Would you like to receive publication updates from HLT? You can by joining the free mailing list today. |
Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 2; March 03
Listen for a chunk
Before class: Prepare a relatively easy song with repetitive lyrics the students might enjoy listening to, prepare handouts with lyrics, one per student.
Aims: listening for chunks, selecting known chunks from a text students don't understand as a whole.
Time: 20 minutes
Procedure:
- Tell the students they will be listening to a song.
- In the first run through ask them to listen for individual words, expressions or whole sentences. Explain they will not understand everything.
- Play the song again and ask the students to write down the chunks they think they hear. Tell them they can use 'approximate' spelling at this stage.
- Play the song a number of times if necessary.
- Give out the lyrics and students look for 'their' chunks and circle them.
- Discuss with the whole class what chunks they heard or selected.
Variation: Instead a song you may use a video extract of a feature film with some dialogues, or a documentary with some commentary. Choose an extract that is appropriate for the learners' age group and intellectual level.
Rationale: This activity sends out the following message to the students: you can listen to an authentic text and pick up bits of language even if you don't understand the whole text.