Extensive Listening

Warmer

Look at three different times when we use our listening skills (in your L1):

a) you have the news on in the background while you're doing some housework

b) you're at the airport waiting for them to announce your departure gate

c) you're listening to an audiobook

How is the way we listen different in each situation?

Commentary

News in the background - listening for gist. You just want to understand the main idea.

Airport announcement - listening for detail. You want to listen to each word carefully.

Audiobook - listening for pleasure. You do it for fun, because you like the theme.

Intensive vs Extensive listening

In our listening module so far, we've focussed only on intensive listening. Intensive listening is when a teacher chooses a short text, we listen to it together in class and then answer questions about it. Sometimes we listen for gist (e.g. what celebrations do the speakers talk about?) and sometimes we listen for more detailed information (e.g. what do people eat / drink during these celebrations?).

We've demonstrated a lot of success with intensive listening, getting good scores even in IELTS listening tasks, and even finding answers to questions connected to authentic text. Many students, however, say / think something like, "Yes, my dear teacher, but there's a BIG difference between listening to a 2-minute text and watching a 2-hour movie!"

The student is right here - there IS a difference, and the good folks in the world of English teaching have labels for these differences. The listening we do in class with questions is INTENSIVE listening, but the listening that you do for pleasure (watching TV series / movies, listening to podcasts etc) is extensive listening.

Pre-reading

We're going to read a text about extensive listening.

Before we read, answer the following questions with a partner:

What do you think are the benefits of extensive listening?

What methods should you use while doing extensive listening (i.e. should you take notes? should you pause to look up an unfamiliar word?)

What materials are suitable for extensive listening?

What are the benefits of EL?

Most learners understand that it is a great benefit if they have the chance to travel to an English-speaking country. This is because you will be immersed in (surrounded by) the language. You will spend all day using English and will improve quickly. With extensive listening, the goal is similar.

Without an expensive plane ticket, you can immerse yourself in English through long periods of relaxed listening. Yes, you will only be practising listening and not speaking, but that is also what you would mostly be doing if you went overseas to attend a short course, for example.

Extensive listening trains your ears to the sound of English. The aim is to get where the language sounds natural and comfortable to you. With extensive listening, you will be exposed to a wide range of vocabulary, ideas and different styles of speaking.

What is the best method to practise EL?

First, you need to find some long form listening materials. I recommend a minimum of 20 minutes and a maximum of three hours.

Unlike with intensive listening, you will only listen once. However, you should feel free to “rewind” every now and again if you feel you missed something. You do not need to take detailed notes. However, it is always nice to have a notebook handy to write down a few things. You can note down some new words or interesting expressions and ask ChatGPT about them later.

You can use English subtitles to help you along if you really need to, but it is better to listen or watch without subtitles. This is because you want to be immersed in the sound of the language, just like on an overseas trip! While it is good to choose topics that you are interested in, try listening to as wide a range of topics as possible.

Most of all, when practising extensive listening, remember that you do not need to achieve 100% comprehension of what you are listening to. As long as you can follow along, you’re doing it correctly.

What materials are suitable for EL?

Watching the news is a great form of extensive listening, because they change topics every few minutes and you will hear a lot of new vocabulary.

Have you heard of ‘binge-watching’? It means watching multiple episodes of a TV show at one time. Binge-watching may be bad for your physical health, but it is great for extensive listening practice.

TED talks and YouTube channels are also great sources for extensive listening. Choose longer videos and watch two or three at one time.

Finally, there are podcasts. Podcasts are excellent because you can use them for both intensive and extensive practice. You can listen to podcasts in your car, on public transport, while you are cooking or even while doing housework.

The English Learning for Curious Minds podcast is a great choice because it is a little bit slower than the speech on the news, it covers a wide range of topics and the vocabulary is suitable for upper-intermediate learners.

Now work with a partner.

How does the author answer the pre-reading questions that you discussed?

What do you think are the benefits of extensive listening?

What methods should you use while doing extensive listening (i.e. should you take notes? should you pause to look up an unfamiliar word?)

What materials are suitable for extensive listening?

Discussion

The Latin alphabet is really not very good at capturing all the sounds of English (it's tough but can be understood through thorough analysis, though). I have a hypothesis that students try to apply the alphabet when they listen to authentic speech, and this just kills them. Am I right?

The text mentions that immersion in a language will help you to pick it up. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Do you think our ears / brain can naturally 'tune in' to different Englishes?

The text suggests that we should listen to a wide range of things. However, many linguists say that we should just focus on the things that we're interested in. Which approach do you think is more suitable?

The text mentions the 'English Learning for Curious Minds' podacast. Have you heard of it? Have you heard of any other podcasts that are specifically aimed at English learners (like Luke's English podcast)?

The comprehensible input movement

Once upon a time, a linguist called Stephen Krashen came along and dropped a bombshell on the ELT world.

According to Krashen, learning languages is a complete waste of time. It involves remembering rules, repeating after the teacher, trying to memorise words, doing grammar tasks.

Krashen says that we acquire languages in one way, and one way only - through CCI: compelling, comprehensible input.

In short, we acquite language when we read or listen to messages that we understand, and even more so when those messages interest us.

Language production (speaking and writing), says Krashen, is a consequence of language acquisition. In short, this means that speaking and writing is just something that we do after we've acquired the language. It's not something that we do in order to acquire the language.

So what?

Well, this sparked a movement.

The problem is that authentic texts (movies / TV shows / podcasts) are just too difficult for lower- (and even mid-) level learners.

If the text isn't comprehensible, we're not going to acquire much at all. And most text out there just isn't comprehensible, so students turn on the news, try to listen, don't understand anything, get depressed, think they're stupid and then give up.

What's the solution? Make content!

A Youtube search for 'comprehensible input English B2' should give you far more manageable text. If you really think your extensive listening skills are poor, this can be a great place to start.

Discussion

What do you think of Krashen's ideas?

In terms of developing your own EL, do you think it would be better for you to listen to authentic texts or graded texts?

Many believe that the CCI approach is fine for learners of intermediate or above, but never for beginners. What do you think?