Exercises
Autor: Ioleth | Publicado: 2012-04-24T09:34:00-07:00

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A
New Twist on Listening Exercises



Listening is one of the toughest skills to improve, simply
because the students can't work at their own pace. They might read at a slower
pace, or work out the meaning of a sentence on paper before moving on, which is
simply impossible and impractical in a conversation.
I always try to add an element of listening in each lesson, and not just
with an activity prepared beforehand. Any activity can be adjusted to
incorporate listening, which also helps put a new twist on the usual exercises.
Try one of the following:


1. A word search in which you dictate some or all of the words first, then
check the spelling as a class. The students then complete the word search (in
class, or as homework).


2. Follow the instructions of a worksheet, but do several of the exercises,
sentences, etc. aloud as a class. You can have the students work alone, or in
pairs. And with smaller classes, you can always ask additional questions not on
the worksheet to get everyone participating.


3. Extend an activity with a listening and speaking exercise. For example,
after completing a worksheet on the future tense, give three or four new,
original sentences about your plans for the weekend. Students listen, and then
work in pairs to ask an appropriate follow-up question. You can then have the
students do the same: tell, ask, and answer in pairs or groups.


Chris Cotter
www.headsupenglish.com



"playing
by ear"

This works for beginner-beginners, but can be spiraled up in
so many ways. I brought a thumb piano to my last class (you could use a guitar,
keyboard, etc.), and assigned one letter of the alphabet to each piano key (I
taped the letters to the instrument). When I said the letter, my student would
play the corresponding key. Then I would say a few letters in a row, and she
would play each of those. The letters I had her play spelled out her name, so
they were relevant to her. We also did this with numbers (13,30; 14, 40;). It's
a great listening exercise and my student really enjoyed it!
amber
Denver



A
Wonderful World

I first learned about this activity while taking the CELTA
course in NYC. Since then, I've added elements to it and have had a tremendous
success with this activity in High Beginning ESL classes. It truly has creates
"a wonderful world" in the classroom.
Enjoy!
Juli
www.teacher-juli.blogspot.com
Activity: Listening, drawing and mingling activity based on the lyrics in
“What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong.


Objective: Students will draw the vocabulary they hear in the song and
discuss drawings with classmates. 


Materials: 
-Picture cards of vocabulary from song (baby crying, blue sky, green trees, red
roses, earth, shaking hands, etc.) 
-song: “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong
-CD or MP3 player
-markers and construction paper



1. The teacher tells students that they will be listening to a song called
“Wonderful World” (The title is shortened to make activity easier). In pairs,
Ss discuss what they think the song is about. Possible questions to facilitate
discussion include: What makes a wonderful world? What are people doing? What
things do you see? What colors do you see? This is followed by a group
discussion.


2. The teacher reviews key vocabulary words from song with picture cards
(e.g.: world, hands shaking, blue sky with clouds, rainbow, red roses, tree,
baby crying). Ss describe pictures with as many words as they can.


3. The teacher gives students construction paper and color markers. She
informs students that they are going to hear the song “What a Wonderful World ”
three (3) times. The first time they will only listen. The second and third
time, they will draw what they hear described in the song. 


4. Once they’re through with their drawings, the teacher will instruct
students to all stand up and walk around the room, describing their drawings to
their classmates. Students will then choose their favorite drawing and explain
why.



Acting
Out Commands

I've found this activity to be fun &amp; useful with
beginners: Call on students to follow simple commands such as "Read the
first 2 sentences on page 34", "Zip up your jacket", or
"Take off your left shoe." Vary the game by having students draw
names or commands. At first they were liery of doing these "dumb"
things, but they later loved it because they could tell each other to do outrageous
things such as crawling on the floor, eat Suzie's chips, etc.

Around
the circle

This is an excellent ESL activity for children in all ages.
The pupils will practice listening, speaking and imagination. You can modify it
to a topic of your choice; fruits, food, clothes, colours etc.
Here's an example with fruit.
1. Sit in a circle.


2. The teacher starts by saying: "I like apples" and makes a
gesture to show "apples" with the hands.


3. The person next to him/her has to repeat and then add a new fruit.
"I like apples" (makes the gesture) and bananas" and adds a new
gesture for "bananas".


4. Continue around the circle. One at a time; repeating, and adding on
fruits and gestures. 


Test your skills! Try to remember what everyone said and go all around the
circle.


Regards,
Ms Paula Maritz,
Sweden



Top
100 English Conversation Patterns

When students are studying conversation skills by
themselves, I have them practice their conversation 
patterns with a set of 7 CD's that I have developed which progressively reviews
the
top 100 English conversation patterns. After each question there is time for
the student 
to answer.Each CD is over 60 minutes long. It is a great way to give students
an opportunity to
test their skills. see http://www.cl.ais.net/labonte
Don La Bonte

TOEFL
Listening

Teaching a TOEFL preparation course, there is the need for
more than just 'intensive' listening, i.e. listening specific to the test, but
also 'extensive', or general listening comprehension activities. I used the
'audio book' (book on tape) of the novel 'Disclosure,' which comprises 4 tapes.
This was easily obtainable at the public library. I divided eight sides into
two sections each and came up with 16 sets of listening comprehension questions
to go with the tapes. If this sounds like a lot of work, it was! But there has
to be a way to confirm comprehension, and I personally find that most students
hate summary writing and even when they do it, it takes them hours on end.
Besides, the TOEFL test doesn't test the writing skill. I assigned the
questions as homework and we took them up in class. This can be a nice segue
into reading the novel or seeing the movie. Or collecting the bubble gum cards,
for that matter. At any rate, my awesomely detailed 16-part TOEFL-style
multiple choice question set for 'Disclosure' as read by John Lithgow is
available.
Name: David Ayer
Email: mlcc@ican.net
Location: Toronto, ON Canada



tips
for better listening

Tips for better listening:
1) Make eye contact.
How do you feel when people aren’t looking at you when you’re speaking?
Of course, you will think they are not interested.
So, it’s most important to look at other people when they speak.


2) Show body language.
It’s very good to nod* your head, and use your face to show feelings.
Smile when it’s funny or interesting, look serious when it’s sad or serious,
frown* if you don’t understand, and so on.


3) Don’t do any other things when you’re listening.
Don’t look at your watch, play with your pen, move your papers, and so on. This
means you’re not listening and not interested.


4) Ask questions.
It’s very important to ask questions from time to time*. This will make you
understand better, and also show that you are listening and interested.


5) Repeat things sometimes in your own words.
For example: “So, you mean…” and “Are you saying that…?”
This will make sure you understand, and that you have heard everything.


6) Don’t interrupt*.
Always let somebody finish speaking. If they are not finished yet, it is rude
to say something yourself. 
You can show you want to say something by using your body language. Then, it is
good to use nr.4 and nr.5.

7) Don’t talk too much yourself.
When you are talking, you can’t listen at the same time. So, sometimes you want
to talk about what YOU think, but try not to do this too often. 
Try to feel comfortable when you listen and stay calm.


8) Try to make the conversation go smoothly* and easy.
This means sometimes you are speaking, and sometimes the other person is
speaking. Then it’s good to try to make an easy change. 
Timing* and using nr.2 are useful*.


* nod: to move your head a little, like saying ‘yes’.
* frown: the look on your face when you don’t understand, like when you are
eating a lemon.
* from time to time: sometimes. 
* interrupt: when something is busy, you stop it.
* smoothly: soft feeling, not hard. (opposite of rough)
* timing: to do something at the right time. (‘bad timing’ is to do something
at the wrong time)
* useful: it is good to use. (opposite of useless)


Note: I've adapted a text from a management textbook to use for my
elementary and basic classes in China, hence the footnotes. It's interesting
stuff and pretty useful. Just put it in a word-document and talk about it. 
Roel Cruijff (Da Jiang)
Yangshuo, China



Telling
Stories

I tell stories quite often to my second year middle school
students. First I write down a story in the language I would use in class
(probably a lot easier than normal fairy tale language. For example the King
says "Go away, leave my castle and my country!" He does NOT say
"I hereby banish you from my castle, kingdom...") So after I have
written it down, I look at what difficult language remains. (cave, deliver,
terrible, traveler, stab) and then go to class. First thing I write those
tricky and or new words on the board and describe them until one of the
brighter students can supply the Korean. Then I tell the story. I tell the
story as slowly as possible, with as little flowery additions as I can... but
also very dramatically. I snore
loudly when the dragon is sleeping and I clasp my hands in delight when the
princess is in love, I hop about on one foot when the one legged man comes to
the camp site and I growl like a wolf. I also use the students. I will cut off
their head and hold it aloft, shake their hands, treat them as the king I am
begging a favor from on bended knee, etc. After I finish the story I write some
other words on the board, the difficult spelling ones and some key vocabulary
from the story (but words they know, things like tongue, dragon, princesses,
etc.) I also usually write "Once upon a time..." then I ask them to
write down the story, or as much as they understood/remember. This can be
hilarious, to see their mistakes (the hero killed the princess... uhhh, what?).
I walk around the room and check to see how they are doing, but any reasonable
approximation I encourage. I don't correct things very much. It's more did they
understand what they were hearing than can they write it perfectly at this
point. If you tell the story in a
captivating way the students will not mind the exercise. I have used classics
such as Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood, but I find it works best
when they didn't hear the story in Korean. Just buy an Aesops or something if
you need new material. 
It works for me, it's a lot of fun, and it's a darn good
comprehension/listening exercise. 


Name: Cedar
Email: Umyang@bigfoot.com
Location: Daegu, Korea



Songbook
No. 1: Rivers

The following is one of the most enjoyable activities I have
ever carried out. And I must say my students loved it, too. Try it!
I often do songs in class: old songs, new songs...the best of both worlds to
suit the kids´ taste...and my own. River Ebro, which crosses our town and is
just a few yards away from my doorstep, was the inspiration for an amusing
project which kept everyone busy for a couple of weeks.


We listened to quite a few songs, all dealing with rivers:


Lynn Anderson´s (or The McGuire Sister´s) - Red River Valley
Mahalia Jackson´s - Down by the Riverside
Frank Sinatra´s - Moonriver
Ike and Tina Turner´s - River Deep, Mountain High
The Beatles´ (or Elton John´s) - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Simon and Garfunkel´s - Bridge Over Troubled Water
Boney M´s - Rivers of Babylon
Bruce Springsteen´s - The River
Jeff Beck´s - Ol´ Man River
Albert Hammond´s - Down by the River


We dealt with the lyrics in several ways and, to everybody´s surprise, what
had started as a simple linguistic issue led us to a multi-cultural event: by
discussing the different messages in the songs, their performers´ careers and
their singing styles, we dealt with geography, the history of music, religion,
literature, films, love, art, social trends, drug abuse, politics, the environment...life,
in a nutshell. A most substantial subject, indeed. We are already working on
two new topics: the Moon and...almost inevitable...Love. Will let you know
about our findings, sometime! 


Devised by Joan M. Díez Clivillé
IESI Ramon Berenguer IV
Amposta, Tarragona (Spain)



SOLID
IDEA for any class

from a childrens pictor book to a article in the newspaper
Read the class a story appropriate to their level of english, (To reduce
teacher talking time have a student read the story) after the story give them a
copy of the story (easy enough to photocopy a short story), have the story read
again but this time have the students highlight words they don't know and
underline sentences they don't understand. This is a great opportunity to pair
up the students for a minute or 2 and see how many words they can teach each
other and then possibly pair them up again with a new partner. Then have them
look up the remainder of the words for homework, and submit to the teacher
anonymously the sentences they don't understand to be gone over the next class
(students are much more likely to admit they don't understand something if it
can be left anonymous.) For high level english students (such as university or
a honors program) I would chose a story with something controversial or
something being debated and then divide the class in 2 or if its a small class
make it a class wide discussion of the topic. 



Picture
bingo--practice with this/that

Maybe you've played picture bingo yourself in a foreign
language class. This is a good game for listening, speaking, and practicing new
or old vocabulary. I've started making my own picture bingo cards. Here's how:
I think this works best if you choose a theme for the bingo pictures, such
as clothes, things in a school, etc. Look on the internet for clip-art for your
theme. You can probably print off big pictures for flash cards and cut and
paste the small icons to a Word document. You will use these for the bingo
squares.


Make a 5*5 grid on your computer and write BINGO on the top. Fill the
squares in with pictures (either the small clipped art or pictures you drew
yourself). Use tape to put these pictures in the square so you can remove them.
Make about 2 copies of every bingo card, and then change the card
around...moving around the taped clipped art. (If the cards are all the
same...your kids will all yell bingo at the same time!)


Before playing bingo, ask your kids "What is this?" and have them
respond with "That is a pencil (a pen, a computer, an eraser, an exacto
knife, etc.) Then demonstrate a sequence of "what is that?" giving
the object to a student, so they will respond, "This is a pencil, glue,
white-out, an eraser, etc. Then have your students cut out little paper chits
to cover up the bingo cards. Tell them not to write on your copies (even better
if you can laminate them). 


Play Bingo, first asking students to respond to your flashcards (WHAT IS
THIS, THAT IS pattern). Then, stop using pictures and have them play bingo just
listening to you say "This is a paper clip", etc. (WITHOUT
PICTURES!). The first students to yell bingo and tell you correctly (in
complete sentences) what is on their paper will win. Give them a small prize
when they win.


Note: You can mix things up as follows: one time have only DOWN win. Next,
only ACROSS. For the last few "speed games" everything wins (FOUR
CORNERS, DIAGONAL, DOWN, ACROSS). Remember there is a freee space in the
middle. 



Listening
Crossword Puzzles

I found that many of my high school students really like
crossword puzzles, so I decided turn them into listening practice instead of
just reading. So, I give them the blank crossword and verbally give the clues
to the puzzle. I use recent vocabulary words and turn it into a review. It also
gives students a way of defining words by using English instead of translating
into their native language. The really great thing about this is that it can be
customized to fit any level of English.
I hope it works for you.


Kimberly DeFusco
Iwaki, Japan



Listening
Cycles

This practice consists of 3 steps
1:
Make up short yes-no questions such as
Are there 7 days in a week?
Are there 4 seasons in a year?
Are there 10 months in a year? etc.... 
And ask these questions to your students quickly and have them answer back to
you immediately.
Step 2:
Change the sentence and ask 
How many day are there in a week?
How many weeks in a year? etc....
Step 3:
Are there 7 days or 5 days a week?
Are there 10 monts or 12 months a year?


Questions should be asked very quickly and students should answer
immediately? You can put price in order to make it more interesting.


Have a great Day.
Deniz Tore



Jamie's
Laughable Love Quis

One chapter in the high school textbook deals with dating. I
was always wondering how I should best teach it, and then it hit me, a
compatibility quiz. What you do is make 4 questions related to dating. I had;
what should your date look like, what is your idea of a perfect date, what
should your date act like, and what gift should your date bring you. I give
them four options per question, usually atleast two of the options are very
silly answers (ie: what should your date look like, one answer is Godzilla). I
make the identical questions on the other half of the sheet so that each sheet
can be folded and have 2 sets of the 4 questions on it.
Step 1: Have the students fold the sheet in half, write their name at the
top and answer the first set of questions.
Step 2: Have the students pass the sheet forward, mix all the sheets up and
then pass them out again making sure the students do not know who's sheet they are
receiving.
Step 3: The students then fill out the question sheet again.
Step 4: They can then open up the sheet and see how many answers match. I
always have a legend at the bottom 0 answers = you hate each other 1-2
answers=friends and 3-4 answers= true love. They always laugh when they find
out that they have found true love. 
Step 5: Lastly have the students hand back the sheet to the original owner.
I also throw my sheet in and the students always blush when they have to give
me my sheet back.
This teaches the students that listening can be fun, and sometimes embarrassing
and it usually gives them a lot of new vocabulary!


Jamie Vermette, Japan



Horse
race dictation

This is an activity in which students try to predict the
order of words in a jumbled sentence before listening for the answer, in the
form of a horse race. Choose a sentence and write words on the left of the
board, in random order, as in the example below. You also need to prepare a
commentary, which should be challenging enough to make it interesting but not
too difficult. In the example below there is only one major change in order,
‘when’, and other minor changes during the race. 

Finally
Was 
O’clock 
Eleven 
Home 
When
I 
It
Got 


Commentary
They’re off! ‘I’ has made a strong start, with ’finally’ close behind, and
‘home’ and ‘got’ following. ‘When’ is at the back, ‘eleven’ and ‘o’clock’ are
just ahead. ‘Was’ and ‘it’ are in the middle of the field and ‘it’ has just
passed ‘was’. Both are ahead of ‘eleven’ and ‘o’clock’. and ‘when’ is coming
from behind fast, passing ‘eleven’ and ‘o’clock’, and look at him go! He has
passed ‘finally’ and is now passing ‘I’, and into the lead. They’re coming to
the finish line, what an incredible finish! It’s ‘When’ first, ‘I’ second, ‘
finally’ third, ‘got’ beats ‘home’ to finish fourth, with ‘o’clock’ coming
last.


The answer: When I finally got home it was eleven o’clock


Procedure
Make sure students are familiar with words showing order, eg first, second,
last, at the back, following, ahead, in(to) the lead, behind. Tell the students
to imagine that the words are horses who are going to race to the other side of
the board. The winner will be the first word in the sentence, the second to
finish will be the second word and so on. Ask them to choose the word that they
think will be the winner and write it down, then tell them to compare their
predictions in groups. Say they are going to hear a horse race commentary and
that they have to listen carefully to find the winner and the order of words.
They can make notes during the commentary and should write the sentence at the
end. Read the commentary, stressing the words in quotation marks to
differentiate them from the other words. Note that commentaries are spoken fast
in real life, so read it fairly quickly the first time. Check the answers. You
may need to read it more than once for the class to agree. Ask who predicted
the winner correctly. 


Simon Mumford



Long
Distance Dictation

All you need for this activity is one piece of paper with a
short interesting story of approx. 6 to 10 sentences graded for your level. Use
a short joke.
Partner the students up. Ask one student from each partner ship to join you
in the hall way. When half the class is out in the hall with you, you post the
story there. Let the students know they have to "transport" the story
to their partner who must write. Ask them, "How many words can your brain
hold?" 


Some students will get so into it they'll start racing; ask them to walk so
as not to crash into anyone.


George Stewart
Toronto, Ont



Clue
(practice left and right)

This game works great for large classes.
Make either a blank seating chart of your class OR make one that is already
filled in with all the students names. (If you are going to give the students a
bank one, you will need to make either an overhead or a copy of it on the
board. Then, go through during class and both you and the students fill it in
with all the students names)
Tell the students that you have randomly selected 1 "special"
student. But you are not going to tell them who it is. You are going to tell
them who is is NOT! They must put an X over that person until all but one name
is Xed out. 


In my class, these are some examples of clues that i give:
1. The special person is not sitting between Ted and Sarah.
2. The special person is not to the left of Katy.
3. The special person is not in the row to the right of Johnny's row.
4. It is not someone sitting in the 1st desk of any row.


You can also do characteristics:
hair color (I can't since I teach in Taiwan), glasses, clothing, long hair,
boy, girl, etc.



I always ask the students "who is out?" after I say the clue. Then I
X out the student's names on my seating chart that I made on the board. 



I always tell my students that the special student gets candy. Also, they cannot
be the special student if they are not participating. At first, I was nervous
that they would stop playing once they got out, but they really liked watching
their friends get out. 



Bingo
for L/R

This is to help reinforce listening of similar sounding
words. In Korea , for example, they do not distinguish the r/l sounds. After
presenting various r/l words (right/light) I play Bingo. Put all the vocab on
the grid. The students need only to draw empty Bingo grids. When you say the
words, they "x" it off until someone gets bingo. This way students
really try hard to listen to the differences in sounds.
Name: David
Email: queerean@hotmail.com
Location: Korea