ICELT C1

Summary

The article I read was “Write what you hear” (Holmes, 2004:8), it refers to a technique that suggest writing is a very useful tool for beginning learners to listen and understand better the language.

The author provide a twelve steps guide, and I will mentioned these steps very briefly;

Choose a natural recording, get students familiar to the topic, tell students to get a global understanding, ask students to say what they heard, students should write down exactly what they hear, play the recording again, ask for a volunteer to write their transcription on the board, check the transcription with the group and correct it if is necessary, make sure that the final transcription is correct, play the entire recording from the beginning to the end.

Holmes considers that follow these steps could help non-native speakers to improve their listening needs, as the author also mention “transcribing is a useful tool that enables the students to focus on the suprasegmental features of the language”.

The author concludes that “transcribing listening materials incorporates a multi-task skill approach to learning. In addition to listening comprehension, students focus on pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and spelling”. That is why students have the opportunity to develop the four skills in a consciously or unconsciously way, by writing what they hear.

Questions;

1. Do you believe that transcribing listening materials can help students to improve them understanding?

Yes, I do believe it could be really useful.

2. Would you like to apply this technique in your classroom? Why?

Yes, I would it will be really nice to try.

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