Aims and types of pre-listening tasks

Setting the context

This is perhaps the most important thing to do - even most exams give an idea about who is
speaking, where and why. In normal life we normally have some idea of the context of
something we are listening to.
Generating interest
Motivating our students is a key task for us. If they are to do a listening about sports, looking
at some dramatic pictures of sports players or events will raise their interest or remind them of
why they (hopefully) like sports. Personalisation activities are very important here. A pair-
work discussion about the sports they play or watch, and why, will bring them into the topic,
and make them more willing to listen.
Activating current knowledge - what do you know about?
'You are going to listen to an ecological campaigner talk about the destruction of the
rainforest'. This sets the context, but if you go straight in to the listening, the students have
had no time to transfer or activate their knowledge (which may have been learnt in their first
language) in the second language. What do they know about rainforests? - Where are they?
What are they? What problems do they face? Why are they important? What might an
ecological campaigner do? What organisations campaign for ecological issues?
Acquiring knowledge
Students may have limited general knowledge about a topic. Providing knowledge input will
build their confidence for dealing with a listening. This could be done by giving a related text
to read, or, a little more fun, a quiz.
Activating vocabulary / language
Just as activating topic knowledge is important, so is activating the language that may be used
in the listening. Knowledge-based activities can serve this purpose, but there are other things
that can be done. If students are going to listen to a dialogue between a parent and a teenager
who wants to stay overnight at a friend's, why not get your students to role play the situation
before listening. They can brainstorm language before hand, and then perform the scene. By
having the time to think about the language needs of a situation, they will be excellently
prepared to cope with the listening.
Predicting content
Once we know the context for something, we are able to predict possible content. Try giving
students a choice of things that they may or may not expect to hear, and ask them to choose
those they think will be mentioned.
Pre-learning vocabulary

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When we listen in our first language we can usually concentrate on the overall meaning
because we know the meaning of the vocabulary. For students, large numbers of unknown
words will often hinder listening, and certainly lower confidence. Select some vocabulary for
the students to study before listening, perhaps matching words to definitions, followed by a
simple practice activity such as filling the gaps in sentences.
Checking / understanding the listening tasks
By giving your students plenty of time to read and understand the main listening
comprehension tasks, you allow them to get some idea of the content of the listening. They
may even try to predict answers before listening.

Selection criteria
When planning your lesson you should take the following factors into account when preparing
the pre-listening tasks.

The time available

The material available
The ability of the class
The interests of the class
The nature and content of the listening text

The choice of pre-listening task also gives you a chance to grade the listening lesson for
different abilities. If you have a class who are generally struggling with listening work, then
the more extensive that the pre-listening work is the better. If, however, you wish to make the
work very demanding, you could simply do work on the context of the listening. Thus, the
same listening text can provide work for different abilities.

Personally, I feel it is important to devote a fair proportion of a lesson to the pre-listening task,
should the listening warrant it. For example, the listening about an ecological campaigner
lends itself well to extended knowledge and vocabulary activation. However, a listening
involving airport announcements may only need a shorter lead-in, as the topic is somewhat
narrower.

Overall, training your students to bring their own knowledge and their skills of prediction to
their listening work can only help them when listening to the language outside the classroom.
These skills are as much a part of listening as understanding pronunciation or listening for
details.

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TEN PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES

1. Mind map Write the word gardens in the middle of the board, in big letters. Draw a circle
around it. Give a student a board marker, and ask the student to think of a word that relates to
gardens and write it on the board. Then ask him to draw a line from gardens to the word,
and write a circle around the word. Repeat these steps until there are seven different words on
the board.

2. Slide show Prepare a PowerPoint slide show with about 10 different images of gardens.
Show these images to your students in the pre-listening stage. Each time you present an
image, ask a student a question to get them to describe the pictures and get their reactions.
Example questions: Would you like to visit this garden? How do you feel looking at this
garden? What different colors do you see here? Would you like to have a garden like this? Do
gardens look like this in your country? Ask students follow-up questions (Why? or Can you
tell me more?) to get more information.

3. KWL Chart Give each student a copy of a KWL chart. (Heres an example.) Ask students
to think about gardens and write down what they know in the first column. Next, ask students
to write any questions they have about gardens in the second column. Put students into pairs
to compare their work in both columns. Later on, during the while-listening stage, students
can take notes on what they hear in the third column.

4. Words on the board Write these words in different places all over the board: artists,
amazing, perfect, Japan, walk, famous, colorful, peaceful, garden, sit, visit. Hand one student
a board marker. Ask her to circle two words, and make a good sentence using both. Repeat the
previous two steps several times.

5. Discussion questions Write the following questions on the board.

What is the most famous garden in your country? Why is it famous?

Do you have a garden in your home? Why or why not?
Which country is well-known for its gardens?
Put students into pairs, and ask them to discuss. After a few minutes, call on several students
to give you their answers.

6. Discussion with mingle Write the questions from activity 5 on the board. Give each
student a number, and tell them to practice saying the question that corresponds with their

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number. Next, ask students to stand up and walk around. Give them 3 minutes to ask as many
people as possible their question. After 3 minutes, tell them to return to their seats. Ask a few
students what answers they got to their questions.

7. Gap fill Write these on the board.

Id like to spend my life ___________________________________.

The best _________________________ are in England.
_____________________________ famous all over the world.
I can ______________________ all day.
Every __________________ is different.

Ask students to choose one of the sentences and complete it with their own ideas. Give them
four or five minutes to think, then call on several students to read out their ideas.

8. Questions Write some question words up on the board, such as Who? What? When?
Where? Why? How? as well as How much? How often? Will? Does? Is?

Tell the class that you are going to give them a topic and see how many questions they can
write related to the topic in 2 minutes. Write gardens on the board, and ask them to begin
writing. When the 2 minutes are over, put students into pairs. Ask each pair to choose their
best question. Finally, ask each pair to put their best question on the board. (Later on in the
lesson, you can refer back to the questions.)

9. Exploring pictures Find pictures of English and Japanese gardens and put these on
PowerPoint slides to show to the class. Each time you present a picture, ask a student to give
you an adjective that describes the picture. Option: Put pictures (preferably color) of English
and Japanese gardens on large sheets of poster paper (one picture per poster). Tape the paper
up on the wall, and ask students to circulate. Encourage them to write their reactions on the
posters, next to the picture.

10. Recalling a dream Tell your students that you had a fantastic dream last night. Tell them
about the dream and pause several times to elicit language from them. First, tell them that, in
your dream, someone had built an extraordinary garden just outside your apartment. Ask
several students how they would react if this happened to them. Say that in your dream you
saw every kind of plant and flower imaginable in this garden. Ask students to tell you some
names of plants and flowers. Tell them that you went outside to explore the garden and every

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time you took a step, the garden expanded even further. Ask them what kinds of colors they
would expect to see in a garden. Ask them what words they would use to describe the garden
in your dream.