How to Teach Listening Activities

For listening activities there really isn't a whole lot to teach, its more about getting the students to understand what they're hearing, there is a lot of different activities you can do to accomplish this.

When teaching a listening activity you have to keep in mind what you want the students to learn.
For example if the teacher is playing a recording, during the first time they listen to the tape the teacher wants the students to get a general idea of whats going on (skimming). Then after making sure the students understand what's the situations the teacher would play the recording a second time, this time asking the students to listen for specific details (scanning).

A thing most teachers do is known as the task-feedback circle which starts with a lead-in then the teacher would do some pre-task work if he thinks its necessary, after that the teacher sets the task and then plays the tape for the first time, then the teacher gives the students some time to discuss what they heard in pairs, if they can't do it the teacher plays the tape again, if they can the teacher moves on to the next activity.

In general most teachers want students to focus first on the general idea of the conversation, then on the specific details they ask for (name, address, phone number, etc.) and last the language focus.

Some tips that the teachers should remember are:

• To keep the recordings short.
• Play the recordings the times they need to, but not to many.
• Let the students discuss their answers.
• Play little parts of the tape if necessary.
• Help the students if they are stuck.
• Don't change the instructions half-way.

The teachers should also consider how he wants the class to go, if top-down then he would go from a general idea to details but if he wants to do bottom-up he would start with the specifics and then work to a general idea.