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Phonological Processing
Auditory Processing
Language Processing

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Intro 1.1 - Introduction and Listening

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Powtoon.com | See What I Created with Powtoon - EDF3034 Introduction and Speaking

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Powtoon gives you everything you need to easily make professional videos and presentations that your clients, colleagues, and friends will love! No design or tech skills are necessary - it's free, easy, and awesome!

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Intro 1.2- Speaking

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Powtoon.com | See What I Created with Powtoon - EDF 3034 Speaking

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Powtoon gives you everything you need to easily make professional videos and presentations that your clients, colleagues, and friends will love! No design or tech skills are necessary - it's free, easy, and awesome!

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This video entails numerous rhyme songs for young children to sing along while learning more vocabularies, phrases, phonemes and rhythm of the language. Children develop a sense of the sound structure of language by saying rhymes, singing, and reciting fingerplays (Jenkins & Bowen, 1994). Rhyming songs play an important part in children’s lives because music act as a mean of communication that young children use intuitively (Carlow, 2008). McMullen and Saffran (2004) hypothesised that music and literacy are supported by similar mechanisms of learning and memory, and mutually benefit one another.

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Nursery Rhyme Street - Kids Songs and Rhymes

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Action Songs for Kids | Nursery Rhymes Collection with Actions

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Strategies for listening skills in classroom

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Strategies for listening skills in classroom

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This site provides several strategies for pre-service educators to enhance student’s listening skills in classroom and the strategies are social-political. Classroom talk is instrumental for teaching and for learning. At its most influential, it has the power to improve both the teachers’ ability to teach responsively and the students’ ability to use language more flexibly, productively and purposefully in their learning (Edwards-Groves, 2003). Pre-service teacher can learn to engage students in productive and substantive focused-learning through the building of a ‘supportive’ social environment and a culture of learning, talking and listening for learning (Anderson et al., 2011).

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Listening activities: 7 important ideas for teaching listening skills in the classroom, such as whole body listening, class games, and daily practice ideas.
As teachers, we always hope that our students are listening carefully to our lessons and assignment instructions. Unfortunately, we find that sometimes they aren't paying close attention to what we're saying and this can affect their learning. This becomes a problem when they miss key information during instruction. It's a good idea to take some time to explicitly teach listening skills so that students retain more of the information we are giving them.

How do we do that? Well, in this post I'm going to share with you 7 strategies for teaching listening skills in the classroom.

These 7 actionable ways to teach listening skills in the classroom will be just the ideas that you need. Your students will gain knowledge of what it looks like and feels like to be an active listener, engaged and responsive to a speaker, and able to complete a task by following directions. By taking the time to practice good listening skills with your students, I'm sure you will find your job just a little bit easier.

7 Listening Activities that Promote Attentiveness in the Classroom

1. Model Good Listening Strategies

In front of the classroom, play a short game of Simon Says with one child volunteering to be "Simon" and you are the game player. Model good listening strategies such as looking the speaker in the eye, repeating the directions to yourself (aloud so they can hear you), not starting until you've heard all the instructions (say aloud, "Ok, he's finished giving me the instructions so now I may begin"), and speak aloud what you're going to do as if you were picturing it in your mind before doing it. After "Simon" gives you a few short instructions, ask the class to tell you what they witnessed you did well. Write their answers in a thinking map on the board.

Classroom meetings are another great opportunity to model and practice listening skills. The class sits together in the circle and takes turns sharing their thoughts and feelings on the topic being discussed. Children are encouraged to look at the speaker and listen to what they say.

2. Partner Conversations

Pair children up and give them a general discussion topic. Each child takes turns being the speaker or the listener. When the speaker is finished speaking, have the listener repeat one of the speaker's main points, and offer them a compliment. Having "Think, Pair, Shares" during lessons and discussions is a great way to practice receiving and sharing what is heard.

3. Teach "Whole Body Listening"

A much-used concept in the early primary grades is "whole body listening." In whole body listening, a student practices keeping particular key parts of their body focused on the speaker. Their eyes are watching, ears are listening, brain is focused on the speaker's information, mouth is closed, shoulders are squared toward the speaker, heart is caring about the message, hands are folded or in lap, feet are still on the floor.

In other words, they are actively "listening" with their entire bodies. Teach your whole class this concept and practice it as a group, before expecting them to put it into practice. I use this book, Whole Body Listening Larry at School by Elizabeth Sautter, to teach this concept. More go-to books for reinforcing listening skills are Listen, Buddy, Listen and Learn, and My Mouth is a Volcano.

You can grab a fantastic FREE whole body listening pack from Erica Bohrer to help teach your students this important skill.

4. Daily Listening Activities

One way to see a marked improvement in your students' listening skills is to give them short, daily skills practice. Any daily practice should be fun, and practical. In this case, the skills should include encouraging kids to focus on oral instructions, visualizing the tasks given, and completing them accurately. Give them short instructions verbally for completing a task, or two or three tasks in succession (depending on their age/cognitive development), and have them practice listening and completing the tasks without repeating the instructions.

One idea for this activity is to have them pull out a blank sheet of paper and give them instructions. For example, "Draw a large brown oval in the center of your paper. Add an orange letter V in the center. Use a black crayon to draw two large circles, side by side, above the V" (and they end up with a basic sketch of an owl on their paper that they can finish drawing details and color on their own). Want some pre-made activities for daily practice such as this? Try my HUGE assortment of Listening Mats, perfect for any time of the year.

5. The Storytelling Game

In this game, you start a story with a beginning phrase, and then each child in the classroom adds one word to the story in turn. Students must be active participants and follow the story closely so that when their time comes to add a word, the story will make sense. Another way to practice this is by playing a traditional game of Telephone where a message is passed around the room to see if it stays the same.

6. Storytelling Pods

Sort children into groups of three. In these "pods," they are to play the storytelling game, only in successive story events rather than one-word. For example, the first student starts with an event such as "The rabbit found a carrot in the garden." Then the second student adds an event that happens afterward in the story, such as "The carrot was too big to carry." The third student adds, "So the rabbit put it in a wagon to pull it to his burrow." After time is given for the pods to come up with their three-event stories, instruct the students to move to a new pod. In those groups, they must retell their stories with perfect accuracy to their new pod members.

7. 20 Questions

In this classic game, lots of listening skills are practiced without even explicitly calling it a "lesson in listening skills". Play this game any time you feel you need subject review, and practicing listening skills at the same time! For instance, tell the class you are an item that starts with a certain letter, a fictional character, or a Science object you've recently learned about. Have them ask you 20 yes/no questions to try to figure out what you are.

Download the FREE printable Listening Mats today by clicking the image below! These activities will help teach kids focus on oral instructions, visualize the tasks given, and complete tasks accurately.

Social Emotional Development

Looking for more lessons and activities to help teach listening and social emotional skills? Check out the mind+heart SEL curriculum!

Hopefully, you've found one or two ideas for teaching listening activities for kids that will work in your own classroom. Have you tried any of these? Let us know what worked, or what didn't! Got any other ideas? Please share!

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you would like more tips and ideas from me, be sure to follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook to stay connected with the latest news and freebies!
Social Skills Games Teaching Responsibility Teaching Respect
PIN

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Listening Activities to Get Your Students Back into an Attentive Habit

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This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View disclosure policy HERE . Listening activities: 7 important ideas for teaching listening skills in the classroom, such as whole body listening, class games, and daily practice ideas. As teachers, we always hope that our students are listening carefully to our lessons and assignment instructions.

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This site offers some strategic listening games that parents can play with children at home and this relates to socio-cultural learning theory where children are supported by a more capable ‘player’ through play with their parents (Vygotsky, 1967). Parental activity strongly benefits children for language development which enhances comprehension, expression language skills, listening and speaking skills (Mwangi, 2018). Although parental involvement has the greatest effect in the early years, its importance to children’s educational and literacy outcomes continues into the teenage and even adult years (Bergen, Zuijen, Bishop & Jong, 2017).

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Need some fun listening activities for kids, to use at home or in class?

Listening is one of the most important skills you can teach your child. Although it is often overlooked, it is actually easy to develop with simple games and activities.

Here is a brief explanation of the importance of this skill, followed by 17 simple listening activities and games.

Why Listening Skills Are Important

Listening skills will affect your child's:

ability to develop speech and language skills

ability to read (auditory perception is vital for reading)

ability to follow verbal instructions at school

ability to socialize and communicate effectively

ability to cope in general at home and at school

In modern times, children may be exposed to large periods of screen time as well as many types of stimuli that can be overwhelming. They also tend to have less free time to play.

This affects their concentration span and their overall performance, especially their ability to read, which involves hearing, distinguishing and blending sounds.

The good news is that by paying attention to this skill at home for just 5 to 10 minutes a day, you can make a massive difference to your child's overall listening ability and help them cope better at school.

Listening is an important part of overall cognitive development.

The best time to start doing these activities is as early as possible (it starts with a baby listening to sounds and music) and right through the preschool and primary/elementary years.

17 Listening Activities and Games for Kids

Here are some games, tips and activities to try at home (they're great for school too). You don't need anything except a few minutes of your time.

You can find these and many more listening activities in the Learning Through Play Activity Pack, available in the free downloads at the end of this post.

Watch the video below for a summary or read on for the list of listening ideas.

I have used these kinds of activities and played all these games in the classroom and the children thoroughly enjoyed them.

Many of them can also be played with children for years after preschool as they will still build vital listening and memory skills.

The Telephone Game can be played around the dinner table or anytime when at least 3 members of your family are present.

Start with single words if your child is very young and slowly move up to phrases, then entire sentences as they become more competent at listening.

Make up a word or sentence and whisper it into your child's ear, who must whisper it to the next family member, who continues passing the message around the table. The last person to hear the message says it out loud.

This usually ends in laughter as the phrases often change and the message is broken. In time, your child will be able to listen to detail better and convey accurate messages.

Vary the sentences by using alliterations (e.g. my tiny teddy is talking) and rhyming sentences (e.g. do you have a blue shoe?).

Also, change the order of who-whispers-to-who and allow your child to make up messages as well.

The classic Simon Says game is excellent for making your child pay attention and listen to instructions.

Call out instructions by saying, for example, "Simon Says put your hands on your shoulders." When you give an example that doesn't begin with "Simon Says," such as "Jump three times," your child must not do it.

This means that for each instruction, your child must listen for two details:

whether or not they must follow the order

what they need to do

A variation of this game is Do This, Do That.

Standing in front of your child, perform certain actions by saying either "do this" or "do that." For example, you could tap your head, clap your hands or do a jump.

When you say "do this" your child must do the action, but when you say "do that" they must stand still.

Children love this game and often giggle their way through it. It takes a lot of concentration to not move and first listen to whether they should perform the action or not.

Here are some fun Simon Says ideas.

The Musical Statues game is another favourite that kids love.

All you need is some music and a space to dance. Play the music and stop it every now and again. You and your child must both freeze as soon as the music stops.

You will see the difference over time as your child refines their listening skills. Initially, it may take a while for your child to realize the music has paused and to stop dancing.

4. I Went to the Zoo and I Saw a...

This game is more advanced than the previous ones and involves listening as well as memorizing.

Choosing any animal names, start the game by saying "I went to the zoo and I saw a monkey."

Your child then responds with "I went to the zoo and I saw a monkey and a lion."

You respond with "I went to the zoo and I saw a monkey, a lion and a tortoise."

For each turn, repeat the animals that have already been listed, in sequence, then add a new one. You may not repeat an animal.

At first, this may be tricky, but with time you will be amazed at how many animals your child can remember.

This game is actually easier with more people because it is easier to associate words with different people than 10 words from the same person. So be sure to get the siblings, parents and grandparents involved.

After practising this a few times, my 6-year-olds were often able to remember all the words from an entire class of 20 to 25 children.

This game can be varied with any list e.g. I went to the shop and I bought a..." or "In my fruit salad there is a..."

5. Which One is the Odd One Out?

Which one is the odd one out is a category game that develops listening for a particular piece of information.

Say a string of words to your child that are part of a particular theme or category. Insert one word into the set that does not belong and ask your child to identify the word that doesn't belong.

Example:
apple, banana, leopard, pear and apricot.
The word leopard is an animal but the rest of the words are types of fruits.

Start off with an easy example like this and later make the categories less obvious or make the odd word of a slightly different category (here's a list of categories).

For example, say a list of vegetables and insert one fruit, or say a list of negative emotions and add in a positive emotion.

This is a game of listening to everyday sounds and recognizing what they are.

Blindfold your child or ask them to turn around. Walk around the room and make noises with various everyday items. Ask your child what they are.

This can be done in any room - a bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, living room or even outdoors. Make sounds such as:

open the refrigerator door

switch on the blender

lift and close the swing dustbin

take an ice cube out of the tray

switch on the tap

peel a banana

boil the kettle

This game is great not only for developing listening skills but also for teaching mindfulness and avoiding spending all day listening to the jumble of thoughts in one's head. Adults should do it too.

Take your child for a walk in the garden, down the road or to the park. There are usually enough sounds in your garden!

Tell each other all the sounds you hear - leaves rustling, your dog barking, a car on the motorway, a bird chirping, a child yelling, a siren, etc.

8. How Many Things Did You Hear

This is a variation of the previous game and involves listening as well as memorizing.

Ask your child to close their eyes and put a timer on your phone for 30 seconds. Ask him to listen carefully and try to remember all the things he heard - in order if possible.

List all the sounds that were heard and count how many different sounds there were. With time, increase from 30 seconds to a minute of focused listening.

Listen to audiobook CDs or stories on Youtube, without looking at the screen. Ask your child about the story after she has heard it.

This also works with bedtime stories. Ask your child to close her eyes and listen to you reading the story without showing the pictures. Ask her to think about how she will draw the story for you in the morning.

At the end of the post, there is a set of downloadable printables that includes some funny stories to read to your kids.

10. Give Multiple Instructions

Give your child instructions around the house or while cooking together. Make them clear. Start with one instruction. Please fetch the book next to my bed.

Ask your child to repeat the instruction back to you, then follow it.

Increase it to two instructions. Please fetch the book next to my bed. Open it and take out the recipe cut-out from the front cover.

Again, ask your child to repeat both and then follow them.

Increase this over time, until you can give 5 instructions at once. Multiple instructions are frequently given in the classroom, making this a valuable exercise.

Here are some fun 2-step directions for preschoolers.

11. Ask Questions During Story Time

While reading to your child, ask different types of questions to develop their higher-order thinking skills.

Examples are questions that require prediction, problem solving, understanding cause and effect, discussing character traits, personal opinions, etc.

12. Draw a Picture With Instructions

Adapt the following exercise to your child's level.

Give your child a piece of paper and coloured crayons/pencils. Ask him to follow your instructions carefully.

This is an enlightening exercise that often clearly shows if listening skills are in place or require some sharpening.

Preschoolers should get very simple instructions and only one at a time initially. Incorporate questions with the words left and right.

Feel free to use this example, simplify it for a younger child or make up your own.

Turn your page to landscape.

Write your name in the top left-hand corner.

Draw a sun in the top right-hand corner and draw three clouds at the top of your page, in between the date and sun (multiple instructions in one).

Draw a tree in the bottom left-hand corner of the page with 4 apples on it.

In the middle of the page, draw an airplane with 5 windows. Draw a big red stripe on the airplane.

Draw 3 flying birds on the right-hand side of the airplane.

Draw some grass on the ground and 3 flowers.

Here are a few more 'following directions' drawing activity ideas, from easy to challenging.

13. Practise Auditory Analysis and Synthesis

Practise breaking up words by listening to their sounds and substituting letters. This is an excellent activity to help with phonics and reading.

The following activities increase in difficulty:

Repeat each word after me: say mat, say cat, say rat, etc. (rhyming sets)

Repeat two words together, then three, etc: say mat, fat, cat

Take away one word in compound words: Say pancake, now say it again without pan

These exercises can increase in difficulty for older children:

There are many other ways to break up sounds but these are a few ideas to start with.

When children are using their bodies to move, they are concentrating better, learning more and developing better listening skills.

A great listening activity for preschoolers is to tell them an action rhyme where they follow the instructions such as the one below.

Hands on Shoulders
Hands on shoulders,

hands on knees.

Hands behind you,

if you please;

Touch your shoulders,

now your nose,

Now your hair and now your toes;

Hands up high in the air,

Down at your sides, and touch your hair;

Hands up high as before,

Now clap your hands, one-two-three-four!

Here are some more fun action songs with lyrics.

15. Make Up an Impromptu Story

At bedtime, make up a nonsense story together by taking turns adding one line and seeing where the story goes.

Mom: Once upon a time there was a little girl.

Child: She was fighting with her brother.

Mom: Suddenly they heard a big noise and went to the window...

16. Model Good Listening

It goes without saying...If you want your children to be good listeners, you need to model that behaviour.

Listen to them when they talk to you. Validate what they are saying. Listen to your family members.

17. Praise Good Listening

And finally...

Praise your child when they listen well by using specific language.

Try not to default to ' what a good boy'. Rather make statements such as:
Great job listening carefully to all the instructions. I can see from your picture that you were concentrating on my instructions. Well done for making the effort to concentrate today.

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Would you like to improve your child's listening skills? Try these simple listening games and activities for kids that will take only 5 or 10 minutes a day!

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This site offers ways of how teachers can enhance children’s speaking and listening skills at different levels. It signifies the importance of classroom activity that promotes active participation of children communicate and listen in class. This relates to social learning opportunity where teacher represents the more knowledgeable other models the language of the field and inducts students into the language practices of the subject discipline (Vygotsky, 1978).  Teacher-child conversations with open-ended and cognitively challenging questions would help children to develop perquisite oral language skills that are beneficial for children to become excellent readers in the future ((Dickinson and Porche 2011).

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There is no reading gene that is passed from one generation to the next. Each and every brain must be taught to read anew. Unlike hair or eye color, which are coded in DNA, reading is a complex, rule-based system that must be imposed on biological structures that were designed or evolved for other reasons (Wolf, 2007).

Although most children are born with the right structures, these structures don't inherently know how to read. They are hardwired to speak and listen; in other words, we were born to talk (Hulit, Howard, & Fahey, 2010). Reading and writing are optional accessories that are bolted onto a speaking and listening brain.

Listening and reading comprehension

Decades of research, not to mention personal experiences, confirm that listening comprehension outpaces reading comprehension from early childhood through at least middle school. Based on their review of research, Stricht and James (1984) analyzed the gap between listening and reading comprehension by age of learner (see Figure 1). What is obvious from this figure is the fact that access to complex ideas, for many years of the learner's life, requires oral rather than written input.

Simply stated, children can listen to and talk about much more complex ideas than they can read (and probably write) about. In addition to the research, anyone who has ever read a bedtime story to a preschooler knows that listening comprehension is more sophisticated than reading comprehension. The proof comes from nights when you're tired and you skip a page while reading a bedtime story. That 3-, 4-, or 5-year-old's eyes pop open. You are accused of skipping some of the story, and the punishment is that now you must start over. Yes, in fact, the child is listening, understanding, and comparing the text with his or her expectations.

What is less obvious from personal experience is the persistence of this gap. According to Stricht and James (1984), the gap extends well into middle school. This gap has implications for high-quality instruction across the learner's elementary and middle school experience, and oral language development should not be considered solely the role and responsibility of early childhood educators.

Figure 1. Listening and Reading Comprehension by Age (Stricht & James,1984)

Speaking and listening and text complexity

In this time of great interest of increasing text complexity, the data represented in Figure 1 raised several question for us. Is it possible that one way to ensure that students read at increasingly sophisticated levels is to focus on increasing students' listening comprehension? In other words, if we pushed listening comprehension higher than identified in the previous research, would reading comprehension follow? If we did so, would it take longer to close the gap, or would the gap size remain, although at a higher level?

If we want to ensure that students read increasingly complex informational texts, it seems logical that students should be talking during their content area learning (e.g., Nystrand & Gamoran, 1991). Although there is significant attention to the Common Core reading and writing standards, we believe that teachers should also attend to the increased demands of the Speaking and Listening domain, especially Anchor Standard 1, which states that students should

Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively. (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010, p. 22)

There is a lot to focus on in this standard. First, students should come prepared for the discussion and not simply be expected to work collaboratively with no preparation. Second, students are expected to interact effectively with a wide range of people, not just their friends and others they choose to interact with. Third, students are expected to build on each other's ideas, maintaining the conversation and continually building on the ideas of others in the discussion. And finally, they need to be able to do all of this while they express their ideas clearly and persuasively.

Anchor Standard 1 in the Speaking and Listening domain of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represents increased expectations for students, especially students in the primary grades. Figure 2 contains grade-level expectations for this standard. We have bolded words and phrases that did not appear in the previous grade to highlight the instructional components of each grade. For example, students in third grade are expected to "stay on topic," which is not an expectation in second grade. Analyzing the differences by grade level, known as vertical alignment, is critical if teachers are going to develop teaching points aligned with the CCSS. In addition, teachers need to ensure that students have opportunities to engage in speaking and listening regularly, which may require changes to the instructional environment.

Figure 2. CCR Speaking & Listening Anchor Standard 1

8th Grade Students

SL.8.1
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

Kindergarten Students
SL.K.1
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

SL.K.1A
Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).

SL.K.1B
Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

Instructional ideas for speaking and listening

There are a number of ideas for ensuring that students across the grade span and in different content areas are able to practice their speaking and listening skills. Most importantly, teachers need to dedicate time every day for students to engage in collaborative conversations in which they use academic language with their peers. In fact, we recommend that about 50% of the instructional minutes devoted to content area learning be used for collaborative conversations with peers. This is based on the success that the students in Chula Vista, California, had when their teachers increased the amount of student-to-student interaction using academic language (Frey, Fisher, & Nelson, 2013). In addition to providing students an opportunity to expand their understanding of the content as they engage in peer-mediated instruction (e.g., Sperry, Neitzel, & Engelhardt-Wells, 2010), it provides teachers an excellent opportunity to work with small groups of students who need additional support to achieve their goals.

Some evidence-based speaking and listening instructional routines have been useful for students during content area instruction in the past:

Technology offers teachers new ways to engage students in speaking and listening tasks. Even very young children are learning to follow oral directions while using tablets. Some enhancing speaking and listening tasks can be used in elementary content area instruction:

Listening Gallery Walk in which students create a visual image, record themselves talking about the image, and then code it with a symbol that will allow others to access the digital file. One way to do this is with QR codes that can be printed and included in the image itself. Alternatively, students can use the Aurasma app. This is an augmented-reality application that allows users to create and post video to enhance a viewing experience. For example, some museums use Aurasma for their patrons to view additional content after pointing a smartphone or tablet at a display. In terms of classroom application, students can create their own videos and pair them with displayed work. For example, during their investigation of artists, students in Ms. Bledsoe's third-grade class narrated their original artwork that had been inspired by a specific artist. When a tablet enabled with Aurasma was pointed at one of the art pieces, the video that accompanied the art played. When students' parents visited for open house, they were able to see their children talking about their work and to learn more about the other students in the class.

Photo narratives in which students collect images and then record a narrative to accompany the images. For example, the first graders in Anthony Munoz's classroom planted seeds. Each day, they took a picture of the container in which their seed was planted. Mr. Munoz read aloud the text From Seed to Plant (Gibbons, 1993) several times as the plants grew. Mr. Munoz helped his students create a time lapse video using Quicktime, and the students recorded their narrative about the growth of the plant that accompanied the video.

Digital storytelling to create original narrative and informational pieces. The Storybird app provides access to thousands of illustrations and photographs to illustrate original pieces of writing. These are best when completed collaboratively in order to create lots of opportunities for students to engage in meaningful discussion with one another. The Voicethread website offers two-way communication between writers and readers. Like Storybird, students create a digital story using the Voicethread tools and their own illustrations. In addition, they dictate the text for each page. Subsequent listeners can either listen to the writer's own voice or read the dictated script. Importantly, readers can then pose questions and offer connections that are in turn viewed by other readers.

As part of their social studies curriculum, Davinia Thompson's second-grade students used Voicethread to develop a class digital book on people who make a difference in their community. Ms. Thompson compiled each student's contributions and uploaded them to the Voicethread website. Later in the centers, students viewed the class book and recorded their comments and questions. Ms. Thompson then had the entire class view the completed digital story, with their questions included, so the class could continue the conversation about the topic.

Talking in class

Regardless of the specific approach that a teacher takes, students simply must talk in class. We have to change the climate, expectations, and accountability for student-to-student interaction in classrooms everywhere. A day should not go by in which students silently try to learn content. Instead, there should be a hum of learning, with many voices engaged in discussions about the topics under investigation. Only then will we fully realize the literacy achievements of our students orally, digitally, and in print.

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Speaking and Listening in Content Area Learning

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There is no reading gene that is passed from one generation to the next. Each and every brain must be taught to read anew. Unlike hair or eye color, which are coded in DNA, reading is a complex, rule-based system that must be imposed on biological structures that were designed or evolved for other reasons (Wolf, 2007).

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This site suggests different ways of engaging children with autism and special needs to enhance auditory processing skills through listening-based activities. The activities can be guided by both parents and educators. This resource is useful because student’s ability to process and analyse the sounds of language may also influence their ability to translate the sounds of language into their written form (Yalçınkaya, Muluk & Şahin, 2009).

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Home / Autism/Special Needs

This page is helpful for anyone who wants to learn more about autism, attention deficit, sensory processing, and mental health issues. The information here is valuable and anyone who is looking for insight and tools to help individuals with special needs. Our approach to working with children who have special needs is to build a relationship and connect with the child. Then, once trust has been established, we break down skills, scaffold, and use a wide spectrum of MORE...

Resources

Here is our resource page for information and services for all children; including services and resources for children with special needs, child development, parenting advice and educational resources.

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Dyslexia

1. How to Treat the Symptoms of Dyslexia Medication won't diminish the symptoms of dyslexia, but accommodations at school, at home, and in the workplace can help children and adults manage their learning disability and perform to the best of their ability.

2. Treating Dyslexia Children with dyslexia can learn to read, but there is no quick fix for this reading disability * Teaching these children requires a systematic approach that builds on previously learned skills one step at a time *

3. Test for Dyslexia: 37 Common Traits Most dyslexics will exhibit about 10 of the following traits and behaviors. These characteristics can vary from day-to-day or minute-to-minute. The most consistent thing about dyslexics is their inconsistency.

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1. 100+ Video Sites Every Educator Should Bookmark Bringing multimedia into the classroom is a great way to engage students in learning. Supplementing lessons, opening up new interests, and offering inspiration, online videos make for an incredible teaching tool.

2. Scratch.MIT With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations - and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively

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Home / Autism/Special Needs This page is helpful for anyone who wants to learn more about autism, attention deficit, sensory processing, and mental health issues. The information here is valuable and anyone who is looking for insight and tools to help individuals with special needs.

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This site is filled with different teaching strategies with teaching tips and sample dialogue for educators to help students to enhance speaking and listening skills through learning about idioms with dialogue writing and role-play. the dialogues the students write function as basic communication at all levels (Scott, and, Ytreberg, L., 2000). To speak English language fluently, it is recommended strongly to learn idioms it increases communication skills as it promotes a natural, conversational and creative idea when speaking with the use of idioms (De Caro, 2009).

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It's easy as pie.

No, it's a piece of cake.

Or maybe it's impossible to make heads or tails out of them.

Idioms. They're a lot of fun to teach and to learn, and they'll make your students sound more like native speakers and become better listeners, more in tune to colloquial English.

Contents

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Teaching Idioms Is Teaching Fluency

Colorful language and powerful imagery make idioms a lot of fun for English learners.

It's almost like a code-breaking game, where students must learn that when certain words come together in a phrase, they can mean something very different.

It's important to not only teach the meaning of idioms, but to also teach how to use them correctly and effectively.

When a non-native speaker uses an idiom correctly, he or she will sound very fluent. But, on the other hand, if they bumble the phrase, they will sound the exact opposite.

How to Teach English Idioms for Each Level

Beginners

Some ESL teachers may find that teaching idioms is a waste of time with beginners. They can barely hold their own in a conversation, so why go teaching them confusing expressions that are tough to understand?

There are a few reasons why teaching English idioms to beginners is a good idea.

Firstly, it establishes common ground. All languages have idiomatic expressions, and by going over some in English, they'll be encouraged to examine their own language usage and become more linguistically aware.

But perhaps more importantly, learning English idiomatic expressions is fun!

Beginners have the biggest hurdle to overcome when they first enter an ESL classroom: Learning to understand and to be understood.

And yet we spend a lot of time with beginners going over irregular verbs, memorizing vocabulary and learning basic phrases. Give them-and yourself-a break with a fun, creative lesson on English idiomatic expressions.

When you're teaching English idioms to beginners, the most important thing to remember is to make it fun. Don't sweat the small stuff.

1. Choose a theme

When you're presenting idiomatic expressions to beginners, it's a good idea to pick a theme.

Try choosing a list of 10 idioms in accordance with something like an upcoming holiday (on Halloween, try "green-eyed monster," "going on a witch hunt") or any theme that's of interest to you and your class.

For example, if you've just done a lesson on food words, try making a list of food-related idioms ("You're a peach!" "Easy as pie.")

If you're having a hard time coming up with idioms based on your theme, try this site which groups English idioms by theme for you, so you can pick and choose the ones you'd like to use.

2. Engage students in discovery

When introducing beginners to idioms, it can be fun to have them work in pairs or groups to try to discover what the idioms mean.

Of course, don't get them started empty-handed! Create a matching worksheet with the definitions of the idioms on one side and the idioms themselves on the other.

Have students work together to decide which idiom means which thing. If necessary, you can use translation in the definitions.

The benefit of introducing idioms in this way is that it gets students thinking about how idioms work and maybe even making comparisons in their own languages.

3. Reinforce learning with a game

Once students have figured out which idiom has which meaning, it's time for a game!

A really fun one to play with beginners is Charades. Since the person in front of the class doesn't have to speak, it can be less scary for students to volunteer. Of course, the guessers will have to guess in English!

Place the idioms you've covered into a hat and have students come up one by one to act them out.

Be sure to think ahead if you plan to use this game-you wouldn't want to pick idioms that are impossible to act out and risk frustrating your students.

Intermediate Learners

Intermediate learners may have a handle on some idioms, but not all. This is a great time to expand their idiomatic vocabulary with uses that are interesting to them.

With many students, this will mean involving pop culture like music. If you choose the song correctly, this can be a great opportunity to introduce more idiomatic expressions!

1. Pick an appropriate song

As the teacher, it's important to do your homework before getting underway with any idiomatic expressions activity. You can't just assume any song will have idiomatic expressions in it, as well you know!

Here are a few resources to help you find the right song to use with your class:

Of course, if you have another song in mind, go ahead and use that!

2. Warm up with a listening activity

Get students ready to listen closely by using a musical listening activity to get things rolling. Pick something that you know your class will catch onto fairly quickly so that you can get into the meat of the lesson.

3. Discuss the idioms found and introduce more

This is where you're going to want to actually define the idiomatic expressions in the song.

The best way to do this is by reviewing what an idiomatic expression is with your class and then asking students to identify the expressions themselves.

This sort of guided discovery can help students understand the idioms in the song and find their own definitions, which you can verify with them and correct if needed.

Once your students have uncovered all the idioms in the song, you can take the opportunity to talk about musically-themed idiomatic expressions with your class and encourage them to try to use them.

You can add more idioms to the list from some of the resources listed in the beginners' lesson above.

Give students a list of around 10 or 20 to work with, which you can test either by assigning a writing activity, giving a quiz a few days later or playing some games, like Charades or even a version of Taboo.

In this game, students are allowed to describe the meaning of the idiom, but they can't use any of the words in the expression. Other students must guess the idiom that's being described.

Another option is to use a video activity. We love the Head Over Heels activity, which is a lot of fun to use if you're going to be studying idioms for several classes.

Advanced Learners

By the time you've got a classroom full of advanced learners, idiomatic expressions have likely already been covered. Many idioms have already been acquired, and yet there's still a ways to go.

1. Identify a list of English idioms

First, you'll need to find some idioms that your advanced learners may not have seen before.

These 66 idioms are common in spoken English, but they likely haven't been addressed yet in other classes.

They're a bit rarer than some of the others that may have come up in previous classes, and they're quite varied, meaning that even if some have come up in thematic lessons, others will not have been covered.

In other words, you'll have a fairly good balance between familiar and novel.

Have students scan the list and discuss the idioms they already recognize.

2. Guide students through an idiomatic research project

Either alone or in pairs, ask students to carry out a research project (in English, of course!) on a given idiomatic expression.

Dole out the expressions and let each student know that they'll need to give a 5-10 minute presentation to the class on the expression.

This research project can take several different directions.

It can be interesting to ask advanced learners to find an equivalent of idiomatic expressions in their native tongue and discuss the differences in English.

At an advanced level, it's not necessarily problematic to introduce a few words of the native tongue as a point of comparison.

Of course, if you'd prefer not to introduce other languages into your ESL classroom, you can still ask students to research on the etymology of certain idiomatic expressions.

Guide them towards more extensive dictionaries like the Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, if your students have library access, or the Online Etymology Dictionary if they don't.

Make sure you ask for works cited, especially to keep students from wandering over to Wikipedia for the bulk of their research!

3. Back up your students with extra material

Take advantage of each student's presentation of his or her expression, effectively teaching it to the class, to launch in-class discussions of expressions and idioms.

Allow for two presentations per class day, splitting them up with a discussion or conversation lasting about 20 minutes.

This is the ideal moment to introduce additional information that you'll have uncovered about the expression, including historical information, that you can find online.

Tips for Teaching English Idioms Effectively

Whatever level you're teaching, you can apply these tips to help your students understand idioms better:

Combine idioms with pictures

Provide a picture along with the idiom. This works best if you show an image that humorously illustrates the literal meaning of the idiom. It will make students laugh, but also help them understand or guess what a phrase means.

Idioms are full of colorful imagery, perfect for a flashcard or photo. Show the picture to your students and have them guess the meaning of the idiom.

From there, give examples of when you would use it and how the words and the actual meaning of the idiom are different.

Looking for a good resource? Check out this website for an example of great images to explain the meaning of idioms.

And for some beautiful images depicting idioms, be sure to check out this site.

Provide idioms in context

This way, students can fully understand the meaning. Be sure to provide a sample conversation around it. For example, take the following dialogue featuring the idiom "to be a chicken" when at a local amusement park.

Jack: Ooh, wow. Look at that roller coaster, Jane! It goes upside-down!
Jane: My stomach aches just looking at it. I will not ride that.
Jack: Ah, come on. Don't be a chicken!

Watching videos of native speakers conversing is a great way to give show your students how idioms are used in the real world.

one resource that can help you highlight the usage and context of the various idioms used by your students.

FluentU has hundreds of native English videos like inspirational talks, funny commercials and movie quotes. Search for a phrase or an idiom and you might even find it being used in one of the many videos.

If not, FluentU lets you create flashcard decks so you can dedicate certain decks to common idioms.

Students can also watch videos and spot sayings that they like. With the support of contextual definitions from within the subtitles, students will have no trouble understanding the meaning of each word and phrase.

Your students can use FluentU on their iOS or Android devices, as well as in browsers.

Teach idioms in spoken form, not written

Explain to students how they are conversational, rather than formal. Have students practice the idioms in dialogue to help them understand they're used in spoken colloquial English.

To make it more interactive, you can even break your class into small groups and ask each group to look up two idioms. Dave's ESL Cafe has a great collection of idioms and their meanings for student reference.

Before they look them up, have the students make an educated guess on what the idiom means, and then let them search for the real meaning.

Have students explain the meaning to the rest of the class and use the idiom in a short sample dialogue.

Explain each idiom thoroughly

Don't just hand out a long list of idioms. Be sure to provide a small selection of 5-10 idioms (or less!) and explain each one.

If you provide too many examples, it'll simply turn into an introduction of what an idiom is, rather than how to actually remember the meaning and use one effectively in dialogue.

Be sure to explain too how the individual words have different meanings from the whole idiom phrase. For example, how much does an arm and a leg actually cost? Who knows?

Introduce Amelia Bedelia

No, Amelia! You don't actually throw the tent into the woods!

You don't have to be a kid to adore Amelia Bedelia and her literal mind. She's the perfect teacher for an idiom lesson.

Visit the official website for activities, book excerpts, worksheets and games. While the material is oriented for children, it's also a great way for older students to learn English idioms through a fun and quirky character!

10 English Idioms Worth Teaching

As you can see, there are hundreds of great resources for teaching idioms. Where should you even start? Remember, it's important to provide context around your idioms.

So to get you started, we've listed a few of our favorites with a sample dialogue and some additional teaching tips.

1. A fish out of water

Meaning: to feel awkward or uncomfortable, usually in a new situation

Teaching tips: Start the lesson by talking to your students about feeling awkward. What makes them feel awkward? Give an example of what makes you feel awkward. Then, present the below dialogue.
Sample dialogue:
Sam: Gee, learning to rollerblade isn't easy. I keep falling down!

Sarah: I know, it's so hard! I feel like a fish out of water.

2. To be broke

Meaning: to be out of money, to have no money

Teaching tips: Provide the students with two images. One image should be of a broken item ( such as a broken pencil) and one should be an image of a person with no money ( this is a great one).

Explain how both images mean "to be broke." Then, present the following dialogue and have the students match the correct image to the meaning of the idiom.
Sample dialogue:
Sarah: Would you like to borrow some money?

Sam: That'd be great. I promise, I'll pay you back later.

3. Rule of thumb

Meaning: an unwritten but generally accepted guideline, policy or method of doing something

Teaching tips: Talk with your students about laws of society. Which ones are actual legal laws? Which ones are social norms or generally accepted rules?

Make a list of each. Then, introduce the "rule of thumb" idiom. Practice with the below dialogue.
Sample dialogue:
Sam: These potato chips are so delicious. Want some?

Sarah: Sure, thanks.

Sam: Ooh, sorry! I dropped that handful. Well, it's the 5-second rule. They were on the ground less than 5 seconds, so it's still okay to eat them.

4. Up in the air

Meaning: undecided or indefinite, usually because often because other matters should be decided first

Teaching tips: Present this image, featuring the idiom "up in the air." Talk to the students about what it means, and then present the following dialogue.

Afterward, talk about what your students are currently up in the air about. Then, have them come up with their own sample dialogue.
Sample dialogue:
Sarah: Hey, Sam! Remember, you need to let us know by tomorrow if you're going to go on the class trip with us.

Sarah: I see. Well, let us know. I hope you can come!

5. Devil's advocate

Meaning: to present a counterargument

Teaching tips: After explaining the meaning of this idiom and practicing the following dialogue, present the class with a debate exercise.

Split the class into two groups, and have each side come up with a different argument for the same issue. (Choose an issue you think might be relevant to your students).

Have them debate the issue, using the idiom when appropriate.
Sample dialogue:
Sam: I just can't understand why healthcare is so expensive in the United States. It just doesn't seem right.

Sam: Well, maybe. But it still shouldn't be so expensive.

6. Give someone the cold shoulder

Meaning: to no interest in someone or something, to ignore

Teaching tips: Have the students guess what they think the idiom means. Ask the students if they've ever given someone the cold shoulder. Or, if they've ever received the cold shoulder. Practice with the dialogue below.
Sample dialogue:
Sarah: I ran into Sallie yesterday and we had a nice conversation at the coffee shop, catching up with each other.

Sam: Oh, really? Last time I saw her, she gave me the cold shoulder. I couldn't figure out what I had done to make her angry.

Sarah: Well, it probably doesn't help that you are dating her best friend.

7. Happy camper

Meaning: a person who is happy and cheerful

Teaching tips: Explain the idiom and practice the sample dialogue. Ask your students what makes them happy. Also, practice using the idiom in the negative. Such as, "I'm not a happy camper today."
Sample dialogue:
Sam: Sarah, why are you so happy today?

Sam: Wow, congratulations!

8. Sit tight

Meaning: to stay where you are

Teaching tips: Explain the definition of the idiom and practice the dialogue below. Have the students come up with scenarios where they could use this idiom in context.
Sample dialogue:
Sarah: Sam, are you okay? What happened?!

Sam: I fell down the stairs, and now my leg really hurts.

9. Head over heels (in love)

Meaning: to be really or completely in love with someone

Teaching tips: Show this image explaining the idiom. Talk to the students about being in love. Ask which students are currently in love (guaranteed to elicit a few giggles from your students!). Practice the below dialogue.
Sample dialogue:
Sarah: Sam, what are you writing?

Sam: I'm writing a letter to my new girlfriend.

Sam: I really am. I want to marry her.

10. Get the ball rolling

Meaning: to get started

Teaching tips: Write the idiom on the board in front of the class. Have the students make guesses on what it means. Then, practice the below dialogue and have them guess again.
Sample dialogue:
Sam: Have you started the English class project yet?

Sarah: No, not yet. I need to ask the teacher a few more questions first.

Sarah: Don't worry about me. I'll get it done.

Now, get your idiom ball rolling. And don't beat around the bush!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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Easy as Pie: Everything You've Gotta Know to Teach English Idioms Effectively | FluentU English Educator Blog

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Teaching English idioms in ESL class can be a piece of cake given the right methods! Here we've got specific strategies for teaching idioms to all levels of learners, from songs and games to research projects. Find out too about the top ten idioms that your students should know about.

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This article suggests several ways to help students understanding how sounds work.  As early as six weeks, infants will begin to spontaneously make cooing sounds (Reich, 1986; Wolff, 1969). This Articulation is important to be able to produce sounds, words and sentences which are clear and can be easily understood and interpreted by others in order to be able to express basic needs and wants, right through to being able to engage in complex conversations (Kid Sense Child Development, 2017).

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Activity 5: Segmenting sounds

Activity 6: Recognizing sounds

Activity 7: Read books that play with sounds

You are welcome to print copies or republish materials for non-commercial use as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact [email protected].

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Children must understand how speech sounds work to be ready for instruction in reading and writing. There are many activities that you can do with your students to help them increase their knowledge of speech sounds and their relationship to letters.

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This site provides a range of cognitive-approach activities to enhance children’s listening and speaking skills. Building on Piaget’s cognitive theory, Roskos and Christie (2004) believe that as children engage in play, they are using their memories to assist to connect their play to pre-literacy skills such as naming and symbolic thought. Children recall their past play experiences and create new meanings each time they play. (as cited in Tsao, 2008, p.518).

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These 12 games get kids speaking, listening and thinking. Great travel or waiting games.

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Develop speaking, listening, thinking and reasoning skills with these twelve fun verbal games to play with preschoolers, kindergarteners and bigger kids.

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This site provides various fun activities for children to learn speaking and listening skills. Studies have revealed that children show motivation and become active learners when teacher present them with instructional material that are meaningful and interesting to them (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). Participating in recreational activities is an effective way to develop language and communication skills. It also helps your children to be more socially confident and may be a way to forge friendships (British Council, 2019).

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Effect of Listening Ability on Literacy Development

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Effect of Listening Ability on Literacy Development

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This journal offers an insight of the effect of listening ability on literacy development for children and strategic tools for educators to minimize consequences of auditory deficits for children. This journal signifies the importance of both parents and educators play in recognizing children’s ability and deficits to be able to enhance their listening skills. Gravel, Wallace, and Ruben reported a study in 1996 in which they followed children with and without early ear infections (otitis media) from the first year of life through nine years of age. The act of processing speech is very complex and involves the engagement of auditory, cognitive, and language mechanisms, often simultaneously (Medwetsky, 2011).

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Effects of listening ability on speaking, writing and reading skills of children who were suspected of auditory processing difficulty

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The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of listening ability on speaking, writing and reading skills of children who was suspected of aud...

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Strategies To Teach Listening Effectively

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Strategies To Teach Listening Effectively

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This journal indicates strategies to teach listening effectively for students whose English not their first language. The activities are constructed by socio-constructivism theory in which children develop language skills and grasp new concepts as they speak to and listen to each other” (Mooney, 2000, p.83).  By designing learning experiences with relevance and authenticity, teachers can plan for learning goals to be achieved, allowing teachers to become ‘coaches of understanding, not mere purveyors of content or activity’ (Wiggins and McTighe, 2011). Any learning experience should aim to instil authenticity into every task, lesson and unit to ensure that students can develop problem solving skills and confidence in their own learning abilities’ (Nicaise, Gibney and Crane, 2000).

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Teaching listening skills is possibly the hardest part of our job as EFL teachers. It is much harder when you teach listening to Young Learners (YLs) in a non-English-speaking environment. With very little English exposure at home or in mainstream schools in countries where English is not widely spoken, YLs need thorough guidance in approaching listening, particularly, to authentic language. In an English-speaking-environment, where English is everywhere, it is still crucial to teach learners to be effective listeners. YLs need to be engaged and have a good reason for listening and understanding what is being said. Listening plays a key part in the YLs' language development, simply because it is their main source of sample language and it constitutes the springboard for language acquisition and, hence, their future spoken production (Krashen, 1981). In this article, the focus will be on teaching listening to YLs aged 8-11 at A1 level (though some points made are transferrable to other age groups).
What Does It Take To Teach Listening Effectively?
In current ELT practice, listening skills are more often tested or practised than taught (Field, 2008). This is something I have noticed over the years when talking to newly-qualified teachers and many colleagues in a variety of teaching contexts. I admit I have been doing that for a long time myself with frustrating results. I used to pre-teach new vocabulary, to get learners to 'recognize' the words pre-taught and offer some sort of practice extension through listening comprehension questions and that was it. It took me a while before I realized that it's not sufficient to play a CD track to get your learners motivated to answer a list of (rather unchallenging) comprehension questions about a fake conversation, in which one of the interlocutors sounds like a YL. Teaching listening effectively takes a lot more than that.
a. Motivation
YLs love visuals, animations, games, fun things to watch, listen and do. Their main motivation is expressing their world to others and sharing experiences with peers. Listening tasks and materials should raise learners' interest and keep them engaged while they are doing things with the language they hear. Listening in class also has to be a chance for YLs to use all their imagination, creativity, curiosity and energy to learn.
b. Engaging Listening Tasks
What makes a listening task engaging for YLs? YLs are in the stage of their life in which they are gathering information from their world experience. They are gradually developing the abilities to listen carefully to get something done or just get the gist of what has been said for a purpose. In other words, learners are learning to decode messages purposefully and manage information with confidence. The teacher's job is to create real-life conditions in the language classroom, as much as possible, in order to 'train' YLs to develop effective strategies for understanding oral messages that have some connections with their world. Listening tasks must therefore clearly reflect YLs' real life experiences and everyday new discoveries.

How can teachers make listening tasks more engaging? Think of all the different situations when YLs listen carefully to people around them. In which situations would they listen up for important details? Possibly, when they need to follow instructions to make something, e.g. crafts, or to do something 'fun', e.g. playing a guessing game. In these situations, there is a clear purpose for listening and extracting key information. This is called transactional listening (Richards, 1990). In this case, YLs' language knowledge can help them understand and select the information needed, which is called 'bottom-up processing' (ibid.). There is a lot YLs haven't experienced first-hand yet, but, while carrying out realistic tasks, they can still activate the world knowledge they have gained through games, books, stories or simply from parents' or teachers' talk. This is called 'top-down processing' (Richards, 1990): the context and the listener's background knowledge will help understand the message. New things will easily attract YLs. Selecting or designing materials that can feed YLs' endless curiosity and spark their imagination is just vital to make tasks engaging. While keeping learners motivated, listening tasks also need to create the opportunity for meaningful language exposure and life experience.
c. Appropriate YL Materials
Teaching listening involves providing a fair degree of motivation, purpose and engagement to a range of listening tasks that YLs can relate to their real life or their world experience and that will provide training for effective listening. Listening tasks need to be manageable in order to avoid demotivation or information overload for YLs (Brown & Yule, 1983). Authentic materials can offer a chance for real language exposure though task grading will be necessary, e.g. through visual aids or pre-listening tasks, not necessarily vocabulary pre-teaching. For instance, you could choose to use an example as a pre-listening task with an immediate response as to build learners' confidence before approaching the actual task (Lynch & Anderson, 1988). Listening materials surely need to feature motivating tasks, but also they need to provide interesting content and be visually attractive to a child aged 8-11. Selecting listening materials can be hard. You need to walk in your learners' shoes and see the world with their eyes not your own. Talk to your YLs as much as you can to find out about their interests and make a list of topics that are age and culturally appropriate to your class, not YLs in general. Materials should always have a fun and competitive element to make the exposure to real language more enjoyable.
Five Practical Classroom Ideas
Having outlined what makes listening tasks effective, here are five classroom ideas based on these principles.
1. Listen & play
Topic: Weather/Countries Functions: Understanding key information Aims: Developing listening skills for details using icons, maps & weather report video Learning new weather words & countries around the world through listening

Activity: Listen to the weather forecast around the world Match the weather icons to the flags/countries

Pre-taught vocabulary: none

Follow-up activity: Make a video about your local weather today using weather flashcards

Resources: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/games/whats-the-weather
2. Listen & make
Topic: Making things Function: Following instructions Aims: Developing listening skills for live detailed instructions to make a fish origami Learning craft vocabulary e.g. fold, unfold, turn around, press

Activity: Listen to the teacher giving live instructions to make a simple fish origami

Pre-taught vocabulary: none

Follow-up activity: Listen & watch 3D Animation video 'Once I caught a fish alive' nursery rhyme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w49MQ6Wrqes

Resources: Square coloured paper
3. Listen & respond
Topic: Fruit & Veg, Food Functions: understanding requests Aims: Developing transactional/top-down listening skills in the context of shopping Learning quantifiers e.g. some, a lot of, and measures e.g. Kilo, a dozen

Activity: Listen to a customer (teacher) who recorded a message (video/audio) for the greengrocer (learners) asking to do the shopping for her and collect the items from the shelves (rows of desks in the classroom) Sample: 'Hello there! I'm very ill today. Sorry, I can't do my shopping. Can you please help? Can I have two kilos oranges, please? Then, I need some onions and a dozen eggs, please!'

Pre-taught vocabulary: Kilo/Pound; half a kilo; a dozen

Follow-up activity: Learners make their shopping lists in turn and get partners to do the shopping

Resources: Realia, toy fruit & veg
4. Listen & guess
Topic: Appearance Function: describing people Aims: Developing listening skills for selecting relevant information Learning new vocabulary and phrases to describe people through semi-authentic listening (different accents are featured in the text)

Activity: Listen to six people describing 6 other people they met in different situations Ignore irrelevant information. Focus on their appearance and match the description you hear to the face in the pictures

Pre-taught vocabulary: Beard, moustache, freckles. Other new items are taught in context through visual/aural input

Follow-up activity: Play 'Guess who?' game - one learner at a time describes a person from class/school/local town or celebrities. Other learners guess who they are

Resources: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/games/face-match
5. Listen & tell
Topic: Positions Function: describing places Aims: Developing listening skills and predict key information using visual and aural clues Learning basic prepositions of place and describing places

Activity: Watch the video. Listen to the conversation. Tell where Hero was/is now

Pre-taught vocabulary: None New items are taught in context through visual/aural input

Follow-up activity: Play 'Treasure hunt' - Teacher hides small cuddly toys or nice kids' stuff in the classroom/school and sends learners on a treasure hunt. Learners in groups ask the teacher for clues. Good listeners usually win

Resources: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-videos/heros-adventure
Conclusion
Listening is one of the key language skills for YLs' language development. The YL listening classroom needs to relate listening tasks and materials to YLs' experiences in real life and help develop strategies to decode messages effectively. In order to teach listening (not testing or practising) effectively, teachers should re-think what they do in the classroom and make choices: use authentic materials as input, design motivating tasks not comprehension questions, make use of textual and contextual resources, make listening purposeful and fun (Field,2008:25).

References

Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken language, CUP Krashen, S.D. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second language learning, Pergamon Lynch, T. & Anderson, A. (1988).Listening, OUP

Field, J. (2008). Listening in the language classroom, CUP Richards, J. C. (1990). The Language teaching matrix, CUP

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Five (Fun) Ways to Teach Listening to YL (Effectively) - by Maria Conca " IH Journal

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Teaching listening skills is possibly the hardest part of our job as EFL teachers. It is much harder when you teach listening to Young Learners (YLs) in a non-English-speaking environment. With very little English exposure at home or in mainstream schools in countries where English is not widely spoken, YLs need thorough guidance in approaching listening, particularly, to authentic language.

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This journal offers an insight of child language acquisition for children with down syndrome. This is supported by naturalistic theory. The strategy concludes interactions with caregivers and teachers which targets functional communication skills in the context of play and everyday routines (Kaiser, Ostrosky, & Alpert, 1993). Naturalistic teaching offers the opportunity to increase children’s engagement and participation in routines, which in turn creates additional opportunities for communication (Kasinath, Woods, & Goldstein, 2006). Naturalistic communication intervention increases play and symbol-infused joint engagement including visual as well as spoken forms of language might further provide the linguistic, play, social, and symbolic support needed to improve communication development in children with down syndrome (Hancock & Kaiser, 2006).

*** For Monash staff & students please use this link to access full text:
https://web-a-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=3ec9cac9-c747-4f2e-a031-9fc3a673fac3%40sessionmgr4006

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Many child language studies emphasize the value of verbal and social support, of 'scaffolding' processes and mutual adjustments that naturally occur in adult-child interactions in everyday contexts. Based on such theories, this study attempted to improve the language and communication skills in children with special educational needs through naturalistic intervention. The results showed positive changes in the targeted language components of three children with Down syndrome. We consider that child language gains were best maintained after intervention if the mothers received at the same time specific advice about verbal interaction at home.

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Language acquisition by children with Down syndrome: a naturalistic approach to assisting language acquisition - Rosa Maria Vilaseca, Maria-José Del Rio, 2004

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many child language studies emphasize the value of verbal and social support, of 'scaffolding' processes and mutual adjustments that naturally occur in adult-child interactions in everyday contexts. Based on such theories, this study attempted to improve the language and communication skills in children with special educational needs through naturalistic intervention.

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This site provides a range of storybooks with scenic background music for educators or parents to read to children with the flow of conforming music to engage children fully. Through music, memory skills can be improved, and aural discrimination increased (Chong & Gan 1997). Music can focus the mind on the sounds being perceived and promote learning through an interactive process (Woodall & Ziembroski, 2012). Davies (2000) also suggested that brain function is increased when listening to music and that music promotes more complex thinking that can make connections between emotions, thinking and learning.

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Booktrack Classroom - eBooks with Soundtrack

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A new way to learn: Booktrack is a must-have for students and teachers alike.

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This application offers podcasts with a variety of stories with different themes that is fun and interesting for young children to listen to. Podcasts allow students to practice their listening comprehension of complex texts that are both conversational and formal, and the corresponding transcripts enable students to confirm their success (Godsey, 2018). Hasan, & Hoon, (2011) found that podcasts can fasten learners’ listening skills but other language components as well like pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, speaking and related learning activities. Technological phase of learning is needed as part of English learning styles to change the traditional language rules (Rajval & Devi, 2011).

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children kids podcast ios apps education science discovery sharing

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Kids Listen Playlist: Kids Listen Sweeps

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Seasonally themed episodes to help you get in the spirit of whatever the current spirit is! What is Kids Listen Sweeps? We take a common theme and present it in our diverse podcasts from several different angles. Think of it as the most enjoyable unit study you've ever heard.

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This site provides a range of resources for parents and families to understand and support children from new born to teens, including children with autism and disability. The direct link links to communication skills for young children in speaking and listening at home, with strategies for families to understand and support children in communication such as social interactive turn taking, social language, etc. The communication skills provided is supported with Vygotsky’s social constructivism theory that children actively construct knowledge (Susan, 2013). The resource is suitable for families because families and cultural groups are believed to have a significant importance in children’s learning (Department of Education and Training, 2019). Hence, parents and families can make use of this resource to support children’s communication skills.

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Conversation skills for children: learning to talk and listen to others

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Help your child develop conversation skills by role-modelling, prompting, guiding and practising. These skills help children’s development and relationships.

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This site offers a range of fun games and videos as a reference for educators and carers to engage children in learning more creatively, and it also provides some help tool to assessment for each activity. This video of ‘Clap Clap Clap’ offers children a platform to learn about phonology of words and language, which would be helpful for children to identify and remember the words for body parts and movement. Children begin to make echolalic babbling at early stage that reflects intonation and rhythm of speech of the adults in the child's environment (Sachs, 1989). Children are born phonating in a high and tuneful range, and their babble is inherently musical (Carlow, 2008).

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Sing and dance with Sam and Pam. Clap your hands, stamp your feet and have fun discovering new sounds in English.

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This slide documented the excursion from our placement that provides a wide range of opportunities to engage in active speaking and listening. This project was a children’s interest-based activity, Trivette (2019) indicates that interest construct the foundation for children’s learning. That is, allow children to engage in their learning more effectively. On top of that, this activity is aligned with the learning outcomes in The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009). To demonstrate, children are actively engaged in their learning and develop a strong sense of belonging by involving in the wider community. From that, it enables children to become effective communicators by interact with a wider learning context.

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This video documented a multi-sensory learning activity from our placement. Cousins and Cunnah (2017) stated that sensory experience leads to active learning that allow children to develop critical thinking skills while linking between ideas and prior experiences. Children have different learning styles and pace; therefore, it is important to provide alternative learning experience that allow children engage in learning thoroughly. According to HighScope approach it values children’s natural play and interactions with the environment, people, materials and more (HighScope Educational Research Foundation, 2019). Howitt and Blake (2009) stressed that sensory and linguistic experience allow children to develop language, critical thinking skills and the sharing of knowledge in classroom.

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Powtoon.com | See What I Created with Powtoon - EDF3034- Feely Bag

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Powtoon gives you everything you need to easily make professional videos and presentations that your clients, colleagues, and friends will love! No design or tech skills are necessary - it's free, easy, and awesome!

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This video demonstrates a nursery song in sign language. Apart from auditory speaking and listening, sign language is a visual language that incorporates body language, hand gestures and facial expression. Educational Playcare Ltd (2016) stressed that signing songs could improve children’s speech acquisition while blending language and motor movements together. On top of that, it could create greater memory retention as muscle memory is constantly practiced (Daniels, 2005). Furthermore, it could also help children to develop emphatic towards disabilities and cultivates an inclusive learning environment. That is, to create a multi-dimensional perspective that encourage social inclusiveness in our classroom.

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This pin offers a language learning phone application that encompasses great amount of educational games and activities. Bolstad (2004) stated that children are strongly exposed to the environment that is filled with information and communication technologies. Therefore, children could create meaningful learning by engaging with knowledge acquisition through ICT. On the other hand, this application provides a wide range of interactive activities that allow children to practice their listening skills as well as speaking skills in their own pace. Cox (2009) stressed that technology enables children to learn with their own pace with individualized instruction. This application provides different level of complexity for children that offers suitable learning activities for them.

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Lingokids #1 Entertainment Platform for Kids

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Lingokids #1 Entertainment Platform for Kids

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Voted #1 Kids Learning App, Lingokids is the best app for kids 2-8 years old! Because when learning is fun, kids love to learn! Check it out!