Improving Listening Skills In The TEFL Classroom

We spend a large amount of time listening as part of the communication process.

Because it is such a complex skill which requires knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, it can be tricky to know how to improve listening skills l in the classroom. The problem then becomes that teachers are unsure how to handle listening in the classroom and end up addressing listening tasks quite haphazardly and ineffectively.

To help you out, here are six strategies to help improve your learners’ listening skills.

Strategy 1: Activating schema and predicting the genre

In real life, when we listen we have an understanding of the genre of whatever we are listening to. This helps us process the information we are hearing.

In the classroom we can discuss the background to the listening text so that the listening is not being done in isolation. In other words, the students can think about the participants, the formality of the text, the format of the text and ultimately predict the content.

 Strategy 2: Familiarising students with accents and speech patterns

Similarly, students need to think about the characteristics of the speaker before they can be expected to tackle the content of the listening. This is done by listening to the speaker and becoming comfortable with the speaker’s voice and accent.

In reality, this is what happens when we first start listening to someone speak and we adjust to their speech patterns. In the classroom, this is done by allowing the students to listen to a short extract from the listening before tackling the main task to familiarise themselves with the speaker.

 Strategy 3: Using student-generated questions for active listening

Invariably we want our students to ask some kind of questions about the listening, to ensure they have understood what they have heard.

Instead of giving them questions, give them some time to construct their own questions based on the information they have from the initial short extract. In other words, they will write questions about what they think will come up in the listening. These questions can then be given to other students to answer during the listening.

Strategy 4: Peer feedback and eliciting personal responses

Once the listening text has been played a few times and the students have answered what questions they can, allow some time for feedback. During this time the students can compare the information they found out by listening for the answers to their questions. Bearing in mind that there will be numerous different questions, there will be different answers and different information found out.

Once the content of the text has been dealt with adequately, ask questions which will elicit a personal response from the students.

 Strategy 5: Post-listening analysis and script-based language work

The final piece of the puzzle is to tackle any language issues which may have come out of the listening. It is usually necessary to provide the listening script to the learners so that the language can be seen as well as heard.

Strategy 6: Utilising relevant activities

Level-appropriate resources are vital for successful listening lessons in an EFL setting. But so too is using relevant activities. Here are our fave ectivities to help you carry out good listening lessons.

Drawing

This is a method of teaching your students to follow your instructions. Drawing is a good resource because it can even be used on Young Learners.

Small children in a TEFL class who can’t draw very well, can be given a picture and you tell them which parts of the picture to colour in and what colours to use. You can use drawings for topics like body parts, food or clothes.

With older students in your TEFL class you can dictate a series of instructions. An idea would be to get your students to draw a scene which practices prepositions of place. So, you could say draw a table. Draw a bowl of apples on the table and a spider under the table.

Explain to your students that it’s not the drawing that matters and that students who aren’t good at drawing shouldn’t worry. Explain that the lesson is about listening and following instructions.

Read more: What’s The Difference Between Teaching Young Learners And Teenagers?

Listening to a tape recording

Tell your students they are going to join a (pretend) local music club and they need to fill out a form with some personal details. Then play a recording you have made previously that asks questions that the students have to fill in on their forms. This could be their names, ages, address, school, favourite group and singer and what times they would like the club to open and shut.

Using video

Video is a great resource for a TEFL class. Pick out a short video, it could be something from the TV or YouTube. Prepare some questions beforehand and then let your students watch the video with the sound down. When they done this block out the picture and let the students listen again for the gist. Finally play it again and ask them to answer the questions.

Listening to a book

A book can be spread out in your TEFL class over a number of months. It is a great way to engage students as long as you pick a book that is narrated clearly, and which matches your student’s level.

• Always supply a transcript
• Teach any new vocabulary
• Listen with the transcript
• Listen again without the transcript and answer some pre-set questions

You can also get the class talking once you’ve covered some of the book by discussing their favourite characters and getting them to talk about what they think is going to happen next.

Listening is a complex skill and helping our learners become more adequate listeners is no easy feat. By following these five steps your listening lessons will be that much more effective and your students will become that much better at listening.

Author Bio

Written by

Kirsten Colquhoun

Kirsten Colquhoun is the Content Manager for The TEFL Academy. A graduate of Cambridge University and DELTA-qualified, she first started teaching kindergarten in Thailand in 2003. A South African, she has also taught in China, the UK, Spain, Qatar and South Africa, but these days she is a teacher trainer and freelance writer and editor. Read Kirsten Colquhoun's story →