August 4: Listening activities

     This Monday Allen gave us some really good listening activities which are interesting and engaging. Here is what we have done:

    We tried to use songs in classroom teaching. There are various ways to use songs, such as rearranging the order of the lyrics of the song and filling in the blanks of the lyrics. 

    We first tried out the activity of rearranging the order of lyrics. Students will be presented with the lyrics in disorder. Before they listen to the song, they are asked to carry out a discussion in groups about how to put these lyrics in correct order. There are actually many dimensions behind this simple activity. Students need to work on the language, i.e. the collation, grammar, phrasal verbs, prepositions, clauses, etc. Also, they have to pay attention to discourse markers or clues, i.e. connection within the text, as well as the logic of meaning. A well-chosen song will be a good motivation in classroom teaching.

    Another way to use songs in classroom teaching is to fill in blanks in lyrics. Again, before listening to the song, students are asked to infer what word may or should fit in the blank. This is a good way to teach rhymes. Because the charm of music, it may be a good way to teach new vocabulary as well. The beautiful melody will reduce the dullness of learning. When the song is repeated again and again for the student to get the right answer to whether the rearrangement task or filling-in task, the repetition helps the memory of the new words. 

    The last step we tried for this series is to use gestures to visualize the song. When the whole song is complete, students will be asked to think of different gestures to represent the lyrics and then act it out. This again, helps to remember any new words in the song. These activities have hidden benefits. It can achieve the effect of enhancing classroom atmosphere and thus, increasing motivation for next listening. 

     Next series of activity is to listen to a conversation. Before listening to the conversation, the students will do brainstorming activity first. For example, what we are going to listen is about finding an apartment to rent. First, think of the elements that will be of your concern when you're looking for a flat. (cost, utilities, location, neighborhood, gas central heating...) Then make a dialogue with your partner and see how many aspects you have covered. Next, listen to the dialogue to find out which aspects we listed are covered in the dialogue and which are not. Go over the dialogue and ask students to pay attention to the language used---how the man asks the details about the flat, what sentence patterns are used here. And the last step is to find a situation in which we can apply the language. 

     It has been a very productive morning. I think we can absolutely try out these activities in our classroom and make some adjustments if necessary. 

     Dear colleagues, please feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong.