LAC Session Four
Listening and Speaking
Agenda
1. Happy New Year
2. Assignment is due.
3. Questions from last time.
4. Reflection on listening and speaking.
5. Factors that affect listening.
6. Strategies for effective listening.
7. Assessing listening.
8. Promoting speaking in the classroom.
9. Assessing speaking.
Review from last Class on Writing
1. How can you teach literacy strategies in a class with a wide
spectrum of abilities?
2. How can you evaluate spelling and grammar if you are not good
at it yourself?
3. How can you make rubrics work?
4. What is the difference between assessment and evaluation?
5. Should language marks always be part of assessment, even in
Math, Phys Ed ?
Reflection
In your own high school class, in what context did most
student talk occur?
Response to teacher questions, lesson centered, whole
class, or small group discussion, groups projects,
conferencing, personal conversations?
Have you seen oral language used for instructional
purposes outside of English and Drama classes?
Reflection (cont’d)
What was the usual direction- teacher to student, student
to teacher, student to student? What was the usual
proportion of student talk to silence? Of student talk to
teacher talk?
Flanders (1965) Teacher Influence, pupil attitudes and
Achievement found 70% of talk in regular classroom is done
by teachers. Is this too high or low for your high school
years?
Other Jurisdictions
According to Barnes Britton and Torbe (1990 ) Language ,
Learner and the School, British schools are structuring formal
oral, listening activities into the curriculum as is New
Zealand.
Talking and listening allow for an immediate assessment of a
student’s understanding and interest and then for the
opportunity to respond and build on both.
Listening and Speaking (3)
Listening is one of the most neglected academic skills in the secondary
school system.
What’s the difference between listening and hearing?
We listen because we want to hear.
NOT because we are told to.
We are selective when we listen.
Without CUES we miss important things.
In a cluttered world, most of us are partially tuned out most of the time
Listening for CUES
Two men played checkers. They played five games and each
won three. How do you explain this?
Listening for CUES (cont’d)
Some months have 30 days; some have 31. Exactly how many
have 28 days?
Listening for CUES (cont’d)
How many animals of each species did Moses take
aboard the Ark?
Listening for CUES (cont’d)
An archaeologist reported he found two gold coins near
Jerusalem inscribed with the date 430 B.C.
Many of his fellow scientists refused to take his claim
seriously. Why?
.
Listening for CUES (cont’d)
A farmer had 17 sheep. All but nine died. How many are left?
Factors that Influence Listening Ability
1. Psychological Factors
2. Physiological Factors
3. The Physical/Social Environment of
the Classroom
4. Cognitive factors
5. Contextual Factors
Factors that Influence Listening ability
1. Psychological (7)
• Emotionally- laden words
• Attitude/ bias of the listener (I disagree, I can’t do this)
• Self concept
• Too high a level of threat in the classroom
• Not enough stimulation for the moment, context
• Too much stimulation for the moment, context
• Stress
Which did you notice in Practicum ?
Factors that Influence Listening ability
2. Physiological Factors (3)
Poor hearing ability
Lack of sleep
Nutrition
Which did you notice in Practicum ?
Factors that Influence Listening ability
3. The Physical/Social Environment of the
Classroom (6)
Formal- informal balance
Presence of opposite gender ( Math, Science, Physed)
The amount of visual and aural clutter
The temperature in the room
The acoustics in the room
The pre-class baggage from social, interactions- cliques
Which did you notice in Practicum ?
Factors that Influence Listening ability
Cognitive Factors (4)
Facility of the listener with the language
Intelligence of the listener
Prior knowledge of the topic
Interest in the subject
Which did you notice in Practicum ?
Factors that Influence Listening Ability
Contextual Factors (3)
Tone, style, manner of speaker
Content/organization of the presentation
Presence/ absence of visuals and other
clarifying devices
Which did you notice in Practicum ?
What can you do?
1. Psychological Factors
2. Physiological Factors
3. The Physical/Social Environment of the Classroom
4. Cognitive factors
5. Contextual Factors
Be aware and alter what you can, get help for
factors that are outside the scope of your control.
Listening Exercises//Reinforcing
Concentration
1. Inside- Outside sounds
Listen... to sounds inside the room... Name the
sounds and then move on to find another.
Listen... to the sounds outside the room. Name the
sounds and then move on to find another.
Listen... to the sounds inside you. Name the sounds
and then move on to find another.
Listening Exercises//Reinforcing
Concentration
2. LISTEN TO A PARTNER
Teacher supplies a curricular topic ( scientific method,
quadratic equation, the Great Wall of China, volcanic rock
OR a non curricular one ( The War in Afghanistan, movies,
siblings, holiday plans)
Students in pairs face each other. They must engage one
another’s eyes. One talks; the other listens. Two minutes.
The listener then summarizes what he/she heard, and the
original speaker listens. Face each other, engage one another’s
eyes.
Listening Exercises//Reinforcing
Concentration
3. Find and Report a Sound
Possible Categories here are
High- low
Near- far
Loud- soft
Pleasant – unpleasant
Teacher can add a curricular twist if desired:
Mechanical, environmental, onomatopoeic, electronic, exothermic
Students are asked to monitor their environment for the rest
of the day and to return with a list the next day.
Create a Sound
4. How many sounds can you create with
a sheet of paper
A pencil
Your fingers
your hands
Listening Exercises//Reinforcing
Concentration
FISH BOWL
1. 4-5 students in middle.
2. Pick one of the following:
1. Teachers who agree to teach in underserviced areas for a three year period should be
entitled to a full refund of Teacher College Tuition.
2. Are human beings fundamentally good?
3. In a technological society like ours, the arts are a frill we can ill afford in education.
4. The teacher is a public figure bound to uphold the highest standards of behaviour even
in private.
5. There is no place for ethics in the pursuit of science?
Listen and figure out where each speaker is in terms of their position.
Explain with examples
At end, to each participant :Where do you stand on the issue, now?
To each listener, where do you stand on the issue?
Whose point convinced you the most?
Why?
Discussants can respond to listeners.
Fishbowl follow-up
Where can you see an application in your subject area?
What extension activities can you think of?
How to Become a Better Listener
Better listening is an ACTIVE process.
Active listening involves hearing what is said and thinking
about the meaning.
As you listen, ask yourself questions about what the speaker is
saying. Then try to answer the questions using what you
already know and what you are hearing now.
How to Become a Better Listener (2)
Try to make a picture of what is being said or what you are
learning.
“See” ideas or concepts or anything being talked about being
linked to other things that you know or that you are hearing
now.
How to Become a Better Listener (1)
Summarize what you are hearing. What is the main point of
the whole talk? What are the sub points? Use a pencil and
paper for this when you are beginning to try to improve your
listening- or when you know the concept involved is difficult
for you.
How to Become a Better Listener (cont’d) 1
Concentrate on the person who is speaking.
Make eye contact if you can. This really helps!
How to Become a Better Listener
RESERVE JUDGEMENT
Don’t allow yourself to tune out because you don’t like what
you hear.
Don’t construct opposing arguments in your head... But
listen to what is being said.
How to Become a Better Listener
Take notes whenever you can.
Listening Across the Curriculum
Listening is a skill requiring active participation. An effective listener has mastered four
processes: hearing, interpreting, evaluating and responding.
Possible listening Contexts, listening Purposes and listening audiences for the
students in your classroom.
Listening Contexts Listening Purposes Listening Audiences
oral readings of fiction and to learn classmate (s)
non-fiction to respond teacher
song lyrics to understand other adult(s) in the
student presentations to make judgements classroom
teacher lessons to evaluate members of a small group
instructions to reflect an interviewer
audio/video tapes/ DVD's to predict large groups
radio to analyse
television to clarify
Your task: Set up opportunities for your students to speak/ to listen
Assessment of Listening Across the Curriculum
Assessing Listening Criteria and Indicators
Criteria Indicators
Responsiveness The Student
•understands what is being said
•interprets what is being said
•evaluates what is said
•responds logically/ critically to speaker
•shows courtesy to speaker through positive body
language
Content The student
•retains and recalls detail
•can identify the main idea
•can separate fact from opinion
•can reflect on content and draw conclusions
•can predict outcomes based on listening
•can detect inaccuracy or logic faults
•can detect bias
Speaking...
Is one of the most neglected academic skills in the secondary school
system.
AND speaking is a difficult skill, one that many people fear, avoid.
Speaking is good for us, good for mental exercise as it involves the highest order of
thinking skills. Students speaking in the classroom is one of the best ways to
understand difficult concepts
Bloom’s Taxonomy
evaluate
synthesize
analyse
apply
comprehend
know
Promoting Talking/Speaking
1. All subject teachers should provide constant opportunity
for students to speak to each other in pairs and in small
groups to:
Clarify ideas
Share ideas and information
Help one another follow the routine for solving the problem
or the series of events in the chemical reaction or the
emotions of the protagonist or the series of events leading to
the outbreak of the Second World War
Promoting Talking/Speaking
2. Whenever some technical aspect of the course is being
introduced, students should be given an opportunity to talk
about it in their own expressive language.
3. These activities promote meaningful talk/listening in small
groups...
Games ( a crossword puzzle of technical terms)
see http://thinks.com/
Information gap activities ( differences between the Canadian
and American Military or political organizations)
Ranking sequencing activities
Games in Groups of Four or Five continued ( 20 minutes max)
1. On a jetliner to Europe there are 9 boys, 5 Canadian children, 9 men ,7 foreign boys,
14 Canadians, 8 Canadian males, and 5 foreign females. How many passengers are on
board?
2. Remove three matches from the five squares so as to leave only three of the squares.
3. Find the next number in the series 7, 12, 27, 72, 207 _____
4. Change BEAN to SOUP by changing only one letter on each line in turn. Each line
must be a word:
BEAN
____
_____
_ ___
____
SOUP
Group Games
What happens when students use language to collaborate and
elaborate on learning?
When collaborating on puzzles...
Language becomes, rich, real, purposeful.
Students can chart:
Are all involved?
Are they really collaborating, and building ideas, or just
holding floor and controlling the process?
Do problem solving styles reflect gender differences?
Are you using language to discover meaning?
Promoting Talking/Speaking
4. Use student role playing and improvisation to bring a
concept or a personality or a time period alive.
5. Use drama... For example reader’s theatre can bring
immediacy to a novel or a short. ( Students can present a
scene using the exact words from the novel.)History takes
on a new meaning when mixed with drama. Use for
speeches in history – read in sequence. Role play different
characters from historical eras having conversations e.g.
Trudeau and Castro on Canadian Health system
6. Have students teach mini- lessons on topics directly
concerned or simply related to your science or phys-ed or
geography course.
Promoting Talking/Speaking
7. Set up debates on topics related to the curricular
studies in your course
8. Begin each, with a student speaking for seven or eight
minutes on a topic related to some aspect of the course
(Periodically devote 15 minutes at the start of the class
to this.) Does it count- you betcha!!
7. Read poetry to the class which is related to the topic
being studied.
http://www.quotesandpoem.com/poems/PoetryByTopic
Speaking Across the Curriculum
Speaking Activities may range from informal and unstructured contexts (such as
conversation to highly structured contexts such as a prepared speech.
Possible speaking forms, purposes and audiences for students in your
classroom.
Speaking Forms Speaking Purposes Audiences
Announcements To inform Classmate(s)
Debates To instruct Teacher(s)
Giving receiving directions
To direct Other adults
Presentations
To respond Younger children
Improvs/ role playing
Introductions To entertain Employer
Interviews To express an opinion Friend(s)
Monologues To thank Family
Oral reports To introduce Team
Drama To challenge Large group (school
Mix
Story telling and match and
To persuade assembly)
To describe
Mix and match and explain
To evaluate
Debate
See front Board
Assessment of Speaking Across the Curriculum Criteria and Indicators
Criteria Indicators
Attitude toward speaking The student shows a willingness
• to concentrate
• to describe and reflect on personal feelings
• to enjoy three speaking moment
• to include personal anecdote while
speaking
• to interact verbally in a lively manner
Content The student
• has a purpose/ stays on topic
• deliberately maintains listener interest
• uses appropriate language/ terminology
• asks relevant questions
• expresses critical judgement
• expresses opinion
• makes comparisons/ describes
relationships
Organization The student’s oral presentation
• begins effectively
• develops coherently
• continues fluently
• ends emphatically
Other Assessment Models
HARRISON (1991) Speaking and Listening in Milner and Milner (2007)
1. Articulation– clarity, fluidity, coherence
2. Effectiveness- did speaker achieve purpose? Persuade, narrative, explain
3. Register- was language and delivery appropriate for the audience?
4. Delivery – pitch, tone, volume, pace, eye contact, body language, voice range,
stance
5. Collaboration- does speaker involve and relate to audience?, listen to group
members?
6. Diction- correct speech, pronunciation
7. Fluency- speed, pauses where necessary, use of stabilizers like “ eer, ah, um, okay,
sort of , so
8. Rubric ?? Checklist?
Oral Language Skills Across The
Curriculum cp. 151- 152
Help students understand:
1. Feedback cycle encoder- message- decoder
2. Non Verbal Communication:
Paralanguage- tone, expression “You are clever”
Body Language posture, physical attitude,
3. Denotation, connotation “ I got a hit”
4. Loaded words - a date, courting, winners and losers
5. Roles in co-operative group work- recorder, timer, summarizer,
presenter, etc.
Sophisticated Presenters cp 156-8
Students need:
1. Adequate research
2. Equipment familiarity- (hard) technology (soft) cue cards
3. Appearance for audience
4. Presentation- opening, closing, body language, rehearsing,
voice
Look at openers p. 158 cp
Which of openers p. 158 are the best?
Top 10 Tips for Presentations p. 159
Which tip resonates with you the most?
Tricks to Involve the Audience. 161
Where should we be cautious?
Checklist for Presentation cp 162
What are the most important elements?
See Chariot
Next Time
The OSSLT Literacy Test