Teaching English Listening to Children
Listening comprehension mostly
benefits from this early start, pronunciation also benefits in longer term.
However, younger children learn the grammar of L2 more slowly than older
learners, so that although starting earlier with language learning they make
slower progress. It is through listening that babies first learn the language.
It is also believed that exposure to English should be first done through
exposing students to verbal talks. Learners get many things trough listening.
When learners have the opportunity to listen to listening materials, then
teachers should expose students to listening to English as much as possible. Of
the four skills in English, young learners make the most of the lesson through
listening. They learn to understand the materials through listening, get the
instruction and explanation through listening, learn to pronounce words through
listening, and practice better through listening to teachers’ praises and
feedbacks. Therefore, listening skills become very crucial emphasis in the
teaching of English to young learners.
a. Teachers or
tapes first?
One of the most frequently asked
questions teachers have is whether their learners should listen to them or the
tapes first. When teachers focus on classroom interaction, teachers can use
their talks to deliver the tasks and engage students to the designed
activities. Teachers can present the new words and patterns in the form of
puzzles. For example, teachers can ask What kind of food do you like?. When the
students do not seem to understand what it means, we can encourage students to
ask us the same questions then let them guess the meaning from our respond to
the questions. If we answer by saying a certain food that they are familiar
with, with a little smile or gesture to show that we like it, students can
guess the meaning of the pattern from the context. Students can then start
asking and answering the questions among themselves. By doing this, Paul (2003:
72), argues that students learn through sensing whole chunks of language, and
through thinking and guessing. Listening activities can also be designed as an
interactive activity in which students do what is stated in the recording. When
listening to songs or chants, children can sing along or imitate what is
played.
b. Dictation
Dictation exercise is always an important
technique of teaching listening because it trains students’ comprehension in
differing English sounds. Dictation doesn’t have to be dull and boring in which
teachers simply state the words and students write the words in their
notebooks, it can be so much fun and interesting if we apply it in language
games.
Picture dictation
Students
describe a picture they have to their partner, who tries to draw what they
hear. This can either be done with the person describing being able to see the
picture as it is being drawn (easier) or not (more communication and question
formation). This is good for prepositions, and shapes and dimensions for
Technical English classes.
c. Stories
It is a wonderful technique to teach,
English through stories. Paul, (2003: 74) argues that stories can be a
supplementary material when teaching English to young learners particularly when
the stories can be integrated to the course. Teachers can read it to children
from storybooks, memorize the stories then tell it to children, or play it on a
tape.
Teachers
tend to interact more with students when retelling a story after memorizing it
from a storybook. However, when reading stories from storybooks, teachers can
also interact with the students by varying the intonation or by changing the
voice for each different characters of the story.
There
are some activities that teachers can involve when they are telling stores.
These activities are designed to engage students in the story telling time and
to avoid a teacher-dominated classroom activity. The activities are:
1. The children draw characters or scenes from
the story.
2. Teachers tell the story with puppets,
children then retell the story with their own puppets.
3. Children arrange pictures from the scene of
the story, or touch/jump on the correct pictures as teachers tell the story. This activity can also be modified by
asking students to guess what the story
will be by arranging pictures from the scene before teachers tell them the
story.
4. Each child has a word card. When her word is
mentioned in the story, she has to do something about it, like raising her card, make funny noise, or put up her
hand.
5. The teacher stops sometimes during the story
to ask students what they think is going to happen next.
d. Songs
Paul, (2003: 58), states that children
love songs. Children keep songs in their heads, sing them after class, hum them
on the way home, and sing them at home. They like the singing activity and
songs provide many opportunities to get new words and to acquire the model
pronunciation. Paul, (2008: 58-59), suggests the following ways of how teachers
can use songs (and chants) in class:
1. Singing
The children sing songs that have catchy
melodies and useful language content
2. Activities
The children combine actions with songs.
This is usually the most effective way to use songs, especially with younger children. Any songs can be combined
with actions.
Activities
of Teaching Listening to Children
Listen and do’ activities
1.
Put up your hand
When the pupils are learning the sound
system, the teacher might ask them to put up their hands when they hear a
certain word.
2.
Mime Stories
In mime story, the teacher tells the
story and the pupils and the teacher do the action It again provides physical
movement and gives the teacher a chance to play along with the pupil. Mime is
when the children use only physical movement, gesture and actions to express a
dramatic idea or to dramatise a scene in the story. Percussion, sound or music
may accompany the movements.
3.
Drawing
Listen and draw is a favorite type of
listening activity in almost classes. In listen and draw activities, the
teacher, or one of the pupils tells the other pupil what to draw. This activity
is particularly useful for checking object vocabulary, preposition etc.
Listening for
information
1.
Identifying exercises
These activities are often used to check
what the pupil know, but they can also be used to give new information.
2.
Putting things in order
Pupil have a number of pictures which
illustrate a text in front of them. The picture are not in the right order.
Pupils listen to text and put the picture in the order they think is right. An
example of this type of picture in the order they think is right.
3.
Listen and Color
Children love colouring picture and the
teacher can easily make this activity into a listening activity, the teacher
can use any picture which the pupil have in their workbook.
Listen and repeat’
activities
1.
Song
Song are also a form of 'listen and
repeat activities. It may be a drill, it may be word with special sound.
Listening to
stories
1.
Reading stories
Instead of telling stories, the teacher
can read aloud from a book. In this activities the techer should not change the
story at all.
LISTEN AND DRAW
ACTIVITIES
Diana
Riaji
Competency standard : Students
are able to understand and do the instruction which is heard about preposition of place using in,beside,
on, under, dan between.
Basic
competency :
Students are able to understand the preposition of place in the learning activity.
Indicator :
1.
Students are able to pronounce the word or sentence about preposition of
place
2. Students
are able to write down sentences using preposition of place
3. Students
are able to read aloud and understand the location of with the corect
intonation
Learning Objectives :
Students
can communicate orally and in writing on a simple level related to the name
common objects and the location of the objects.
Learning Material :
Prepositon of place
Learning activity :
1.
Opening
Activity
1.
Greeting and checking
the rolls
2.
Talking about the
objectives and significance of the lesson
2.
Main
Activity
Pre-activity
1.
Teacher asks the
students what they have learnt before
2.
Teacher asks the
students as brain storming“ Where is the bird flying ?”or where is the ball?
3.
Teacher shows video or picture
(preposition of place), students responds to the teacher’s question about
preposition of place picture
Whilst – activity
1.
Teacher explains the preposition of
place and students give responds the material
2.
Teacher asks the students the
material in playing listen and draw
game.
3.
Teacher give listening test about prepostion of place material ( 1st
test,teacher uses tape recorder, 2nd
step, teacher use spoken word ( if the students have difficulty in the 1st
listening test )
Post –
activity
1.
Teacher give respond to the correct
answer
2.
Teacher
ask to the students about the preposition of place that the students haven’t
known yet
3. Close
Activity
1.
Teacher conclude that
the material has been studied
