Teaching listening skills in online lessons
Let’s now think about teaching listening skills in an online lesson. When you teach a listening lesson online, the structure of the lesson is likely to be the same as a face-to-face lesson: you’ll establish a context and engage the learner(s), set a task or tasks while learners listen and then follow up with some kind of speaking task or analysis of language. However, there are some different approaches when teaching listening online.
Task 1
You’re going to watch Lindsay and Marie Therese talking about online listening lessons. What do you think they might say about these things?
1. The main source of listening practice for online learners.
2. How a teacher can best exploit teacher talking time as listening practice.
3. The benefits of using recorded material.
4. What you need to check before a lesson.
Task 2
Now, watch Lindsay and Marie Therese and check your ideas.
Reflect and share
What challenges can you foresee when teaching an online listening lesson? How might you overcome those challenges? Share your ideas in the comments.
