This document provides instructions for tasks involving active listening skills. It includes watching video extracts of conversations and identifying examples of active listening strategies used by the speakers, such as echoing key words, expressing agreement, and asking follow up questions. Learners are asked to practice active listening skills by engaging in paired conversations using prompts provided.

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Task 1. Look at the pictures and brainstorm ideas:
Task 2. Work in pairs. Choose two questions to ask your partner and chat about them.
1 So tell me about your hobbies. What do you do for fun?
2 So what was the best part of your day today?
3 So do you have any plans for this coming weekend?
4 So do people where you live eat out a lot?
5 So did you do anything fun last weekend?
6 So what’s your favorite thing about your job?
7 So do you ever play any sports?
8 So what’s the biggest challenge that you have in your work right now?
9 What was it like for you starting to work in your company?

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Task 3. Work in pairs. Discuss: how can people show interest while they are listening?
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Task 4. Watch two people from Google talk
about their new project ‘Made with
Android’. What is the idea behind the
project? What other details can you catch?
Make notes and compare with your partner.
Notes:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEzTYpTy7DA (Google Developers Youtube channel)
Task 5. Watch the conversation again and answer the following questions:
1. How do these people use their hands while speaking?
a. They don’t use their hands at all.
b. They use their hands to show their feelings
c. They use their hands to highlight ideas.
2. Do they make eye contact? How much?
3. How do they show that they are listening?
Task 6. Cover the right column. What active listening strategies do you notice in each video
extract? Uncover and check.
1  The 'I'mlistening' words
 Expressive agreement
 Echoing
 Reformulation and comments
BRIAN GRADY: And you know, we don't try to be pushy, but,
you know, we want to expose and make things easier for
people to do. [Sure, sure] Made With Android is about finding
people outside of Google, doing things that nobody expected
them to do with a phone. [Right] And.. so we found out that
there's a lot of people-- there's a community out there. People
that, because of the extensibility of the Android operating
system, [Sure. Sure.] are able to make incredible…

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2  The 'I'mlistening' words
 Expressive agreement
 Echoing
 Reformulation and comments
applications that do crazy things, like--
LAURENCE MORONEY: Like flying a weather balloon.
BRIAN GRADY: Flying a weather balloon, or opening
3  The 'I'mlistening' words
 Expressive agreement
 Echoing
 Reformulation and comments
BRIAN GRADY: Flying a weather balloon, or opening your
apartment door when you're at the top of the stairs and your
bags are full of groceries. [Yeah!] I don't know how you do
that. Your hands are full of-- but anyway. There's things like
that.
LAURENCE MORONEY: The things that people will think of
that we can’t think of, right?
4  The 'I'mlistening' words
 Expressive agreement
 Echoing
 Reformulation and comments
BRIAN GRADY: Yes. We want non-commercial applications
that are about fun, [OK] or hobby lifestyle kind of stuff, [Right]
new connecting new things that people hadn't connected. We
want it to be an open source project. [Right] And we want to
be able to, not only entertain people and inspire people with
the video, but also provide them with the code, [OK] the
applications, and maybe they'll go out and do something else
with it.
LAURENCE MORONEY: So somebody can pick this and run
with it for themselves. [Yeah] Like I could actually go and get
a weather balloon myself, now, and start doing what these
folks do.
5  The 'I'mlistening' words
 Expressive agreement
 Echoing
 Reformulation and comments
BRIAN GRADY: You go to casadeballoon.club, [OK] which is
this group's website.
LAURENCE MORONEY: I love the ‘dot club.’
BRIAN GRADY: Dot club. [It’s cool] I like the ‘casadeballon’.
[laughter] But anyway….
6  The 'I'mlistening' words
 Expressive agreement
 Echoing
 Reformulation and comments
LAURENCE MORONEY: I guess, the more exotic the locale,
the better?
BRIAN GRADY: Absolutely.
7  The 'I'mlistening' words
 Expressive agreement
 Echoing
 Reformulation and comments
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK. I'm more a Tahiti guy myself.
BRIAN GRADY: Tahiti?
LAURENCE MORONEY: Yeah, …
BRIAN GRADY: Well, I hear …

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Task 7. Sort the expressions and questions in the box below according to theirfunction:
Task 8. In pairs, come up with things to say/ask in response to the following:
I only started this project
a few months ago.
I generally come to
work at around 10.
There are about 7
people on my team.
The ‘I’m listening’
words. / Expressive
agreement.
Echoing key words.
Follow-up questions.
Comments that work as
follow-up questions.
Comments about
yourself.
 5 years?
 Interesting.
 Really? What was
that like?
 Really? That’s
interesting because…
 Exactly. I think…
 Definitely not!
 Right.
 So, were you working on the same
project back then?
 So when exactly did you start with
this?
 So you have been working here for
quite a long time now.
 So you know the company
pretty well then.
 Why did you decide to
leave your start-up?
 Yeah.
 Yeah, I had a similar
experience. I ….
 Was it?
The ‘I’m listening’ words /
Expressive replies
Echoing key words.
Follow-up questions
Comments that work as
follow-up questions
Comments about yourself
I joined the company about 5 years ago and it was very different back then.

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Task 9. Work in pairs. Chat with your partner (use the questions task 2).
While you’re listening, draw cards from your stack to see how you need to react:
Just continue listening, showing that
you’re interested with small ‘I’m
listening’ words, expressive replies
and body language.
Make a comment that works as a
follow-up question
Ask a follow-up question. Make a comment about yourself.
1 So tell me about your hobbies. What do you do for fun?
2 So what was the best part of your day today?
3 So do you have any plans for this coming weekend?
4 So do people where you live eat out a lot?
5 So did you do anything fun last weekend?
6 So what’s your favorite thing about your job?
7 So do you ever play any sports?
8 So what’s the biggest challenge that you have in your work right now?
9 What was it like for you starting to work in your company?

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Transcript
LAURENCE MORONEY: So tell us about the Made With Android. That looked like a whole ball of
fun.
11:08
BRIAN GRADY: Man, we're so excited about this new series. It's a web series. It's a documentary
style, as anybody who saw it could see. [Right] And the reason we're excited about it is because,
you know, we do Coffee with a Googler. it's always talking with Googlers [Right] about Google
stuff. And you know, we don't try to be pushy, but, you know, we want to expose and make things
easier for people to do.
11:29
LAURENCE MORONEY: Sure, sure.
11:30
BRIAN GRADY: Made With Android is about finding people outside of Google, doing things that
nobody expected them to do with a phone. [Right] And.. so we found out that there's a lot of
people-- there's a community out there. People that, because of the extensibility of the Android
operating system, [Sure] are able to make incredible applications that do crazy things, like--
11:47
LAURENCE MORONEY: Like flying a weather balloon.
11:48
BRIAN GRADY: Flying a weather balloon, or opening your apartment door when you're at the top of
the stairs and your bags are full of groceries. [Yeah!] I don't know how you do that. Your hands are
full of-- but anyway. There's things like that.
11:59
LAURENCE MORONEY: The things that people will think of that we can’t think of, right?
12:01
BRIAN GRADY: So we're looking for stories like that. [Uh-huh] We've got a couple lined up. This is
the first full piece that we've completed. And we're looking for new ideas. So if somebody's got any
ideas, if they know of fantastic things that are made with Android, we'd like to hear about them in
our G+ comments on the YouTube channel. [OK]
12:18
And, speaking of the channel, we should talk about the Google Developers YouTube channel, which
is where the bulk of my teams work ends up, yeah.
12:25
LAURENCE MORONEY: Now, what's the criteria that you're looking for somebody to pitch
something for these videos?
12:30
BRIAN GRADY: Thanks. For Made With Android, we're looking for non-Google employees.
12:36
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK. Rules me out.
12:37
BRIAN GRADY: Yes. We want non-commercial applications that are about fun, [OK] or hobby
lifestyle kind of stuff, [Right] new connecting new things that people hadn't connected. We want it

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to be an open source project. [Right] And we want to be able to, not only entertain people and
inspire people with the video, but also provide them with the code, [OK] the applications, and
maybe they'll go out and do something else with it.
13:01
LAURENCE MORONEY: So somebody can pick this and run with it for themselves. [Yeah] Like I
could actually go and get a weather balloon myself, now, and start doing what these folks do.
13:07
BRIAN GRADY: You go to casadeballoon.club, [OK] which is this group's website.
13:13
LAURENCE MORONEY: I love the .club.
13:15
BRIAN GRADY: .club. [It’s cool] I like the casadeballon. [laughter] But anyway, they have a whole
thing set up there. You can go there. You can download their app. You can see where they've
flown. You can, you know… They have flight logs. It's really interesting. It's like sending up, really,
your own space, [Yeah] exploratory project. [Right] You get these beautiful photographs of the
earth, [Nice, nice] which are in the video, as well.
13:37
LAURENCE MORONEY: I always wanted to do the slice of pizza in space kind of pictures. [Oh! Yeah.]
In this case, we'll do a Coffee With a Googler mug in space. I guess, the more exotic the locale, the
better?
13:49
BRIAN GRADY: Absolutely. [Hmm] We're looking for things to produce-- right now, I'm looking for
things in the Mediterranean.
13:56
LAURENCE MORONEY: OK. I'm more a Tahiti guy myself.
BRIAN GRADY: Tahiti? Well, I hear they're doing interesting things with Maps down in Tahiti.
14:02
LAURENCE MORONEY: Got to get on that.
14:03
BRIAN GRADY: Yeah. I think we ought to get down there.

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Teacher’s notes
Stage Procedure
Warmer Tell the s/s they need to guess the topic of the lesson (Small talk).
Say the picture from Task 1 is a hint and play Hangman:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangman_(game)
Task 1 Aim: For s/s to discuss possible locations, participants, topics and reasons for
making small talk.
Task 2 Aim: To warm up the s/s for discussing Active listening strategies.
Pair the students up and assign each student a letter (A or B).
Tell the s/s that they’re going to make small talk and that they’re going to have
secret roles.
Ask all As to close their eyes. For Bs, write on the board:
You role: you’re extremely interested in everything your partner is saying.
Allow the s/s 3-4 minutes to chat. Elicit from As what the Bs’secret role was.
Now, ask Student Bs to close their eyes and write for As:
Your role: you’re tired and can’t concentrate on what your partner is saying.
Allow 1-2 minutes to chat. Elicit from Bs what the As’ role was.
Task 3 Aim: to diagnose the s/s’ current awareness of active listening strategies and to
raise their interest for Task 4.
Task 4 Aim: The s/s watch the video for gist before doing language analysis.
Tip: if the s/s find this video challenging, you can switch on the subtitles:
Task 5 After they watch, allow the s/s to share their answers in pairs and then do class
feedback.
Suggested answers:
1. How do these people use their hands while speaking? c to highlight ideas.
2. Do they make eye contact? How much? yes, all the time, but they break it
every few seconds.
3. How do they show that they are interested in what the other person is saying?
(1) by body language (nodding); (2) by saying small ‘I’mlistening’ words (Right,
OK, Sure, etc); (3) by echoing / repeating key words (‘I’m more of a Tahiti guy’ /
‘Tahity?’); (4) by agreeing emphatically (Yeah, Absolutely); (5) by reformulating
each other’s ideas and commenting on them
Task 6 Play the following extracts (you’ll find the videos with those extracts isolated in
the accompanying post on my blog:
https://eltgeek.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/active-listening-a-lesson-plan-
version-2-0/ )
Extract 1 (11:23 - 11:46)
Extract 2 (11:46 – 11:50)
Extract 3 (11:48 – 12:01)

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Extract 4 (12:38 – 13:07)
Extract 5 (13:07 – 13:17)
Extract 6 (13:46 – 13:50)
Extract 7 (13:56 – 13:59)
Suggested answers:
1. The 'I'mlistening' words
2. Echoing
3. The 'I'mlistening' words (Yeah), reformulation
4. The 'I'mlistening' words, reformulation
5. The 'I'mlistening' words (OK), comments (I love the 'dot club', 'it's cool'),
echoing (I love the 'dot club' - 'dot club.')
6. Expressive agreement
7. Echoing, Expressive agreement (Yeah)
Pronunciation
focus
Play the extracts one more time. This time stop after the underlined bits and ask
the s/s to ‘hum’ their pronunciation/intonation.
Task 7 Suggestedanswers:
Tip: during class feedback, encourage the s/s to use natural intonation.
The ‘I’m listening’ words
/ Expressive agreement
Right.
Was it?
Yeah.
Echoing key words. 5 years? Interesting.
Follow-up questions Really? What was that like?
So, were you working on the same project
back then?
So, when exactly did you start?
Comments that work as
follow-up questions
So, you know the company pretty well then.
So you have been working here for quite a
long time now.
Comments about
yourself
Really? That’s interesting because…
Yeah, I had a similar experience. I…
Exactly. I think…
Task 8 Aim: To give the s/s more confidence using the strategies for active listening.
Task 9 Distribute cards to students and put them in new pairs (if you don’t have cards,
print out and cut up the cards at the back of this worksheet). Explain that in this
task they’ll chat and they’ll need to use the cards to know how to react:
♠ by showing interest using body language,
♦ by asking follow-up questions,
♥ by making comments that serve as questions or
♣ by making comments to share something about themselves.

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♥♦♠♣
♥♦♠♣
♥♦♠♣

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