Article

novaekasari09

Just another WordPress.com site

Skip to content

Home About

←   A Teaching Method: Reading Approach

Direct Method as One of Language Teaching Approaches→

A Teaching Method: Suggestopedia

Posted on June 12, 2011by novaekasari

A Teaching Method: Suggestopedia

Written by:

Anggun Apriana (06081001022)

Mutiara Islamiyah (06081001038)

English Education Study Program

Sriwijaya University

INTRODUCTION

Teacher should be creative in using different kinds of teaching method. They have to

choose an appropriate method to transfer the knowledge because they will find different

situation and different students in the class.

Generally, students would not be able to believe that they could be successful in

learning language. This lack of motivation has made students do not have confidence to

speak in the target language because they do not want to make mistakes. Moreover,

they find difficulties to recall the previous lesson, such us memorizing the new

vocabularies. This situation encourages teacher to be creative and to use an effective

method on teaching.

In addition, students have different type of learning style. They learn through their own

learning style which are visual, auditory, or kinesthetic style. Those who are visual learn

trough seeing and they need to see the teacher’s body language and learn best from

visual displays. Then, those who are auditory learn through listening and they learn best

through verbal lectures, discussions, talking things through, and listening to what others

have to say. Besides, those who are kinesthetic learn through moving, doing, and

touching, and learn best through a hands-on approach and actively exploring the

physical world around them. In the class room, teacher will meet these three types of

students. In order to make students could learn well through their own learning style,

teacher is supposed to use an effective method of teaching different types of students.

       Teacher should choose appropriate method of teaching different types of students,

to cultivate students’ motivation, and to increase students’ memorizing

ability. Suggestopedia is one of methods that can be used by teacher. It is a method

that desuggests the limitations that students have to help them to believe that they

could be successful in learning, so it can cultivate students’ motivation in learning. Then,

it is one of methods which concerns to students’ learning style because there are visual

display, audio, and physical involvements during learning process. Moreover, it involves

emotional meaning in given the lesson which help students’ better in memorizing.

SUGGESTOPEDIA

A Brief History

Suggestopedia is a teaching method, which focuses on how to deal with the relationship

between mental potential and learning ability and it is very appropriate to use in

teaching speaking for young language learners (Xue, 2005). This method was

introduced by a Bulgarian psychologist and educator, George Lazanov in 1975. Maleki

(2005) believed that we are able of learning much more than we think, provided we use

our brain power and inner capacities. In addition, DePorter (2008) assumed that human

brain could process great quantities of material if given the right condition for learning in

a state of relaxation and claimed that most students use only  5 to 10 percent of their

mental capacity. Lazanov created suggestopedia for learning that capitalized on relaxed

states of mind for maximum retention material.

Suggestopedia is an effective comprehensible input based method with a combination

of desuggestion and suggestion to achieve super learning. The most important objective

of suggestopedia is to motivate more of students’ mental potential to learn and which

obtained by suggestion. Desuggestion means unloading the memory banks, or

reserves, of unwanted or blocking memories. Suggestion then means loading the

memory banks with desired and facilitating memories.

Lazanov (1978) cited in Lica (2008) argued that learners have difficulties in acquiring

English as the second language because of the fear of the students to make mistakes.

When the learners are in this situation, their heart and blood pressure raise. He believes

that there is a mental block in the learners’ brain (affective filter). This filter blocks the

input, so the learners have difficulties to acquire language caused by their fear. The

combination of desuggestion and suggestion is to lower the affective filter and motivate

students’ mental potential to learn, aim to accelerate the process by which they learn to

understand and use the target language for communication to achieve super learning. It

is the final goal of suggestopedia.

Theory of Language

Lozanov does not articulate a theory of language, nor does it seem he is much

concerned with any particular assumptions regarding language elements and their

organization. Lozanov emphasizes the importance of experiencing language material in

“whole meaningful texts” (Lozanov 1978:268) and notes that the suggestopedia course

directs “the student not to vocabulary memorization and acquiring habits of speech, but

to acts of communication” (Lozanov 1978:109). Lozanov refers most often to the

language to be learned as “the material.”

Theory of Learning

Suggestion is at the heart of Suggestopedia. Lozanov claims that his method is different

from hypnosis and other forms of mind control because they lack a “desuggestive-

suggestive sense” and “fail to create a constant set up to reserves through

concentrative psycho-relaxation” (1978:267). (Reserves are like human memory banks)

There are some principal theoretical components through which desuggestion and

suggestion operate and that set up access to reserves.

Key Features of Suggestopedia

1. Comfortable environment

In suggestopedia method, the classroom is not the same as common classrooms. In the

classroom, the chairs are arranged semicircle and faced the black or white board in

order to make the students pay more attention and get more relaxed. In addition, the

light in the classroom is dim in order to make the students’ mind more relaxed (Xue,

2005).

1. The use of music

One of the most uniqueness of this method is the use of Baroque music during the

learning process. Baroque music, with its 60 beats per minute and its specific rhythm,

created the kind of relaxed states of mind for maximum retention of material. It is

believed that Baroque music creates a level of relaxed concentration that facilitates the

intput and retention of huge quantities of materials. Baroque music helps the students to

reach a certain state of relaxation, in which the receptivity is increased (Radle, 2008).

The increasing of learning potential is put down to the increase of alpha brain and

decreasing of blood preasure and heart rate. The use of music also depends on the

expected skill of the students: listening, grammar, pronunciation, discussion, etc.

1. Peripheral Learning

The students learn English not only from direct instruction but also from indirect

instruction. It is encouraged through the presence in the learning environment of posters

and decoration featuring the target language and various grammatical information. They

are changed everyday. By doing this, the students can learn many things undirectly in

the classroom or outside classroom. For example, students can produce simple

sentence by using the posters or grammatical information on the wall.

1. Free Errors

In the teaching learning process, students who make mistakes are tolerated, for

example in pronouncing the word. The emphasis is on the content not the structure.

Grammar and vocabularies are presented and given treatment from the teachers, but

not dwelt on.

1. Homework is limited

Students reread materials given in the classroom once before they go to sleep at night

and once in the morning before they get up.

1. Music, drama and art are integrated in the learning process

They are integrated as often as possible.

Design

Objective

Suggestopedia aims to deliver advance conversational proficiency quickly. It apparently

bases its leaning claims on student mastery of prodigious lists of vocabulary pairs and

indeed, suggests to the students that it is appropriate that they set such goals for

themselves. Lozanov states categorically, “the main aims of teaching is not

memorization, but the understanding and creative solution of problem”. As learners

goals he cited increased access an understanding and creative solution of problem.

However, because students and teachers place a high value on vocabulary recall,

memorization of vocabulary pairs continues to be seen as an important goal to the

suggestopedia method.

The syllabus

A suggestopedia course last thirty days and consist of ten units of study. Classes are

held four hours a day, six days a week. The central focus of each unit is a dialogue

consisting of 1,200 words or so, with an accompanying vocabulary list and grammatical

commentary. The dialogues are graded by lexicon and grammar.

There is a pattern of work within each unit and a pattern of work for the whole course.

Unit study is organized around three days: day 1 – half a day, day 2 – full day, day 3 –

half a day. One of the first day of work on a new unit the teacher discusses the general

content (not structure) of the unit dialogue. The learners then receive the printed

dialogue with the native language translation in parallel column. The teacher answers

any questions of interest or concern about the dialogue. The dialogue then is read the

second and third time in ways to be discussed sub sequently.

The whole course also has a pattern of presentation and performance. On the first day

a test is given to check the level the students’ knowledge and to provide a basis for

dividing students into two groups, one of new beginners and one of modified (false)

beginners. The teacher then briefs the students on the course and explains the attitude

they should toward it.

During the course there are two opportunities for generalization of material. In the

middle of the course students are encouraged to practice the target language in a

setting where it might be used, such as hotels and restaurants.  The last day of the

course is devoted to a performance in which every student participates. The students

construct a play built on the material of the course.

Types of Learning and Teaching Activities

The types of activities that are more original to suggestopedia are the listening activities,

which concern the text and text vocabulary of each unit. These activities are typically

part of the “pre-session phase”, which takes place on the first day of a new unit.

The students first look at and discuss a new text with the teacher. In the second

reading, students relax comfortably in reclining chairs and listen to the teacher read the

text in a certain way. During the third reading the material is acted out by the instructor

in a dramatic manner over a background of the special musical form described

previously.

Teacher’s Roles

Teacher should create situations in which learners are most suggestible and then to

present linguistic material in a way most likely to encourage positive reception and

retention by learners. Lozanov lists several expected teacher behaviors as follows:

1. Show absolute confidence in the method.

2. Display fastidious conduct in manners and dress.

3. Organize properly, and strictly observe the initial stages of the teaching process—

this includes choice and play of music, as well as punctuality.

4. Maintain a solemn attitude towards the session.

5. Give tests and respond tactfully to poor papers (if any).

6. Stress global rather than analytical attitudes towards material.

7. Maintain a modest enthusiasm.

Learners’ Roles

The learners as well are should have “faith in the system and accept that they are in a

childlike situation where they follow the teacher / parent” (Knight, 2001, p. 154). The

students should not be critical, but simply absorb what is presented to them.

Stages of Suggestopedia

There are three stages in using suggestopedia method. They are:

1. 1.         Presentation

Presentation is the basis of conducting Suggestopedia in class successfully. The

main aim in this stage is to help students relaxed and move into a positive frame of

mind, with the feeling that the learning is going to be easy and funny. Desuggestion

and suggestion happen at this stage at the same time.

2. 2.         Concert

       First Concert

This involves the active presentation of the material to be learnt. The original form of

Suggestopedia presented by Lozanov consisted of the use of extended dialogues, often

several pages in length, accompanied by vocabulary lists and observations on

grammatical points. Typically these dialogues will be read aloud to students to the

accompaniment of music.

       Second Concert

The students are now guided to relax and listen to some Baroque music. The best

choice of music according to Lozanov, with the text being studied very quietly in the

background. During both types of reading, the learners will sit in comfortable seats,

armchairs rather than classroom chairs, in a comfortable environment. After the

readings of these long dialogues to the accompaniment of music, the teacher will then

make use of the dialogues for more conventional language work. The music brings the

students into the optimum mental state for the effortless acquisition of the material. The

students, then, make and practice dialogue after they memorize the content of the

materials.

1. 3.         Practice

The use of a range of role-plays, games, puzzles, etc. to review and consolidate the

learning.

Advantages of Suggestopedia

There are some benefits in utilizing suggestopedia:

1. A comprehesible input based on dessugestion and suggestion principle

By using this suggestopedia method, students can lower their affective filter.

Suggestopedia classes, in addition, are held in ordinary rooms with comfortable chairs,

a practice that may also help them relaxed. Teacher can do numerous other things to

lower the affective filter.

1. Authority concept

Students remember best and are most influenced by information coming from an

authoritative source, teachers.

1. Double-planedness theory

It refers to the learning from two aspects. They are the conscious aspect and the

subconscious one. Students can acquire the aim of teaching instruction from both direct

instruction and environment in which the teaching takes place.

1. Peripheral learning

Suggestopedia encourages the students to apply language more independently, takes

more personal responsibility for their own learning and get more confidence.  Peripheral

information can also help encourage students to be more experimental, and look to

sources other than the teacher for language input. For example, the students can make

some sentences using the grammatical structure placed on the classroom’s wall,

describe a particular place in an English speaking country by looking at the poster on

the wall, etc. When the students are successful in doing such self-activities, they will be

more confident.

Disadvantages of Suggestopedia

Suggestopedia also has limitation since there is no single teaching method that is

chategorized as the best based on some consideration such as: the curriculum,

students motivation, financial limitation, number of students, etc.

The main disadvantages of suggestopedia are as follow:

1. Environment limitation

Most schools in developing countries have large classes. Each class consists of 30 to

40 students. One of the problems faced in utilizing this method is the number of

students in the class. There should be 12 students in the class (Adamson, 1997).

1. The use of hypnosis

Some people say that suggestopedia uses a hypnosis, so it has bad deep effects for

human beings. Lazanov strongly denied about it.

1. Infantilization learning

Suggestopedia class is conditioned be child-like situation. There are some students who

do not like to be treated like this as they think that thay are mature.

CONCLUSION

Teacher will find different situation and different types of students in learning. Therefore,

teacher should be creative and smart in choosing and using different types of methods

in teaching different skill of language. Teacher can use suggestopedia as teaching

method in their teaching. Using suggestopedia is very interesting but challenging to do.

It can be seen from some considerations. In one side it has some benefits, but on the

other side it also has some weaknesses. In addition, the key factors of effective

teaching are not the approaches and methods in language teaching themselves but the

teacher’s deliberate selection of different approaches and methods and the devoted

practice of putting theories into real teaching activities in a corresponding social-cultural

context. It is a fact that no approach or method is perfect. However, there is no end for

teacher to seek the perfection of the approaches and methods in language teaching.

The language teaching method known as Suggestopedia provides some valuable

insights into the power of cognition and creates techniques that make students feel

comfortable, relaxed and suggestible to the material being learned.

New Teachers uses cookies to simplify and improve your usage and experience of this website. Cookies are small text files stored on the device you are using to access this website. For more information on how we use and manage cookies please take a look at our privacy and cookie policies.Your privacy is important to us  and our policy is to neither share or sell your personal information to any external organisation or party; nor to use behavioYES, I AGREE NO, I WANT TO FIND OUT MORESkip to main content

TES New Teachers

Main menu Teaching tips Careers advice Jobs Find an Answer Resources Live advice Sign up Login

How to encourage structured speaking and listening

Mike Gershon

16/4/2013

Mike Gershon shares his tips for enhancing students’ thinking skills by working on

speaking and listening

Recently, a friend of mine came to me with a problem.

We sat down over a drink and talked about it.

He spoke and I listened. Then I asked some questions and he spoke a little more. After

half an hour or so he said that he felt better and could see what he needed to do.

Although I had not offered a specific suggestion or solution to his problem, I had given

him the opportunity to discuss what was troubling him.

Language allows us to organise our thoughts and communicate them. By engaging in

this conversational process we achieve many things. First, we give ourselves a better

sense of what we are thinking, feeling or attempting to say. Second, we give voice to

our thoughts, which makes them real and gives us the opportunity to analyse them

more clearly. The process of speaking and listening moves the problem from the interior

realm and makes it something concrete in the exterior world.

Speaking and listening is integral to our lives. It is also integral to the process of

learning and, by extension, a vital part of any lesson.

The Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky noted the importance of this when observing

the behaviour of children; and we, as teachers, can observe it by watching our students

progress by using discussion and the questioning techniques we teach them.

Here we will look at effective ways of structuring activities so that students do not get

distracted from the topic.

Activities for any subject

“Interviewing” is a fantastic activity for almost any class and in almost any subject.

Present students with a topic you want them to research something their peers can

answer questions about. Invite students to come up with between five and 10 questions

for their peers.

Encourage them to use a mixture of open and closed questions. Then ask them to

interview between three and 10 people in the class, making notes as they go. Finally,

ask them to write up their results and share these with a partner.

The next activity is “speed debating” one of my favourites. Divide the class in half.

Present a proposition connected to the topic, such as “Macbeth was not solely

responsible for his actions”. Get half the class to argue for the proposition and half

against it. Split the halves into even smaller groups and give 10 minutes for preparation.

During this time, students should come up with reasons, evidence and examples to

make their case.

Next, invite the students who are “for” the proposition to sit in a line. The students who

are “against” should sit opposite them, so that members of the opposing sides are

paired.

Give the students who are “for” one and a half minutes to argue their case while their

partners listen. When the time is up, reverse the roles. Finally, have a one-minute free-

for-all in which both sides can argue.

After the first debate, ask half of the class to stand up and find a new partner. The

activity then runs again with the new groups. Repeat this one more time before

wrapping things up, perhaps seguing into a piece of extended writing centred on the

proposition.

The final activity is “paired talk”. Whenever you ask your class a question, present them

with a task or provide a piece of stimulus material and encourage them to discuss it with

the person next to them. Help students to stay on track by modelling what good

discussion looks like. This activity encourages students to express their immediate

responses and thoughts, refine their existing ideas and supplement their thoughts with

those of others, helping them to extend their thinking further.

Encourage high-quality speaking 

In considering paired talk we touched briefly on the importance of facilitating speaking

and listening. Here are some specific techniques to do this.A key here is to wait after asking a question. Giving students time to think and respond is an important part of encouraging high-

quality speaking and ensuring their responses are of a better standard.

Second, is the issue of structure which underpins each of the activities above and

ensures that students’ speech is focused and relevant; that it combines content and

skills without overemphasising or neglecting either.

Third, there is questioning. Adroit use of questions will help the teacher to draw

thoughtful answers and developed ideas from students. Use open questions ones that

ask for clarification or to explain their reasoning.

For example, instead of asking “What is democracy?” try asking “What might

democracy be?”

You can further raise standards by teaching your students how to ask good questions

themselves. Modelling is a part of this, but so too is setting up activities which

encourage them to ask certain types of questions.

For example, you could ask students to focus solely on asking open questions and

follow this with a discussion in which different sorts of questions are analysed and

students assess their strengths and weaknesses.

Listening activities

We will now look at three activities that concentrate on listening.

A “lecturette” is a miniature lecture. During the course of their lives students will

frequently need to listen carefully for an extended period of time. Lecturettes are a way

of helping them to develop those skills.

Provide students with a listening frame, a series of subtitles or relevant keywords and

ask them to make notes while you talk on the topic for about 20 minutes. Then invite

them to share, compare and contrast their notes with three of their peers. They should

add to their notes where appropriate.

The next activity is “hot-seating”, where you divide the class into groups of four and

appoint a hot-seater in each. These students will be told they will be taking on a role or

character associated with the topic under discussion. You might give them a sheet with

background information about the character.

These students are then quizzed by their fellow group members who will be trying to

discover as much as possible about the character the hot-seater is playing. They need

to listen carefully and ask a range of questions to discover the “identity” of the hot-

seater.

The final listening activity is “read-aloud peer-assessment”, which is most effective after

students have completed an extended piece of written work.

There are two ways to structure it. In the first, the teacher chooses one student’s piece

of work and reads it to the class. The students listen carefully and peer-assess what

they have heard. The teacher can provide categories for this peer-assessment success

criteria or leave it open for students to make their own decisions. When the reading has

finished, the students discuss their thoughts.

The second approach has the class divided into groups of four. In each group, one

student reads out a piece of their work while the rest of the group listens. They then

discuss their thoughts. If you have time, repeat the activity until every student has had

their work peer-assessed.

Support high-quality listening

To conclude, let us consider ways to help students listen effectively. 

Here are three potential approaches:

First, provide students with a sheet of A4 paper divided into four. In each quadrant write

a question students can answer by listening to what is said later. Second, give students

a list of keywords to write down, leaving space under each one. As the students are

listening, they should note anything that is relevant to the keywords. Third, provide

students with an outline of what they are going to hear (from a lecturette, an audio clip,

a video or a speaker). They can then add to this as they go along.

Modelling is something teachers do all the time. Things are no different when it comes

to listening. When you are listening in class, think carefully about what you are

modelling for your students. Everything you do should be setting a great example for

your students. Feel free to talk to them about this and talk about your choices and

actions and why they are effective.

Encourage students to ask questions; particularly to demand further facts or

clarification. These help us to understand precisely what the speaker is trying to say and

show that we have not only listened but want to know more. Questions of clarification

include: “What do you mean by that?”; “Could you explain that in more detail?”; and “I’m

not quite clear; could you go over that again?” They will all help students to become

better listeners.

Conclusion

So there you have it, a brief collection of strategies and techniques to help ensure that

excellent speaking and listening takes place.

Hopefully we can show students that by using these skills they will be likely to make

much greater progress. And, of course, it is our greatest hope that they will enjoy

themselves at the same time.

For the sake of clarity

When asking for further detail, use these questions:

What do you mean by that? Could you explain that in more detail? Could you go over that again? Do you mean …? How might you explain that in another way?

So to speak

The benefits of structuring speaking and listening:

It channels students’ energy in the direction you want it to go. It creates a sense of purpose that motivates students. It gives the activity a clear sense of progression, which is good for students, teachers

and any observers. It allows you to support learners who may otherwise struggle. It gives you the means of keeping students on track.

Why is speaking and listening important?

It forms the bedrock of our culture. It helps to develop our thoughts. It is an excellent precursor to writing. It gives us an insight into what other people think and feel. It allows us to analyse and interrogate different ideas.

Mike Gershon is an author and sociology teacher at King Edward VI School in Bury St

Edmunds. 

Based on an article first published in TESS on 12 April, 2013

Mike Gershon's resources for speaking and listening

Discussion Toolkit

The toolkit guides you through a variety of activities you can use to structure and

encourage discussion in the classroom.

Challenge Toolkit

The Challenge Toolkit provides 50 different activities to stretch and extend students'

thinking. The activities are generic and can be used across Key Stages and in different

subjects.

The Whole Class Feedback Guide

Included are 25 different strategies for eliciting feedback from an entire class of

students. All the strategies are generic and can be used across the Key Stages and the

curriculum.

Peer and Self-Assessment Guide

A straightforward guide to peer and self-assessment. Includes a step-by-step guide

explaining how to embed it in your practice.

Find all of Mike's teaching resources here: www.tesconnect.com/mikegershon and find

his books on Amazon here .

Further resources for speaking and listening

Speed Debating

Requires pupils to find evidence in a text and explain how this supports their point.

Debating lesson

Lesson detailing rules and strategies for a class debate - includes co-operative learning

strategies.

Developing empathy

This lesson plans get students to develop empathy and consider the impact of their

actions on other people’s feelings through script work or hot seating.

Peer Assessment - personal writing

Helps to encourage pupils to peer assess personal writing. Pupils are encouraged to

highlight evidence of thoughts and feelings.

James Bond - Listening Skills

A fun activity that demonstrates to your class just how much information goes in when a

teacher is "just talking". 

SHORT ARTICLESYear 12; Issue 4; August 2010, ISSN

1755-9715

How to Make Listening and Speaking More Enjoyable

Gulnare Hajiyeva, Azerbaijan

Gulnara Chingiz Hajiyeva is a teacher at the Azerbaijan University of Languages. She is interested in the interactive teaching methods of EFL. She has written 2 articles on the topic “Authentic Materials In The Teaching Process”.Current interests are learning more about interactive teaching methods of EFL and how to apply them in the teaching process in a more effective way. She enjoys working with students and sharing teaching experiences with colleages. E-mail: gulu_13 @yahoo.com

Menu

IntroductionBackgroundExamplesConclusionReferences

Introduction

Developing students’ listening skills is fundamental to their progress in acquiring the language. In the same way, giving them opportunity to develop their fluency, to try things out in the language without fear, to make mistakes and learn from them, is very important. However, listening classes are often difficult and even boring for students because the listening piece itself is not interesting for them or, because teachers expect them to heareverything and answer lots of questions. It becomes stressful, instead of enjoyable. In order not to face this difficulty teachers need to recreate the motivation that engages all the students in the topic and really make them want to listen. But how can the teacher do that? Not all the students are interested in every single topic that the teacher brings to the classroom. However, real teachers’ job is to motivate their students to listen, whatever the topic. Giving students’ a choice about which piece of information they would like to listen for from any listening task is a way of creating an effective reason to listen. Other things the teacher can do are:

Always to have a lead-in, e.g. engaging the students in the topic .Pictures and other visuals on the target listening material can

be helpful to the teacher in this step.

To make a link between the topic and the students’ own lives and experiences (personalization).

To have a pre-listening task which helps students to focus on the task that the teacher require the students to do when they listen., e. g. prediction from some extracted information ( key words, title); read questions about the listening; students compose their own questions.

To set a clear global listening task; Global tasks focus on gist e. g. guess the title; put events in the correct order; check texts against predictions made beforehand.

To set a clear specific listening task; Specific tasks focus on specific details (e.g. answering questions about specific items of information; using the text to fill in a form etc.), require more comprehensive understanding (e.g. comprehension questions; discussion of issues; comparison of viewpoints etc. ) , and test individual language items ( grammar or vocabulary; working out meaning of words from context).

To do a follow- up task if relevant, e.g. speaking (role-play, debate, or writing task).

Background

In the present EFL classroom, the teaching of listening and speaking relies heavily on the language labs and tape recorders. The main reason for this is that most EFL teachers are non-native English speakers and thus may lack proficiency in English. That’s why sometimes native English speakers have been invited recently to teach listening and speaking in an integrated form and to achieve better results.These teachers have made listening and speaking classroom more lively and even have made passive students listen more attentively. However, while observing these kind of classes we can easily see that yet all students are not involved in the class, only the better students take the opportunities to talk in group work. Furthermore, it’s these students who speak for most of the discussion time.These students are able to monopolize discussions for the following reasons:

The large size of the class : This makes it difficult for teacher to control the whole class in group work and to get feedback from all students.

Affective factors: Some extroverted students tend to be talkative and learn better in oral work, while the introverted ones remain quiet.

Lack of interesting authentic materials: Listening materials depend to a large extent on the text-book. Even teachers who are very proficient in English are not encouraged to make tapes of their own

for the students.

In order to enhance the listening competence of the students and at the same time to involve all the students in the listening process the teachers should follow the several tips given below:

1. Use short recordings. Two or three minute-listening material is often enough.

2. Give the students a slightly higher listening than their level but make sure the task is easy.

3. Vary the tasks that the students do before, while, or after listening.

4. Let the students check their answers in pairs before taking feedback from the whole class.

5. Allow the students to control the recorder sometimes.

6. Vary listening materials as soon as possible. The teacher can bring different songs or sound-tracks to the classroom and do various activities with them ,etc.

Now, I want to share my class-experiences on the last point of tips. Sometimes I prefer to make listening classes more enjoyable as it provides excellent learning opportunities for students. It can also be a very memorable way of learning. I usually find the activities described below very helpful and useful for developing the students’ listening and speaking skills in an integrated way.

Examples

Activity 1

The teacher assigns the students to choose their favourite sound tracks and bring them to the classroom, but the chosen pieces of music should be popular ones. During the class the students one by one plays their soundtracks . After listening to the piece of music, the rest of the class gives different kind of questions to the presenter-student in order to find out the names of the film and singer.

Example

The soundtrack of “The Bodyguard” plays. And the students who have already listened to it begin to ask these kind of questions:

1. Is it a romantic film?

2. Does the singer her/himself star in a film?

3. Does the singer love the main hero of the film?

4. How does the film end? etc.

After getting their answers the students sound their answers. And finally,the presenter defines the correct answer:- “Yes, it’s true.” The correct answer is the film “Bodyguard” and the singer is Whitney Houston. Then the other student follows the same procedure till all the students perform their sound-tracks.

This activity is good for developing the students’ both listening and speaking skills. Firstly, the students listen to the lyrics of the sound-track and it’s enjoyable for them and in itself an interesting piece of listening material for them . Even sometimes they sing themselves together with the singer. It motivates a positive emotional approach to language learning and introduces students to the music and culture of particular interest to them in the target language community. Russian methodologists consider works of art – poetry, prose, paintings, songs, etc.- to be effective tools that stimulate the content of foreign language speech(Gurvich, P. 1974. The basis of teaching spoken English at foreign languages departments. Vladimir, Russia.)While listening to a song, students begin to recognize the words and notions easily understood by native speakers but which may present difficulty for foreigners. Secondly, it provides good opportunity for students themselves to share their ideas, feelings on the playing piece of music. It creates a suitable atmosphere that allows students to express themselves freely and make them feel eager to communicate. Furthermore, the classroom, thus, is a non-threatening environment where students are eager to communicate and where the focus is on the process of learning, not on error correction. Here the errors should be viewed as a natural part of learning process, never as a drawback.

Activity 2

This activity is good for giving the students some listening practice if the teacher doesn’t have access to a cassette recorder or CD player.

The teacher calls one of the students outside of the classroom and narrates him one story and assigns him or her to retell the same story to one of his group-mate in 2 or 3 minutes(it depends on the length of the story). The listener-student is not allowed to ask any questions of misunderstanding. S/he is only passive listener in this game. The main task of a listener-student is to listen attentively and try to get as much as specific detailed information. The retelling procedure goes on till all the students share this story with one-another .Finally, the last student comes and presents the students’ story to all class , and also the students listen to the original story narrated by the teacher. At the same time they guess how different and funny form of the story they’ve made in the process of listening and

narrating.

Example

The Story--------------A Question of Choice

Many years ago, when a person who owed money could be thrown into prison, a merchant in London had the misfortune to owe a huge sum to a money lender. The money- lender, who was old and ugly, wanted to marry the merchant’s beautiful daughter. He proposed a bargain. He said he would cancel the merchant’s debt if he could have the girl instead.

Both the merchant and his daughter were horrified at the proposal. So the cunning money lender suggested that they let Fate decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black stone and a white stone into an empty money-bag, and then the girl would have to pick out one of the stones. If she chose the black stone she would become his wife and her father’s debt would be cancelled. If she chose the white stone she would stay with her father, and the debt would still be cancelled. But if she refused to pick out a stone, her father would be thrown into prison , and she would starve.

Reluctantly the merchant agreed. They were standing on a stony path in the merchant’s garden as they talked, and the money-lender stooped down to pick up the two stones. While he was picking up the stones the girl, sharp-eyed with fright, noticed that he picked up two black stones and put them into the money –bag. He then asked the girl to pick out the stone that was to decide her fate and that of her father. The girl put her hand into the money-bag and drew out a stone. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall to the path where it was immediately lost among all the others.

“Oh, how clumsy of me,” she said, “but never mind, if you look into the bag, you will be able to tell which stone I took by the colour of the one that is left.”

After I called on one of the students and narrated this story to him, he followed what İ did. So he also retold the same story to his other group mate, and this procedure went on till all students in the group became aware of the given story, but certainly in a quite different content. While listening and retelling the given story ,the students who didn’t get the unknown word , or may be because of less attention that was really needed in it , began to invent it in their own ways in order to have something to retell.. Finally, the last student entered the classroom and produced the invented story.. I ,in my turn also narrated the original story. The students who listened two quite different stories first became shocked, and then burst into laughing because at the end of their story the merchant’s daughter and the money lender got married, they were very happy with many merry

children.

As previously said, in this activity, the focus is again on the process of improving both listening and speaking skills and how the teacher can do it in an interesting way. All along the narrating process, students are stimulated to gain accuracy and fluency, keeping in mind that errors should be corrected so as to have students learn from their own mistakes. On the other hand, stimulations fulfill the requirements of interactive method of teaching where they hear and use the target language in order to get more specific information on the plot of the story and reproduce it effectively to his /her partner. Also stimulations keep students highly motivated, giving them a chance to be involved in creative language use, to be exposed to the language as a system, and to develop strategies that will be of importance in their learning processes.

Conclusion

A teacher of English should always be creative and innovative. Songs and stories in ELT will help him or her to make the learning process more enjoyable and effective. Furthermore, the use of songs and stories in teaching and improving the students’ listening and speaking skillsis

1. motivating because the students consider them a game;

2. relaxing because it is a way of creating a less tense EFL class;

3. confidence building because it makes students realize they can understand and have fun with a language different from their mother tongue;

4. exciting because it is a challenge to catch as more detailed information or words as possible;

5. easy to do for the teacher because you need only a song or a story and CD-player;

References

Beatriz, Ch. 1997. Developing Speaking Skills by Creating Our Own Stimulations for the EFL Courses. English Teaching Forum 35,3, pp 54

Brown, H.D.1994. Principles of language learning and teaching.3 rd ed. Prentice Hall Regents.

Gurvich, P. 1974. The basis of teaching spoken English at foreign languages departments. Vladimir, Russia

Harmer J.1991. The practice of English language teaching.

London:Longman Group U.K.Limited.

Klassen,J.1991. Using student errors for teaching. English Teaching Forum, 24,1, pp10-16

www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology.shtml A framework for planning a listening skills lesson .Nik Peachey. Pre-Listening activities.& Find the gap-Increasing speakingin class. Gareth Rees Helping teens to listen. Kevin Thomson and Speaking and elementary learners. Sue Leather

ReferencesApriana, A. (2011). A Teaching Method: Suggestopedia. Novaekasari09 , 1.

Brown, H. D. (2007). Principle of Teaching Listening and Speaking. In H. D. Brown, Teaching by Principle (pp. 310-332). United States of America: Pearson Education .Inc.

Gershon, M. (2013, April 16). TSL Education Ltd. Retrieved January 20, 2014, from http://newteachers.tes.co.uk/: http://newteachers.tes.co.uk/content/how-encourage-structured-speaking-and-listening

Hajiyeva, G. (2010, August 4). Humanising Language Teaching. Retrieved February 25, 2014, from hltmag.co.uk: http://www.hltmag.co.uk/aug10/sart05.htm