8 strategies to support students with building listening skills.

Improving listening skills is a multi-faceted process which involves more than just identifying words used in a conversation.

Listening is so ephemeral. You hear the communicated piece of information but as soon as it stops, it’s gone, there’s nothing to hang onto, you loose total control compared to Speaking, Writing or Reading. With reading, it’s there, you can read it as many times as you need, you can look for clues and context, you can work out from what’s around the word or sentence, but listening, there’s nothing left once it is spoken. It’s gone. And that lack of control leads to frustration and feeling of being incompetent and that leads to embarrassment and avoidance.

Students need to be taught to listen and process the information they hear.

This resource can help you teach students to listen. It can be used as a whole class activity as a partner while doing listening tasks. It can be printed off in A5 and stuck at the back of the books to be used as a checklist for students. It can be used as a checklist for homework tasks or to build confidence in tackling listening tasks.
It can be refered to during lessons every time you practise listening

10 steps lesson plan.
The invisible lesson plan models the thinking behind what we do as language teachers.
“It’s not so much what teachers do, it’s how they think about what they do that matters” John Hattie.

This can be a visual aid in an office, in your teacher planner, it can be used when mentoring another teacher.

This document can be used as a classroom poster or a printed version in students books to help them be autonomous with their language learning.

I print off copies for students in A5 and hand them out at the start of the year. Students stick it at the back of their book.

We spend a whole lesson around mid-end of September on metacognition and I use the document to model how to be an efficient language learner, boost autonomy, self efficacy and enhance the learning. We use what we have learnt so far in September and apply the techniques mentioned.

For the rest of the year, I use it INSTEAD of extension activities (Which I think have very little value) So instead of planning and giving extension activities, I train students to use any extra time to go back to the document in their book and apply metacognition strategies to enhance their learning and deepen their understanding of the language.

I also use it as a homework tool when I set vocabulary to learn or general revisions.

Teaching and Learning resource
This poster can be used as a display or a summary in teachers’ planners.
Stretch and Challenge is a vast aspect, throughout the lesson, ongoing, it’s every question we ask, it’s every question we choose NOT to answer by sending back the questions, it’s a whole attitude to keep students hooked throughout the lesson.
Ask yourself:
Am I helping students think harder, or just work longer?
Is this task stretching thinking, or simply filling time?
Am I doing the thinking for them, or sending it back?
Am I building independence, or dependence on me?
Who is doing the cognitive heavy lifting in my classroom?(That familiar feeling: “I’m working harder than my students.”)
And this next question is everything.It’s the key question I ask when I plan a lesson and the main thing I look for when I visit a department or observe teaching. For me, it’s a clear indicator of a successful lesson:
Am I challenging with care, or am I keeping students busy in the classroom until I’m ready to move on? Or until their parents finish work and come to pick them up.What is the purpose of school?
Are students growing because of what I’m doing or are they simply being kept occupied?

Because there is a profound difference between doing and thinking,between real learning and the illusion of learning. So let’s explore together the difference between doing and thinking.