A presentation at the seminar ‘Enhancing students’ listening with the use of an e-listening platform’ on June 19, 2013; organised by Yan Chai Hospital Wong Wha San Secondary School for English Language teachers from secondary schools.

1. Developing Students’ Listening Skills
with Technology and E-resources
Paul Sze
A presentation at the seminar ‘Enhancing students’ listening with
the use of an e-listening platform’ on June 19, 2013; organised by
Yan Chai Hospital Wong Wha San Secondary School for English
Language teachers from secondary schools.

2. Why is listening difficult to L2 learners?
• Rate of processing
• One-off
• Accent variation
• Physical environment
• Language register
• Anxiety

3. Two routes to improving listening
Intensive
Listening
Extensive
Listening

4. The Two Routes <> SLA Theory
Intensive
Listening –
Conscious
Learning
Extensive
Listening –
Unconscious
Acquisition

5. Focus of this presentation

6. In the 70’s …

7. Today

8. How do we make sense of this
multitude of listening resources?
Teen Time Librivox audiobooks
Grammar Girl Pocasts TED talks
BBC Sunday Smile Naxos Spoken
Word Library
Podcasts TED talks Youtube
Radio archives iTunes HKedCity
Raps Songs The English we
Speak
Onion News A minute of English
a day
Backchat
… … …

9. How to think about eResources for
Listening …
By genre
(talks; conversations; interviews; drama;
songs; raps; etc.)
By resource
format
(CDs; podcasts; radio
archives; online banks; etc.)
By medium
(audio; video;
audiobooks)
By response
format
(pleasure listening; task-based listening;
etc.)
By language
level
(beginners; advanced; etc.)
By content (grammar; news; everyday life, etc.)

10. Examples of eResources for Ext
Listening
• Talks: Grammar girl; TEDtalks;
• Readalouds: Naxos Spoken Word Library; Librivox
• Rap: Flocabulary
• Podcasts: Teacher John Snow; BBC The English we
speak
• Talk shows: Teen Time; BBC Friday Night comedy
• Websites for L2 listening: Breaking News
• News: TVB news on HKEdCity; BBC news
• Drama: Songbirds;
• Videos: Simpsons on Youtube

11. BBC The Flatmates

12. Grammar Girl podcast

13. Teacher John Snow podcast

14. Breaking News

15. Teen Time

16. Songbirds

17. The Simpsons (on Youtube)

18. Flocabulary Raps

19. TVB news on HKedCity

20. Introducing Extensive Listening into
your curriculum
• A regular task for every student, e.g, once a
week (but refrain from laborious post-listening
homework and assessments)
• A self-directed journey: Ss choose what they
like to listen to, and report their progress to
you once periodically
• Supplement your regular teaching units with
extensive listening materials

21. But perhaps most important of all
Show students that extensive
listening is enjoyable

22. I want to share with
you an encouraging
experience that I had
yesterday. ……

24. What’s on Paul’s iPhone?
• BBC: The English we
speak
• BBC: Friday Night
Comedy
• The Onion radio news
• The Onion news videos
• The Best of Youtube
• TED talks
• …

25. TED talks

26. Ted + Youtube

27. A flipped lesson based on a Youtube
video

29. paulsze@cuhk.edu.hk
http://paulsze.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/paulsze
https://delicious.com/paulsze/extensive_listening