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 TEACHER TRAINING Why is listening important? research tells us that we use vocabulary
differently in speech and writing, and
Helping students to improve their conversation is frequently far more
listening to spoken English is a vital part informal than writing, incorporating
of the teacher’s job. The better students sayings or colloquialisms.
understand what they hear, the better Of course, not all speech is quite like
they will take part in spoken interactions. this. Where it is more formal and
Listening is also an important skill in its organised - in speeches and talks - many
own right. of these phenomena will not be present in
But listening is also important the same way or quantity. In class we will
because, as they listen, students will be frequently ask students to listen to these
absorbing the language they hear, the various registers. Unlike written texts
(which students can look at in their own

Teaching way, re-reading some bits and taking

their own time about it) tapes do not
stop, so the students are forced to go at
the tape’s speed, not their own.

LISTENING
Continuing his series of rhythms, the intonation, the word order
and grammatical patterns. Providing
What is good listening
teacher training articles, them with listening material on tape and material?
video will help their acquisition of the The best listening the students do is
Jeremy Harmer language in many ways. listening to the teacher! In the day-to -
day exchanges of a classroom a
looks at listening. considerable amount of natural spoken
What’s special about English is used for the communication of
listening? ideas and instructions.
Listening is special because it is the major Most other listening material comes
opportunity for students to experience on audio tapes and video cassettes. We
and focus on spoken English - which is would expect such material to have a
significantly different from written number of characteristics. Firstly it
English. For a start, as speakers, we often should be interesting in content so that
repeat ourselves. This redundancy is the students can be engaged by it.
natural to spoken discourse, not Secondly it should be at a level where
necessarily a sign of premature senility! students have a good chance of
When we listen to speech we get understanding (even if they don’t
information about the speaker’s mood, understand every word), and thirdly it
their attitude and, through stress and should not be simplified so much in its
intonation, what they consider to be the delivery that it is completely unlike real
most central parts of what they are language. Indeed, some people think that
saying - in contrast to the information the only good listening material is
they think less important or which they ‘authentic’ material - by which they mean
think their listeners already know. anything which has not been recorded
In speech we frequently use language especially for student use.
and constructions which would be There are two main problems with
considered wrong if they occurred in a this position: firstly it is very difficult to
piece of written prose. We miss out words describe exactly what ‘authentic material’
or whole phrases saying, ‘Got a light?’ includes. Is a BBC news broadcast
instead of, ‘Have you got a light?’ or authentic? What about a soap opera
‘Sugar?’ instead of, ‘Would you like some episode or a story read on tape for
sugar?’ for example. We have a number of children? Each of these is an authentic
different expressions such as (in British listening task for a native speaker but the
English) ‘mmmmm’, ‘you know’, ‘know language will be scripted or written
what I mean?’ etc. with which we language read aloud. If we insist that
punctuate our speech. Concordance spontaneous conversation or formal

32 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional •

lectures and speeches are ‘more (confident? tentative? unsure of their breath’ or focus on a particular piece of
authentic’, then a second problem arises: facts?) often shown in emphases and information or language. In some
the language will not be at all controlled. tone of voice. The text structure, or what extreme situations the students may
It may be too difficult and consequently the speaker considers central or continue to have difficulty and it will
demoralise the students. parenthetical, might be indicated in the then be the teacher’s decision how long
Good listening material, then, is any rise and fall of the voice and students to go on.
example of realistic heard language which may be asked to notice this. One final piece of advice: make sure
the students could enjoy understanding. One other kind of listening needs that the tape recorder or video has a
Listening texts of spontaneous speech mentioning here, namely music. This can counter. When the teacher has found
will carry the real characteristics of be used in straightforward ways - the place on a long tape, the number
spoken language and read-aloud written students listen to pop songs and fill in can be noted down or the counter reset
and scripted texts will give more the lyrics or put the verses in the correct to zero. This way it is easy to return to
controlled practice in listening to the order. Alternatively, wordless music can the beginning of the piece instead of
formal features of heard text. be exploited for itself, establishing a getting in a mess trying to find it. This
classroom mood or providing aural can be done when replaying parts of the
stimulus for creative writing. tape, too.
What different kinds of
listening are there?
What do teachers have What happens when it is
Among the many kinds of listening
passages which teachers and textbooks to do? finished?
offer students, we can find phone More than for any other classroom After the listening exercises themselves
messages, stories, real or simulated news procedure the teacher’s handling of are finished, the teacher will almost
broadcasts, poems, soap operas, listening material is absolutely critical if certainly want to do a ‘text-related task’
dialogues, speeches, interviews, radio the listening tasks are to succeed. focusing on information or language
programmes and many more. First of all, teachers need to check from the tape. Integrating the listening
As with reading, it is important to that the quality of the tape and the tape into a longer sequence of work
match the task we give students with the recorder they use are adequate for the demonstrates to the students that the
listening extract they hear. To test students to be able to hear well. effort they have put into understanding
comprehension, we could use ‘yes/no’ It is essential that the teacher p
is not wasted. E T
questions for every listening activity, of provides an informative lead-in for a
course, but it is preferable to vary the listening exercise to arouse interest. This
tasks so that students are doing may take the form of discussing the topic
Key points
something appropriate. If they listen to the students are going to hear or Make sure that:
phone messages we might ask them to showing pictures which the students • the listening material is at the
fill in phone-message forms. interpret before they listen. Before right level for the students
If they hear a narrative, students playing interviews the teacher can give
might be given a set of pictures, and as students the interviewer’s questions and • the tape is clearly audible on the
they listen, they arrange the pictures in ask them to predict what the person to machine you are using
order. We could also give students written be interviewed will say. If the listening • the listening topic has some
and spoken versions of the same story material is on video this stage could be chance of engaging the students’
and ask them to note the grammatical facilitated by watching the sequence interest
and lexical differences between them. without sound. • you give opportunities to predict
For poetry the first task might simply Prediction is an extremely important what they are going to hear
be to say which poem, out of three, they stage. It allows students to get interested
most liked on first hearing. This might in the topic and predict the kind of • the students know what kind of
then lead to some phonological vocabulary they are likely to hear. It listening they are going to do
observations of such things as alliteration means, above all, that they are not • the tasks suit the listening text
and onomatopoeia, which make poetry approaching the task ‘cold’.
enjoyable to listen to. The teacher will then give the first • you set the tape counter when
There are many types of listening listening task clearly so that the students you start and reset it when
extract and possible tasks. The tasks have no doubt about whether they are appropriate.
should be appropriate, help students to listening for general understanding, to
understand what they hear, direct them extract specific information or to judge a
Jeremy Harmer is a teacher
to listen for a purpose, and exploit the speaker’s attitude or opinion. trainer and materials writer.
best phonological features of the extract. When the students have listened to He has worked extensively
in the UK and Mexico and
In general, the first task for the first time the tape for the first time, the teacher will led training sessions all
the students listen to the tape should be play it again so that they can work on over Europe, Latin America
more general and less taxing than the more detailed comprehension. and the Far East. His books
include The Practice of
exercises for the second or third times Sometimes they will have quite a lot of English Language Teaching
they listen. difficulty, in which case, the teacher will and the forthcoming How
to Teach English as a
At a later stage students may be play parts again, pausing at various Foreign Language, both
asked to listen for the speaker’s attitude, points so that students can ‘catch their published by Longman.

• ENGLISH TEACHING professional • 33