TESL 120 - Unit 3 - Listening

Listening is a very important part of learning but it is important to not expect learners to know how to listen. Wilson’s text brings up key aspects to teaching listening and what is important to consider when planning listening activities for the learners. The text brings up the key points of believability, relevance and new information (Wilson, 2008, p. 25). These are key as they will make the learners want to listen. It is important to find a story or recording of a story that is believable and relevant to the learners. They will be more willing to listen attentively to what is being said if they believe it and the source of the story.  I have seen this in my own classroom, as students will not listen or find themselves doing something else if it is not interesting for them. It is important to consider content as well as the delivery for listening activities. When discussing content, it is important to find listening activities that are enjoyable and gripping, have cultural relevance, and are suitable for the learners’ knowledge of the content and language level (Wilson, 2008, p. 26-28). When taking into consideration ‘delivery’, it is the discussion of how the content is expressed. This includes, either conversations or role-playing as well as recordings, the length of the listening activity, the quality of recordings, the accent, and the speed of the speakers (Wilson, 2008, p. 28-30). These are all important aspects to consider while planning listening activities for the learners.

In this Unit, there is also discussion of the strategies for good listening. There are three main categories to think about for strategies, cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective (Wilson, 2008, p.34). Cognitive looks at the strategies that help complete a task, metacognitive are general strategies that help with learning, and socio-affective are strategies that involve the interactions with others (Wilson, 2008, p.34). I work with the socio-affective and cognitive strategies on a daily basis, while also giving my students suggestions of metacognitive strategies they can use to enrich their understanding and learning. For some students, I have made the suggestion of watching movies and television in English to help enrich their vocabulary in English as well as see more examples of dialogue and conversations in English. This would be an example of metacognitive strategies. For the socio-affective, it could be sharing their thoughts on a specific movie with friends and therefore using the language in a familiar setting. For the cognitive, it could be taking note of words that they didn’t understand that they could then look up at a later point in time.

Reference:

Wilson, J. J. (2008). Chapter 2: Listening Texts and Listening Strategies. In Wilson, J. J. (Ed.). How to teach listening (pp.25 -39). Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Ltd.