Listen to the News

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.