Since we trust that you have worked on the first part of the elwa course 'Sustainable language teaching and learning' before starting this course, we won't explain our understanding of foreign language teaching and learning again. Neither will we introduce the different tools of teacher learning again, since we have already done so quite thoroughly in the previous part. However, we will give all participants the chance to introduce themselves and to get into touch with other colleagues. Moreoever we will include an overview of both parts of the course for all of you to remember what you have read and heard about in part 1.
Instead of using pre-configured CDs with standard questions it might be worth looking at other available audio tools, e.g. from youtube. It might open a more deliberate way of listening to native speakers in authentic or even current situations of interest. Pupils can get used of other voices and dialects also. Questions can be created according to the classes’s level accordingly.
I remember those CDs from my own school days as a student… they were awful and felt very unnatural, obviously staged and poorly acted.
An alternative could be real dialogues between native speakers like (age appropriate) podcasts or maybe YouTube videos by children/teens around the same age as the students.
I also remember those artificial dialogues played for the sole purpose of being played in the classroom during a lesson. It was just another type of exercise that was supposed to prepare us for the final exams. Luckily, the approach to teaching and developing listening skills is changing and is becoming more student-oriented. I’m glad to be part of this change.
I feel the same way (like Tobias and Karolina) about those poor, unnatural recordings and the difficulty to relate to and understand the content.
The comments already offer great ideas for diverse authentic listening sources for students.
If you have native speakers as colleagues you could invite them to your class and have them have a conversation or discussion in front of the class (guided by the level of the class and also towards a specific topic).
You could also do an “audio exchange project” with a school in an English speaking country.
It was the same at my school, too.
The idea of an “audio exchange project” is definitely a great idea, as well as inviting colleagues speaking different dialects and using audio books would help to keep it authentic.
Maybe even enacting different dialects and speaking about how it feels and find out if the students notice a difference while changing intonation, etc.
During the work on our Hausarbeit we were thinking about getting students connected with students in other parts of the world in order to hear some authentic voices. We thought it might be more fun for them to hear from others their age as opposed to just listen to a CD and tick off answers.
6 Comments
Instead of using pre-configured CDs with standard questions it might be worth looking at other available audio tools, e.g. from youtube. It might open a more deliberate way of listening to native speakers in authentic or even current situations of interest. Pupils can get used of other voices and dialects also. Questions can be created according to the classes’s level accordingly.
I remember those CDs from my own school days as a student… they were awful and felt very unnatural, obviously staged and poorly acted.
An alternative could be real dialogues between native speakers like (age appropriate) podcasts or maybe YouTube videos by children/teens around the same age as the students.
I also remember those artificial dialogues played for the sole purpose of being played in the classroom during a lesson. It was just another type of exercise that was supposed to prepare us for the final exams. Luckily, the approach to teaching and developing listening skills is changing and is becoming more student-oriented. I’m glad to be part of this change.
I feel the same way (like Tobias and Karolina) about those poor, unnatural recordings and the difficulty to relate to and understand the content.
The comments already offer great ideas for diverse authentic listening sources for students.
If you have native speakers as colleagues you could invite them to your class and have them have a conversation or discussion in front of the class (guided by the level of the class and also towards a specific topic).
You could also do an “audio exchange project” with a school in an English speaking country.
It was the same at my school, too.
The idea of an “audio exchange project” is definitely a great idea, as well as inviting colleagues speaking different dialects and using audio books would help to keep it authentic.
Maybe even enacting different dialects and speaking about how it feels and find out if the students notice a difference while changing intonation, etc.
During the work on our Hausarbeit we were thinking about getting students connected with students in other parts of the world in order to hear some authentic voices. We thought it might be more fun for them to hear from others their age as opposed to just listen to a CD and tick off answers.