LISTENING COMPREHENSION

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Language understanding begins with listening A child listens to language LISTENING COMPREHENSION referents The child associates the object with the language The child now understands the language referent

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FACTORS AFFECTING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

FACTORS AFFECTING LISTENING COMPREHENSION 1) Hearing impairment

Hearing impairment Low cognitive ability

2) Low cognitive ability 3) Auditory processing problem

4) Aphasia

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FACTORS AFFECTING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Hearing impairment :

When there is a problem in the reception of auditory language, understanding will be a problem

Even with a hearing impairment, there is a need to consider

Degree of hearing loss When hearing loss occurs Type of hearing loss The auditory training received Family background
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FACTORS AFFECTING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Auditory processing problem

A child who has no hearing impairment may still have difficulty understanding what he hears if he has a problem processing what he hears. This happens when he has an :

Auditory discrimination problem Auditory figureground problem Auditory memory problem Auditory closure problem

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LISTENING COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS

Following verbal directions

Understanding abstract concepts related to time and space Provide examples of spatial concepts.

Provide examples of verbal directions that you give in the classroom

Provide examples of time concepts.

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LISTENING COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS

Understanding jokes Understanding figurative language Tell us a joke so that we can laugh about it
What do you mean when you call a person : a snake, Father Christmas, a crook, a rat, a chicken

Understanding words with multiple meanings

Give the meanings of the following :

a) times d) book

b) circle
c) box

e) cover
f) left

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LISTENING COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS

Understanding irregular verb tenses

What is the past tense form for these words :
a) go d) break

Understanding compound sentences

Lets try our skill at making compound sentences : a) The man was sick. The woman was sick. b) John ate bananas. Jane ate oranges.

b) eat
c) take

e) fly
f) fall
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LISTENING COMPREHENSION PROBLEMS

Understanding complex sentences

Understanding discourse Did you as a teacher try to carry out discussions with your students? Was it difficult?

Combine these sentences :

a) Aida did not come to school. Aida had a fever.

b) John is four years old. John is my neighbour. c) He did not win. He did not give up hope.

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ASSESSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Nouns

Adjectives :
Show same objects but with different characteristics and ask the students to point to the object with a particular characteristic Eg. Point to the tallest boy.

Use pictures Use actual objects

Procedure : Point to ..
Nouns taught include : objects in the classroom, body parts, vehicles, animals and fruits

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ASSESSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Verbs :

Prepositions :

Ask students to perform action

Show pictures of similar objects but in different positions and ask student to point to the picture in the position named. Why cant you use different objects? How else can you test for understanding of prepositions?

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ASSESSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Tenses :

Use pictures of an action in different stages of completion : one picture of an action in progress, one before the action has taken Place and one indicating that the action is completed
Ask students to point to : The boy is eating. The boy has eaten. The boy is going to eat.
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Understanding directions and instructions Give simple instructions and ask students to perform the action.

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ASSESSING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Understanding Discourse
Read something from a text, and then ask questions based on the text.

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SOME LISTENING SKILLS TO TEACH

Auditory awareness of language sounds

A student needs to be aware of the existence of the phonemes in language, that is the vowels and consonants

Understanding words and concepts

A student needs to have a large vocabulary base to understand language
A student needs to understand concepts in order to understand language. For instance, what makes a chair a chair.

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SOME LISTENING SKILLS TO TEACH

Understanding sentences
When we communicate, we dont use single words. Communicational messages are conveyed through sentences, so it is essential that students understand sentences.

Auditory memory
Do you still remember what the person you are talking to said to you? If you have difficulty remembering what is said, then you may have an auditory memory problem.

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SOME LISTENING SKILLS TO TEACH

Listening comprehension
After reading a passage, you should be able to answer comprehension questions because you have understood what is read.
After listening to what is said you should also be able to answer basic questions if you have understood what was said.

Critical listening
Do you believe in everything you hear? We should know when some things said to us do not make sense.

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SOME LISTENING SKILLS TO TEACH

Story reading
Teachers should make it a point to tell stories to students for this activity will help students understand connected text

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TEACHING VOCABULARY & CONCEPTS

Tell us how you taught your students names of objects and actions (Nouns and Verbs)

How did you teach Adjectives?

Did you try to teach them that what makes a chair a chair or a dog a dog? Did they know that even a small little stool is a chair? Or that OSIM and OGAWA massage chairs are a type of chair? Did you try to teach them superordinates or category words? You should for these are actually difficult words to understand.

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TEACHING STUDENTS TO UNDERSTAND SENTENCES

Share with us how you taught your students to understand instructions Explain how you can teach understanding of sentences if you were given pictures to use. How did you teach (a) the, a and an (b) is, are, am, (c) and, but, (d) what, where, when (e) in, on behind, in front of? Riddles could be a fun activity to carry out in class

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ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE AUDITORY MEMORY

Giving multiple directions : (a) place some objects in front of the student and give several instructions on where to place the objects

(b) give multiple instructions to the student

Teach nursery rhymes Play games like I went to the shop to buy Coca-Cola. and the next student has to add to the list, like I went to the shop to buy Coca-Cola and rice.. Say two words and ask the student to repeat the words. Gradually increase the number of words and ask the students to repeat the same words given. 3/22/2012

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TEACHING LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Why not have an activity that requires you to give directions, and the students to listen to and follow directions. Give an example. An interesting activity to have is to read a story and have students assemble pictures in sequence according to the story read. For better students, read them a story and ask questions that require them to (a) provide specific details (b) provide the main ideas

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make inferences

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TEACHING CRITICAL LISTENING

My guess is that even very weak students will be able to recognize absurdities in sentences like (a) The cat was as big as a house.

(b) The baby climbed up the tree.

For very good students, collect some advertisements and discuss why some of the claims are outrageous. What can you use as your teaching aid to make this activity interesting? What do you think of this idea? Tell a story or something to the students and then deliberately put up pictures that do not correspond to what is being told. Ask students to correct you.

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ENHANCING LISTENING COMPREHENSION THROUGH STORY-TELLING

My favourite teacher was Miss Tay Li Li who was my form teacher in Standard Two. You know why? Several times a week she told us stories from Aesops Fables or Grimms Fairy Tales or Tales from Hans Christian Anderson.

My suggestions to the teachers today :

(a) Have story-telling sessions. You can use these to further develop your reading and writing activities. (b) Why not try out a very popular listening/reading activity that is being practised in American schools today? Tell a story, and at some critical or interesting point, stop and ask the students what is going to happen next. Confirm the predictions by continuing with the story. Repeat the procedure for the whole story.

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