.
.
The idea that Dr Medina and Dr Whitehead put forward make me think back to my French lessons at school. Once a week we would be given a listening activity which would generally consist of a monologue or dialogue followed by 10 questions.
Strangely, the teacher would make sure that our schemas were kept unactivated: Before listening, we were given no information about who would be talking or what they would be talking about. And, of course, it was forbidden to look at the questions before hearing the cassette.
Perhaps, in the TEFL world at least, things have changed. There may still be a tendency to teach listening in the same way that we test it. However, there is also an appreciation for the natural process of schema activation which was certainly missing from my French classes.
In an attempt to enhance their comprehension of a text, students are often encouraged to:
- Look at pictures
- Focus on important content words within the text
- Use their powers of prediction
In an attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of such techniques, perhaps we could make use of the above clip.
.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
1. Tell your students that you are going to read out a text and they have to work out what it is about (NB The text can be downloaded on the pdf file 
at the bottom of the page).
2. Read out the text (slowly). Students probably won’t like this. They may even revolt.
3. Divide the class up into five groups. Give out a different paragraph of the text to each group.
- “The procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups. Of course, one pile may be sufficient, depending on how much there is to do.”
- “If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities, that is the next step. Otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things - that is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many.”
- “In the short run, this might not seem important, but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well.”
- “After the procedure is completed, one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places.”
- “Eventually they’ll be used once more and the whole cycle will have to be repeated. However, that is a part of life.”
4. Ask students to put the paragraphs into the correct order. They can only speak while they do this - they cannot show each other their paragraphs.
5. Answer students’ questions about any unknown language.
6. Once the paragraphs are in the correct order, ask students if they can work out what the text is about now. If no one can guess that it is about washing clothes, write the following on the board and play hangman:
The text is about _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
7. Once students realise what the text is about, ask them to identify what is meant by the following:
- Facilities (a washing machine)
- Somewhere else (a laundrette)
- Complications / a mistake (shrinking clothes, a red sock in a load of whites, etc)
- Appropriate places (drawers, wardrobes, etc)
8. Ask students how they do it (i.e. their own washing).
9. Explain the theory of the experiment and ask students how it could be applied to their language learning. Finally show students the YouTube video or email them the link to the clip after class (you may also want to include a transcript which can be downloaded here)
Dr John Medina is the author of an interesting-looking book called ‘Brain Rules’. His YouTube channel can be seen here
Hi Jamie,
This is really interesting. For me, it shows how important it is to set activities in a context so students are active participants in the lesson. I remember being mystified by those French listening activities myself!
Jenny
PS Surely that guy’s accent is fake!?
Left by Jenny Lovel on March 18th, 2009