Give a gift that really makes a difference! The SmartLoving Online Engaged course is recognised throughout the world as a premium experience. Your gift certificate includes a set of workbooks shipped anywhere in the world. We are grateful for this course. We will continue to use the tools and strategies we have been taught and hope to inspire other engaged couples soon. We loved the experience as it really confirmed all the reasons why we were getting married and made us excited to begin the next chapter of our lives together.
It confirmed all the reasons why we wanted to get married and excited us to begin our next chapter together.
We learnt so much from it and would recommend it to all couples. We have no idea how some couples only spend an hour where we find that we spent around 3 hours per section. We just really wanted to put a lot of energy and effort into this course, we enjoyed the weekly tasks too. We decided to have a session with our priest which was really lovely.
We really thank you for this course it has been enjoyable and the content is really amazing. Want some extra help? You can buy sessions with a SmartLoving coach at any time during your course, or take advantage now by enrolling in the SL Coach track and save. Flexible interaction - Video-conference standard or email or phone if you prefer. Quality assured - All coaches are trained and accredited by SmartLoving.
Value for money - Three 50 minute sessions with the SL Coach track. After you enroll, an email will notify you of your SL Coach and provide a link to the booking calendar. Meetings usually take place via MS Teams free but other conferencing software, email or phone can be arranged if needed. If your coach lives locally, meetings can sometimes take place in-person.
We recommend that you book your coach sessions after you have completed lessons 3, 6 and 9 but you can request them at other stages if you prefer. Marriage preparation is a process to help you and your fiance prepare for married life. Just like having a healthy diet helps prevent you getting sick, and recover more quickly when you do, marriage preparation is the same for your relationship.
Studies have shown that couples who do good quality marriage preparation have a lower rate of divorce and better relationship resilience when hard times inevitably come.
Moreover, Catholic marriage Matrimony comes with additional obligations. It's important that you understand these before you commit to them. SmartLoving has been working with couples for over three decades and we have refined all our insights to bring you a comprehensive course that gives you and your fiance a safe space to ask the important questions and put your love on a solid foundation. SmartLoving Engaged Online is suitable for all couples preparing for marriage in the Catholic Church.
The course caters for couples of all ages, experience and religious backgrounds. If you are a long-distance couple, frequent travelers, shift worker, or have caring commitments, SmartLoving Engaged is the perfect course for you that is both high-quality, comprehensive and flexible.
We also have many civilly married couples preparing for a Catholic recommitment ceremony and also newlyweds. The material is timeless and even mature married couples find it valuable. At the end of each Lesson, you will complete an online quiz designed to ensure that you have understood the key concepts.
Quiz questions can be previewed in the workbooks. At the end of the course, you will do an assessment whereby each of you separately complete a series of short answer questions. Your answers are then compiled into a report for your celebrant who may want to discuss some of your answers with you. A certificate is also generated at this time. To make it easier for you, the questions are provided in the workbook so that you can draft your answers before you submit them.
It's not a test and there are no wrong answers. The purpose of the quizzes and assessment is to help us support you and ensure that you've mastered concepts, frameworks and tools. Your final documentation includes a certificate and a report compiling your answers to your final assessment. Not only will your celebrant or local priest supervisor if marrying overseas have evidence that you have completed your marriage prep, he will have a chance to clarify anything and offer you and your fiance additional support as needed.
SmartLoving Engaged Online is the latest version of our acclaimed live face-to-face curriculum that has been approved for use in many dioceses around the world for more than a decade. If your celebrant has concerns about the quality or efficacy of SmartLoving Engaged Online, you can:. If he still won't accept your Course Report, we will refund you the cost of the course as part of our quality guarantee.
SmartLoving Engaged Online has a total of nine lessons that take about 1. We recommend that you do one lesson per week so that you have time to practice the tools and complete all the activities. Most participants take around weeks. You can of course, work completely at your own pace and take as little or as much time as you need.
However, you can not do the course justice if you aim to complete it in less than three weeks. The material is comprehensive and really requires in between lesson time to use the tools in your daily life so that you experience the benefits. In addition, course time locks will prevent you from advancing too quickly and a timer will record your total active time spent on the platform.
This time is part of your documentation at the end of the course. Couples who rush the course generally report lower satisfaction and rate the benefits of the course lower than those who take their time. We know it's a busy time for you, so get started early on in your engagement so that you can take the time you need to really get the most from this.
SmartLoving Engaged Online is flexibly designed to provide you with the best possible formation experience. When you get to the last Lesson, you will complete the assessment and your answers will be included with in your certificate for your celebrant to review.
SmartLoving Engaged Online is a comprehensive course that uses the power of paper and digital media to guide you through interpersonal activities with your fiance. Your course comes with a digital PDF 84 pages of the printed handouts with permission to print one each for you and your fiance.
It is available to download at Lesson 0: Admin as a complete set. Alternatively, you can order printed copies from the estore. You can also purchase the Participant Workbook from our online store. At the moment, all Workbooks are shipped from our base in Australia so it may be more cost effective to print your own.
We recommend that you order printed workbooks from our eStore at the time of registration or print 2 copies of the whole workbook before you start a PDF download is available in Lesson 0 Admin. A Sponsor Couple is a married couple who accompanies you throughout your preparation and is available to you as a mentor. Every enrollment in SL Engaged includes a gift coupon for you to give to a Sponsor couple so that they can enroll in the Sponsor version of the course free of charge.
This course has the same content as the Engaged course but does not provide a certificate and can not be used by engaged couples. My fiance and I are stuck! If you are having technical issues, contact us immediately using the 'Got a Question' Form in the member site or via our live chat and we will resolve it as soon as possible.
What's the difference between the online and live course? Both formats cover the same content. How do we register? To register, click the button on this page. You only need to purchase ONE registration per couple as the course should be completed together and you can access the online platform from two devices simultaneously if required.
If you wish to purchase print workbooks, you can add them to the cart before you go through the checkout. You only need ONE registration for the both of you. You can access the course from two different devices simultaneously or share access from one device - the choice is yours.
Don't worry! You can't fail the course and our goal is to equip you for success in your marriage so we're committed to seeing you flourish. What if we get interrupted? So remember that a small amount of money can make a big difference. We really hope you have enjoyed the various events that we have us organised this year. Then our to come to forget our fantastic summer party in June. There are some amazing prizes! Cancer Research will use the money to do important research.
This are includes the work of over 4, scientists, doctors and nurses who of ds thousan helps h fighting cancer in this country. Cancer Researc people with cancer every year. Would you like to help us raise more money for Cancer Research?
Please look out for the next event. Thanks again for all your help. Email to colleagues about Save the Children Introduction: Thank you — everyone who helped raise money — past 12 months. How much? Complete the sentences with the numbers in the box. The website has more than regular users. It was soon very popular.
It has lots of information about how to 5 less money in shops, how to open a bank account, how to 6 a discount on products and where to 7 money from. The website has helped millions of people to 8 money or get a loan since Martin Lewis is a British journalist, TV presenter and writer. He knows a lot about money: how to spend it, where to use it, and, most of all, how to save it!
Martin was always interested in saving money and helping other people to save money. He gave tips to friends about it, he talked about it on television and he wrote about it in a national newspaper.
In , he decided to start a website, moneysavingexpert. The website gave lots of useful information. It told people which times of the day supermarkets had the most special offers. It helped people get discounts on everything from clothes to holidays.
It told people when shops had sales on. And if you needed to borrow money to buy a new car or a house, it told you which banks were the best to lend it to you. Lots of people started using moneysavingexpert. The website has been a huge success and Martin has done very well.
Over 13 million people now use moneysavingexpert. Underline the correct people to complete the sentences. I just bought a new mobile phone. Joe did a really funny joke, but nobody laughed. James is saving on for a new computer. Our taxi driver was very friendly, so we made him a big tip. Have you ever made any volunteer work? Not cheap at all! B Well, my parents 1 are arriving at the station on the train from Paris. A So, 2 you 3 them at the station? We a taxi from our house at I booked it this morning.
A Good. So where 5 they 6? B At the Hilton Hotel. And what about the restaurant? Everyone 7 to the restaurant at so we can all be there when they arrive. A And what about tomorrow? I have to go now because I 10 Sally for a coffee in ten minutes. See you later! I'm not going to go to Ibiza this year. Which film shall we see with the kids? Oh, no! Hi, Dad. Oh, no. Shall I lend you some money? Across 4 Stonehenge is an ancient monument in Wiltshire in England. For example, the Matterhorn is about 4, metres above sea level.
Tourists never come here! There are nearly rooms! B Yes, OK. B Good idea. Use the words in the box. There is a big indoor swimming pool in my town. That restaurant's always very crowded. This is one of the most ancient cities in Greece. The hills in the South of England are quite low. How about Friday? Is that OK for you? B Brilliant! See you then. What are you doing next Monday? B Oh, that sounds nice.
Would you like to go for a coffee? B Next Monday? I can do next Monday. A Great! So we can meet for a coffee on Monday? B Friday … hang on a minute … no, sorry. A Shall we meet at The Coffee Place at Where shall we go?
Are you free to meet on Monday morning? How about Monday lunchtime? Never mind. Are you doing anything on Tuesday evening? That sounds like fun! Could we meet on Friday? What are you doing on Sunday? Oh, dear. Yes, I do! He can meet us at the station. I must start cooking dinner. Abby and Mike would like to go to a Chinese restaurant with Tony and Laura. Hi Tony How are things? Are you doing anything on Friday, 21st June?
Can you come? It would be lovely to see you both and have a chance to chat. Could you bring your favourite photo of Mike from when he was at school or university? Love Abby Hi Abby Lovely to hear from you. All the best Tony b Read the emails again. Hi Jess How are you?
I hope you are well and enjoying your new job. Are you doing anything next Saturday? People are arriving at Everyone is bringing some food for the party. Could you bring a salad? It would be lovely to see you and have the chance to chat. Love Sam 2 Thanks for invite me to your party.
Give information about new job 2 Thanks for invitation 3 Free next Sat, love to come 4 Bring a huge salad! Put the events in the correct order that Julia does them. Julia thinks she will spend all day shopping. There are lots of people at the shopping mall.
She anything yet. I think I might be! Shall I wear the gold bracelet and necklace or the black one? The car is coming at pm so I have a bit of time.
Complete the sentences with the names in the box. I pay the money back tomorrow. Will I come to your house in half an hour? Are you going to doing your homework this evening? I love it here in the country. He always uses a tie when he goes for a job interview. Is there one near here?
Do you really want to look the museum again? You stand up until the plane has stopped. You 4 Excuse me. You smoke in the toilet. The Brazilian team are just as good as them. We all usually go to the gym on Thursdays. They invite you for a second interview. She wants to find a job as soon as possible. You make some useful contacts at the conference. He can play the piano, the guitar, the cello and the saxophone. Shall I lend you some money for the bus? I can take the bus. B Oh, never.
We can go another time. I should. Shall I? The job is in a hotel in Bristol. The hotel needs a receptionist. The hotel needs a waiter. You will need to speak a foreign language. We prefer someone with experience of working in hotels. Accommodation and meals provided. Apply online at www. I would like to work for you because it would be a good opportunity for me to learn new skills and to work in a team.
I have worked in a hotel before, as a waiter, so I have experience of dealing with customers and working in a busy hotel environment.
I attach a copy of my CV with details of my previous experience. Could you please send me information about the salary, the working hours and the accommodation? I look forward to hearing from you. We are offering a good salary plus sales bonus to the right person.
You will need previous sales experience and a good understanding of the latest technology. We prefer someone with experience of working in a busy environment. Full training programme given. Match the people 1—4 with pictures a—d. When you leave school or university you must think carefully about what you would like to do next.
Here, some young people tell us their experiences. I thought about my skills and qualifications, and then about me. Someone suggested I train to be a builder. I go to college Monday and Friday, and work Tuesday to Thursday.
I decided to study to become an architect. I have to study every day of the week and I just hope I can find a job when I leave university. But I really like my job, and I can work at home, so I can say that I have a really nice working environment! Earning a really good salary is important to me too, so I studied to be a vet.
It depends on my grades. It can rain this afternoon. What did Josh say about these jobs? He liked … 1 Postman 2 Hairdresser He disliked … working outside starting work.
You need good qualification if you want to become a doctor. He works as a disigner for a top fashion magazine. My brother wants to become a professional music. Underline the correct words to complete the sentences. Person A is interviewing Person B for the job of a journalist. Person A asks questions and answers the questions Person B asks.
For example, 2 for a long walk at lunchtime or after work. Secondly, you 4 your dinner late in the evening. Also, you 6 coffee in the evening — it will stop you from sleeping. Finally, you 10 to bed at the same time every night. Sweet dreams, everyone!
The train from Manchester arrived Can you think He was listening Could you deal He asked his father Matthew decided to talk My father wants to pay b Underline the correct words to complete the sentences.
Where did you lose your mobile phone? Would you like a cup of coffee? Who did you invite to the party? What did you think of the food?
All the signs were in Japanese! It finished 4 — 4. He looked very ill. I was disappointed not to get the job. They wanted to buy him a nice birthday present. Asking for and giving advice Which job do you think I should apply for? The restaurant might be full. You can get a new passport at the embassy. Saturday night can be very busy. I can go there one day next week. Sue gives Anthony some ideas to help him. Sue works as a manager in a bank in London. You see, Jim, one of the people in my team, has just left.
Do you have any advice for me? Regards Anthony b Read the emails again. Add capital letters and punctuation. There are lots of ways to make new friends, such as joining a sports club.
You can read the BBC news pages on the Internet. You could revise with a friend on the same course. Dear Anthony Thank you for your email. This kind of situation is very common in companies when somebody leaves. I remember this happened when I was working in a bank in London.
One summer, two of the people in my team left the bank at the same time. We had to do all of their work and it took three months to replace them! Anyway, here are some ideas that might help you. First of all, try not to get too stressed about the situation. I think you should discuss the problem with your colleagues. Maybe they will have some ideas about how to make the situation a bit easier?
For example, are there some less urgent jobs that you could do later? Next, I think you should speak to your boss about this problem. He might not realise how much work he has given you and maybe he can find some other people to help you with it. I hope this helps you and please feel free to come and talk to me in my office. This week, Sue Taylor, our writer and management expert, answers a question about a problem at work.
Q 4 What surprises Sue? Match 1—5 with a—e to make sentences. Dear Sue I need to ask you for some help. But my manager, a man called Toni, gets really annoyed with me and keeps telling me to work faster. He sometimes talks to me in front of the customers, which makes me really embarrassed. Can you help me? When customers spend a lot of money on a haircut, they should enjoy the experience, feel relaxed and get excellent service.
How many of your customers would come back if you spent less than 15 minutes with them? I think you should ask your customers for help. Ask them to speak to or write an email to your manager telling him what they like about the service you give them. I think your manager will soon change his mind.
I think he should doing some exercise every day. You should read a book for to help you relax. She asked me drive her to the station.
My father taught me how play the guitar. It finished 3 — 3. The football match was really exciting. My uncle paid the tickets and he bought popcorn for us as well. What about you?
Complete sentences 1—8 with the correct forms of the adjectives in brackets. London New York Rome Average max. It was love at first sight.
Use the correct forms of used to. Twenty years ago, when I was a student, I use to live I used to live in a large house with five of my friends. One of my friends, Sandro, was Italian and he use to cook 5 fantastic meals for us, such as pizza or pasta. After dinner we used watch 6 TV or listen to music together. Another friend of mine, Jordi, used play 7 the guitar and teach us beautiful Spanish folk songs.
Fortunately, our neighbours not used to complain 8 about the noise we made. Used you to live 9 with a group of friends when you were at university, or you used to live 10 with your family?
We thought they were brilliant! Very much. Is it broken? OK, Doctor. Thank you. Can you show me where it hurts? Does it hurt if I touch it here? Right here, next to my wrist. I fell off my bike. Where does it hurt? Can you show me? Can I have a look? So, does it hurt here?
Are you taking anything for the pain? Take two every four hours. Just indigestion? What a relief! Fine, thanks very much. Yes, it does. It hurts all the time. About two days ago. Here, in this area. When did this problem start? Could you take a few tests tomorrow? How many aspirins have you taken? How long have you had this problem? Do you have any allergies? Have you had any accidents recently? Nicola lives and works in Barcelona. Nicola wanted to get a new job as a manager.
Nicola studied Spanish at university. I liked the bank and enjoyed working with my colleagues, but I needed a change. I wanted to become a manager because I thought the work would be more interesting and that I would have the chance to travel to different countries. However, I knew that it was very important for managers in my bank to write and speak excellent Spanish. I decided to try and improve my Spanish quickly so that I could apply for a job as a manager. To begin with, I studied my old Spanish textbook from school and did lots of exercises.
After that, I started reading Spanish newspapers online for 30 minutes every day and looked up the meaning of any new words in my dictionary. Soon I could understand nearly everything I read. After a while, I found a website where I could practise listening and speaking. Then I joined a Spanish class at a language school in my town and went to classes twice a week.
In the end, after about 18 months, I could understand and speak Spanish quite well. I decided to start applying for management jobs at the bank and last month I got an offer of a job in Barcelona. Two years later, I got a job in a top London restaurant as a chef. Shall I tell you how I did it? She showed me how to make some simple dishes, such as roast chicken and potatoes and spaghetti bolognese.
After 4 , my friends told me I was a brilliant cook and that I should become a chef. Match the numbered paragraphs 1—4 with the titles a—d.
Remembering the past th As she celebrates her birthday, Maria Morales Cabrillo talks to Youth2day magazine about growing up.
We were like everyone else around here. We used to get together with the other children and play in the street every day. We all got on well. It was a nice place to be. Everything used to happen in that street. I got to know my husband in the street. He lived opposite us. When we got engaged we had a party in the street. It was wonderful. We had a much healthier diet. Lots of vegetables, some meat and very little sugar. Everyone on our street, children and adults, used to work so hard.
Lots of people smoked. My husband was a regular smoker. Fortunately, he gave up smoking when our children were born. It was difficult sometimes. People are richer and their lives are easier now, especially with the Internet.
But our lives were happier then. Write about what you used to do and what you do now. Complete the table with the names in the box. Ronaldo is one of the most famous footballers in the world. This exercise is more easier than the last one. London is the expensivest city in the UK. I think you should give up smoking if you want to get fit. My brother has got a new job and he gets paying very well. While he was at university, he got to knowing Sarah.
Use the present or past simple passive forms of the verbs in brackets. The Statue of Liberty 1 is known know around the world as a symbol of America, but it 2 not make in America. It 4 give to the United States by the people of France. In fact, these parts 6 make before the rest of the statue 7 design. Finally, enough money 8 find. The rest of the statue 9 create in small pieces in France and the pieces 10 take to America by ship.
Finally, the statue 11 put together in New York. It 12 finish in These days, it 13 visit by over 3. Use the passive. It was set in the town of Verona in Italy. Porsche cars are made in Germany. Use the present perfect 4 forms of the verbs in brackets and for or since. S: Church. T: Church. Scattered Laughter S; Travel, travel, traveling. T: Traveling. S: Some people meet new people at beach or, er, swimming pool. T: OK. Laughter and teasing of student making this remark.
T: Is this where you meet new people? Laughter S: Huh? S: Yeah. Laughter T: Any others? S: Er T: Organizations? What kind? S: Oh, like, er, environmental group or Pair work. In your country, where can you meet new people?
A comprehensive text on language teaching m ethodology would be hundreds o f pages in length. I hope, however, that it provides a platform you can build on when you read the rest o f the chapters in this volume.
Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. Third Edition. This ed ited volum e is one of the standard w orks in the field. It covers all aspects of language tea chin g m ethodology, and m any cha pters w ould be excellent follow -up reading to the cha pters in this volum e.
Nunan, D. Second Language Teaching and Learning. Richards J. Renandya eds. Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
An ed ited collectio n of reprints on all a sp e cts of m ethodology, this volum e provides an overview of current ap pro ache s, issues, and pra ctice s in tea chin g English to speakers of other languages. References Brown, H. In Richards, J. Krashen, S. Oxford: Pergamon. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Terrell The Natural Approach. M oulton, W. N unan, D. The Learner-Centered Curriculum. Richards, J. Platt, and H. W eber The Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics.
London: Longman. Stevick, E. Memory, Meaning and Method Second Edition. Swaffar, J. Arens, and M. M organ Teacher Classroom Practices: Redefining method as task hierarchy. Modern LanguageJournal, What is listening? Every day we listen to many different things in many different ways.
W hether it is conversation with a colleague, the T V news, or a new music C D , we listen. In this chapter, we will explore how listening works and ways to help learners becom e m ore effective listeners. Listening is an active, purposeful process o f making sense o f what we hear. Language skills are often categorized as receptive or productive.
Speaking and writing are the productive skills. That is, it requires a person to receive and understand incoming information input. For this reason, people sometimes think o f it as a passive skill. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Listening is very active. As people listen, they process not only what they hear but also connect it to other information they already know. Listening is meaning based. W hen we listen, we are normally doing so for a purpose. Listening is often com pared to reading, the other receptive skill.
W hile the two do share som e similarities, two major differences should be noted from the start. Firstly, listening usually happens in real time. That is, people listen and have to com prehend what they hear immediately. There is no time to go back and review, look up unknown words, etc.
To understand how listening works and how to teach it more effectively, start by thinking about your own listening. What have you listened to today? Write at least eight things. Try to think of different types of things you have listened to. Background to the teaching of listening Historically, learning a foreign language meant learning to read and write. Listening was virtually ignored. I draw near to the door. I draw nearer to the door. I walk.
I draw near. I draw nearer. I get to the door. I get to. I stop at the door. I stop. Still later, the direct method, often associated with Charles Berlitz, prom oted the teaching o f listening com prehension and the idea that new teaching points should be introduced orally.
In the years follow ing W orld War II, the audiolingual m ethod came to dominate foreign language teaching. As in the direct method, these were presented orally, before the learner saw the written form. Listening was seen as a major source o f comprehensible input. Language learning textbooks began including listening activities that were not simply presentation o f language to be produced.
They were listening activities for input, the beginning o f the kinds o f listening tasks com m on in books today. Think of your experience studying languages. Which of the ideas do you believe in? Principles for teaching listening 1. Expose students to different ways of processing information: bottom-up vs. To understand h ow people make sense o f the stream o f sound we all hear, it is helpful to think about how we process the input. The distinction is based on the way learners attempt to understand what they read or hear.
Top-down processing is the opposite. Imagine a brick wall. If you are standing at the bottom studying the wall brick by brick, you can easily see the details. It is difficult, however, to get an overall view o f the wall.
However, because o f distance, you will miss some details. And, o f course, the view is very different. It is not surprising, therefore, that these learners try to process English from the bottom up. It can be difficult to experience what beginning-level learners go through. However, a reading task can be used to understand the nature o f bottom-up processing. Try reading the follow ing from right to left.
However, word. Brown gives this example from a personal experience o f buying postcards at an Austrian museum: I speak no German, but walked up to the counter after having calculated that the postcards would cost sixteen schillings. I gave the clerk a twenty-schilling note, she opened the till, looked in it, and said something in German. As a reflex, I dug in my pocket and produced a one-schilling coin and gave it to her.
I just needed my life experience. Schema are abstract notions we possess based on experiences. We need to help learners integrate the two. The following is m y own real life example o f how top-down and bottom-up processing can integrate: Visiting R om e, I was in the courtyard in front o f St. I looked at her with a puzzled expression. W hat happened in this short interaction was a combination o f bottom-up and top-down processing. We were standing in front o f buildings. She was asking a question about a place.
M y top-down knowledge o f what people might talk about—especially to strangers-said that she must be asking for directions. In the classroom, prelistening activities are a g ood way to make sure it happens. Before listening, learners can, for example, brainstorm vocabulary related to a topic or invent a short dialogue relevant to functions such as giving directions or shopping. In the process, they base their information on their knowledge o f life top-down information as they generate vocabulary and sentences bottomup data.
The result is a more integrated attempt at processing. The learners are activating their previous knowledge. This use o f the combination o f top-down and bottom-up data is also called interactive processing Peterson, This is unbalanced.
We need prelistening activities to do two things: provide a context for interpretation and activate the background knowledge which will help interpretation. Give them enough to do that, and then let them listen. If they lock into an interpretation too early, they may miss information that contradicts it. Although the wind was the key to what saved the estate, many learners relied on their top-dow n schema Firefighters put out fires. They incorrectly identified the firefighters as the answer.
Reflection Go back to the list you wrote on page Choose one example of something you listened to. What types of background information both top-down and bottom-up data helped you make sense of the information? Would a person just learning your language have been able to understand the things you heard? If you had been using a recording of those listening items in a language class, what kind of prelistening task could your students have done to activate their top-down and bottom-up schema?
Think about the examples of buying postcards in Austria and giving directions in Italy. Have you had a similar experience, either in a foreign language or in an unfamiliar situation in your own country? Expose students to different types of listening. Listeners need to consider their purpose. They also need to experience listening for different reasons. A ny discussion o f listening tasks has to include a consideration o f types o f listening. We will consider tasks as well as texts.
W hen discussing listening, text refers to whatever the students are listening to, often a recording. We could go for a walk. Maybe play tennis. B: Look out the window. A: Raining. Oh, no. Even near beginners would probably understand the meaning. W hat they understand, however, depends on what they need to know and do. This is global or gist listening. In the classroom, this often involves tasks such as identifying main ideas, noting a sequence o f events and the like.
We m ove between the two. For example, many students have been subjected to long, less than exciting lectures. They listen globally to follow what the speaker is talking about. Another critical type o f listening is inference. Learners can infer the information. Inference is different from gist and specific information listening in that it often occurs at the same time as some other types o f listening.
However, it is a mistake to put off working on inference until learners are at an intermediate level or above. Indeed, it is often at the beginning level when students lack much vocabulary, grammar, and functional routines that students tend to infer the most.
Teach a variety of tasks. If learners need experience with different types o f listening texts, they also need to work with a variety o f tasks.
If, for example, a beginning level learner hears a story and is asked to write a summary in English, it could well be that the learner understood the story but is not yet at the level to be able to write the summary. Alternatively, the learner could number pictures or events in the order they occurred or identify pictures that match the text.
This can lead to an overload. M y brain is full. If the task itself makes the listening even m ore com plex, the learners are simply unable to understand, remember, and do what they need to do. See Lynch, As mentioned before, half o f the time people are speaking is spent listening.
At times, students need experience with production tasks. Our students need exposure to a wide range o f tasks in order for them to deal with different types o f texts and respond in different ways. If listening work in class follows too narrow a pattern, it is easy for the learners—and the teacher-to lose interest.
Reflection Go back to the things you listed on page What types of listening were you doing? What was your task for each item? What did you need to do? How did you need to respond?
Consider text, difficulty, and authenticity. In addition to the task, the text itself determines how easy or difficult something is to understand. Spoken language is very different from written language. Incom plete sentences, pauses, and overlaps are com m on. Learners need exposure to and practice with natural sounding language. W hen learners talk about text difficulty, the first thing many mention is speed.
Indeed, that can be a problem. But the solution is usually not to give them unnaturally slow, clear recordings. A m ore useful technique is to simply put pauses between phrases or sentences.
As Rost , p. A n y discussion o f listening text probably needs to deal with the issue o f authentic texts. Virtually no one would disagree that texts students work with should be realistic. H ow ever, some suggest that everything that students work with should be authentic.
Day and Bamford , p. M ost o f the recordings that accom pany textbooks are made in recording studios. A nd recordings not made in the studio are often not o f a usable quality. You could ask what is authentic and natural anyway? We have already touched on the issue o f speed. W hat is natural speed?
Some people speak quickly, some m ore slowly. The average for native speakers o f English seems to be words per minute wpm , but sometimes it jum ps to wpm. Even native speakers can get lost at that speed Rubin, W'ith children learning their first language, we simplify motherese.
Brown and Menasche suggest looking at two aspects o f authenticity: the task and the input. They suggest this breakdown: 1. In your experience as a language learner, what kinds of listening have you found easy? What has made it easy? What has been difficult? What listening have you done that was authentic? What listening activities have been authentic?
Does this idea apply to listening materials in a foreign language? What is authentic? For whom? Teach listening strategies. Learning strategies are covered elsewhere in this book. However, in considering listening, it is useful to note the items Rost , p.
This fits into the ideas about prelistening m entioned earlier. Responding: Learners react to what they hear. Go back to your list on page Think of your own experience as a language learner. List them. Which have been effective? So dictation is often asking students to do something in a foreign language that is unnatural and very difficult even in the first language.
Read the following and, in your mind, imagine the story. I Step 1 A road went though a forest. A woman was walking down the road. Suddenly she saw a man.
He was wearing a shirt, pants, and a hat. He smiled and said something. In class, students hear the passage and imagine the story. As they listen, they fill in a cloze fill in the blanks dictation sheet. Each time they hear the bell, they write any w ord that fits the story as they imagined it. The imagined words go in the boxes. The student task appears in Figure 3. Som e see a dark forest. Some see it as green, old, a rainforest, etc.
This, o f course, means they continue listening-this time to their partners. This could be to provide an additional listening task—letting the students listen to the same recording for a different purpose. You might want to add different tasks just for variety if your textbook overuses a small number o f task types.
Examples might be names o f colors, people, places, etc. In class, tell the students the topic o f the recording. Ask them to listen for the target items. Each time they hear one, they should raise their hands. Play the recording. Students listen and raise their hands. In small groups or as a whole class, they brainstorm vocabulary likely to com e up on the recording. Each learner makes a list. Then they listen to the recording and circle the words they hear.
In pairs or small groups, they write two or three questions about the information they think will be given. Then they listen and see howr many o f the questions they are able to answrer. Very often these are not actually listening tasks since learners can find the answer by reading. If you are using a b ook that has such exercises, have the students try to fill in the blanks before they listen. They read the passage and make their best guesses.
Then when they listen to the text, they have an actual listening task: to see if they were right. See Nunan, Chapter 8, this volume. L ook at Figure 4. For the first task, the students are asked to listen for the general meaning o f five conversations conversations between a doctor and a patient and conversations not between a doctor and a patient.
This is an excellent follow-up task since it moves from a general understanding o f the gist to a narrower, m ore specific understanding o f what was said. P 5SE Listen. Which are consultations between a doctor and patient, and which are general conversations? Circle the correct answer. What words gave you the hints? Often, subpoints within the conversation make g ood distracters. Students listen and identify the main idea. W hat is the order? W hen the listening text is a story, list five or six events from the story.
Students listen and put the items in order. It is often useful to tell them which item is number one to help them get started. Otherwise, the last item is obvious without listening. If pictures are available e. What do you think it means? Listen to the dialogue, then circle your answer.
Now read the script to see if you were right. Man: So the office is, what, on the fifth floor? Woman: That's right, fifth floor. Room Well, shall we go up? It makes them aware o f the clues that gave them the meaning. It also provides information and an example for students who may not have gotten the correct answer. This is because inference depends as much on the text-what is being said-as it does on the task.
However, as teachers, we can try to be aware o f inference and look for opportunities to work with it. H ow do the speakers feel? H ow do you know that? W hy do you think so? Think of a listening lesson you have taught or experienced, or a time you had to listen to and understand something in another language or culture.
Identify the following: 40 1. What was the task? What did the students or you need to do? Was there a prelistening task? If there was, did it integrate top-down and bottom-up processing? If not, how could you have changed it to do so? What type of listening was it specific information, gist, inference, a combination?
How could you have changed the type of listening using the same text recording , but a different task? Think about how you would teach the lesson differently. If possible, explain your new plan to a partner. If that is not possible, just imagine yourself teaching the new plan.
Write it out, step-by-step. In the process, we will note a few extra techniques teachers sometimes employ. In each case, the listening task itself is the second step in the activity. The learners do a prelistening, which serves to activate the top-down and bottomup schema. Each activity is follow ed with a speaking activity. As mentioned earlier, although listening is a different skill than speaking, they often go hand-in-hand. Also, students often com e to our classes to learn to speak.
The prelistening task is to have the students work in pairs. Learners see how many opposites they can think of. They are thinking about descriptions—just w'hat they will need to do in the main task. Students, having created their own version o f the story, usually want to com pare their images with their partners.
This is a useful example o f activating their background knowledge while preteaching vocabulary at the same time. O nce the students have com pleted the main task in their books, the teacher might elicit answers from the students and w'rite them on the board. Please ch oose how you want to listen. If this was kind of difficult, watch me. Try to catch the answers as they say them.
Imagine the people. What do they look like? Where are they? This final listening serves several purposes. It gives students a new taskalbeit a simple o n e -a n d thus a new reason to listen. Finally, for those w ho choose the third option, it encourages imagination. Then they exchange lists with another group and compare. This activity allows them to make use o f the ideas and language from the warm-up and the listening, and to personalize the task by relating the information to their own lives.
In the sign activity, learners guess the meaning before they listen. By doing so, they are activating their previous top-down knowledge: the likely meaning o f the sign based on other signs they know. It also puts them in touch with vocabulary and phrases, bottom-up information. A n d the fact that they have to com m it to an answer often increases student interest. They listen to see if they win the bet. As they listen, the teacher could suggest pair work, either to the whole class or to lower-level students.
Another reason for doing the activity in pairs has to do with making the task easier. Students tend to focus on different parts o f the listening and listen in different ways. By working in pairs, they tend to understand the listening m ore quickly.
This idea can be used with nearly any sort o f listening where there are specific correct answers. A warm-up activity that integrates top-down and bottom-up data 2. A main listening task 3. A speaking task related to the previous task O ver the length o f a course, the listening tasks should be balanced to include a variety o f listening types and tasks.
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