Listening Lesson

Part 1 - http://youtu.be/eUUSybPn91Y
Part 2 - http://youtu.be/Zq0yq4FSQjs
Part 3 - http://youtu.be/ZrSHMaTHUyk
Part 4 - http://youtu.be/So2NbHHH_j0

Since I saw a lot of us get torn apart last week for performing poorly at our reading lessons (thankfully I survived nearly unscathed) I thought I would practice a Harmer listening activity in class before Saturday's demo. The task was to show a short conversation in a film scene and have students listen and watch for detail. I noticed that the activity seemed to focus more on observing skills than it did listening skill, which was a little strange since this is supposed to be a listening task. I think there are a couple of adjustments that need to be made to this activity to get the students focused on listening. First, I think I would incorporate one of the viewing techniques from B1 or B2 in the text to get the students thinking about forming language rather than describing scenery. Not to devalue the benefits this will have at speaking, but listening is the focus. I had one clip of a conversation b/w two people where the man asks the woman to dinner and phones up to make reservations. (Some of you will probably see this in class). I think to add some interesting language skills to this clip, I should mute the reservation call so that student can practice listening to the set up and confirmation dialogue of the two characters, then build language to fill in the missing sound byte based on what they understand about conversation pattern from what they heard. The good thing about this clip is that the actual reservation call in not a normal situation, so student would build dialogue predicting the normal response, but then hear the opposite. After we could discuss why the man may have acted the way he did, but the main point is getting students to hear conversational English, and fill in gaps by producing sensible speech. So that would be my first adaptation of this activity. Second, I think there are some things I could do to increase student output beyond simple comprehension checking. I should create some questions that focus on abstract ideas from the scene rather than physical details. This might get the student thinking a bit more and producing better language. I just threw this activity in as a fun and different thing to do since we were a little ahead in the lessons, but I think the reservation clip could definitely be worked into a lesson about that kind of topic. I also need to be more vague about direct questioning, and try to have student speak more to work out what information I am trying to elicit from them. I think that would make this task more enjoyable to teach.
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