It �s interesting that you bring up this issue Dorothea, because this morning when I was going through the worksheets that will be available tomorrow I came across one that fits the criteria - a listening activity in which the only task the students had to do was to fill in some blank spaces while listening to a song. I didn �t even think of reporting it, of course, but I thought of sending the member a pm kindly asking if he could create some listening comprehension tasks instead of the gap filling in order to develop the students listening skills, which is, or should be,  the main aim of a listening activity. Then I decided not to send the pm because I realized I couldn �t send a pm to all members that upoload this kind of exercise. That �s why I think your post addresses an important issue and may be very helpful since it may help to clarify some ideas.

 

When we do a filling in the gap exercise while listening to a song or any other type of text, we are not really developing our students � listening skills. The only thing we can see with such an exercise is if the students understand isolated words, not necessarily their meaning, and write them down. (They don �t even have to understand the song, what it means, the message conveyed by it... anything at all.) Besides, if we give the lyrics to them to fill in a few blank spaces, then we can �t do any other listening exercises, because, as they have the text now, we would be developing their reading skills, not their listening skills. So, I would say that such an exercise - gap filling - is appropriate to introduce something ( a cultural topic, a grammar topic...), to practise a verb tense, for example, or to finish a lesson, but not really to develop the students � listening skills.

 

If we want to do that, we should create different exercises, with a growing level of complexity according to the students � level of proficiency,  to see if they understood the song -  who it is addressed to, its meaning, the messgage, the author �s intention, the author �s state of mind, his/her attitude to the subject matter being focused, the tone... -  exercises, which make the students think about what they have been listening to and make them interact with the text to complete the  tasks, and not simply to make them understand sounds and convert them into words.

 

I �m open to hear other members � opinions on this.

 

Have a nice day,

mena

 

 

 I simply wanted to make clear the aim of a listening activity,  which tasks better match it and those which don �t. By doing so, I was hoping that some members would try to create listening comprehension tasks in their next worksheets on songs. That �s all. I mean, that �s also what this site is for, isn �t it? We are all here to learn from each other. I know I do. Every day.

Hugs,

 

mena

A post is just a post, so you �re probably right - most members won �t read it. Maybe I �ll send the link next time I see a worksheet like that and find it appropriate, of course.

 

 Hugs,

mena