Listening skills
 

What do you think are the best ways to improve listening skills for lower intermediate students who are going to attend college and listen to lectures?

What would you do with a group like this if you had two weeks to make a difference?

Any ideas?

Re: Listening skills
 

punt!

(sorry, american football joke)

Re: Listening skills
 

sounds really tough!

first thing, don't expect miracles to occur in 2 weeks. be realistic about what they can actually take away from the course.

second, i'd get them listening to dialogues and news and other audio tapes asap. not only in class but at home as well. get them to spend as much time listening to tapes and answering questions about what they heard. give them 1-3 hours of listening homework a night if possible.

since your focus is listening comprehension, don't spend a lot of time discussing what they've listened to, just make sure they understand most of what they've heard and moce on to the next listening exercise.

hope that helps
eric

Re: Listening skills
 

Alright, I give up and will add my real advice now...

Movies are great for reading along while listening. If you turn on the subtitles in English it will help the students to follow what was said one time. Then repeat the scene without subtitles and ask some questions.

Once they are use to the activity, reverse the order. Show the scene one time without subtitles and ask your questions, then show it again with subtitles.

The benefit of movies is they will have visual clues to work with just as you would have in real life.

You can also try to do short dictations (or brief summaries) from movie scenes and assign some as homework.

If I was in charge of this, I would just use the 2 weeks to show them how to improve their listening on their own for future use after going abroad and freakin' out.