Listening week three

Listening and lectures

Adapted from Campbell, C. and Smith, J. (2012) English for Academic Study: Listening – Course Book. Reading: Garnet Education

Preparation work for live session - listening diaries

This session is going to focus on micro-skills, which means listening at the level of words, syllables and sentences. Micro-skills sessions focus on shorter excerpts of speech rather than lectures or conversations. Hearing word boundaries and diphthongs will also help your pronunciation. However, it's important to follow up micro skills lessons with some real life listening practice.

What have you been listening to? What new language have you learnt? Remember these diaries should be focussed on material which is interesting and engaging, not necessarily academic. Material from music, film, books or even an adverts or conversations you've heard in the street can still give useful language input.

Preparation work for live session - pronunciation

How different are the sounds used in English to those in your own language? Which sounds (if any) do you have particular difficulty with?
Have you ever encountered the phonemic chart?
Explore the endlessly entertaining interactive phonemic chart on One Stop English (make sure you enable flash in your browser settings first).
- See if you can write your name in phonemic symbols.
Look up a word (any word) in the dictionary. Use the phonemic symbols on the entry to see if you can pronounce it properly.

Begin listening activities

For copyright reasons, access to the materials from Campbell and Smith can only be made available for limited windows of time. Please email phil.martin@york.ac.uk.

Live session discussion - Understanding spoken English

Review your answers to the questions on page 1 of the study materials.

Which of these types of listening do you think is more difficult or requires more attention in your own language?
- Listening to friends as part of your conversation with them.
- Listening to the radio.
- Listening to announcements at a crowded railway station.
- Listening to an academic lecture.
What experiences have you had of listening to spoken English?
What type of listening in English do you find more demanding/less demanding?

Live session discussion - Listening to lectures

You are going to listen to a lecturer talking about the differences he perceives between lectures in the UK and China.
- Discuss your experiences of lectures in your own country compared to those in the country you are studying. Think about:
  - What the lecturers did, e.g. read from notes, used visuals, asked questions.
  - What students did, e.g. asked questions, took notes.
Review your notes for part 1 of the talk regarding the following points:
- what his main interest is
- where he got his information about lectures in China
- the survey he did and the students he talked to
Now review part 2, where the lecturer first talks about some of the characteristics of lectures in China and then compares these with lectures in the UK. Listen and make notes on the main points he makes.
- Characteristics of lectures in China:
- Characteristics of lectures in the UK:

Do study habits vary between countries?

Live session discussion - review

If you are from China, do you agree with what the speaker reported about lectures in China?
If you are from another country, are the lectures in your country more like the British system, the Chinese one, or a combination of both?
Have you listened to lectures in English before?
Did you take notes (in English or your own language) during the lectures you attended? How difficult was it to take notes?
What did you do before and after your lectures to help you understand more fully and remember the content?

Teacher's notes

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