Skip to main content

Our listening book is coming soon



 A bit of cheeky promotion here! But Gianfranco and I are pleased with what we've put together for this book for language teachers which will be available from early July. Today I put together an appendix which lists the approximately 160 separate tasks we suggest you might try as part of process approach to listening - listen to teach, not listening to test. All of those plus the research background which supports them.

Here is a brief summary of the chapters. I'm sure I'll be posting a few more teasers soon.


Chapter 1  How do we listen?
We describe how listening works, referring to top-down and bottom-up processing skills, the five phases of listening as described by one scholar, John Field; the issues of priming and chunking; the key role of comprehensible input and the need to integrate listening with the other skills of speaking, reading and writing. We’ll show that the listening lesson is about much more than listening!

Chapter 2  The principles of Listening-as-Modelling.
We lay out the concept of Listening as Modelling (LAM) which underpins much of the approach we describe. We look at aspects such as input-flooding, thorough and extensive processing, scaffolding and interpersonal listening.

Chapter 3  Teaching sounds: fun with phonology
We set out a framework for ear training. How can we sensitise students to sound and help them break up the stream of sound? We set out a wide range of engaging, low-preparation activities based on phonology and phonics, and suggest how these can be woven into lessons.

Chapter 4  Teaching lexical retrieval through listening
We focus on the vital role of vocabulary. How is vocabulary best acquired? What does it mean to know words and phrases? How can we use listening as a means to build vocabulary knowledge and skill? We  suggest lots of vocabulary-based activities which help students retrieve lexis during listening.

Chapter 5 Teaching parsing, grammar and lexicogrammar
How can we develop students’ ability to parse utterances, i.e. use their knowledge of grammar to make sense of utterances and thus make meaning? We describe a rationale for teaching grammar and lexicogrammar through listening, suggesting numerous examples of easy activities with grammar at their core.

Chapter 6  Interpersonal listening
We look at how we can build a more communicative, interpersonal approach into listening lessons, while keeping a focus on listening as modelling, not testing. We’ll explore the role of questioning and other interactions, how to make language comprehensible and provide examples of practical lesson ideas, some teacher-led, some student-led.

Chapter 7  Task-based listening
We examine the thinking behind task-based teaching and listening, then provide a range of examples of how communicative tasks with a purpose, including games, can be built into lessons as part of a listening programme.

Chapter 8  LAM in action: three sample teaching sequenecs
We walk the reader through three detailed sample teaching sequences illustrating the Listening-as-Modelling approach and how the other language skills can be integrated into listening-focused lessons.

Chapter 9  Making the most of songs
This is specifically devoted to how we can exploit songs in the classroom in support of listening skill. We set out a detailed list of ways to make the most of a song, along with examples of songs which teachers recommend for French, German and Spanish.

Chapter 10  Assessment and preparing for exams
We look at assessing listening and how to help students prepare for exams. Principles of effective assessment are provided together with what that means for the classroom. We offer specific tips and advice to help teachers and students prepare for exams.

Chapter 11 Cognitive and metacognitive strategies
We consider the role of strategies in helping students develop their skills. To what extent can students make use of strategies to make the most of their existing knowledge and to compensate for any lack of knowledge? Specific research-supported techniques are suggested.

Chapter 12  Planning for improvement
We put forward ideas to help teachers and departments plot a way forward if they wish to improve their students’ listening performance.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the natural order hypothesis?

The natural order hypothesis states that all learners acquire the grammatical structures of a language in roughly the same order. This applies to both first and second language acquisition. This order is not dependent on the ease with which a particular language feature can be taught; in English, some features, such as third-person "-s" ("he runs") are easy to teach in a classroom setting, but are not typically fully acquired until the later stages of language acquisition. The hypothesis was based on morpheme studies by Heidi Dulay and Marina Burt, which found that certain morphemes were predictably learned before others during the course of second language acquisition. The hypothesis was picked up by Stephen Krashen who incorporated it in his very well known input model of second language learning. Furthermore, according to the natural order hypothesis, the order of acquisition remains the same regardless of the teacher's explicit instruction; in other words,
4 comments
Read more

What is skill acquisition theory?

For this post, I am drawing on a section from the excellent book by Rod Ellis and Natsuko Shintani called Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research (Routledge, 2014). Skill acquisition is one of several competing theories of how we learn new languages. It’s a theory based on the idea that skilled behaviour in any area can become routinised and even automatic under certain conditions through repeated pairing of stimuli and responses. When put like that, it looks a bit like the behaviourist view of stimulus-response learning which went out of fashion from the late 1950s. Skill acquisition draws on John Anderson’s ACT theory, which he called a cognitivist stimulus-response theory. ACT stands for Adaptive Control of Thought.  ACT theory distinguishes declarative knowledge (knowledge of facts and concepts, such as the fact that adjectives agree) from procedural knowledge (knowing how to do things in certain situations, such as understand and speak a language).
Post a Comment
Read more

12 principles of second language teaching

This is a short, adapted extract from our book The Language Teacher Toolkit . "We could not possibly recommend a single overall method for second language teaching, but the growing body of research we now have points to certain provisional broad principles which might guide teachers. Canadian professors Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada (2013), after reviewing a number of studies over the years to see whether it is better to just use meaning-based approaches or to include elements of explicit grammar teaching and practice, conclude: Classroom data from a number of studies offer support for the view that form-focused instruction and corrective feedback provided within the context of communicative and content-based programmes are more effective in promoting second language learning than programmes that are limited to a virtually exclusive emphasis on comprehension. As teachers Gianfranco and I would go along with that general view and would like to suggest our own set of g
2 comments
Read more