Chapter 1. Listening
Additional Activities
Scenario B: International Teaching Assistant
Scenario SpotlightThis is Ester’s first year in the USA. She is a PhD student in the Agronomy department, and as part of her assistantship, she is teaching an undergraduate course in her department. While her TOEFL scores were high, and she was confident about her English language skills while she was in her country, she sometimes struggles to understand her students when they are asking questions. She asks them to repeat, and when the students pronounce the words more slowly, she sometimes manages to understand them. She feels like they talk too fast and that’s the only issue that is causing the miscommunication.
1-13 Discussion
Instructions: Read Scenario B carefully. Think about the situation and discuss it with your classmates following the discussion prompts. If working alone, answer the questions in the form of an audio/video journal.
- What issues has Ester had?
- Why do you think this is happening?
- What are some possible explanations about her students’ behavior?
- Ester believes that the issue lies with her students’ fast speech. Do you think this is the main issue? Why or why not?
- What strategies could Ester implement to become a more effective listener?
(Hint) Think about:
- Students’ regional dialects
- Informal speech
- Slang
- Cultural references
- Using effective listening strategies
Listening Activities
Listening for Academic Purposes
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The esl-lab website covers a large number of topics using academic language. For more activities on listening where you can select different levels for students, explore www.esl-lab.com
1-14 Role play
Instructions: Imagine yourself in a specific daily life situation that involves communication. The prompt describes the situation and what you are expected to do in that situation. Assign roles with your classmates, initiate the conversation, explain the situation, and serve as a good listener. If the situation is problematic, you need to find a solution. Practice effective listening strategies, turn-taking, and nonverbal communication.
| Situation | Task |
| A group of friends are at the beach. Some argue that sunbathing can be very harmful for a person’s skin, while others argue it is no big deal. |
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| A graduate student and their advisor are having a discussion. The advisor states that working solely as a graduate assistant is better than having both a part-time job on campus and working as a graduate assistant, but the student disagrees. |
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| Several graduate students are planning a local conference/research group and are discussing what food to order. Some want healthy food and others want unhealthy food. |
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| A graduate student is preparing for their first conference presentation and needs to present their research findings together with their major professor. However, the student suffers from severe public speaking anxiety and is meeting with their professor to discuss this along with their progress with the presentation slides. |
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| An undergraduate student comes to their TA during office hours to complain about their grade. |
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- More ideas can be found in Table 1 here: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8508314/ ↵
