Listening Experiences

CONCEPT:  

Our listening ability – and motivation to listen better – grows through successful 

“listening experiences.” 

A “listening experience” is a self-contained event that involves the listener constructing meaning from the event.  Typically, for pedagogic purposes, a memorable listening event will be 1 or 2 minutes minimum up to 15 minutes maximum. 

It is focused on one central theme and may or may not have a concrete (observable)  outcome, but there has to be some “takeaway” for the listener. 

The concept of “listening experience” is focused on the relevance of the listening input (and any corresponding task) to the listener.  Relevance is the “essential value” to the listener, either having  personal or “intrinsic” value (it affects the listener’s personal life) or its pragmatic or “extrinsic” value (it has some value for functional reasons), or both. ( The instructor of course can attempt to  build relevance for the listeners before they listen.) 

One important gradient in these experiences is the degree of  “authenticity.” An authentic experience is one that occurs naturally “in the real world.”  By contrast, an invented or  pedagogic experience is one that is constructed explicitly for the purpose of teaching.  Although there is no clear boundary between the two types, authentic experiences are preferred in that they tend to generate real emotions, which is a component of long-term learning. 

For each listening experience, evaluate its relevance to you.  Since you’re a language teacher, the functional value of the extract should include its potential (as is or adapted in some way) as a teaching tool.  

(Master List)