Teaching ESL Listening

One of the ideas brought up when discussing teaching listening, is that it has only recently become acknowledged as a separate skill from speaking. This way of thinking has likely inhibited language learning and is something that educators should make sure to give the attention it deserves. Since listening is a crucial skill needed to learn and use a language, there are several aspects of this skill that I feel must be considered when teaching language. Three of these focus areas should be the factors involved in listening, having students become familiar with listening in its different types, and preparing students to engage in authentic speech. Regardless of the methods used to teach listening, these focus areas should be given considerable thought to help ensure that students are able to learn and perform at their highest potential when listening to their second language. 

In order to teach listening in an effective manner, teachers should consider the factors of listening that will be present. “Tips for Teaching Listening: A Practical Approach” categorized these factors as being Listener, Linguistic, and Situational. A proper understanding of the factors in each of these categories can help an educator to create activities and scenarios where students can properly practice and develop their listening skills. As an example, a teacher wants to play a video where someone is speaking about a historical event. Some of the factors that the educator should consider are how proficient the listeners are in English, how fast is the speaker in the video going to be talking, and if the speaker is saying anything that may be unrelated to the actual context of the video. While more factors should be considered, these three all address the Listener, Linguistic, and Situational factors. If the listeners are new learners, the speaker should not be using complex terminology and should explain things in a simpler way. If they are speaking too quickly, the listeners may not be able to keep up and lose pieces of the meaning of what the speaker is saying. If the speaker begins to discuss things that are unrelated to the historical event, the listeners may not be able to differentiate the main ideas and points the speaker talks about. Understanding the Listener, Linguistic, and Situational factors when teaching listening should be a priority for teachers when deciding ways to help students work on their listening skills. 

For language students, it is important to understand and have the chance to practice being listeners in their different types. Since speaking and listening are not limited to just one format, students should be exposed to all forms when learning. Some of these different formats include casual conversations, lectures, and entertainment. For language learners, being able to listen effectively in these different forms is important. For instance, casual conversation would require listeners to have knowledge of a larger variety of topics and be able to listen and respond properly while a lecture would focus on one subject area and often depend less on response and focus more on listening for main points. Contrary to these two forms, entertainment sources can be a passive way for learners to practice listening. For instance, they can listen to music and try to learn the words of a song or watch a movie and listen to what is being said in order to follow the plot of the movie. Finding ways to incorporate these types of listening with lesson plans can help an educator give learners the chance to practice listening in various forms. 

Preparing students for authentic speech is, in my opinion, the most important thing to consider when teaching students a language. Regardless of how much we do to help students learn a language, being able to listen and understand the authentic day-to-day speech that we find ourselves in is important for learners. In order to do this, educators should tailor learning activities to replicate authentic speech. One way to do so could be to use unscripted dialogue. This could be done between a teacher and student, between two students, or in small groups. To help keep things simple and focused, the dialogue can be based on a specific topic. Referring back to my previous example, students could watch the video with the person speaking about a historical event. Students could discuss among themselves what they found interesting in the video, what they understood from it, and why this historical event was important. If done in pairs or small groups, students could then share with the teacher and the rest of the class, allowing for even more open discussion where they can practice listening to other speakers. Keeping the discussion open rather than focusing on specific points, allows for a larger variety of discussion and therefore a larger scope of listening opportunities. 

The importance of listening skills should not be ignored and undervalued when teaching language. As an educator, one should desire to develop listening skills with the same focus as other aspects of language learning. By focusing on the factors that affect listening, exposing students to different types of listening scenarios, and helping students to develop and experience authentic speech, one can be confident that they are fulfilling one of the most crucial aspects of language learning. Educators who emphasize the importance of listening skills will help students to become better equipped to learn and use the language in and outside of the classroom.