Listening week nine

The listening project

Getting to grips with spontaneous conversations

Do you ever listen in on conversations in English when you're out in public?
Imagine you're in a coffee shop, and you're listening to a conversation in English between two people on the table next to you. Would you find it easier or more challenging than, for example, a TED talk? Why?
What kind of language do people use when chatting with friends? What happens to things like vocabulary and grammar, pronunciation, accent/dialect, cultural references?

Begin activities on the Listening Project

Review your initial notes that you made when you first listened to the conversation between Becky and Mia.
- How would you describe their relationship?
- How do Becky and Mia feel about their experience visiting Sri Lanka?
- What kind of person is Mia?
- Does she give the impression of feeling positively or negatively about her Sri Lankan/British identity?
How much did having the transcript on page two help you to understand the conversation? What did you mis-hear the first time?
How far did you get with the Sketch Engine, and what notes did you make from the questions on page 3? How might these tools be useful for language learners?
What other conversations did you listen to from The Listening Project? Share your notes from page 4:
- Who is the conversation between, and what are they talking about?
- What kind of language were they using?
- Could you empathise with any of the speakers?
Now that you've explored spoken English in more detail, have your answers changed to the questions in the preparation box above?

Teacher's notes