Tips of how to stage a listening lesson

2. Warm-up
• To turn the “English-mode” on.
• To energize students.
• To create a positive classroom atmosphere.
• To establish rapport with learners.
• To improve interaction among learners.
• 5 - 10% of class time.
Why have a warm-up?

3. Lead-in
• To contextualize the topic of the lesson.
• To sensitize students to the topic of the
lesson.
• To prepare students to learn.
• To create “the need” for students to learn.
• To arouse students’ interest and motivation.
• 5 – 10% of class time.
Why have a lead-in?

4. Pre-teaching Vocabulary
• To facilitate the listening/reading process.
• To reduce the number of times students “hiccup” in the
listening/reading text.
• To reduce chances of words getting in the way of students’
comprehension.
• 10 – 20 % of class time.
CONSIDER:
• Do the students really need to know this word to understand the
text?
• Can it be guessed from context?
• Is it a cognate?
• Can it be used productively at some point in the lesson?
Why pre-teach words?

5. Ideas for Pre-Teaching Vocabulary
• Categorizing words.
• Connecting sentences containing the word and
definitions.
• Predicting (ask students to predict the content of the
listening/reading text using the words given).
• Using the context of the text (pull out some sentences
of the listening/reading text containing the words you
want to pre-teach, include gaps, and have students
decide which words complete the sentences).
• Matching sentences containing the words with
pictures.

6. Listening/Reading for Gist
• To get a general idea of the listening/reading text.
• Usually 3 questions, focusing on beginning, middle and
end of the listening / reading text.
• Ask general questions (mood of the speakers/writers,
context, objective, main topic etc).
• 20 – 30 % of class time.
REMEMBER:
• Set an objective task before students listen/read.
Students ALWAYS need a purpose for listening/reading.
Why listen/read for gist?

7. Listening/Reading for Detail
• To understand details of a listening/reading text.
• 30 – 40 % of class time.
TIPS:
• Give students time to read the questions before the
task.
• Give students a chance to pair check and compare their
answers before taking feedback.
• Set an objective task before students listen/read.
Students ALWAYS need a purpose for listening/reading.
• Have students justify their answers.
Why listen/read for detail?

8. Ideas of Listening/Reading for Detail
• TRUE of FALSE.
• Gap filling.
• Sentence completion.
• Correcting wrong information.
• Putting events in order.
• Matching (e.g. who said what?).
• Short answers to open questions.
• Labelling pictures.

9. Follow-up
• To give students a chance to react to the
listening/reading text.
• To transfer the knowledge gained from the
listening/reading task to speaking or writing.
• Around 20% of class time.
REMEMBER:
Give students feedback on language and on content.
Why have a follow-up?