TESOL CALL-IS EVO17

Syllabus:

Teaching Listening: principles, techniques and technologies

 

Abstract

A lot of teachers find that listening is a tricky skill to teach. This session is your golden opportunity to ‘hack’ this skill. During this session you will design, try out and discuss a range of listening activities informed by research and expand your knowledge of online resources and tech tools for teaching listening.

Session Objectives

By the end of the session, participants will have:

  • created materials aimed to scaffold out-of-class listening and started to encourage their learners to listen out of class in a systematic way

  • analyzed what proficient listeners do and what implications this has for teaching listening

  • looked at a framework for listening lessons and analyzed the principles that guide the choice of listening tasks

  • increased their repertoire of listening activities, including activities that make use of technology

  • collected a library of online tools, resources and websites that can be used to address the common listening problems and that are useful in their contexts

  • had hands-on experience using the activities and the tools in their contexts, reflected on this experience and received support and feedback from course moderators and other course participants

  • engaged in discussions and shared their tips on teaching listening with and without technology

Target audience

Both experienced and inexperienced teachers of teenage and adult learners who are prepared to dedicate up to 5-7 hours a week to the session.

Certificate

To qualify for a certificate of participation, you need to participate in all discussion tasks during at least three weeks out of five.

Syllabus

Weekly Content

Week 1   (Jan 8-14, 2017)

Introduction

The participants will:

  • introduce themselves and start interacting with the course moderators and other participants

  • get familiarized with the course platform

Autonomous listening out of class

The participants will

  • participate in a live session with Lizzie Pinard (8 January at 4 PM GMT) and read materials on establishing an out-of-class listening scheme

  • share (via a discussion question) their favourite listening resources for out-of-class listening (both authentic resources and resources aimed at language learners) and explore resources shared by the course moderators and other course participants

  • create a plan/log for scaffolding their learners’ out of class listening in order to (optionally) launch this listening scheme with one of their groups (opportunities to report on the learners’ attitude and progress will be provided during Weeks 2 and 4), using the log template provided.

  • share the materials they’ve created, receive feedback from the course moderators and other course participants;

  • leave feedback on other course participants’ work

Week 2  (Jan 15-21, 2017)

Traditional listening lesson framework: Dos and Don’ts

The participants will

  • Participate in a live session with Elena Wilkinson (15 January at 4 PM GMT), during which they will
    (1) analyze the core structure and discuss the dos and don’t for a traditional listening lesson
    (2) discuss the main differences between classroom and real life listening
    (3) find out ways to make the classroom listening experience more learner-centered and life-like

  • read and watch a short video related to teaching listening and compare it to their own approach to teaching listening

  • design a listening activity/lesson based on authentic material and, optionally, try it out in class

  • share their activity/lesson plan and handouts (and reflection, if they have tried it) and get feedback from the course moderators and other participants

  • leave feedback on other participants’ work
  • follow up on the work they started during Week 1: revisit their out of class listening schemes by sharing a link to their autonomous listening plan (including logged notes on progress made with it) and commenting on other participants’ plan/progress.

Week 3   (Jan 22-28, 2017)

Beyond the comprehension approach: critical thinking and high order thinking (HOT) listening tasks

The participants will

  • participate in a live session with Jennie Wright (22 January at 4 PM GMT) during which they will:

(1) try out a variety of high order thinking (HOT) listening tasks

(2) discuss ways of implementing high order tasks in the classroom

  • learn five key terms on the topic of critical thinking;
  • watch a short video related to critical thinking and evaluate current listening tasks;
  • read about critical thinking in language teaching (free pdf booklet) and share your evaluation of your favourite task from the booklet;
  • design a high order thinking listening activity and, if possible, try out the activity in class;
  • share their activity (and reflection, if they have tried it) and get feedback from the course moderators and other participants;
  • leave feedback on other participants’ work.

Week 4  (Jan 29-Feb 4, 2017)

Beyond the comprehension approach: decoding skills

The participants will

  • participate in a live session with Richard Cauldwell and Sheila Thorn (29 January at 4 PM GMT) during which they will present two approaches to teaching ‘bottom-up’ skills (also known as decoding skills): the use of authentic recordings, and the use of vocal gymnastics and look at research and examples that demonstrate the importance of teaching decoding skills;
  • read and watch videos about the typical ways in which English words and expressions differ from their ‘dictionary’ forms in real, authentic speech (so called features of connected speech);
  • try out a software tool that makes it easier to analyze pronunciation in authentic recordings by making it possible to quickly find and play individual sentences and words;
  • analyze features of connected speech in several authentic extracts, in order to gain confidence that they can clarify these features to their learners;
  • leave feedback on other participants’ work
  • follow up on the work they started during Week 1: revisit their out of class listening schemes by sharing a link to their autonomous listening plan (including logged notes on progress made with it) and commenting on other participant’s plan/progress.

 

Week 5  (Feb 5-11, 2017)

Practical activities for teaching listening decoding skills

The participants will

  • participate in a live session on 5 February 4 PM GMT with Olya Sergeeva during which they will
    (1) discuss how to incorporate working on listening decoding activities into your lessons and syllabus
    (2) try out a variety of listening decoding activities
    (3) watch and discuss videos of teachers demonstrating work on listening decoding skills
    (4) look at some software tools that you could use to create listening decoding activities

  • read about practical listening decoding activities and watch lesson fragments showing work on decoding skills;

  • try out two software tools that make it easier to teach decoding skills;

  • design a listening decoding activity for their learners (and, optionally, try it out in class);

  • share their activity (and, optionally, a recording if available and a reflection, if they tried it) and get feedback from the course moderators and other participants;

  • leave feedback on other participants’ work

Conclusion

The participants will

  • evaluate the session

  • reflect which ideas and tips presented during the session were the most useful and plan how they will develop further as a teacher of listening

 

Session Communication Tools

1. Moodle4teachers course

2. Facebook group (optional)

Other technology tools:
Week 1:
Listening resources aimed at language learners, such as

Authentic listening resources (youtube channels, podcasts, etc)

Week 2:

  • any technology for the learners to play audio/video files (e.g. the learners’ phones: BYOT – bring your own technology);
  • speech recorders, e.g. in a mobile phone;

Weeks 4 and 5: