Strategies for Fostering Listening in Group and Pair Work

How can we ensure that students not only talk but also listen to each other in group and pair activities? In episode 75 of Growing with Proficiency The Podcast, we talk about a crucial aspect of building a classroom discourse community — not just encouraging students to speak but also listening attentively to one another during group and pair work.

While our last episode focused on engaging students in talking, this week, we spotlight the other side of oral communication: listening.

We may think that listening is so much easier than talking, but my experience has been different.

That’s why here I share practical strategies to enhance listening skills among students.  We want to ensure that when students are talking, they are heard.

If instead of reading, you rather listen to all of the details, click play above or here. 

Pair and Group Activities

Pair and group activities can be just what our students need to feel more motivated to talk in the target language. 

However, unless we structure these activities carefully, we will see many students daydreaming or distracted while their partners are doing their best to share opinions, ideas, or what happened last weekend.

We may see a lot of moving mouths, but nothing is happening there because talking doesn’t do much unless somebody is listening.

The next strategies have worked so well in my class to foster listening among students. 

Modeling Listening

If you’re teaching in middle or high school, you may think that our students don’t need this.

However, for a lot of our students, they haven’t learned the skill of listening. They can read, listen to their podcasts or their music, but when it comes to listening to each other, they don’t have many skills. That is when you and I can model listening skills. 

How to Model Listening Skills

We are going to model listening skills with body language and expressions.

When you’re having group discussions, or asking questions to students, you want to be very intentional with your body language.  Your body language and expression must indicate that you’re listening. 

I usually exaggerate those movements and expressions so my students see how I listen.

I also allow for some silence after a student has said something. After a second of silence, I comment. 

As part of the modeling, many times I ask my students to use a specific expression (How cool! What a great idea! It’s obvious! Good luck!) to respond to what a student is sharing.

All are part of modeling.  

Follow-up Questions

Next, I want to show my students how we can build the conversation using follow-up questions. 

My follow-up questions will be very different depending on the level of the class.  

For example, if a student shares they have homework, I would ask: Did you finish it? Is it long?

The level of the question will vary depending on the students, but if I ask one or two follow-up questions frequently in class when students share, the skill will build up eventually.

I give many examples of how I do this in my classroom in episode 75. Listen here. 

Give Them a Reason to Listen

Unless students have a reason to listen to each other, it is unlikely they do it. 

Why? Some of them are not friends, or it’s going to be hard for them to listen to each other in the target language. Sometimes they’re just not going to understand everything. 

So, unless we give them a reason, there is probably not going to be a lot of listening happening in our classrooms.

The reason will depend on the purpose or goal of the activity, but some I like to use frequently are the following:

• Find similarities or differences.
• Decide if what your friend is saying is true or false or probable or improbable.
• Would you do something similar?
• Do you agree or not?
• Did it happen or not?

The reason can also be to complete a survey or poll the students in the class about a specific topic.

Additionally, if students are sharing information about a specific topic they research, I want my listeners to complete a graphic organizer to take notes of what they learn.

In episode 75, I give you a few more examples of what reasons we need to give students to listen. 

Give Them the Language They Need to Interact

If our students don’t have the language to interact or negotiate meaning, they will be less likely to make the effort to listen. 

Providing students with expressions to react or to ask the other students to repeat will get your students the tools to navigate the conversation better. 

These are 3 scaffolds that I use all the time for conversations in class:

• Rejoinders
• Expressions to ask for clarification
• Question words

However, having those scaffolds available to our students may not be enough.  We need to use them in the context of a conversation.

Remember the first strategy: modeling.  In addition to modeling listening in group discussions, before we do a pair or small group discussion activity, I have 2 or 3 students to model the discussion for the class.  

My students come to the front of the class, and I guide them in the conversation making sure body language is appropriate, I point to an expression they can use or a question they can ask.  

You may think this is silly but it works.  

Check out episode 75 for even more examples. 

Exit tickets.

I do exit tickets in many of my classes as a formative assessment.  However, I never thought of using exit tickets to have students reflect on the conversations they have in class with their classmates until now. 

At the end of class or a lesson where students have participated in these types of activities, we can ask students to share “Who said what to you what, and what do you think about it?”

Listening is the silent half of oral communication, vital for a strong classroom discourse community.

I hope you find these strategies helpful.

Don’t forget to listen to episode 75 for more explanations of these strategies.

Below, I’m also sharing links to other GWP podcast episodes that you will helpful for fostering listening in your language class.