English philology department turgunova Nozima Abdulaziz qizi

Listening
Like many teachers, I used to say “I’ll play the tape twice”! I would move from asking global questions to more intensive questions, but always felt somewhat dissatisfied that I wasn’t really helping students improve their listening. Richard Cauldwell’s article on listening really helped me understand what was going on. It points out that “de-coding speech is….a non-observable mental process”. We hear different things and many of the questions I was asking in class were frustrating for those with a lower level of understanding.
Enter technology! I started to include activities where students move to individual listening tasks using their own mobile devices and headphones.
I introduced strategy work, giving guidance on the value of pausing fast speech and exploring how the judicious use of subtitles can help identify words and phrases. So, my lessons became a bridge to autonomous work which is where I now believe the real work on improving listening takes place.I have since experimented with flipping, asking students to listen to a YouTube video before a class. I was curious as to how many times they listened. The range of replies was astonishing: once, twice, three time, four times, five times. This really brought it home to me how individual decisions as to ‘how’ to listen vary. I have since devised a worksheet wherein students choose what to listen to, (TED.com remains a favourite suggestion), summarise it, note three new words and crucially, reflect on ‘how’ they listened.
Speaking
My EAP (English for Academic Purposes) students naturally use PowerPoint to deliver their presentations. The software is so familiar that they are unaware that they are using technology! Classes concentrate on strategies for making a talk effective, such as incorporating memorable images and reducing text to just key words. Many of my students have serious pronunciation difficulties, so revealing a word at the same time as saying it helps them to be understood by the audience. Like many teachers, I like the engagement and interactivity afforded by Kahoot! My favourite voting app is Mentimeter because it is quick to create a poll, reliable and easy-to-use. Voting anonymously is significantly different from putting up your hand. Doing it remotely remains an exciting event – watching as students’ votes come in. A great way to finish a discussion lesson on controversial issues is with a class vote.
I encourage fluency in the classroom but also ask students to do more discrete practice away from the classroom using their mobile phones – recording themselves, listening and re-recording. They can try out voice searches which are hugely motivating when you achieve success!