Pre-listening Activities
What are Pre-listening Activities?
Pre-listening activities are tasks that help students get ready for listening to a story or passage. These activities are done before the main listening task to make the listening experience smoother and more effective. They prepare students by activating their prior knowledge, teaching key vocabulary, and setting a purpose for listening.
Why use Pre-listening Activities?
Pre-listening activities can be especially beneficial in the language classroom. Some key benefits of these activities are that they:
- Activate Prior Knowledge: Help students remember what they already know about the topic.
- Encourage Prediction and Build Anticipation: Get students thinking about what they might hear and set clear goals for listening..
- Facilitate Contextual Preparation: Provide background information to make the story easier to understand.
- Vocabulary Introduction: Teach important words before listening to make comprehension easier.
Pre-listening activities can also aid meta-cognitive development i.e. they can help students develop listening strategies by teaching students how to take notes, make predictions, or summarize what they hear. This can make them more effective listeners.
### How to Use Audio Stories in the Classroom:
1. **Choose a Story**: Select a story that fits your students' language level and interests.
2. **Pre-Listening Activities**:
- **Activate Knowledge**: Discuss the topic and ask what students know.
- **Predict Content**: Have students guess what the story is about.
- **Teach Vocabulary**: Introduce key words.
3. **Listening Activities**:
- **Play the Audio**: Let students listen to the story.
- **Check Understanding**: Pause to ask questions and ensure comprehension.
4. **Post-Listening Activities**:
- **Discuss the Story**: Talk about the plot, characters, and main events.
- **Creative Activities**: Engage students in drawing scenes, acting out parts, or writing summaries.
5. **Repeat Listening**: Plan multiple sessions to reinforce learning. Each time, focus on different aspects of the story.
### Connecting to Listening Skills and Textbooks:
Using audio stories helps students develop key listening skills that are essential for language learning. It complements textbook lessons by providing real-life examples of language use. Students practice:
- **Listening for Details**: Understanding specific information.
- **Predicting and Inferring**: Guessing what will happen next based on context.
- **Understanding Vocabulary in Context**: Learning new words naturally.
By integrating audio stories into the classroom, teachers can make learning more engaging, practical, and effective.
