4. Listening: Digital aids to improve listening skills

Dear students,

We are happy to see you back on our page. Here, you will find the information about the digital aids for improving listening skills. Our team hopes that after today's workshop you will be able to:

- see the difference between the spoken and written forms of the language;
- plan a listening lesson;
- differentiate listening subskills;
- choose appropriate materials (authentic vs. simplified) for your future students.

LET'S ANALYSE DIGITAL AIDS FOR LISTENING, SHALL WE?

TASK 1. Click the image above to watch a short 15-min video about the peculiarities of a listening lesson.

TASK 2. Have a look at and click through the following online resources that offer listening activities:

1. English Central

2.ENpodcast

3. ELLLO

4. Breaking News English

5. ESL Cyber Listening Lab 

 

6. Listening | LearnEnglish

7. TED Talks. Ideas Worth Spreading 

8. Movies with subtitles

9. Learning English TV - VOA - Voice of America English News

10. Sing Out Loud Children's Songs | American English

TASK 3. Analyze the above-mentioned applications and complete the table using the five criteria below:

1. Speed: At what speed does the speech sound? (fast, medium, slow).

2. Level of English: What is the level of English (Starter, Beginner, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate, Advanced)?

3. Presence of different exercises: Are there exercises corresponding to certain stages of working with the text to develop listening skills?

warm-ups
pre-listening
while-listening
post-listening
using headlines
working with words
moving from text to speech
role plays
task-based activities
discussions and debates

4. Presence of visual support: Is there visual support? How attractive is it? Does it distract learners from listening?

5. Assessment: Are correct answers provided to check completed exercises? Are points awarded for correct answers?

Table 1. Analysis of Listening Applications

	Application  and its link	Speed	Level of English	Presence of Different Exercises	Presence of Visual Support, subtitles	Assessment
1	Breaking News English	fast, medium, slow	0, 1, 2, 3, 4,  5, 6	lots of exercises	text	only the correct answers
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

TASK 4. Find five more applications for developing listening skills online:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

TASK 5. Highlight your favourite application for developing listening skills in the list above with the blue colour and be ready to present it during the workshop.

TASK 6. Explain in a couple of sentences which above-mentioned listening applications suit the chosen student/students best.

1. A 12-year-old girl (Beginner level).

2. A 35-year-old IT specialist (Advanced level) who wants to listen more about IT related topics.

3. A 6-year-old boy (Elementary level) who wants to play while listening.

4. A group of medical students who want to learn more medical vocabulary.

5. A musician (Pre-Intermediate level) who loves rock.

  Table 2. Character and appropriate listening application 

#	Character	Applications and their links
Example	2	Breaking News English This application has a lot of interesting stories on different topics for adults. Each story sounds on different levels (from low to advanced). There are a lot of exercises for training listening skills and vocabulary.
1
2
3
4
5

TASK 7. Theoretical quiz

Go to Task 1 and watch a video lecture again. Then, click on the image below to go to the quiz (5 questions!):

PRACTICAL TASKS

TASK 1. Creating a Google Form.

 

1. Add 5 "multiple-choice" questions of a grammar test in the form. Share it with your teacher. Make a copy of its link and paste it into the table with links. Go to 5 of your groupmates' Google Forms and answer their "multiple-choice" questions. Make screenshots of your answers and paste them into your document.

Example: Google Form (multiple-choice)

2. Add 5 "short answer" questions of a grammar test in the form. Share it with your teacher. Make a copy of its link and paste it into the table with links. Go to 5 of your groupmates' Google Forms and answer their "short answer" questions. Make screenshots of your answers and paste them into your document.

Example: Google Form (short answer)

Instructions for creating an answer file and posting it online:

1. Create a MSW Document on your computer like this:

 

 2.     Name the document by your surname, number of your group, and a type of activity (for instance, "Zubenko, listening activity")

3.  Copy the table 1 and paste it into your MSW Document.

4. Fill in the table 1.

5. Compile a list in Task 4 and write your explanation in Task 6. Copy this information to your MSW Document.

6. Upload your MSW Document to your Google Drive,

 

   7.     Share your document.

 

 8. Create a link, make copy of the link, and paste it into the table with links like this:

 

Resources

1.     https://www.englishcentral.com/myenglish/myfeed

2.     https://www.enpodcast.com/

3.     https://www.elllo.org/

4.     https://breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html

5.     https://www.esl-lab.com/vocabulary-lessons/workplace/

6.     https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening

7.     https://www.ted.com/talks

8.     https://speechyard.com/uk/video/

9.     https://learningenglish.voanews.com/z/3613

10. https://americanenglish.state.gov/resources/sing-out-loud-childrens-songs