Designing Listening Tasks

Designing Listening Tasks

Instructional PrinciplesInstructional Principles

Task TypesTask Types

Global Comprehension vs Partial Comprehension

Top-down vs Bottom-up Processing

Mechanical vs Meaningful vs Communicative Response

Selection based on Learning Outcomes / Objectives NOT TESTING!

Global Comprehension vs Partial Comprehension

Top-down vs Bottom-up Processing

Mechanical vs Meaningful vs Communicative Response

Selection based on Learning Outcomes / Objectives NOT TESTING!

Examples of Task TypesExamples of Task Types

Mechanical response-discrimination task - to distinguish between two words or sounds - comprehension is not required.

Meaningful response -comprehension of the input is required- no creative abilities are called into play - match one of two sentence to one which he or she hears.

Communicative response - create a suitable response on the basis of what is understood, and where interpretation, adaptation, and the addition of new information is required. For example, the listener may hear a problem discussed and then have to suggest a solution.

Mechanical response-discrimination task - to distinguish between two words or sounds - comprehension is not required.

Meaningful response -comprehension of the input is required- no creative abilities are called into play - match one of two sentence to one which he or she hears.

Communicative response - create a suitable response on the basis of what is understood, and where interpretation, adaptation, and the addition of new information is required. For example, the listener may hear a problem discussed and then have to suggest a solution.

Some Common Listening/Viewing TASK TYPES

Some Common Listening/Viewing TASK TYPES

Matching or distinguishing: Choosing a response in written or pictorial form that corresponds with what was heard/viewed - e.g., placing pictures in a sequence which matches a story or set of events; choosing a picture to match a situation, such as listening to a radio advertisement and finding the product from a set of pictures).

Transferring / Transduction - receiving information in one form and transferring the information or parts of it into another form - e.g., listening to a discussion about a house and then sketching the house or viewing/listening and creating a storyboard or representing ideas in graphic organiser or multimodal text ( eg listening to a song and creating a MTV)

Transcribing

Matching or distinguishing: Choosing a response in written or pictorial form that corresponds with what was heard/viewed - e.g., placing pictures in a sequence which matches a story or set of events; choosing a picture to match a situation, such as listening to a radio advertisement and finding the product from a set of pictures).

Transferring / Transduction - receiving information in one form and transferring the information or parts of it into another form - e.g., listening to a discussion about a house and then sketching the house or viewing/listening and creating a storyboard or representing ideas in graphic organiser or multimodal text ( eg listening to a song and creating a MTV)

Transcribing

Transcribing - Listening, and then writing down what was heard. Dictation is the most common example of this activity.

Scanning - Exercises in which listeners must extract selected items by scanning the input in order to find a specific piece of information (e. g., listening to a news broadcast and identifying the name of the winning party in an election)

Extending - Going beyond what is provided, such as reconstructing a dialogue when alternate lines are missing or providing a conclusion to a story.

Condensing. Reducing what is heard to an outline of main points, such notetaking or categorising using tables/ graphic organisers

Transcribing - Listening, and then writing down what was heard. Dictation is the most common example of this activity.

Scanning - Exercises in which listeners must extract selected items by scanning the input in order to find a specific piece of information (e. g., listening to a news broadcast and identifying the name of the winning party in an election)

Extending - Going beyond what is provided, such as reconstructing a dialogue when alternate lines are missing or providing a conclusion to a story.

Condensing. Reducing what is heard to an outline of main points, such notetaking or categorising using tables/ graphic organisers

Answering - Answering questions from the input. Different sorts of questions will focus on different levels of listening (e.g., questions which require recall of details, those which require inferences and deductions, those which require evaluation or reactions).

Predicting - Guessing or predicting outcomes, causes, relationships, attitude and so forth, based on information presented in a conversation or narrative.

Answering - Answering questions from the input. Different sorts of questions will focus on different levels of listening (e.g., questions which require recall of details, those which require inferences and deductions, those which require evaluation or reactions).

Predicting - Guessing or predicting outcomes, causes, relationships, attitude and so forth, based on information presented in a conversation or narrative.

Principles for Task Selection

Principles for Task Selection

Different tasks require different skills and response according to the text-type, purpose of listening, types of listening and the social context eg one-way listening or interactive listening, listening to news broadcast vs listening to a panel discussion etc

TEACH LISTENING NOT TEST LISTENING - tasks must teach the skills/ strategies focused on eg cognitive / metacognitive strategies for understanding task demand, planning, monitoring comprehension

INTEGRATE listening/viewing tasks with other language skills or knowledge eg listening/viewing text provide model of text-type or language features required for speaking/representing or for writing task eg TAVI or TALO?

Different tasks require different skills and response according to the text-type, purpose of listening, types of listening and the social context eg one-way listening or interactive listening, listening to news broadcast vs listening to a panel discussion etc

TEACH LISTENING NOT TEST LISTENING - tasks must teach the skills/ strategies focused on eg cognitive / metacognitive strategies for understanding task demand, planning, monitoring comprehension

INTEGRATE listening/viewing tasks with other language skills or knowledge eg listening/viewing text provide model of text-type or language features required for speaking/representing or for writing task eg TAVI or TALO?

Lesson StagingLesson Staging

Why is consideration of various stages in lesson planning important?

PRE/DURING/POST - process orientation - different cognitive / meta-cognitive process utilised at different stages of listening/viewing

important that we choose appropriate tasks for the students both before they listen and while they listen and after they listen

Why is consideration of various stages in lesson planning important?

PRE/DURING/POST - process orientation - different cognitive / meta-cognitive process utilised at different stages of listening/viewing

important that we choose appropriate tasks for the students both before they listen and while they listen and after they listen

PRE-Listening/ViewingPRE-Listening/ViewingAim of pre-listening activities is to prepare the students for what they are going to listen to:

feeding in, checking or recalling language - activating EXISTING language knowledge or building linguistic schema

setting the scene / context

activating appropriate schemata - content / topic knowledge , background knowledge or prior knowledge

engaging their attention - getting them motivated to actually listen to the text

setting a meaningful purpose for the listening/ viewing - NEED to LISTEN / VIEW

NOTE - these are pre-listening / viewing strategies /skills which YOU should RAISE students’ AWARENESS of so they can develop meta-cognitive knowledge and USE appropriately on their OWN!

Aim of pre-listening activities is to prepare the students for what they are going to listen to:

feeding in, checking or recalling language - activating EXISTING language knowledge or building linguistic schema

setting the scene / context

activating appropriate schemata - content / topic knowledge , background knowledge or prior knowledge

engaging their attention - getting them motivated to actually listen to the text

setting a meaningful purpose for the listening/ viewing - NEED to LISTEN / VIEW

NOTE - these are pre-listening / viewing strategies /skills which YOU should RAISE students’ AWARENESS of so they can develop meta-cognitive knowledge and USE appropriately on their OWN!

TYPES of Pre-Listening Activities

TYPES of Pre-Listening Activities

personalisation - asking students about their experiences or opinions in relation to the topic, getting them to discuss in groups

showing pictures and having students react - scaffolding with VISUAL or MULTIMODAL TEXT

brainstorming concepts, points view, perspectives, arguments, words and phrases etc associated with the topic

predicting content of the text from the title or pictures or keywords

telling students the topic and getting them to generate questions they would like to know the answers to

personalisation - asking students about their experiences or opinions in relation to the topic, getting them to discuss in groups

showing pictures and having students react - scaffolding with VISUAL or MULTIMODAL TEXT

brainstorming concepts, points view, perspectives, arguments, words and phrases etc associated with the topic

predicting content of the text from the title or pictures or keywords

telling students the topic and getting them to generate questions they would like to know the answers to

DURING LISTENING/VIEWING

DURING LISTENING/VIEWING

While-listening activities should help the students focus on relevant information while they listen.

What is relevant depends on the aims of lesson

While-listening tasks may include:

note taking / graphic organisers etc

completing a grid with information

answering questions ( different levels of comprehension / thinking or require different types of skills or strategies

ordering events / categorising information or points of views/ arguments

While-listening activities should help the students focus on relevant information while they listen.

What is relevant depends on the aims of lesson

While-listening tasks may include:

note taking / graphic organisers etc

completing a grid with information

answering questions ( different levels of comprehension / thinking or require different types of skills or strategies

ordering events / categorising information or points of views/ arguments

IMPORTANT...IMPORTANT...

different stages - SCAFFOLDING from one stage to another - providing appropriate SUPPORT for LEARNING and PROGRESSION from one level to another level.

MUST have opportunities to TALK about HOW they use certain skills/ strategies for different stages or different tasks i.e develop their metacognitive knowledge

WORKING co-operatively or collaboratively - help each other and share their understanding or their problems and construct their own solutions to problems encountered

different stages - SCAFFOLDING from one stage to another - providing appropriate SUPPORT for LEARNING and PROGRESSION from one level to another level.

MUST have opportunities to TALK about HOW they use certain skills/ strategies for different stages or different tasks i.e develop their metacognitive knowledge

WORKING co-operatively or collaboratively - help each other and share their understanding or their problems and construct their own solutions to problems encountered

Opportunity to talk about how they got on. Were they able to easily identify the information required by the task? Or did they need to listen lots of times? What was the problem? Was it lack of understanding of the topic or the cultural context? Was it lack of vocabulary? Or not being able to decipher the stream of speech because of the speed or because of a particular accent? ( FOCUS ON LEARNING PROCESS)

Important that there is reflection/ joint construction of understanding GUIDED through teacher-modelling of THINING-ALOUD and skilful QUESTIONING so that teacher and the learners can identify learning needs and design appropriate subsequent lessons (AFL - ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING)

Opportunity to talk about how they got on. Were they able to easily identify the information required by the task? Or did they need to listen lots of times? What was the problem? Was it lack of understanding of the topic or the cultural context? Was it lack of vocabulary? Or not being able to decipher the stream of speech because of the speed or because of a particular accent? ( FOCUS ON LEARNING PROCESS)

Important that there is reflection/ joint construction of understanding GUIDED through teacher-modelling of THINING-ALOUD and skilful QUESTIONING so that teacher and the learners can identify learning needs and design appropriate subsequent lessons (AFL - ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING)

POST-LISTENING/VIEWINGPOST-LISTENING/VIEWING

Listening / Viewing - INTEGRATED into other parts of the lesson and will therefore lead into other activities.

Follow-up activities may focus on language features or on further skills activities - INTEGRATE with other skills like Reading/ Speaking/ Writing/ Presenting and /or Grammar/Vocab

Listening / Viewing - INTEGRATED into other parts of the lesson and will therefore lead into other activities.

Follow-up activities may focus on language features or on further skills activities - INTEGRATE with other skills like Reading/ Speaking/ Writing/ Presenting and /or Grammar/Vocab

Possible Post-ActivitiesPossible Post-Activities

Language focus activities could include:

listening to parts of text intensively and writing down what they hear, to focus on features of connected speech (linking, assimilation etc) or intonation/stress

completing a gapped version of the tape script (or part of it) to focus on particular expressions/ grammatical structure or form

Vocabulary Building using listening text eg through identifying lexical sets or collocations or semantic maps or dictionary skill

identifying text-type features eg linguistic features of argument text and use this as scaffolding for reading the same type of text eg discourse markers signalling agreement or disagreement

Language focus activities could include:

listening to parts of text intensively and writing down what they hear, to focus on features of connected speech (linking, assimilation etc) or intonation/stress

completing a gapped version of the tape script (or part of it) to focus on particular expressions/ grammatical structure or form

Vocabulary Building using listening text eg through identifying lexical sets or collocations or semantic maps or dictionary skill

identifying text-type features eg linguistic features of argument text and use this as scaffolding for reading the same type of text eg discourse markers signalling agreement or disagreement

Integrating Language Skills eg reading or writing tasks

research the topic further on the internet for a speaking / representing task or debate

compare content of listening with written text (e.g. useful with news broadcasts - compare with newspaper articles of same stories, or with a film - compare a scene with the same scene in the book)

role-play or drama task based on topic / situation / character relationship in text eg tableaux or freeze-frame for characters in text or hotseating ( taking on role of a character)

parallel writing task - using listening/viewing text for content or plot ideas eg write a letter to a newspaper about the topic or write an article for a magazine

create a multimodal text based on topic / point of view eg create an advertisement for a campaign

Integrating Language Skills eg reading or writing tasks

research the topic further on the internet for a speaking / representing task or debate

compare content of listening with written text (e.g. useful with news broadcasts - compare with newspaper articles of same stories, or with a film - compare a scene with the same scene in the book)

role-play or drama task based on topic / situation / character relationship in text eg tableaux or freeze-frame for characters in text or hotseating ( taking on role of a character)

parallel writing task - using listening/viewing text for content or plot ideas eg write a letter to a newspaper about the topic or write an article for a magazine

create a multimodal text based on topic / point of view eg create an advertisement for a campaign