Focus on predicting

Aim:

To develop students’ ability to predict possible answers in sentence-completion activities.

Target Audience:

Students

Relevance to ICFE Listening:

Part 3

Organisation:

Individuals, then pairs

Materials needed:

Part 3 Task, recording and tapescript

  1. Explain to students that they are going to develop their listening skills by predicting possible answers in sentence-completion tasks.

  2. Give them each a copy of the sample task. Ask them to read the rubric and heading on the notes, and quickly establish the context with the class.

  3. Ask them to read through questions 17-18 quickly, and to try to predict what type of word might fill the gap (e.g. 17. must refer to an adjective). Encourage them to look at the context and to predict possible alternatives.

  4. Go through the answers together, and encourage students to justify what they have predicted.

  5. Now play the section of the tape and ask students to complete the task.

  6. Go through the answers with the class and discuss how far predicting helped them to get the right answer.

  7. This could be followed up with the 'Where's the answer?' activity.