Idea — Reading allows re-reading; listening does not. But reading requires decoding written symbols; listening already knows the sound. Both skills need explicit teaching. Example — An oral learner may speak fluently but read slowly…
Idea — Post-listening is where language learning deepens. The text becomes a springboard: discuss opinions, analyse the grammar, role-play a follow-up. “Discuss in pairs” is not a post-listening task. Example — After a job interview…
Idea — Three stages, always in this order: pre-listening (activate schema, remove blockers) → while-listening (task) → post-listening (exploit the text, produce something). Skipping pre is the most common lesson-design error. Example — Pre: show…
Idea — Extensive listening is high-volume, self-chosen, largely understood content. Comprehensible input applied to listening. Fluency grows from quantity, not from intensive drilling alone. Example — A learner who watches one subtitled English comedy series…
Idea — Function words — articles, prepositions, auxiliaries — reduce to a schwa or disappear in natural speech. Learners trained on strong forms are unprepared for real listening. Example — “I was at the station”…
Idea — When a word ends in a consonant and the next begins with a vowel, the sounds link. This is the single biggest cause of missed words at A2–B1. Example — “Turn it off”…
Idea — Elision means sounds drop out (next door → /neks dɔː/). Assimilation means a sound changes to match its neighbour (ten minutes → /tem mɪnɪts/). Both are normal spoken English, not lazy speech. Example…
Idea — In fast speech, words link, reduce, and disappear. Learners taught vocabulary in isolation cannot recognise those words in the natural stream. Example — “Did you eat yet?” → /dɪdjʊiːtjet/ — two words missing,…
Idea — Drilling isolated sentences builds pronunciation patterns but not real listening. Learners who only ever repeat a model cannot handle unpredictable connected speech. Example — A learner drills “Can I help you?” perfectly, then…
Idea — Dictogloss is a reconstruction task: play a text at natural speed, learners note key words, then rebuild the meaning in groups. Grammar emerges from communicative need. Example — Play a news paragraph twice.…