Listening skills in English are one of the difficult skills for learners, especially young children. Therefore, we always need truly suitable English learning methods to help children learn this skill well. Below are some shares from British Council experts, hoping to help teachers and parents improve their children's listening skills.
The Nature of Listening
Listening is an active activity, not a passive one. Because listening is an active participation, when we listen, our mind is always actively trying to understand the meaning of the words.
According to Krashen: "We acquire language when we understand what people say, and when we understand what we read, we grasp the messages." Each individual's process of acquiring a foreign language depends heavily on "input" containing aspects of that language that the reader may not be able to grasp right away but will gradually be ready to grasp. This implies the importance of ensuring that language teaching materials are appropriate to the level of the learner, meaning that teachers must understand the abilities of the learner.
He pointed out that: The process of acquiring a language will be highly effective when the level of anxiety of the learner is low and instead, confidence is increased. That means teachers must ensure that the classroom atmosphere is always kept fun and comfortable so that the learner does not feel stressed or fall into a state of fear.
Why do we need to develop listening skills?
"If someone gives you a message or an idea, you have to understand it before you can respond." - Brewster, Ellis, Girard.
Teachers need to carefully select lesson objectives and materials to develop children's listening skills. These materials and curriculum need to have practical meaning for children. Listening is an active process. Brewster, Ellis, and Girard warn that asking children to "listen and remember" can make them anxious, strain their memory, and tend to under-develop their English skills. Teachers will support children's understanding more effectively if they use activities that direct children's attention to more specific content while speaking.
Wells, an English teacher, points out that children's learning depends on making connections between what they know and what they hear. Children's motivation to learn a foreign language is to be able to communicate and use all that they have absorbed to interact with others about their needs and interests.
Some considerations about teaching listening skills to children:
- Let children be confident. We should not expect children to understand all the vocabulary.
- Explain why children need to learn to listen. Make sure children understand why they need to listen, what the main idea or purpose of each activity is.
- Help children develop specific strategies for listening.
- Make listening specific. Divide listening into three stages: before, during, and after listening, and have activities for each stage.
- Listening does not have to depend on a cassette tape or pre-recorded material. Students listen most when talking to the teacher.
Some ways to make listening easier:
- Use short and grammatically simple sentences
- Use exaggerated intonation to get children's attention.
- Keyword emphasis
- Limit topics to what is familiar to children.
- Repeat and paraphrase frequently
Conclude
Listening is an active and mental process. It is therefore the responsibility of teachers to ensure that the learning materials used are within the cognitive range of the students and that they can comprehend them. Learning to listen is a difficult skill and can be stressful, so to maximise the potential for language acquisition, teachers need to ensure that children do not feel pressured during the learning process.