Some ideas for making listening practice more accessible, providing activities at a variety of levels, where students have control over the audio player (can pause, repeat, re-play etc)...
...AND all of this with minimal prep time for teachers, as all of the activities 1 to 10 below are generated automatically based on a single text.
(NB. see this blog post for information on how to add an audio file to textivate)
1. Multiple choice reconstruction.
Combine listening with written clues to piece together the text, one part at a time. Available with 3, 4 or 5 options to choose from each time.
2. Tile reconstruction.
As above, but more text options to choose from at each decision point. Many variations on this, ranging from 6 to 24 block of text.
3. Chunk-based reconstruction.
Similar to 1 and 2 above, but this time we've split our text into chunks as explained on this blog post.
(a) Multiple choice
Students listen and rebuild the text using chunks specified by the teacher.
(b) Tiles
Students listen and rebuild the text using chunks specified by the teacher.
4. Gap-fill.
Listen and fill the gaps. The image above is a user-defined gap-fill (ie. the same gaps are always used), but a random gap-fill is also available, which has the advantage that it is different each time (and different for each student).
5. Separate the words.
All of the words are joined together in one block. Students listen and click to separate the words in the text. You also have the option to only join some of the words, so fewer clicks are required to complete the activity. Great for helping students to recognize word boundaries.
6. Jumble.
The text is broken down into sentences. Students listen and put the words of each sentence into the correct order.
7. Next word(s).
As with 1 and 2 above, but much smaller chunks of text. The image shows 3 word chunks. There is also the option to view this in 2-word or single-word chunks.
8. Vowels / consonants.
The image shows the version with all the vowels removed. (Consonants version also available.)
9. Initials.
Listen and re-write the text. More of a dictation activity as it focuses on production of the language. Initial letters are provided. The image shows every 2nd word gapped. This can be modified to include all words, or every 3rd, 4th or 5th word. A hint button provides the next letter (but affects the score).
10. Fill in all the letters.
As above, but without the initial letters- The image shows the version with every word gapped, but this can be reduced as far as every 5th word.
11. Listening comprehension?
See this blog post about how to create a reading comprehension with textivate. The same principles apply. The images are based on a different resource than the one used for the rest of the activities in this post (which doesn't really lend itself to listening comprehension).
12. Pre-listening vocab activities?
All sorts of pre-listening vocab games and activities based on the same text, simply by adding matching items to the text.
