Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
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ESSAY:
ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING LISTENING SKILL
PRESENTS:
MONTEJANO LOPEZ WENDY ZAMANTHA
QUE PARA OBTENER EL TTULO DE: LICENCIADA EN EDUCACIN
SECUNDARIA CON ESPECIALIDAD EN LEGUA EXTRANJERA (INGLS).
ASESOR:
ALFONSO DEL VALLE OLIVARES
INDEX
Index.
Acknowledgments 3
Introduction............................................................. 4
Problem and thematic line...
General purpose
Chapter 1
1.1 Context.............................................................
10
14
16
Chapter II
General view.. what is an strategy? What is an activity?.................................
20
Phonetic symbols
23
28
Lets rock..
34
39
43
Chapter III
General conclusions..
46
References 51
Annex. 55
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to thank you to all my professors at the normal 4 for transmited me all
the knowledge and the tools for be a good professor, but I would like to offer my
special thanks to three professors who were with me in the road, The Prof.
Alfonso Del Valle Olivares for been my assesor and suport me in my practices
and in my receptional document, the Prof. Sandra Landin for teaching me that
being a teacher is not easy , but that I always have to face on all the problems at
school, and
English level, for all the taugth knoledge transmitted in the classes which helped
me a lot in this document, for inspiring me to read more and more, for support me
in every momment, for being a model of professor and for be my friend.
I wish to express my sicere thanks to the Prof. Veronica Sanchez Acevedo my
titular of the
Secondary
necessary facilities for teach, the tools, the comprehension in every momment, the
support and for being a model for my formation as a professor.
I owe a real debt of gratitude to my family and my boyfriend who supported
me all the days for finish this stage of my life.
Finally, but not less important I wish to thank my friends Juan Albino Guzman
Vargas, Juan Carlos Cruz Cue, America Jasel Arroyo Rebollo and
3
Fernando
Bravo Razo for their support and encouragement for continue in the normal, their
encouragment words were really helpful for me when I tougth I will fail and for the
great momments I spent in the four years.
INTRODUCTION
them but I can assured that if the listening were practiced at least twice a week,
for the students will be easier, and not difficult as it is used to be.
When I started studying English my weakness was listening, and any
profesor I had help me to develop this ability, I got frustrated, so on I can see this
when I aplied the diagnostic exam to the groups, I was on their shoes, in the
listening part they had a surprise and
understand anything, they got bored in this part, they looked each other, the results
showed the lower hability and this was listening.
This document is divided into 3 chapters, on the first one you will find a
brief history of the context of the school and how affect to the students daily life,
Castillo, (1990) said that the context are all extern factors, where the school is,
and where we can see the demands of the enviroment, the students and all the
society wich ones impact directly on the school, I made an investigation of the
context of the school where I do my practicums, for seeing in which moment does
the context affect the learning process, and see how face the problems.
On the other hand it contains the tematic line number two wich is the
analisys of experiences in the secondary school, as a personal purpose I want to
change the point of view that all the students and teachers have, listening is not as
difficult as all the people believe,
someone is saying,
listening is not
just about
hearing what
evaluation of other clues, such as their body language; you could have fun with this
hability and improve others skills with this one, there are also some questions I
pretend to answer at the end of this document, so on there are the results of the
diagnostic exam I apllied for knowing the students previous knowledge.
In this case Espinoza, (1987) said that the diagnostic is a process and
that is the first part we need to analyze for starting a proyect , thus, as a result,
the diagnostic consists in recognize all the ground where we pretend realize
actions, that is why the diagnostic test was too important, students have to get a
level at the end of thir studies at secondary, but first we have to know from where
we can start.
In base of this I wanted to know from wich level I will start the
investigation and made them to develop all the habilities or the lower one for
making them all equivalent and equal in the most possible measure, as we know,
nowadays
our students must have 700 english hours studied but for different
no material and no
It is known that listening is one of the most difficult skills for the students,
because the professors in primary school just give them vocabulary and phrases,
and do not have the preparation as an English professors, they are obligated by
the system, most of the students have never heard a complete conversation, also
is unusual that a foreign person enter to the classroom and start speaking and they
can interact with them, when the diagnostic exam was applied to the first grade,
they were really confused, they looked around the classroom or saw each other,
because they do not understand anything, we can see that students are not
familiarized with English, even all the stores, TV programs, clothes, games etc
contain English words, students do not like English movies or music, this affect
directly the listening ability,
because this
classroom, for example: at students home, in their personal mp3 players, on the
games, on the radio, this should be done for them, but if they do not like English
will be difficult catch some words.
In the case of second and third grade the students were working with the
Professor Veronica Sanchez Acevedo who was working with PNIEB, and she
worked with the four abilities, she speaks in English most of the time, so their
students are able to produce, in those groups the English level is higher than first
grade. (see aneex 1)
7
It is supposed that students had to have 700 hours of English studied in the
previous years, but we can see with these results that the programs are not being
followed as all the professors said, and the classes are not given to the students,
that is way the students of first grade have many problems with the English
subject.
Therefore after applied a diagnostic exam for knowing the level, the group with
the lower ability was 1st grade, from 50 students who did the exam just 3 passed
the listening part, the difference of this students of the ones who failed is that they
have taken English courses and that some of them studied in private schools
which English level is higher. (see annex 2 )
We are guided from a plan in basic education (NEPBE) 2014, which
purpose that the English language teaching must be different,
students have to
get the necessary knowledge to engage in social practices, with oral and written
language by means of specific competences with the language so, we have to
make students develop their communicative skills, that is why is important to
reinforce this, listening comprehension is really important, is the base from the
abilities and this develops the oral speech, we can know if we are developing
listening because we catch ideas and words of what we are listening and also we
understand the setting in the one is developed, according to Gos (1982) and
Samuels (1984), listening comprehension is a process in which the listener
constructs a meaning out of the information provided by the speaker, that is the
goal in the classroom students must construct naturally.
We must encourage students to develop the ability.
How many listening activities can help the students develop other skills?
Could be useful the materials of listening made for students to recognize
other accents?
Can be helpful phonetics symbols for listening activities?
Which activities can we apply for helping students to develop listening skill?
The use of movies, songs, play roles, reading aloud could help to develop
listening skill? In which way?
Which were the most successful listening activities?
On the other hand, this work is situated in the thematic line number two
which is about the experience developed with students, in a specific modality of a
didactic proposal. So I need to analyze in further detail, how it impacts listening
activities during an English classes.
General Purpose
The purpose of listening activities is that students train their ears by listening
different accents, voices and can get the main ideas, with this they would be able
to produce speaking as a natural process covering some expectation of the
program.
CHAPTER I
the culture and the needs are others, people have another ideas, other customs,
other necessities, life is not the same as 40 years ago, we can said that people is
innovating the way they live, adapting their life to the deals of the daily life.
Nowadays students prefer do not enter and having fun one day, going to
the cinema or the malls and
we have to look up activities to motivate students to come the school Los alumnos
no aprenden, por que no estn motivados, y no aprenden, por que su forma de
pensar al afrontar la escuela es inadecuada (Tapia, 2005: p. 43.)
We can see that the zone depends on the education, some zones are calm
and other is really violent, and by the way, some students have attitudes depending
on the place they live.
10
If we have the control this will disappear, but is all failure, we are soft with
our decisions in the classroom, we do not apply the rules and we lost our authority,
nowadays not all have the vocation of been a teacher, and in addition to this the
traditionalism in the classroom changed, you cannot speak louder because is
bullying, you cannot tell something of or punish students because is bullying, all
this because students are not educated as they should have been, the parents let
all for the school and is not like that the home is the base of the education. There
were an interview made by a foreign person to a teacher in which describe actually
what happened with our point of view about students, it is neither all of us, nor all
of students, but rather the system, because we do not work as a team.
En una misma escuela la problemtica es la misma en los distintos aos los
chicos estn ms alterados (...), vos hablas con los profesores y ellos mismo te
dicen, mira ac hay
period of six years, the professor Librado Leon Martinez work till February of
1993 and in that year till the actuality the teacher Emma Perez Prez had been
working in such an important institution, making management of materials for the
school with her effort and quality.
The school has two turns, in the morning, and in the afternoon, this school
is one of the most demanded of the town, with more than 900 students, is located
in Gustavo Baz Prada No. 0, Benito Juarez colony, post code 57700,
the school
follows most of the educational programs and prepare their students for the exam
of high school, the teachers are worried of the future of the students, the majority
of them are accepted to their first options, this is not an easy job, teachers work
together, they interchange ideas, activities, dynamics, they think in the problems of
the school and they solve them together, they interchange points of view, that
made the difference, not many schools
about the
consequently when you leave for sure you will remember that.
It is like a family who is interchanging, such as; feelings, knowledge,
confidence and feedback, they can share all this in the school.
13
English knowledge, family and social aspects, all this for checking if they have
some problems in their families, financial situations or another problem and take
them into a count, all this with the finality of making a better class, and help them
with the process of learning, because without students the class could not be
successful, for my the things that could affect them are important for teach them.
According to the exam applied, this showed the lower ability and we have to
work with the four abilities, making emphasizes on the lower one, we have to
crate activities, strategies, dynamics to reinforce it, so the exam was applied and
the worst group was first grade; interviewing the students, most of them said that
they do not like English because it was difficult for them and they do not
understand , they have never had English classes, some of them have partners
14
who speak English, but even so they do not care for learning the language, they do
know English music and neither the movies , I commented them that around us
there are English, and some of them did not even notice this, this is because the
subject and the language is not relevant for them.
So
verbs, structures, adjectives and they feel stressed, first; because is new for them
and difficult by the pronunciation and second, because is not useful for their life.
15
The group have some characteristics that make them special in comparison
with others ones, most of them are extrovert, they like the games, they have
disposition and they show a big interest when the classes start, at the first moment
I had 55 students but after the administrative staff, just left over 50, boys are more
extrovert than girls, and what I like from them is that, they also try to imitate the
accent when they talk, they do not limit themselves when they talk, in case of the
girls we just have to work with the confidence, because they have to be able to
produce by themselves. Jenkins (2014) mentions, we must lay out the process of
motivating students through developing an atmosphere that fosters student
confidence.
It is important that we motivate students to create an atmosphere of a
second language, make them feel confident with themselves, with the class and
with us.
The ones who have taken English classes feel bored to show their
knowledge at school, they have a good English level, but they just want to put
them in practice, others, have taken classes with a traditional method talking all
in Spanish and after traduce all so they feel disappointed of their English, and I
can see that the Students associate English with the professors they had, this
happen with all the subjects if a maths professor taught wonderful you will start
to loving maths even if you are bad in this, if the chemistry teacher never guide
your learning, and all what you have is repeat and repeat chemistry will be difficult
16
and you will end up hating the subject, most of the English professors are
traditionalists, they want that the students memorize all the things and they with
just the vocabulary will be able to produce, they want that the students have a
perfect pronunciation, but they never speak in the class, is an Spanish with English
words sometimes, so the students start hating the classes and also the professors
because they condition them to memorize or they will have less grade,
Apparently the students of first grade
she is traditionalist, and she speaks Spanish all the time, as I said before we
associated the professors with the subjects, in this case the attitude of her is not
suitable, she made the students feel insecure and scare because she shout a lot
in the classes, so this a bad point for the English class, instead of loving the
subject they hate it.
In second and third grade was different, because the professor they had,
worked with PNIEB and spoke all the classes in English, she works with the
projects of the book and she look up for some activities to reinforce the program,
she tries that students get the learning outcomes, she gives the purposes of each
unity, the way she teaches is really important because is not a Spanish class, the
environment is made it from her and from the students, you can see how the
students are producing and interchanging ideas all the time, she is accomplishing
the purposes of PNIEB,
classes. So they had a huge advantage over first grade, because they understand
many English words, you do not need translate sentences, or mime most of the
times,
to produce and
socializing, they are getting confidence with the language and they produce, you
just need guide them.
The most important thing in the learning process, is that they feel confident
of themselves, and could produce as a natural process, by the way, that could not
happened with first grade, because they do not know anything, confidence was
17
not developed, because they do not know a real context, they have not got
interaction with the language and they feel afraid of the English class.
One common thing between all the groups is listening, why? Because they
are not keeping in touch neither with a real context nor with English speakers, the
second and third grade listen the professor talking but that is not enough, the
professors used to work just with the book and exercises, that is way when they
listen to some accents, songs, dialogues, interviews etc., it is difficult for them
understand the ideas. When I arrived to the classroom and I started speaking in
English they commented me that was really hard for them understand me, because
I speak faster than the professors, this happen because they are not costumed to
listen people talk in English, and my accent was new for them.
So the chosen group was the first grade group c with listening, (see annex 3)
when the diagnostic exam was applied they feel uncomfortable with the recording,
they looked each other because they do not understand anything, they say what?
Making jokes about the listening, and it is understandable because they had not
English classes in the period they have been studying in kinder garden or primary,
thinking in English is hard for them, and here is when the importance of the
syllabus appears, students have to know why they are learning the topics, the
subjects which are the purposes, objectives, learning outcomes, achievements
etc this with the finality that they understand why it is important to study and
which is the purposes of the school.
For this reason I will be applying some activities to reinforce the listening
activity, most of them will be ludic activities, I want to change their minds about
English.
La ldica puede contribuir para conseguir la aplicacin de unos criterios ms
acordes
con
los
tiempos
actuales
en
que
la
velocidad
de
los
The ludic help us in the class, is easy make students feel interested and make
them work better, the ludic foment the acquisition of knowledge, and contains lots
of activities where the pleasure, the creativity, the knowledge are immersed.
Torres (2004) said that the ludic activities are not limited by the age, the important
with this activities is adapt the necessities, interest, and purposes to the game, so
the professor must develop the ludic as
make
Games are a good way for making students enjoy the English and find an utility on
their lifes.
19
Chapter II
Barriga (2002) defines strategy as all the procedures that the people use on a
reflexive way to promote the goals of the learning in the students, this are
unconditional allied of the professor in the learning process it also defines the
strategy as procedure (steps, abilities) that a learner uses in a conscious way as
flexible instruments for learning and solving problems.
Nobody can teach what do not know, that is why it is necessary form strategic
professors for having a better education and better students
We have to construct the knowledge, the teaching is which is in charge of us and
we have to find ways to facilitate the learning for the students and innovate the
traditional teaching, therefore, we have to consider to use some strategies, these
ones
are all the procedures that we use in a reflexive way to encourage the
learning in the students, we can see the strategies as a ways or resources for
helping us in the classroom.
But there are some things to help us to analyze which is the best strategy, when
we are teaching, that is why there are some essential aspects:
1. - General characteristics (previous knowledge, motivations etc.)
20
2. - The domain of the general knowledge and the curricular content that we need
to check
3. -The goal we must achieve and the pedagogical activities that we have to realize
4.-The enforcement of teaching process (the strategies)
5. - the context
All these factors will help us to choose a strategy for the group; the strategies can
be applied when we start a class, or in the middle, and Barriga (2000). Said all
this procedures make the teaching process reflexive and meaningful.
Weinster and Mayer (1986) are more consistent in the case of the strategies they
divide them on:
1.-Repetition strategies: Are the ones that work with registers, routines, and
minimum cognitive control.
2.- Production strategies: This ones include some technics, methods and details
that favour the connections between the previous knowledge and the new content,
here the cognitive control is lower.
3.-Organization of strategies: These are consisted by the domain of ordering
groups, categorizing information that permit obtaining a representation of the
teaching-learning, in this case the cognitive control is higher.
4. - Regulation strategies: this ones use the metacognitive abilities; the cognitive
control is as well higher.
5. - Affective-motivation strategies: these ones will include the cognitive,
environmental and instructional preferences that the student shows in the moment
of learning
21
As we can see the strategies are important in the process of the students
learning, and also for us as teacher because these help to facilitate the teaching. In
the case of Monereo ( 2007 ) said that :
Ensear estrategias implica ensear al alumno a decidir conscientemente los
actos que realizara, ensendole a modificar conscientemente
cuando se oriente
su actuacin
ensearle a evaluar
22
23
Possible problem and solution: The students are worried about pronunciation,
some of them are confused, because they read English words as in Spanish, and
get frustrated, they want to get a better pronunciation, speak and read correctly, I
decided checking the phonetic symbols for facilitating their learning and make them
get a better speech, because with this students will be able to listen words and
write them correctly.
Assessment evidence: letters game.
Application: 17/April/2015
Process: When I applied the diagnostic exam, I was interested that students get
a better pronunciation so, I
pronunciation and the listening ability, the pronunciation is important all the time
most of the students have problems with this, because they said the words as they
did it in Spanish, for that reason I explained them the use of the phonetic symbols
to the students using a chart, this will help them to understand accents and get a
better speech, I gave to students a sheet of paper with the symbols, in the board
was a big chart with colors representing the vowels, the diphthongs and the
consonants, so I explained first the consonants making gestures and practicing
with the students, successively I did that with the other parts of the chart , I review
each part twice and I ask for problems or doubts.
Once the students had the chart I noticed that was fun and interesting for
them, they tried to read it alone, some of them got right and some others no, the
important was they were having fun, even they do not find the functionality yet, of
this in their life, but I can say that the activity was working on and some students
were asking me some things as:
S: Teacher Zam Para qu se usa esta tabla cuando hablamos?
T: It is used when you do not know how to pronounce a word, what you could do
is look up in the dictionary and the phonetic symbols are next of the word, you
24
read them and you will know how to pronounce correctly the word even you never
had heard it .
Stages:
1. - Pre-listening: First I
presented the
topic
phonetic symbols, and I explained them why the phonetic is important when
we study English, and what is a phonetic chart, we checked the use, the
components of the chart, I showed them some phonetic symbols and after I
showed the complete chart to the students, I explained them the content
and how the chart is divided, I saw the faces of the students and they were
interested in the class, they made the comparison to the Greek alphabet,
but I explained that was not the same, at the first time they thought was
difficult because they will have to write as if the chart were an alphabet, I
immediately explained to the students that the chart just helps the
pronunciation and that they had not to be worry, because is easy learn
them, the students all the time they were paying attention to the class, they
were really accessible, because of the faces I made when I explained, and
25
the faces that their classmates did, meanwhile I explained they change their
mind about the difficulty of the chart.
2. - While listening: I gave to the students a sheet of paper with a phonemic chart
that contains the symbols, the chart contained vowels, consonants and diphthongs,
that were already explained, in the board there was mine, the colors helped the
students to identify vowels, consonants and diphthongs, so I started explained
each one, giving an example for made them associate the sounds, they were
following the pronunciation that I did repeating, I asked all the time for doubts, we
made together all the activities, the titular professor helped me to supervise the
students for identify any problem meanwhile I explained, some students were
confused, with this ones I worked till clear the doubts and others students working
and laughing for my faces, I could notice that all the students were astonished, with
the diphthongs at the first time, buy after they pronounce it perfectly, they had
never listened about phonetic, this was new for them, the most difficult for them
after practicing all, were the diphthongs, so we practiced more than the others
because they forgot the pronunciation, and at the first time they got confused with
the symbols, but after checked and practiced they did it well, at the end we said
it all the phonetic symbols together, and I ask some students for pronounce ones,
this just for checking if someone had doubts.
3. - Post-listening: The students had to work in pairs for doing an activity which
consist in pronounce each symbol doing the gestures and the movements with the
mouth so they were divided by pairs and they had to check the gestures and
movements of their partners when they said the symbols, beside this when I said
change they have to change their couple for listening other peers pronunciation,
for observing the differences of the movements of the face and the mouth, when
they finished the activity, there were other activity waiting for them, we changed 5
26
times of couple,
in front of the classroom where the board is, there were some
symbols on the floor (phonetic symbols), so I divided them in teams, each line
was one, there were 7 integrands per line, each team chose a name and when I
said a word just one person of the team have to pass and form the word with the
phonetic symbols, and all the team have to pronounce it, this activity was easy for
them and they were having fun.
At the end of this activity I gave them some activities that contains some phonetic
symbols, what they have to do is pronounce the word first, and write it down the
phonetic symbol, at the first moment I thought students had problems, but by the
contrary they did faster.
I draw the symbols in the board and I ask students for pass to the front and write
the words, most of them were correct.
4. - Suggestion: It is necessary to give the instructions and explain clearly what we
want for do not confuse the students also could be better give them the chart with
colors to facilitate the learning process and they can identify them faster and easily,
with this will be easier to identify the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants, we have
to check that students realize the activities as to have success, and ask for doubts.
In the case of the last activity could be a good idea also made more letters; for
having variety and students did not fight for wining.
27
Video materials are an excellent resource for teaching listening and help the
students to understand the pronunciation, and recognize different accents, these
could be movies, TV series, English news, and we have to take care with the
videos, because we want to motivate them no disappoint them. The materials must
be relevant for the life of our students; we have to cover their interests and the
vocabulary in order to involve them. It is important that we check the level of the
video do not be too high, because they are in the process of identify and recognize
voices and sound, and if the video has a high level the activity wont be successful.
Video materials provide visual aids for the listening materials that EFL
learners are exposed to. When they are practicing their listening skills, learners
often find it difficult to hold their attention long enough once they are exposed to
long conversations or passages without visual aids.
Language learners can improve their listening and speaking skills
consciously and subconsciously in viewing video materials and talking about them
after the films are over.
HARMER (1991) said the videos help students to seeing language in use and Film
allows students entry into a whole range of communication worlds.
KIRK (1992) said that Good video can engage the imagination and interest of its
viewers when eager to learn what happens next. Second only to native-speaking
language teachers themselves, for example, movies have been found to be a
prime motivational force in studying English."
28
Videos are good ones for the learning process of the students and motivate them
in the English classes, the videos are also good ones for developing and train the
listening, because the language is in use.
hearing and seeing, for this reason the videos and the activities were selected
carefully.
Assessment evidence: complete dialogues and predict what the characters said,
rubric for the videos
Application: 20/April/2015
Process: In the diagnostic exam the lower activity was listening, I propose some
activities for work on listening ability, so I applied a video activity in which they have
to watch videos with the sound off and predict what they are saying, this with
helped whit the body language of the characters and in case of the movies the
previous knowledge, because they had watched, but in their mother tongue.
I noticed that students were astonished with the video of what would you do, in
this TV program they acted different situations that happened in the real life and at
the end they ask to the audience for their opinion of what to do in those cases, the
first time was with the sound off, the students astonished observed carefully the
gestures, the movements some of the actors were really expressive, and the
students started predicting and saying what was the situation about it and in the
second time I played the video, they have a concrete idea of the situation, they
confirmed what they thought.
One student commented me that the expressions of the American people were
more emphatic than the Mexican people; some of them were thinking what to do in
that situation.
They were having fun with the Video, because the situation was about a girl who
lies to her boyfriend about a pregnancy test, she told him that they will have a
baby, this because she wanted to marry him, and he did not purpose her in all the
time they had been as a couple, so when students watched the video they feel
themselves if they were there as a public, they feel confident for trying to speak
30
and tell me what would they do, some of them were emphatic with the situation
and gave some points of view.
we have to experiment
knowledge and try to make it better and consolidate dexterities, when the person
learn something new, as result there is an emotional answer and students were
achieving the purpose learn and have fun.
However AUSBEL (1983) Said that the most important characteristic of the
significative learning is that there are an interaction of knowledge because is
relevant for the cognitive structure so the students made the knowledge learned
useful for them, they integrate them in their daily life.
The second part consisted in playing extracts of a movie that every teenager likes,
toy story; and for sure they had watched this movie so this was easier than the
other, because they had the previous knowledge some of them were really
interested because they love the movie and
predicted what the characters said and they tried to explain the dialogues in
English. At the end they had to answer some questions to make sure they
understood.
I noticed that this activity was relevant, because not all the teachers are used to
make this kind of activities and this is new and interesting for them, the activity also
was funny, because they had fun trying to say the dialogues imitating the voices of
the character.
Un aprendizaje es significativo cuando los contenidos: Son relacionados
de modo no arbitrario y sustancial (no al pie de la letra) con lo que el
alumno ya sabe. Por relacin sustancial y no arbitraria se debe entender
que las ideas se relacionan con algn aspecto existente especficamente
relevante de la estructura cognoscitiva del alumno, como una imagen, un
smbolo ya significativo, un concepto o una proposicin (Ausubel, 1983 :
18).
31
In the educative process, is important consider that the student have to establish a
direct relation with the knowledge they want to learn, make something new in our
classes help us to broke the routine in our class and recover their interest in the
subject.
One of the students told me:
S: Teacher zam cundo vamos a volver a ver videos?
T: I told him that in each unit I will look up activities like this one.
With the activities applied were successful and According to Derrington &Groom
(2004) there are types of listening: Discriminative in which the listener identifies
emotions and inferences, through the tone of voice. Empathic consists on
nonverbal behavior of the listener that is attending to what is said, so I focused this
time in these types of listening and work well.
Stages:
1. - Pre-listening: I explained the activity and the name after this I gave them
an activity that contains questions of two videos, toy story the movie and
what would you do a video of an American program, they had to fill it out
an activity at the end of the video, but before playing the videos I read
them the questions for checking the comprehension of the students and
also I made some questions about vocabulary. (see annex 8)
2. - While listening: I played
sound off, the students were watching the video I asked them to pay
attention on the faces of the actors for getting an idea of what was the video
about it, and they could predict or imagine what the situation was about it,
32
at the second time the sound was on and the students were really
interested and excited for the situation of the video they told me what video
was about, and some of them gave their opinion.
The second video was about a movie toy story, at the first time I played
with the sound off and they were more excited and interested than with the
other one, at the second time I played with the sound on, and they
understand what the characters were saying. All the time the students were
paying attention to the video, they were enjoying.
3. Post-listening: Finally I asked the students for reading the questions and
answered them, I gave them 10 minutes for answering the questions of
each video, I ask them first what was the video about it?,
characters? they answer it really faster and
when they finished we check it together,
asked what did they understand about the video? They expressed their
opinions.
4. - Suggestion: This was a great activity for teaching listening and motivates
them to listening music and watch videos, they were interested in the class
in every moment, and it would be great that students work on this kind of
activities twice a week or three times a month because their train their ear.
Listening is the activity in which you have to pay attention and trying to get
the meaning from something you hear, songs help students to learn more and
more by hearing the target language, the songs help us in many ways for teaching
vocabulary, pronunciation, accents, with the songs I made students produce in a
funny way.
Listening is a complex skill which operates at various levels. It is a skill which
involves a series of different strategies and micro-skills that we use at different
times for different purposes, state J. McDowell and Ch. Hart, who describe these
strategies and micro-skills as follows.
When we listen, we make use of information we already have about the topic
being spoken about. The more we know, the less intensively we have to listen.
1. - We use the information we already have about the topic, and about how the
language works, to anticipate and predict what is coming.
2.-We normally listen selectively rather than listening to every word. We listen for
key words and expressions that give us clues to meaning and not to every single
word as many learners tend to do.
3. - As we listen and select information, we store it in short-term memory so that we
can reinterpret it in the light of what is to come. We then store it in long-term
memory, in the form of messages rather than in actual words. (McDowell, J., Hart,
Ch., Listening Plus, p. 7)
According to UR (2013) there are two objectives when we teach with songs, songs
are mainly for the sake of language they contain, the second two are taught as
resources of pleasure in their own right.
Confucius said that music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature
cannot do without. With songs students learn and enjoy the language.
34
When I ask students when and why they listen to music, their usual answers are
for example: I like listening to music when I feel extremely happy, I listen to
music, while studying because it creates agreeable, and motivating atmosphere, I
listen to music when I want to feel positive, so on work with English music will be
an excellent activity.
Topic: LETS ROCK
Additional resource: Computer, speakers, song
Learning outcomes: The students will listen to different accents, accents,
pronunciation of the words and will learn new vocabulary.
Previous learning: vocabulary of the song
Unity: 4
Social practice: understand, read and perform songs in order to recognize English
speaking.
Time: 40 minutes
Possible problem and solution: students are not familiarized with the culture of the
English; they know neither TV programs nor music, what I pretend with the songs
is contextualizing them with the music in a funny way to make them feel confident.
The solution for innovating the traditional teaching is giving English classes throw
songs, with this students will get new vocabulary and accents, that is way I look up
forward some activities for teaching by using songs.
Assessment evidence: complete songs with a puzzle
Application: 21/April/2015
Process:
35
complete all, finally I passed to check. At the end we sang together. (see annex
10).
In the third one I gave them a lyric of a song in a paper, instead of lines
they have images and with the previous vocabulary they have to infer the words
and complete it, at the end I check it and by lines we started to sing.
All the songs were related with the vocabulary and with the topic of the unit
in which we are.
Students enjoy these activities they learned vocabulary and they had fun with
this, after this activities students asked me for songs in English for the next class.
HARMER (1992) said that recorded material allows students to hear a variety
of different voices apart from just their own teacher's. It gives them an opportunity
to 'meet' a range of different characters, especially where 'real' people are talking.
Teaching throw songs is a good method of teaching and makes students have fun.
One important part of the teaching process is the context; music helps to create an
Suggestopaedia,
a teaching
by Dr Lozanov in
environment,
a methodology
thatmethodology
support thisdeveloped
is the suggestopedia.
Bulgaria, claims to produce hypermnesia an excellent memory.. The idea
behind using the music is apparently to relax students defences and to
open up their minds to the language. Music may also engage the right
36
hemisphere of their brains more, and make learning a more holistic
experience. (T. Murphey, p. 37)
Stages:
1. - Pre-listening:
the pronunciation, there are three activities, in the first one I connected the
cannon and project the lyrics, and after this I gave them a slip paper which
contains a missing word from the song.
In the second activity I divided the group into teams, in this case the teams
were by lines, I chose a leader for command the team and I asked for the
name of their team, I gave them a set of phrases of the song, and in the
third activity I gave to the students an activity with a song, in which they
have to answer with a vocabulary.
2. - While listening: In the first activity I played the song twice in the first one
the students had to listen carefully for identify the word they had, in the
second time the students had to stand up and paste their word in the
board in the correct place.
In the second activity I played the song and students started ordering the
song, in the second time they reinforce what they ordered I passes for
checking mistakes and checked the slip papers were in the correct way.
In the third activity the students listened twice the song and complete it,
with the vocabulary, I made pauses in the parts the missing words were.
The students were participating very well and the activity worked on without
problems, some of them started to sing.
37
38
Teaching listening skill by reading to them will improve them and train them in
the active listening, the use of play roles as well is a different way to make our own
materials for teaching, role plays and recordings are very important in the
communicative approach, because it gives to the students an opportunity to create
and to produce social practice of the language in different context.
Harmer (1991) said that the Students have the chance to watch the
interaction as well as listen to it. And with this student listen other accents, not just
the professor one.
When listening to someone talk, our attention is drawn so much to the
meaning conveyed through verbal language, that sometimes we are not aware of
the importance of nonverbal behavior in projecting the force of a message. In fact,
nonverbal behavior may do more than accompany a verbal message; it may reveal
the speaker's real message.
Some aspects of nonverbal communication are:
Body language: - facial expression, visual interaction, gesture, movement and
positioning of the body
Vocal features: pitch, loudness, tempo, pause, and quality of voice; and
Proximity: space and distance.
Whit out this aspects will be difficult the listening process, we need to mention this
aspects in the classes for obtain better results.
Listening is also a dominant activity in the child's school day. Wilt (1950) found
that children spend about fifty-seven percent of their school day in listening, more
-time than their teachers realize. Most of this time was spent listening to the
teacher talk. Of course this happen in the mother tongue but we can start to
change this playing listening and realizing activities for training this skill, with the
39
because the voices changed in the recording, but after they had been practicing
they felt confident and did it, they tried to imitate some artist and accents they
heard in programs and TVs, in the case of the play roles the first time they did not
want to pass, but I performed first with some professors and this motivated them to
pass, when we finished I asked them about how they feel and they told me :
S: Teacher zam casi me muero de la pena
T: I just said this is the first time you did this activity it is normal do not worry.
At the end they were enthusiastic, but some students did not want to pass.
We performed the played roles and played their own listenings for answering some
questions in both cases they enjoyed the activities.
Stages:
1. - Pre-listening: I ask for voluntaries for doing this activity, they were afraid
so I chose some students for realize a play role and first me and the
students chose the situation then I gave them the dialogues from the book,
for representing the situation, in the case of the recording I chose some
students who have a good English level and some who had a lower level, I
show them some situations they can record and they chose one, the
conversations were easy.
2. - While listening: I gave to the students the questions they will answer in
both activities, I checked the vocabulary and asked for doubts about the
vocabulary, some students asked how many times does the activities will
be presented and I answered that it will be three if they need it more I will
play it.
The first one was the play role, students were laughing, because their
classmates were acting very well, some of them committed mistakes but
they did not care and continue, the other students were the public and they
understood the situation perfectly, we did not need to explain the situation
41
in Spanish neither made more gestures, the students performed very well,
they had their stuff for making better the representation, in case of the
listening was really easier for them answer the activity, I never told them
that the listening were made for their own classmates till the end, they were
surprised and they do not believed me, at the first time it seemed to be
American speakers because I modify the speed,
did these
42
Act is not as easy as it sounds, but mixed with a good story can be helpful for
developing the listening skill, I believe that if you know how to listen, school and
life, will be easier to handle, so act is a good listening activity and at the same time
is very helpful to develop the imagination and physical coordination, It is of great
help to the shy child since he is acting together with the other children and
therefore is not in evidence himself. It is also a good moment for observing the
students, their actions and reactions to the story!
Listening skills are learned, they should not however be learned haphazardly,
there should be a planned program to increase listening skill abilities, and it should
be a significant part of elementary education, listening is basic for communicating,
learning, thinking and acquiring awareness of the world around you.
In the same way listening needs to be taught, requires participation, because
is more than just hearing, this also requires an active effort of the student, because
we have to remember and process
43
English in their daily life, but with some common stories they will associate the
previous knowledge with the new one.
Assessment evidence: complete some activities
Application: 27/April/2015
Time: 35 minutes.
Unity: 1
Social practice: read and understand classic tales.
Process: The students were contextualized in some short stories they know from
their life as; the ugly duckling, Cinderella, jack and the beanstalk, and the king
Arthur, the pictures were a resource used for make them relate the stories, I gave
them the rules as do not run, push or scream, I divided on teams, the titular
professor helped me to supervise them, they have to listen carefully what I said
and act, in front of the, there were a bag with some realia they could use for act, I
started telling the story while the students act out the different actions that appear
in it. There are no further instructions given. It is left to the students to listen
carefully and to imagine how and to do it.
e.g:
The Story:
"Here is the giant's house. You go inside. Climb up the tall steps. Reach way up to
the doorknob stand on tiptoes. Turn the doorknob with both hands. There, you are
inside! Walk down the long hall. I did this with the three different stories and at the
end I students answer an activity related, we checked and we correct the mistakes.
Stages:
44
4. - Suggestion: it will be great have more time and more space to realize this
activity, the time was over us, because the students had a meeting with the
psychologist from La Salle so, and time is valuable for the success of the
activity.
CHAPTER III
(General Conclusions)
45
Working with A secondary school students was not an easy job the students
are in the adolescence they change their mind most of the times in the class,
sometimes they want to work and others they do not.
Lo primero que nos llama la atencin de los adolescentes es su forma
de actuar. Es cierto que tambin nos sorprende de pronto su
inteligencia, su ternura, y su filoso sentido del humor. Pero es casi un
lugar comn decir que cuando no logramos entenderlos, nos referimos
a que no logramos entender lo que hacen. No se preocupen tampoco
ellos pueden entender lo que hacen. VALENCIA (1996) pp. 41
with excellence, even I do not have the necessary time and I changed minds and
now some of them are now interested in the English. The problem with the group is
that they are a lot and is difficult to pay attention to all of them, the necessities are
a lot and I cannot divide myself, the titular professor helped me in some cases to
realize the activities but would be great she gave more time for realize the
activities.
The activities were supported by the book and the program the students
have to cover, this for do not interrupt and have a sequence in the contents.
After applying all the activities with the students of first grade group c, I
could answer the questions I considered in the first chapter.
In the case of how many activities can help students develop other skills in a
class? One or two activities are good for the students, and I found three reasons;
the first one is because it is difficult for them understand accents because they do
not have the custom of doing it, their teachers do not speak in English all the
classes, the second one is because is hard for them, because they have to pay
attention in details and they got tired and the third is, because the time flies and we
have to do other activities as well.
The listening made for students were really helpful, because this gave them
confidence for doing the things and record it with fluency, this happens too in the
case of the play roles they try to made accents and speak faster and when we
played the listening made them for them were easier understand what their
partners said, I recordered three times and I just change the speed for making
equal the American accent they heard from movies and music, this work on well,
because students understand even with different speed,
The phonetic symbols were really helpful for the students because nobody taught
this because is hard and nobody gave them the importance to this need, students
pronounce better and for consequence when I recorded and I made the play
roles they remember some words and said
-oh es as ya me acorde.
So this helps them for having better pronunciation and also for having a better
listening, in the classes I asked for the pronunciation of some words and they
pronounced very well so, this activity really helped them.
In the case of which activities can we apply for helping students to develop
listening skill the best ones are the movies and the songs, and listen stories,
everybody needs to have fun in some moments in the classes and take out the
stress too, with the movies they are learning meanwhile they are having fun, the
problem was that the time was not enough in some cases, in all the activities I
tried to create an environment with realia.
Firstly, movies can be considered as authentic material and they provide the
learners with genuine input (Mishan 2004: 216). The genuine input helps the
pupils to understand that there is a connection between the more traditional
classroom teaching and the real world and that the foreign language is used
in real everyday situations outside the classroom (Gebhard 1996: 89-109).
Moreover, as Krashen (1985: 4) points out, a natural input helps the learners
to acquire language without necessarily even noticing that they are hearing or
reading a foreign language. Secondly, it has been studied that films enhance
English language skill development since they bring variety, reality,
authenticity and flexibility into the EFL classroom and before anything,
diversify the curriculum (Stoller 1988: 1).
Moreover Teaching with movies, songs, play roles, reading a loud help to
develop listening skill, because they learned vocabulary, accents, pronunciation
and the activities made them feel
that the
professors work on this ability that in their own words was one of the hardest for
them.
48
Finally there were six activities the most successful were lets rock and guess
the dialogue, because they have fun meanwhile they were listening in case of the
others they felt stressed at the first moment.
When I met the first group grade c they do not like English either music, and
at the end with the activities that I realized they change their mind, they made a big
effort all the times the activities were applied.
The activities realized made that students learned words, expressions and
this help them to contextualize the English and found it useful for their lives and for
the next classes, students start with puzzles pieces as grammar rules, conjugation
verbs, vocabulary lists, and when they heard the songs, the videos and the play
roles they use the pieces for learning and understanding.
In the case of the songs and videos it is important look up for ones who
could be interesting for the students and familiar, in the case of songs it is best find
out songs that tell a story for making students feel comfortable, confident and they
can identify themselves with the lyrics.
I could see that all the activities can be successful, but you need to make
a habit on the students, they have to be familiarized with the English content, and
the time is an important thing we cannot forget, that is way is important look up for
activities for developing the listening.
This activity was successful for the students; they got confidence for talking,
when they knew the chart they were able to speak without felling afraid of commit
mistakes at the first time was really hard for them understand them and pronounce
it, we were practicing in all the class 5 or 6 minutes and they at the end do not
need my help.
In the case of the students I learned a lot, students taught me a lot, one
important thing is the environment which help us to develop the activities, Putman
(1979) said that the keys for having an effective classroom lie in creating an
49
environment and use some activities and methods for making effective the
learning.
I use the Scaffolding theory of Vigotsky for provide the students of
appropriate support that includes images and words that can be seen as well as
heard.
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dictonomus
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ANNEX
Annex 1. Results of the diagnostic.
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