1.       Make listening activity as close to reality as possible

2.       Use vocabulary potential hidden in the passage

3.       Train operating memory

My empirically proved beliefs are number 2 and 3 whereas number 1 is the point of my concern, doubt and constant search.

For many years I used to think that it is not right to pre-teach students vocabulary and give comprehension questions to read before a listening task. My argument against was that in real life we never do like this. That is why my first task in listening part was to listen and understand the main idea. I always tell my students not to worry because they are not supposed to understand every detail and they can help each other to restore the contents bit by bit. It’s quite challenging this way but it gives a chance for those who managed to catch more than others to practice off-hand speaking on a new topic.

However, when I started learning French, I found listening very difficult. What made things worse was that being at a beginner and low elementary level I found it extremely hard to express myself. At that point I remembered my students who asked for a permission to use Russian to reveal what they’d heard. Our French course book offers a task to listen and find correct options in the series of multiple-choice questions covering general information of a listening passage. Gradually I came to understanding that such tasks build-up your confidence and serve as guidance through terra incognita of a foreign speech. It is important to mark here that in this case speed and complexity of excerpts must be beyond the students’ comfort zone. Otherwise students can be demotivated and bored.

To sum it up on the first point, listening task must be challenging but supported with guiding comprehension questions with optional answers for lower levels and open questions for higher levels. I never miss to encourage my students to develop note-taking skills and apply them at higher levels. The passages at these levels can be very long which poses extra strain of keeping in mind all the facts.

In the part devoted to teaching vocabulary I mentioned the task of picking out useful and functional phrases from a listening passage. At preparatory stage I underline these phrases in the tape script so that they could be easily found later. In class I dictate the phrases. It can be a good idea to ask them to translate before they listen. Some phrases may be familiar or they can give close variants. There’s no one right answer. Any language system is versatile. Finally they listen and find the variant given by the authors of the course book.

Repetition in small chunks is my favorite task. Firstly, it trains speed, rhythm and intonation. Secondly, it focuses on grammar structure and prepositions. Moreover it trains your ability to process longer bits of information in a foreign language. Choice of material is critical here. Conversations suit the best. It can also be a bright short monologue with functional language.