
Speakit Films | We Love Telling Stories That Inspire Us Listen to English - learn English! Autonomous listening skill development: activity 1 – Lizzie Pinard Listen! (Image taken from via Google search for images licensed for commercial reuse with modification) I encourage learners to listen extensively outside class, and extensive listening is recognised as beneficial to language learning. But what about actually developing listening skills? As in, listening with a view to improving both decoding (“translating the speech signal into speech sounds, words and clauses, and finally into a literal meaning” (Field, 2008:kindle loc. 2386)) and meaning-building (“adding to the bare meaning provided by decoding and relating it to what has been said before” (ibid)) skills. How can I help learners to actively work on their listening outside class as well as during listening lessons? In this series, I will describe some listening activities I’ve done with learners to help them become more autonomous listeners by giving them something tangible to do with their out of class “listening practice”. Aims: Materials: Procedure: Benefits:
Better@English _Video and audio To learn to speak fluent English, you need lots of exposure to spoken language coupled with opportunities to use what you’re learning. Many learners think that going to a traditional English course is the best way to learn. But you can also learn English very well on your own, without spending a lot of money. Before you sign up for a course, why not make the most of the audio and video resources for English learning that are widely available online? Jump directly to the list of resources. There are many advantages to using audio and video compared to going to a traditional English class. You can go at your own pace, and do as much or as little as you have time for. English is such a widely spoken language that the possibilities for finding great content are practically limitless. Do not skip this step. Using a good looping audio player will make it much easier and more efficient for you to learn from the audio resources that you use for listening practice. Put your learning into practice
Imaginative materials: treasure hunting By Jim Scrivener How could you create an exciting treasure hunt puzzle for your students? Here are ideas for two kinds of game – a basic chain of clues and letterboxing. Children often enjoy treasure hunting games. What is a chain of clues? A simple treasure hunt starts with one clue. Planning a chain of clues (Small classes.) Walk down the corridor to the end, Then look behind the poster of Big Ben. Letterboxing (Larger classes) Get 10-15 different coloured felt-tip pens. Liven up a Listening | Recipes for the EFL Classroom Not sure what to do with a listening text coming up soon in the unit? Don’t like the comprehension questions in the book? Want some ideas to liven it up? Pre-listening Prediction work can be a really useful pre-listening activity, preparing the students for what they are about to hear. Students can use their world knowledge of the topic area along with their linguistic knowledge in order to make predictions about content (this is often referred to as activating schematic knowledge). KWL charts This is an idea I took from JJ Wilson’s excellent book, How to Teach Listening. The basic procedure: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Bingo A fun and engaging vocabulary prediction task. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. You can try this with the weather forecast below: Whilst listening Giving students different tasks When we listen to many things in our day to day life, we are not interested in understanding everything, but just the salient points. An example: In summary Like this: Like Loading...
Vidipedia - The Video Encyclopedia Home - The Story Museum 10 Best Free Listening Websites with Quizzes to Practise for Listening Exams So what do you do to practise listening for exams? Growing up, I never had the opportunity to do any extra practice to improve my listening skills. We didn’t have the Internet and the thousand possibilities it offers to learners of any language nowadays. So, exams are just around the corner and I know you’re beginning to freak out. These are, in my opinion, the best sites with quizzes to practise listening comprehension. url: three main levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced)Pre-listening /Post-listening activities: noTranscript: yesAudio Download: noWhat I like best: it has some other listening activities like dictations or listening based on pictures for lower levels. Check also:
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