Job Discussion Forums

[Glenski]

Ok, what would you recommend in the way of exercises, textbooks, drills, etc. for intermediate level HS students to gain fluency in listening? Mine are primarily seeking to improve their skills to pass TOEFL tests with higher scores, but I guess anything goes here, as long as it's related to listening skills.

[Dr.J]

I think volume is the most important thing.

One hour of quality listening time is erased by the other 23 hours of L1 interference (well, less if you go to sleep). So it needs to be part of their non-class work too.

For TOEIC it seems that general comprehension is the aim, so just give them lots of comprehension questions. Make sure to base these on the language used rather than something that is just obvious from the situation as that doesn't teach them anything.

My most die-hard exercise is transcription. Just write every single word that you hear then answer questions about it. Keep repeating till you do it all. Reading and listening, general and specific it just kicks ass if you can do it. But it's not for the faint hearted - you need a lot of "external" motivation.

If there's no motivation then you can do their favorite songs with cut-up lyrics.

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Hello Glenski:

If you're looking for an online resource, you could try this:

http://www.esl-lab.com/ (Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab)

[Brooks]

when I taught a TOEFL listening course in Morocco, I used American films and had the students do a lot of dictations. I like the book Dictation, which is from Cambridge and is written by Paul Davis and Mario Rinvolucri.

[shmooj]

[moonraven]

I find transcription has an intrinsic problem--and it is related to the previous poster's comment about vocabulary.

I had a student a number of years ago who felt that he had a real problem with listening. The language school I was directing had its own tapes that students used for homework assignments, so I suggested that he transcribe several passages from the tapes. He transcribed them perfectly--EXCEPT for the homynyms! In short, his problem was not poor listening skills, but lack of vocabulary.

That student, who was a teacher here in Mexico in the public school system when he was my student, was later trained by me as an ESL teacher, gave classes in our school and for the past 6 years has been teaching in bilingual programs in the California public schools.

[leeroy]

TOEFL listening is a cruel (and surreal) beast, if I recall correctly. It likes to play lots of tricks on the listener; i.e.

Man: Did you find the restaurant?
Woman: - We were unable to find it - we just ended up on a wild goose chase instead!

Narrator: What did the woman imply?

a) She was able to find the restaurant.
b) She had wild goose and bread.
c) They didn't find the restaurant.
d) She made a noose-thread.

OK - I made that up, but y'all get the gist

I remember that often it would trick the listener into thinking they heard an element of a printed answer on the listening ("wild goose and bread"="a wild goose chase instead") - absolutely horrible. No other listenings that I know of prepare students for that, apart from the TOEFL ones...

[moonraven]

I have used those practice TOEFL listening tests in other than TOEFL prep courses--if nothing else, they get students' attention as to how complex the process of listening comprehension can be--and is.

[Gordon]

[Dr.J]

Although bizzarely, if your students are Japanese they will find that the TOEIC test has remarkably few "trick" questions compared to normal Japanese high school English exams. No triple negatives for a start.

A: Isn't this John who isn't taller than Sam?

B: You are not unmistaken. This is not John who is isn't shorter than Sam.

(well, maybe a little less so)

[Roger]

Hello Glenski,
you know some of my recipes, and I know you prefer other avenues. Still, you might give my following suggestions some thought:

Your students are full of textbook English; they can only absorb so much and no more. Why not take a break and show them that they can use their English bytes creatively and imaginatively themselves?
Task them with making a speech to the whole class or to a select few from their own class (you might consider asking all but 5 to 10 students to go outside and close the door behind them and keep the small group in the classroom as a sympathetic audience). The speech should be about a well-defined topic that doesn't require any reading before the speech but knowing how to organise thoughts.
For instance, ask one student to talk about the negative impact orf McDonald's on Japanese eating habits, or what's so attracdtive about Walt Disney culture; or the negative aspects of mobile phones in classrooms. I would refrain from giving them too much leeway in their topic, say, by enumerating all pluses and all minuses they can come up with; rather I would ask them to focus on the negative OR the positive side alone. Plus you must give them a clear goal: use at least so and so many words. And their grammar/syntax will be assessed as well. By whom? Let fellow students assess them, with you being the arbiter.

The idea is that students should use English the way they would use their first tongue: to make their opinion heard.

[Glenski]

Roger,
You want me to send 35-40 kids into the hallway while I have 5-10 in the room giving a speech and analyzing it? Sorry, that won't fly with administration OR me.

[Deconstructor]

When I was working at a French public school, I was given the green light to do as I pleased. For listening material, I decided to record my own voice and read two abridged chapters of The Fall of the House of Usher per week. Grade 6 students had to work together, analyse the handout questionnaires, understand them and predict some of the answers. Then they would listen to the given chapter 2 times, about 10 minutes, and answer about 20 questions while listening. Half the class listened to chapter one and the other to chapter two. Next step: students with the same chapter would compare their answers, make correction and then listen one final time for more corrections. During the second phase, students with the same chapter would practice telling the chapter to each other. They would also clarify any difficult info. Finally students would sit in groups of four, two from each chapter, and would tell their chapter using their questionnaires, but not reading from them. They were always eager to find out what they had missed. For next class students would right ten questions or observations to present to the group and generate conversation. This is how each class would start as we moved forward with the story.

This is extremely challenging and there is never a boring moment. Students learn cooperative learning and are constantly forced to use the target language. I never taught grammar or vocab directly, and you�d be amazed how fast students improved in every aspect of the English language.

I did the same activity, but this time students read a short story.

I do think, however, that my most effective activity was the outing. It is in the real world where fundamental language learning takes place. My students had to do all kinds of activities to survive in the real world: movies: among other activities choosing film, buying tickets, coke and popcorn; museums: understanding what one sees and asking questions; the theatre: understanding and appreciating characters, etc. Possibilities are endless. So much fun!!!

[leeroy]

[Glenski]

Roger wrote: