PowerPoint Presentation

Teaching listening:Olya SergeevaEPAM SystemsDonELTA Winter SchoolFebruary 8, 2016

Frequently overlooked difficulties and practical solutions

1

Slides, templates, links:

An archive with audio & video files: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7w14rys01ddt6u5/Listening.7z?dl=0

https://eltgeek.wordpress.com/conferences/donelta-2016/

2

Your approach to teaching listening: favourite materials? activities?What issues with listening did you experience as a learner? What issues are you facing at this point?

Listening is a very personal topic for me. After doing my C2 exams (CPE and TOEFL) and scoring really high on listening in 2007, Ive been discovering what I cant do in real life situations. The biggest shock came right after my exams, when I started watching films and realized I dont understand them. I watched a lot of films and series and the situation improved, but later when I came to England to do my CELTA in 2009, I couldnt understand a lot of speakers, e.g. bus drivers! And just two years ago, when I came back to England this time to do a Delta exactly the same situation happened: I avoided bus drivers, but had to buy fruit, and I just couldnt understand the fruit vendors (and other people). Being a teacher, that was a very unsettling situation for me, because those are the types of listening that I need to prepare my students for, yet I myself was the best proof that standard classroom procedures as well as massive exposure (in my case, to films and series) doesnt help to remove all difficulties. 3

cant do statements

Listening is a very personal topic for me. After doing my C2 exams (CPE and TOEFL) and scoring really high on listening in 2007, Ive been discovering what I cant do in real life situations. The biggest shock came right after my exams, when I started watching films and realized I dont understand them. I watched a lot of films and series and the situation improved, but later when I came to England to do my CELTA in 2009, I couldnt understand a lot of speakers, e.g. bus drivers! And just two years ago, when I came back to England this time to do a Delta exactly the same situation happened: I avoided bus drivers, but had to buy fruit, and I just couldnt understand the fruit vendors (and other people). Being a teacher, that was a very unsettling situation for me, because those are the types of listening that I need to prepare my students for, yet I myself was the best proof that standard classroom procedures as well as massive exposure (in my case, to films and series) doesnt help to remove all difficulties. 4

http://elt-resourceful.com/2014/11/26/decoding-skills-for-listening-a-collection-of-useful-links/

15 months ago I joined an English teaching department in an IT company. The biggest priority for my students was listening (mostly to skype meetings), so I had to develop a course to help them. Luckily, theres research explaining what exactly it is that makes authentic listening so challenging for learners and suggesting lots of activity types to target those features. I cant recommend John Fields book enough. More references at the end!5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNJI2A0v8yI

So, lets see for ourselves. This is one of the videos Ive used with my students (it comes from Toronto Public Library youtube channel). All of my students, even at advanced levels, found this extract very challenging. Watch this video and as you watch, try to pinpoint what features make it difficult. (This is an embedded video, so you can click on it to watch it. Alternatively, watch it on youtube till the end of the story, about 3 minutes). 6

7(1) _______ looking (2) _______ the window, (3) _______ entire engine (4) ______________ fireball.

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.7

8I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball.

Written formSpoken form1I wasa wz

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.8

9I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball.

Written formSpoken form1I wasa_wz

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.9

10I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball.

Written formSpoken form1I wasa_wz2looking outlk at

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.10

11I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball.

Written formSpoken form1I wasa_wz2looking outlk _at

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.11

12I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball.

Written formSpoken form1I wasa_wz2looking outlk _at 3and thend i:

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.12

13I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball.

Written formSpoken form1I wasa_wz2looking outlk _at 3and thend_i:

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.13

14I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball.

Written formSpoken form1I wasa_wz2looking outlk _at 3and thend_i: 4justdst

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.14

15I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball.

Written formSpoken form1I wasa_wz2looking outlk _at 3and thend_i: 4justdst

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.15

16I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball.

Written formSpoken form1I wasa_wz2looking outlk _at 3and thend_i: 4justdst5turned into atnd nt

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.16

17I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball.

Written formSpoken form1I wasa_wz2looking outlk _at 3and thend_i: 4justdst5turned into atnd_nt

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.17

18(1) _______ right after Sully had (2) _______incident happen to him (3) _______geese

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.18

19It was right after Sully had that incident happen to him with the geese

Written formSpoken form1it wast wz23

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.19

20It was right after Sully had that incident happen to him with the geese

Written formSpoken form1it wast wz23

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.20

21It was right after Sully had that incident happen to him with the geese

Written formSpoken form1it wast wz2thatt

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.21

22It was right after Sully had that incident happen to him with the geese

Written formSpoken form1it wast wz2thatt

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.22

23It was right after Sully had that incident happen to him with the geese

Written formSpoken form1it wast wz2thatt3with thew

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.23

24It was right after Sully had that incident happen to him with the geese

Written formSpoken form1it wast wz2thatt3with thew

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.24

25(1) _______ the only person (2) ______________ see this.

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.25

26I was I was the only person there that seemed to see this.

Written formSpoken form1there thate t

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.26

27I was I was the only person there that seemed to see this.

Written formSpoken form1there thate t

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.27

28I was I was the only person there that seemed to see this.

Written formSpoken form1there thate t 2seemed tosimd tu

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.28

29I was I was the only person there that seemed to see this.

Written formSpoken form1there thate t 2seemed tosimd tu

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.29

30(1) __________ How many engines did we have?

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.30

31He goes How many engines did we have?

Written formSpoken form1he goeshi z

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.31

32He goes How many engines did we have?

Written formSpoken form1he goeshi z

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.32

33(1) ____________ emergency landing (2) ____________ tires exploded.

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.33

34And did an emergency landing and all our tires exploded.

Written formSpoken form1andnd

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.34

35And did an emergency landing and all our tires exploded.

Written formSpoken form1andnd

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.35

36And did an emergency landing and all our tires exploded.

Written formSpoken form1andnd 2did an emergencydd n mdnsi

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.36

37And did an emergency landing and all our tires exploded.

Written formSpoken form1andnd 2did an emergencyd d nmdnsi

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.37

38And did an emergency landing and all our tires exploded.

Written formSpoken form1andnd 2did an emergencyd d nmdnsi3and all ournd l ar

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.38

39And did an emergency landing and all our tires exploded.

Written formSpoken form1andnd 2did an emergencyd d nmdnsi3and all our n lar

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.39

40And did an emergency landing and all our tires exploded.

Written formSpoken form1andnd 2did an emergencyd d nmdnsi3and all our n lar4tires explodedtaz kspldd

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.40

41And did an emergency landing and all our tires exploded.

Written formSpoken form1andnd 2did an emergencyd d nmdnsi3and all our n lar4tires explodedta zkspldd

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.41

42______________________________.

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.42

43I feel like I should write a book now.

Written formSpoken form1feel likefil lak

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.43

44I feel like I should write a book now.

Written formSpoken form1feel likefil lak

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.44

45I feel like I should write a book now.

Written formSpoken form1feel likefil lak2should write ad rat

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.45

46I feel like I should write a book now.

Written formSpoken form1feel likefil lak2should write ad rad_

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.46

47I feel like I should write a book now.

Written formSpoken form1feel likefil lak2should write ad rad_3bookbk

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.47

48I feel like I should write a book now.

Written formSpoken form1feel likefil lak2should write ad rad_3bookbk

Heres a bit more insight into this particular extract: on the slide you see the first sentence from the video. In red are the words that my students couldnt catch even if when I replayed and asked them to transcribe. Click on embedded audio to listen. Two features that I find quite striking: first, the red bits are 13 words out of 50 almost 50%! Secondly, theyre all in top 100 words of English. In general top 100 words of English cover over 50% of any speech and they are the ones that are quite difficult to catch: because theyre so frequent, people dont bother pronouncing them completely.48

Summarize the features of connected speech that weve encountered so far.

Implications for the classroom?

So, lets see for ourselves. This is one of the videos Ive used with my students (it comes from Toronto Public Library youtube channel). All of my students, even at advanced levels, found this extract very challenging. Watch this video and as you watch, try to pinpoint what features make it difficult. (This is an embedded video, so you can click on it to watch it. Alternatively, watch it on youtube till the end of the story, about 3 minutes). 49

Summarize the features of connected speech that weve encountered so far.

Implications for the classroom?

So, lets see for ourselves. This is one of the videos Ive used with my students (it comes from Toronto Public Library youtube channel). All of my students, even at advanced levels, found this extract very challenging. Watch this video and as you watch, try to pinpoint what features make it difficult. (This is an embedded video, so you can click on it to watch it. Alternatively, watch it on youtube till the end of the story, about 3 minutes). 50

GRAMMAR STRUCTURES & DISCOURSE MARKERS

High frequency problems: Consonants disappear (and it was; seemed to?)Vowels disappear (was, just, should,)Diphthongs get reduced (out>>ut, I was >> uwz)Word boundaries shift (looki nout; )Chunks blend together (andthen, feellike; sort of)

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Summarize the features of connected speech that weve encountered so far.

Implications for the classroom?

So, lets see for ourselves. This is one of the videos Ive used with my students (it comes from Toronto Public Library youtube channel). All of my students, even at advanced levels, found this extract very challenging. Watch this video and as you watch, try to pinpoint what features make it difficult. (This is an embedded video, so you can click on it to watch it. Alternatively, watch it on youtube till the end of the story, about 3 minutes). 52

The idea for the course that Im currently teaching (actually, its been taught three times now) took shape when, having just joined the company, I was approached by a team who had just taken on a new project. They had to listen to two hour-long skype meetings weekly and had real trouble with the accents. At one point, we sat down and attempted to transcribe one meeting sentence by sentence. On the slide you can see the words and expressions that they didnt catch in the first couple of sentences for the reason that they sounded differently from what they expected them to sound, differently from the dictionary form and the overall emotion in the room.

When you for the first time stop and find out what it is that youre missing, this might be quite shocking (it was to me, when I found out I didnt understand theres pronounced as thz and does he pronounced as doesy when I came back home from Delta Mod 2 in London and started digging into my listening difficulties). Also, when you miss a lot, youll probably be overwhelmed those speech features feel random and chaotic and it seems that its impossible to make any progress.

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?Train intensively

Consolidate

Diagnose & get insight

So, what could I do for those language learners?

First and foremost, demystify the chaos: get the students to listen closely to what theyve missed (after telling them the answer) and tell you how the pronunciation is different from the dictionary form;you may explain why words are pronounced differently (e.g. I ask my students to say that and say it again without releasing the air at the end) not in order to make them speak like that but in order to make the features less randommost importantly, help the students see some patterns: organize boardwork by grouping examples exhibiting the same feature of connected speech together

The above steps are knowledge about authentic speech, but they wouldnt automatically make the learners better listeners. Next time the learner hears that, its very likely that they wont catch it again even despite knowing what it should sound like. The reason is that learners need to acquire the skill of deciphering that word.

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To search: CTRL + F

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https://eltgeek.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/youtube_videos_with_subtitles/

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http://www.aegisub.org/ + Keepvid.com

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Train intensively

Consolidate

Diagnose & get insight

59

Train intensively

Consolidate

Diagnose & get insight

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Train intensively

Consolidate

Diagnose & get insight

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Reporting (Im like) Questions (does he? did he?)Past simple (turned, stopped, tried)Superlatives (the best summer, the most)Modals (must, could, should)Negatives (didnt, cant, shouldnt)

The idea for the course that Im currently teaching (actually, its been taught three times now) took shape when, having just joined the company, I was approached by a team who had just taken on a new project. They had to listen to two hour-long skype meetings weekly and had real trouble with the accents. At one point, we sat down and attempted to transcribe one meeting sentence by sentence. On the slide you can see the words and expressions that they didnt catch in the first couple of sentences for the reason that they sounded differently from what they expected them to sound, differently from the dictionary form and the overall emotion in the room.

When you for the first time stop and find out what it is that youre missing, this might be quite shocking (it was to me, when I found out I didnt understand theres pronounced as thz and does he pronounced as doesy when I came back home from Delta Mod 2 in London and started digging into my listening difficulties). Also, when you miss a lot, youll probably be overwhelmed those speech features feel random and chaotic and it seems that its impossible to make any progress.

63

Present/future simple (Ill, Im)Modals (must, could, should)There isPersonal pronouns (my bedroom, our money)Prepositions (about, out) Past simple/continuous (I was..)

The idea for the course that Im currently teaching (actually, its been taught three times now) took shape when, having just joined the company, I was approached by a team who had just taken on a new project. They had to listen to two hour-long skype meetings weekly and had real trouble with the accents. At one point, we sat down and attempted to transcribe one meeting sentence by sentence. On the slide you can see the words and expressions that they didnt catch in the first couple of sentences for the reason that they sounded differently from what they expected them to sound, differently from the dictionary form and the overall emotion in the room.

When you for the first time stop and find out what it is that youre missing, this might be quite shocking (it was to me, when I found out I didnt understand theres pronounced as thz and does he pronounced as doesy when I came back home from Delta Mod 2 in London and started digging into my listening difficulties). Also, when you miss a lot, youll probably be overwhelmed those speech features feel random and chaotic and it seems that its impossible to make any progress.

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Hydra youtube subtitles search engineAim #1: easily find videos that contain examples of target languageAim #2: create listening quizzes, to systematically target decoding difficulties starting at lower levelsDeveloped by my partner and myself (do contact us with feedback and feature requests)http://kirilloid.ru/hydra

http://kirilloid.ru/hydra

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kirilloid.ru/hydra

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kirilloid.ru/hydra

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Case study: Revise modals with Pre-Intermediate IT students

Search: (can|could|should|must|have to|has to)Filters: Channel: Android DevelopersVideo length: no more than 3 mins

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Case study: lesson structurehttp://www.slideshare.net/arborea/favourite-technology

StageTask in handoutPre-watch (discussing favourite tools)Warmer & task 1Listening 1: s/s unjumble first sentences from the video, listen and check. Aims: to make sure the s/s understand the topic; to help the s/s adjust to the accentTask 2Listening for gistTask 3Listening for decoding (gaps: a modal + a lexical word)Task 4Language presentation based on the transcript (meaning, form, pronunciation)Tasks 5 & 6Language practice (semi-controlled written practice, fully personalized; spoken practice in pairs)Task 7Focus on discourse (expressions used for listing). Focus on meaning; focus on pronunciation; semi-controlled oral practice in pairsTasks 8 10

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WHAT ARE YOUR TAKEAWAYS?

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http://elt-resourceful.com/2014/11/26/decoding-skills-for-listening-a-collection-of-useful-links/ Further reading

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olyaelt@gmail.com https://eltgeek.wordpress.com/conferences/donelta-2016

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