Video transcript - A Simple Listening Technique That Changes EverythingDoes this sound familiar? You give your learners a listening task, check the answers, see a couple of mistakes and think “Yeah… listening’s just hard”... and move straight on?
If you want to know what might help to TEACH listening rather than just TEST it, keep watching.
Hi, I’m Jo Gakonga from ELT-Training.com. I’ve been training teachers for over 25 years and today I want to give you one tiny tweak to your listening tasks that’s quick, doesn’t require a lot of preparation and will really help your learners develop their listening skills.
Here’s the problem in a nutshell:
We tell learners whether they got the answer right or wrong… but we don’t always help them understand WHY they didn’t hear it.
And that’s the key.
If they don’t know why they missed something, they can’t do anything about it.
So what can we do?
It’s beautifully simple.
Use the transcript. Pinpoint the problem and listen again.
Let me show you what some of these problems might look like.
Unknown vocabulary
This is such a major one. Let’s say the audio says:
“They postponed the trip because of the weather.”
Your learner writes: “They cancelled the trip.”
And honestly… that’s a good guess. If you don’t know the word postponed, it could be anything. So of course they didn’t hear it.
What can you do?
Open the transcript and say, "this word is probably new for you.”
You explain it, maybe practise saying it.
Then replay just that line and suddenly …they can hear it.
Another problem- They missed it because of fast, natural speech
The Audio says:
“I’m going to grab a coffee before the meeting.”
Your learner writes:
“I’m going to grab a coffee for the meeting.”
Again, not a terrible guess. It’s what they heard. But it does change the meaning.
What you do?
Open the transcript.
Point to "before the meeting".
Say it slowly, then more naturally: before → ’fore.
Replay that one line.
Suddenly you see the lightbulb moment:
“Ohhh, it wasn’t for… it was before.”
Another common issue is weak forms
Audio says:
“D’you wanna go out for dinner?”
or
“Whaddaya think of it?”
To a learner, that can sound like one very long, very confused noise.
What you do?
Point to the transcript. Underline the phrase.
Say it slowly and clearly, then faster, showing how the words change. Then let them try it.
When you play it again, you can see their eyes light up:
“Ohhh, NOW I hear it!”
Mishearing words- maybe because of homophones or accent
Audio:
“I’ll see you at the city.”
Learner writes:
“I’ll see you at the sea.”
Totally understandable, especially when the speaker’s accent makes that final /t/ more of a glottal stop.
What you do?
Show them the transcript.
Ask: “What did you hear? Why might that be?”
Say it to them with slower pacing.
Ask them to listen again.
Suddenly it’s clear – or at least a bit clearer.
Why this works
If you do this regularly, it helps learners to understand whether they missed something because of a weak form, an accent, speed or simply a new word they didn’t know. And it helps break things down and give some sense of control.
Try this in your next lesson. It takes minutes:
1. Do the listening.
2. Check answers.
3. Open the transcript.
4. Re-listen and ask:
– What made this hard to hear?
– New vocab?
– Reduced forms?
– Accent?
– Confusing words?
It transforms the task from testing into teaching.
If you’ve got a favourite listening trick, pop it in the comments. I always reply. And check out my website for lots more ideas.
