International TEFL InstituteListening Lessons & Resources
Listening lessons have advanced drastically over the last few years. The idea has finally taken hold that what students need isn’t standard English, the Queen’s English or simple English. What is most important is that they hear natural English. That means giving them the opportunity to listen to the variety of accents we have in native English-speaking countries. Think of the accents in the UK alone!!
But it’s not just that, these days it is just as important for your students to practise hearing French, Indian or Chinese people speaking English. The world is a small place and English is the language of science, business, medicine and tourism. For example, a German person will use English to communicate with his/her Spanish contractor. Most nationalities have their own issues and quirks with English pronunciation so it is important your students become accustomed to them.
Similar to reading lessons, there is an abundance of different resources to build a listening lesson around. Be open-minded and take the time to look on the internet. Technology is starting to play a more and more significant role in the classroom so resources such as YouTube become really useful.
Some ideas
Standard recorded scenarios/conversations
Incorporated into nearly every coursebook are the standard recorded scenarios. The difference is these days they are actually pretty good! They are great because they are real situations, they have already started to use different accents and they have even added realistic background noise to add authenticity.
Songs
I don’t think I have met many students who don’t like using songs as listening exercises. The skill is finding a song the students are interested in but also matches the language level of the students. Remember it is not what you like. For kids think of Shakira and for older students, go back in time to songs they were interested in during their youth.
Using one of the million lyric sites on the internet, you can take the lyrics and put them onto a Word document (please make sure you pick the lyrics that match the exact version of the song you are going to be playing). Then, you blank out words in the text, replacing them with a line for the student to write the word into. Normally, one space on each line or one every 2-3 lines, depending on the level of students and the complexity of the song. Then, you play the song 2-3 times, asking them to fill in the missing spaces.
Films/Series
Using YouTube and similar sites, you have access to short films. Here you can find clips of comedy sketches or classic movie scenes. There is actually more relevant content than you have ideas for, it’s just a matter of researching and testing what will work.
These days publishing companies have caught on and have started to produce special packs for TEFL classrooms. You can have the DVD box set of popular or classic TV series together with the script already partitioned into lessons and accompanying comprehension questions and tasks associated with the part of the episode they have just watched. It’s both enjoyable and realistic.
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