How to teach listening skills for students in grade 8 effectively

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays , the Party,the State, the Department of Education and Training has
many resolutions and directives to direct, guide and implement innovation, reform
the curriculum and learning methods in many subjects, English is also considered
to be the main subject in all grades.
As identified, English is the main subject , we wonder why? There are probably
many reasons. One of the biggest reasons is the strong development of the open
time of economy, especially in the current integration phase, when our country has
been a member of the World Trade Organization, has made needs to use English in
high social interaction increasingly.
1.1.The reasons for choosing topic
Everyone recognizes that foreign languages, especially English, is the capital
needed to live and work everywhere. Therefore, in studying English, teachers have
to ensure that students learn and develop all four skills: listening, speaking, reading
and writing in which listening plays an important role.Hearing is to be able to
speak, read or write. Especially, feature of the method is the method in English
communication. With this method of teaching,teachers often hold many
conversations in class.Those conversations are successful or not depend on the
comprehension of the problems that the speaker wants to say. In a conversation,
roles of speaker and listener change quickly.Thus, if the ability of hearing is bad,
the conversation will end quickly or will lead to misunderstandings. Besides,if
students have good listening skill, it will help students read well because students
can easily listen and recognize how to pronounce the words.In summary, listening,
speaking, reading and writing skills are always mutual support and development in
which listening plays a very important role . For high achievement in studying
English, we can not overlook the training skills, explore methods to improve
learning outcomes in these skills including listening skill. This is one of the most
important skills in communication. Therefore, I have chosen and performed the
theme: "How to teach listening skills for students in grade 8 effectively?”
1.2.The aims of study.
As we all know, the Department of Education and Training has always been

the Party and the State, the sectors and all social levels are interested in a particular
way because of the training where people have the knowledge, talent to meet the
development needs of the country during the international integration. So, the
schools have put the efforts in the teaching of English to students in order to equip
them with the language to become knowledgeable in the integration of the country.

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Understanding the meaning and importance of this, the Department of Education
and Training,Quang Xuong Education and training committee,Quang Long
Secondary School has organized many conferences, many thematic trainings on:
renewing teaching, improving the quality of teaching and learning in English. This
is the primary basis for myself always searching, researching strive to improve
skills in order to meet the develop of education.
Under the direction of the Department of Education , in a foreign language lesson
for students, as well as one more test to achieve four skills: listening, speaking,
reading and writing. However, in the fact that students can not hear any
information, no matter where neither easy to understand and write. When marking
the first survey of the classes in charge of teaching, I found that more than 80% of
students do not have listening skills, leading to many low points. Since then
disseminating and implementing a number of teachniques to teaching this skill is
essential for improving the quality of students’ assignments.
1.3.The subject of study.
-The students at Quang Long Secondary School.
1.4.The methods of study.Studying about the theme “ How to teach listening
skills for students in grade 8 effectively”…

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2. THE CONTENTS OF THE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
2.1.The basis of the theory.
Listening skill is considered difficult by most English learners and students as
well.They only hear and understand the words which teachers have to reapeat,
even students can not even hear the familiar questions. For example, the
requirement of teachers to students is often used in the classroom as: come on, who
can? What about? ... Some students have done these requirements thanks to
remind your side.
For more complex sentences, the average students from relatively older should at
least be heard more than once.Therefore,what is the reason of this problem?
2.2.The real situation of the problems before applying the experience initiative.
First: Because of the poor facilities at school, The school doesn’t have a
listening room and the rooms are not well- equipped for learning process such as :
radios, tapes, disks, ear phones ... Therefore, students have few opportunities to
learn English with new teaching methods today.
Second: So far the tests from one period or more new mandatory details have
been heard, the students are already familiar with the focus on grammar and
vocabulary.
Third: Most students do not pronounce English words correctly, they only
pronounce the main sounds and the more negative end, audio connectors, stress,
diphthongs, vowels are not often exact . This leads to distortions to hear.
Fourth: Before listening ,the teacher do not orient students to the context, the
relationship between the speakers. Therefore, students are not highly focused on
listening and lead to more effective learning of listening is not high. Thus, students
do not feel like learning to listen.
Finally: Nowadays, there are many types of reference books on the market,
including answers of exercises.Therefore, students often abuse these books to get
the results of the listening exercise without focusing on the process of listening.
In summary, there must have some solutions, some proper methods for learning

to hear, the English learning in secondary schools will get better results.
Through years of teaching, I have noticed the students’ effectiveness in
leaning listening skill, the low annual survey that recently lowest first academic
year 2017-2018 when it hasn’t been required the listening in test. Results of the
survey are

3


Class Total Excellent
SL

%

Good
SL

%

8A

23

5

21,7%

7

30,4

%

8B

23

0

0%

6

26,1
%

Fair
SL

Poor

Fail

%

SL

%

SL %

10 43,5%

1

4,4%

0

0%

4

17,4%

0

0%

13

56,5%

It is clear that the survey result is too low, in order for learning to help students
get better results, I would like to provide the theme: "How to teach listening skills
for students in grade 8 effectively?”
2.3.The solutions to the problems.
Now, a lot of innovative approaches are being applied in teaching and learning
becuse they are often highly effective if teachers know how to use properly. In
teaching and learning in English communication is seen as a very effective method
and is used frequently. However, the method of communication can only be

expressed in a way that effectively when students have ability to listen well.
Therefore, I define myself improving listening skill for students is a key to the
improvement of the overall quality English subject. -The forms of the listening
exercises:
a. Listening to obtain more detailed information:
This type of listening is commonly seen at the listening tasks such as: fill in
the gaps, comprehension questions, matching ... When listening these exercises,
students often have to listen to a passage, a conversation ... carefully to find out the
neccesary information .
b. Listening for information:
With this type of listening after hearing, students have to draw more general
overview of all. Example: When listening to a story: "The lost shoe" students have
to distinguish:What is the content of that story ? Through story people want what's
commandments? Or the story of the moral lesson, students must understand the
content, its plot to draw moral lesson is : "Do not be foolish and greedy". But the
exercises are often heard as a general is not consolidated grammar and vocabulary
for students.
c. The different listening forms:

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In addition to the above listening pupils were sometimes heard in English for
the purpose of entertainment such as songs, movies. Learning English through
songs is considered as a useful form because it not only satisfies the amusing
requirements but also provides th experience for learning the listening skill.
-The common problem when listening to:
To understand English through native speakers or radio, internet, TV ... seems
to be a very difficult thing for the common learning problems later.
a. Sound:

In any conversation on the radio, tape , in class ... we not only hear the sound of
the speaker emit the sound, but also a lot of other inserts. Specifically, the exercises
listen to the tape, CD besides speakers also the other sound, the sound can create
situations that voice traffic on a busy street, noise of the market. When you have all
these sounds, the listening comes alive but also more complex than requiring
students to concentrate to get new information exactly.
b. Music and audio connector attachment:
These sounds are often found in the dialogues. Music attachment is a syllable in
the word which it is a longer attachment, so it is easily mistaken for another word.
As the speakers often use expression to represent attitude , emotional and audio
connectors are often connected with the sound making speaking more smoothly.
Most of the students have not discovered this type of sound. In fact the teachers use
to teach less than usual, the words are used in class are often slow sentences so
audio connections aren’t used much that students have encountered when listening
through the tapes and CD.
c. The desire to understand the words:
A very common habit in students when they hear, they often try to understand
all the words in the listening comprehension because they think that the words in
the listening are also important. While only a certain amount of words decide the
content of listening and if the students do not have the ability to determine the
content they need to hear is what it will take time on the unimportant words but
ignore the importance ones .
d. Don’t catch up with the speed of the speakers:
Most students are familiar with the theacher’s slow speech so they must hear
through the tape when they feel very fast and can not keep the pace of the speaker.
Therefore, it is neccessary to have a good getting started step for students before
listening.

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- Orientation before listening.
This is how we guide students in listening so that they have the necessary and
general information about the listening as the purpose of listening , someone says
and says in what circumstances. Usually many teachers have ignored this section so
that students do not understand the deep listening and take time to listen to it again.
Method of orientation before listening which just brings high effective and help
students work actively, while also improving the quality scale. So when the
orientation for students what do we need to orient the problem?
- Orientation of context:
Teachers should introduce the listening context for students to understand the
context to help students orient relevant vocabulary that can be inferred from the
contents to be heard. In some cases due to the direction in which students can
anticipate to hear from teachers and the open the record , the students just listen to
check and correct the answers.
Example: Unit 1: Skills 1
a. Listen and complete the table .
HANGING OUT WITH YOUR BEST FRIENDS
What to do

Why

Whatching....................(1) at home, comfortable feeling
eating popcorn
a .....................(2)

,better

Making ......................(3)

creative ,feeling satisfied

Playing .........................(4)

good for your .....................(5)

Watching..........................(6)
downtown

Fun

Going to .........................(7)

education yourself

than

In this lesson, we should guide students through the introduction:
1 “ What is the topic of this week’s programme ?
2. Which two main ways does the programme suggest you can hang out with your
friends ? How is The specific information about the trip like? Besides, we should
note the students see this is a conversation over the phone so the caller will usually
say something and How will the listener reply?

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Through the guiding questions, the student will figure out most of what is needed
to fill in?
b. The orientation of the relationship between the speaker:

The orientation will help students understand how to use the language of the
speaker.
Example: We will hear a conversation between a mother and a child. The
language is used here will close and intimate but when the relationship is buyers
and sellers that are sure students understand the language used such as: Can I help
you? May I have a look at this? ...
In summary, depending on the type of tasks that teachers have different
alignment methods. We can use these techniques: True / false statements prediction,
open prediction , Ordering, Pre_questions.
- Listen for specific information:
When listening to the requirements of all the specific information,the teachers
need to guide students to see the specific information that students need to hear any
of the information.
Example: Listen and fill in the time for the schedule of events.( Skills 2 ) Unit
8 English speaking countries .
1. Arrive at Puzzling word : (1)................................
2. Leave Puzzling World :(2)....................................
3. Meet up at Lake Wanaka :(3)..................................
4. Bus leaves : (4)....................................
For this lesson , students should be listen again and choose the right answer A,B
or C ? Teacher gives students some time to read the events and students can find
the answers.
1.The first thing you see in Puzzling World is .......................
A. Lake Wanaka
B. the learning tower
C. the spacious cafe’
2. The illusion Room offers you ....................
A. the picture of a leanring tower
B. a collection of puzzles and games
C. A collection of 3-D holograms

3......................... is possible the most photographed attraction in New Zealand.
A. The learning tower
B. The illusion Room
C. Puzzling World
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4. Lake Wanaka is called.................
A. a natuaral attraction
B. a natuaral paradise
C. a beauty spot
5. At Lake Wanaka you can ....................
A. Bike and walk
B. drive
C. clim a mountain
So, when listening to, students listen to focus on the information that was driven to
find out the result by recording the information heard quickly.
c. Listening for the main idea
Often the type of exercise as a conversation and choose best summary, give the
general. For this listening exercise, teachers should train for students thinking
generalization, when the orientation should guide students on the important words
but it is not necessary all of the words in the lesson.
For example:
Unit11: Science and Teachnology ( Skills 2
Listen to the conversation and choose the best summary :
1.The benefits that advances in science and technology may bring to people ‘s
lives .
2.The benefits and drawbacks that advances in science and technology may bring
to people ‘s lives .
3.The drawbacks that advances in science and technology may bring to people ‘s

lives .
To do well to hear all these, students need to focus on the important words like:
benefits, advances, drawbacks, ... If the students do not distill the important
words, teachers can stop at the words, to pay attention of the students. From the
above words, students can easily generalize the overall conversation and find the
right answer.
- To develop listening skill through other skills:
The skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing have a close relationship
with each other and develope almost simultaneously. So, to want to improve
students' listening skill through forms of exercise we can’t ignore the other
listening skills:
a. Speaking skill:

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Speaking and listening skills are the two inseparable skills, we have
relationships with each other. We can only say when we hear and versa.
Understanding this relationship in my speaking time , I always train students how
to speak proper phonetics, intonation, speak with an accent and grammar exactly.
We need to train students with speaking English rather than read from English
couple. Most students have not spoken English correctly yet, so it often interferes
with listening to the radio, tape ... When speaking ability of students to gradually
perfect, the sound issue is resolved, the ability to understand listening becomes a
lot easier.
b. Reading and writing skills:
Reading and writing also play a very important role. Students should learn
better in these skills, there will be more vocabulary and grammar knowledge to
make, read, write correctly and listen exactly, too. So, developing reading and
writing skills also mean that we develop listening skill for students.

Thus, with those listening exercises and with the way to teach normally , the
result of listening to student teaching is not as high as given in the state. Therefore,
I have manipulated some new techniques effectively as before listening to any kind
of exercises, we would have to orient students to the context, the relationship
between the speaker and the types of exercises that they hear what kind of exercises
are, listening for specific information or listening for the main idea? In addition, I
also focus on developing listening skill for students through other skills such as
speaking, reading and writing skills *Frequently used listening techniques:
* Technique 1: Grid ?
Aims: The teachers train students to grasp the words of others to make the right
response in the circumstances. The material is used for this exercise as a
conversation, so we should choose from three grid. This type of exercise can be
used for CD or DVD .
Procedure:
There are two ways to design : Who said what? (Unit 10: Communication
/Skills 2)
The first is for a number of questions, students listen and complete the
following grid .
Should
1.Use CAPSLOCK
in
email,posts and comments.
2. Check your emails for

Shouldn’t

Why/Why not

X
X

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mistakes or errors
3.use alot of shorthand

X

4.respect discussion rules and
use police language

X

The second is the character's name, student record a few words of his character.
Should

2. Check your emails for mistakes or errors

Shouldn’t

1.Use CAPSLOCK
comments.

in

email,posts

and

3.use alot of shorthand
Why/Why not

* Technique 2:

4.respect discussion
language

rules

and

use

police

Retell the story

Aims: The teachers train retention of students. This article is a follow-up activitie
(follow-up activity) used after students have completed the listening section. You
can use CD or DVD for this exercise.
Procedure:
- Class work. Have students listen to the fairy tale The Princess and the Dragon.
- Class work. After students have mastered the contents of the story, the teachers
have students listen again a certain part of the story, not necessarily the end of the
story, students must reconstruct the story to the right place then stop.
- Ex:....................................... ..
Once upon a time, there was a king and a queen who lived in a with their
beautiful daughter. One night an ugly ogre captured the princess and put her in his
tall, dark tower. The king and the queen were very sad. They promised to to the

knight that rescued the princess. Many knights wanted to rescue her. But they all
ran away when they reached the tower and saw the ogre roaring . One day a dragon
was flying over the tower when he heard the princess cry for help. The dragon flew
down to the tower, took a big fiery and blew the ogre far away. The dragon rescued
the princess from the tower and gently put her on his . They flew back to the castle.
The king and the queen were so happy. The dragon turned into a handsome prince
and married the princess. They all lived happily ever after.
Students tell the story of two sections here.
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- Group work: Students work in groups together to reconstruct the story.
* Technique 3:

Task cycle

Ask students to listen to Mai’s presentation on the xoe dance and complete the
table.
Play the recording once then ask student to listen carefully and complete the
table.Then the recording again then check. Make changes to the answers on the
board but do not confirm the correct answer.
1. happy and weathy
2. private gathering
3. 30
4. the circle dance
5. social
6. fire
7. the music
8. culture and lifestyle
-The techniques are used to teach the steps of listening.

a. Pre- Listening teachniques:
* True/ False statement prediction
- The teacher writes from 5 to 10 sentences on the board, basic on the main ideal of
the listening: ½ sentences are true (T), ½ sentences are false (F).The students guess
T sentences and F ones.
- The students read their statement prediction (T/F)
- The teacher doesn’t t give the answers (T/F)
- The teacher plays the tape.
- The students listen and check.
- The students compare with their partners.
* Open prediction:
- The teacher doesn’t give any sentences

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- The teacher sets the scene and asks students to guess the things we are going to
hear.
- The students write their prediction.
- The teacher gets the students to listen to the tape.
* Ordering
- The teacher gives the students some sentences or pictures that they are not in the
order
- The students discuss in pairs , groups to guess
- The sentences or pictures are marked a,b,c…
- The students arrange the order,logic of the story and write: 1-c, 2-a,…
- The students compare in pairs or groups.
- The teacher feedbacks
* Pre- questions:
b. While- listening teachniques:

* Selecting
- The teacher has students see a set of paintings which have some the same ones,
but a bit different.
- The teacher describes one or two paintings.
- The paitings are numbered by the letters.
- The students choose the paiting that the teacher is describing.
* Delibrate Mistaken
* Grids
- The teacher draw the table on the board.
- The students listen to the tape and fill in the table.
- Example
CAUSE

EFFECTS

THERMAL POLLUTION

SOLUTIONS

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* Listening and draw
- The teacher gives the students diagrams, maps.
- The students listen and fill in to
- The teacher asks some students to go to the board and write what they have heard
c. Post listening
* Recall.
- recalls summary of the conversation in their own language then you've heard in
Pre and While.

* Survey
- The teacher gives the topic.
- The students work in pairs to ask and answer about the information that they need
After interviewing, the teacher asks some students to retell the whole class the
information that they have known.
*Role play
* Transformation.
2.4.The results after applying the experience initiative
Through practical teaching English at Quang Long Secondary School, I have
found the study to improve listening skill to students is a necessity because it does
not only help the students in the learning process other skills but also the awareness
of the importance of listening helps the school or teachers of English investment
facilities to teaching and learning.
The research aimed at improving listening skills for students to focus on specific
content such as: sorting the forms of listening in class to find out difficult problems
that students often make mistakes when listening to words in order that we give the
innovative solutions. The initiatives were given to solve problems commonly when
listening and give students some other teachniques to hear while experience is still
the most important orientation for students before listening, having a proper
orientation method has solved the success of listening to 80%.

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This topic has been done to bring highly effective in teaching listening
skills.Survey results compare the first semester with the first of school year is much
higher when it hasn’t been required the listening in test. Results of the survey are :
Class Total Excellent

Good

SL

%

SL

%

Fair
SL

Poor

Fail

%

SL

%

SL 0%

8A

23

8

34,8
%

9

39,1%

6

26,1%

0

0%

0

0%

8B

23

1

4,4 %

8

34,8 % 12

52,1 %

2

8,7%

0

0%

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3. RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS:
3.1.Conclusions.
On the basis of studying and teaching listening skills, I know that the students have
basic difficulty in learing this skill.That's why,students have some limits in
acquiring new lessons.That leads to low result of the new periods.
Through the procession of researching and learning from my collegues,I
have set up some good ways of teaching listening skill.The past purpose is to help
students understand the foci of the lessons to have the further vision,apprehend the
knowledge more creatively and actively.
The fact has shown that the students have acquired the lessons more
quickly.Moreover,they have also promoted the ability of their thought,creativity
and curiousness.In a nutshell,with this experience,I hope to contribute to the
improvement of the teaching quality for the poor students as well as brilliant ones.
3.2.Propose.
- I'd like to put forward my ideal of having functional rooms for teaching forein
languages.

- I'd like to suggest that the expert of English of Education Service should sit in on
the periods and direct the activities of the termly seminars.
- Every year,the papers and keys to the povincial exams for excellent students
should be posted on the internet for us to refer.
- I would suggest that the Education Service should have some changes in
assignment for each teacher to have the opportunity to teach a period and then their
colleagues make comments on the period.
- I would like to propose the school to build functional rooms with projector
lamps, projectors, sound equipment, loudspeakers, fans to support the teaching and
learning English subjects in secondary schools.
- I would like to suggest that the department of education buy additional software
to support teaching and learning English.
- I would suggest that the Education should have some changes in assignment for
all fellow teachers to have the opportunity to teach a period and colleagues
comment.

Sincerely thank you.

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Confirmation of the principal

Quang Long , April 18th,2019
I hereby declare this initiative is my
experience wrote. Do not copy of other
person.If
wrong,
I’ll
take

full
responsibility.
Author

Lê Thị Mai

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THE TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.INTRODUCTION

1

1.1.The reasons for choosing topic

1

1.2.The aims of study

2

1.3.The subject of study.

2

1.4.The methods of study.

2

2.THE CONTENTS OF THE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE .

3

2.1.The basis of the theory.

3

2.2.The real situation of the problems before applying the
experience initiative

3

2.3. The result of the real state.

4

2.4.The solutions to the problems.

14

2.5.The results after applying the experience initiative

15

3. RECOMMEDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

15

3.1.Conclusions.

15

3.2.Propose.

15

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ

17


PHÒNG GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO QUẢNG XƯƠNG

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

TÊN ĐỀ TÀI

HOW TO TEACH LISTENING SKILLS FOR STUDENTS
IN GRADE 8 EFFECTIVEL

Người thực hiện: Lê Thị Mai
Chức vụ: Giáo viên
Đơn vị công tác: Trường THCS Quảng Long
SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực( môn): Tiếng Anh

THANH HOÁ, NĂM 2019

18