Susanna Asatryan

PhD, professor assistant

The Chair of pedagogy and language

teaching methodology

Teaching Listening Skills

The importance of listening in language learning can hardly be overestimated.
Through reception, we internalize linguistic information without which we could not
produce language. In classrooms, students always do more listening than speaking.
Listening competence is universally "larger" than speaking competence.
Listening comprehension has not always drawn the attention of educators that it now
has. Perhaps human beings have a natural tendency to look at speaking as the major index
of language proficiency.
Listening as a major component in language learning and teaching first hit the spotlight
in the late 1970s with James Asher's (1977) work on Total Physical Response, in which the role
of comprehension was given prominence as learners were given great quantities of language
to listen to before they were encouraged to respond orally 1 .
So, the teachers consider some specific questions about listening comprehension:
What are listeners "doing" when they listen?
What factors affect good listening?
What are the characteristics of "real-life" listening?
What are the many things listeners listen for?
What are some principles of designing listening techniques?
How can listening techniques be interactive?

How Do We Listen?
Types of Listening
When we listen, we use a variety of strategies to pick up the message. Some of these are
connected with understanding the big picture, e.g. gaining an overview of the structure of the
whole text, getting the gist. Listening in this way is sometimes termed
gist listening or - listening for gist
extensive listening.2
Other strategies are connected with the small pieces of the text, e.g.
correctly hearing precise sounds,
working out exactly what some individual words are,
catching precise details of information, etc.
This is often called listening for detail.
When working on listening in the classroom, it makes more sense to start with work on the
'small pieces' (e.g. sounds and words and details) or on big pieces (e.g. background topics, the
overall structure and organization of a text, the general meaning, etc.)?
The two views described here are known as top-down and bottom-up.

Top-down and bottom-up

It used to be believed that listeners built up their understanding of a text by working out
what each individual sound was, then adding these up into a word, understanding the word,
checking the meaning of that word with the words around them, etc.. Although this theory,
known as bottom-up (i.e. building up the messages from the individual small pieces), may
initially sound appealing, it is virtually impossible to do.
The alternative theory is that when we listen to a new dialogue, we start processing the
text using skills associated with a second theory (top-down), i.e. making use of what we
already know to help us predict the structure and content of the text, and getting a general
overall impression of the message.
Task: Factors that help you listen
Imagine that you are going to listen to (and take part in) an important conversation in a
foreign language you half-know. You are, naturally, a little nervous. Will it be easier for you to
follow the dialogue if you:
have some idea what the topic being discussed will be?
know something about that topic?
1
H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy, San Francisco State University, 1994
2
Jim Scrivener, Learning Teaching, Macmillan Books for Teachers, 2007

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Susanna Asatryan
PhD, professor assistant

The Chair of pedagogy and language

teaching methodology

know the typical sequence of exchanges that is used in a dialogue like this?
can predict issues likely to be raised?
are quickly able to get an overview of the general direction of the conversation?
know any general rules or guidelines for what can/can't be said in
conversations of this type?
understand the attitudes of the participants?
know some words/phrases that are commonly used in conversations of this type?
We think the answer to each of these is probably yes. We don't come to a new piece of
listening completely from a 'zero' starting point. We bring our previous knowledge to it, even
before it's started. Making a good prediction of the content or the shape of a listening text will
definitely help us to make better sense of it when it happens. Rather than having to start from
scratch, the listening may fall neatly into an imagined framework we have already set out for
it. Of course, we can't be ready for everything, but anything that we have correctly expected
frees up our energy to pay attention to things that require more intensive listening. This is
summed up in Figure.

Task: Top-down and bottom-up

Do the following represent use of top-down or bottom-up strategies?
1. Before we start listening, we can already predict some possible words and
phrases that might be used because of our knowledge of lexical sets
associated with the topic.
2. We listen carefully to a recording a number of times so that we can find a word
we can't catch clearly.
3. When we don't clearly catch some of what people say, we hypothesize what we
have missed and reinstate what we think was there, based on our knowledge of
similar conversations.
4. We know the typical pattern some interactions follow (e.g. the typical sequence
of exchanges when ordering a taxi on the phone), and this helps us to
understand these when they are spoken.
Commentary
Strategy 2 is bottom-up. Strategies 1,3 and 4 are examples of top-down strategies, and we do
a lot more of this kind of processing that you might expect Using background knowledge,
prediction and 'filling-in' gaps are all important i listening skills.

Principles for Designing Listening Techniques

Several decades of research and practice in teaching listening comprehension have
yielded some practical principles for designing techniques that include aural comprehension.
These principles are summarized below. Some of them, especially the first two, actually
apply to any technique; the others are more germane to listening. 3
1. In an interactive, four-skills curriculum, make sure that you don't
overlook the importance of techniques that specifically develop listening
comprehension competence.
3
H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy, San Francisco State University, 1994

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Susanna Asatryan
PhD, professor assistant

The Chair of pedagogy and language

teaching methodology

If your curriculum is strongly content-based, or otherwise dedicated to the integration

of skills, remember that each of the separate skills deserves special focus in appropriate
doses. It is easy to adopt a philosophy of just letting students "experience" language
without careful attention to component skills.
The creation of effective listening techniques requires studied attention to all the
principles of listening summarized here.
2. Techniques should be intrinsically motivating.
Appeal to listener's personal interests and goals. Since background information
(schemata) is an important factor in listening, take into full account the experiences and
goals and abilities of your students as you design lessons. Also, remember that the
cultural background(s) of your students can be both facilitating and interfering in the
process of listening. Then, once a technique is launched, try to construct it in such a
way that students get caught up in the activity and feel self-propelled toward its final
objective.
3. Carefully consider the form of listeners' responses.
Comprehension itself is not externally observable. We cannot peer into a learner's
brain through a little window of some kind and empirically observe exactly what is stored
there after someone else has said something. We can only infer that certain things have
been comprehended through students' overt responses (verbal or nonverbal) to speech.
It is therefore important for teachers to design techniques in such a way that students'
responses indicate whether or not their comprehension has been correct. Lund (1990) offers
nine different ways that we can check listeners' comprehension:
Doing-the listener responds physically to a command
Choosing-the listener selects from alternatives as pictures, objects, texts
Transferring-the listener draws a picture of what is heard
Answering-the listener answers questions about the message
Condensing-the listener outlines or takes notes on a lecture
Extending-the listener provides an ending to a story heard
Modeling-the listener orders a meal, for example, after listening to a model order
Conversing-the listener engages in a conversation that indicates appropriate
processing of information.
4. Encourage the development of listening strategies.
Most foreign language students are simply not aware of how to listen. One of your
jobs is to equip them with listening strategies that extend well beyond the classroom. Draw
their attention to the value of such strategies as:
looking for keywords
looking for nonverbal cues to meaning
predicting a speaker's purpose by the context of the spoken
discourse
associating information with one's existing cognitive structure (activating
schemata)
guessing at meanings
seeking clarification.
As you "teach learners how to learn" by helping them to develop their overall strategic
competence, strategies for effective listening can become a highly significant part of their
chances for successful learning.
5. Include both bottom-up and top-down listening techniques.
Speech processing theory distinguishes between two types of processing in both
listening and reading comprehension. Bottom-up processing proceeds from sounds to words
to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings, etc., to a final "message." Top-down
processing is evoked from "a bank of prior knowledge and global expectations" and other
background information that the listener brings to the text. Bottom-up techniques typically
focus on sounds, words, intonation, grammatical structures, and other components of spoken
language. Top-down techniques are more concerned with the activation of schemata, with
deriving meaning, with global understanding, and with the interpretation of a text. It is
important for learners to operate from both directions since both can offer keys to
determining the meaning of spoken discourse. However, in a communicative, interactive
context, you don't want to dwell too heavily on the bottom-up, for to do so may hamper the

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Susanna Asatryan
PhD, professor assistant

The Chair of pedagogy and language

teaching methodology

development of a learner's all-important automaticity in processing speech.

Developing Listening Skills

The aim of listening comprehension activities is to enable learners to understand
natural speech.
Spoken language differs in a number of respects from written language: there is
greater redundancy; it is more repetitious (a feature of interactional type speech in
particular); it contains more fillers; there is usually less cognitive content than in a similar
passage of written discourse (although there may be considerable interactive and attitudinal
content); the discourse is less structured, (e.g. discontinuous and fragmented structures,
changes of direction); cohesive devices are more difficult to identify, there may be
ungrammatical forms and unimportant words may be slurred or dropped.
Difficulties may also be caused by such features as the rate of delivery, unfamiliar
rhythm and stress patterns, the number of speakers, different registers, strong regional
accents, poor articulation, overlapping speech, emotional speech and background noise.
In order to develop the skills and strategies necessary to cope with natural speech,
learners need to be introduced to authentic or authentic-sounding texts on a planned basis.
Their confidence can be built up by a judicious choice of texts and preparatory activities
appropriate to the learners' level.
It is helpful in these stages if speech is clear and not too fast, if the number of
speakers is limited, and if learners do not have to cope with too many new words and
structures or with a variety of accents.
Where the focus in on teaching rather than on testing listening skills learners should
be allowed to hear the recording a number of times Listening can be made purposeful and
may be guided by the provision of a variety of suitable activities (and not simply multiple-
choice, true/false and wh- questions). If skill s are to be developed, rather than simply
tested, it is important that learners have regular opportunities to evaluate both the text and
the activities so that they learn to work out for themselves where their listening problems
occur and what might be done to help solve them.

Some Listening Activities

While teaching listening comprehension the following well-known activities are illustrated as
follows:
Pre listening activities
While-listening activities
Post-listening activities.4

Pre-listening activities
Learners can be prepared for or oriented towards the text in various ways. Where
appropriate they:
are told what type of text they are going to listen to, so that their knowledge
of that particular type of discourse is activated, e.g. news bulletin, interview
with a famous person, buying something, etc.
are provided with any necessary background information about the text, e.g.
"This is in interview between .... They are talking about.... The speaker presumes
that l i s te ne rs are aware of... Do you remember the incident in the news last
week ....?", etc.
may be advised that: the speech is fast, they won't understand everything at the
first listening, gist comprehension is adequate initially, they will understand a
little more each time they hear the text
hear a shortened, simplified or slower version before the text is played
study photographs or drawings which create certain expectations about the
speakers and events in the text
are given key vocabulary and expressions which occur in the text. They could use

4
Council of Europe, Communication in the modern language classroom, by Joe
Sheils, 1993

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Susanna Asatryan
PhD, professor assistant

The Chair of pedagogy and language

teaching methodology

these to imagine what the text is about or to create their own versions which can
then be compared with the recorded text.
discuss the theme of the text. This gives learners an opportunity to express
their own views, feelings and experiences both before and after listening to the
recording.
read a summary, (e.g. a series of jumbled sentences which they put in what
they in to be the correct order. They check this when listening to the text)
read a short parallel text, (e.g. a newspaper article which corresponds to a
radio/T. V. news item)
complete a gapped transcript of the recorded text.
These activities encourage the learners to listen to the text and comprehand the content.

While-listening activities
These activities are carried out right at the time of listening to the text.
Some are summarised and illustrated as follows:
1. questioning
2. recognising
3. matching
4. following instructions
5. note-taking
6. using a transcript
7. interpreting
8. completing.

Questioning
Multiple choice, true/false/don't know, open-ended and various other types of
questions (e.g. wh-questions: who, what, why, where, etc.) are among the most popular
types of activities found in many coursebooks and other instruction materials.

Recognising
Recognising speech intensions:
recognise the type of text, e.g. interview, advertisement, sports commentary,
story ... .
recognise the context - who is speaking to whom, about what, where, when, i.e.
name and approximate age of speakers, how well they know one another, their
attitude (polite/impolite, friendly/unfriendly), the topic, where they are (clues from
background noises, loudness of voices)
recognise the general purpose of the interaction, e.g. seeking information, social
'chatting' (little or no information content)
recognise specific speech intentions
recognise selected items, e.g. key words, the number of times a particular
expression is used, all the proper names which occur
recognise and appreciate the value of rhetorical features, e.g. ways of
encouraging someone to say more, repetition, fillers, formulae for introducing an
opinion, an explanation, emphasising.
A transcript of the text is helpful in a follow-up discussion on the role of these features.

Matching
Matching technique intensions:
match dialogues, short narratives, descriptions with the correct pictures or
symbols; the focus may be on the literal content e.g. description of a picture, or
on interpretation, e.g. matching the expression of attitudes and feelings with
facial expressions and gestures
rearrange a set of jumbled pictures, e.g. to match the sequence of events in a
story variation: a number of pictures which are not so obviously related to the
story are included. Learners choose the pictures that they associate with the story

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Susanna Asatryan
PhD, professor assistant

The Chair of pedagogy and language

teaching methodology

and explain their choice to their partners. The extra pictures allow learners to see
different things in the story.
match a spoken and written text, e.g. a news item in a radio/TV. broadcast with a
newspaper headline; statements with the names of speakers (who said what).

Following instructions
Following instructions technique intensions:
mark directions on a map
fill in details on an outline map (e.g. rivers, roads, buildings) or picture (e.g. draw
furniture in a room)
modify a picture according to instructions, e.g. draw a moustache on
someone, colour in objects
variation: note any differences between a spoken description and a picture
of a person, place or object. The differences may simply be marked on the
picture or the picture may be modified to correspond to the spoken text.
label objects or people in a picture
draw a picture or diagram (abstract pictures are obviously the most difficult)
perform actions (miming a story; assembling: e.g. shapes or blocks, arranging a
set of pictures, etc.).
Note-taking
Note-taking technique intensions:
otransfer information to a grid
o complete a form
o complete a flow chart (e.g. boxes with headings) so that the key points in a
sequence are noted in order (a story, recipe, assembling something, following a
procedure)
o write down a telephone message for someone who is absent
o take notes around key words or themes supplied in advance e.g. list words
referring to "sport", "violence", etc.; take notes on what the speaker says about
something or someone
o note the main points in a discussion,
o note how the speaker expresses opinions, attitudes, feelings
o study a paraphrase of what someone says, then listen carefully and note what the
person actually said variation: study the text of what a person is
thinking/preparing to say (e.g. illustrated in a thought bubble) and then
compare this with what he/she actually says)

Using a transcript
Using a transcript technique intensions:
mark pauses in an unpunctuated transcript of a spoken text (followed by
discussion of the role of pauses)
listen to a text and underline slight differences which occur in the transcript of the
text.

Interpreting
Interpreting technique intensions:
a short uncontextualised and deliberately vague extract is played (e.g. part of a
dialogue or discussion) and learners infer who the speakers are, their relationship,
what they might be talking about, where they are (clues from content, register,
tone of voice, intonation, background noises). Extracts where the literal meaning
is different from the implied meaning lead to a greater variety of interpretations
and consequently to more discussion.
listen to comments in a dialogue or interview and evaluate the speaker's attitude,
e.g. approving, disapproving. The text should not be too explicit and attention can
be directed to features such as tone of voice and intonation.

Completing

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Susanna Asatryan
PhD, professor assistant

The Chair of pedagogy and language

teaching methodology

Completing technique intensions:

aural cloze: insert missing words (gaps should not occur too frequently) and
nonsense words could be substituted to retain the natural rhythm of the speech;
as a help to learners the missing words could be supplied in a jumbled format
complete unfinished utterances: the tape is stopped and learners predict the rest
of the utterance (several options could be supplied)
"role-listening": learners listen to a dialogue in pairs, each listening in the role of
one of the speakers. The tape is stopped without warning and the learner
listening in the role of the next speaker continues the dialogue, predicting the
next utterance and addressing his/her partner. The tape is then played, the two
versions are compared and a discussion may follow on the appropriateness of the
learner's utterance to the context. The most effective dialogues are those where
the speakers have adopted standpoints and where the discourse has a reasonably
predictable pattern e.g. expression of an opinion followed by partial or total
disagreement and expression of an alternative opinion. The actual words used are
less important than predicting the type of speech intention. With video it would
be possible to use conversations with more than two people and the tape could
be stopped at any point as it would be clear who is speaking to whom.
dialogue completion: learners hear only one of the speakers in a telephone
conversation and imagine what the other speaker might be saying
complete an unfinished story, joke ...
'patchwork listening': the volume is turned down at various points and
learners try to guess the missing elements. On the first listening they note
whatever they can. On the next playing the volume is lowered at different
points so that learners can verify their guesses or revise them. The process
continues until learners have the gist of the complete text.

Post-listening activities
Follow-up activities should involve learners in a creative response to listening texts,
for example relating the content to their own experience, giving personal views, role-play,
sharing information in a 'jigsaw' listening exercise. A number of the activities outlined below
are illustrated.
Some possibilities:
Learners could:
propose a title for a text (or choose the most suitable one from several options supplied)
create new texts, e.g. a narrative is enacted as a role play, notes on an interview with a
pop star arc written up as a magazine article
devise questions they would like to ask the interviewee if they could meet him/her
prepare questions and answers based on their interpretation of what was said, e.g.
"What might N. say about the following statements in the light of the views he/she
expressed in the interview?"
imagine and enact the ending which has been omitted from a dialogue or narrative
describe or role play what might have happened before or what might happen as a result
of a dialogue (e.g. focus on a dilemma or problem to be solved)
carry out a survey, (e.g. after listening to interviews with teenagers on drinking/
smoking habits, learners carry out a survey on the same topic)
express their own opinions on the topic
describe their reactions, e.g. How did you feel when N. said ....?
discuss how an interviewee reacts to questions
discuss the attitude of the interviewer
imagine the personality of the speakers using clues from what they said, mood, attitude,
voice, gestures, appearance (video)

Activities could also deal specifically with language use either during or after listening:

vocabulary, e.g. classify words from a text, e.g. sport: indoor/outdoor,

physically demanding/not physically demanding

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Susanna Asatryan
PhD, professor assistant

The Chair of pedagogy and language

teaching methodology

grammar, e.g. note expressions of time, cause, consequence; note how particular
speech intentions are expressed and practise these in new contexts
discourse strategies, e.g. note how speakers introduce a topic, hold the floor,
clarify misunderstandings, etc and then apply similar strategies in speaking
activities

Some examples of effective listening activities:

Jigsaw listening
No wonder this technique is a teachers' favourite. You can run listening activity that allow
learners to work at their own speed, controlling the CD player or tape recorder themselves and
repeatedly playing parts of a text until they are really happy with their understanding of it. It
also involves a lot of message-oriented communication and useful group co-operation.
Here's the basic idea:
Working in small groups, learners listen to separate small parts of a longer
recording, i.e. each group hears different things.
They then meet up, perhaps in pairs, threes or fours, with people from groups
that listened to other parts of the recording.
They report to each other on what they have heard and compare ideas and
reach a conclusion or consensus or complete some specific task. The task
might be simply to construct a full picture of the recording's contents.
To run a jigsaw task, a little technical preparation is required:
You'll usually need a separate CD player or tape recorder for each group to
listen on and the same number of separate recordings.
To make sure that students cannot accidentally hear parts of the recording
from other groups' sections, you might need to rerecord and edit some
recordings (if your course book doesn't offer ready-made materials).

The Tape Gallery

It is a variation of jigsaw listening.
Find about ten interesting short jokes, stories, advertisements or poems (not more than a
minute long) and record yourself reading them, each onto a different cassette or CD. Borrow two
or three extra tape recorders/CD players and place them at different locations around the
room. Put two or three of your cassettes/CDs next to each machine. Make sure learners know
how to operate the machines. Then invite learners to wander freely around the different places,
changing tape/CD or location at will, with the aim of choosing their favourite recording.
Make sure they play recordings softly and that they don't all gather round one
machine, but otherwise leave the control of the activity to them. Afterwards, get feedback on
what they enjoyed or learned.
Home recording
Many teachers have found that it's interesting and useful to make their own short
recordings for classroom use. This gives you the chance to offer listening topics directly
relevant to your course or of interest to your learners. A popular tactic is to 'interview' one or
two other teachers in the staff room.
When you ask colleagues if they can help, warn them how much time it might require.
It's often possible to do the whole process of briefing, rehearsal and recording in about ten
minutes.
You can have completely unscripted, improvised, natural conversations, but it often
works better if you give your speaker (s) a briefing on:
what you want them to talk about
any particular points that should be mentioned
language items you would really like included (e.g. 'Please use lots of present
perfect!') or avoided (e.g. Don't use the past progressive if you can help it);
how fast and clearly you want them to speak (e.g. normal speed or slower?).
One useful strategy is to offer speakers a set of brief written notes - just the key words
- to help them remember the structure of the conversation.
Alternatively, you could fully script the text of recordings, so that the speakers just
read this aloud. It's usually worth doing one quick rehearsal or read-through before

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Susanna Asatryan
PhD, professor assistant

The Chair of pedagogy and language

teaching methodology

recording.
Making a home recording will take some of your time and it can be quite hard to make a
voice recording of good enough audio quality to stand up to playing in some classrooms.

Live listening
One activity that has grown in popularity in recent years is live listening. The basic
idea is straightforward: students get to listen to real people speaking in class, rather than to
recordings. Here's a way of trying this:
When you find that your course book has a fairly dull listening text coming up,
instead of using the recording, invite a colleague with a spare five minutes to
come into your class.
Make sure the class has a clear task while listening, e.g. to note down the main
points that each speaker makes.
Sit in front of the learners and have a live ordinary conversation on the same
topic as the book.
Though there is certainly a lot of value in getting a variety of visitors with different
vocal styles into your class, you can do live listenings on your own, too: reading or improvising
conversations in your own voice, or 'acting' a range of characters yourself. The following
activity could be done using a visitor or by yourself.

Guest stars
Prepare notes for a short monologue in character. In class, announce that a guest star is
coming today, but don't say who is. Go out of the room and return 'in character' (or invite
another colleague in). The 'guest' then chats naturally for a minute or two in character, about
her/his life, a typical day, feelingss, etc. The learners should listen to and not shout out who
they think he/she is, but instead write down their guess. At the end of the monologue let them
compare their guesses in small groups (giving reasons) and then check with you. When they
know who the guest is, they could briefly ask a few more interview questions to the character.
Repeat the activity with different guests as a regular slot in your lessons. (Maybe students
could play the guest, too.)