The Benefits of Extensive Listening

(TESOL Worksheets--Extensive Listening)
Google: docs, pub
[This is my Benefits of Extensive Reading worksheet that I've rather crudely repurposed for a listening class.  As with most of  my worksheets, this was done under time pressure, and I just quickly changed a few things on the Extensive Reading sheet to make it suitable for extensive reading.  (In many cases, this amounted to simply just changing reading to listening.  If I have time someday, or if I re-use this sheet in the future, I may try to polish it up a bit.  But for now, here it is.
Procedure: I first clarify for students what extensive listening is (preferably by eliciting).  Then I hand out the question sheet, and students discuss in groups.  I usually find that in the group discussion, and in the open class feedback that follows, students usually arrive at the answers I want, and it's usually not necessary for me to do too much teacher explanation.  The answer sheet is handed out at the end for students to read on their own for homework as consolidation.]

Questions for group discussion:

What is extensive listening?

What kind of things can you use for extensive listening?

How will extensive listening help my grammar?

How will extensive listening help me remember vocabulary that I have already studied?

How will extensive listening help me better understand vocabulary that I have already studied?

How will extensive listening help me learn new vocabulary?

How will extensive listening improve my speaking?

What is extensive listening?

Students listen a lot and read often.

Students listen to a wide variety of topics.

Students only listen to stuff that is interesting or fun for them.

Students choose what to listen to.

Listening focuses on: pleasure, information and general understanding.

Listening is its own reward.

There are no tests, no exercises, no questions and no dictionaries.

The listening material is easy for the students--they can understand the meaning of the text easily without having to work too hard.  The vocabulary is also at an easy level for the students.

Students should be able to listen and understand the material without any help from teachers or dictionaries.  If the student finds that they need to use a dictionary to understand the text, then it is best for the student to stop and pick something slightly easier.

Listening is individual, and silent.

What kind of things can you use for extensive listening?

Anything and everything, including audio books, podcasts, lectures, Youtube videos, songs, movies, TV shows, cartoons, and lectures.

How will extensive listening help my grammar?

As every student knows, learning English grammar can be very difficult.  There are many different language structures.  It is possible to focus on these and understand them one by one in isolation, but it is very difficult to be able to remember them and use them all at once.  In order to fully learn these in your head, you will need to become very familiar with them over time by repeatedly encountering them.  In the very limited time we spend in the classroom, there is no way that you can fully develop your English grammar.  Extensive listening will help you with this in two ways:

Firstly, during extensive listening, you will hear, and be reminded of grammar structures that you have already learned.  This will help you to cement them more fully in your memory.  

Secondly, extensive listening will allow you to hear many types of grammar structures that you haven't yet learned in class.  You may be able to learn some of these structures just through listening.  Other, more complicated grammar structures, you may need to practice more, but listening will help you to become familiar with them so that it will be easier to learn them in class later.

How will extensive listening help me remember vocabulary that I have already studied?

As with grammar, learning English vocabulary can be very difficult.  You have probably realized this already.  In your English classes, you have probably studied hundreds of words.  But how many of these have you really learned?  How many can you remember now?

It is not enough to simply look at a vocabulary word once, and expect to remember it permanently.  In order to fully get the word into your long term memory, you will need to practice it again and again.  In our very short time in the classroom, you will not have enough time to do this.  

Extensive listening, however, will help you review the vocabulary again and again until it is permanently in your brain.  This is why it is useful to be continuously listening in English.  Even if you're not learning new words, you are helping yourself to better remember the old words.

How will extensive listening help me better understand vocabulary that I have already studied?

English vocabulary can be very frustrating for students, because to truly learn a word is often a lot more complicated than simply learning a dictionary definition.  One word can have many different meanings in different situations.  Or two words can mean almost the same thing, but have slightly different nuances (different shades of meaning).  Or words can have different connotations (for example, two words may mean the same thing, but one word would only be used in a positive situation, and one word would only be used in a negative situation.)  There are also different collocations--for example, some nouns will only be used with certain verbs instead of others.

It is impossible to learn all of this simply by looking a word up in a dictionary.  The dictionary definition will give you only a poor understanding of the word, and you will not be able to use it fully.  But extensive listening will help you to get a fuller understanding of what the word means, and how it is used in English.

How will extensive listening help me learn new vocabulary?

Extensive listening should expose you to many new words that you haven't yet learned before.

However, Be careful here.  If there are too many new words in the listening, the listening is going to be too difficult for you, and you will not benefit from it.  You will want to try to pick listening material where you already know 98% of the words in the text.  This means that 98% of the vocabulary will be review for you, but you can still learn new words from the 2% new vocabulary.  This will quickly add up over time if you listen enough.

This has been supported by many scientific studies--students who do a lot of extensive listening have a very high level of English vocabulary.

How will extensive listening improve my speaking?

All language skills in English are interconnected, because they all make use of some of the same knowledge and processes.  Students who increase their grammar and vocabulary through extensive listening will find that this same increased knowledge is now available in their speaking.  In addition, you will find the more exposure you get to spoken English, the better your pronunciation will be.  This will be particularly true of things like word stress, rhythm, and intonation.