What and Why?
Many of the activities in Primary Colours are based around the pupils listening to the recording as a stimulus for speaking activities afterwards. Many pupils find listening to the recordings difficult - they may suffer from minor deafness or the room may be noisy. Many problems of discipline and motivation
often stem from the fact that pupils can't hear the recording clearly.
Practical ideas
- Listening at this level is generally a means of helping the pupils learn the language. If listening activities are used as a goal of language learning, they are supported with questions or a table to fill in which helps pupils' listening.
- Listening in a foreign language is very difficult and many pupils need the support of pictures, pre-reading the text, or to have the text in front of them. Limit the number of listening activities which the pupils do without this support.
- If pupils listen to an episode of the story without the text, pause the recording between frames and ask pupils to write down some key words they have heard to give them a framework or you could write some key words for each frame on the board first to guide them through the listening.
- Ask pupils to listen in pairs or groups and then to share their ideas about the text afterwards.
- Sit at the back of the class and check whether the recording is loud enough.
After the children have heard the stories from you and on the cassette, write the key phrases on the board and practise them with the class as a whole so that they understand what they mean and how to say them.
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