Of uzbekistan tashkent state pedagogical university named after nizami foreign languages faculty

CHAPTER II. PARTS OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION
2.1. The pre-listening stage
The first of three stages of listening comprehension is the pre-listening stage, which contains things or activities that learners are asked to do before the listening. It should help learners to obtain the most out of what they are going to do. This stage is usually used before the students listen to a text. Students must be motivated and it is enevitable to help them adapt to listen. Students need to know the reason to listen and see the listening material. The teacher should debate with students their background knowledge of the topic and linguistic aspects of the text The pre-listening stage is used for activating previous knowledge. It is also used to help students to prepare for the listening process. As Rixon claims, in the pre-listening phase, it is useful to evade pre-teaching the language of the listening text, or telling learners as much as possible about the topic or the instruction included in it, as this removes the challenges and interest. Pre-listening work should be achieved in a kind of ways and appears quite naturally when listening forms part of an integrated abilities course. When planning listening lessons, it is necessary to allocate time for pre-listening activities and these activities shouldn't be attacked⁴.
To sum up, the pre-listening stage is primary and needful part of listening comprehension, which could help learners to adapt for the listening.

1. 
   Types of pre-listening activity
   

The word „activity" used in this chapter to cover all kind of things that should be done, in or outside the room. Some pre-listening activities are clearly preparation for listening, such as reading about a topic, while others may appear to be no more than the setting up of the while-listening activity. “Pre-listening activities should make students aware of the type of text, provide them with knowledge necessary for comprehension of the text, and clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the text."⁵ Students should be arranged with maps, diagrams, graphs, pictures. They should be able to foresee the content of the listening passage or revise vocabulary or grammatical structures.
Pre-listening work may consist of a complete of activities, including:
- the learners reading something appropriate,
the teacher giving background knowledge,
the learners looking at pictures,
a question and answer session,
discussion of the topic,
written exercises,
attention of how the while-listening activity will be done,
resulting the instructions for the while-listening activity.
These activities helps to focus the learners' minds on the topic by narrowing down the things that the learners expect to hear and activating appropriate prior knowledge and already known language. Pre-listening activities are needed just as much when the teacher is going to speak or read the listening passage, though the mind and expanse of the activities may be distinct in this case, and the difference between pre- and while-listening work less clearly defined .
In conclusion, pre-listening activities should make learners informed about the kind of text and clear any information inevitable to embrace the text.

2. 
   Necessity of clear instructions in the pre-listening stage
   

In the pre-listening phase it is important to give learners clear instructions about what to do during the listening. The students need to know what is requested of them. It is necessary part of the pre-listening stage. All the learners should comprehend what they have to do before the teacher start to play, speak or read the listening passage . As Rixon (1993) claims teacher must be sure if students have comprehended the point of listening tasks. According to Pokrivčáková (2010) clear information must be given to the learners before listening. Students have to have a reason to listen.
Commonly listening books produced for learners have clear printed instructions. What is more it is careful to check that everyone has understood and is ready to start, and to add more instructions that might be demanded. The teacher might decide, to break an activity down into smaller steps and would then need to tell this to the classroom . In other words, each learner must be clear what to do during the pre-listening phase and the teacher has to be sure that learners understand what to do.

3. 
   The pre-listening activities
   

In this type of listening stage it is posssible to use a wide variety of the pre-listening activities, which generate interest, build confidence and facilitate comprehension.
Looking at pictures before listening. Learners are asked to look at a picture or a set of pictures. Learners can be required to name the items on the pictures. The items will feature in the listening passage .
Looking at a list of items before listening. This kind of activity is helpful for practising newly learned vocabulary with early learners. The list should not include words which might prove difficult, but should have some purpose of its own in the total listening activity .
Making lists of possibilities or ideas. When a listening passage includes lists of possibilities or ideas it is a good idea to use list-making as the pre-listening activity. The learners can use their own lists as the basis for a while-listening activity. The advantage of this is that learner's lists can only contain words which they know .
Reading a text before listening. Learners can be asked to read a text before listening and then to check certain facts while listening . Furthemore learners might have limited general knowledge about a topic. Providing knowledge input will build their confidence for dealing with a listening. This could be done by giving a text to read or a little more fun (Rees, 2003).
Reading through questions. A number of listening activities ask learners to answer questions based on information they hear. It is useful for the learners to see the questions before they begin listening to the text .
Labelling a picture. This type of activity can be used to revise already known language. It is suitable for pairwork and can generate lots of discussion. Students are required to label as many items on the pictures as possible .
Completing part of a chart. This kind of activity is popular, since students have opportunity to compare their views and judgements with other people's .
Generating interest. Motivating learners is very important. In this pre-listening activity we can use role play to activate vocabulary and prepare learners for listening (Rees, 2003)
Predicting. Learners can be told something about the speaker and the topic and then asked to suggest what they are likely to hear in the listening passage. This activity is useful with advanced or adult learners who are more interested in speculating on the likely behaviour of individuals in particular situations . In this type of activity students need to have plenty background instruction.⁶
Previewing the language which will be heard in the listening text. This activity can be done through discussion initiated by the teacher or by using prompts in the form of a written text .
Activating current knowledge – what do you know about...? In this sort of activity we can ask questions to activate learners previous knowledge about the topic (Rees, 2003)
Informal teacher talk and class discussion. This is a very common pre-listening activity. Teacher gives their learners some background instruction, begin to talk about the topic and indicate what the learners should expect to hear .
To conclude, in this kind of listening phase we can use a range of different the pre-listening tasks and their main aim is to make interest, raise confidence and help understanding.