Thursday 1 November 2007

Pre-listening stage, always?

Are there any listening tasks with which you would not use a pre-listening stage?
What a difficult question to answer! If I had had to answer it on the spot, I would have said 'no'. But when I stopped to think about it, I realised that there are a couple of tasks that don't need a pre-listening stage. For example:
  • listen and guess the sounds (of animals, Halloween shrieks)
  • if you are using a well-known TV programme, you could ask students to listen to it and say who said what (as a warm-up to a lesson)
  • listen for enjoyment to a song
I cannot think of any other, but at least the answer is 'yes', just to go against the grain.
Feel free to enlighten me and suggest anything that comes to your mind. Hope to hear from you soon,
Lore

Bibliography

HEDGE, Tricia (2000), Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom, UK, OUP; Chapter 7 "Listening" (Discussion Topics and Projects # 7- p. 256)

8 comments:

Gladys Baya said...

My first reaction was the same, Lorena! :-P But some trainees two years ago helped me find a case when I never use pre-listening tasks in class, and I would rather not do so! I won't tell you yet, let's see if you can think of it by yourself... ;-)

I also agree with the idea that we might "skip" a pre-listening stage when students are really familiarised with the material to be listened to... .-D

Love,
Gladys

PS: try this site for a tip!

Maria Lorena Recio said...

Gladys, I tried the site. It's been a long time since I went to that site. I didn't know they had listening samples now!
Do you mean that in exams there are no pre-listening stages?
I also thought of another type of activity: when you play with songs by making students run, organize the lyrics and stand up or sit down with one word.
Thanx for the link. See you
Lore

Gladys Baya said...

Glad you enjoyed the link... So, if you were training students for one of those exams, would you assign pre-listening tasks? Never? Always?

I'm not sure I understood how you would conduct the listening task with the words for the song... can students listen while running? Perhaps you can give us a demonstration in class one of these weeks? If yo dare, please choose some soft music... you know your partners do not feel really athletic on Friday mornings! :-P

ROTFWL,
Gladys

Maria Lorena Recio said...

Gladys, could you explain what ROTFWL means? I'm really bad at initials or abbreviations but I'm willing to learn them.
Now, to your question. If I were to train students to those kind of exams I would never use pre-listening activities if we HAVE TO resemble as much as possible the day of the exam. Of course that during the year I would train "their ears" with pre-listening activities and all the rest.
We can try in class if you like, the song I mean. They run after listening to the song, they have to remember the lyrics... We can try so I make it clearer.
See you on Friday,
Lore

Gladys Baya said...

RORFWL: "rolling on the floor with laughter" .-P (similar to "LOL - lots of laughter", which is ambiguous, as it can also stand for "lots of love"). Apologies for the acronym, I used to hate them, but my fingers appreciate them now! ;-)

And yes, by all means, let's try the activity with the song... I guess some running would really suit us!

LAB, (let's see if you can guess that one!)
Gladys

Unknown said...

Hmm, well. you may also make some blanks from the passage before you do a listening activity. You make some blanks and before they listen they fill in the blanks. They try to guess what is said in the passage. And later they listen and check their answer. I do this type of activity and children like it very much. They guess and they find.

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