Why reinvent the wheel? Take advantage of research that others have done and look at some of these websites for ideas on possible listening and speaking materials.
If you are new to teaching ESL, it is often tempting to want to create all new listening and speaking exercises or lessons for your students, all built to fit in with your teaching style and the individual needs of your students. However, it can be time-consuming.
Look for Published Listening and Speaking Materials
Many instructors will begin with topics for conversation and ask students to work in pairs to develop a meaningful dialogue. The key is keeping the discussion from moving above the level of the students. This can be quite difficult. If you can use already published materials on listening and speaking, you will save yourself a little bit of time as well as provide proven activities that are designed specifically for your students' levels. How do you find appropriate materials for your students and their individual levels?
Save Time, Save Energy, Get Results
Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel by designing your own lessons, you might want to build on the experiences of other ESL instructors and look more closely at published materials that focus specifically on listening & speaking strategies and classroom activities that give students the opportunity to practice their listening & speaking skills. Save yourself some preparation time by performing a simple web search to identify some already established lessons, activities, and published materials on the Internet that you can either print out directly or order online. When searching on the web, use keywords such as "publishers, ESL listening & speaking" to get the best results.
Getting Started on the Web
The following 3 websites provide a multitude of materials for ESL teachers who want to use published lessons on listening & speaking in their classrooms:
CAELA (Center for Adult English Language Acquisition) has a great site that lists publishers of ESL resource materials, all of which highlight some key selections for listening and speaking. The website for each publisher is given, along with a list of popular titles in ESL teaching. After each title, the level of student is provided so that the reader can make the best selection for their classes.
E.L. Easton Bookstores & Publishers also provides a bibliography of titles for ESL teachers who want to build further on students' speaking skills. Each title in the bibliography provides a link to Amazon.com, where the book description and purchase information are offered.
Learn4good, an academic book guide and online store, also has a website that lists seven titles on listening and speaking for ESL instructors and their students. After each title, there is a brief description of the book and the level of student for which is designed.
