TEACHING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

GIF animations generator gifup.com


Teaching listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for me as a teacher. I think it is because good listening skills take a long time to be acquired and with lots of practice. It's also difficult for students, because there are no rules as in grammar teaching.
One of the inhibitors for students is often mental block due to lack of practice. While listening, students say they don't understand what is being said, because they want to understand every word and then translate it, which takes a lot of time. As a result they easily give up and listening turns into something frustrating for them, as well as for us.
The key to helping students improve their listening skills is to show them that they don't have to understand everything. I try to teach my students that they need to listen to English as often as possible outside the classaroom. This is not difficult as they usually listen to anglo-american music music, and watch movies quite often.

Listening skills are really important to develop. Of the 'four skills,' listening is by far the most frequently used. Although listening and speaking are often taught together, beginner/elementary students should be given more listening than speaking practice.

There are many types of listening activities. For example:
- Students can be asked to "Close the door" with a physical response;
- Students select an appropriate picture or object;
- Students choose the correct letter or word on a worksheet;
- Students draw a route on a map;
- Students fill in a chart;
- Students continue a story, solve a problem;

These are some activities, but there are much more, of course.
We all (teachers) know how difficult it is to get good listening materials for our students, so next time I'll post a list of listening resources here.

EYE ON IDIOMS 2

GIF animations generator gifup.com

Some weeks ago I promised I would write about one of my favourite topics again: idioms. They are not as often brought up in ESL lessons as they should (teaching speaking also involves teaching some idioms). They are not easy to teach, I know. Sometimes I use short texts to introduce them (usually related with a topic). Here is an example (the topic is the present economic crisis!):

On the Dole
Unfortunately the economic crisis means more people are out of work, because firms and factories are firing more people every day. So, presently a lot of people are on the dole. The present number of job seekers is increasing by the minute...

Well, you could go on introducing more idioms on the topic. I then ask the students to guess the meaning of the expressions in bold. Sometimes I ask them to write a short text or some sentences using the idioms they learned. The most creative ones come up with funny stories. Or you culd ask them to "draw" the idioms as in the animation above.
I found this interesting pps (www.worldofteaching.com). It´s another way of teaching them. You could ask the students to create one like this.

Idiom Dictionary

WORKING WITH SONGS - EXAMPLE

As I previously promised, here is an example of a worksheet on the song "Empire State of Mind" (Alicia keys).
First I used some pictures to introduce some vocabulary to help them understand the song. Then they had to listen to the lyrics and correct some mistakes, finally they had to answer some questions on the story of the song. "Empire State of Mind" was used with level 3 students and I tell you ... it was a success. They practised listening, they sang an they had fun! Motivated students are easy to teach.




empire state of mind ws

HOW TO MOTIVATE TEENAGERS - USING SONGS IN THE CLASSROOM

Music is a great language tool that bundles culture, vocabulary, listening, grammar and a great variety of other language skills in just a few rhymes. Music can also provide a relaxed lesson for teenagers.
English songs can be used for a wide variety of learning and teaching activities. They can start discussions on a topic or even become the centre of debate.
Most songs reflect the background of the singer, why not do activities on something like varieties of modern English; or as an introduction to a topic to be studied.
Songs are also great for teaching listening, of course.
You can also teach grammar with songs in many ways.

I try to use up to date songs that are within the students' interests, because it's halfway to motivation. In the following grid you can find some examples of songs and how they can be explored (research by I.S. and S.P.):

Songs

EYE ON IDIOMS

Isn't it nice when an expression translates easily into English? It really is a "piece of cake". For instance, if you are living in London on a tight budget, you may "struggle to make ends meet", I wonder if you can get the idea!
Sometimes expressions are not quite the same and the changes can be amusing. Suppose you have a cold and your voice is hoarse. The English would say "I've got a frog in my throat". When someting is impossible to happen, we (the Portuguese) use an expression about chicken having teeth. In this case, in English you would say "when pigs fly".

There's a whole world of idioms in English to explore. They are widely and mostly uded in spoken Elglish. So, if you want to become a fluent speaker of English, study them and use them!

I'll be back with other commom idioms.

A PROJECT WORK

I created this project work on "Teenage Tribes" for 8th grade students. I like using projects with my students for many reasons:
1. Projects allow students to use their imagination;
2. They can help develop a full range of the learners’ capabilities.
3. Projects motivate students. They offer students a way of practicing their English while having fun.
4. It is also a way to develop students' computer skills.

I wasn't really worried about language mistakes, because language accuracy wasn't really the main aim. I just wanted them to research on a teenage topic (something they really enjoy), use their imagination and have fun doing creating a powerpoint presentation on their findings!
I'll post some of their works pretty soon.



Project Work

TEACHING VOCABULARY

Ran out of ideas to teach vocabulary?
Well, here are some ideas to teach new words/expressions:


Vocabulary Build

Aim of the activity

To brainstorm vocabulary

Preparation

Prepare a selection of pictures to illustrate a vocabulary area you would like to brainstorm.
Stick them to a larger piece of paper.
For example:
Food you eat in Winter
Food you eat on special occasions
Food you eat in Summer
Food you don't like
Get a selection of coloured pens - preferably a different colour for each group of students.

Procedure
Divide the students into groups of 3 or 4.
Hand out a picture to each group and ask them to write as many words or expressions connected with this area of vocabulary as they can. If they don't know the word for something in English, they should draw it. Give them a coloured pen to write with. Set a time limit of a few minutes.
When the time limit is up, ask them to pass their picture onto the next group.
Tell each group to write as many words or expressions as possible connected with their new picture, but not including any that the previous group have written. Tell them to stop writing after a few minutes and pass their picture on to the next group. Continue this procedure until all the groups have seen all the pictures. With the class, look at each picture in turn, discussing, providing and correcting vocabulary, where necessary.


Gift words

Aim of the activity

To practise recently learnt vocabulary in a fun and positive way.

Preparation

Ask the students to pick out some words they feel need reviewing from recent work and to check they know what they mean.

Procedure

Tell them to put the words each on a slip of paper, and to write on each slip the name of a person in the group for whom the word would be an appropriate gift. Everyone now gets up and mills around, giving the words away. If the receiver of a word does not understand it, the giver should explain the meaning, and the reason for the gift.

HAVE FUN!