As we are on the topic of music, I thought I'd add some tips for teaching listening skills in the
TEFL classroom. When I went back to teaching English in a local Mexican university, for the first time I came across the problem of large groups of students entirely unprepared for and averse to all Listening activities. They openly refused to participate, and complained outright
"No nos gusta hacer Listening. Teacher, we are not good at English. We find Listening comprehension very difficult." Indeed they performed poorly when tested on this skill.
It took me a while to come up with a full-proof method, but what really worked for me, was
dictation. It surprised me, because we as students hated dictation. Granted we had no audio materials when I studied English, and dictation was the only Listening activity performed in the classroom. However, I was able to get their attention and largely work on their Listening, Writing and Reading skills by dictating excerpts from the tapescripts. This followed by Listening to the full audio material and going carefully through the suggested Listening Comprehension activities, gave good results.
Another method which I've found very useful is
pre-teaching vocabulary. Either by matching up key words/phrases with the primary language equivalent (for lower levels with the same first language), or with definitions in English, on the whiteboard/worksheets (for higher levels, for mixed level groups, and groups with mixed first languages). It can be varied by just
making a word list with
key words/phrases and explaining them as a group on the whiteboard, with respective transcription, primary language equivalent (optional), and definition. Followed by Listening, and working on Listening Comprehension, at your discretion.
It's also a good opportunity to work on their understanding of the parts of speech. Whether a word is a Noun, a Verb, an Adjective. Also, a good way to practice the indefinite and definite article.
Listening activities apart from developing comprehension also practice pronunciation. Take time to transcribe words difficult to pronounce, drill chorally/individually. Something which we worked on with a colleague in Mexico, for short conversations, was
choral repetition after each chunk of language. You can play around with it, divide the group in two then ask one part to repeat the part of Student A, and the other the part of Student B. It works well with my Hispanic students, as they are used to going to church, where they are asked to chant chorally on a regular basis. Follow this up by writing a short conversation on the same/similar topic, in teams, then acting these out for the whole group, using the pre-taught/key phrases. They enjoy this a lot.
My Bulgarian students find this difficult but dictation and
translation work well for them, as they are methods used widely in Eastern European schools.
Just a few ideas, that I've found work well, and practice all four skills Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking.
