This is a simple language game which involves the class in friendly competition. The purpose is to practice basic listening skills, and more precisely to listen for specific details on whether a statement is true or false. The class is divided into 2 teams and then 1 player from each team face off against each other. They must listen to a statement by the teacher (or another student) and decide whether it is true or false by being the first to sit on one of the 2 chairs marked either true or false
Example of an easy question: "Jean is wearing a blue t-shirt."
Example of a difficult question: "The Amazon is the longest river on Earth."
The first student to sit in the correct chair wins 1 point for their team, and then the next 2 students face off. Variations of this game are possible.

The following game is a very simple one which allows the teacher to improve listening and inference skills while reinforcing vocabulary. The teacher draws a Tic Tac Toe diagram on the board which each student copies. Then a list of newly learned vocabulary words is placed on the board (about 12-15 words). The words should generally all fit into a specific category; i.e. animals, parts of the body, foods, etc. The students then individually select any 9 of the words from the list, randomly placing one word in each of the squares on their Tic Tac Toe board. They should write in pencil so that they may re-use their game board, but are not permitted to change any of their words while a game is in progress. The teacher then describes or defines one of the words. The students listen and try to identify which word the teacher is describing and upon doing so, place an X in that space. Once they have gotten three Xs in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, they must be the first to shout out the word which was last described. The game can be replayed once more as is, or the students can re-arrange their game boards for the next round. Afterwards a new list can be given out and the game begun again.

This game, which is familiar to all, is a fun, quick, and excellent way for students to learn (or for teachers to reinforce/review) parts of the body as well as various actions. The game can be used to give students an opportunity to relax a little from an activity requiring a lengthy or intense period of concentration. The teacher presents a number of body parts ranging in difficulty from the well-known parts of the body to the lesser-known (ex: arm, leg........ elbow, shin, etc.), as well as several actions; stand up, bend over, touch your _______ , etc. This may be done by saying, "Simon says, 'Touch your knee.'" The action is modeled by the teacher who then continues on through a number of similar commands and actions. He/she then explains that all students must listen carefully to what directions he/she gives them. If the words "Simon says" do not precede the commands, then the students must not obey them. If they do, they are out of the game. The teacher can also try to confuse the students to ensure careful listening by giving one command while acting out another and also by always acting out the commands given, whether or not "Simon says" was spoken. Another tactic is to give commands while not acting any of them out at all.

This activity is very straightforward as it practices general listening as well as word recognition. Quite simply, the teacher pretends to be in a restaurant and orders food and drinks from a real or imagined menu while the students listen and take down his/her order. The order can be simple and made gradually more difficult, depending on the capabilities of the students. The student who writes the most accurate order may then place his/her order to the rest of the class.

The purpose of this activity is to practice listening for specific information and to recognize descriptions. The teacher places the students in groups of 4-5 and asks each group to look around the class and study what their classmates are wearing. The teacher then gives a brief description of what a particular student is wearing and the first group to discover who is being described gets 5 points. The teacher may give further clues if necessary, lowering the amount of points given for each supplementary clue. Students are allowed to confer within their groups, however are penalized 2 points for an incorrect guess. A more difficult twist can then be added to this game: the students are asked to place their heads on their desks and are no longer allowed to look around the class once descriptions are given. (They are still allowed to confer).

This is quite a structured approach to listening to the news. It provides teachers with a step by step method in which to activate listening skills in intermediate and advanced students. Here are the steps suggested by Debra Deane of the University of Akron:

Watch a short TV news broadcast (5-10 minutes). Ask students to notice which parts of the broadcast are easier or more difficult for comprehension by noting (on a scale from 1-5) the level of difficulty. Discuss with students which parts of the broadcast were easier or more difficult for them and why. Write their responses on the board. Have students watch the TV news for several days in class. Record the same program every day so that students can build up their background knowledge of the format of the program. By watching the same program for several days in a row, students will also build up a background of stories currently in the news.

Before each news broadcast, ask the students to predict what they expect to hear, based on their growing background knowledge of current stories. Each day their predictions can become more specific. After each story, the students are asked to rate their background knowledge (from 1-5) on each story. Students may also be asked to find newspaper and magazine articles to read on stories they find interesting in order to obtain further background knowledge as well as extra vocabulary. After about 5 days of watching the news, explain what a format is (i.e. the order and manner in which the news is presented) and then ask students to determine the format of the news show they have been watching. The same procedure may then be employed using a radio news program if the teacher so desires. Regardless of whether a TV or radio program is used, the students should generally be asked to:

1)predict what stories they expect to hear.
2) note which stories are easier/more difficult to understand and discuss why.
3) ask students to briefly write down what they heard.
4) discuss what they heard in groups (starter discussion questions should be handed out - i.e. the who, what, where, when, and why of each story).
5) determine what information they missed and whether it is important.

The structure of individual news stories can also be discussed. It can be pointed out that individual stories, just like whole newscasts, have a structure. Have students listen to a news story then try to determine its structure. Go over the structure by explaining that the first sentence usually contains the main idea, then background information is given either by the newscaster or by a reporter. Within this report, the questions who, what, where, when, and why are usually all answered.

When a particular news item is to be broadcast, the students are asked to predict what kind of information they expect to hear i.e. for a disaster, what questions do they think will be answered. Possible predictions - location, type of disaster, casualties, etc. In this way, background knowledge can be activated and knowledge the students may not possess can be conveyed to them. Furthermore, when the news is played, the students can focus on those very questions and predictions. Afterwards, they can determine whether being aware of the structure of the story and the fact of their predictions helped their comprehension.

The students should then watch a different news program as homework for at least a week in order to become familiar with its structure and its announcers. They should keep a listening log in which they briefly summarize stories and note which are easiest/most difficult to understand and why. At the end of the week, the students can write down the structure of the news program while also evaluating their progress. The students can then (hopefully) see how using background knowledge and recognizing the structure of a story and program will assist them in improving comprehension skills.

The purpose of these stories is of course to improve listening skills and these stories are particularly useful since they require very careful listening. There are several similar types of these stories (there is a reference made in Terroux, p. 268, to Fun with English by Hauptmann and Upshur, 1975), and another teachers may be familiar with are Two-Minute Mysteries (I was unable to find the reference). Some of the tales are quite challenging and difficult to solve, however most are very interesting. A short detective/mystery story is read to the class (in which some crime has been committed) and the students must try to guess where the criminal went wrong. The hero of each of these stories inevitably knows and invites the reader or listener to discover what clue gave away the criminal. An advantage to this type of short listening activity is that the students often like to hear the story again and again to try to find the solution

This listening activity involves having students listen to a well-known person such as John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King give a famous speech. The speech can be tied into a particular theme the teacher is covering, or may focus on a specific aspect of language (eg. use of persuasion), or a simple grammatical point (eg. gerunds). An example of the first might be connecting the topic of slavery (as found in Take Action, a book used for secondary 3 ESL students in Quebec) to the notion of civil rights, and presenting speeches by Malcolm X and the aforementioned Martin Luther King. These would be accompanied by questions pertaining to the topic and would be designed to promote discussion.

These plays are excellent long-term listening activities as they enable the students to follow a story which is broken down into episodic segments. The students, once introduced to the premise of the story, will have an easier time following subsequent episodes as they already possess background knowledge and are (it is hoped) interested in the outcome. The story may involve any topic of particular interest to young people. Often, the tale of choice is that of a mystery - as is the case in Missing Person by Karen Anderson et. al. and Suspicious Minds by Sylvia Begin et. al. Both of these books provide students with an interesting tale while also dealing with several aspects of listening such as predicting, pre-listening, listening for specific information, and vocabulary activities.

The use of popular music (be it rock, pop, rap, heavy metal or whatever is currently listened to by students) can be an extremely useful tool in the ESL classroom. First of all, students will be more motivated to listen, since music is enjoyed by virtually all teens as well as every other age range. Secondly, most students are already interested in learning the words to English songs. Thirdly, the students may already be somewhat familiar with some of the music presented in class and will encourage their classmates to listen carefully to the words. All of these components make it easier for teachers to practice various listening skills such as organizing input and filtering out unneccessary language features.

Some sample activities are: Write out a list of sentences which appear in a particular song then hand them out scrambled to the students (either individually or in small groups) and have them unscramble them as they listen to the song. Another activity is a simple cloze exercise where students must supply the missing words of a song while listening. In this case, the words could vary in difficulty depending upon the abilities of the students and, if necessary, the missing words could be provided at the bottom of the sheet for weaker students. Still another activity would be to present a song which discusses a controversial topic or was performed by a controversial artist and use it as a springboard to initiate discussion. For example, a song by Nirvana could initiate a discussion on suicide due to the demise of Kurt Cobain while Bruce Springsteen's song Philadelphia would be a good lead-in to a discussion about AIDS. These songs should therefore serve one of two essential purposes - to reinforce a specific grammatical structure or aspect of language i.e. the progressive tense or idiomatic expressions; or to reinforce a particular theme or concept i.e. the theme of Freedom could be enhanced by songs such as "Take it Easy" by the Eagles, "Pride (in the Name of Love)" by U2, or "Biko" by Peter Gabriel.

The idea of employing television shows is not a novel one, but again is an exceedingly useful tool in teaching listening in ESL. The advantages are rather obvious: TV is a daily part of our culture and one which students can directly relate to; students are exposed to TV from a young age and so are quite eager to watch shows in class; students already may be curious about stars they read and hear about; and perhaps most importantly, it is entertaining - students learn painlessly without ever realizing it. Some brief suggestions and possible uses for various types of shows follow. Note that permission to rebroadcast most shows must first be obtained.

a) Situation Comedies (Sitcoms) - these may be used at any level, however the content would decide whether a particular show is appropriate for a certain age group. The decision on what to show would depend upon each individual teacher but certain criteria should be met. For example, context plays a crucial role since students can still comprehend complicated speech if they can identify with the situation in which it is spoken. A perfect example of this is the show "The Wonder Years" which dealt with the trials and tribulations of growing up and going to high school. The show was set in the late sixties/early seventies and is replete with contextual clues familiar to virtually all students which therefore assist listening comprehension. Unfortunately, it is no longer on the air, except in the form of reruns or on some specialty channels so may be hard to find, although is certainly worth the effort. Another popular show which students identify with is the Simpsons (although some teachers may not find it appropriate). Many other shows could also be useful but they must be chosen carefully since humour is often exceptionally difficult to understand in a second language.

b) Dramatic Series (Dramas) - as with sitcoms, these must be carefully selected to ensure that the level of language is slightly above that understood by the students. Also, the content must appeal to the students in order to maintain their interest. Shows like "Beverly Hills 90210" or "Dawson's Creek" might be appropriate since they deal with teen issues such as love, alienation, etc.

c) Soap Operas (Soaps) - these can also be utilized since they appear daily and constantly reiterate various themes, thereby allowing students to follow the basic premise of different plot lines. The characters and outcomes are often fairly predictable and clichéd but this permits easier understanding since the students can use background knowledge and prediction techniques to better follow the story.

d) TV Movies - these are often very useful as they may reinforce a theme or topic being discussed in class. One film which comes to mind is a CTV movie which aired a few years ago entitled "The Underground Railroad" which was an excellent complement to the "Escape to Freedom" unit in the book Take Action (used for many grade 9 students in Quebec).

All the above shows can be used in innumerable ways. A couple of suggestions are: write out a series of general to more specific comprehension questions which are handed out to students prior to the program which they must answer while watching; show the students 2/3 or 3/4 of a show then have them write out the ending for homework; hand out a series of lines spoken by various characters (usually in order) and have the students identify the speakers; or work on a specific aspect of language such as idioms or vocabulary. Note that on the Miscellaneous page of this Web site there is a section on movies which includes a couple of sites which provide free TV and movie scripts which could be invaluable to teachers.

e) Game Shows - these are also an extremely popular tool for classroom use. They can be used in a variety of ways such as predicting (answers on a quiz show) or overall comprehension as in the above shows also.

f) Other Shows - documentaries, talk shows, nature programs, real-life mystery/crime shows (like Unsolved Mysteries), etc.