Predictive Listening

Teacher reads a text aloud, pausing before key words; students call out predictions for the missing word.

Procedure

1. Write the headline or title of the text on the board and check understanding. Give a brief summary, pre-teaching key vocabulary -- but not the words students will predict.
2. Explain that you will read the text aloud and pause before certain words. When you pause, students call out what they think the next word is.
3. Read aloud up to the first pause point. Make a clear gesture for students to start suggesting.
4. Let students offer ideas until they exhaust possibilities, then reveal the actual word.
5. If students' guesses go in the wrong direction, this signals a comprehension breakdown -- reread the previous section and explain if needed.
6. Continue through the rest of the text.
7. After finishing, point out that during reading we subconsciously predict language based on our knowledge of collocations, grammar, and context.

Tips

• Two types of pause points: (a) limited-possibility answers before collocations, fixed expressions, or grammatical completions; (b) open answers where multiple creative responses show students are following the story.
• The goal is not always getting the "right" answer but suggesting plausible answers that show comprehension.
• Works with any text: newspaper articles, stories, short essays.
• Differs from Pause and Predict (which focuses on predicting content/events) -- this targets word-level language prediction.