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listening-skills

10 Ways of Teaching Effective

Listening Skills to Your Learners
Jumpstart the way you teach listening skills with these
ways.
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When it comes to teaching effective listening skills, it’s not so much about the
ears as it is about being observant. “Listen” is a single word with such big
implications. A good listener receives information, processes it, gives feedback
for clarity, and decides how they will act on it—and all this happens in a flash.

Words are simply inadequate for true communication. At best, they are
symbols for elusive deeper meanings and ideas. 

Once an idea is put into words, it

becomes less adequate than the ideal
thought. 
Once we know this, then we can search for deeper means of understanding
and empathy. Since we’re not capable of the Vulcan mind-meld (that we know
of), words are what we have.

So how does one go about teaching effective listening skills? In a word,

we model them.

Here are some barriers to watch out for which hinder the development and
honing of effective listening skills, from skillsyouneed.com. They fall under 2
categories: distractions and biases.
Distractions
 Many noises or conversations grabbing your attention at one time,
or any other close-by dominant noise such as television or music.
  Physical appearances can certainly be distracting if they evoke
extreme emotions of pleasure or displeasure.
  Disinterest causes boredom.
  Personal habits such as fiddling with your hair, fingers, or a pen.
It also includes daydreaming.
  Unmet needs such as illness, tiredness, hunger, thirst, or need to use
the toilet.
  Personal issues keep us preoccupied.

Biases
  Facts take precedence over empathy.
  Feeling sorry for someone, rather than empathizing.
  Personal prejudices such as race, gender, age, religion, accent, or
any aspect of personal appearance; and/or past experiences,
preconceived ideas or biases which make you perceive the other as
unintelligent or uncredible.
 Having a closed mind and being unable to get past your own beliefs to
see the other’s viewpoint.

Break Down the Barriers

Now it’s time to look at 10 ways of teaching effective listening skills with all
your students. As you employ them in your practices, be sure to take your kids
along for the ride by listening, observing, and telling them what you’re doing
where appropriate and comfortable.

1. Stop talking: If you’re talking, you’re not listening. Quiet yourself, your
responses, and your interjections. Be open and available to what is being
sought by the other person through your listening.

2. Get into your listening mode: Quiet the environment. Mentally open

your mind to hearing by getting comfortable and engaging in eye contact.
3. Make the speaker feel comfortable: Examples of this might be
nodding or using gestures. Seating is also important. Decide if the speaker will
feel more comfortable if you stay behind your desk, or if you took a chair
beside them. For smaller children, get at their eye level instead of towering
over them.

4. Remove distractions: This is something you might not think of at first.

It means things like clearing the room, quieting screens, and silencing your
phone, If the speaker requests privacy, honor that by closing the door or
asking others to give you a few minutes in private.

5. Empathize: At the very least, try “learning instead to embrace and wonder at

their “otherness.”

6. Be comfortable with silence: Some people really need time to

formulate a thoughtful response. Rushing them through, or suggesting what
they want to say, robs them of the opportunity to communicate honestly.

7. Put aside personal prejudice: This is also quite difficult, as our

experiences form who we are. Putting all those experiences aside is a skill
which requires help and practice.

8. Heed the tone: Sometimes the tone can hide the meaning of the words,
and sometimes the tone enhances the meaning of the words. Know which is
which.

9. Listen for underlying meanings, not words: Listen first

for comprehension, and then a second time for ideas.

10. Pay attention to non-verbal communication: People communicate

through body language and facial expressions. This is why eye contact is
necessary.

Leading (and Listening) by Example

Teaching effective listening skills is, first and foremost, a process of learning
how to listen to yourself and then modelling that behaviour. Perhaps one of
the most oft-quoted steps in Stephen R. Covey’s seminal work 7 Habits of
Highly Effective People is seeking first to understand. St. Francis knew
this, and Solution Fluency begins with this.

By listening well to your students, modelling it for them, and making them
aware of what you are doing, you make kids feel safe. Then they can practice
listening with each other.

Five (Fun) Ways to Teach Listening to YL

(Effectively) - by Maria Conca

Why Teach Listening?

Teaching listening skills is possibly the hardest part of our job as EFL teachers. It is much
harder when you teach listening to Young Learners (YLs) in a non-English-speaking
environment. With very little English exposure at home or in mainstream schools in
countries where English is not widely spoken, YLs need thorough guidance in approaching
listening, particularly, to authentic language. In an English-speaking-environment, where
English is everywhere, it is still crucial to teach learners to be effective listeners. YLs need
to be engaged and have a good reason for listening and understanding what is being said.
Listening plays a key part in the YLs’ language development, simply because it is their main
source of sample language and it constitutes the springboard for language acquisition and,
hence, their future spoken production (Krashen, 1981). In this article, the focus will be on
teaching listening to YLs aged 8-11 at A1 level (though some points made are transferrable
to other age groups).
What Does It Take To Teach Listening Effectively?
In current ELT practice, listening skills are more often tested or practised than taught (Field,
2008). This is something I have noticed over the years when talking to newly-qualified
teachers and many colleagues in a variety of teaching contexts. I admit I have been doing
that for a long time myself with frustrating results. I used to pre-teach new vocabulary, to get
learners to ‘recognize’ the words pre-taught and offer some sort of practice extension
through listening comprehension questions and that was it. It took me a while before I
realized that it’s not sufficient to play a CD track to get your learners motivated to answer a
list of (rather unchallenging) comprehension questions about a fake conversation, in which
one of the interlocutors sounds like a YL. Teaching listening effectively takes a lot more
than that.
a. Motivation
YLs love visuals, animations, games, fun things to watch, listen and do. Their main
motivation is expressing their world to others and sharing experiences with peers. Listening
tasks and materials should raise learners’ interest and keep them engaged while they are
doing things with the language they hear. Listening in class also has to be a chance for YLs
to use all their imagination, creativity, curiosity and energy to learn.
b. Engaging Listening Tasks
What makes a listening task engaging for YLs? YLs are in the stage of their life in which
they are gathering information from their world experience. They are gradually developing
the abilities to listen carefully to get something done or just get the gist of what has been
said for a purpose. In other words, learners are learning to decode messages purposefully
and manage information with confidence. The teacher’s job is to create real-life conditions
in the language classroom, as much as possible, in order to ‘train’ YLs to develop effective
strategies for understanding oral messages that have some connections with their world.
Listening tasks must therefore clearly reflect YLs’ real life experiences and everyday new
discoveries.
How can teachers make listening tasks more engaging? Think of all the different situations
when YLs listen carefully to people around them. In which situations would they listen up for
important details? Possibly, when they need to follow instructions to make something, e.g.
crafts, or to do something ‘fun’, e.g. playing a guessing game. In these situations, there is a
clear purpose for listening and extracting key information. This is called transactional
listening (Richards, 1990). In this case, YLs’ language knowledge can help them
understand and select the information needed, which is called ‘bottom-up processing’
(ibid.). There is a lot YLs haven’t experienced first-hand yet, but, while carrying out realistic
tasks, they can still activate the world knowledge they have gained through games, books,
stories or simply from parents’ or teachers’ talk. This is called ‘top-down processing’
(Richards, 1990): the context and the listener’s background knowledge will help understand
the message. New things will easily attract YLs. Selecting or designing materials that can
feed YLs’ endless curiosity and spark their imagination is just vital to make tasks engaging.
While keeping learners motivated, listening tasks also need to create the opportunity for
meaningful language exposure and life experience.
c. Appropriate YL Materials
Teaching listening involves providing a fair degree of motivation, purpose and engagement
to a range of listening tasks that YLs can relate to their real life or their world experience
and that will provide training for effective listening. Listening tasks need to be manageable
in order to avoid demotivation or information overload for YLs (Brown & Yule, 1983).
Authentic materials can offer a chance for real language exposure though task grading will
be necessary, e.g. through visual aids or pre-listening tasks, not necessarily vocabulary pre-
teaching. For instance, you could choose to use an example as a pre-listening task with an
immediate response as to build learners’ confidence before approaching the actual task
(Lynch & Anderson, 1988). Listening materials surely need to feature motivating tasks, but
also they need to provide interesting content and be visually attractive to a child aged 8-11.
Selecting listening materials can be hard. You need to walk in your learners’ shoes and see
the world with their eyes not your own. Talk to your YLs as much as you can to find out
about their interests and make a list of topics that are age and culturally appropriate to your
class, not YLs in general. Materials should always have a fun and competitive element to
make the exposure to real language more enjoyable.
Five Practical Classroom Ideas
Having outlined what makes listening tasks effective, here are five classroom ideas based
on these principles.
1. Listen & play
Topic: Weather/Countries Functions: Understanding key information Aims: Developing
listening skills for details using icons, maps & weather report video Learning new weather
words & countries around the world through listening
Activity: Listen to the weather forecast around the world Match the weather icons to the
flags/countries
Pre-taught vocabulary: none
Follow-up activity: Make a video about your local weather today using weather flashcards
Resources: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/games/whats-the-weather
2. Listen & make
Topic: Making things Function: Following instructions Aims: Developing listening skills for
live detailed instructions to make a fish origami Learning craft vocabulary e.g. fold, unfold,
turn around, press
Activity: Listen to the teacher giving live instructions to make a simple fish origami
Pre-taught vocabulary: none
Follow-up activity: Listen & watch 3D Animation video ‘Once I caught a fish alive’ nursery
rhyme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w49MQ6Wrqes
Resources: Square coloured paper
3. Listen & respond
Topic: Fruit & Veg, Food Functions: understanding requests Aims: Developing
transactional/top-down listening skills in the context of shopping Learning quantifiers e.g.
some, a lot of, and measures e.g. Kilo, a dozen
Activity: Listen to a customer (teacher) who recorded a message (video/audio) for the
greengrocer (learners) asking to do the shopping for her and collect the items from the
shelves (rows of desks in the classroom) Sample: ‘Hello there! I’m very ill today. Sorry, I
can’t do my shopping. Can you please help? Can I have two kilos oranges, please? Then, I
need some onions and a dozen eggs, please!’
Pre-taught vocabulary: Kilo/Pound; half a kilo; a dozen
Follow-up activity: Learners make their shopping lists in turn and get partners to do the
shopping
Resources: Realia, toy fruit & veg
4. Listen & guess
 Topic: Appearance Function: describing people Aims: Developing listening skills for
selecting relevant information Learning new vocabulary and phrases to describe people
through semi-authentic listening (different accents are featured in the text)
Activity: Listen to six people describing 6 other people they met in different situations Ignore
irrelevant information. Focus on their appearance and match the description you hear to the
face in the pictures
Pre-taught vocabulary: Beard, moustache, freckles. Other new items are taught in context
through visual/aural input
Follow-up activity: Play ‘Guess who?’ game – one learner at a time describes a person from
class/school/local town or celebrities. Other learners guess who they are
Resources: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/games/face-match
5. Listen & tell
Topic: Positions Function: describing places Aims: Developing listening skills and predict
key information using visual and aural clues Learning basic prepositions of place and
describing places
Activity: Watch the video. Listen to the conversation. Tell where Hero was/is now
Pre-taught vocabulary: None New items are taught in context through visual/aural input
Follow-up activity: Play ‘Treasure hunt’ – Teacher hides small cuddly toys or nice kids’ stuff
in the classroom/school and sends learners on a treasure hunt. Learners in groups ask the
teacher for clues. Good listeners usually win
Resources: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-videos/heros-adventure
Conclusion
Listening is one of the key language skills for YLs’ language development. The YL listening
classroom needs to relate listening tasks and materials to YLs’ experiences in real life and
help develop strategies to decode messages effectively. In order to teach listening (not
testing or practising) effectively, teachers should re-think what they do in the classroom and
make choices: use authentic materials as input, design motivating tasks not comprehension
questions, make use of textual and contextual resources, make listening purposeful and fun
(Field,2008:25).
References
Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken language, CUP Krashen, S.D. (1981).
Second Language Acquisition and Second language learning, Pergamon Lynch, T. &
Anderson, A. (1988).Listening, OUP
Field, J. (2008). Listening in the language classroom, CUP Richards, J. C. (1990). The
Language teaching matrix, CUP
Author’s Bio:
Maria Conca has been teaching English for over nine years in the UK and in Italy, where she’s based and has been running
her self-owned language school since 2011. She took her CELTA at IH Rome in 2007 and has recently completed her Delta
at IH Newcastle (Module two) and Distance Delta IH London (Module one & Three). She has worked as a teacher, teacher
trainer in primary education and CLIL, DoS and academic manager. Her main interests are YL, Teaching oral skills, CLIL,
SLA and materials development.

Similar Articles:
 How To Turn Listening Into a Game For YLs – by Maria Conca
 Five Ways to Teach Speaking to YLs – by Maria Conca
 How To Teach Listening
 Challenges of Teaching Oral Skills to YL in a Non English Speaking Environment –
by Maria Conca
 Pre-Teaching Lexis Reconsidered by Chris Ożóg
https://ihjournal.com/five-fun-ways-to-teach-listening-to-yl-effectively-by-maria-conca

Improving your child’s listening skills

Listening is a vital skill for your primary-school child, but how can you help to develop it?
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We all have moments when trying to get our children’s attention feels like talking to a brick wall. At
home, this inability to listen can be infuriating – and at school, it could be getting in the way of their
learning.

Listening is one of the most important skills for primary school children to master, but it doesn’t
always come easily, especially in the early years of school. But with a bit of work, you can help your
child develop their listening ability, with knock-on improvements in their achievement at school.

Why listening matters

Just about everything your child does at school depends on their ability to listen – from sitting quietly in
assembly to following their teacher’s instructions in the classroom and taking part in team games in PE.
‘Children should ideally develop listening skills before starting primary school,’ says Sue Palmer, a
former primary headteacher and author of Upstart: the case for raising the school starting age and
providing what the under-sevens really need. ‘They’re critical for reading and writing, and auditory
memory is vital for understanding facts in all subjects, as language is the main means of transmitting
knowledge. The ability to listen is a major element in the attention skills that children need for all
school-based learning.’
Listening matters to children’s friendships, too. A child who is unable to listen to what their classmates
are saying to them, and who talks over them or doesn’t pay attention, may end up being excluded from
play as they’re seen to be domineering or uncooperative.

Listening: what to expect from your child

Listening might be important, but it’s not something that comes easily to many children, especially at a
young age. ‘It takes a long time for children to learn to control their attention,’ Sue says. ‘It involves
many aspects of development, including physical coordination and control, the ability to control their
emotions and defer gratification, and social and communication skills.’
Children’s listening skills will develop over time, and will always be better when they are interested and
engaged with what they’re supposed to be listening to. At five to six years old, for example, they’re
beginning to be able to filter out distractions, but can still only listen with focus for five to 10
minutes. Some research suggests that they can pay full attention for one minute per year of their
life – so by the end of primary school, they’ll be able to listen attentively for around 10 minutes.
‘We can expect most children to be able to settle down voluntarily and listen effectively to their teacher
by the age of six to seven. But that assumes they've had the right sort of experience – such as having
adults spend time with them, listening to what they say, and many opportunities to play outdoors with
other children,’ Sue says.

How to develop your child’s listening skills

While your child’s teacher will be working on developing their listening skills at school, there’s plenty
that you can do at home to help. One of the most important ways to do this is to break the negative cycle
that often develops when a child is a poor listener. Frustrated with being ignored, we end up raising
our voices, which effectively ‘rewards’ their behaviour with your attention. It’s more productive to
reward good behaviour than to give attention to the bad, by giving your child praise when they do follow
your instructions.
Spending time interacting with your child is also essential. ‘The more songs and stories children are
exposed to, the earlier they’re likely to develop aural attention,’ explains Sue. ‘The more opportunities
you take to sing, move to music and read to your child, the better: learning songs and rhymes by heart is
particularly powerful for developing auditory memory, and listening to stories builds up listening
stamina.’
Your child’s ability to listen depends on a healthy lifestyle overall. This includes a healthy diet, plenty of
active, outdoor play, limited screen time, plenty of real-life interaction with both adults and children, and
good sleeping habits, including a quiet, screen-free wind-down period before bedtime. ‘It’s very
important to talk to your child and demonstrate what effective listening involves by listening to them
yourself,’ adds Sue.

There are also specific activities you can do with your child to help them develop their listening skills.
These include:

 Games like Simon Says and Traffic Lights, which help your child listen and follow instructions.
 Listening walks, where you take time to stop and pay attention to the sounds you can hear.
 Clapping a rhythm for your child to repeat.
 Playing Chinese Whispers.
 Describing a picture to your child, which they have to draw based on your description.
 Playing What’s That Sound?, using household objects to make a noise (e.g. shaking a peppermill,
deflating a balloon) and getting your child to guess what it is.

Talking so your child listens

The way you talk to your child matters if you want them to listen. Children generally struggle to multi-
task, so rather than expecting them to follow a long sequence of instructions (‘Can you brush your teeth,
comb your hair, put your homework in your school bag and get your shoes on, please?’), break it down,
giving them one or two at a time.
‘It’s also important to use your child’s name to attract their attention, make eye contact, speak clearly and
give them plenty of thinking time before expecting a response,’ adds Sue. These techniques are used to
great effect by teachers in the classroom.

Although many children struggle to listen attentively at times, some children have particular difficulties.
‘If you think your child’s listening is a problem, get their hearing tested in case there’s a medical issue,’
Sue advises. ‘Some children, particularly those who have lots of colds and snuffles, have intermittent
hearing loss which can affect listening skills.’

If you’re still concerned, speak to your child’s teacher. If they have noticed problems too, the school’s
special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) might suggest an assessment with a speech and language
therapist to see if your child would benefit from extra help.
https://www.theschoolrun.com/improving-childrens-listening-skills

StarHow To Turn Listening Into a Game For YLs - by Maria

Conca

What do Young Learners (YLs) really want from a language

lesson? Have you ever wondered? I have asked colleagues, both experts and
newly qualified, who confirmed ‘YLs just want to play’. Yes, play games. Possibly, play
games and learn something new? Surely, YLs want to learn something new while having
fun and playing games. This is what really motivates them and motivation is a key factor in
order to learn a foreign language (Brown, 1994). Many teachers will agree that integrating
games into their lessons has become essential. It is not so hard to turn grammar
or vocabulary activities into a game, e.g. a grammar auction, scattegories or taboo, or using
technology and online games in general. What is definitely harder is to turn a skills lesson
into a game. How can you turn boring listening into a fun activity? This is what we will be
looking at in this article.  
Motivating YLs To Listen 
How do YLs learn? They learn best ‘by doing, exploring topics and engaging in meaningful
tasks in a stress-free and supportive learning environment’ (Bourke, 2004:286). Motivating
YLs to engage in listening tasks requires selecting topics that will interest
them and designing tasks that have a clear objective or outcome. Games are the perfect
example of motivating class activities: they have a goal that has to be achieved by making
the best possible choices within a shared set of rules; there’s always immediate feedback;
they have a reward and progression system to promote achievement and risk-taking; they
lower anxiety (Dickey, 2005). Games of all kind contain the key features of
a communicative approach to language teaching that can lead to acquisition: interactivity,
feedback, choice (Johnson & Morrow, 1981). How can we use games to teach listening? In
the next section, we will look at some ideas for gamification and game-like task design.  
Gamification Techniques  
If you like playing computer games, you will easily apply your knowledge and practice to the
gamification of a language activity. Setting time limits, creating levels of increasing difficulty,
challenges, scores and bonuses in friendly team competitions are the most common
game elements that motivate learners to complete a task. Gamification is not to be
confused with game-based learning (GSL), which uses games to introduce new language 
and support learning through the use of games in the classroom (Kapp,2014). Werbach
and Hunter (2012) describe gamification as the use of game elements and game design
techniques in non-game contexts. Some recent studies have suggested the term game-
based teaching (GBT) as opposed to GBL: it is actually the way teachers use games to
teach new language or skills in a positive and engaging environment that facilitates
learning, not ‘merely playing a game’ (Pivec, 2009:14).  
The key question is whether learners actually learn through the game or a gamified
task. They could if the tasks include the elements that support learning: ‘the tests of working
memory, pattern matching, and cognitive skills known as ‘chunking’ (Pivec, 2009:7). Hence,
listening games need to create realistic conditions for concentration, re-engagement
and the meaningful repetition called ‘retrieval practice’ (Kapp, 2014:45). Not just scores,
badges, rewards, but activating working memory, promoting High Order Thinking skills of
Bloom’s taxonomy and creativity will trigger learning. The crucial part of game-based
teaching is designing tasks that demand both decoding skills and listening strategies to win
the game. Listening games can train learners to listen naturally (Rost, 2011:189), make
sense of what they hear and build meaning intuitively. This will help them become confident
in doing it automatically like a native listener (Field, 2008:263).The environment in which the
players compete and the skills needed to play and win will be motivating not the game
itself.  
Strategies of task design should reflect the different game genres and may include ‘role
playing, narratives, challenges, and interactive choices within the game, as well as
interaction with other players’ (Dickey, 2005:67). 
Practical Ideas  
A – Ready-to-go Materials  
1- Listen & Respond (age range:  7-10)  
Topic:  Money   Aims: Developing transactional/top-down listening skills in the context
Functions: Asking for of shopping 
prices 
Activity   Listen to a short exchange at the toyshop  
Drag & drop UK money into the till  
Game elements  Two-three teams taking turns 
Immediate Feedback 
Scoreboard  
Pre-taught Pound, sterling, penny, pence, till, change, price   
vocabulary 
Follow-up activity   Role–play – Buying the things we love  
Resources  British Council Learn English Kids – ‘How much is this?’ 
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/games/how-much 
 
2. Listen & Write (age range: 10-14)  
Topic:  Travelling    Aim:   
Functions: Notetaking  Developing top-down listening skills   
Activity   Listen to a  Virtual Traveller talking about a trip to a top destination   
Write notes online or on paper templates  
Game elements   Pair/Team or Individual competition  
Teams to report one piece of information at a time to earn 3 points after
listening twice 
Thinking time allowed after listening – 5 mins  
‘Listen again’  bonus – add new info or lose points 
Challenge – tell the class about the trip in 3 mins – Win 15 points 
Feedback – read the teacher’s notes/tapescript  
Winner – the team with highest scores  
Pre-taught None  
vocabulary 
Follow-up activity   Write  a travel diary or travel blog post  
Type a WhatsApp message to a peer in class about your last trip  
Read & reply to a peer’s WhatsApp message about his/her last trip  
Resources  BBC Skillswise  
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/game/en35spec-game-the-virtual-
traveller  
 
 3. Listen &Guess (age range: 6-12) 
Topic:  St Aims: Developing bottom-up/top-down listening skills for gist and details through a
ory with story  
a moral  
Functions:
predicting 
events 
Activity   Listen  to a section of the book (two pages with max. 5 lines)  
Listen and follow  (depending on  whether text is shown or not)  
Guess what Jack will do next 
Buy a clue word  
Write your guess on a mini–board 
Listen  to the next part to find out 
Game Pairs in  teams  
elements  Immediate Feedback while  listening to the next part 
Prize:  click on the icon  &  play the interactive activities for the section 
Pre- None 
taught
vocabula
ry 
Follow- Make a storyboard using  http://www.storyboardthat.com/  
up Change  the start, the twist or the end    
activity   Read & Record the story for your storyboard  
Create & Publish your book on https://www.storyjumper.com/  
Resource Pearson Longman Interactive book – Silly Jack 
s  http://www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/demos/aaPrimary/Literacy/Challenge/
sillysillyjack4066/player_teacher_UK.html   
 
 
B – Game-like Listening Tasks  
1. Listen &Fill the Box  (Age range: 6-10) 
Topic:  Animals  Aim: Developing decoding skills while listening to chunks of language   
Functions: Asking for
repetition  
Activity   Listen to a tongue twister 
Write the words in numbered boxes to reconstruct the utterance 
Game elements  Team competition of decoding tongue  twisters 
1 point for each correct word in the correct box up to 14 points  
Unlimited attempts if asked politely ‘Can you play again, please?’ 
Clues against a credit of 2 points per clue  
Pre-taught Bug (picture)  
vocabulary 
Follow-up activity   Tongue twisters’ speed competition in pairs & individual challenges  
with  teacher’s feedback on speed & accuracy  
Inventing a tongue twisters with a given set of words  to practise /p/ and /b/
sounds e.g. big, pig, pink, pat, back,  purple,  bat   
Possible answer: A big pink pig patted a purple bat on the back  
Resources  British Council Learn English Kids – Tongue twisters  
https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/tongue-twisters    
Slips of paper with as many numbered boxes as the words in the audio 
e.g. 14 boxes – A big black bug bit a big black dog on his big black nose 
 
 2.Listen & Complete a Map (age range: 10-14)  
 
Topic:  Weather   Aim: 
Functions: Understanding Developing listening skills for details using icons, maps & a radio weather forecast
weather forecasts  report  
Activity   Listen to the radio weather forecast 
Stick the weather icons on the map as quick as possible  
Game elements  Time limit 
Feedback – Right/Wrong  
 Scores – A  ‘Sunny‘ weather card for each correct answer 
Badges for three best teams  
Pre-taught vocabulary  North-West-South-East (where necessary)   
Vocab matching game in the preparation section   
Follow-up activity   Recast weather forecasts using maps for guidance  
Make a video of weather forecasts in your area 
Create a weather forecast board game,  e.g. adapting the Weather
game https://boardgamegeek.com/image/919843/weather-game  
Resources  e.g. British Council Learn English Teens – Weather forecast  
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-
practice/weather-forecast  
Weather icons on sticky cards or Post-it notes; a map for each team 
 
3. Listen & Match (age range: 10-14) 
 
Topic:   Daily Aim: Developing interactive listening skills through a recorded interview  
routine 
Functions: Asking & 
Answering questions  
Activity   Listening to the questions  
Choose the best answer from a set of cards after each pause   
Game elements  Listen to abstract from an interview (questions)  
Choose the right response to each question from a set of cards   
Pre-taught none 
vocabulary 
Follow-up Reconstruct & Recast the  conversation from clue cards or memory  
activity   Role-play – What a busy week! 
Resources  British Council Learn English Teen – Interview with a
swimmer   http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/listening-skills-
practice/interview-swimmer  
 
Conclusion 
Games have proved to enhance students’ engagement, boost collaboration and create
meaningful learning experiences for students. They also help in creating fun learning
environments where students are motivated to take responsibility of their learning and
become ‘risk-takers’ in language learning. Integrating game-based teaching and learning
into a language course could be a good chance for teachers to make YLs’ learning more fun
and effective. 
Glossary  
Game: A system in which players engage in an abstract challenge defined by
rules, interactivity and feedback  
Game-based learning (GBL): Game-based learning uses an actual game to teach
knowledge and skills. Game-based learning is often used as a one-time instructional event
to provide formal learning either online or within a classroom 
Gamification: only uses a few game elements. Learners don’t play an entire game from
start to finish; they participate in activities that include video or mobile game elements such
as earning points, overcoming a challenge or receiving badges for accomplishing tasks. 
Learning game: A learning game is a self-contained unit with a definitive start, game play
and ending 
Source: Karl Kapp, ‘Gamification: Separating Fact From Fiction’, Chief Learning Officer •
March 2014 • pp. 42-52 available online www.CLOmedia.com 
 
                          
References  
Bourke, J.M. Designing a topic-based syllabus for young learners, ELT Journal Volume
60/3 July 2006 
Dickey, M.D. (2005). Engaging by design: how engagement strategies in popular
computer and video games can inform instructional design. Education Training
Research and Development. Issue n. 53 (2), pp. 67-83 
Field, J. (2008). Listening in the language classroom, CUP       
Johnson, K. & K. Morrow. (1981). Communication in the Classroom, Longman 
Kapp, K.M. et al. (2014).The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook:
Theory Into Practice, Wiley                                                                                               
Pivec, P. (2009). Game-based Learning or Game-based Teaching? Available
online http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/1509/1/becta_2009_emergingtechnologies_games_report.pdf A
ccessed on 24/10/2017 
Rost, M. (2011). Second Edition. Teaching and researching. Listening, Longman-
Pearson  
Werbach, K and Hunter, D. (2012). For the Win: How Game Thinking Can
Revolutionize Your  Business. Philadelphia, PA: Wharton Digital Press 
Author’s Bio:
Maria Conca has been teaching English for over ten years in the UK and in Italy, where she’s based and has been running her self-owned
language school since 2011. She took her CELTA at IH Rome in 2007 and completed her Delta at IH Newcastle and Distance Delta IH
London in 2016. She works a Teacher, CLIL & Primary Education Teacher Trainer, DoS, Academic manager, Course Designer &
Consultant. Her main interests are YLs, Teaching Listening & Speaking, CLIL, Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and ELT materials
development. She tweets at @MConca16.

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Five (Fun) Ways to Teach Listening to YL (Effectively) - by
Ac

Maria Conca
 Why Teach Listening?
Teaching listening skills is possibly the hardest part of our job as EFL teachers. It is much
harder when you teach listening to Young Learners (YLs) in a non-English-speaking
environment. With very little English exposure at home or in mainstream schools in
countries where English is not widely spoken, YLs need thorough guidance in approaching
listening, particularly, to authentic language. In an English-speaking-environment, where
English is everywhere, it is still crucial to teach learners to be effective listeners. YLs need
to be engaged and have a good reason for listening and understanding what is being said.
Listening plays a key part in the YLs’ language development, simply because it is their main
source of sample language and it constitutes the springboard for language acquisition and,
hence, their future spoken production (Krashen, 1981). In this article, the focus will be on
teaching listening to YLs aged 8-11 at A1 level (though some points made are transferrable
to other age groups).
What Does It Take To Teach Listening Effectively?
In current ELT practice, listening skills are more often tested or practised than taught (Field,
2008). This is something I have noticed over the years when talking to newly-qualified
teachers and many colleagues in a variety of teaching contexts. I admit I have been doing
that for a long time myself with frustrating results. I used to pre-teach new vocabulary, to get
learners to ‘recognize’ the words pre-taught and offer some sort of practice extension
through listening comprehension questions and that was it. It took me a while before I
realized that it’s not sufficient to play a CD track to get your learners motivated to answer a
list of (rather unchallenging) comprehension questions about a fake conversation, in which
one of the interlocutors sounds like a YL. Teaching listening effectively takes a lot more
than that.
a. Motivation
YLs love visuals, animations, games, fun things to watch, listen and do. Their main
motivation is expressing their world to others and sharing experiences with peers. Listening
tasks and materials should raise learners’ interest and keep them engaged while they are
doing things with the language they hear. Listening in class also has to be a chance for YLs
to use all their imagination, creativity, curiosity and energy to learn.
b. Engaging Listening Tasks
What makes a listening task engaging for YLs? YLs are in the stage of their life in which
they are gathering information from their world experience. They are gradually developing
the abilities to listen carefully to get something done or just get the gist of what has been
said for a purpose. In other words, learners are learning to decode messages purposefully
and manage information with confidence. The teacher’s job is to create real-life conditions
in the language classroom, as much as possible, in order to ‘train’ YLs to develop effective
strategies for understanding oral messages that have some connections with their world.
Listening tasks must therefore clearly reflect YLs’ real life experiences and everyday new
discoveries.
How can teachers make listening tasks more engaging? Think of all the different situations
when YLs listen carefully to people around them. In which situations would they listen up for
important details? Possibly, when they need to follow instructions to make something, e.g.
crafts, or to do something ‘fun’, e.g. playing a guessing game. In these situations, there is a
clear purpose for listening and extracting key information. This is called transactional
listening (Richards, 1990). In this case, YLs’ language knowledge can help them
understand and select the information needed, which is called ‘bottom-up processing’
(ibid.). There is a lot YLs haven’t experienced first-hand yet, but, while carrying out realistic
tasks, they can still activate the world knowledge they have gained through games, books,
stories or simply from parents’ or teachers’ talk. This is called ‘top-down processing’
(Richards, 1990): the context and the listener’s background knowledge will help understand
the message. New things will easily attract YLs. Selecting or designing materials that can
feed YLs’ endless curiosity and spark their imagination is just vital to make tasks engaging.
While keeping learners motivated, listening tasks also need to create the opportunity for
meaningful language exposure and life experience.
c. Appropriate YL Materials
Teaching listening involves providing a fair degree of motivation, purpose and engagement
to a range of listening tasks that YLs can relate to their real life or their world experience
and that will provide training for effective listening. Listening tasks need to be manageable
in order to avoid demotivation or information overload for YLs (Brown & Yule, 1983).
Authentic materials can offer a chance for real language exposure though task grading will
be necessary, e.g. through visual aids or pre-listening tasks, not necessarily vocabulary pre-
teaching. For instance, you could choose to use an example as a pre-listening task with an
immediate response as to build learners’ confidence before approaching the actual task
(Lynch & Anderson, 1988). Listening materials surely need to feature motivating tasks, but
also they need to provide interesting content and be visually attractive to a child aged 8-11.
Selecting listening materials can be hard. You need to walk in your learners’ shoes and see
the world with their eyes not your own. Talk to your YLs as much as you can to find out
about their interests and make a list of topics that are age and culturally appropriate to your
class, not YLs in general. Materials should always have a fun and competitive element to
make the exposure to real language more enjoyable.
Five Practical Classroom Ideas
Having outlined what makes listening tasks effective, here are five classroom ideas based
on these principles.
1. Listen & play
Topic: Weather/Countries Functions: Understanding key information Aims: Developing
listening skills for details using icons, maps & weather report video Learning new weather
words & countries around the world through listening
Activity: Listen to the weather forecast around the world Match the weather icons to the
flags/countries
Pre-taught vocabulary: none
Follow-up activity: Make a video about your local weather today using weather flashcards
Resources: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/games/whats-the-weather
2. Listen & make
Topic: Making things Function: Following instructions Aims: Developing listening skills for
live detailed instructions to make a fish origami Learning craft vocabulary e.g. fold, unfold,
turn around, press
Activity: Listen to the teacher giving live instructions to make a simple fish origami
Pre-taught vocabulary: none
Follow-up activity: Listen & watch 3D Animation video ‘Once I caught a fish alive’ nursery
rhyme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w49MQ6Wrqes
Resources: Square coloured paper
3. Listen & respond
Topic: Fruit & Veg, Food Functions: understanding requests Aims: Developing
transactional/top-down listening skills in the context of shopping Learning quantifiers e.g.
some, a lot of, and measures e.g. Kilo, a dozen
Activity: Listen to a customer (teacher) who recorded a message (video/audio) for the
greengrocer (learners) asking to do the shopping for her and collect the items from the
shelves (rows of desks in the classroom) Sample: ‘Hello there! I’m very ill today. Sorry, I
can’t do my shopping. Can you please help? Can I have two kilos oranges, please? Then, I
need some onions and a dozen eggs, please!’
Pre-taught vocabulary: Kilo/Pound; half a kilo; a dozen
Follow-up activity: Learners make their shopping lists in turn and get partners to do the
shopping
Resources: Realia, toy fruit & veg
4. Listen & guess
Topic: Appearance Function: describing people Aims: Developing listening skills for
selecting relevant information Learning new vocabulary and phrases to describe people
through semi-authentic listening (different accents are featured in the text)
Activity: Listen to six people describing 6 other people they met in different situations Ignore
irrelevant information. Focus on their appearance and match the description you hear to the
face in the pictures
Pre-taught vocabulary: Beard, moustache, freckles. Other new items are taught in context
through visual/aural input
Follow-up activity: Play ‘Guess who?’ game – one learner at a time describes a person from
class/school/local town or celebrities. Other learners guess who they are
Resources: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/games/face-match
5. Listen & tell
Topic: Positions Function: describing places Aims: Developing listening skills and predict
key information using visual and aural clues Learning basic prepositions of place and
describing places
Activity: Watch the video. Listen to the conversation. Tell where Hero was/is now
Pre-taught vocabulary: None New items are taught in context through visual/aural input
Follow-up activity: Play ‘Treasure hunt’ – Teacher hides small cuddly toys or nice kids’ stuff
in the classroom/school and sends learners on a treasure hunt. Learners in groups ask the
teacher for clues. Good listeners usually win
Resources: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-videos/heros-adventure
Conclusion
Listening is one of the key language skills for YLs’ language development. The YL listening
classroom needs to relate listening tasks and materials to YLs’ experiences in real life and
help develop strategies to decode messages effectively. In order to teach listening (not
testing or practising) effectively, teachers should re-think what they do in the classroom and
make choices: use authentic materials as input, design motivating tasks not comprehension
questions, make use of textual and contextual resources, make listening purposeful and fun
(Field,2008:25).
References

Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken language, CUP Krashen, S.D. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second language

learning, Pergamon Lynch, T. & Anderson, A. (1988).Listening, OUP

Field, J. (2008). Listening in the language classroom, CUP Richards, J. C. (1990). The Language teaching matrix, CUP

Author’s Bio:
Maria Conca has been teaching English for over nine years in the UK and in Italy, where she’s based and has been running her self-
owned language school since 2011. She took her CELTA at IH Rome in 2007 and has recently completed her Delta at IH Newcastle
(Module two) and Distance Delta IH London (Module one & Three). She has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer in primary education
and CLIL, DoS and academic manager. Her main interests are YL, Teaching oral skills, CLIL, SLA and materials development.
cess thousands of==== brilliant resources to help your child be the best they can be.