Listening Extra contains activities that are designed around genuine scenarios and help students improve specific listening skills.
Who is Listening Extra for?
Listening Extra is a resource book containing photocopiable materials for supplementary classroom work. The accompanying CDs contain over two hours of authentic listening practice and the recording scripts are included at the back of the book. The activities provide self-contained lessons for the busy teacher.
Each activity consists of a page of clear, step-by-step Instructions for the teacher and a photocopiable page for the students. The material is aimed at young adults (164) and adult learners. However, most activities can be easily adapted for the needs of younger students. Listening Extra offers teachers an exciting collection of topic-based skills activities from elementary to upper-Intermediate level.
How will Listening Extra help my students?
Listening Extra provides original and stimulating listening practice across a range of popular topic areas. The varied activities are intended to reflect the diverse nature of real-world listening students today face. Activities cover a wide range of different genres, from radio and TV to academic lectures, presentations, debates, and conversational dialogue.
Every effort has been made to make the tasks as authentic and realistic as possible. In addition, students are exposed to a variety of native and non-native accents. A rich vein of humour also runs through the course, to help maintain students’ enthusiasm and interest.
How is Listening Extra organised?
Listening Extra is divided into eighteen units, each focusing on a different theme. Each unit approaches the theme from an Interesting and original angle. The themes cover many of the popular topics found in standard coursebooks.
Therefore the activities can be used to supplement existing course material, offering diversity and a refreshing approach to these familiar themes. Each unit offers three activities at the following levels: elementary, intermediate, and upper-intermediate. A map of the book provides a clear overview of the 54 activities, enabling the teacher to quickly locate a suitable activity for their class.
What is the best way to use Listening Extra in the classroom?
It can be demotivating for students to listen to a recording in class which they simply can’t understand. Many feet frustrated when they don’t understand what they hear. Listening Extro aims to help students succeed. The activities are designed to present students with a challenge they can win.
Students may listen several times to the recording, often listening for different information each time. You can help your students by encouraging them to pool their knowledge about the topic before they listen.
This helps to focus their mind and prepares them for the recording. A list of Key language is provided, so if you pre-teach these items students need not be confused by unfamiliar words. Language is presented in familiar and authentic contexts.
By relating these contexts to their own real-world experience, students can see the value of the listening activity and become more motivated. Listening is an active process and students need to think and interpret what they hear as they listen.
The activities in Listening Extra encourage students to react to what they hear as naturally as possible. Encourage your students to think around the recording, too, by listening between the lines for emotions and opinions, or picking up on aural clues in the background.
This book is part of a family of skills books in the Cambridge Copy Collection series. The other books available are Reading Extra, Speaking Extra and Writing Extra, and they each follow a similar format.
