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Active Listening / Using youtube in class

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Why is active listening important?

teacherstudent

With your partners, please discuss:

1. In class, do you ever feel like you’re talking to a brick wall? Why?

2. Do you think students always realise how they come across to you and other students (uninterested/ angry etc.)?

3. Do you think your students generally seem very natural in conversations, or like language students?

4. Have you ever tried to overcome these issues in class? How did you do it? Did it work?

Additional idea from the workshop! Have a look at the active listening materials in Classroom Dynamics (now saved in this workshop folder as well).

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What is active listening?

• It is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding. It focuses the attention on the speaker.

• It includes a range of verbal and non-verbal responses which can vary from culture to culture.

• Main uses:– to clarify the speaker’s meaning and feelings– to show emotional reactions, such as support, enthusiasm, or

sympathy– to encourage the speaker to feel comfortable opening up– to avoid or reduce conflict and misunderstanding

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What kind of activities can practice it?

Speaking

Listening

Cultural AwarenessVocab.

Pron.

•To participate in conversations in a more fluent way

•To check they really understand their partners’ meaning and feelings

•To understand how they come across to native English speakers (interested, polite etc.)

•To learn and practice fluency phrases for

conversations

•To recognise and practice showing emotion through

intonation

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Classroom Activities

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Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman / Secret A##holeAims:• to raise students’ awareness of how listening is an important sub-skill of speaking• to model some good and (mostly) bad examples of active listening• to provide an opportunity to practise recognising and doing active listening, as well as

practise of fluency speaking

Method:• While watching the clip, students answer the following:

– Are both people interested / participating in the conversation? How do you know?• In groups, students make a list of ways we show we are listening and letting the other

person know we are interested as well as a list of how we don’t. (We’ve supplied a handout, but you certainly don’t need to prepare one in advance.)

• Practice time: Secret A##hole. In groups, students have 3-4 minutes to discuss a given topic (you can write generic topics, such as ‘your weekend’ on the WB). Before speaking, students pick a card from the middle. One student gets the , meaning s/he should not show interest; the others with the must practise active listening. After time is up, the group decides who had the card.

Additional idea from the workshop! You can also try playing the video first without sound, so students really only concentrate on body language and facial expressions.

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Ultimate Dog Tease Video

Aim:• to model a good example of active listening, albeit by a dog• to give students more tools for active listening

Method:• Show video and ask students to answer:

– How does the dog feel and how do you know?• Help guide students’ discovery of typical active listening skills by using a checklist• Practice time! You can use Secret A##hole or …

Additional idea from the workshop! You can also try using the WALL-E idea of getting students to write more dialogue on top of what the dog is really saying.

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3-2-1Aims:• to practise fluency speaking in the context of telling a story• to practise active listening skills, such as showing interest, responding emotionally and asking

for clarification

Method:• Ask students to stand in 2 concentric circles facing each other (like a donut, mmm…)• Outer-circle students will tell the same story three times, but within shortening time limits• Inner-circle students will actively listen and ask 1 question after each story to clarify meaning

– Round 1, 3 minutes• Ask inner-circle students to shift one place to hear a new story

– Round 2, 2 minutes • Ask inner-circle students to shift one place to hear a new story

– Round 3, 1 minute

• Outer-circle students can now decide which students were better at active listening and why

Increased challenge:• Give outer-circle students a type of story to tell, such as sad, happy, surprising. Arrange outer-circle so that the

listeners will have to respond differently to each story they hear.

Additional idea from the workshop! You can also try 1-2-3 so students incorporate ideas from the questions into their stories and expand as they go.

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Wall-E clip –intonation of responses 21:05-22:33

Aims:• to raise students’ awareness of non-verbal communication, including the

intonation and language of conversations and active listening• to provide an opportunity to translate non-verbal communication into words,

practise conversational skills such as intonation and body language

Method:• 1st viewing: raising awareness

Students watch a short clip from WALL-E to answer the following questions:– What methods do Wall-e and Eve use to show their interest in each other?– What does Eve do to avoid a question?

• 2nd viewing: translating non-verbal into verbal– After getting feedback with the class, ask students to watch a second time and think

about what the robots are saying to each other. With a partner, students write what they think the dialogue really is in English.

• 3rd viewing: practising intonation and body language– Watch the clip again and this time students use their dialogue over Eve and Wall-e,

remembering to use intonation and body language.

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Incorporating active listening into the book

• How would you incorporate the previous activities, or other ideas you have, into this lesson from the book?

Remember all the ways you can practise active listening

(see slide #4)!

Suggestions from the workshop! Maybe start with the Joaquin Phoenix video to show why it’s important and then use the Dog video for the Pron./Intonation practice. Also, 3-2-1 for exercise #3!

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Further thoughts…Links for videos in this workshop:• Joaquin Phoenix interview: http://www.tubechop.com/watch/167535• Ultimate Dog Tease video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw• WALL-E clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CghIyKf2sfE

Other useful sites for finding and using video clips:• Check out the ‘What happens next?’ video lesson on http://lessonstream.org• More ESL lesson ideas using youtube videos: http://warmupsfollowups.blogspot.com/

FAQ• How can I find a clip on youtube? Try searching for specific language you want in the film

rather than broad categories; when searching for a grammar point, try searching for its normal context (i.e. modals of possibility – maybe search for ‘bank robbery’)

• How can I show just one part of a long youtube clip? You can ‘crop’ a long clip for just the part you want using http://www.tubechop.com/. Ask us if you have questions!

• How can I save all my websites to use easily while in class? Try setting up your own page on http://todaysmeet.com.

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