Information collection & exchange

 
 En
Whole-message listening is the aural equivalent of skimming a text in reading. Just as when you skim a text 
to 
dis
Su
ll your class about your weekend, and you want them to 
understand the main ideas, to see the big picture. You want them to understand that you went to visit a 
frie
about some of the problems in selling fish, had a great meal with your friend, and came home. You may well 
include details about the fish-the type, the size, the food they eat, the rate of growth. You may also want to 
talk
ey face, but you will 
ot expect your students to understand and retain all the details. 
tail they do not understand. Help 
our students make intelligent guesses about what is going on and encourage a tolerance of ambiguity. 
training and your first six months on the 
b, you will probably remember some of the frustration you felt at not being able to understand everything 
go
for
an
str
wo
rtain control of 
e details and concentrate on the main points the speaker is making. You want to encourage the strategies 
owever, you need to recognize that for some learners this giving up of control makes them anxious. You 
l listening, but you should make it clear that you consider that these errors, and risk taking in 
eneral, are part of the learning process. 
Gu
an
"De
It belongs to_____(owner). 
ckboard into three sections, allocating one section to each team. Number each t
"d
Now, number 10, to the blackboard please. I want you to draw a tree next to the house. Thank you. etc. 
courage whole-message listening 
get the main idea, so in whole-message listening the goal is to listen for the main ideas and not to be 
tracted by details or failure to understand individual words. 
ppose that on a Monday morning you decide to te
nd working on a fish pond project, met with some of the farmers interested in setting up fish ponds, talked 
about the farmers' reasons for wanting to build ponds and some of the problems th
n
When you check for comprehension, make sure that everyone understands the major events of your story 
and make it clear that in this instance, global listening and understanding is what you are after. Encourage 
and praise those students who do not shut down as soon as they hit a de
y
If you think back to your language learning days during pre-service
jo
ing on around you. You may also have noticed that Trainees and Volunteers had two different strategies 
dealing with ambiguity. Some went after the details, interrupted speakers when they did not understand, 
d constantly consulted their dictionaries, intent on finding the exact meaning of every word. Others did not 
ain after the meaning of every syllable and seemed content to go with the flow. But in fact they were 
rking hard, tracking the main ideas of conversations. These learners tolerate having unce
th
of this second type of learner among your students. 
H
can counteract some of this anxiety in the way you deal with errors. Your students will make mistakes in 
their globa
g
essing games are a good way to foster risk taking and intelligent guessing. Some of them are very short 
d simple and could be included as a wrap-up activity at the end of your lessons. For example, the exercise 
scribing an Object" has simple steps. 
1. Think of an object, which may be in the room or in a picture on the wall, and describe it. Tell your 
students to raise their hands if they think they know what you are describing. 
. For beginners it might help to write on the board examples of the language you will be using: 
2
It's______(color). 
It's______(size). 
It's______(shape). 
It's made of_____(substance). 
It's used for_____(purpose). 

---

Yo
abstract items. To define these items you might want to use antonyms ("It is an adjective and it means the 
pposite of intelligent."), or synonyms ("It is an adverb and it means the same as 'wonderfully'."), or 
as 
ell as for encouraging intelligent guessing. 
xercises in which students listen to a passage and then complete charts or graphs encourage listening for 
1. Tell your students you are going to read the passage three times: first at normal speed, then at a 
. Ask the students to follow carefully and to fill in the blank spaces in the chart as they listen. 
Second, you must make a detailed list of what you have to study. I think you will have to concentrate on 
mar points, and
(3) vocabulary items. 
times you are free. This means you have to mark: 
y
riods, 
y
nd 
a
the weekend. 
Fourth, you must decide what are the most important items to be
i
T
t make a 
(1) what you are going to study, and
area. Try to find somewhere:
this
ay 
e lt m ch more in 
u can adapt this same exercise for intermediate or advanced students by choosing to describe more 
o
comparisons ("It's like an extremely strong wind."). These exercises are useful for reviewing vocabulary,
w