1. TECHNIQUES FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF LISTENING<br />Listening is one of the most important skills you can have. How well you listen has a major impact on your job effectiveness, and on the quality of your relationships with others. <br />We listen to obtain information. <br />We listen to understand. <br />We listen for enjoyment. <br />We listen to learn. <br />The way to become a better listener is to practice “active listening”. This is where you make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, to try and understand the total message being sent. In order to do this you must pay attention to the other person very carefully. <br />For this reason, children begin listening to their parents when they are babies. They are often greeted, spoken to and admired without any response expected. Though nobody knows if the baby understands the spoken words, the process continues. Children automatically acquire such language over some time, and later on gradually produce it through actual experience. The production may be incomplete at first, but successful at last, that leads to speaking skill which is quite applicable to daily conversation.<br />In learning English, listening can help improve speaking considerably. Although it is the first of all skills, it is neither the easiest nor the most meaningless. We need to hear various types of English repeatedly and continuously if we want to communicate properly, meaningfully and naturally.<br />Why is listening good?<br />When listening, we are reviewing a lot of English usage such as vocabulary, grammatical structures, intonation, accent and our own interpretation. <br />We can learn new words and expressions by hearing them frequently. <br />Besides the English revision, general knowledge from news, features, or even advertising spots is certainly beneficial for regular listeners. <br />We can imitate what we hear and apply it with great confidence. <br />Listening can be a good quot;
hobbyquot;
while we do other things such as cooking, ironing, exercising, relaxing etc. In other words, we have no wasted time at all. <br />Listening is also a great way to train our attention.<br />Strategies to improve listening<br />Use the background of the topic, the context or situation, the type of the text and the language. These background knowledge activities a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next.<br />To extract the meaning of a listening text, it is important to figure out the purpose of the listening.<br />Be selective identify the relevant information and ignore the rest. This enables the learner to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount of intonation they have to tell in short term memory in order to recognize it.<br />Be active. Try to repeat back in your own words what you have heard. This means that you understand what has been said.<br />Listen for gist first. Do not concentrate on detail until you have understood the main ideas.<br />Techniques for the instruction of listening<br />We have 3 steps: pre-listening, while- listening and post-listening<br />Pre-listening<br />Activation previous knowledge: elicitation, discussion, games, guiding questions<br />While-listening<br />Processing information: comparing, filling in gaps, detecting differences, ticking of items, information transfer, sequencing and matching.<br />Post-listening<br />Use of information: answering to show comprehension, summarizing, jigsaw listening, writing as follow up, speaking as follow up.<br />Suggestions to improve listening<br />Use the internet<br />Listen to radio programmes in English<br />Watch films in English<br />Use dictation as a listening note-taking exercise<br />Use songs<br />