Mubark Al Kabeer Educational Zone

Ministry of Education

State of Kuwait

Listening

Comprehension

E.L.T senior supervisor

E.L.T Supervisor

Presented by

H.O.D

Headmistress

Listening is the ability to identify and

understand what others are saying. This

involves understanding a speaker's

accent or pronunciation, his grammar

and his vocabulary, and grasping his

meaning. An able listener is capable of

doing these four things simultaneously.

Unfamiliar vocabulary

Grammar Text too long Several people

talking Unfamiliar Context Lots of details Topic not

interesting Theme not clear

Accent Speed Idiomatic speech Task too difficult Unprepared for

the discussion Not prepared for

the format A lack of

background information

The process of listening

Nature of listening texts

1. Students have no control over

the speed of the text.

2. Speakers in listening texts often

have different accents that may

not be familiar to students.

3. Students have no time to pause

and think about the content of the

text.

4. There is often background noise

in the recordings that is a

distraction from the voices of the

speakers.

6. Listening happens in real time.

5. Sometimes the speakers in a

dialogue speak very quickly.

Listening strategies are techniques or

that contribute directly to the

comprehension and recall of listening

input. Listening strategies can be

classified by how the listener processes

the input.

Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next. Top-down strategies include

listening for the

main idea predicting

drawing inferences

summarizing

Bottom-up strategies are text based; the

listener relies on the language in the

message, that is, the combination of

sounds, words, and grammar that creates

meaning. Bottom-up strategies include

listening for specific details

recognizing cognates

recognizing word-order patterns

Top-down processing

Bottom-up processing

c. Predicting the content of a lecture

or short talk on a subject that the

listener knows something about.

a. Listening carefully to football

results.

e. Listening to get the general idea of

the topic of a conversation.

b. Listening to flight departure

announcements in order to hear the

departure gate.

f. Listening to a series of short

conversations in order to understand

where the conversation is taking

place.

d. Listening attentively to try and

understand (or infer) a speaker’s

attitude to something because the

speaker has not stated their opinion

clearly.

g. Listening in order to do a dictation

activity.

Buy using the following technique we

can help our students to improve their

listening in two important areas gist and

details. Gist to make our pupils know the

main idea, and details because we not

only want them to know the main idea

but also to catch the small details

WHY DO WE USE PRE-

LISTENING ACTIVITIES?

assess students' background

knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text

provide students with the background knowledge

necessary for their comprehension of the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge that the

students possess

clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the

passage

make students aware of the type of text they will be

listening to, the role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening

provide opportunities for group or collaborative work

and for background reading or class discussion

activities

Vocabulary selection

In this activity the students are given a group of words Some of which are from the listening and others which are not. The students decide which ones are from the listening.

sentence selection This is the same as vocabulary selection but students sort sentences

instead.

Get students read the text first This is very good for the students who have a big problem with listening.

They can read at home before the class.

looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs

reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures reading something relevant

Print out the main events and cut into stripes

Pupils listen to recording and put the events in order

If necessary pupils listen more than once

Ask follow up questions for incorrect answers

Students answer

true /false questions

Gap -fill exercises

Put pictures or sentences in sequence

Multiple-choice work sheet

Open-ended questions

Re-tell or summarize listening