How do I make my listening class more efficient?

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douwenna
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:36 am

How do I make my listening class more efficient?

Post by douwenna » Wed May 21, 2008 6:12 am

I will become a new teacher next year. As to myself, I don't like having listening classes, becaue I think it is a little bit wast of time. When i become a teacher, i am sure my students will have the same feelings as mine. However i have no idea about how to change this bad situation. :? So do you have some strategies to change the listening class more interesting and useful?

Dalene
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:23 am
Location: Anjung South Korea

Post by Dalene » Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:36 am

Hi

Here's something fun that I got from this website. It can be used as either a listening or a speaking exercise. I used it as a listening exercise in my classes and it works really well because the students have to listen actively and use their brains to figure out the puzzle and it's much more interesting than the usual boring comprehension questions.
See Baker street clues in the idea cookbook on this website. Draw the diagramme on the board and tell the students to copy it on a piece of paper. Tell them they must fill in the whole table and model it for them so they get the idea (read out one or two of the clues that and fill in the table on the board). Read out the clues one by one, slowly. You will have to read through them several times. You may have to modify the language of the clues and pre-teach some of the vocabulary depending on your class. Here are some examples of puzzles you can use (with solutions).
Sorry they're not very neat -the computer messed them up:-(.
Something else I've used that works well is general knowledge games like hexagon (you can get off the the internet from john and susan's tefl pitstop) and mastermind. They have to listen carefully to questions in order to get them right.

Neighbors

This quiz was made up by Albert Einstein and according to him 98% will not solve it.
There is a row of five houses, each having a different color. In these houses live five people from different countries. Each of them has a different pet, likes different drinks and smokes different brand of cigars.
The British man lives in the Red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.

The Green house is on the left of the White house.
The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.

The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the centre house drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.

The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.

The German smokes Prince cigars.
The Norwegian lives next to the Blue house.
The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

Who has fish at home? (are you one of the 2%).

Meeting (meet this challenge)
Eight married couples meet to lend one another some books. Couples have the same surname, employment and car. Each couple has a favorite color. Furthermore we know the following facts:
Daniella Black and her husband work as Shop-Assistants The book "The Seadog" was brought by the couple who drive a Fiat and love the color red. Owen and his wife Victoria like the color brown. Stan Horricks and his wife Hannah like the color white. Jenny Smith and her husband work as Warehouse Managers and they drive a Wartburg.
Monica and her husband Alexander borrowed the book "Grandfather Joseph.” Mathew and his wife like the color pink and brought the book "Mulatka Gabriela.” Irene and her husband Otto work as Accountants. The book "We Were Five" was borrowed by a couple driving a Trabant.
The Cermaks are both Ticket-Collectors who brought the book "Shed Stoat.”

Mr. and Mrs. Kuril are both Doctors who borrowed the book "Slovacko Judge.” Paul and his wife like the color green. Veronica Dvorak and her husband like the color blue. Rick and his wife brought the book "Slovacko Judge" and they drive a Ziguli.
One couple brought the book "Dame Commissar" and borrowed the book "Mulatka Gabriela.”

The couple who drive a Dacia, love the color violet. The couple who work as Teachers borrowed the book "Dame Commissar.” The couple who work as Agriculturalists drive a Moskvic. Pamela and her husband drive a Renault and brought the book "Grandfather Joseph.” Pamela and her husband borrowed the book that Mr. and Mrs. Zajac brought.
Robert and his wife like the color yellow and borrowed the book "The Modern Comedy". Mr. and Mrs. Swain work as Shoppers. "The Modern Comedy" was brought by a couple driving a Skoda.

Is it a problem to find out everything about everyone from this information?


Ships
There are 5 ships in a port.
The ship in the middle has a black chimney. The Greek ship leaves at six and carries coffee.
The English ship leaves at nine.

The French ship with a blue chimney is to the left of a ship that carries coffee.
To the right of the ship carrying cocoa is a ship going to Marseille. The Brazilian ship is heading for Manila.

Next to the ship carrying rice is a ship with a green chimney.
A ship going to Genoa leaves at five.
The Spanish ship leaves at seven and is to the right of the ship going to Marseille.

The ship with a red chimney goes to Hamburg.
Next to the ship leaving at seven is a ship with a white chimney.
The ship on the border carries corn.

The ship with a black chimney leaves at eight.
The ship carrying corn is anchored next to the ship carrying rice.
The ship to Hamburg leaves at six.

Which ship goes to Port Said? Which ship carries tea?

Gardens
Five friends have their gardens next to one another, where they grow three kinds of crops: fruits (apple, pear, nut, cherry), vegetables (carrot, parsley, gourd, onion) and flowers (aster, rose, tulip, lily).
They grow 12 different varieties. Everybody grows exactly 4 different varieties Each variety is at least in one garden. Only one variety is in 4 gardens. Only in one garden are all 3 kinds of crops.
Only in one garden are all 4 varieties of one kind of crops. Pears are only in the two border gardens. Paul's garden is in the middle with no lily. Aster grower doesn't grow vegetables. The rose grower doesn't grow parsley.

Only in two gardens are cherries.

Nuts grower has also gourd and parsley.
In the first garden are apples and cherries.

Sam has onions and cherries.
Luke grows exactly two kinds of fruit.

Tulips are only in two gardens. Apples are in a single garden. Only in one garden next to the Zick's is parsley. Sam's garden is not on the border. Hank grows neither vegetables nor asters.
Paul has exactly three kinds of vegetable.

Who has which garden and what is grown where?
Solutions:
Neighbours

Norwegian yellow Dunhill water cat
Dane blue Blend tea horse
Briton red Pall Mall milk bird
German green Prince coffee fish
Swedish white Blue Master beer dog



Meeting (meet this challenge)

Daniella and Mathew Black Shop-Assistants Trabant pink "Mulatka Gabriela" "We Were Five"
Victoria and Owen Kuril Doctors Skoda brown "The Modern Comedy" "Slovacko Judge"
Hannah and Stan Horricks Agriculturalists Moskvic white "Dame Commissar" "Mulatka Gabriela"
Jenny and Robert Smith Warehouse Managers Wartburg yellow "We Were Five" "The Modern Comedy"
Monica and Alexander Cermak Ticket-Collectors Dacia violet "Shed Stoat" "Grandfather Joseph"
Irene a Oto Zajac Accountants Fiat red "The Seadog" "Shed Stoat"
Pamela and Paul Swain Shoppers Renault green "Grandfather Joseph" "The Seadog"
Veronica and Rick Dvořák Teachers Ziguli blue "Slovacko Judge" "Dame Commissar"



Ships
Spanish ship goes to Port Said and French ship carries tea. However, tea can be carried by the Brazilian ship, too, if you understood position ‘to the right’ as anywhere on the right side from the given point (not only right next to).
French 5.00 tea blue Genoa
Greek 6.00 coffee red Hamburg
Brazilian 8.00 cocoa black Manila
English 9.00 rice white Marseille
Spanish 7.00 corn green Port Said



Gardens
Hank pear apple cherry rose
Sam cherry onion rose tulip
Paul carrot gourd onion rose
Zick aster rose tulip lily
Luke pear nut gourd parsley

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