TOPIC 1: TEACHING LISTENING

Principles of Teaching Listening

1. Encouraging Metacognition:
o Teachers should encourage students to reflect on their listening experiences to
improve their listening skills. This involves students thinking about what they do
while listening and evaluating their strategies and outcomes.
2. Extensive Listening Practice:
o Providing ample listening practice is essential. Students should be exposed to
various listening tasks to practice different listening skills such as listening for
gist, specific information, and inference.
3. Creating Predictive Listening Exercises:
o Preparing students for what they are about to hear can help reduce anxiety and
improve comprehension. This can include activities like predicting content, pre-
teaching vocabulary, and discussing potential topics and associated language.
4. Integrating Listening with Other Skills:
o Combining listening with reading and speaking activities can enhance
comprehension and engagement. For instance, using transcripts while listening or
engaging in discussions post-listening helps reinforce language skills.

Approaches to Listening

1. Top-Down Approach:
o This approach focuses on understanding the overall meaning or the main idea of
the text. It involves using background knowledge and contextual clues to interpret
the general meaning of what is being heard. Techniques include predicting
content, discussing the topic beforehand, and listening for the gist.
2. Bottom-Up Approach:
o In contrast, the bottom-up approach emphasizes understanding the specific details
of the text, such as individual words and phrases. This involves focusing on
decoding sounds, words, and grammatical structures to build up to the overall
meaning.

Procedure for Each Approach

Top-Down Listening Procedure:

1. Preparation:
o Discuss the topic and related experiences.
o Pre-teach key vocabulary and phrases.
o Encourage students to predict the content based on titles, images, or initial
discussion.
2. Listening for Gist:
o Play the audio and ask students to identify the main idea.
o Use guiding questions to help focus on the overall meaning.
 3. Post-Listening Activities:
o Discuss the main points and compare them with predictions.
o Engage in activities that require summarizing or discussing the general content.

Bottom-Up Listening Procedure:

1. Preparation:
o Focus on phonetic practice and key vocabulary.
o Discuss any grammatical structures that will be important.
2. Listening for Specific Information:
o Play the audio and ask students to listen for specific details such as numbers,
names, dates, or specific facts.
o Provide worksheets that require filling in specific details.
3. Post-Listening Activities:
o Review the specific information gathered.
o Practice activities that reinforce the detailed understanding of the text.

Eclectic Procedure

An eclectic procedure combines elements from both top-down and bottom-up approaches to
provide a balanced listening practice.

1. Preparation:
o Discuss the topic and engage in predictive exercises.
o Pre-teach necessary vocabulary and grammatical structures.
2. Listening Activities:
o First, play the audio for general understanding, asking students to focus on the
main idea.
o Second, replay the audio for specific details, providing tasks that require attention
to individual words and phrases.
3. Post-Listening Activities:
o Discuss both the overall meaning and specific details.
o Engage in comprehensive activities such as summarizing, discussing, and role-
playing based on the listening text.

Techniques of Teaching Listening

1. Live Listening:
o Teachers or visitors engage in live storytelling, reading aloud, or acting out
dialogues, allowing students to experience real-time listening and interaction.
2. Pre-Recorded Audio:
o Using audio materials like podcasts, recordings, and online resources. This
provides diverse listening experiences and allows for repeated practice.
3. Interactive Listening:
o Engaging students in interviews and conversations, especially where students
generate the questions, which increases engagement and active listening.
4. Listening Logs and Reports:
o Encouraging students to maintain listening logs where they record and reflect on
their listening experiences, challenges, and strategies used.
5. Integrated Listening and Reading:
o Combining listening activities with reading tasks using transcripts to aid
comprehension, especially at lower proficiency levels.