Key Stage 3 languages · Linguistic competence

KS3 languages listening: picking out key information

Listening is often the hardest skill in a new language, because speech is fast and cannot be re-read. At Key Stage 3 pupils are taught to listen to a variety of forms of spoken language, such as conversations, announcements and interviews, to pick out information and to respond appropriately. The aim is to understand the message, not every word.

Listening for information, explained

The National Curriculum asks pupils to listen to a variety of forms of spoken language to obtain information and respond appropriately, on a base of core grammar and vocabulary. “A variety of forms” means that your child will hear more than a teacher reading from a book. They may listen to a conversation between two people, a station announcement, a voicemail, an interview, a weather report or a song, in the language their school teaches. The examples on this page use French and Spanish.

Why is listening hard? Written words stay still, but speech disappears as it is heard. Native speakers join words together. In French, many final letters are silent, but in some phrases a silent final consonant is sounded when the next word begins with a vowel, so vous avez sounds like “vou-za-vé”. This makes it hard to hear where one word ends and the next begins. Spanish is more regular in its sounds, but it can be spoken quickly. Voices and accents vary, so children learn to listen to different speakers, not only their own teacher.

Teachers therefore teach listening as a skill with its own strategies. Before listening, pupils read the questions and predict what kind of answer is needed, such as a time, a number or a place. On the first hearing they listen for the gist, which is the main point. On the next they listen for detail, such as the exact time. They are taught to write numbers as digits, note key words rather than full sentences, and use the context to guess unknown words. In class, recordings are often played two or three times.

Grammar helps listening too. Hearing the small words is often the key to meaning: “il parle” (he speaks) and “il a parlé” (he spoke) differ by a small word and a changed ending, and that small word shows whether something is happening now or in the past. Knowing endings and common patterns lets a child predict what is coming. This is why the curriculum describes listening as part of a balance between listening, speaking, reading and writing, based on a sound foundation of core grammar and vocabulary.

A last point: understanding is not all-or-nothing. A child who catches “train”, “Lyon” and “quinze heures quarante” has understood the heart of an announcement even without every word. Teachers encourage pupils to make use of what they know, not to freeze on what they missed. A few minutes of regular listening makes a bigger difference than an occasional long session, because ears get used to the sounds of the language gradually.

Words your child will hear

Gist: The main idea of what is said, understood without every detail.
Detail: A specific piece of information, such as a time, price, name or reason.
Predict: To guess before listening what sort of information you will hear, using the question and the topic.
Context: The situation and surrounding words that help you work out the meaning of a word you do not know.
Intonation: The rise and fall of the voice, which can show a question, surprise or emphasis.
Liaison: In French, linking the end of one word to the start of the next, so a silent consonant is pronounced.
Distractor: A piece of information in a recording that sounds like the answer but is not, such as a time that is then corrected.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 3 says:

Pupils should be taught to listen to a variety of forms of spoken language to obtain information and respond appropriately
Teaching should focus on developing the breadth and depth of pupils’ competence in listening, speaking, reading and writing, based on a sound foundation of core grammar and vocabulary.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: a listening task step by step

Children hear this station announcement in French twice. “Le train pour Lyon, prévu à quinze heures quarante, quai six, aura dix minutes de retard.” They must write down where the train is going, the platform, the planned time and what the problem is.

Before listening, read the questions. They ask for a place, a platform, a time and a problem. So the listener expects to hear a town name, two numbers and some kind of problem. This is predicting.
First hearing: listen for the gist only. It is a train announcement about one train. Write a few key words: train, Lyon, 15, 40, 6. Do not try to write sentences.
Second hearing: listen for the details and check the numbers. “Quinze heures quarante” is 15:40. “Quai six” is platform 6. “Dix minutes” is 10 minutes. “Retard” means delay.
Work out what the problem is. The verb “aura” is a future form, so the train will be late. “Dix minutes de retard” means ten minutes late, which makes the likely departure around 15:50. The listener answers using the question’s words.
Check that each answer matches its question. If the announcement had said a time and then corrected it, such as “à quinze heures, non, à seize heures”, the second time is the answer, because the first is a distractor.

The train goes to Lyon, from platform 6, planned for 15:40, and it will be 10 minutes late (so it should leave at about 15:50).

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking you must understand every word

Children often stop listening the moment they hear a word they do not know, and then lose the next sentence as well. Native speakers also drop or blur words, so no learner can catch everything.

What helps: Practise listening for three things only, such as who, where and when. Tell your child that the aim is to find the answer, not every word.

Translating each word into English while listening

Translating in your head takes time, and the speaker has moved on. The child falls behind and loses the thread of the whole message.

What helps: Build quick recognition of common words and numbers by hearing them often. Encourage your child to hold on to the sounds and meaning, then translate afterwards if needed.

Mixing up numbers

Numbers sound similar to each other, and French is trickier than English. For example, 70 is soixante-dix (sixty-ten), 80 is quatre-vingts (four twenties) and 90 is quatre-vingt-dix. Pairs such as deux and douze (2 and 12) or six and seize (6 and 16) are easily confused, as are 13 and 30 in Spanish (trece, treinta).

What helps: Practise numbers out loud and in random order, then write what you hear. Short daily practice with times, prices and dates is useful.

Writing the first answer heard

Listening tasks often include a correction or a second option, so the first thing heard is not always the answer. Children trained to catch the first time or place may miss the change.

What helps: Listen to the whole recording and then decide. Words such as non, mais and en fait (French) or no, pero and en realidad (Spanish) often signal a correction.

How to help at home

Little and often. Five minutes of listening a few times a week does more than one long session. Choose short clips at a speed your child can follow, such as a slow news item for learners, a song or a short video for children.
Gist first, detail second. Play a short clip and ask only one big question: what is this about? Play it again and ask for two details, such as a number or a name. Playing it a third time to check is allowed.
Number dictation. Say numbers, times and prices aloud in the language, or play a recording, and have your child write them as digits. Mix numbers that sound alike, such as 13 and 30, and check them together.
Follow the lyrics. Listen to a song in the language while reading the lyrics, then listen again with the words hidden. Notice which words are linked together and which sound different from the way they are spelled.
Say what you understood. After any listening, ask your child to tell you in English what they got, even if it is only three words. Piecing together a message from what they understood is the very skill the curriculum describes.