Skills for Life Teaching Resources
Developing General Listening Skills
- As long as English is used as the language of instructions, students develop their listening skills in the classroom through listening to and interacting with the teacher and other students. The context and purpose of the interaction is usually clear, and the student can let the speaker know if he or she has not understood what was said.
- Listening skills are also developed more formally through listening to recorded materials via a variety of media and in a variety of accents. In this case the context and purpose may not be apparent, so students may need to be provided with background information and a reason for listening before they begin. We need to train students to concentrate on understanding the general meaning of a listening text and not to be put off by unfamiliar words. Otherwise, they may well lose the thread and miss important information. For the Skills for Life test at Levels 1 and 2, students will need to practise listening to authentic texts in order to extract specific information.
- Teachers should try to find as many opportunities as possible to work on listening in class and to integrate listening with other skills. For example:
- Listening can follow or precede a classroom discussion on the same or a similar topic.
- Students can read a text and listen to speakers discussing a related theme.
- Allow class time for students to discuss what they have heard, seen or read in the news.
- There are many audio books available. Students can read and listen to stories, etc.
- Students can create their own gap-fills using the listening tapescripts to test each other.
- Before listening, students can work on vocabulary which will appear in the different texts.
- Work on understanding intonation and stress can be based around a listening text. For example, in a discussion or debate, students can be asked to notice how stress is used to emphasise or contrast a point, to show agreement or disagreement, etc.
- Students could follow up a listening by imagining how the conversation might develop and continuing the interview or discussion.
Helping with the Test
- Listening is interactive. When we listen to someone speaking, we respond in some way: if we are watching a comedy, we laugh; if someone engages us in conversation, we reply. Parts of the Skills for Life Speaking and Listening tests reflect this interaction and students should be constantly encouraged to listen and react to what other people are saying. They should develop the ability to keep a conversation going by making appropriate responses to what they hear.
- Even when not participating, the most effective listener is active. Listeners should attend fully and be active in constructing the meaning of what they hear. It helps if they have a particular purpose in listening, such as a jigsaw listening where different groups listen to different information in order to report back to each other or present their information to the class as a whole.
- Listening involves a purpose. In Phase 2a of the Skills for Life Speaking and Listening tests, the purpose is to find out information by listening for specific details in a recording while ignoring the surrounding information. Students will need practice in this. Take authentic extracts of English off-air and prepare detailed questions about them. To mirror the listening in Phase 2a of the test, encourage students to write down key words so that they know exactly what they have to listen for, but don’t give them the actual questions written down. If students make mistakes and pick out details that were not demanded by the question, make sure they know why they have made a mistake and what the correct answer should be. Replay extracts, pausing the CD or tape recorder frequently and, if possible, show the recording script.
