Tài liệu Simpe Listening Activities

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basics Jill Hadfield Charles Hadfield Simple Listening Activities Jill Hadfield Charles Hadfield OXTORD IINIVERSITY PRESS Contents Foreword ALAN MALBY lntroductlon Actlvltles L Greetings and introductions 2 The alphabet 3 Numbers 4 T.lliog the time 5 Personal information 6 Countries 7 Nationalities 8 Locating objects 9 Feelings 10 Families U. Colours L2 Shapes 13 Parts of the body L4 Describing people 15 Clothes 16 Rooms in a flat L7 Furniture 18 In town 19 Directions 20 In the market 2L Shopping 22 Food and drink 23 Leisure activities 24 Daily routines 25 Jobs 26 Housework ' 27 Abilities 28 Rules:'must'and'mustn't' 29 Describing actions I 30 Describing actions 2 Foreword There is a formidable range of materials published worldwide for teachers of English as a Foreign Language. However, many of these materials, especially those published in English-speaking countries, assume that the teachers using them will be working with smallish classes and have abundant resources available to them. AIso many, if not most, of these materials make implicit culturally-biased assumptions about the beliefs and values of the teachers and learners. This situation is ironic in view of the fact that the vast majority of English as a Foreign Language classrooms do not correspond at all to these conditions. Typically, classes are large, resources are limited, and teachers have very few opportunities for training and professional development. AIso, the cultural assumptions of teachers and learners in many parts of the world may .vary quite significantly from those of materials writers and publishers. This book is an attempt to address this situation. The authors present 30 lessons at elementary level, each with the same methodological framework. The lessons are explained in cleat accessible language, and none of them require sophisticated resources. Instead, they call on the basic human resources which all teachers and learners bring with them to class. The language points covered are ones found in a typical elementary course, and the topics are those which form part of everybody's daily lives, for example families, homes, and leisure activities. Most importantly, however, the book offers a framework for teachers who lack training and support. The hope and the expectation is that such teachers will begin by following each step of a lesson quite closely but, as their confidence increases, will adapt and add to the techniques presented here, responding to the particular needs and abilities of their learners. This is an important book one of the few attempts to address the problems of the'silent majority' of teachers worldwide who have little or no training, and few resources to work with. ALAN MALEY Assumption University Bangkok, Thailand Introduction English is taught all over the world, by all sorts of teachers to all sorts of learners. Schools and classrooms vary enormously in their wealth and their provision of equipment. Learners arevery different from place to place. But, whatever the conditions in which you are working, there is one resource which is universal and unlimited: the human mind and imagination. This is probably the one single most valuable teaching and learning resource we have. Nothing can replace it. In even the most'hi-tech'environment, a lack of imagination and humanity will make the most up-to-date and sophisticated resources seem dull; conversely, the most simple resources can be the most exciting and useful. We have been fortunate to spend quite a lot of our time working not only in'hi-tech'environments with computers and video, but also in classrooms where there is little more than blackboard and chalk and some out-of-date coursebooks. Some of our most interesting learning and teaching experiences (as Confucius said, a teacher is'always ready to teach; always ready to learn') have been not in the comfortable well-resourced small classrooms of a private language school, but in classrooms where only the minimum of equipment has been available. Equally, some of our most memorable teaching experiences in'hi-tech' classrooms have been when we have abandoned the cassette or video or glossy coursebook and got to work with that most precious resource of all, the learners'own experience and imagination. Teachers often have to use materials which are out of date, or contain subject-matter irrelevant to their particular group of learners. For example, we have had great difficulty explaining the concepts of the fridge -freezer and microwave oven to Tibetans. In the same way, learners who have spent all their lives in northern countries might have difficulty with an exercise from an African textbook which asks if they prefer yam or cassava. So over the last few years we have been trying to design materials which can be used in as wide a range of teaching situations as possible. The activities we suggest are as flexible as the human imagination is creative; they are 'teacher resource material'which teachers will be able to adjust to suit their particular environment. In thinking about universally applicable,'lo-tech' materials we have come up with a list of criteria that need to be met. The materials will need to: be usable in large classes as well as small. be suitable for adult learners as well as secondary learners, and if possible easily adaptable to a primary context. be centered on the universals of human experience. Introduction aaa"" Warm-up cover the main language skills and have a useful base of grammar and topic vocabulary. be traditional enough to be recognizable by all teachers, and thus give them a sense gf security, while providing communicative activities for learners. be non-threatening in the demands they make on learners. be teacher-based'resource material' rather than books for learners. assume that no technical and reprographic resources are available and be based on the human resource rather than the technical. be culturally neutral, not context-bound, and thus be flexible, easily adaptable by the teachers to their own culture and teaching context. be flexible enough to complement a standard syllabus or coursebook. Simple Listening Activities This book contains thirty activities, designed according to the criteria above, for developing the listening skill at elementary level. Each activity has three main stages: Warm-up-This introduces the learners to the topic and focuses their attention. Listen and respond-This is the main part of the activity. The learners listen to a text and respond to what they hear in a variety of ways. Follow-up-This stage gives the learners the opportunity to practise what they have learned using the other language skills. Before the learners listen to a text, it is very important to prepare them by doing a'warm-up'activity. This means giving them some idea of what the text is going to be about, either by telling them or asking them to guess. Before you begin the activity, you may also want to pre-teach difficult new vocabulary. But don't pre-teach all the new vocabulary. Guessing new words is an important listening skill and it is a good idea to give the learners some practice in this. Prepare the text before the lesson and decide which words would be easy for your learners to guess and which would be difficult. Pre-teach only those words which would be difficult or impossible to guess from the context, but which are essential for understanding the text. Leave the others and try to get the learners to guess what they mean-don't do all the work for them!You can explain diffrcult words or expressions later on in the lesson. Introduction Warm-up activities should be very short-they should take not more than about five minutes. All you are aiming to do is to get the learners interested in the topic and familiarize them with some vocabulary. Listen and respond Mary learners find it diffrcult to develop the listening skill. Why is this? One reason is that learners may not often hear-or at least need to understand-spoken English outside the classroom. The best way to improve their confidence is to provide them with regular listening practice. It may be that you are worried about your own English, that it is not of 'native speaker'standard. But it is much more important that your learners should have practice in listening than that they should always listen to a so-called'perfect' model. After all, it is likely that they will often need to understand non-native speakers when they use English in the outside world. If possible, though, it is good for them to have practise in listening to a variety of voices speaking English. In a few activities which include dialogues, for example 5'Personal information' and 21 'Shopping', we have suggested that you invite a colleague to act out the dialogue with you. Another reason is that learners try to understand every word and get completely lost, because during the time they have spent worrying about one phrase or word, the speaker has said three or four more sentences. Always ask yoursel('What is the main message of this text? What are the main points?' Concentrate first of all on helping the learners to understand those main points. Only then, if necessarS should you focus on details of the language. There are many different techniques which can be used to encourage learners to listen for the main points. For example: * Listen and complefs-lsa1ng1s listen and use the information given to complete a picture, map, diagram, table, or chart. w Listen and correct-Learners listen to a text which contains a number of factual mistakes. They identify and then correct the mistakes. rt!t; Listen and do-Learners listen to a series of instructions or actions, and do tlrem as they hear them. :s Listen and draw-Learners listen to a description of a person, place, or object and draw it as they listen. r; Listen and guess-Learners listen to a description of a person, place, or object and guess what it is. &. Listen and match-Learners listen to a description and match it to, for example, pictures, people, objects, or places. Introduction 7. 2 Listen and reorder-Learners listen to some information and use it to put some pictures or sentences in the correct order. There are examples of all these techniques in this book. Materials A listening text is provided in most of the activities. This may be in the form of sentences, a descriptive text, or a dialogue. In some cases, it is a good idea to adapt the text to suit your teaching situation and the learners you are working with. For example in 20 'In the market', the lesson will be more interesting for the lg31ng15-3nd they will learn more-if you describe the kinds of food that they see and eat every day. In the case of some texts, especially those where you are describing your own experiences and preferences, for example 22'Food and drink'it is better if you talk from notes rather than reading out a text. Practise on your own, using just the notes to help you speak, until you feel confident. Even if you do need to follow a text closely, it is important to become familiar with it before the lesson. In several of the activities, we have provided pictures, plans, or charts for you to copy. These may be drawn on the board, on large pieces of paper ('posters'), or on pieces of card ('flashcards'). In the case of large pictures and plans, posters have obvious advantages over drawings on the board: you can prepare them in advance and they can be stored and used again. Try to find a cheap source of large sheets of paper for posters. In Madagascar, for example, the teachers we worked with found the sheets of paper used for wrapping vegetables in the market were ideal for making posters. A good way to fix posters or flashcards to the board is to pin a length of string along the top of the board like a clothes-line. You can then use clothes-pegs to peg your posters to the string! Real objects or'realia' can be used as an alternative to drawings, for example in 12'Shapes'and 20'In the market'. Procedure During this stage of the activity the learners are first encouraged to listen for the main points in a text, and only after they have done this to listen in detail. The procedure stage has five basic steps: Explain clearly what you want the learners to do and check that they have understood before going on. When you are sure that the learners have understood what to do, read the text or act out the dialogue without stopping. Tiy to speak as naturally as possible-as if you were telling a story or talking on the telephone-rather than just reading out loud. The first time you present the text, the learners should just listen. 4 5 Introduction The second time you present the text, get the learners to do the task while they listen. You may need to read, or act it out, more than once for the learners to complete the task successfully. Again, remember not to stop. Get the learners to check their answers in pairs. Then check the answers yourself with the whole class. Only now is it time for the learners to listen to the text or parts of it-in detail and for you to help them with the words and expressions that they found hardest to understand. Sometimes you can predict what these will be and have explanations ready, but sometimes you will not know what gave them most difficulty until they tell you. (Alternatively, they might even have found it so easy that you have little explaining to do!) This stage of the lesson involves a lot of interaction between you and the class as you find out what gave them trouble and help them with it. Here are some things you can do at this stage: Check the answers and write them on the board as the learners give them to you. Then go over the text again, re-reading the relevant phrases and explaining anything the learners still don't understand. Choose some parts of the text to work on in detail, for example a sentence that seemed particularly difficult. Put a series of blanks on the board, one for each word in the sentence: (If you want to make this easier, you can write some words in.) Read that part of the text again, asking the learners to fill in as many words as they can. Build up the sentence with the class until all the gaps have been filled. When the meaning of a word can be guessed from the context, repeat the phrase or sentence in which it occurs and ask the learners to guess what the word means, or to suggest other words that could replace it. Select some useful phrases or expressions from the listening, write them on the board, and ask the learners if they know the meaning. If not, explain it to them. Give the learnerS copies of the listening text or write it on the board. Let them read and listen at the same time. This is a useful technique because it helps them to relate the spoken and the written word. However, don't use it too often, or the learners will put less effort into understanding the text earlier in the activity. Introduction Follow'up If there is time after you have completed the listening activity, you can follow it up with an activity from another skill area, for example speaking or writing. This gives the learners the opportunity to practise what they have learned and helps them establish relationships between the different language skills. Building a lesson There are two companion books to this one, Presenting New Language and Simple Speaking Activities. Each of these also contains thirty activities, and in all three books the topics and the language presented and practised correspond. So, for example, activity I in all three books is about'Greetings and introductions' and activity 30 is about'Describing actions'. The activities in each book are graded, following a basic structural syllabus. This means that you can design your own lesson or sequence of lessons using material from one, two, or all three books, depending on your learners' needs and the time available. [...].. .Activities Greetings and introductions LANGUAGE Hello My name's What's your name? Nice to meet you rEcHNIeuE Listen and reorder MATERTALs The dialogue below; the pictures below, on a poster or on the board . syllabus or coursebook. Simple Listening Activities This book contains thirty activities, designed according to the criteria above, for developing the listening skill at elementary. basics Jill Hadfield Charles Hadfield Simple Listening Activities Jill Hadfield Charles Hadfield OXTORD IINIVERSITY PRESS Contents Foreword ALAN. If possible, though, it is good for them to have practise in listening to a variety of voices speaking English. In a few activities which include dialogues, for example 5'Personal