My teaching career began in Liverpool, way back in 1979, where I worked as a secondary school teacher of History. I taught all ages and levels, but found myself particularly intrigued by the challenges of pupils who seemed to lack motivation.
Out & About is a two-level course which provides solid language development and prepares students for real life and the world in which they will live as adults.
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?
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.
English UK North Academic Conference 2015, Liverpool
Location:
LILA, New Barrett House, 47 North John Street
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Plus downloads
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.
On the surface of it, unscripted language is a total mess, and it's a wonder that anybody can understand any of it. It stops and starts, interrupts and stumbles, slows and accelerates, and generally breaks all the grammar rules you’ve ever learnt. So, how can we help learners to make sense of it?
It’s nearly time for the 38th TESOL-Spain National Convention, where this year, as well as catching up with friends, I’ll be presenting on Learning Listening: The challenge of unscripted language.
This is a sample lesson from Authentic Listening Resource Pack based on a video in which Alan interviews Maria and Ning about university life in their home countries, Russia and China.
This is an authentic listening activity based on a video recording of a 3-minute lecture. Swiss scientist Bechara Saab talks about the possibility of a colony on Mars.
None of us throw our class into a listening unprepared, do we? It would be unfair - after all, in real life, we're normally listening with certain expectations. But often in ELT, our pre-listening activities are limited to a bit of discussion of the topic and maybe some pre-teaching of new vocabulary.
This is a sample lesson from our book Authentic Listening Resource Pack (Delta Publishing). You will find the photocopiable lesson on PDF below, as well as the audio material as a downloadable mp3 file.
