Example of a prediction skills activity

Tape:

It was late. She was tired, hungry and angry. She spent the entire day babysitting five children and all she wanted to do now was rest.

Tutor:

What do you think she did after she returned home?

Learner:

Ate and relaxed.

Tape:

Once she got home, she had a shower and soaked in the bathtub. She read a book and started... for the first time all day, she started to relax. All of a sudden, there was a loud noise, like glass breaking and footsteps. She was startled, and jumped out of bed. Her heart was pounding loudly; she felt nauseous, thinking about the stories she had heard in the recent news.

Tutor:

Okay. What did she do after she heard the strange sounds?

Learner:

Maybe, she called the police.

Throughout the exercise, the learner was required to listen to the information while considering how the information given to her might affect the development of the story.

Getting learners to listen to the information while anticipating what will come next helps ensure that they will listen to the information that is important.

Keep in mind that in a reading exercise, a learner is given the luxury of time. The learner can spend one minute or fifteen minutes looking at context clues before deciding what prereading questions should be written. Trying to practice prediction skills while listening to speech is much more difficult, and developing this skill can take a long time. When doing this type of activity, you may want to do it for a short period of time. Use it as one component in your lesson rather than as a general focus.

Applying the skill to the "real world"

Why should my learner work on improving her prediction skills?

Making predictions makes it much easier to determine what the learner should concentrate on listening for next. Many ESL learners get "English headaches" from concentrating on every word a speaker says because they are not sure when to listen closely and when to relax. (Think about how you feel after an important meeting, where you were required to listen closely and analyze everything that was stated.)