Top Down Listening Activities

Keywords: top down listening, teaching listening skills

Listening skill is a part of learning English language you must practice for improving your listening over time. The teaching listening skill is the most difficult. because the students are acquired every time and lots of practice. It is not learning in my class. What is the best Strategies for learning Listening skills. There are many activities of listening for my students. I try to tell my students you should be more hearer and be able apply Strategies to listening skills such as, watching the news on the television, listening a news on the radio or listening news from an English radio station , talking about the news with a friend ,get a film and listen to speech . It is one way communication I cannot check all understanding. The two way communications are the students focus on a teacher or native speaker.

I would like to suggest a teaching Listening Strategies because Listening Strategies are activities that help understand and remember of listening. I help my students develop a listening skill with a Bottom up and Top down strategies.

Top-down listening activities

Do you ever get your students to predict the content of a listening activity beforehand, maybe using information about the topic or situation, pictures, or key words? If so, you are already helping them to develop their top-down processing skills, by encouraging them to use their knowledge of the topic to help them understand the content. This is an essential skill given that, in a real-life listening situation, even advanced learners are likely to come across some unknown vocabulary. By using their knowledge of context and co-text, they should either be able to guess the meaning of the unknown word, or understand the general idea without getting distracted by it.

Other examples of common top-down listening activities include putting a series of pictures or sequence of events in order, listening to conversations and identifying where they take place, reading information about a topic then listening to find whether or not the same points are mentioned, or inferring the relationships between the people involved. Mary Underwood (1989).

In my opinion, it is the best way for teaching listening English skills.

I teach a Top – down listening skills which I produce the following pictures. The topic : so, what are you going to do now? Firstly, I give them a question. Then listening to the dialogues. After that choose the correct sentences. Finally, my students present in the classroom.

The Effectiveness: The students have to be able to hear what the other person is saying and easy to understand in the listening because they try just on only the main idea that they want to know from the question I gave. Like, they have the purpose on listening in each topic.

Summary, Listening is one is way in communicative so if we listen in the right way is the best way to understanding what we are hearing. Listening teaching is them very important for student so teach them how to listen in the correct method step by step I think it is a good activity for listening because it is a guide for listening. my student like Top-down listening activities.

I teach a Top – down listening skill with a song. I give the information to guide for the teaching. The teaching listening skill from a song .There are many thinks in the song for example, vocabulary ,tense and a sentence. It is a challenge for my teaching and this one need innovation and creative for my teaching English because it not boring There are four stages for teach of song. The first, the pre – listening. I tell my students they don’t worry that they understand every word they hare. In the sentence you must understand for some word and I make sure my students know what they are listening for before I start the song. First, I explain they should concentrate only information they need. Next, I give a question to check my student comprehension of the details. Then, I check for any word that my students may not know. Finally, I select a song it isn’t a difficult and not a long.

While listening. There are three stages. The first , I play the tape of the song ” wall in your heart “for my students in two time. The second, I tell my student take to note about people or place and what is happening in the song and what, when, why, where and how that they hear. The third, I divide my students in pair. Give a fill in the blanks to complete the song and my student listen again check and share their answers.

Post – listening, I tell my students to write a meaning and to make a list a new vocabulary of the wall in your heart song and compare their answers and discuss what they understood in the song. and practice a song. I open the song again and tell my students to call out ” stop ” when they hear the answers. I and my student sing a song ” WALL IN YOUR HEART ” together.

The Effectiveness. My students have to be able hear what the song ,understand and happiness with a teaching listening skills.

Summary, I am very happy for a teaching listening skills from a song. I saw my students happy and like strategies teaching listening skills of the song.

Bottom-up listening activities

The emphasis in EFL listening materials in recent years has been on developing top-down listening processes. There are good reasons for this given that learners need to be able to listen effectively even when faced with unfamiliar vocabulary or structures. However, if the learner understands very few words from the incoming signal, even knowledge about the context may not be sufficient for her to understand what is happening, and she can easily get lost. Of course, low-level learners may simply not have enough vocabulary or knowledge of the language yet, but most teachers will be familiar with the situation in which higher-level students fail to recognize known words in the stream of fast connected speech. Bottom-up listening activities can help learners to understand enough linguistic elements of what they hear to then be able to use their top-down skills to fill in the gaps. Underwood (1989).

In my opinion, it is a one of a good strategies. I would like present a teaching for a bottom-up.

Activity I

I designed to help a remember the dividing between word an important bottom – up a listening skill. I reads out number of a sentences and ark my students to write down how many words from a easy listening. A student asked to compare their answers in pairs before listening again to check. While listening they should write what they hear before remodeling the complete sentences.

Some suitable sentences are :

I am going to the market.

What dose she do?

What are you doing.

Do you want some milk ?

Can you tell me call?

It is nice to meet you.

May I help you.

I paint picture of New York.

They watch comedies

He doesn’t like it.

What have you got ?

I’d better go soon.

There isn’t any coffee

Let’ s have a party.

The Effectiveness. My students have to be able hear what the listening are a sentence , understand and rebuilding a sentences.

Summary, I think my students don’t like a teaching listening skills from a bottom – up strategies.

Reflection

Q1: How important is listening? My student just want to speak.

My students give opinion

Suprada said that : Listening is very important for learning language. When you unable listening you cannot success for conversation.

Somchai said that : The listening is important in the learning.

Q2: My student hate listening to recording. Is there an acceptable alternative such as reading the transcripts to them aloud.

When I taught a listening skill. There are many problem to listening from the recording. I asks my students.

Nattaveeranuch said that : I want to listen to the music. I like it because everybody enjoy with a song.

Suriya said that : I like listen a news and a music from TV. Chanel

Poramase said that : I like listen to native speaker. I like talking with AJ. David. I am very happy when he understand me.

Q3: When I do a listening activity in class, the students get frustrated if they can’t understand every word. How can discourage them from trying to do this?

I would like to tell my student don’t worry because it is the second language. You can try listen to a news or a music from radio for a few minute everyday.

Q4: My students say that they like listening to songs, but I am not sure that this is a good idea. Should I let them, and, if so, is there an effective way of using song?

There are many effective of using a song .My student know a new vocabulary and a sentence.

Q5: My course book listening texts sound a bit stilted and unnatural. Is there a good reason for this, and is there a viable alternation?

There are many alternation for example, Teaching from song , see the sound tact and a listen to native speaker.

Q6: My student complain that they can understand recordings is the classroom, but that they have problems understanding real people when they talk to them. How can I help them with this?

Active Listening Steps

Make eye contact/Follow speaker – Look the speaker in the eyes. When the speaker is addressing a large group (e.g., during a lecture or presentation), eye contact will not be possible. In this case, follow the speaker’s movements. 

Summarize what the speaker is saying – Summarize every few sentences by stating the main ideas. Take notes, if this is helpful.

Make connections – Link what you are hearing to what you already know.

Ask and answer questions – Check your understanding of what you’re hearing by asking questions about what you are hearing. If you can answer the questions, you understand the material. If you can’t answer the questions, you need to ask the speaker for help.