This document provides guidance on effective listening instruction and activities. It recommends the MINUS approach: focus on meaning, interest, manageable new language, understanding, and a stress-free environment. Suggested activities include listening to stories, cloze exercises, picture ordering, and information transfer tasks. Dictation and dictogloss activities are also discussed, along with developing fluency, assessment, and online listening resources. The document emphasizes selecting meaningful, level-appropriate materials and supporting comprehension through pre-listening activities and cooperative learning.

1. Listening—A Critical Skill
Created by Jerrold Frank, Adapted by Eve Smith
ETRC Spring School
6-8 March, 2014

2. How Should Teaching and Learning be Done?
The MINUS Approach
1. Meaning: Focus on meaningful and relevant language.
2. Interest: Maintain interest through a variety of activities.
3. New Language:Avoid overloading the learners with too much
new language.
4. Understanding: Provide plenty of comprehensible input.
5. Stress-free: Create a friendly, safe, cooperative classroom
environment.

3. Questions Teachers Should Ask?
• Is the input of a piece meaningful communication?
• Does the input contain useful or interesting
information that will attract the learners attention?
• What learnable (new) language will learners meet
through the listening experience?
• Can the learners understand the input and how are
new language items being made comprehensible?
• How is stress and anxiety being controlled?

4. Tips for Selecting “MINUS” Listening Activities
• Choose materials learners are interested in.
• Choose materials that are at the right level for the
learners.
• Help students understand unfamiliar words through
context.
• Don’t focus exclusively on language features.
Concentrate on the FLOW of the listening task.
• Allow opportunities for interaction during tasks
• Concentrate on input over output.

5. Activities for “MINUS” focused Listening.
• Listening to stories
• Oral Cloze exercises
• Picture ordering
• The “What is it?” technique
• Same or different exercises
• Listen and Choose exercises
• Listen and Draw exercises
• Padded Questions
• Information transfer activities
• Note taking

6. Supporting Listening
1. Provide pre-listening support with aspects of
the text (i.e., with language, ideas, skills or
text-type).
2. Guide learners through the text.
3. Establish cooperative learning arrangements.
4. Help learners to be autonomous listeners.

7. Dictation and Related Activities
• Running Dictation
• One Chance Dictation
• Dictation of Long Phrases
• Guided Dictation
• Dictation for Mixed Classes
• Peer Dictation
• Completion Dictation
• Sentence Dictation
• Unexploded Dictation
• Delayed Repetition
• Read-and-Look-Up

8. Monitoring Dictation
1. Memory span is shorter in a foreign language.
2. Memory span in a foreign language increases
with mastery of the language.
3. The difference between the native and the
foreign language memory span is greater when
the material in the foreign language contains
pronunciation and grammatical contrasts
between the language.
4. The relation of memory span to foreign
language is greater for contextual material than
for numbers.

9. Dictogloss and Related Activities
• Dictogloss
• Dicto-comp
• Retelling
• Expert Groups
• Oral Reproduction
• Disappearing Text
• Phrase by Phrase

10. Websites for Listening
• Podbean.com
• TED
• Audacity
• VOA Special English
• National Public Radio

19. Strategy Based Listening
• Communication Strategies: strategies to assist
comprehension, for example making predications
before listening, listening selectively, knowing
how to interrupt politely, etc.
• Learning Strategies: strategies for noticing
language forms in the input in their independent
listening, negotiating(seeking clarification),
listening for patterns, focused listening.

20. Activities to Encourage Negotiation
• Listen and do.
• Controlling the teacher.
• Could you repeat that?
• Graded Discussion

21. Developing Fluency in Listening
• Name it!
• Listening to Questions.
• A Listening Corner.
• Listening to Pictures.
• Listening to Questions.
• Listening to Stories
• Listen Again.
• Visit and Listen.
• Listen while Reading.
• Recorded Interviews.
• Predicting.

22. Assessment
• Washback effect: A good test is a model for
what should happen in the classroom.
• Reliability: A reliable test is one whose results
are not greatly affected by a change in the
conditions under which it is given and marked.
• Validity: A valid test is one that measures
what it supposed to measure.
• Practicality: Ease of administration and
scoring

23. Examples of Listening Tests
• Dictation
• Partial Dictation
• Text with Questions
• Responding to Statements
• Three Choice True-False
• Recorded Cloze
• Information Transfer

24. The END!
• Resource: Nation, I.S.P & Newton, J. Teaching
ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking

25. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND
ATTENTION.
Please join the new Ning group: E-connect for English teachers in the
region.