Evaluating listening skills

Preparation: Look at the next story text in your course book, or find a story, or even make one up which is at the correct vocabulary, grammar and interest level of the students. You could choose to share a text about the following subjects:

• your family
• a friend
• your hobbies
• a place you like
• your last holiday
• an amusing/frightening/happy experience
• a film you've seen/ a book you've read
• your favourite food/ clothes etc
• your plans for the future

Make sure you choose/write a very short text, of around 10 sentences.

While-listening: Divide the class into groups of three. Read out the story to them at normal speed and ask them to listen carefully to understand it. The first reading allows students to get the general idea of the text. After the first reading get students to discuss in groups what they have understood. Then read the text again but this time the students can write down important words or phrases as they listen.

After the second reading, ask the groups to write down as much of the story as they can reconstruct together. Alternatively, go to the computer room and ask students to reconstruct the text in their groups on a word document, using their notes. Give them a 10 – 15 minute time limit for this and monitor to see where there are problems. Ask students to specially check a grammar item –for example the present tense or articles– something they are working on. If you have taken or adapted the text from your book it will feature a new aspect of grammar or vocabulary that has recently been introduced.

Preparation: Print out the worksheets and cut off the tapescript section. Download the podcast or have it available on the internet.

Find a picture of people sitting in a café.

While-listening: Listening for gist. Now ask students to listen to the dialogue and decide if their written dialogues are similar or not. After the listening, get feedback on their ideas.

Now ask them to look at exercise 2 and try to put the events in the correct order. Get students to compare their ideas in groups. Now students listen again to check their ideas. Check the order together.

Detailed listening: Ask students to read the statements in exercise 3 and decide if they are true or false. Again get students to compare their ideas together. Now listen a third time for them to check their statements. Go over the answers together as a class and elicit why the false statements are false.

Preparation: Find a short flight departure announcement in the coursebook or use/adapt the announcement below:

"British Airways to Tokyo, Flight Number 500 now boarding at Gate 2.

American Airlines to New York, Flight Number 117 now boarding at Gate 19.

Austrian Airlines to Vienna, Flight Number 327 now boarding at Gate 8.

Turkish Airlines to Dubai, Flight Number 318 now boarding at Gate 12. Attention please. Iberia Flight Number 641 for Madrid is now boarding at Gate 9.

This is the final call for Air France to Paris, Flight Number 814 now boarding at Gate 4.

This is the final call for Olympic Airways to Athens, Flight Number 260. Any remaining passengers must go immediately to

Gate 2 where the flight is about to depart.

Your attention, please. Midwestern Airlines announce the departure of Flight Number 74 to Boston. Will passengers for this flight please go to Gate 24?"

Collect some pictures of the cities mentioned in the announcement.

While-listening: Ask students to write the name of the city they have chosen on the form below.

Students listen and complete the information they hear in the departure lounge announcement on the form.

This is a very adaptable piece of material. With very low level students you can just collect the basic information. With slightly more advanced students you can expand on the discussion about the cities. If your class is not too big, you can actually place the 'gates' on posters around the room and students can then actually go to the right gate for their destination.

Source

Preparation: Print off the lesson plan and worksheets. Practise reading the story in a lively and engaging way.

Preparation: Print out the activity instructions and the rolecards and make enough copies of the role cards for your students. Prepare a way to set the context, either through a photo/picture/web page of a language school or a discussion to elicit the situation from the students. Then follow the activity instructions or adapt the procedure to suit the needs of your particular students.

Preparation: Have available a short recording of the news in English. Possible sources are:

While-listening: Tell students they need to listen and identify how many news stories there are and what the main topics are. Feedback the answers in plenary. Students listen a second time to try to find the answers to their questions. They listen again if necessary.

Preparation: Make sure you have access to the audio file and written text on the link below:

http://esl-lab.com/tips/free-email.htm

While-listening: As a first listening task, ask students to listen for the features the article suggests. Get feedback on the main areas: reliability of the company, email storage limits, filtering features.

As a second listening ask students to make more detailed notes on the suggestions given. Students may need to listen a third time to complete this task. Students can now compare their notes with the full text.

Preparation: Print off the instructions at the link below and print a copy of the picture to be described:

If this is too difficult for your students, then use a simpler picture and description. Here is a much easier version:

Have copies of other pictures ready (2 pictures per pair), so that students can repeat the activity in pairs.

While-listening: Tell students to try to draw the picture as you describe it. Tell them they can ask you questions, too. When they have finished, compare the pictures they drew with the original.

Procedure: Below is an example of a lesson that could lead to students recording their stories and designing a listening task.

Creating a framework for writing