492. Catch every ball!


One day teacher of English B said to teacher of English A, “Active listening: when the students listen to you as explaining in English how to carry out an exercise from the text book or a game, they are actively listening to you, not simply hearing something.


For example this active listening can take place when you (or a student) present, explain the meaning of a word they’ve got to guess, and which one they’ve already learned.


Each student has their unique way to grasp the hints.


They may, for example, catch one word - from the presentation - they already know.


Another word sounds as something which resembles a term of their mother tongue, albeit this term has got a very different meaning in English.


The students listen carefully, and gaze at any visual prompt from the teacher.


They stare at the quick and short process of drawing the object on the board.


Uncounsciously they link chunks of information, making up a scheme of the meaning, although later they can get confused and lost, because there are some words that distract their effort to understand.


They connect the description with already known concepts of objects, without being aware of this step of the process.


Summing up, this activity in the class is a nice step forward in their learning a language.”


/ Photo: Wimbledon, from Top10inlondon web-site.

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