CONTENTS

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Introduction

The following diploma paper is devoted to the topic Developing Listening in Language Education as a part of Discourse Competence at the Intermediate Level and regards the field of methods of teaching English as a foreign language. The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. Listening is the most common communicative activity in daily life. We can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write.Listening is generally neglected, as it is believed that this skill can be mastered automatically by accepting the environmental influence. However, listening is taught integratively with speaking as both relate to each other in theprocess of communication. Thoughthe listening function in language use can be isolated, it is typically linked to speaking in normalpatternsofvocalinterchange, withregular shiftsor rolesin oral discourse between speaker and hearer. Certainly role shifts are a typical feature of language use, and one that is particularly applicable to language education. The order in which language skills are acquired by native speakers, and frequently assumed as most appropriate for second language learners, is first listening and then speaking, with reading and writing coming later, usually as part of a formal educational program. In teaching practice we encounter several difficulties such as classes contain more students that it would be ideal for teaching languages, and this leads into another problem that in these large classes are learners with lots of different learning styles and diverse needs. As listening plays a primary role in accomplishing English as a second language, there should be proposed methods and techniques that will fit individual learning styles and will accelerate the process of speaking.

The aim of our work is to identify and to prove the contribution of listening to the development of the discourse competence. The main objectives are:to present the core peculiarities of teaching listening from the methodological point of view studying various methodological works;

to describe the stages of listening and the modern methods and techniques used at each stage;

to point out the difficulties that students encounter during listening activities;

to carry out an experiment in school concerning listening activities;

to reveal the most effective listening techniques that encourage and facilitate discourses for students at the intermediate level.

To achieve all objectives, the following methods of investigation have been used: contrastive analysis;

generalization;

description;

comparison;

experimental analysis.

The diploma paper consists of: Introduction, three Chapters, Conclusions, Bibliography and Appendix. In the Introduction the aim, the objectives, the methods of the research and the experiment carried out in Spiru Haret lyceum are stated. Chapter I centers on listening as a complex methodological process that mandatory implies principles, strategies, ways of avoiding difficulties and stages. This part of our work also proves the importance of listening in our lives and gives hints to an effective lesson planning. Chapter II is focused on teaching listening and provides activities for teaching listening. In the practical part we will also deal with three main hypotheses. Firstly, we know that the majority of the students are visual learners and due to this fact we will use pictures as a visual support in the lessons. Secondly, the students need a lot of language support and because of their need we will provide them with key vocabulary before each listening activity. Thirdly, we would like to help students learn good learning strategies. Chapter III regards an experiment conducted in Spiru Haret lyceum in the 9th grade, whose purpose is to apply into practice some of the activities mentioned in Chapter II. According to it, we will be able to come to some results and to make certain conclusions. Conclusions based on the given information and the experiment carried out in Spiru Haret lyceum answer many questions related to our topic and serve as hint information in the development of the discourse competence in foreign language teaching. Bibliography comprises all sources of information used to study the topic from its ground in order to give accurate knowledge and to come to relevant conclusions. Appendix shows several examples which are not presented in the research. Since listening comprehension belongs among the most difficult skills it is crucial for teachers to help their students learn effective listening strategies because without proper understanding people cannot contribute to various discussions moreover that listening provides exposure to the target language.

Chapter I. The Core Peculiarities of Teaching Listening as one of the Modern Methods of Teaching

1.1. Defining Listening and its importance in Language Learning

Listening is not merely not talkingit means taking a vigorous human interest in what is being told to us. You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer. Alice Duer Miller The quotation above suggests that listening can be done in a narrow and limited way, or it can be done in a way that enriches communication. [50, pag.20] Listening is a skill in a sense that it is a related but distinct process than hearing, which involves merely perceiving sound in a passive way, while listening occupies an active and immediate analysis of the streams of sounds. This correlation is like that between seeing and reading. Seeing is a very ordinary and passive state, while reading is a focused process requiring reader's instrumental approach. Listening has a "volitional component". The desire to listen, as well as the capability to listen (comprehension) must be present with the listener for the successful recognition and analysis of the sound. [42, pag.31] In other words, 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. [26, pag.23] Besides, listening comprises some component skills which are: between sounds,recognizing words, identifying grammatical groupings of words,identifying expressions and sets of utterances that act to create meaning,connecting linguistic cues to non-linguistic and paralinguistic cues,using background knowledge to predict and later to confirm meaning and recalling important words and ideas. [37, pag.110] We spend a great deal of time in our everyday lives listening in different situations: not only to the television or radio, to people we live with, colleagues at work, and family on the phone; we also listen to the recorded voice as we top up our mobile, the lady in the shop, and the couple behind us on the bus. As native speakers of whatever language, all these situations are normal and usually go by without us consciously thinking about them as listening situations at all. Not so for second language learners. Each of these can be a trial, challenge, disaster, or achievement. Many learners find themselves in the second language community at some stage: they may be studying, working, or seeking employment, or they may be just travelling. In any event, they are surrounded by far more opportunities for development than the classroom could ever offer. [22, pag.307] But opportunity is not enough: listening is an active process, requiring both conscious attention and involvement, and therefore motivation. [37, pag.16] In reality, listening is used far more than any other single language skill in normal daily life. On average, we can expect to listen twice as much as we speak, four times more than we read, and five times more than we write. [32, pag.5]Listening is assuming greater and greater importance in many foreign language contexts, which have until relatively recently focused their efforts on the development of writing skills. This growing importance is reflected in the proliferation of commercial listening courses. [25, pag.5]It is important to note that multiple benefits accrue to the learner beyond the obvious improvements in listening skills. In particular, listening comprehension lessons are a vehicle for teaching elements of grammatical structure and allow new vocabulary items to be contextualized within a body of communicative discourse. [30, pag.12]Teachers who want to provide the most effective classroom experience for their second language students should consider this: no other type of language input is as easy to process as spoken language, received through listening. At the beginning stages of language study, before students have learned to read well, it is by listening that they can have the most direct connection to meaning in the new language. Through listening, learners can build an awareness of the interworking of language systems at various levels and thus establish a base for more fluent productive skills. At the intermediate level, when students are refining their understanding of the grammatical systems of their second or foreign language, listening can be used to stimulate awareness of detail and to promote accuracy. At advanced levels, when students are able readers and written language has become a viable source of input, listening should still occupy a central place in their language use. A regular program of listening can extend learners vocabulary and use of idioms and build their appreciation for cultural nuances. Moreover, successful academic study in English requires a mastery of the listening demands in formal lectures as well as in the interactive exchanges which are common to seminar settings and conversational lecture styles. [19, pag.11] Definitely we have to admit that language learning depends on listening as we respond only after listening to something. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the stimuli for language acquisition and makes the learners interact in spoken communication. So, effective and ideal language teachers should help learners be introduced with native speaking, be respondent to that both cognitively and orally. In order to do so, first, they should show students how they can adjust their listening behavior to deal with variety of situations, types of input, and listening purposes.

1.2. Difficulties in real life Listening Situations In real life, even though listening may be a major activity in a particular situation, the listener is usually expected to perform more than one language skill situation. Figure 1. shows some important factors affecting the real-life listening situations.

Fig.1. Factors affecting the listening situationsSituationsAidsDifficulties1 station, airport announcements1 visual back-up, notice boards 2 you can ask a member of staff for help1 no possibility of asking the speaker for clarification2 distorted speech2 listening to the radiopossibility of some background knowledge, e.g. the news1 no possibility of asking the speaker for clarification2 no visual clues3 participating in a conversation face-to-face1 possibility of getting clarification from the speaker2 visual clues speakers expression, gestures 3 the context of the situationthe need to plan your next contribution to the conversation while you are listening4 film, play or TV1 visual clues speakers expression, gestures 2 the context of the situationno possibility of asking speakers to clarify (and unacceptable to ask other members of audience for too much help!)5 meeting or seminar1 background knowledge of subject matter2 possibility of asking for Clarificationthe need to plan your contribution while listening6 taking part in a lesson1 the teacher should be trying to make himself comprehensible2 visual clues blackboard work, provided by teacher1 the possibility of being called on to answer unexpectedly2 understanding the contribution of other students7 talk or lecture1 probability of some background knowledge or expectations2 visual clues board work, provided by speaker1 frequently the need to take notes, involving selecting important information and writing, at the same time as listening2 interrupting for clarification not usually encouraged8 eavesdroppingmotivation (curiosity!)you start by knowing nothing of what the conversation is about; you need to tune in9 telephone conversationpossibility of asking for clarification1 no visual clues2 distorted speech

Taking part in a conversation is an obvious case. Here, people need both to speak and to listen. They need to plan what to say next while they are listening, and to adjust what they say according to what other people have said. This is a very complex and demanding process. Another example is listening to a talk or lecture, which often requires the taking of notes. This requires the listener not only to understand what is being said, but to select only the important, relevant information and reduce it to a form that can quickly be taken down in writing and remain understandable later another complex combination of skills. [4, pag.13-16] Non-native speakers of English will face additional problems when listening, due to their limited experience of the language. These difficulties affecting learners of English are summarized in Figure 2. [38, pag.40]

Figure 2. Difficulties specific to learners of English

Difficulties specific to language learnersStrategies learners should tryA text linguistically difficult:- words in stream of speech hard for learner to recognize- certain structures unknown to learner - certain words unknown to learnerReferring outside: e.g. using the dictionary, asking for an explanation, repetition, etc.

Holding doubtful sections of what is heard in suspense and hoping that clarification will come laterListener is unfamiliar with how certain types of spoken text are presented and organized in the foreign cultureMastering all pre-knowledge or expectations before listening starts

Being alert to all the clues in the context or situation

Listening skills are highly important to teach students, as listening itself is very important in life. Those who don't know how to listen aren't able to listen to their friends and family, understand what they are saying or take directions when given. Listening is important in social situations, but can be crucial in a situation where people must hear and comprehend what is going on around them to survive, such as an emergency. Although listening skills are vital for these reasons, not all children have them and all students must be taught how to refine the skills they have. There are several difficulties in teaching listening skills that all teachers have to overcome at some point. [21, pag.268]

We can come across some problems in listening as ones caused by:

Trying to understand every word Despite the fact that we can cope with missing whole chunks of speech having a conversation on a noisy street in our own language, many people don't seem to be able to transfer that skill easily to a second language. One method of tackling this is to show them how to identify the important words that they need to listen out for. In English this is shown in an easy-to-spot way by which words in the sentence are stressed (spoken louder and longer). Another is to give them one very easy task that you know they can do even if they don't get 90% of what is being said to build up their confidence, such as identifying the name of a famous person or spotting something that is mentioned many times. [40, pag.56]

The lack of control over a speakers speech speed

Many students feel that one of the greatest difficulties they have to deal with during listening exercises in comparison with reading exercises is the lack of possibility how to control the speed of speakers speech. Students believe that during the listening they can miss important information and in contrast to reading they cannot re-listen to it. Some students can be busy with the meaning of certain words from the first part that they miss important information from the second part or they can stop listening as they are not able to select the correct information so quickly. [40, pag.56]

Listeners limited word stock

Doing vocabulary pre-teaching before each listening as a short term solution and working on the skill of guessing vocabulary from context can help, but we need to make sure that we practice this with words that can actually be guessed from context (a weakness of many textbooks) and that we work on that with reading texts for a while to build up to the much more difficult skill of guessing vocabulary and listening at the same time. The other solution is simply to build up their vocabulary and teach them how they can do the same in their own time with vocabulary lists, graded readers, monolingual dictionary use etc. [47, pag.20]

- Different accents

Apart from just being too busy thinking about other things and missing a word, common reasons why students might not recognize a word include not distinguishing between different sounds in English (e.g. // and // in "thread" and "though") or conversely trying to listen for differences that do not exist (e.g. not knowing words like there, their and they're, which are homophones). Other reasons are problems with word stress, sentence stress, and sound changes when words are spoken together in natural speech such as weak forms. What all this boils down to is that sometimes pronunciation work is the most important part of listening comprehension skills building. In a modern textbook, students have to not only deal with a variety of British, American and Australian accents, but might also have Indian or French thrown in. While this is theoretically useful if or when they get a job in a multinational company, it might not be the additional challenge they need right now especially if they studied exclusively American English at school. Possibilities for making a particular listening with a tricky accent easier include rerecording it with some other teachers before class, reading all or part of the tape-script out in our (hopefully more familiar and therefore easier) accent, and giving them a listening task where the written questions help out like gap fills. If it is an accent they particularly need to understand, e.g., if they are sorting out the outsourcing to India, the teacher could actually spend part of a lesson on the characteristics of that accent. In order to build up their ability to deal with different accents in the longer term, the best way is just to get them listening to a lot of English, e.g. TV without dubbing or BBC World Service Radio. The teacher might also want to think about concentrating her pronunciation work on sounds that they need to understand many different accents rather than one, and on concentrating on listening with accents that are relevant for that particular group of students, e.g. the nationality of their head office. [11, pag.34-36]

- Failure to concentrate

The first thing a teacher needs to bear in mind is to build up the length of the texts she uses (or the lengths between pauses) over the course in exactly the same way as she builds up the difficulty of the texts and tasks. She can make the first time they listen to a longer text a success and therefore a confidence booster by doing it in a part of the lesson and part of the day when they are most alert, by not overloading their brains with new language beforehand, and by giving them a break or easy activity before they start. She can build up their stamina by also making the speaking tasks longer and longer during the term, and they can practice the same thing outside class by watching an English movie with subtitles and taking the subtitles off for longer and longer periods each time. [11, pag.37]

- A mental block

This could be not just a case of a student having struggled with badly graded listening texts in school, exams or self-study materials, but even of a whole national myth that people from their country find listening to English difficult. Whatever the reason is, before the teacher can build up their skills, they need their confidence back. The easiest solution is just to use much easier texts, perhaps using them mainly as a prompt to discussion or grammar presentations to stop them feeling patronized. The teacher can disguise other easy listening comprehension tasks as pronunciation work on linked speech etc. in the same way.[11, pag.38]

- Background noise

Being able to cope with background noise is another skill that does not easily transfer from L1 and builds up along with students' listening and general language skills. As well as making sure the tape doesn't have lots of hiss or worse (e.g. by recording tape to tape at normal speed not double speed, by using the original or by adjusting the bass and treble) and choosing a recording with no street noise etc, the teacher also needs to cut down on noise inside and outside the classroom. The teacher has to plan listening activities when she knows it will be quiet outside, e.g. not at lunchtime or when the class next door is also doing listening. It is to cut down on noise inside the classroom by doing the first task with books closed and pens down. Their confidence can be boosted by letting them do the same listening on headphones and showing them how much easier it is. Finally, when they start to get used to it, they can be given an additional challenge by using a recording with background noise such as a cocktail party conversation. [34, pag.115]

- The lack of visual support

Young people nowadays can't cope without multimedia! Most students find a particular difficulty in a foreign language not having body language and other cues to help. Setting the scene with some photos of the people speaking can help, especially tasks where they put the pictures in order as they listen, and using video instead makes a nice change and is a good way of making skills such as guessing vocabulary from context easier and more natural. [52, pag.16]

- Hearing problems As well as people such as older students who have general difficulty in hearing and need to be sat close to the cassette, there might be also students who have problems hearing particular frequencies or who have particular problems with background noise. As well as playing around with the graphic equalizer and doing the other tips above for background noise, the teacher can also try setting most listening tasks as homework and/or letting one or more students read from the tape-script as they listen. [52, pag.16] These common problems which students have to experience in listening comprehension when learning a foreign language should somehow be overcome. Based on the fact and figure, a number of strategies are suggested by the teacher to improve their listening. They should, of course, spend much more time practicing. They should listen to a variety of topics in order to get familiar with them. Hence, the background knowledge will be enriched as well as the skill. In addition, students ought to know to apply suitable strategies to each kind of listening text in order to get the best result. However, the skill of students will not be improved the best without teachers. Teachers play such a significant in building up their skill. By each lesson, teachers show their students the ways in each stage of listening comprehension.

1.3. Listening One of the Components of the Discourse Sub-competence

Since listening might take the biggest portion of language learning activities, there should be created communicative tasks that can help students improve both their language performance and competence. One of the main activities done at a language lesson is listening and it cannot be denied that effective listening is interwoven with the other language skills so that good communication can be established. When an ESL student listens effectively, he will do communicative listening. He is not just a passive listener, but he actively takes part in the interaction as well. He would try to interpret what he has heard based on his background knowledge and his purpose in listening. Therefore, he would do the process of decoding in his mind. What is stored in his mind is the meaning, rather than the linguistic form, of the information or message he has heard. Therefore, to be able to decide what communicative listening tasks to be given to students, a teacher should know how the listening skill is related to the four components of communicative competence: grammatical competence, strategic competence, sociolinguistic competence and discourse competence. [5, pag.80] Discourse competence can be defined as the ability to use (produce and recognize) coherent and cohesive texts in an oral or written form. [7, pag.26-38] Initially discourse competence was viewed as part of sociolinguistic competence, which was believed to be composed of both socio-cultural rules of use and rules of discourse. An ESL listener should have discourse competence in order to grasp correctly the speakers idea. Discourse competence deals with the ability to communicate above sentence level; thus, a listener having the discourse competence would apply the rules of cohesion and coherence in communication so that he is able to catch the idea of what is being spoken or to predict what will be spoken next. Because of the discourse competence, a listener would become an active listener who would always relate parts of communication to get the right meaning. Besides being closely related to the four aspects of communicative competence, an interactive listening, especially listening to authentic materials, can improve students other language skills and elements. In order to grasp the correct meaning of what has been heard, ESL listeners should be able to catch the accurate English sounds that might not be found in their native language. Though it cannot be denied that the demand of the listeners mastery of the English sounds, stress and intonation might become his difficulties, at the same time, it would also cause the improvement of his pronunciation and speaking skill. [52, pag.28] However, ESL students often feel bored because they only do monotonous activities. The teacher should make a lively atmosphere at the lesson through interactive listening; that is by creating communicative tasks for students. Through this communicative listening tasks, students will not only listen, but also interact with either the teacher or the other students so that they feel as if they do the real life listening. These communicative listening tasks will also help students improve both their proficiency in language components (vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar) and in language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing).

1.4. Principles of Teaching Listening

In order to get learners attention, to keep them actively and purposefully engaged in the task at hand, and to maximize the effectiveness of listening in language-learning experiences, some material development principles are suggested:RelevanceBoth the listening lesson content (i.e. information) and the outcome (i.e. the nature of use of the information) need to be as relevant as possible to the learner. This is essential for getting and holding learners attention and provides a genuine motivational incentive. Lessons need to feature content and outcome that have face validity for students. The more the lessons focus on things with real-life relevance, the more they appeal to students, and the better the chance of having learners wanting to listen.[30, pag.58]

Transferability/ApplicabilityWhatever is relevant is also likely to have potential for transferability. Insofar as possible, at either the content level or the outcome level, or both, listening lessons need to have transferable/applicable value, internally (i.e. can be used in other classes), externally (i.e. can be used in out-of-school situations), or both. In order to foster transfer of training, the best listening lessons present in-class activities that mirror real life. For example, the use of radio or television news broadcasts in adult classes can provide not only a real experience in listening comprehension, but such lessons also contain content that can be applicable outside of class as a source of conversation. [30, pag.58]

Task OrientationTask-oriented teaching provides learners with tasks which use the information in the aural text, rather than asking learners to prove their understanding of the text by answering questions. [49, pag.42]

Increase the amount of listening time in the second language class.One has to make listening the primary channel for learning new material in the classroom. The input must be interesting, comprehensible, supported by extra-linguistic materials, and keyed to language lesson. [30, pag.62]

Use listening before other activities.At the beginning and low-intermediate levels, the teacher should have students listen to material before they are required to speak, read, or write about it. [30, pag.64]

Include both global and selective listening.Global listening encourages students to get the gist, main idea, topic, situation, or setting. Selective listening points students attention to details of form and encourages accuracy. [30, pag.65]

Activate top-level skills.The teacher should give advance organizers, script, activators, or discussions which call up students background knowledge. This should be done before students listen. It is important to encourage top-down processing at every proficiency level. [30, pag.79]

Develop conscious listening strategies.The teacher should raise students awareness of text features and of their own comprehension processes. They should be encouraged to notice how their processing operations interact with the text. Promoting flexibility in many strategies allows them to understand the language. [30, pag.88]

Provide appropriate feedback and correction. In most EFL situations, students are totally dependent on the teacher for useful linguistic feedback. In ESL situations, they may get such feedback out there beyond the classroom, but even then the teacher is in a position to be of great benefit. It is important to take advantage of knowledge of English to inject the kinds of corrective feedback that are appropriate for the moment. [15, pag.120]

Teachers sometimes incorrectly assume that the input provided in the classroom will always be converted into intake. Students tend to assimilate the given information but often the quantity and the quality of it depends much on the principles to which the teachers attention was drawn. They are of a great help considering the fact that they yield teachers from different impediments or mistakes during the lesson. Principles harmonize the process of teaching and make students comprehension untroubled.

1.5. The classification of learners Listening Strategies

When learners are first faced with the task of understanding natural English speech at a normal speed, they often appear shocked I couldnt understand anything! is a frequent complain. However, if learners are presented with clear strategies to help manage the faster pace of authentic input, they can begin to respond more positively and naturally. They begin to pick out words and build up an understanding, using their own knowledge. A key concept underlying this approach is that even native speakers often are forced to listen in this manner, picking out the words they can hear and understand, and creating the meaning from their knowledge of the context and topic. [35, pag.8] In this section we will attempt to present some of the most important listening strategies identified by different researchers in the recent didactic literature. Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the input. [43, pag.15] Top-down strategiesare 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. [31, pag.275] Top-down strategies include: listening for the main idea; predicting; drawing; inferences; summarizing. A top-down strategy focuses on content. Students can predict the content of listening activity beforehand and use various materials such as pictures and key words to understand the meaning. This strategy is more broad approach than bottom-up and related with daily lives. When we match drama or movie, we usually focus on whole meaning, not structure or forms. Likewise, we listen to news programs to grasp overall content and music by understanding the whole meaning. The materials that can be used in the top-down are prevalent.[39, pag.34] Bottom-up strategiesare text-based; the listener relies on the language aspects (sounds, vocabulary, grammar). In other words, a bottom-up strategy is a process of decoding the sounds we hear from the smallest units to complete texts. [31, pag.275] Bottom-up strategies include: listening for specific details; recognizing cognates; recognizing word-order patterns. A bottom-up strategy is known due to details and segments that it requires. It concentrates on forms and structure. English learning students use this activity to enhance their listening ability. Dictation and listening tasks are included in this. In class, fill in the blanks activity can increase students awareness of forms. However, a bottom-up strategy doesnt mean that it excludes all authentic things. When we need deep concentration on details, we use this activity. For example, weather forecast, phone number and advertisement having implied meaning need special focus on details to understand. Besides, tongue twisters can be a good exercise for students to notice subtle difference in various English forms and pronunciation. [9, pag.61] Murphy analyzed the listening strategies of ESL college students. His analysis is based on think-loud protocols. He had students interact with the listening texts and talk about what they were doing and thinking, and how they were going about their listening. He came up with twelve strategies in four broad strategy groupings. His four strategy groupings, in order of their frequency of occurrence are Recalling, Speculating, Probing, and Introspecting. Recalling involves paraphrasing textual information by the learners, putting what they have heard into their own words. This indicates that learners are attempting to recall what they heard as exactly as they can. Murphy identifies three recalling strategies: a) Paraphrasing rephrasing the information. b) Revising learners are changing their minds and correcting themselves concerning some information they may have misunderstood the first time they heard it. c) Checking checking when recalling information in order to support or verify something they had already introduced in their own comments.[27, pag.13-14] Speculating involves introducing listener-based information it goes well beyond recalling. Listeners are using their imagination to help them in their listening. Murphy identifies four speculating strategies: a) Inferring listening between the lines, pulling separate pieces of textual information together or synthesizing. b) Connecting drawing associations between what they hear and what they already know (note the importance of prior knowledge). c) Personalizing listeners personalize their responses they make a connection with what they already know as with connecting, but here they draw connections from their private lives or personal world view, whereas with connecting, the information would be commonly available as general knowledge. For example, the text is about nervous personality types, and one of the informants connects what he hears to his mothers boss and the mans behavior. d) Anticipating listeners attempt to predict information that might be introduced at some future point in time. [27, pag.15-17]

Probing involves going beneath the surface of the information presented. Murphy identifies three probing strategies: a) Analyzing the topics trying to find out more information than has been presented to them by such means as asking questions. b) Analyzing the conventions of language focusing on specific features of the linguistic system such as definitions of words, pronunciation, and cohesive ties. c) Evaluating the topics listeners make comments which are judgments or critical assessments concerning the information they have heard, for example contesting what they heard, based on what they knew to be the case. One informant challenged what was said in the text about the epidemic proportions of heart disease, by relating it to a different reality in his home country.[27, pag.17-19]

Introspecting involves listeners focusing their attention inward and reflecting on their own experiences as listeners to the selections. Murphy identifies two introspective strategies: a) Self-evaluating comments that show that learners are trying to keep track of how well they are doing while engaged in listening, e.g. I understand that completely, but I think I already knew the most of it before she explained it or This is really too hard for me. b) Self-describing students explain something about how they listen or what they are trying to do as they listen, e.g. I said to myself, Well I missed this the first time but now I remember or It all came back to me on my way home. [27, pag.19-20]

Willing sees learning strategies as a means of information control a means of learners avoiding becoming overloaded and overwhelmed. The strategies of this type that Willing identifies, which specifically relate to listening, are as follows:Selectively attending involves focusing on the main points according to different criteria, which results in a reduction of information load. This is an essential strategy if listeners are to avoid becoming overwhelmed.

Associating is a very cognitive process: keeping together items sharing a semantic field such as words all related to marriage; or features that share an effective tone such as anger tones. As Willing states, This strategy takes information in and merges it with what has already been internalizedin this way the person places the information under his control. This process of association relates directly to the notion of activating prior knowledge when listening.

Recognizing patterns involves recognizing, matching and reproducing patterns. Willing is referring mainly to syntactic patterns. By recognizing patterns when listening, learners are able to make analogies which will assist in the guessing meaning.

Analyzing involves the extraction of particular features from a given context. Here learners perceive a particular part of a patter which can be moved or manipulated through categorizing or inferencing.

Categorizing is based on analyzing the extracted features are used to form concepts and groups.

Inferencing consists of discovering a solution by deriving it from what is already known. This involves bringing together different parts of the known plus prior knowledge, enabling learners to understand that which is inferred. Take, for example, the following dialogue between a parent and a child:

Parent: How did you do in the History test? Child: Ms. Panzerottis tests are always unfair.Competent listeners know that the inference is that the child did poorly. [50, pag.271-273] Successful listening depends on the ability to combine these strategies. Activities which work on each strategy separately should help students become more effective listeners in real-life situations or longer classroom listening. By raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active engagement, and by explicitly teaching listening strategies, teachers assist students develop both the ability and the confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom. In this way they give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new language. 1.6. The stages of a Listening Lesson

Students do not have an innate understanding of what effective listeners do; therefore, it is the responsibility of teachers to share that knowledge with them. Perhaps the most valuable way to teach listening skills is for teachers to model them themselves, creating an environment, which encourages listening. Teachers can create such an environment by positive interaction, actively listening to all students and responding in an open and appropriate manner. Teachers should avoid responding either condescendingly or sarcastically. As much as possible, they should minimize distractions and interruptions. When a teacher provides numerous opportunities for students to practice listening the subsequent phases are mandatory: pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening.

Pre-listening

Pre-listening is the preparation stage for while-listening. The main purpose of the pre-listening stage is to prepare the learners for what they are going to hear by: activating existing prior knowledge, introducing necessary schematic knowledge or introducing the language which students will encounter. The most important thing is to provide sufficient context to match what would be available in real life and to create motivation. This can be realized by helping learners become conscious of the purpose of the upcoming listening input. As some researchers claim, listening is always with a purpose or some reason, because listeners are limited processors. Therefore, teachers should help listeners narrow down their attention for the upcoming input and focus their attention on the relevant part so as to lessen the load of listening. [4, pag.58]Pre-listening techniques are the following: brainstorming, setting the scene, question/answer, analyzing, predicting, pre-teaching vocabulary, paraphrase, etc. Brainstorming a technique where students randomly generate ideas based around a topic.

Setting the scene a technique that provides the background information to activate students' schema, so they are better prepared to understand the text they will hear.

Question/Answer a technique where students answer to a set of questions to get the idea of what they are going to listen.

Analyzing a technique where students are to analyze a diagram, chart, pictures, schemes etc.

Predicting a technique used before listening to a text, where students predict what they are going to hear. This gives them a reason to listen attentively, as they confirm or reject their predictions.

Pre-teaching vocabulary a technique meant to make students acquainted with the words they might not know during while-listening.

Paraphrase a technique consisting in the reproduction of spoken material in a different form that is, using different words of the same language to express the same ideas. Long passages can be broken down into short bits and each bit paraphrased as it is heard. [12, pag.129-133]

This stage should be restricted to a few minutes. Excessive discussion of the topic may mean that too much of the content of the listening passage has been anticipated. Concerning pre-teaching vocabulary, it may only be necessary for the teacher to present two or three key words without which understanding of the text would be impossible. This will match real life situation, where learners cannot expect to have unknown words explained in advance. Another important function of pre-listening is to give full play to learners initiatives by activating their background knowledge. Learners are not passive in their listening, rather, they are active mental builders, always ready to draw inferences and make predictions with the help of their internal resources. Teachers can divide learners into groups to discuss and predict what they are going to listen to with certain clues. In doing so, learners can be motivated and activated to take part in the classroom activities and consequently can stand more chance of becoming active and successful listeners. [1, pag.64]

While-listening

While-listening is the stage at which listening is accompanied by carefully designed activities and experience the pleasure of success. The core purpose of this stage is to help learners understand the text, to involve them in an authentic purpose for listening and encourage them to attend to the text more intensively. Task-based activities are encouraged. Learners are required to finish some tasks with the information they have extracted from the text. While-listening techniques are the following: labeling, listening for gist, listening for specific information, listening for pronunciation, gap-filling, matching, true/false, sequencing, ticking off items, jigsaw listening, detecting mistakes, naming features, note-taking, question/answer, multiple-choice, cloze, agreeing/disagreeing, etc.Labeling a technique that consists in marking, distinguishing or pointing out of some parts of an object, information, pictures or paragraphs etc. [24, pag.59]

Listening for the gist a technique where students scan a passage and then are asked one or two questions that focus on the main idea or the tone or mood of the whole passage. It enables students to gather broad information, and then use it to discuss, debate, and support opinions. [24, pag.60]

Listening for specific information a technique where students listen only to some specific details and ignore the rest of the message.[24, pag.61]

Listening for pronunciation a technique where students listen to a passage and punctuate it according to the way it is read, demonstrating how non-verbal signals in spoken language can be reflected in punctuation. [33, pag.41]

Gap-filling a technique where students are asked to fill in missing words, phrases or sentences using hints given before and after the gap. [33, pag.42]

Matching a technique where students have to match two the items which have the same or opposite meaning as those the students hear, or matching the pictures with the descriptions heard. [49, pag.142]

True/False a technique in which students are presented with a statement and are asked to say or mark whether it is true or false. This kind of activity is very usefully exploited to check their understanding of the recorded text or to revise the material learned in the class. [49, pag.77]

Sequencing a technique where students use a series of pictures, headlines, paragraphs, events etc. They are asked to identify them, either naming or numbering them, in the order in which they were mentioned by the tape-recorder. [49, pag.96]

Ticking off items a technique based on a list of words which the student listens to and ticks off or categorizes as he hears them. [49, pag.74]

Jigsaw listening a technique performed by groups of students who listen to different but connected passages, each of which supplies some part of what they need to know. They then come together to exchange and pool their information and are thereby enabled to reconstruct a complete picture of a situation, or perform another task. [49, pag.152]

Detecting mistakes a technique where students are to detect and correct the mistakes they come across during while-listening stage. Mistakes of grammar are not used and only the mistakes of meaning and comprehension are. Wrong can be an erroneous detail in the recorded text; or it may be a mistake in terms of reality; or it may just be a word or a phrase that does not go with what was said before. [49, pag.80]

Naming features a technique where students are given a map. Students are to identify, listening to the tape-script, the name of various regions and their features. [49, pag.101]

Note-taking a technique centered on taking down some necessary or requested information. [12, pag.128]

Question/Answer a technique where students answer to a set of questions to be checked their comprehension of the recorded text. [12, pag.133]

Multiple-Choice a technique where students are to choose one correct variant out of many to prove his understanding about the listening text.

[12, pag.137]Cloze a technique based on a written text in which some words are left out and blanks are inserted. Cloze paragraphs are often used to assess listening or reading comprehension because the word choices students make provide the teacher with an opportunity to evaluate their understanding of the meaning of the text. Based on observation of students oral reading or running records, the teacher is able to identify students who are not using cross-checking of phonological and meaning cues.

Agreeing/Disagreeing a technique of expressing and justifying opinions.

[17, pag.231-232] Such task-based activities can encourage students to use different kinds of listening skills and strategies to achieve understanding in an active way. Task-based activities of this kind reflect much more closely the type of response that might be given to a listening experience in real life. They also provide a more reliable way of checking understanding and the task of filling forms, labeling diagrams on making choices oblige every learner to try to make something of what they are hearing. Afterwards teachers should provide necessary clues such as contextual information of speakers, of the relationship among speakers, etc. to help learners cope with their problems they come across in the process of listening. While-listening is not only a stage to encourage listeners to demonstrate their comprehension and to make their problems plain to the teacher rather than hide them, but also a stage for teachers to teach and help learners build up their listening skills and strategies so as to increase listeners chances of success in listening tasks. [28, pag.160]

Post-listening Post listening aims to help students connect what they have heard with their own ideas and experience and also move easily from listening to another skill. Post-listening techniques are the following: problem solving, summarizing, discussion, guessing, transformation, writing, etc. Problem solving a technique where students after listening to all the information relevant to a particular problem try to save it by themselves.

[49, pag.145]Summarizing a technique where students make a summary using the notes, which they have made during the while-listening stage, to be checked their comprehension of the recorded text. [49, pag.146]

Discussion a technique in the form of debates, interviews, role-plays, simulations or dramatization. The questions of this activity encourage the exchange of knowledge that is often possible with students that are different and have things to tell about. The questions or statements provided will broaden their cognitive framework after they have listened to an audio text. [40, pag.31]

Guessing a technique where students try to guess what recorded text will be about. The teacher can define or describe something (having told students in advance what the nature of the thing is). Better is a set of pictures like a cartoon-strip, where students really have to listen carefully to identify which picture is meant. [49, pag.87]

Transformation a technique that consists in practicing grammar tenses.

[49, pag.76]Writing dialogues, letters, telegrams, postcards, messages etc., as a follow-up to listening activities.[49, pag.77]

Instead of spending time examining the grammar of the listening text, we take post-listening as a means of reinforcing recently learned material. If necessary, the teacher can play the while text again and ask the students to compare their understanding of it in pairs or in groups, encourage them to disagree with each other, and increase their motivation for a second listening. After playing the text for the second time, students can revise their views. Instead of telling them who is right and who is wrong, the teacher can ask students to provide evidence to support their views. In this way listening becomes a much more interactive activity. We can also take the chance to let students practice speaking and writing. First they can have discussion and presentation, which at the same time can serve as a pre-writing activity. After sharing ideas, they can write something related to the passage. [48, pag.13] At the end of the stage, teachers should make sure that necessary feedback to learners performance is offered and received. Learners problems are summarized and tackled by reviewing the difficult parts, and newly taught skills and strategies will be reinforced by encouraging learners to apply them in their out-of-class listening practice. [42, pag.22] In teaching listening, there are many things that need to be explored. Teaching listening is more than just playing tapes and testing students comprehension. We must fulfill the ultimate goal of teaching of listening that is to help our students to become competent listeners. And the new approach with a combination of pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening can contribute to such a goal. Therefore, introduction of such an approach with the three as integrated parts should be made into our listening class. In doing so, our students develop their listening competence along with other abilities to become effective and successful listeners both in and out of the classroom.

Chapter II. Listening Practical Activities used to develop the Discourse Competence at the Intermediate Level

2.1. Intermediate Level One of the Seven English Language Proficiency Levels

In the previous chapter we have provided the theoretical data on what steps to follow, what strategies to use, what principles to take in consideration when teaching listening, what and how can affect students comprehension in the classroom and real life situations. However, this information is of no value, if not applied into practice. Consequently, in this chapter we will study and exemplify activities provided for pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening stages considering the level, the principles and the strategies initially mentioned. English, as any other foreign language, can be gradually improved. Based on the degree of English language proficiency, we distinguish the sequent levels: Beginning/Preproduction, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate, Advanced, Limited-English Proficient/Now Fully-English Proficient, Fully-English Proficient/Never Limited-English Proficient.Level 1 is also called entering. A student shall be classified to this level if he does not understand or speak English with the exception of a few isolated words or expressions. A student shall be classified to level 2 if all of the following criteria are met: he understands and speaks conversational and academic English with hesitancy and difficulty; he understands parts of lessons and simple directions; he is at a pre-emergent or emergent level of reading and writing in English, significantly below grade level. Level 3 is also called developing. Here the student must understand and speak conversational and academic English with decreasing hesitancy and difficulty; be post-emergent in developing reading comprehension and writing skills in English; his English literacy skills must allow him to demonstrate academic knowledge in content areas with assistance. Level 4, also called expanding, can be characterized by the students ability to understand and speak conversational English without apparent difficulty, but to understand and speak academic English with some hesitancy; here he continues to acquire reading and writing skills in content areas needed to achieve grade level expectations with assistance. Level 5 or bridging, refers to the student who understands and speaks conversational and academic English well, who is nearly proficient in reading, writing, and content area skills needed to meet grade level expectations which requires occasional support. The student shall be classified to level 6 if he was formerly limited-English proficient and is now fully English proficient; he reads, writes, speaks and comprehends English within academic classroom settings. The student, whose level of English is 7, is the one who was never classified as limited-English proficient and does not fit the definition of a limited-English proficient student outlined in either state of federal law.Students of intermediate level have their own discrepancy in reading, listening, writing, spoken interaction and production. For instance, when listening they can understand the main points of clear standard speech on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. or the main point of many radio or TV programs on current affairs or topics of personal or professional interest when the delivery is relatively slow and clear. As regards the reading activity, students can understand texts that consist mainly of high frequency, everyday or job-related language, or they can catch the description of events, feelings and wishes in personal letters. In spoken interaction he deals with most situations likely to arise while travelling in an area where the language is spoken. He is able to enter unprepared into conversation on topics that are familiar, of personal interest or pertinent to everyday life (e.g. family, hobbies, work, travel and current events). Spoken production denotes his ability to connect phrases in a simple way in order to describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions. He can briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. He can narrate a story or relate the plot of a book or film and describe his reactions. The writing ability of the intermediate level outlines that the student can write simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Personal letters describing experiences and impressions are not giving him a hard time either. When we listen to an intermediate level student we will hear mistakes and sometimes the verb tenses and forms get a bit confused. That is because their vocabulary is fairly correct and they use basic grammar. The tone and style are not refined yet but there is an awareness of pronunciation and what it entitles. We cant but mention that different educational systems from other countries have their own syllabus adjusted to their interpretation about the levels of English. Nevertheless, students are to study from books that satisfy their knowledge of English. Knowing the level of proficiency in any language is very important as we outflank such problems as students misunderstanding, students disappointment of not being able to catch up or students failure. 2.2. Pre-listening Activities

Listening is often associated with tape recorders, videos, DVDs, with the back-up of gist questions, comprehension questions and scripts. However, listening takes place all the time in the classroom whether students listen to a recorded speech, to the teacher or each other. Students themselves are perhaps one of the best sources of listening material but they may be reluctant to listen to each other unless given a specific task which is challenging and purposeful. These activities do not only rely on technology, but also exploit teacher-student or student-student listening and employ a range of features to produce activities that are enjoyable and effective. A well-designed listening activity should be broken down into carefully sequenced "phases" that build on each other. The initial pre-listening stage should prepare students by helping them activate their background knowledge and clarify their expectations and assumptions about the text. An ideal pre-listening task is one in which the teacher, through carefully constructed questions, helps the students to activate the background information and language components needed to comprehend the text without giving this information to the students.In the theorectical chapter, we have mentioned a range of elicitation techniques for each of the listening stage. Now, we provide some tips, which will make them even more effective, and some activities to exemplify each technique.

BrainstormingBrainstorming technique generates new, useful ideas and promotes creative thinking. The use of this technique helps to: tap into prior knowledge; give all students a chance to express their ideas; eliminate fear of failures; show respect for each other; try something without fear; tap into individuality and creativity; eliminate the fear of risk-taking. Once the brainstorming activity is done, we have a great deal of information on where to take the next topic. Here are some basic rules to follow when conducting a brainstorm in the classroom with a small or whole group of students: there are no wrong answers; get as many ideas as possible; record all ideas; do not express your evaluation on any idea presented. Prior to starting a new topic or concept, the brainstorm technique provides the teacher a great deal of information regarding what the student may or may not know.Activity 1. We can divide the needs of human beings into two categories physical and psychological/social. What needs do you think all people must satisfy in order to live happily? Put your ideas in order of importance under the two headings in the chart. Some may be equally important. Next, get into groups to discuss similarities and differences in your charts. See app.1 [46, pag.15]Activity 2. The situation with the child and the bad drawing is not difficult to decide. However, most ethical dilemmas are not so clear and simple. In the word of business, ethical decisions are constantly being made. Look at the following situations and write what you would do. Give reasons. When you finish, discuss your answer in small groups. See app.2 [46, pag.38-39]Activity 3. Think about an accident or near-accident you had when you were a child. Write notes below. When you are ready, exchange the stories with a partner. [3, pag.36]

Setting the sceneAs we have mentioned in the previous chapter, listening to passages in the classroom can be more difficult than in real life because of the lack of contest or visual support, or background noise. So by setting the scene we can help students at proving the background information in order to activate students schema. This way they will be better prepared to understand what they hear.Activity 1. Look at the following pictures, posters and CD-s. To whom are they related? [45, pag.11]Activity 2. Look at the labels. Can you tell what a persons identity is? [45, pag.13]

Question/AnswerAsking and answering questions is a form of active learning that has a place within any classroom format. Questions asked by the teacher or activities used involving such technique can involve students more fully in a lecture, leading to deeper understanding of course material. When we use this technique we look for activities, which are whether for the pre-listening or while-listening stage, that have open-ended and not just close-ended questions. A close ended question can usually be answered with yes or no, or a short, often factual answer. An open-ended question leaves the form of the answer up to the responder and usually elicits more information and thinking. Such questions may intrigue the student and make him be aware of the up-coming task. Close-ended questions are more appropriate to check whether students remember specific information, to check procedural steps or to get their attention.

Activity 1. Answer the following questions: What are the students like who study English in the United States? Are they undergraduate or graduate students? What are their majors?In Intensive English programs in the United States, where do you think most students are from?What do you think most students in these programs have as their major? [18, pag.13]

Activity 2. Answer the questions:Do you take any form of regular, physical exercise? If so, what, and why? If not, why not?How important is a good health to you? What are the best ways of keeping fit and healthy? Do you have any tips?Have you ever bought a book of keep fit exercise? If so, why, and do you still use it? [42, pag.12]

Gap-fillingGap-filling activities are useful because they are very meaningful; all students are involved in the process equally and they are all moving towards a specific purpose. Each student has the task of finding out certain information, and therefore must find a way in which to ask for this information. Motivation is usually quite high in these activities. These activities help move the students from working in a more structured environment into a more communicative environment; they are hopefully using lots of the target language, and in the process discovering where they have gaps. Knowing where these gaps are gives them a direction in which to improve.Activity 1. Check your schedule. How well do you manage time? Look at the following schedule and spend at least 3 minutes filling it out. Include your work, school, travel and study time. Dont forget to write your leisure time! See app.3 [46, pag.2]

Activity 2. Fill in the spidergrams with the food in the pictures (1-5) according to the way they can be cooked. See app.4 [14, pag.27]Activity 3. Complete the information about yourself by finishing the sentences. See app.5 [41, pag.4]

AnalyzingThis technique prepares or gives the students a hint what the lesson is going to be about. It can be regarded as a catching-hook technique as it intrigues or motivates the student. It develops their awareness of the context; their critical thinking skills conceptual learning techniques, particularly in regards to visual images and also enhances their observation and interpretive skills.Activity 1. What kind of living situation does each picture show? [39, pag.26]Activity 2. Look at these diagrams. Study them carefully, and then do exercise 5. See app.6 [42, pag.13]Activity 3. Here is a palm print of one of the authors of this book. Compare it with your own hand. Can you find the same lines on your hand? Do they look the same? Are they stronger, weaker, longer, shorter? [44, pag.31]

PredictingPredicting involves thinking ahead and anticipating information or events. The strategy of making predictions actively engages students and connects them to the text by asking them what they think might occur in the story. After making predictions, students can listen to the text and refine, revise, and verify their predictions. Making predictions activates students' prior knowledge about the text and helps them make connections between new information and what they already know. Activity 1. You are going to hear a story about a young girl. Look at the picture. What do you think has happened? See app.7 [3, pag.34]

Activity 2. Work in pairs. Look at three titles in the box below and predict the contents of the texts. When you are ready, join another pair and compare your predictions and the clues that helped you to make the predictions. See app.8 [45, pag.19]

Pre-teaching vocabularyThe pre-teaching of unfamiliar words before listening is very important. Listening to the tape without pre-teaching vocabulary makes the process of understanding the words even more difficult because students cant see them as in reading. Our goal is to determine, define and discuss which words in the text are unfamiliar to them. We must go into full detail about the meanings behind the words. This helps the students understand their connotations and direct meanings. Building up vocabulary helps ensure that they come across as smart and focused in future conversations. Pre-teaching vocabulary has its place, especially with low-level learners. Elementary, pre-intermediate and sometimes intermediate level students should be taught some tricky vocabulary before a reading, listening or speaking activity so they have words to work with and understand. Its vital for students to understand at this framework to keep high levels of autonomous learning and intrinsic motivation, with that little extra help from us.Activity 1. Practice reading and saying aloud these vocabulary words. How many of the words do you already know? Read the explanation given to them. [46, pag.21]Activity 2. Before you listen to the tape, practice the pronunciation of the following key words with your teacher. Notice the syllable in each word with the most important stress. [18, pag.14]

ParaphraseDescribing information that students have already heard using their own words is paraphrasing. When a text has been well paraphrased, all of the details in the original text should be retained and should have the same meaning. It is much longer than a summary, which contains only the most important information. When a student learns something new, he builds on existing knowledge. When a student is asked to paraphrase he uses his own words, synonyms or synonym phrases. He also changes the order of the information, changes the grammar and sentence structure which makes him practice all that continuously. He tends to keep the meaning, as well as the emphasis on and relationships between main and supporting points the same and moreover he references the original text when paraphrasing written or listening material.Activity 1. Write down or say out aloud how you might paraphrase these examples. See app.9 [44, pag.36]Activity 2. Paraphrase the headlines give below. [44, pag.37]

Pre-listening activities are of a great value because they prepare the students for listening activity. Activities like question/answer, analyzing, predicting, brain-storming, awaken their motivation and awareness of what they are going to listen to. In real life situations a listener almost always knows in advance something which is going to be said, who is speaking or what the subject is going to be about. The pre-listening stage helps learners to find out the aim of listening and provides the necessary background information. We suggest introducing some preliminary discussion though asking questions in which students can talk together about their expectations and make predictions about what they are going to hear. The abilities of predicting what others are going to talk about help at using one's own knowledge of the subject. These skills contribute to building feedback for the whole exercise. When doing exercises in the classroom, we also advise asking students to guess what they are going to hear next, which will keep the class actively involved. And probably the most indispensable one is pre-teaching vocabulary. The lack of understanding of what the tape-script evokes can be a failure experience for most intermediate level students.

2.3. While-listening Activities

In while-listening activities students can check their comprehension of what they expected/predicted and what they actually hear. Students may focus on the content: what the topics are; how the topics are related to each other; or on the speakers use of language: what words the speakers use to introduce a new idea; how they change the topic; how they express uncertainty; how their intonation changes during the text. The nature of these activities is to help learners to listen for the meaning that is to elicit a message from spoken language. That means that students should focus their attention on listening itself, rather than on worrying about reading, writing, grammar or spelling. At he while-listening stage students should not worry about interpreting long questions or giving full answers, but they should concentrate on comprehension, whether they have understood important information from the passage. While-listening activities may also prompt students reactions to the ideas in the listening text; for example, students may ask themselves questions like: Do I agree with what they say? Is there another side to what they say?. LabelingLabeling or marking is one of the most popular exercises during while-listening. This is a very simple exercise, but it should not be rejected by teachers due to its apparent simplicity. The aim here is not to test students' abilities to make correct sentences based on the listening passage but to assist concentration on the text. This type of activity is good for helping learners to focus their minds on listening itself as they do not have to write down words.

Activity 1. Read the following sentences and underline the words you think should be stressed. Mark the parts of the words with if the pitch is higher than normal and if the pitch is lower than normal. Than listen to the recording and check your answers, correcting them if necessary. [46, pag.27]Activity 2. You are going to hear about an ancient calculator called abacus. You will hear a definition of what an abacus is and then will label its parts. See app.10 [12, pag.59]Activity 3. Listen to four people saying what they did last night. Who said these lines? Write a number 1-4. [45, pag.24]Activity 4. Listen to Sylvia, Steven and Pam talking about how they get home from their school. Mark the routes on the map and write the children's names in their houses. See app.11 [44, pag.49]

Listening for the gistIt is very important to give students practice in this area, because in real life, they will not be able to listen to something several times. Therefore, it will be impossible for them to catch all the details, so they need to be comfortable with some ambiguity in listening and realize that they can still learn even when they dont understand every single word. Listening for gist is similar to the concept of skimming a passage in reading. The key is to ask students one or two questions that focus on the main idea or the tone or mood of the whole passage. We should mention that students can answer the gist questions even though they do not understand every word or phrase in the passage. If the passage is recorded well, students will be able to guess the answer simply from the tone of voices of speakers.Activity 1. Listen for the main idea. Then get in pairs and provide each other one or two sentence summary of what you have heard. [10, pag.42]Activity 2. Listen for general comprehension. Then share what you have understood with the classroom. [10, pag.42]Listening for specific informationThere are situations in real life where we listen only for some specific details and ignore the rest of the entire message. For instance, when we listen to the weather report on TV, we are only interested in the temperature in the city where we live or where we plan to go on the weekend, or when we are sitting in a train station or an airport, we do not listen to the details of all the announcements. It is important to expose our students to a variety of types of listening texts for a variety of purposes so that they will develop a great many strategies to use for different situations.Activity 1. Jane has left a telephone message on Kates answering machine. Shes coming to visit Kate. What specific information is important to Kate? See app.12 [10, pag.43]Activity 2. Billy and Splodge are in a spaceship. They are visiting lots of colourful planets. What strange creatures do Billy and Splodge find on the planets? [45, pag.16]

Listening for pronunciationDeveloping accurate pronunciation at our students might be challenging if they listen only to our speech. Teachers who are not native speakers of English somehow have their own accent when speaking it. We have to provide as many listening activities as possible so that the students are able to understand different dialects of English. Pronunciation is difficult to teach without some drills on sounds. The trick to working with drills is not to work on individual sounds for more than a few minutes a time because they become boring and demotivating. It is important to combine drilling pronunciation exercises with more meaningful exercises whatever aspect of pronunciation is the focus for the lesson.Activity 1. Listen and practice. Notice that the t in final position in shouldnt is not strongly pronounced. [6, pag.21]Activity 2. Listen and practice. Notice the different pronunciations of th. See app.13 [6, pag.45]Activity 3. Listen and practice. Notice the pronunciation of vowel sounds followed by r. See app.14 [6, pag.49]

Gap-fillingActivity 1. Listen to the tape. The first time, listen for vocabulary from the Academic Word List. Then fill in the blanks in the column with the words you hear. [46, pag.25]Activity 2. Listen to the story again. Then complete the summary of the story using the numbers in the box. See app.15 [3, pag.30]Activity 3. Listen to the dialogues and complete the Function File. [16, pag.102]Activity 4. Listen and complete Bs responses. Practice the conversation with a partner. See app.16. [49, pag.142]Activity 5. Watch Jude and Garys Evening In and complete the dialogue. See app.17 [14, pag.32]

MatchingMatching, as true/false and ticking off items activities, are easy and not stressing exercises. Students may match vocabulary words, parts of sentences, pictures, etc.Activity 1. Listen to the tape. The first time, listen for vocabulary from the Academic Word List. Then match the statements from column A with those from column B. [46, pag.25]Activity 2. Match parts of the sentences. The words in bold are from the Academic Word List you just studied. The first one has been done for you. [46, pag.50]Activity 3. Listen and match the pictures with the dialogues. [16, pag.102]

True/FalseThis is a very simple and well-known exercise, in which the students are presented with a statement and asked to say whether it is true or false. Almost any type of written or spoken discourse or visual aid can serve as a basis for them, so can be known facts or stories. True/false exercises are very usefully exploited to revise material learnt in the class. They help students train their memory and check how they have caught the specific information and not only the main idea. Activity 1. Listen to each statement. Is the statement true? Write T on the blank line. Is the statement false? Write F on the blank line. [12, pag.3]Activity 2. Use your notes to decide whether each of the following statements is true or false. If the statement is false, underline the information that is incorrect. Change this information so that the statement will be true, according to the lecture. Circle T for true and F for false. See app. 18 [18, pag.18]Activity 3. Listen again. Are the statements true or false? Tick the correct answers. See app.19 [6, pag.23]

SequencingSequencing activities simply involve students putting a sequence of steps in a process or events in the correct order. Sequencing activities not only assist students to remember the order in cases where this is important, but give them a language to talk about the text they have listened to. They can involve text instructions, pictures or diagrams, or combinations of these. If used in groups or pairs then, in order to promote cooperation and discussion, the set of instructions are cut into strips for students in pairs or groups, to assemble correctly. Sequencing activities have a number of benefits they: assist students remember the text; help students learn the names of the events in the text; encourage students to use the language associated with the text; promote student sharing of their understanding if used with pairs or small groups.Activity 1. Before you listen again, try to number the pictures in the order the events happened. Then listen and check your work. See app.20 [3, pag.35]Activity 2. Listen to the announcement of the order of games at sports meeting. Mark the following games with numbers 1-7 according to the order they are played. [45, pag.17]

Ticking off itemsTicking off items activities are simple and not demanding at all. Their advantage goes hand in hand with predicting the right answer by seeing in front the variants. Even if the student is not sure about the answer he can easily pick up one by eliminating the most irrelevant or unsuitable variant.Activity 1. Using the rules on the previous page, listen to sentences and number the words a or b in the order that you hear them. Then tick S if the meaning of the words is similar or D if their meaning is different. [46, pag.48]Activity 2. Listen to the story. Then tick the best headline. [3, pag.35]Activity 3. Listen. Some people are talking about their living situations. What bothers them about where they live? See app.21 [39, pag.26]

Jigsaw listeningSuch activities develop the skill of concentrating on more than one task at the same time. Students listen to a text, speak on it and listen to others to reconstruct the information in the text. Managing a jigsaw listening exercise is more challenging as it requires multiple tape recorders, enough space to listen without disturbing other groups, and time. As this is a demanding task the texts should not be too difficult. All that should be done is to put students in groups of three, facing each other, and give each an equally long part of a story or text. They read their parts aloud simultaneously, while trying to listen to just one of the other texts, for example, student A listens to B, B listens to C and C listens to A. When they have finished, without looking at the texts, they should decide on the order and give a summary of the part that they have just listened to.Activity 1. Get into small groups of three. Listen to the song. Each group has to write down one verse. Do it in a cycling manner. Then play together the entire song. See app.22 [44, pag.57]Activity 2. Work in groups. Make three groups and receive one of the following texts with the title: Connecting dots, Love and Loss, Death. Each group has to read the text and then retell it to the others. [44, pag.57]

Detecting mistakesSuch exercises train students memory, grammar and vocabulary. They help students exercise their listening comprehension, make them sensitive to detecting errors in their own speech or their interlocutors and make them take chances in correcting them on word.Activity 1. Listen again. Look at the brochure for Camp Star. Correct the five mistakes. [39, pag.27]Activity 2. Listen to a travel writer and find eight mistakes in the interview below. [16, pag.10]Activity 3. You are given a description of the room in the picture. Correct the mistakes that the author has made when describing it. See app.23 [49, pag.81]Activity 4. Listen to a brief report about a tidal wave that struck Japan several years ago. Like all news reports, this report is full of factual information. Factual information contains the names of places, dates, numbers, or happenings. After you listen to the report, you will read five statements about the tidal wave. You have to check the accuracy of some statements made about the event by catching the error and correcting the sentence. [12, pag.51]

Naming features This activity is a mixture to labeling and listening for specific information activity. We may use it to make the lesson more interesting as visuals are compulsory implied. Activity 1. Here is the Island which has only been resettled, and the map-maker wants to know from one of the settlers how he should name the various regions and features. Listen to the tape and pay attention to the map. See app.24 [49, pag.104]Activity 2. Listen to the tape. Jacky is telling about her fresh decorated room. After you finish listening, describe it with as many details as you remember. [20, pag.54]

Note-takingActivity 1. Listen to the tape on the importance of time management. As you listen the first time, write down the most important information you hear. Then listen a second time and fill in any information you might have missed. When you finish, compare your notes with those of a classmate. [46, pag.3]Activity 2. Listen to the tape about being a good note-taker. Then take notes on the information using one of the note-taking strategies you just studied: outline, map, Cornell, key word, paragraph. [46, pag.8]Activity 3. Listen to three people talking about first time they fell in love. Take notes and complete the chart. See app.25 [45, pag.28]

Question/AnswerActivity 1. Do you think Kevin and Cathy will go to Camp Star? Why or why not? Would you go to Camp Star? Why or why not? [39, pag.27]Activity 2. Listen to the radio program about Marek Kaminski and answer the questions. [16, pag.17]

Multiple-choice Multiple-choice activities show students comprehension of messages. They are quite difficult activities requiring from students not only certain listening abilities but also reading, writing and memory skills as the learners listen and read (or understand) the questions, write down the answers and must remember what was said before they come up with the answer. They should comprise up to 25% of overall activities in one listening lesson.Activity 1. Listen to some short conversations and circle the answers that give the meaning for the time expressions you hear. See app.26 [46, pag.18]Activity 2. Read through these statements before you listen to the tape. As you listen to the lecture for the first time, listen for the main ideas. Circle the letter of the best answer. See app.27 [18, pag.15]

ClozeClose activities provide an opportunity to teach English vocabulary and reading decoding skills in a meaningful context. They are especially valuable because they can be adapted to specific needs and language levels of students. Cloze sentences can demonstrate to students that they dont have to be able to read every word to understand the meaning. The context of the sentence, in combination with phonetic and syntax cues, is very helpful in supporting the student in the identification of unknown words. Activity 1. Complete the text with the words that are given below. See app.28 [30, pag.28]Activity 2. Choose the verb for each space and put it into the present passive. See app.29 [14, pag.32]