Teaching Listening to Advanced Learners: Problems and

Solutions
by Scott Shelton
-1

Teaching advanced learners and preparing them for the Cambridge Certificate of
Advanced English examination, I often encounter a majority of students who find the
listening section of the test particularly challenging and difficult. In this paper I will
attempt to outline a framework of what listening entails, identify some of the more
salient difficulties that students typically have at advanced levels, look at possible
reasons for this, and propose some activities and approaches in teaching that could
enable students to improve in this area.

Defining 'listening'

Listening effectively is a demanding and involved process. One must be able to deal with
different accents or pronunciation, unfamiliar lexical items and syntactic structures,
competing background noise, and also make a conscious effort to not 'switch off' or
become distracted while listening. All of this must be achieved and dealt with more or
less simultaneously in order to identify and understand the meaning in any given
message.

There is often a difference between what we experience in 'real life' in terms of listening
and what students are asked to deal with in the classroom. In 'real life' we are required
to listen in many different situations and for different reasons. Penny Ur (1984:2) offers
a list of listening sources such as:

The news on the television or radio

Friends while having an informal chat
Others talking on their mobile phones or in a public place
Songs and films
Small talk at a party
Discussing problems at work or at home
On the phone
Attending a class or a seminar

The list can go on and on. The point is though, that while we are required to listen to
many different 'texts' in real life and for different reasons, these situations are not
always present in textbooks and are not always possible to recreate authentically in the
classroom. This puts the learner at a disadvantage because ample exposure to a variety
of situations where relevant and purposeful listening takes place is an extremely
important element in improving aural comprehension and recognition skills. Therefore,
the kind of listening we do and the types of tasks we set for learners in class are
important. They need to be of a kind that somehow relate to learners' needs outside the
classroom socially and academically, as in the case of exam preparation. They should
also develop the skills necessary to understand different types of discourse which will in
turn help equip them to be more effective listeners in 'authentic' native speaker
environments.

How we listen

Richards (1990:50) breaks down the process used in listening comprehension into two
distinct types, referring to them as 'bottom-up' and 'top-down' processing. The former is
described in Cook's Discourse (1989) as:
'Interpreting the lowest-level units first, then proceeding to an interpretation of the rank
above, and so on upwards.'

In other words, we sometimes need to rely on our knowledge of grammar, syntax, and
lexis, and apply that knowledge when confronted with an incoming message in order to
achieve comprehension. On the other hand, we might apply a top-down approach to aid
comprehension. This is defined as:

'Interpreting discourse by hypothesizing about the most general units first, then moving
downwards through the ranks below.'

This means applying our background knowledge to aid in understanding the meaning of
a message. Richards (1990:51) explains that:

" This may be previous knowledge about the topic of discourse, it may be situational or
contextual knowledge, or it may be knowledge stored in long-term memory in the form
of 'schemata' and 'scripts' - plans about the overall structure of events and the
relationships between them."

Anderson and Lynch (1988:22) argue that research has shown that the assumptions in
the 'bottom-up' model are incorrect. They state that:

"Listeners would not be able to perceive speech as successfully as they do if they were in
fact engaged in a process of building up the recognition of words solely by attempting to
identify their constituent phonemes."

They instead, argue for an interactive process to explain how we listen. Amos Paran
(1997) explains in an article contrasting the two models:

'Recent views see comprehension as drawing upon both types of processing, in what is
know as interactive processing (Carrell, Devine and Eskey). Some psychologists claim
that when the quality of the stimulus is good, bottom-up processing is preferred, and it
is only when stimulus quality deteriorates that top-down processing takes over to
compensate ( Eysenck and Keane).'

In teaching listening skills, we need to be aware of how these processes work and guide
our students, through the use of different tasks, towards using a balanced approach if
we are to aid them in improving their listening comprehension. I believe we can help
advanced learners by drawing attention to these strategies and overtly practicing these
listening skills in the classroom.

Why we listen

Because we listen for many different purposes in and out of the classroom, this has an
effect on the way we listen. Yule and Brown (1983) make a useful distinction between
interactional and transactional communication. McCarthy, (1991) in Discourse, defines
transactional talk (and listening) as communication for getting business done.
Interactional communication, on the other hand, has to do with lubricating the social
wheels. In Listening (1988) Anderson and Lynch describe them as (transactional)
listening when the main purpose is to achieve a successful transfer of information, while
interactional listening is defined as listening for social reasons, and to establish or
maintain friendly relations between interlocutors.
From the list mentioned above in 'defining listening', an example of 'transactional
listening' would be taking notes on key information in a class or a seminar, whereas an
example of 'interactional listening' would be making small talk or perhaps discussing
problems at home or work.

Recognizing the different purposes that listeners have and how these differences affect
the way we go about listening has important implications for the language classroom.
These implications deal directly with the way we design listening tasks, ask our learners
to respond to listening material and how we prepare them to listen. While practice in the
areas mentioned above and pointing out how they can overlap is essential, advanced
classes preparing for high level exams are required to deal with tasks largely
transactional in nature. We therefore need to make them aware of appropriate
techniques in order to increase their chances for success with these types of exercises
such as listening for key words, or using their background knowledge to aid their
understanding.

Potential Problem areas

The majority of advanced learners, in my experience, have many of the same problems
that beginners and intermediate learners have. They may understand more as a general
rule, but still have gaps in their understanding and experience difficulties in
comprehension in less than optimum listening situations. Penny Ur (1984) points out
several potential problem areas in her book Teaching Listening Comprehension: See
appendix one for examples.

Hearing the sounds

Understanding intonation and stress
Coping with redundancy and 'noise'
Predicting
Understanding (colloquial) vocabulary
Understanding different accents
(Not) using visual or environmental clues
Fatigue

Listening to our students

In researching information for this paper, I naturally consulted my current advanced

classes. I believe that by listening carefully to our students and involving them at a
personal level, we can develop the insight necessary to help them improve their listening
skills. By building on what foundation they already have, and raising their awareness of
possible pitfalls that could impede their listening comprehension, we can help the
advanced learner enormously.

The majority of the comments made by my students were related to the stream of
speech (connected speech) and how 'fast' native speakers speak, difficulties in
understanding different accents, and not knowing (or recognizing) the vocabulary used
by the speaker. It was also mentioned that listening to tapes was difficult due to the lack
of a clear context as well as the lack of paralinguistic features such as facial expressions
and gestures. Some found it challenging to concentrate on understanding every word
while at the same time attempting to understand the whole message. Becoming used to
'teacher-talk', or English spoken too clearly in class, and becoming overly accustomed to
the teacher's accent were both mentioned as potentially problematic when later
confronted with trying to understand other native speakers and accents.

Looking at problems
One problem that students have is distinguishing individual sounds and word boundaries
in the stream of speech. As mentioned, some of my current advanced learners profess
problems in this area. Linguistic features such as elision, (a feature of connected speech
by which a consonant sound is left out in order to facilitate articulation e.g. the
disappearance of 't' in 'last chance'), assimilation (what happens when nearby sounds
influence each other causing them to sound more similar e.g. the 'd' to 'b' assimilation in
'good morning')1 and the overall phenomenon of weak forms in spoken English can
cause a great deal of comprehension problems, even for advanced learners, if they are
not exposed to them regularly through awareness raising, receptive and productive
activities.

Because I am a speaker of North American English, and most of what they hear on
classroom cassettes is a British accent, my students get pretty consistent exposure to
both of the major accents in spoken English today. Penny Ur (1984) points out that:

"We must remember that the English many of our students will need to understand may
very well not be spoken in a native accent at allwhat we can do is try to give them a
reasonable familiarity with the two most useful accents (American and British) and give
them some practice in coping with both of them."

I might also add that we should give them exposure to other varieties of English in
accordance with their immediate and specific needs as well.

Another problem for learners, whose exposure to spoken English is limited to the
classroom, is becoming over accustomed to one type of discourse, whether it be natural
conversation or spoken prose. Lacking exposure to different text types, learners may
find it more difficult to understand one or the other. I always try to ensure that my
classes get both informal conversations between teacher and student and between the
students themselves whereas formal spoken prose can be delivered either by myself, or
through the use of tape and video. Lacking in cultural knowledge of the target language
also presents problems for the non-native listener, as shared knowledge is important in
order to be able to carry out effective predictions and utilize a top-down process to aid
understanding. McCarthy (1991) states:

"Active listeners, like active readers, are constantly predicting what the message will be,
based on the evidence of their real world knowledge and the type of discourse they are
engaged in."

Anderson and Lynch have this to add:

"Gaps in our knowledge of the L2 culture, of the associations and references available to
native users, can present obstacles to comprehension."

I have noticed that this lack of 'shared cultural knowledge' is often a source of difficulty
for my advanced students especially because the listening texts provided for class work
and exam practice are often extremely culturally biased. It is for this reason that they
often cannot make appropriate guesses based on key words and contextual situations,
such as the weather or gardening, where the lack of shared cultural knowledge
sometimes creates a crucial gap between listening and comprehension.

Providing help

In class there are several ways in which we can help advanced learners improve listening
comprehension.
Materials can be graded in order to facilitate understanding and pitched at the correct
level of difficulty to stretch and challenge comprehension.

Task-oriented exercises should be used to ensure that the learners' listening skills are
developed and not simply tested which is what often happens when a procedure is not
fully employed. Effective tasks help to engage learners' interest, provide a purpose for
listening, and can be supported by visual as well as environmental clues. Ur (1984:25)
suggests:

"Listening exercises are most effective if they are constructed around a task. That is to
say, the students are required to do something in response to what they hear that will
demonstrate their understanding"

Wood (2002) describes a basic task-oriented procedure as follows:

1. Provide a lead-in to the task. (Pre-listening introduction to topic, discussion, using

visual stimuli).

2. Pre-task work. (Looking through the worksheet, work on key lexical items, developing
prediction, and so on.)

3. Set a clear, achievable task. (Check that students understand the task either by
demonstrating or concept checking.)

4. Play the tape or offer the material 'live'. (Ensure that the students are aware that they
should not be trying to understand everything they hear, only enough to be able to do
the specific task.)

5. Task feedback. (Check if the students have been able to do the task and give an
immediate response to performance. Do not ask additional, unfair questions at this
point.)

6. Could they do the task? If yes, then conclude, lead on to follow up activities, and
review what has been done. If not, repeat step four or even go back to step two and
listen again. Assess the difficulty of the task for future reference. An example of follow
up activities might be a personalized response to the text, relating the theme to 'real
world' issues, or using the theme as the basis for a class questionnaire.

Students should be given exposure to a variety of aural input such as everyday

conversation, announcements, storytelling, interviews, TV and radio news, English
language songs, and so on. I also like to give my classes 'live' listening, which comes in
the form of anecdotal asides or prepared monologues with which they are encouraged to
interact with through the teller (either another student or myself).

Training students to predict something of the content of the text that they are going to
hear is also important. The Cambridge CAE handbook (2000) mentions this and other
ideas for preparing exam students. It mentions the need to help them learn to focus on
key words and use that information in completing gap-fill questions. It goes on to
suggest going through the transcript after listening where a variety of activities can be
employed. I like to use transcripts for noticing important language features such as
linking devices and discourse markers, linguistic features of connected speech and
vocabulary for follow-up work such as differentiating between formal and informal
registers, or working on text cohesion by looking at forward and backward references.
Jigsaw listening tasks can provide a communicative purpose for listening, give rise to
turn taking, and promote negotiation of meaning.
Dictation is a favorite as well, providing useful practice in listening for detail as well as
features of connected speech. In Grammar Dictation (1990) activities are presented
which practice listening for key information words later used as a base for speaking and
collective grammar practice while students discuss their notes and attempt to
reconstruct the text, maintaining meaning and coherence. I have found this to be an
excellent integrated activity that benefits advanced learners in not only listening but in
grammar, speaking and writing as well.

It is also important to give extensive listening practice. Making students aware that they
do not have to understand every word in order to identify specific information, gist and
attitudes between speakers, can build confidence and provide meaningful practice for
both exam and 'real life' situations

Conclusion

Listening to and understanding what others are saying, then, is not a passive act as it
was long considered to be. It is a vigorous, demanding process, which involves, not only
understanding different accents, pronunciation and intonation as well as semantic
implications (lexical and grammatical), but also engaging in activating background
knowledge and making educated assumptions. In this light, we need to ensure a balance
of mediums and task types are used in the classroom. We also need to create and
maintain motivation making certain that students have every chance at success with
whatever approach or medium is being used.

Appendix & Bibliography

Appendix: Potential problem areas and examples

Hearing the sounds: not catching the phoneme at the end of a word when this sound is
important for understanding meaning as in "She's read a lot" and "She read a lot".
Another example would be hearing the wrong word for phonetic transfer reasons such as
hearing "keys" for "kiss" or "being" for "been".

Understanding intonation and stress: being aware of how pitch can convey meaning
and emotion and how tone groups can convey different meanings regardless of syntax. A
typical example is: "Alfred, said the boss, is stupid." This is contrasted with, "Alfred said
the boss is stupid."

Coping with redundancy and 'noise' : noise may be outside interference or inner-
interference, meaning the unfamiliarity of works or sounds rattling the perceived need to
understand everything. This may cause a psychological problem, as the learner is thrown
off balance and either 'shuts off' or panics and loses the thread of the conversation.

Predicting: lack of knowledge and unfamiliarity of collocations, intonation and stress

patterns, which play a part in forming expectations, as well as general lack of cultural
knowledge, can impede comprehension.

Understanding (colloquial) vocabulary: knowing but not recognizing expressions and

words because of modifications undergone in the stream of speech such as assimilation,
elision and weak vowel sounds. Excessive use of slang, colloquialisms and phrasal verbs
can also make comprehension difficult to achieve.

Understanding different accents: inability to understand different pronunciation such as

so call 'standard' accents like North American, British, Australian as well as so called
'non-standard' versions like Jamaican, Trinidad, or the English spoken by German, Italian
or other non-native speakers is an often cited problem.

(Not) using visual or environmental clues: problems perceiving and interpreting

paralinguistic clues because of decoding and processing overload create a disadvantage
for the listeners, who would normally use these aids for comprehension in their own
language.

Fatigue: due to the demanding processes of listening, fatigue can affect the ability to
concentrate and encode long or continued extracts of speech.

Bibliography

Ur, P. (1984) Teaching Listening Comprehension. Cambridge University Press

McCarthy, M. (1991) Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge University

Press

Richards, J.C. (1990) The Language Teaching Matrix. Cambridge University Press

Anderson, A. & Lynch, T. (1988) Listening. Oxford University Press

Cook, G. (1989) Discourse. Oxford University Press

Cambridge CAE Handbook (2000) Cambridge University Press

Brown, G., & G. Yule, (1983) Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge University
Press. In Richards, J.C., (1990) The language Teaching Matrix. Cambridge University
Press.

Paran, A. (1997) Bottom-up and Top-down processing. English Teaching Professional No.
3 April, 1997

Wajnryp, R. (1990) Grammar Dictation. Oxford University Press

Wood, A. (2002) Listening. International House Madrid seminar handout. Unpublished.

Bowen, T., & J., Marks (1994) Inside Teaching. Macmillan Heinemann

References

1. Inside Teaching, pp.71

Biodata
 Scott Shelton has been involved in EFL
teaching since 1991 and has taught adults
from all over the world. Scott has taught
multilingual groups at St. Giles College in
San Francisco, California and monolingual
groups at International house in Madrid,
Spain. He was awarded his CELTA
teaching certificate from St. Giles College
and also holds the Cambridge Diploma
(DELTA) having followed the course at the
British Language Centre in Madrid. Scott
currently teaches in New Zealand.

Teaching Listening to Advanced Learners: Problems and

Solutions by Scott Shelton

Lesson plan
Preliminary information

Timetable fit: We have been concentrating on listening skills and strategies for the CAE
exam all year although I have been trying to give the class more practice and awareness
of exam strategies since their mock exam at mid-term showed this to be an area to work
on for them. There have also been several additions to the class just prior to and after
the mock exams were taken in February and I feel that now is a good time to give them
an explicit look at some of the features in the listening exam, some tips, and give them
some exam type practice in class. The week prior to this class we had a brief look at the
content of the Listening section in the guise of a Use of English type task including
multiple choice gap fill, error correction and open cloze items.

Level: This class is an advanced class studying at CAE level.

Time: 60 mins

Aims and objectives:

Main aim: To provide input on CAE listening tasks through the vehicle of a listening task
itself, i.e. "Loop input", and provide practice in listening for specific information in an
exam type format.

Subsidiary aims: To raise awareness of exam strategies for the listening portion of the
CAE exam, provide practice in listening for gist, predicting before listening, collaborative
speaking and intensive reading.

Assumed Knowledge: A general familiarity with listening task procedures derived from
previous in-class practice.

Anticipated problems and solutions:

1. Some of the students in attendance have joined the group recently, and have not had
as much exposure to and practice with the listening portion of the exam format as others
who have been with the group since October. I suspect that in the warmer stage, where
I will ask the students to discuss what they know about it, the newer ones may have
little to say and have a difficult time coming up with any tips for others. The solution will
be pairing or grouping the newer and less experienced students with the ones who have
been in the class longer, as they should be able to provide some of the information that
the others may lack. It should be noted, as well, that it is not essential nor even
desirable that everyone be completely familiar with the exam format in great detail, as
the absence of knowledge should encourage them to listen carefully to others that have
ideas and remain engaged throughout the lesson.

2. The recording that is going to be used in the lesson is homemade and the quality may
be less than what the students are used to listening to, and therefore this may make it
more difficult to understand and follow. The conversation is also quite natural and
contains many of the features of natural conversational speech that the students often
find difficult, such as topic shift, turn taking, features of connected speech, redundancy,
false starts, and colloquialisms.
Although not all of these potentially difficult features are ones that can be compensated
for in the lesson itself, I hope to reduce the difficulties inherent in following a recorded
conversation on a potentially unfamiliar subject by giving the class the opportunity to
activate any background knowledge they do have (collectively) in the warmer stage, and
in that way make it easier on them when they listen for the first time, activating their
'schemata', or 'script' to aid their understanding. In the same way, by giving them very
general information 'gist' questions to focus on before the first listening, and allowing
them to predict associated lexical items, I hope to give them a purpose for listening as
well as aids to better follow and understand the conversation.

3. The multiple choice task, which is in exam-style format, may prove to be quite difficult
for some of the 'weaker' students as the questioning is purposefully somewhat
complicated. And as I have previously mentioned, the conversation is quite natural in
speed and in conversational speech features that may make it difficult for the weaker
students to easily 'pull out', as it were, the information required to answer the questions.
By breaking down the five main topics covered chronologically in the taped conversation
into five questions, I hope to make the task reasonably accessible even for the 'weaker'
students in the class. Also, by encouraging everyone to predict and underline key words
in the time before they listen a second time, I hope to simplify the processing load and
improve their chances of success. In the unlikely event that the majority of the class find
the taped conversation and listening tasks simply too hard to do, I might have to make
adjustments. One such adjustment could be to break down the tape into sections and
play each one at a time. This would potentially throw the timing of the lesson off but
because the students must come first, I think it could turn out to be the appropriate
action to take.

4. In the course of the lesson, there are several different activities that require time,
such as pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening activities and there is always the
possibility that time management will become an issue. I hope to compensate for this
eventuality by allowing reasonable timing for each activity, at times explicitly telling the
class how much time they have for each activity, and by providing feedback on an OHT
in order to save time.

5. In the second listening task, I am asking the class to follow the flow of turn- taking
and recognize which speaker is making which statement. When they check their answers
in the transcript, it may be difficult and time consuming to pinpoint the information in
the text, having such a large amount of text to deal with. By providing the line number
in the transcript I hope to aid the students in locating the information quickly in order to
check their answers. As mentioned above, if the listening task and recording prove, or
have proven to be much too difficult, at this point. A possible solution could be to break
down the recording into sections, pausing after each question, and in that way help the
class deal with the unforeseen difficulties.
6. In the final part of the lesson, I ask the class to take on roles and briefly act out a
short exchange using information learned in the lesson. Some students may be
overloaded by now and not be able to think on their feet. If time allows, I will ask the
students playing the same roles to work together and think of or predict a few problems
or answers to problems in order to make the brief activity more communicative and with
the idea that two heads are sometimes better than one. In the event that time is running
too short to allow this kind of interaction, I will simply provide each student with a few
problems or prompts to anticipate problems and ask them to get on with it after they
have had time to think on their own for a minute.

Aids and materials:

A 'homemade' recording of two teaching colleagues discussing tips and advice for
students preparing for the CAE listening exam.

Two 'homemade' handouts in the style and format of the CAE listening exam, section
C, based on the recording.

A copy of the transcript, transcribed as faithfully as possible, by myself.

An OHP and OHTs of the two handouts with the answers for feedback purposes.

Prompts on card for the warmer and post listening discussion.

A tape recorder

Class profile:
This class is an advanced class, which is studying at the CAE level. There are a total of
ten students on the register and the majority of them come regularly to class each week.
They are largely young professionals who come to class directly after work with the
exception of one student, Beatriz, who is a first year university student. The class has
gone through some changes in terms of students since the holiday break in December.
There are four newer students in the group and six who have been in the class since
October. Of the latter, Jose Maria, Emilio, and Julia have decided to take the CAE exam
in December and Jose Antonio, Teresa, and Beatriz have signed up to take the exam this
June. Of the others, Diego and Carmen joined the group just as we were doing Mock
exams at the end of February. Rafael, and Elena, have just recently joined the group,
Rafael just before Easter break and Elena just afterwards.

The three students that will be taking the exam this June are among the stronger ones in
the class overall, although some of the newer additions are of a comparable level, only
lacking in areas that are specific to classroom practice, such as writing skills and
syntactic or lexical knowledge.

Jose Antonio and Theresa got married on the fifth of April and I think they will be on
their honeymoon when this lesson takes place. Beatriz is the youngest of the class, being
eighteen, and although she is quite fluent in spoken and written English, she still lacks
range in lexical areas, especially in distinguishing between formal and informal registers.
She is a good listener however, and I expect that she will enjoy a lesson based on
listening skills. Jose Maria did quite well on the listening section of the mock exam and
claims to find understanding spoken English easier than working with syntax, lexis, and
speaking. His attendance has been spotty due to his obligations as a university professor
of Economics. Emilio, on the other hand, has a hard time understanding spoken English.
He is aware of this problem and claims that among other things, it is mostly because of
lack of exposure. He does much better in the areas of syntax, lexis and writing. His
pronunciation is sometimes difficult to understand but he does not generally have
difficulty in expressing himself verbally. In his work, he has something to do with
Spanish linguistics and speaks French as well. Diego is an all around good student at this
level and did quite well on the mock exam for not having attended many classes prior.
His major weakness is writing though I think that will improve as he completes more
class writing assignments. Carmen joined the class on the very day of mock exams and
was not able to finish it as it was quite a lot for her first day. She is very motivated
however, and has made quite a lot of improvement. She is originally from Peru and has
a very clear North American accent. Her weak areas are lexis and (written) syntax. Julia
is the weakest student in the group and has problems in most areas. She is motivated
though and has made improvements, especially in the areas of lexis and written work.
She reads much slower than the rest and often only understands spoken instructions and
listening tasks partially. The other two students I really do not know well enough to
make informed comments on, except that Rafael is a good all around student with
pronunciation as his possible main weakness and that upon joining the class, Elena felt
that this level is a bit high for her. I think that Elena will improve quickly once she gets
used to using English again. In general the class is motivated, participate fully in the
lessons and attendance is generally good.

Lesson rationale:
As I have mentioned elsewhere, the class is mixed in terms of level of listening
comprehension, some find it reasonably easy to understand spoken English and others
find it especially difficult. As a general rule though, everyone cites listening
comprehension as tested on the exam as rather difficult and an area that they would like
to have constant practice in. As I have said, there are three students in class who are
taking the CAE exam in June and the majority will likely do it in December. Therefore, I
felt that everyone would benefit from a lesson based on listening and in concrete, some
of the skills necessary to do the exam Listening Section better. I chose to present the
lesson in a way that would not only provide listening practice in general, but also provide
'loop' input, in such a way that they will be receiving useful information for the exam
tasks via the very type of exam tasks they need practice in. They will also have these
tips to refer to after the lesson from the very task sheets they will be using.

They will, in this way, also be exposed to different accents to mine via an authentic,
native speaker conversation on a topic relevant to their needs. As mentioned in the
background research assignment for this class, this is desirable if learners are to become
'fluent' listeners of English and accustomed to accents other than their teachers'. This is
especially relevant in preparing for the CAE exam, as they are much more likely to
encounter British accents than those of North Americans.

The activities that they will be taking part in throughout the course of the lesson, as I
have designed it, should aid them not only in becoming accustomed to exam type tasks,
but also give them practice in the areas that are important to achieving success in these
tasks. Activities such as, predicting content and key words and reading through the
material before listening are essential strategies for the exam. Discussing topic areas
prior to and after listening are also good classroom practice, as it enables the students to
'tune in' and remain engaged throughout the lesson.

By having the class engage in both of the task types that they may be required to do in
Section C of the exam, I hope to give them relevant practice that not only prepares
them for this eventuality, but that also guides them towards strategies for doing these
tasks better. I will be asking them to confirm their answers to the second task by
searching for evidence in the transcript and in this way, give them additional practice in
skimming and scanning reading skills. I also hope that as a by-product, they will notice
language structures that may add to their acquisition of language overall.

In terms of listening practice, the class will be provided with practice in listening for gist
as well as for specific information. The idea being that after having done the different
tasks, they will be able to refer back to them in the future as an aid to further listening
tasks they will be doing in class, as well as in the listening section of the exam itself.

Because I do not want to only test the students, I am allowing them to listen to the text
a total of three times. This is more than they will be able do in the exam or in most
classroom practice. I am allowing this in order to practice various exam strategies and
skills, such as, listening for gist, predicting information, listening for specific information
for multiple choice questions and listening for directly stated information. I feel that
giving them ample opportunity to listen will not only aid them in full comprehension,
something very important in this lesson if they are to benefit fully from the tips and
advice stated in the text, but also give them the opportunity to practice various listening
skills.

Teaching Listening to Advanced Learners: Problems and

Solutions by Scott Shelton

Lesson procedure
Class: Advanced (CAE)
Lesson focus: Listening
Main aim: Provide loop input and practice in exam type tasks of listening for specific
information
Sub aim: raise awareness of exam strategies
Skills: Listening for gist and for specific information, predicting, speaking, and reading

Stage/time Interaction Procedure Aims

Warmer Pairs S's discuss what they To warm S's to
5 mins know about the topic of
listening part of listening and
exam and any tips activate any
they know of background
(prompts on cards) knowledge they
have on the
subject
Feedback Class-T Elicit knowledge/tips To generate
5 mins feedback and
allow whole
class to benefit
from others
Pre-listening Pairs Introduce listening Predict
Brainstorming topic (people talking vocabulary
2 mins about listening
exam)
Pairs write down any
key words or phrases
associated with topic
Pre-listening T-Class Put up gist questions Predict content
task (individually) on OHT - ready S's -activate
First listening for listening schemata/script
3 mins to facilitate
comprehension
While Whole class S's listen for gist Integrating top-
listening information and tick down and
First listening any key words from bottom-up
5 mins their lists they hear listening
processesdirect
listening for
general
understanding
and specific
words
Feedback Pairs/groups S's check information Provide
First listening of 3 and words heard opportunity to
5 mins Class-T before class FB check
predictions in
pairs before
feeding back to
teacher
Pre-listening Individually Hand out task, S's Provide pre-
Second read through and listening time
listening underline key words, for S's to use
3 mins make predictions for preparing to
listen by
reading
carefully and
making notes
While Individually/ Listen to taped Provide
listening in pairs conversation 1x listening
Second check in pairs practice for
listening specific
5 mins informationIn
multiple choice
format for
exam practice
Feedback T-class Provide answers on Provide
2 mins OHT for students to immediate
check with feedback to
multiple choice
listening task
Pre-listening Individually Hand out second task Provide time to
Third sheet and S's read read through
listening through before before listening
2 mins listening
Task two Individually/ S's listen again and Provide exam
Third whole class match speaker and like practice in
listening statement listening for
5 mins specific,
directly stated
information
Feedback S's check S's discuss and Promote
5 mins answers in compare answers learner
pair or small then check with autonomy by
groups transcript providing time
T-Class providedWhole class and materials
checks with OHT to check own
answers +
Provide
answers to
check with
 Post listening Pairs or S's role-play (from Provide S's with
10 mins small groups prompts) a 'weak' opportunity to
and 'knowledgeable' use material
student; asking for from lesson
and giving advice for directly in a
listening paper 1st - meaningful
S's prepare - predict way, which
questions and should provide
answers. 2nd - pairs a deeper link to
or groups develop memory
role play
Feedback/ Pairs/groups Teacher briefly elicits provide
wrap-up to Class whether or not opportunity
4 mins T-Class advice was good and tovery briefly
asks each student (if comment on
time permits) for success of role
favorite tip learned in play and
lesson hand out conclude lesson
lesson feedback form by bringing out
for students to fill in a few of the
for homework and favorite or
bring back to class. memorable tips
from the
lessonto
provide S's with
a forum for
relating to the
Teacher their
view of the
lesson and to
generate
feedback for
the Teacher to
use in
evaluating the
success of the
lesson
Homework Individual S's receive "use of Provide a new,
students English" gap fill(final useful format
listening section) to to put into
be done as warmer in practice
next class 'Listening'
information

Teaching Listening to Advanced Learners: Problems and

Solutions by Scott Shelton
- lesson plan materials

Tips for the Listening part of the CAE exam

Tape Transcript. H = Hilary / K = Kate

Introduction
(1)-God you know, my CAE group are really panicking
about their listening exam-H

-It's often the part they get most worried about, isn't it.-K

-Erm, well, I don't know, I suppose we could look at the

different parts of the, of the exam and see if we could
think of some tips for them or something?-K

(5)-Ok, fine.-H

Section A

-Erm, so, the first part-oh that's the bit when they have
to listen and then fill in an appropriate phrase, isn't it.-K

-Yeah, that's right-H

-I think a problem people often have is they think that the

more they write, the better.
(10)-Whereas I think it's much better if they write, you
know, fewer words-H

-Right-K

-Because they're likely to make more mistakes if they

write too much-H

-Right, and another thing that's important at CAE level, is

it isn't just lifting a phrase from the text which you might
get at First Certificate, say, they've actually got to put
(15) something down that's grammatically correct. So, it's
not only listening but also looking at what's in the answer,
and checking the stem to see if they're-what they're
putting, fits in grammatically-K

-Yeah, if it's logicaluh-huh, uh-huhfine, yeah, so I

think that's it, not writing too much, and making sure that
it makes sense grammatically-H

(20) -MMM-huh-K

-Uh-huh-H

Section B

-The next part's the one I find students really freak about
because it's the one they hear only one time, and I think
just knowing that, even though often it's not that difficult,
but psychologically, the fact that you're not going to hear
it repeated can cause a real
(25) problem, so I think obviously trying to get students
not to panic-and normally it's only one voice they've got
to listen to, rather than a crowd.-K

-Yeah, yeah. I also think in this and in all parts it's

important, but in this part it's probably the most
important, to read everything very carefully before they
listen, so, to use that time well, whether it's 45 seconds
or one minute, just to read through very carefully so (30)
they know what's coming up-H

-Right, so when they do listen, hopefully they feel calmer

because they know what's being asked-K

-Yeah, uh-umm-H

Section C

-Part 3, oh that's the multiple choice-H

(35) -Right. Erm I think obviously here they've got more

to read in terms of the questions so they've got to read
carefully, erm..what else?-K

-Well, I think sometimes with that, it's sometimes like the

reading paper, sometimes you know that two of the
answers are not possible but another two might be very
close together, so..-H

(40) -There's a kind of process of elimination, getting rid

of the ones that definitely aren't correct. But then often
it's not totally a hundred percent clear which is the right
answer and maybe you've just got to select the best
possible option, yeah?-K

-Yeah, exactly, exactly I think too, for the..'cause

they're going to hear it twice, so to make sure that they
keep their minds open about the answer. So be prepared
to change (45) an answer possibly, the second time you
hear it-H

-And there can be distracters there as well, so maybe to..

to avoid, you know, something that's very, very obvious
may in fact be a trick-K

-Yeah, exactly-H

Section D

-Ok, now the last part is when they have the two different
sections, the two different
(50) tasks. This is quite interesting, because when I've
taught CAE, ermI've..we've practiced different strategies
here because sometimes you could actually, the first time
you listen only answer task one, and the second time you
listen, answer task two. But effectively that means you
are only listening to each bit once, so it's almost like the
second question. Erm alternatively, of course, you can
try and answer both bits each (55) time, so in other
words you're hearing each bit twice-but obviously you're
kind of spreading yourself that way-K

-I think the best thing to do in class when you're

practicing that type of listening, then, is to try out each
strategy-H

-MMM, and see which is best for you-both

(60) -Exactly. Because it might be that different people

prefer a different strategy, they're probably best to to
stick to that strategy in the exam-H

-Mmm-huh-K

-Uh-huh-H

-And also, yeah,not not to make assumptions based on

what they read in the
(65) question-H

-Yeah-'cause I've seen that, that one in task "A" it said 'a
cook' and in the bottom it said, 'talking about a cookery
program'-and very often that's in fact, a distracter, that's
it's not the most immediately obvious one-so you can't do
it just by reading, you've got to actually listen-K

(70) -Yep, yep, yep-H

General tips

-What about any general tips overall?-K

-Well, I think, erm one of the most important things, I

think, is not ever to leave a blank-H

-Yeah, that's true. I think a lot of Spanish people, because

of the way many Spanish
(75) exams are conducted, are afraid about negative
marking. So they think if they write something wrong,
they're going to be penalized. But that's not the case with
these exams, is it.-K

-Mmm-huh, mmm-huh, yeah. So I think, yeah, definitely,

not leaving any blanks-if you really have no idea at all,
put something. -H

(80) -Yeah, yes-K

-There's always a chance you might be right-H

-Mmm-huh-K

-Uh-huh-H

-And-H

(85) -Checking spelling, because in some of them you can

be marked down, particularly the first one when they've
got to write complete phrases, ororpart of a sentence,
they can be marked down for spelling-K

-And, you know, I think, when transferring their answers,

to obviously to be very careful that they transfer their
answers on to the mark sheet very carefully and
accurately-H

(90) -And in general, try and keep calm-K

-Easier said than done-H

-Absolutely-K

-Laugh-H

Pre-listening questions

Discuss anything you know about the CAE listening exam

For example:
How many sections are there?
What is the total length of the listening section?
What are the listening tasks specifically? (I.e. what are
you listening for?)
What are you required to do in each one?
How many times do you get to listen?
Anything else?
Task 1 - Section C

Tips for the CAE Listening exam

You will hear two teaching colleagues, Hillary and Kate,

brainstorming tips and advice for students who are
preparing for the CAE exam.
They are discussing the listening portion of the exam.

Multiple choice questions

For questions 1-5 choose the correct option from A, B, C,

or D

1. In the first section of the listening exam you

A. should write only a few words. (RIGHT)
B. must fill in the entire gap.
C. can copy a phrase exactly from the text.
D. you should write at least three words.

2. In section B of the listening exam

A. you will hear a crowd of people speaking.
B. you will hear the text twice.
C. it is extremely important to read through the text
(RIGHT)
D. you only have 45 seconds to read everything.

3. In Part 3, or section C of the listening exam

A. there is not much to read.
B. using a process of elimination is the easiest way to go.
C. two answers are usually possible.
D. be aware of the extremely obviously looking answer, it
might be a trick. (RIGHT)

4. In section D of the listening exam

A. you listen only once, like in the second section.
B. it is best to use two different strategies.
C. you should only use one strategy in the exam. (RIGHT)
C. you must do the two tasks one at a time.

5. Some people leave questions unanswered

A. because they will be penalized if it is wrong.
B. because they have no idea at all.
C. because it is important not to be wrong.
D. because they are afraid of negative marking. (RIGHT)

In pairs, try to justify your answers before making your

final decision

Task 2 - Section C
Identify the comments the speakers make.

During their discussion, Hillary and Kate make various

comments. For questions 1-10 indicate which comments
are made by Hillary and which are made by Kate by
writing

H (for Hillary)
K (for Kate)
N (for neither)

1. Her class is quite nervous about the upcoming listening

exam. __H__(1)

2. She thinks that students are likely to make mistakes if

they write too much in section A.__H__(12)

3. She believes it is important to check the sentence stem

and make certain what you write is grammatically correct.
__K__(14-17)

4. She finds that students often get unnecessarily

'freaked-out' about section B because they will only hear
it one time. __K__(22-23)

5. She says that it is important to use the time before the

tape is played to relax and unwind. __N__(29)

6. She advises students to read everything before they

listen, especially in section B.__H__(27-30)

7. She warns that it is important to keep an open mind

because you might have to change an answer after you
listen for the second time. __H__(43-45)

8. She mentions that distracters are often the most

immediately obvious choice, so you should not depend on
what you read only-you have to listen. _K___(66-69)

9. She would remind everyone to check their spelling.

__K__(85)

10. She advocates paying careful attention to accuracy

when copying your answers on to the answer sheet when
you are all done. __H__(88-89)

In pairs or small groups, check your answers together

Post-listening prompts

YOU ARE A STUDENT WORRIED ABOUT THE

LISTENING PAPER IN THE CAE EXAM

Think of a few problems you are having or any questions

you have about what to do and ask for some advice.

YOU ARE A CONFIDENT STUDENT AND ARE QUITE

KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT THE CAE LISTENING
PAPER

Think of a few problems that your classmates may be

having with this part of the exam and think of a few tips
you could give them to help them out.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS YOU MIGHT BE HAVING

You don't know what to do before the recording starts.

You don't know how much to write in the sentence

completion task in the first part of the exam.

Sometimes two possibilities are very similar in the

multiple-choice task.

Sometimes you don't know what to do if you aren't

100% sure or have no idea at all.

You don't know how many times you get to listen to

each recording

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS THAT YOUR CLASSMATE MAY BE

HAVING

Doesn't know what to do before the recording starts

Doesn't know how many times you are allowed to listen

to each recording

Doesn't know what to do if he/she isn't 100% sure or

has no idea at all for the answer to a question.

Isn't sure how much to write in the sentence completion

task in the first Section.

Isn't sure what to do if two multiple-choice possibilities

are very similar.
Listening paper use of English gap fill for homeowrk

Listening: CAE Paper 4

1. Choose the correct answer a, b, c, or d.

Format
The Listening Test___1_____of four listening texts:
Sections A, B, C, and D. These texts ____2___ in length
and test listening skills through a ____3____ of question
types e.g. not taking, sentence completion, multiple
matching, identifying statements speakers made, and
multiple choice questions.

Timing
The Listening Test takes about forty-five minutes and
contains _____4____ thirty and forty questions. You hear
Sections A, C, and D twice, _____5____ you hear Section
B only once.

1. a) consists b) compiles c) contains d) includes

2. a) different b) change c) differ d) grow
3. a) selection b) variety c) multitude d) genre
4. a) over b) about c) between d) around
5. a) wherein b) however d) but e) whereas

2. Fill in the space with an appropriate word

What you have to do
You have time to read __________ each task before you
listen ___ the recorded text. ___ you listen, you must
write your answers ___ a question paper then transfer
them ___ an answer sheet. You will have ten minutes ___
this transferal ___ the end ___ the test.

3. Cross out the unnecessary word in every line

What is being tested
The Listening Test requires in you to listen for both global
and specific information. Sections A and B test you
understanding them and application of specific
information from both the text. Section C test your
understanding of gist, attitude, and directly stated
information. Section D tests you if understanding of
context, opinion, speaker can identify, etc.

4. Listen to the final parts and spot the differences

in the text
A note on spelling
When writing answers, you are expected to spell
accurately, but you are not marked down for the wrong
spelling of a proper noun if you give an acceptable
alternative.

Marks
One mark is given for every correct question. The total for
all versions of the Listening paper is adjusted to give a
mark out of forty for the paper.

For reasons of security, several versions of the Listening

Paper are required at each administration of the
examination. Before grading, the performance of the
candidates in each of the versions is compared and marks
are adjusted to compensate for any imbalance noted in
levels of difficulty.
Answers to the homework tasks

Listening: CAE Paper 4

1. Choose the correct answer a, b, c, or d.

Format
The Listening Test consists of four listening texts:
Sections A, B, C, and D. These texts differ in length and
test listening skills through a variety of question types
e.g. not taking, sentence completion, multiple matching,
identifying statements speakers made, and multiple
choice questions.

Timing
The Listening Test takes about forty-five minutes and
contains between thirty and forty questions. You hear
Sections A, C, and D twice, whereas you hear Section B
only once.

2. Fill in the space with an appropriate word

What you have to do
You have time to read through each task before you listen
to recorded text. As you listen, you must write your
answers on a question paper then transfer them to an
answer sheet. You will have ten minutes for this transferal
at the end of the test.

3. Cross out the unnecessary word in every line

What is being tested
The Listening Test requires you to listen for both global
and specific information. Sections A and B test you
understanding and application of specific information from
the text. Section C test your understanding of gist,
attitude, and directly stated information. Section D tests
you understanding of context, opinion, speaker identify,
etc.

4. Listen to the final parts and spot the differences in the

text
A note on spelling
When writing answers, you are expected to spell
correctly, but you are not penalized for the wrong spelling
of a proper noun if you write an acceptable alternative.

Marks
One mark is given for each correct question. The total for
any version of the Listening paper is weighted to give a
mark out of forty for the paper. For security reasons,
several versions of the Listening Paper are used at each
administration of the examination. Before grading, the
performance of the candidates in each of the versions is
compared and marks adjusted to compensate for an
imbalance in levels of difficulty.
 Lesson feedback form

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Tuesday, June 09, 2015