“海外传真”栏目针对外语教学中的焦点问题,介绍国外语言教学专家和一线教师的最新研究成果和实践经验。本期关注听力教学，向读者介绍国外听力教学的最新进展。　　---------------------------------　　The Internet TESL Journal　　Podcasts: Another Source for Listening Input 　　　　摘要 播客是一种新颖、有效的听力素材。本文作者论述了教师在听力教学中为学生选择播客时应遵循的原则，以及如何指导学生在听的过程中运用恰当的听力策略。　　A PODCAST is a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar programme. Podcasts are published on the Internet as MP3 files. Learners can listen over and over to any material that is of interest to them.　　In thinking about podcasts, teachers might ask themselves what the benefit would be for students. Even at the beginning level, learners can benefit from global listening even if they only listen from three to five minutes a day. The intermediate learner has a need for such authentic texts and to be exposed to a variety of voices. By the time learners reach the advanced stage, they must be able to learn from listening.　　There are at least two concepts that teachers must focus on in choosing a podcast for the students. The first has to do with relevance. When a topic is relevant, it holds the attention of the learner and increases motivation.　　The second concept that a teacher must consider in choosing a podcast is that of transferability. Actually, relevance and transferability are often connected. If students feel that the content is relevant, there is a strong possibility that what is learned can be applied to other situations whether at school or out in the real world.　　When students listen to a podcast, there must be a purpose for the activity. In other words, what will the students do with the information they gain through listening? Will they take notes, get the gist of a story, make an outline or do a fill-in-the-gaps (story)?　　One can quickly see that a listening activity can involve more than one skill. Writing can be utilized as well as speaking. Students can also discuss what they heard on the podcast. For instance, students can compare their life experiences with those reported on a podcast.　　Listening and Speaking: Putting Meaning to Words 　　　　摘要 学生听对话前，应明确对话发生的时间、地点及人物关系等。作者设计了一种课堂活动，并向读者演示如何训练学生判断同一词组在不同语境中含义的能力。　　CARRYING on a conversation is not just about hearing the words and saying the right words. Knowing where, when, who, how, what, and why can help the listener understand the conversation better. Being able to determine setting, interpersonal relations, mood, and topic of a certain "scene" can help the listener comprehend more of what is going on, and in turn, enhance the chance of successful predicting, hypothesizing, and inferencing. The goal of this activity is to heighten students' listening awareness of how changing certain words or tones can create different meanings.　　Level　　This activity is designed for advanced level ESL/EFL students.　　Prior Knowledge　　Students will need to know the meaning of settings, interpersonal relationships, mood, and topic before embarking on this activity. They will need to understand different factors that create different setting, interpersonal relationships, moods and topics.　　Purpose　　Students will use different tones and expressions in different settings and situations even though the word phrasings are the same. Students in the audience will listen for changes in tones and subtle word changes to detect how the changes alter the situation.　　Procedure　　*Teacher Presentation　　The teacher will write "get out of here" on the board, and ask students what this means. The teacher will put the expression in different ways, discuss the different setting, interpersonal relationships, mood, and topic that fit with the expression, and suggest possible responses for each expression.　　*Pair Work　　In pairs, the students will be assigned different expressions. The partners will come up with three different ways to say the phrase and corresponding responses to each expression. The students will also give a possible background to each expression.　　*Demonstration　　Each pair will present their dialogues in front of the class. The audience can guess the different plots to the dialogues and give feedback. Then the partners can explain the rationale for their expressions and the corresponding responses to each expression.　　www.teachingenglish.org.uk　　Helping Teens to Listen　　　　摘要 中学生在听力训练过程中经常难以集中精力。本文作者提出，教师可通过让学生自己准备有趣的听力材料，指导学生了解书面语和口语的区别等方式提高其听力水平。　　SOME teachers find that their teenage students are often so busy chatting amongst themselves that the teacher has to make an effort to gain their attention and help them focus on the English lesson. Then, how should they help their students improve listening skills?　　Making listening more engaging for teenagers　　Many of us will rely on course books for the listening material we use in the classroom and this material may or may not be suitable for our teens. I think it is important to consider ways in which we can supplement listening material in course books with material that will motivate our students.　　One possibility is to ask students to bring prepared songs or any other listening material in English to the classroom.　　Another idea that has worked well is to record a short interview with a fellow teacher. I find that I get a lot of mileage out of a 10-minute interview with an English speaking colleague and that students are really interested in hearing about the life of one of the other teachers at school.　　Helping students understand spoken English　　I always give my students a transcript of tapes they have listened to after we have completed the listening tasks. Even if students only read and listen to part of what they have heard, it should allow them to become more aware of the difference between how spoken English sounds compared with how it is written.　　Pre-listening Activities　　　　摘要 听前活动是提高听力效果的必要准备。本文作者简述了进行听前活动的必要性，并对如何指导学生进行听前活动进行了详细论述。　　IN our first language we rarely have trouble understanding listening. But, in a second language, it is one of the hardest skills to develop dealing at speed with unfamiliar sounds, words and structures. This is even more difficult if we do not know the topic under discussion, or who is speaking to whom. So, simply asking the students to listen to something and answer some questions is a little unfair, and makes developing listening skills much harder. Pre-listening tasks aim to deal with these issues: to generate interest, build confidence， and facilitate comprehension, etc.　　Setting the context　　This is perhaps the most important thing to do even most exams give an idea about who is speaking, where and why. In normal life we normally have some idea of the context of something we are listening to.　　Generating interest　　Motivating our students is a key task for us. If they are to do a listening test about sports, looking at some dramatic pictures of sports players or events will raise their interest or remind them of why they like sports.　　Acquiring knowledge　　Students may have limited general knowledge about a topic. Providing knowledge input will build their confidence for dealing with a listening project.　　Predicting content　　Once we know the context for something, we are able to predict possible content. Try giving students a choice of things that they may or may not expect to hear, and ask them to choose those they think will be mentioned.　　Pre-learning vocabulary　　For students, large numbers of unknown words will often hinder listening. Select some vocabulary for the students to study before listening, perhaps matching words to definitions, followed by a simple practice activity such as filling the gaps in sentences.