News & Headlines Listening Tasks
News can be a great way to bring authentic listening into the classroom. Some great places to find News to use in the classroom are:
VOA - Voice of America
BBC - BBC Learning English
BBC - News Headlines
Krashen’s (1981) theory of
Comprehensible Input offers that for language learning to occur, sufficient
input (at a level that can be understood) must be received by the learner. Nation & Newton (2009) extend this idea
specifically to listening via his approaches for Meaning-Focused
Listening. The acronym “MINUS” can be
used to test the conditions for meaningful listening.
M – Meaningful: Is the input a piece of meaningful communication?
I – Interesting: Does the input contain
information that will prove interesting
to the learner?
N – New Items: What learnable language,
ideas, skills or text types (LIST) will learners meet through the listening
experience?
U – Understanding: Can the
learners understand the input? How is understanding assisted (e.g. controlling
the level of difficulty, scaffolded learning)?
S – Stress-free: How is stress and anxiety
controlled?
Nation & Newton (2009)
Two methods of in-class listening are proposed
below. These methods meet MINUS
requirements.
KWL (Know /
Want to Know / Learned)
KWL is a reading (input)
comprehension established by Ogle (1986) that seeks to aid understanding. Firstly, prior knowledge is activated. Then, students highlight set goals for
comprehension (identifying what they would like to know more about). Finally, students identify what they have
learned.
Find the File HERE
Information
Transfer – News Grid
Information Transfer (IT)
tasks have been identified (Palmer, 1982) as an effective method for gauging
comprehension as they force learners to change the form of the input they hear
(or read). A second advantage of IT
tasks is that they can be much easier to create than sets of comprehension
questions.
Find the File HERE
Krashen, S. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language
Learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Ogle, D.M. (1986). "K-W-L: A teaching model that develops
active reading of expository text." Reading Teacher, 39, 564-570. K-W-L
Reading Method.
Nation, I.S.P.
and Newton, J. (2009) Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and
Speaking. New York: Routledge. 205 pages. ISBN 978-0-415-98970-1
Palmer, D. M.
(1982). Information Transfer for Listening and Reading. English Teaching Forum 20, (1), 29–33.
