Lesson Plan 4: listening, pronunciation and vocabulary practice

This lesson requires the use of the computer lab.

Your needs

Let us imagine the following classroom situation:

You are looking for supplementary listening material in the topic of nature and the environment. You want your students to improve their listening skills. You also want your students to improve their vocabulary in this topic area. You have a mixed ability class.

Preparation

Step One

Find a suitable article in the magazine archive. In this case, we have chosen the article on polar bears from Issue 6, 2003.(To view a simple text version of the article, click here.)

1 Read through the text at each level and identify a few key vocabulary areas that you want to focus on. Type or write three lists, one for each level, as follows:

Level 1: hunter, Arctic, how to say the temperature and the use of "minus", male - female, to weigh
Level 2: the wild, hunter, seal, reindeer, ice floe, how to say the temperature and the use of "minus", cub
Level 3: to reckon, the wild, tough, hunter, skilful, to feed, berry, how to say the temperature and the use of "minus", to mate, cub, tiny

Note that some of the words are the same for each leve, as we would expect. Print and photocopy the lists for use later. (See In the Classroom, below.)

2 Cut and paste the texts at each level into a Word document. Remove a number of words and or expressions and replace them with numbered gaps so as to produce a cloze test. Photocopy the three cloze tests for use later.(See Follow up, below.)

In the classroom

Step One: pre-listening

Group the students according to ability as far as that is possible. Give out the word lists that you previously prepared to the appropriate group. Ask students to work together within their group to clarify the meaning of the words on their list. Move around the class offering help where necessary. Make sure that the students have understood all the words and expressions. Clarify in particular the way the temperature is said and written in English.

Step Two: Listening

Students now listen to the recording at the appropriate level without viewing the text. They should also answer the comprehension questions.

Move around the class and monitor how the students are managing with the comprehension questions. Allow them to listen as many times as they want.

Step Three: Follow up

1) Listening for detail
Give students the appropriate cloze exercize that you previously prepared. Now ask students to listen to the recording again and fill in the gaps in their text as they do so. All students to listen as many times as they need. When they are ready, allow them to view the text so that they can correct their own answers. Move around the class and monitor their performance.

Students at levels 1 and 2 may like to try listening at a higher level to see how well they mananage.

2) Understanding spoken English
As a way of helping students understand spoken English, get them to listen to the recording while silently reading the text. After they have done this a few times, they may like to listen again and read aloud with the speaker.