Active Listening Series, Part 2: Listening for Quality

I hope that the document I shared on peer evaluations was helpful for you!

Today I want to share my work around listening for content. As students become more at ease with the target language and with the qualities of an excellent presentation, they are ready to respond to questions about what they heard. This holds students accountable for listening to each other. It gives them increased comprehensible input. It gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their comprehension and to add something to what they heard. The learning does not stop with the writing, memorizing and presentation: the role of the audience is just as essential as the role of the speaker. Shouldn't communication be that way, anyway?

By teaching students to listen for content and share their ideas after each presentation, they become co-creators of each presentation, and demonstrate support for the student presenter.

Click to view a sample Listening for Content document that I use.

If you are familiar with the film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, you know that there are some eccentric and truly "fabuleux" characters who are great fun to describe! Viewing this film and preparing characterization presentations was always my lead in to the Café Unit. This is a part of my French 1, Marking Period 3 work, so I feet confident that students can listen attentively to the presentations given by their peers and take notes on what they hear. After each presentation, we discuss what we heard. Call on several students to keep them all participating and engaged. See if anyone disagrees with the speaker's point of view or has other ideas to offer. Give the speaker a chance to correct herself/himself if necessary.

How do you encourage students to listen and respond in the target language, either at the beginner level or in more advanced language classes? Please comment and share your strategies!