Listen and colour in task

This is one of the 220-ish listening activities we describe in our book Breaking the Sound Barrier: Teaching Language Learners How to Listen. In the view of listening put forward in the book, we refer to the various micro-skills which go into being a skilled listener. This notion is based on the work of researchers such as John Field, whose work was one of the inspirations for our book. Listening involves using knowledge of the phonological system of the second language, its vocabulary (both words and phrases) and its grammar, not to mention knowledge of intonation patterns and general rules of discourse. These skills are combined to help the learner decode the spoken message. In addition, we describe in detail the approach we call "Listening as Modelling" which aims to make listening an enjoyable, feasible task, one focused on learning how to listen rather than being tested for comprehension.

Of all the micro-skills when we listen (and read), it's lexical retrieval which is the most important - the capacity to pick out and understand words and phrases in the stream of sound. You have to know vocabulary. So Chapter 4 of the book focuses on what we know about vocabulary acquisition and describes a large number of specific, low-preparation activities which help develop the skill of lexical retrieval.

One of these tasks is called "Listen and colour in". It requires the students to know and pick out vocabulary as you describe a scene to the class. The picture above (from pixabay.com) is ideal or this near-beginner task since it allows you describe a scene using quite simple vocabulary, along with a set of simple prepositions or prepositional phrases (on top of, next to, under, between, behind). All the teacher needs to do is describe the scene slowly and carefully, using as much repetition as needed, while students colour in the image. To help with th activity you could pre-teach any new words before the task begins. You could even leave a glossary of some of the words on the board. Once the image is coloured in, you can ask the class questions about the image to recycle the language they have been hearing. You could do this using simple either/or or true/false questions if you want the focus to be on listening rather than spoken production.

To help prepare for this low-prep task, you just need to find an appropriate picture, then, using the Format tool in Word, transform the picture into black and white, so that students have to add the colour. You can use the original picture as your guide. Students will need a clear printed copy of the picture and a set of coloured pencils.

Pictures such as the above work well. Just check the appearance of the picture when it is put into black and white.

Classes with enough knowledge could do this as a pair work exercise, but I think the task is best done with the teacher giving a good model of the target language.

Voilà!