tasks that involve responses to spoken prompts. Some of these
examples are question and answer, giving instructions and directions, and paraphrasing

4. Interactive- This refers to interactional and transactional conversations.

Some examples are:
 a. Interview- In conducting an interview, the teacher must create a relaxed atmosphere, must talk
less, and listen more so he/she can collect more information about the students, and the topics
must be within the interest and knowledge of the students. Constructive feedback should be given
after the interview to focus on the good features of the interview and the things to improve.
b. Drama-like Task- O' Malley (1996:85) divides the drama-like task into three sub. types:
improvisations, role play, and simulation. The difference of each is respectively the preparation
and scripting. Improvisation gives very little opportunity for students to prepare for the situation
and may incite creativity in using the language. Role play provides a slightly longer time for
students to prepare, although scripting is highly unlikely. Meanwhile, simulation (including
debate) requires planning and decision-making. Simulation may involve real-world sociodrama
which is the pinnacle of speaking competence.
c. Discussions and Conversations- (Brown, 2004: 175) are informal assessments to performance
in 1) starting, maintaining, and ending a topic; 2) getting attention, interrupting, and controlling;
3) clarifying, questioning and paraphrasing; 4) signaling for comprehension (e.g nodding); 5) using
appropriate intonation patterns, 6) using kinesics, eye contact and body language; 7) being polite,
being formal and other sociolinguistic situation
d. Games- Games that can elicit spoken language objectively can be used as an informal
assessment for speaking

5. Extensive (monologue)
a. Speech (Oral Presentation or oral report)- It is commonly practiced to present a report, paper,
or design in a school setting. An oral presentation can be used to assess the speaking skill
holistically or analytically.
b. Picture-cued Story Telling- Similar to the limited version, at this level, the main consideration
of using a picture or series of pictures is to make it into a stimulus for a longer story or description.
c. Retelling a Story or New Event- The focus is usually on the meaningfulness of the relationship
of events within the story, fluency, and interaction with the audience (Brown, 2004)

Assessing Speaking Using Rubrics

Speaking assessment, the teacher needs to integrate all the parameters that constitute effective speaking.
Rubrics- is very helpful in assessing speaking.
- help improve student performance since students are aware of what areas they can improve on.
Two types of rubrics that can be used in assessing speaking:
(1) holistic rubric- leads the rater to evaluate or score the overall components of communicative
competence without separately considering another component of language production.
- more appropriate when the task requires students to create various responses (Nitko,
2001)
Holistic rating rubric- reports the overall quality, proficiency, and understanding of the content
while speaking.
(2) analytical- requires the rater to evaluate or score the components of language production separately
(Moskal, 2000; Nitko, 2001).
- it scores performance in different subcategories such as grammar, vocabulary, comprehension,
fluency, pronunciation, and task completion.
O'Malley (1996:65) suggests several steps in developing rubric:
(1) Set criteria of task success;
(2) Set dimensions of language to be assessed (grammar, vocabulary, fluency, pronunciation. etc);
(3) Give appropriate weight to each dimension (if the omission is possible, do);
(4) Focus on what test taker can do, instead of what they cannot.