TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

TEACHING OF LISTENING
Types of Listening Activities
Reference: Penny Ur (1996: p112-114)
i. No overt response: Students do not need to do anything in response to
the listening, however, facial expression and body language often show
if they are following or not.
- Stories
- Songs
- Entertainment: films, theatre, video

ii. Short responses
-Obeying instructions
-Ticking off items
-True/ False
-Detectiing mistakes
-Cloze
-Guessing information
-Skimming and scanning

iii. Longer responses
-Answering questions
-Note-taking
-Paraphrasing and translating
-Summarizing

iv. Extended responses
-Problem-solving
-Interpretation

Criteria for selection of activities
Nature of listening task requirement
- Response- no overt response, short, long or extended response
- Blank interval in the case of cloze
- Difficulty level of task
- Vocabulary level

Nature of the recorded material
- Students proficiency level
- Students interest
- Authentic/ non-authentic
- Number of speakers
- Speed of delivery
- Content of reference
- Complexity of thought and ideas
- Style of utterance- formal, colloquial
- Accent and degree of disturbance
- Complexity of communication situation
Selection of teaching techniques
The selection of teaching techniques and strategies in the classroom
used for beginners, intermediate and advanced students will highly
depend on the characteristics of the students. Teachers should be
aware of the employment of different teaching strategies for students of
different level, who differ in many aspects of learning. To enable
teachers to make the right decision in choosing the most appropriate
techniques in the teaching of listening and speaking skills, it is
essential to do a need analysis of pupils.

Let us look at the characteristics of the pupils in your class! Are they
beginners, intermediate or advance learners?
a. Beginners
Characteristics of pupils: They cannot distinguish English speech
sounds from noises in the environment or sounds of other languages.
Pupils have no idea of the rules of English pronunciation or grammar.
b. Intermediate
Characteristics of pupils: They have fairly good grasp of the phonemic
system but have difficulty with authentic texts. Pupils cannot handle
features eg hesitations,, false starts, noise etc. However, they can
remember longer phrases & sentences.
c. Advanced
Characteristics of pupils: They are very proficient in the language and
can process language. Pupils can pay attention to language content.
They have interpersonal relations with speakers and can engage in
intellectual discussion. They are also capable of using compensatory
strategies eg infer,predict etc.
Suggested teaching-learning strategies
Before you prepare either a listening lesson or a listening and speaking
lesson, you will need to consider the four main aspects as follows:
A. Length of input-( 1- 3 minutes maximum) for listening texts
B. Type of input- (use educated/ acceptable Malaysian variety)
C. Speed of delivery
D. Outcome of listening / listening and speaking
What kinds of listening tasks are appropriate?

There are numerous activities to choose from for developing listening skills.
Lund (1990) has categorised them according to nine responses that can be
observed as comprehension checks:
Doing: the listener responds physically such as in Total
PhysicalResponse (TPR);
Choosing: the listener selects from alternatives such as pictures,
objects, texts, or actions;
Transferring: the listener transforms the message such as drawing a
route on map, or filling in a chart;
Answering: the listener answers questions about the text;
Condensing: the listener takes notes or makes an outline;
Extending: the listener goes beyond the text by continuing the story or
solving a problem;
Duplicating: the listener simply repeats or translates the message;
Modeling: the listener performs a similar task, e.g. gives instructions to
a coworker after listening to a model or;
Conversing: the listener is an active participant in a face-to-face
conversation.
(Carol Van Dozer, Center for Applied Linguistics)
Reflect and Review
Read the following activities and decide which of the following activities
are most suitable for beginners, intermediate and advanced students?

a. Interactive Activities
listening to a word and brainstorming related words, listening to a list
and categorizing the words, following directions


b. Top-down Activities
identifying emotions, understanding meaning of sentences, recognizing
the topic

c. Bottom-up Activities
discriminating between intonation contours, phonemes, or selective
listening for different morphological endings, word or sentence
recognition, listening for word order

Principles for Designing Listening techniques
Use techniques that are intrinsically motivating
Use authentic language and contexts
Carefully consider the form of listeners responses
Encourage the development of listening strategies
Include bottom-up and top-down listening techniques

Successful Listening Activities
Purpose for Listening
A form of response (doing, choosing, answering, transferring,
condensing, duplicating, extending, conversing)
Repetition depends on objectives and students level
A motivating listening text is authentic and relates to students interests
and needs
Have the skills integrated at the different stages of the lesson : Pre-task
While-task, Post-task

Listening Strategies
Teach student how to listen
Looking for keywords
Looking for nonverbal cues to meaning
Predicting a speakers purpose by the context of the spoken
discourse
Associating information with ones existing background
knowledge (activating schema)
Guessing meanings
Seeking clarification
Listening for the general gist
For tests of listening comprehension, various test-taking
strategies

a. Easy to plan Pre Listening Activity
Brainstorming
Think-Pair-Share
Mind Mapping
Team Interview

b. Easy to plan Listening Task
Agree or disagree (with explanation)
Create Venn diagrams
List characteristics, qualities, or features
Strip story (sequencing game)
Match speech to visuals
Compare and contrast to another speech or text
Give advice

Compare and contrast to your own experience
Create your own version of the missing section
Plan a solution to the problem
Share reactions
Create a visual
Reenact your own version

c. Easy to plan Post Listening Activity
Guess the meaning of unknown vocabulary
Analyze the speakers intentions
List the number of people involved and their function in the script
Analyze the success of communication in the script
Brainstorm alternative ways of expression

TEACHING OF SPEAKING
a. What make speaking difficult?

Clustering
Redundancy
Reduced forms
Performance variables
Colloquial language
Rate of delivery
Stress, rhythm & intonation
Interaction

b. Tips for Teaching Speaking
Use a range of techniques
Capitalize on intrinsic motivation
Use authentic language in meaningful contexts
Give feedback and be careful with corrections
Teach it in conjunction with listening
Allow students to initiate communication
Encourage speaking strategies

c. Principles of Teaching Speaking to
- beginners :
Provide something for the learners to talk about
Create opportunities for students to interact by using groupwork or
pairwork
Manipulate physical arrangements to promote speaking practice

- intermediate / advanced:
Plan speaking tasks that involve negotiation for meaning
Design both transactional and interpersonal speaking activities
Personalize the speaking activities whenever possible

d. Some examples of Tasks and Materials:
Conversations, guided conversations & interviews
Information gap & jigsaw activities
Scripted dialogues, drama, & role-play
Logic puzzles
Picture-based activities
Physical actions in speaking lessons
Extemporaneous speaking



e. Communicative Tasks
Motivation is to achieve some outcome using the language

Activity takes place in real time

Achieving the outcome requires participants to interact

No restriction on language used

Some examples of communicative tasks are :
Information gaps

Jigsaw activities

Info gap race

Surveys

Guessing games

References

Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

Brown, H.D. (1994). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to
language pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.

Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching english as a second or foreign language (2nd
ed.) (pp. 81-106). Boston: Heinle and Heinle.

Nunan, D., & Miller, L. (Eds.). (1995). New Ways in Teaching Listening.
Alexandria, VA:

Penny Ur. (1996) Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge University
Press.

Further Readings



Websites

Click on the links below for more information:
Teaching of Speaking :
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/speaking/developspeak.htm
Teaching of Listening: http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/listening/liindex.htm
Teaching of Listening and Speaking :
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk
http://skstt.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/02-year-1-guide-book.pdf