Teacher Activity 2

Listening Skills

The purpose of this activity is to develop student’s listening skills. Students should demonstrate an ability to listen closely to what others are saying when they take part in discussions. At Level 3 they have to show the ability to listen sensitively to what others are saying. We are all too aware that there is a difference between hearing and listening and this exercise will allow student to develop those skills required to achieve their key skills qualification in Communication

Put the students into pairs –one will be the communicator and the other will be the listener.

You will need a paper and pencil and the sketch on the following page – the communicator must describe the sketch to the listener who will draw the whole page without asking any questions. The objective of this exercise is to develop the student’s ability to listen closely, a skill that they will need to demonstrate at all levels.

Allow 3-5 minutes to complete the task.

If possible tape record the descriptions that the students give – evaluate the effectiveness of the activity. Did they manage to recreate the sketch? Did anyone not manage to do it and why? Discuss the use of language – was it descriptive enough? How difficult was it to listen without asking questions? Who managed to produce the best diagram and why?

* This exercise will also focus on the communicator’s ability to communicate!

Video students taking part in a one-to-one discussion about a topic of their choice or get them to observe a discussion-taking place. Get them to note in particular any body language that would suggest that the participants are listening to what is being said by others. In particular they should be looking for; nodding; eye contact; way that the participants are sitting; fidgeting, etc.

Get the students to list at least 10 ways that you can tell someone is listening closely.

Bring in a recent newspaper. Divide the class into three groups as follows:-

Group 1 – at the front - must listen intently to what is going to be read and must not make notes

Group 2 – in the middle of the classroom - must take detailed notes

Group 3 – at the back of the classroom - only allowed to note key points

Read out to the class the first five lines of three/four main stories on the front page of the newspaper (or any other page). Do this quite quickly – but not too fast so that they can’t understand what you are saying. Once you have done this allow a one-minute pause, and then get each group to feedback to you on what you have just read out. Once each group has given their feedback, repeat the process again, three/four times using another page of the newspaper.

The aim of this exercise is to demonstrate to students the effectiveness of noting KEY POINTS when taking part in a discussion as a tool, keeping them and the discussion focused. You should find that groups one and two will probably give up as they will find it difficult. Group one will usually have forgotten most of the information and group two will not be able to keep up. Group 3 should be able to comfortably keep focused on each story, by just noting the key points/words for each story.