Professional Development in Practice

A couple of weeks ago I attended a webinar hosted by the British Council titled "How can we use technology to make engaging listening activities?” The webinar was hosted by Chiara Bruzzano who is an English Language Teaching researcher and teacher trainer. The webinar highlighted the often-overlooked skill of listening in language learning, focusing on both bottom-up decoding and top-down meaning building. It addressed common issues like word segmentation and misinterpretations due to preconceptions. Traditional methods emphasizing testing were critiqued, and innovative strategies using YouTube features, Chrome extensions, and interactive tools were proposed. These approaches aim to improve engagement, comprehension, and metacognitive awareness in listening practice.

Since the webinar, I've integrated tools like Language Reactor for real-time translations and YouTube captions and speed controls to manage speech pace. Using bookmarking tools like Bookmark Youtube has allowed students to identify and focus on challenging segments. These changes have made listening activities more engaging and effective in my EFL classroom. My listening classes are now much more enjoyable for my students, they have expressed to me how the tool YouGlish has helped them with understanding native pronunciations. Listening is often the skill that all students dread and one they have the most difficulty with, but these tools make it less daunting and easier for the students to grade listening based on their ability, while also challenging themselves.