What to Do in a Listening Lesson If Your Students Don't Understand the Audio
Summary
TLDRIn this instructional video, Shannon, an experienced ESL teacher trainer, addresses common concerns about teaching listening lessons. She offers practical advice on how to handle situations where students struggle to understand audio tracks, emphasizing the importance of setting context, clear tasks, and using the task-feedback circle method. Shannon also suggests simplifying tasks to match the difficulty of the audio and using transcripts or subtitles as a last resort to aid understanding. The goal is to foster progress in listening comprehension, not necessarily perfect understanding.
Takeaways
- 😀 Teaching listening lessons can be challenging, especially when students struggle to understand the audio content.
- 🔍 It's crucial to establish context and set clear tasks before students listen to the audio to help them know what to focus on.
- 📚 Teachers should anticipate potential difficulties in the audio track and plan accordingly, such as speakers with unfamiliar accents or fast-paced conversations.
- 🎯 The goal in listening lessons is progress, not perfection. Teachers should guide students through the process rather than focusing solely on the final understanding.
- 🔄 The 'task feedback circle' method, introduced by Jim Srier, is an effective way to guide students through listening tasks, allowing them to discuss answers in pairs and receive feedback from the teacher.
- 👂 Listening comprehension tasks should be adjusted based on the difficulty of the audio. Teachers can simplify tasks or focus on less challenging parts of the audio to build students' confidence.
- 👀 Pair checks during listening exercises are valuable as they help students discuss and clarify what they heard, enhancing their understanding.
- 📈 Teachers should monitor students' progress and adjust the pace of the lesson based on their performance, ensuring that they are ready to move on to more challenging tasks.
- 💻 Using subtitles or transcripts at the end of a lesson can be beneficial for students who still find the audio difficult, allowing them to see the words as they listen and identify areas of difficulty.
- 📚 Encouraging students to mark phrases where the spoken and written forms differ can help them understand connected speech and improve their listening skills.
Q & A
What is the main concern addressed in the video script?
-The main concern addressed in the video script is how to handle situations in listening lessons where students do not understand the audio despite multiple attempts.
Why might teachers be hesitant to incorporate listening comprehension work in their lessons?
-Teachers might be hesitant to incorporate listening comprehension work in their lessons due to the fear that their students will not understand the audio content, which could be discouraging for both students and teachers.
What is the first recommendation for teachers to improve listening comprehension lessons?
-The first recommendation is to check and fine-tune teaching techniques, such as establishing context before listening and setting clear tasks for each listening stage.
What are common mistakes or misconceptions that new teachers might make in listening lessons?
-Common mistakes include not establishing context before listening and not setting clear tasks for each listening stage, which can make understanding the audio content more challenging for students.
What should teachers do if they anticipate that their students might have trouble with a particular audio track?
-Teachers should anticipate potential difficulties in their planning process and consider what might be causing the struggle, such as unfamiliar accents, fast speech, or colloquial language, and prepare strategies to address these issues.
How can teachers help students when they are unsure about the audio content?
-Teachers can warn students about potential difficulties like fast speech or unknown vocabulary, pre-teach some of the unknown vocabulary, and provide guidance on what to listen for.
What is the task feedback circle as described in the script?
-The task feedback circle is a method where teachers set clear tasks for each listening stage, allow students to listen and discuss their answers in pairs, and then bring the group back together for feedback and discussion of the answers.
Why is it important for teachers to monitor students during pair checks in the task feedback circle?
-Monitoring students during pair checks helps teachers understand how well the students are doing on the task, identify areas of difficulty, and adjust the lesson pacing and content based on the students' progress.
What advice is given for grading tasks in listening lessons?
-The advice is to grade the difficulty of the tasks, not the text. Teachers should design tasks that are achievable for students after a couple of rounds of listening and avoid asking questions that require understanding every single detail.
How can using subtitles or transcripts at the end of a listening lesson be beneficial?
-Using subtitles or transcripts at the end of a listening lesson can help students understand parts of the audio they struggled with and can be a jumping-off point for further vocabulary or connected speech practice.
Outlines
🤔 Addressing Student Struggles in Listening Comprehension
The video script begins with the instructor addressing a common concern among teachers regarding students' difficulties in understanding audio during listening lessons. The instructor empathizes with the issue, acknowledging its potential to discourage both students and teachers. The focus is on understanding why students might struggle with comprehension and introducing strategies to tackle these challenges. The instructor also introduces herself as Shannon, an ESL teacher trainer, and invites new viewers to subscribe for practical teaching techniques.
📝 Fine-Tuning Teaching Techniques for Listening Lessons
The second paragraph delves into the importance of setting context and clear tasks in listening lessons. The instructor points out common mistakes made by new teachers, such as failing to establish context or set clear tasks, which can hinder students' comprehension. She suggests watching a separate video for detailed explanations and solutions to these issues. The goal is to ensure that students understand the objectives before listening and are guided through the process effectively.
🔍 Anticipating and Addressing Audio Comprehension Difficulties
In this paragraph, the instructor advises teachers to anticipate potential difficulties students might face with specific audio tracks. She recommends self-reflection on the nature of the audio, such as accents, speed of speech, or use of slang, and suggests pre-emptive measures like warning students about fast speech or pre-teaching vocabulary. The emphasis is on being proactive in identifying and addressing comprehension hurdles to facilitate a smoother learning experience.
🔄 The Task-Feedback Circle for Dynamic Listening Lessons
The instructor introduces the 'task-feedback circle' as a method for dynamic and responsive teaching during listening lessons. This involves setting tasks, allowing students to listen and discuss in pairs, and then reviewing answers as a group. The instructor emphasizes the importance of monitoring students' progress and adjusting the pace of the lesson based on their understanding. The task-feedback circle ensures that students are actively engaged in the learning process and that teachers can adapt to their needs in real-time.
🎯 Adjusting Task Difficulty in Listening Comprehension
The final paragraph discusses the importance of adjusting the difficulty of comprehension tasks to match the students' ability to understand the audio. The instructor suggests that while the audio track's difficulty is fixed, teachers can control the complexity of the tasks and questions they set for students. This includes designing tasks that build students' confidence and focusing on general understanding rather than minute details, especially when dealing with particularly challenging audio sections.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Listening Comprehension
💡Task-Feedback Circle
💡Context
💡Accent
💡Connected Speech
💡Slang
💡Colloquialisms
💡Progress
💡Breakout Rooms
💡Transcript
Highlights
Question addressed: What to do if students don't understand the audio in a listening lesson.
Concern that prevents teachers from doing more listening comprehension work.
Fear of students not understanding even after setting clear tasks and playing the audio multiple times.
Introduction of Shannon, an ESL teacher trainer, and the purpose of the video.
Importance of establishing context before students listen to the audio track.
Need to set clear tasks for each listening stage to guide students on what to listen for.
Common mistakes and misconceptions in teaching listening lessons.
Advice to anticipate difficulties in understanding the audio track during planning.
Strategies to deal with fast speech, slang, and colloquialisms in the audio.
Emphasizing that understanding every word is not necessary for progress in listening comprehension.
Using the task feedback circle to guide students through listening stages.
Importance of monitoring students during pair checks to gauge their understanding.
Adjusting tasks based on students' confidence and understanding during the lesson.
Advice on grading the task, not the text, to match the difficulty of the audio.
Controlling the comprehension tasks to match the students' ability to understand the audio.
Using subtitles or transcripts at the end of the lesson for difficult audio tracks.
Engaging students in activities to identify phrases with different pronunciation in connected speech.
Encouraging teachers to have confidence in teaching listening lessons and focusing on progress, not perfection.
Transcripts
so when it comes to teaching listening
lessons there's a question that I
commonly get asked by teachers and in
this video I want to share a little bit
of advice in response to that question
and that question is if I'm teaching a
listening lesson what do I do if my
students just don't understand the audio
this is a really understandable question
and I know that this particular concern
is what holds a lot of teachers back
from doing more listening comprehension
work in their lessons and honestly I've
experienced this before myself and so I
get that there's still always that
little bit of fear there going into a
listening lesson what if even after I
set clear tasks for the listening stages
even if I play the audio track multiple
times what if my students just still
don't understand what if they still
aren't able to do the listening tasks
that I give them or answer the
comprehension questions what do we do
then so obviously a situation like that
could be discouraging for your students
and probably not very comforting for you
as the teacher either but there are some
things that you can do to help with this
situation so let's go ahead and dive
into first of all why this might be
happening and then we'll get into some
strategies for how to deal with this
situation and just in case you're new
here hey welcome I'm Shannon I have
worked as an ESL teacher trainer for
many years now and if you are an ESL
teacher particularly somebody who works
with adult ESL students and you're
looking for online teaching techniques
that are practical and easy to implement
then go ahead and subscribe to this
channel because I put out more videos
pretty much weekly just like this one
okay so let's go ahead and get back to
the topic at hand which is that big
question what can you do if you're
teaching a listening lesson you play the
audio track and it just seems like no
matter how many times you play it or
what you do your students just don't
understand so the first thing I
recommend is to check whether you need
to fine-tune a couple of your teaching
techniques when it comes to helping your
students with listening comprehension
there are a couple of common mistakes I
often see new teachers make in listening
lessons or maybe we can call them
misconceptions in terms of teachers
thinking they should do something that's
actually not that helpful for the
students so if you are somebody who is
doing any of these things don't worry
because these issues are really pretty
easy to fix as soon as you know what to
do instead so for example something
that's really important to do in a
listening lesson is to establish context
before students listen to the audio
track it's also really important to set
a clear task for each listening stage so
in other words giving your students
guidance as to exactly what you want
them to listen for before you actually
push play on that audio so if you're not
doing those things then it's going to
make the whole process of understanding
what they're hearing especially
challenging
I actually made a separate video where I
go into way more detail on each of these
common issues and suggest really helpful
Solutions so the first step if you
haven't already watched that video is to
go ahead and watch that one just to
eliminate those things as potential
factors here okay so now assuming you've
watched that video and all of that has
been taken care of so your setting
context your setting clear tasks for the
audio you're playing the audio track
multiple times what if your students are
still still struggling the next thing I
would suggest is to ask yourself what is
it exactly about that particular audio
track that you think might be difficult
for them to understand and you can even
ask yourself this question in your
planning process in fact I would
recommend that you try to anticipate
this in your planning process for
example if I'm worried that my students
are going to have trouble understanding
a particular audio track um you know
before I even teach the lesson in my
pration I'm going to ask myself that
question so what is it exactly here that
I think is going to trip them up is it
that the speaker has a certain accent my
students aren't used to is it a
conversation between two people where
both speakers are talking very quickly
and using a lot of connected speech
where their words are kind of getting
slurred together are there maybe a lot
of slang words or colloquialisms in the
conversation that I think my students
probably won't know or is it something
else or some combination of all of these
factors so obviously before you're
actually in the lesson and the audio is
actually playing you might not be 100%
sure as to what exactly the reason could
be right or you might not even know
whether or not your students are going
to have trouble with that particular
audio track at all but either way I find
it helpful to at least try to anticipate
this because once you have a clearer
idea of what the actual problem with the
audio is right what exactly is it that's
causing your students to struggle it's
much easier to try to preempt or deal
with that issue so to go back to some of
those example issues if you think the
problem is that the speakers are talking
really quickly in the audio recording
you could warn your students about that
ahead of time so right from the start
before you even push play you could tell
the students that the speakers are going
to be talking very quickly and that they
probably won't be able to catch
everything so that way the students go
into it even the very first time they
listen knowing in advance that you're
not expecting them to understand
everything they have some warning going
in so that could help eliminate that
kind of negative surprise right that
very first time to hear speech that's
much faster than they were expecting if
on the other hand you think the issue is
that there's a lot of unknown vocabulary
or slang or colloquialisms in the audio
then you could pre- some of those
unknown vocab items before diving into
the listening exercise so the point here
is really that the more specific you can
be about the anticipated Problem
whatever you anticipate the difficulty
for your students to be right not just
I'm afraid my students won't understand
but what exactly you think will cause
this then the more likely it is that
you'll be able to deal with this and
actually help your students through it
in the way that you structure and
approach the listening stages in your
lesson my third piece of advice here is
to consider reframing how you think
about listening lessons in general so we
know that not realistic to expect our
students to understand every single word
the first time they listen to the audio
but even by the end of the lesson it's
really not necessary for the students to
have understood every detail uh even to
have gotten a lot out of that listening
experience remember that the goal in
practicing listening comprehension is
progress not Perfection and so our goal
as teachers is just to guide students
through this process of practicing their
listening comprehension skills right not
to focus on the final product of exactly
how much they understood so as long as
we're not teaching in a more specific
context like exam prep then we're really
not assessing our students on the
percentage of the audio or the number of
words that they were able to understand
or even really the number of
comprehension questions that they were
able to get correct it's all about just
letting students practice playing the
audio multiple times so that they can
hear a little bit more in response to
whatever task you've set each time so a
great way to guide the students through
this process that I'm talking about is
to use what Jim scrier calls the task
feedback Circle how this works is that
you set a clear task for each listening
stage and the tasks typically should
progress from more General and therefore
less challenging to more detailed which
probably means more challenging and then
for each task you're just guiding
students through the same cycle where
first you set the task and let students
listen alone to try to do that task then
you allow students to discuss their
answers in pairs so if you're teaching
online this does mean putting them into
breakout rooms and then the next step is
to bring the whole group back together
and go over the answers what's important
here is that instead of just going
through the motions you know just
waiting while the students are in their
breakout rooms and then just giving them
the correct answers during feedback you
want to be really proactive in paying
close attention to how the students are
doing and feeling during each of these
steps so in my lessons while my students
are doing the pair check I'm actively
monitoring by going from room to room or
if you're teaching in person great you
can just walk around the room and listen
in a little bit on each pair's
discussion and so while I'm doing this
I'm making a mental note of how the
students did on the task it's difficult
of course to get a completely accurate
read on every single student's answers
but I can usually get at least a pretty
good sense of overall how difficult my
students found the audio and the task
and even which aspects of the task or
maybe even which particular questions
they found the most challenging so while
I'm listening in I'm not interjecting
I'm just listening and I might hear my
students saying things like oh wow I I
couldn't understand anything that was
way too fast or maybe okay number one I
got but did you hear the answer to
number two I totally missed it all of
those kinds of comments give you really
valuable information about how the
students did on the task and how
confident they're feeling about it so
from there when I bring the group back
together to go over the answers for
feedback then I'm going to get even more
information so if I try to elicit the
answer for the task and all of my
students answer correctly and
confidently then I know they did well
and I can move on to the next task but
if they don't seem so confident in the
answer if most of my students say that
they couldn't really hear the answer or
the answers if there were multiple
questions or maybe only some of the
students feel confident about the
different questions on the task okay
then that's a good indication that we
need to stay on this task this stage a
little bit longer and listen again for
that same task and here's another really
important tip when using the task
feedback Circle so if your students are
not confident about all of the answers
for that particular task don't just give
them the answers anyway and then move on
to the next task so let's say just as an
example that my students were all very
confident about the answer to question
one but only some of them seemed
confident in their answer to question
two and hardly any of them really seemed
confident at all or are saying that they
even heard the answer for question three
so as the teacher one option would be to
just tell them yes this is correct for
question one and here's the answer for
two and here's the answer for three but
instead of doing that instead of
confirming the right answer for number
two and telling them the answer for
question three I'm going to hold off on
this instead I can confirm they got
question one correct since they were
confident about that one but then I can
say okay now let's listen again just for
questions 2 and three to see if you can
hear more information after the students
listen again they then go back into
their pairs in their breakout rooms in
order to discuss once again any
additional information that they heard
and answer to those two questions so
this is the task feedback Circle in
action we're making decisions and pacing
the lessons based on what's actually
happening in the moment based on how our
students are doing with the listening
and we're using that information to
decide whether we're ready to move on or
whether we need more time on that
particular task and don't underestimate
the power of those pair checks you'd be
surprised how much they really help
sometimes what I'll notice when I'm
teaching or observing a lesson is that
after the audio is played for the first
time and the teacher says okay now go to
your breakout rooms and check with your
partner the students will say uh wait
can we listen again I didn't understand
everything my advice there if that
happens would be to reassure your
students don't worry you'll have a
chance to listen again but even if you
didn't understand everything for this
task or even if you couldn't understand
enough to answer all of the questions
that's okay just talk to your partner
about what you did he just talk together
and get the answers to as many of the
questions as you can because you'll
notice once you actually start listening
in on those breakout room conversations
that the students actually did
understand a lot and by talking it out
with somebody else with their partner
they're able to bring up a lot of key
words and they're able to help each
other get more information that they
heard uh in relation to the questions
that they're trying to answer so you'll
hear students say things to their
partner like oh wait you heard that word
for question three okay I didn't hear
that word but I'm going to listen again
and I'm going to see if I hear it this
time so all of that stuff coming up is
going to help them right it's going to
support them give them clues about more
things to listen for in the next
listening round so this is why the task
feedback circle is so powerful because
the students are essentially setting the
pace of the lesson for you and with
those pair checks they're helping each
other in understanding a little bit more
each time and as the teacher you don't
have to feel like you're just guessing
about how much they understood or just
going through the motions and wondering
if it's actually helping you're getting
real valuable information each time the
students listen about what they need and
how they're progressing okay another
piece of advice if you're worried about
your students just not understanding the
audio is this grade the task not the
text what I mean by grade here is
simplify like the grade of difficulty
not grade as in assess and so what I
mean by that is that you really can't
control the difficulty of the actual
audio track because it's pre-recorded I
mean I guess technically you could use
some sort of technology to slow down the
speed of the track but let's assume that
the point here is to help students
practice with the audio at the regular
speed so that means the audio track
essentially is what it is right you
really can't control or change that you
can't change the difficulty if the
speakers are talking very quickly but
what you can control is what you ask the
students to do with that audio track
you're in charge of the comprehension
tasks the comprehension questions so if
you're concerned that the audio is
really difficult then maybe don't ask
questions that require the students to
understand every single detail design
tasks that you think the students will
be able to do at least after a couple
rounds of listening questions that you
think they can answer that don't require
them to understand every single word so
if there's a particular part of that
audio that's super fast or maybe super
subtle or has a crazy amount of
connected speech or contains a phrase
that's almost impossible to understand
because of a particular accent or
something then maybe don't ask a ton of
really detailed comprehension questions
about that particular part right and if
you do want to focus on that particular
super difficult section then maybe come
back to that part of the audio later
maybe more near the end of your lesson
where you can really dive in and dissect
it after you've built students
confidence with the other more General
less challenging tasks that they were
able to do first so I think the
take-home message here is that you're in
control of this right even if there are
audio tasks already made for you in the
book you're not necessarily married to
those tasks you don't have to do those
tasks you can adapt them you can change
them the only exception here again is if
you're teaching listening for exam prep
then yes I would fully advise you to
proceed through the audio exercises in
the exact same way that students will be
taken through the audio during the
actual exam and that's a different thing
what I'm talking about in this video is
helping your students with listening in
more General English lessons and I think
in that case sometimes as teachers we
don't really take as much agency as we
could to take more more control over the
lesson and really help our students
through more difficult aspects of the
material all right and then finally if
you have an audio track that's just
really difficult and even after you've
played the audio multiple times using
the task feedback Circle you could
consider working with that audio track
using subtitles or the transcript at the
end of the lesson so remember you don't
want to rely on subtitles or the
transcript near the beginning of the
lesson because if you give the students
the transcript the first or even the
second or even the third time they
listen they end up really just reading
they're not really developing listening
comprehension at that stage because they
have the words right there in front of
them but if it's something where the
students have listened many times
already just to the audio and they're
still feeling a bit frustrated or like
there was just a lot that they couldn't
understand then this can be a useful
practice maybe as kind of the final
stage in the listening process where
students get to Len one final time or
maybe a couple final times with the
transcript and from there that could be
a really cool jumping off point even
into some work with vocabulary or
connected speech so for example often if
I teach a lesson based on authentic
listening material like a short clip
from a movie or episode in a series even
my Advanced students will still have
parts of it that they don't understand
no matter how many times we listen
because there's a lot of connected
speech or a colloquial vocabulary it's
material that's not designed for
language Learners so after we go through
all of the actual listening stages I'll
let my students listen again with the
transcript in front of them and I'll ask
them to do an activity where they
highlight or underline or Mark any
phrases where they think the sound what
they're hearing is much different than
the words that they're seeing so this is
a great way for me to let my students
kind of take charge and point out
phrases in English where how proficient
speakers pronounce it in very fast fluid
natural speech sounds way different than
how the words look written on paper so
once they've chosen some of the ones
that stand out to them we'll take a look
at those phrases and the features of
connected speech at play in those
phrases when they're spoken quickly and
then we'll do some modeling and drilling
with connected speech so this is a
really fun satisfying way for my
students to end the lesson feeling like
they were able to understand more at the
end right there weren't just these
mystery phrases left floating around and
it's a nice way to prepare them to be
better able to hear that really fast
connected speech in the future all right
I hope this was helpful and I hope this
gives you a little bit more confidence
in approaching your listening lessons
and feeling a little bit less worried
about that what if my students don't
understand concern and always remember
that even if your students don't
understand everything Perfection or 100%
comprehension is never the goal it's
still so valuable for you to help your
students progress in their listening
comprehension skills all right do you
still have any questions about teaching
listening comprehension or listening
lessons in general let me know in the
comments if you do and I'll see you next
time
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