Ideas that Really Work. While practice makes perfect is a great approach, our students need a lot more guidance listening to a variety of audio materials for hours on end may not be the most effective approach. They need to view listening as another exercise, like those they do for grammar, writing, reading or speaking. So how do we guide our ESL students towards improved listening skills Heres how Listening with a Purpose. A student puts on a pair of headphones and hits play on the computer screen. Heshe is sitting down to watch a movie in English in order to improve hisher listening skills. Whats the purpose of this exercise While improve listening comprehension sounds like a good purpose, its not. Adobe After Effects For Mac Crack Apps on this page. How To Improve Your Active Listening Skills' title='How To Improve Your Active Listening Skills' />Students need specific exercises, each with a specific purpose that goes beyond mere listening. They can listen to a podcast with the purpose of identifying three future online shopping trends. They can listen to a conversation with the purpose of identifying the speakers vacation plans. But there should always be a purpose to the listening exercise. Be sure to communicate what it is. How to Improve Listening Skills in the Classroom. If youre a student struggling to pay attention during lectures, or a teacher wondering why your students. Listening Strategy and Skills. Your skill as a listener can make or break your success in leadership, teams, customer relationships, and negotiation. From Passive to Active. In the above situation where the student sits back and just listens, there is a misconception that heshe will passively improve hisher listening skills just by listening. Students must be active in their listening exercises. They must be thinking of answers, options or ideas. Give them questions to answer or information to find out, and have them report back their findings. Ways To Improve Your Listening Skills. Tony Alessandra, Ph. D. Most of us have room for improvement in our. Separate them into groups and have one group listen for one set of information and the other group for another, and then get together and share. Just make sure they are not simply sitting and listening Clear Instructions. Do they have to complete a TrueFalse exercise after the listening Fill in blanks as they listen Write down the answers to the questions, or raise their hands and say them out loud Students must be absolutely clear on what is expected of them. Use Variety. Do you always give your class song lyrics with gaps they must complete Add some spice to your listening exercises and mix it upWhat if you give two different groups two different sets of worksheets where the gaps are different Students in Group A must then work with students in Group B and ask each other questions to find out the missing information. The class listens to the song at the end to confirm that the answers are right. Keep it Real. Were all more than familiar with the handy little audio CDs that come with our beloved course book. You should absolutely take advantage of the amount of listening material you have available there, but dont forget to use some real audio from time to time. Now, movies, TV shows and songs are what usually comes to mind, but what about TV commercials, weather reports or podcasts There are many more sources of real audio out there, most of which are not too hard for students if they are approached correctly. Do the Work. If students are really committed to improving their listening, they must understand this one crucial fact they gotta do the work. This usually involves doing at least one short listening exercise, several times a week even every day. They can watch a short video on You. Tube or CNN. com every morning. Or listen to an audio book for 1. In class, be sure to give them listening comprehension exercises every day, maybe even several in one class. The more work they do, the faster theyll improve. Teach Them to Check. Just as essential as understanding when they listen is the checking for comprehension or asking for clarification. If students learn to ask someone to clarify a point, theyll increase their odds of improved communication what they didnt get at first, they may understand the second time around. Be sure to teach them to Check for meaning He said he was feeling blue. Does that mean he was feeling sad Ask for clarification What did he mean when he said he was feeling blueRe phrase He said he was feeling unhappy and sad, right Students often believe that to improve their listening they must simply exercise their ear. But its important for students to understand that its not as simple as that the ear is not a simple muscle to train listening comprehension is a lot more complex than that. Merely sitting and listening to something for hours wont do the trick they can learn a lot more from a focused 1.