Talks by Annie McDonald

Photo of Annie talking at a conference

Understanding the Spoken Word

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, March 10, 2018 - 18:45
Venue: 
Madrid
Location: 
Universidad Complutense Madrid, Facultad de Educaccion
Extra info: 
Plus downloads
Understanding the Spoken English Word

What exactly are we doing when we’re listening? In this session, we’ll try a little transcription experiment to find out. We’ll see that listening is not quite as passive, automatic or effortless as it may appear. We’ll then consider the difficulties of listening to speech in a non-native language before reflecting on the implications of our observations for classroom teaching.

Listening in Chunks

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, February 17, 2018 - 14:45
Venue: 
IATEFL Pron SIG
Location: 
University of Chester Parkgate Campus
Extra info: 
Plus downloads
Listening in Chunks

Listening lessons often encourage students to use strategies to guess meaning, without developing their ability to decode spoken English itself. Could focusing on language chunks be a missing link which helps students improve their listening skills? In this talk we’ll take a look at activities which might just do that.

Making Listening Memorable: Listening in Chunks

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, November 18, 2017 - 09:30
Venue: 
Polo Ditattico
Location: 
Plazza Oderico da Pordenone 3
Extra info: 
Plus downloads
TESOL Italy 2017

When students listen to a text, many feel they are starting from scratch rather than building on what they have already mastered. Nowadays, technology enables teachers to create content and design effective activities which help learners make real listening progress. Come along and try out a selection of these activities!

Making Listening Memorable: Listening in Chunks

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Sunday, October 22, 2017 - 10:00
Venue: 
CEP de Granada
Location: 
Granada, Spain
Extra info: 
Plus downloads
Making Listening Memorable
When it comes to ‘doing’ listening, many students feel they are starting from scratch rather than building on what they have already mastered. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the notion of ‘verbal stickiness’, and consider how we could exploit this phenomenon by focusing on various language patterns and using different activities to help students become more efficient and fluent listeners.

Listening as a Creative Process

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, March 4, 2017 - 10:45
Venue: 
TESOL-Spain 40th Annual Convention
Location: 
Universidad Miguel Hernandez, Elche
Extra info: 
Handouts and downloads
Listening as a Creative Process
Findings of research into children’s processing of spoken language illustrate the creative nature of listening. What do we mean by ‘listening as a creative process’ and how can we use this when teaching listening to adults? In this workshop, we’ll look at some techniques which help learners develop transferrable skills and strategies and take them beyond a ‘one-off’ listening experience.

Listening in Chunks

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Friday, April 15, 2016 - 14:00 to 15:15
Location: 
The ICC, Broad Street, Birmingham, B1 2EA, (Hall 9)
Extra info: 
Plus downloads
Listening in Chunks - hancockmcdonald.com/talks/listening-chunks

In the IATEFL Forum on Creating Listening Materials, I'll be presenting 'Listening in Chunks' and a technique called 'accoustic drilling'. Students find this useful as it increases their automaticity when decoding clusters of words which frequently occur together. It also impacts positively on their listening fluency and confidence.

Making Listening Memorable: Listening in chunks

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 10:15
Venue: 
TESOL-Spain
Location: 
Vitoria-Gasteiz
Extra info: 
Plus downloads
Listening in chunks

When it comes to ‘doing’ listening, many students feel they are starting from scratch rather than building on what they have already mastered. In this workshop, we’ll discuss the notion of ‘verbal stickiness’, and consider how we could exploit this phenomenon by focusing on various language patterns and using different activities to help students become more efficient and fluent listeners.

The Challenges of Unscripted Language

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, November 21, 2015 - 16:45
Venue: 
TESOL France
Location: 
Telecom ParisTech, 46 rue Barrault, 75013 Paris, France
Extra info: 
Includes handouts
The Challenges of Unscripted Language - hancockmcdonald.com/talks/challenges-unscripted-language

Unscripted language is usually very different to the spoken language students encounter when doing listening activities in a general English course. Consequently, when students come to listen to spontaneous chat or discussion they are faced with many difficulties. What might these be and what can we teachers do about it?

Priming for Listening

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, October 17, 2015 - 15:00
Venue: 
IV Arenas Sur Symposium
Location: 
Colegio Arenas Sur, Las Palmas
Extra info: 
Handouts and downloads
Priming for Listening - hancockmcdonald.com/talks/priming-listening-2

Before we get our students to listen, we prime them for what they are about to hear. However, the types of tasks we use tend to use are similar to (if not exactly the same as) those we use to prepare students before they read a text.

Learning Listening: The Challenges of Unscripted Langauge

Speaker: 
Event date: 
Saturday, October 3, 2015 - 14:45
Venue: 
English UK North Academic Conference 2015, Liverpool
Location: 
LILA, New Barrett House, 47 North John Street
Extra info: 
Plus downloads
Learning Listening in Liverpool

Many students studying English want (or even need) to be able to understand the spontaneous, unscripted speech they find themselves immersed in as people chat away around them. For students schooled on a diet of scripted ELT material the challenge is truly daunting; for teachers wishing to help, the unruly nature of conversational spoken English makes it difficult to know where to start.

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