Teaching Listening

Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. It has been
estimated that adults spend almost half their communication time
listening, and students may receive as much as 90% of their in-school
information through listening to instructors and to one another. Often,
however, language learners do not recognize the level of effort that goes
into developing listening ability.
Far from passively receiving and recording aural input, listeners actively
involve themselves in the interpretation of what they hear, bringing their
own background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to bear on the
information contained in the aural text. Not all listening is the same; casual
greetings, for example, require a different sort of listening capability than
do academic lectures. Language learning requires intentional listening that
employs strategies for identifying sounds and making meaning from them.
Listening involves a sender (a person, radio, television), a message, and a
receiver (the listener). Listeners often must process messages as they come,
even if they are still processing what they have just heard, without
backtracking or looking ahead. In addition, listeners must cope with the
sender's choice of vocabulary, structure, and rate of delivery. The
complexity of the listening process is magnified in second language
contexts, where the receiver also has incomplete control of the language.
Given the importance of listening in language learning and teaching, it is
essential for language teachers to help their students become effective
listeners. In the communicative approach to language teaching, this means
modeling listening strategies and providing listening practice in authentic
situations: those that learners are likely to encounter when they use the
language outside the classroom.
Section Contents
Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening
Strategies for Developing Listening Skills
Developing Listening Activities
Using Textbook Listening Activities
Assessing Listening Proficiency
Resources

Material for this section was drawn from Listening in a foreign language
by Ana Maria Schwartz, inModules for the professional preparation of
teaching assistants in foreign languages (Grace Stovall Burkart, ed.;
Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1998)

Teaching Listening

Developing Listening Activities

As you design listening tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the
information in an aural text is an unrealistic expectation to which even
native speakers are not usually held. Listening exercises that are meant to
train should be success-oriented and build up students' confidence in their
listening ability.
Construct the listening activity around a contextualized task.

Contextualized listening activities approximate real-life tasks and give the

listener an idea of the type of information to expect and what to do with it
in advance of the actual listening. A beginning level task would be locating
places on a map (one way) or exchanging name and address information
(two way). At an intermediate level students could follow directions for
assembling something (one way) or work in pairs to create a story to tell to
the rest of the class (two way).

Define the activity's instructional goal and type of response.

Each activity should have as its goal the improvement of one or more
specific listening skills. A listening activity may have more than one goal or
outcome, but be careful not to overburden the attention of beginning or
intermediate listeners.
Recognizing the goal(s) of listening comprehension in each listening
situation will help students select appropriate listening strategies.
Identification: Recognizing or discriminating specific aspects of the
message, such as sounds, categories of words, morphological
distinctions
Orientation: Determining the major facts about a message, such as
topic, text type, setting
Main idea comprehension: Identifying the higher-order ideas
Detail comprehension: Identifying supporting details
Replication: Reproducing the message orally or in writing
Check the level of difficulty of the listening text.

The factors listed below can help you judge the relative ease or difficulty of
a listening text for a particular purpose and a particular group of students.
How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or
instruction conform to familiar expectations? Texts in which the events are
presented in natural chronological order, which have an informative title,
and which present the information following an obvious organization
(main ideas first, details and examples second) are easier to follow.
How familiar are the students with the topic? Remember that
misapplication of background knowledge due to cultural differences can
create major comprehension difficulties.
Does the text contain redundancy? At the lower levels of proficiency,
listeners may find short, simple messages easier to process, but students
with higher proficiency benefit from the natural redundancy of the
language.

Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly
differentiated? It is easier to understand a text with a doctor and a patient
than one with two doctors, and it is even easier if they are of the opposite
sex. In other words, the more marked the differences, the easier the
comprehension.
Does the text offer visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the
listeners hear? Visual aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images
in a video help contextualize the listening input and provide clues to
meaning.
Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to
hear or view.

The activities chosen during pre-listening may serve as preparation for

listening in several ways. During pre-listening the teacher may
assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic
content of the text
provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their
comprehension of the listening passage or activate the existing
knowledge that the students possess
clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to
comprehend the passage
make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the
role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening
provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for
background reading or class discussion activities
Sample pre-listening activities:
looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs
reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures
reading something relevant
constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or
words showing how they are related)

 predicting the content of the listening text

going over the directions or instructions for the activity
doing guided practice
Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening
purpose, and students' proficiency level.

While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them

do during or immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these
points in mind when planning while-listening activities:
If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after
listening, allow them to read through it before listening. Students need to
devote all their attention to the listening task. Be sure they understand the
instructions for the written task before listening begins so that they are not
distracted by the need to figure out what to do.
Keep writing to a minimum during listening. Remember that the primary
goal is comprehension, not production. Having to write while listening may
distract students from this primary goal. If a written response is to be given
after listening, the task can be more demanding.
Organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text. Combine
global activities such as getting the main idea, topic, and setting with
selective listening activities that focus on details of content and form.
Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text
crucial to comprehension of the whole. Before the listening activity begins,
have students review questions they will answer orally or in writing after
listening. Listening for the answers will help students recognize the crucial
parts of the message.
Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as
they listen. Do a predicting activity before listening, and remind students to
review what they are hearing to see if it makes sense in the context of their
prior knowledge and what they already know of the topic or events of the
passage.
Give immediate feedback whenever possible. Encourage students to
examine how or why their responses were incorrect.

Sample while-listening activities

listening with visuals
filling in graphs and charts
following a route on a map
checking off items in a list
listening for the gist
searching for specific clues to meaning
completing cloze (fill-in) exercises
distinguishing between formal and informal registers

Teaching Listening

Using Textbook Listening Activities

The greatest challenges with textbook tape programs are integrating the
listening experiences into classroom instruction and keeping up student
interest and motivation. These challenges arise from the fact that most
textbook listening programs emphasize product (right or wrong answer)
over process (how to get meaning from the selection) and from the fact that
the listening activities are usually carried out as an add-on, away from the
classroom.
You can use the guidelines for developing listening activities given here as
starting points for evaluating and adapting textbook listening programs. At
the beginning of the teaching term, orient students to the tape program by
completing the exercises in class and discussing the different strategies they
use to answer the questions. It is a good idea to periodically complete some
of the lab exercises in class to maintain the link to the regular instructional
program and to check on the effectiveness of the exercises themselves.

Integrating Listening Strategies With Textbook Audio and Video

Students can use this outline for both in-class and out-of-class
listening/viewing activities. Model and practice the use of the outline at
least once in class before you ask students to use it independently.
1. Plan for listening/viewing
Review the vocabulary list, if you have one
Review the worksheet, if you have one
Review any information you have about the content of the tape/video
2. Preview the tape/video
(tape) Use fast forward to play segments of the tape; (video) view the
video without sound
Identify the kind of program (news, documentary, interview, drama)
Make a list of predictions about the content
Decide how to divide the tape/video into sections for intensive
listening/viewing
3. Listen/view intensively section by section. For each section:
Jot down key words you understand
Answer the worksheet questions pertaining to the section
If you don't have a worksheet, write a short summary of the section
4. Monitor your comprehension
Does it fit with the predictions you made?
Does your summary for each section make sense in relation to the
other sections?
5. Evaluate your listening comprehension progress

Teaching Listening

Assessing Listening Proficiency

You can use post-listening activities to check comprehension, evaluate
listening skills and use of listening strategies, and extend the knowledge
gained to other contexts. A post-listening activity may relate to a prelistening activity, such as predicting; may expand on the topic or the
language of the listening text; or may transfer what has been learned to
reading, speaking, or writing activities.
In order to provide authentic assessment of students' listening proficiency,
a post-listening activity must reflect the real-life uses to which students
might put information they have gained through listening.
It must have a purpose other than assessment
It must require students to demonstrate their level of listening
comprehension by completing some task.
To develop authentic assessment activities, consider the type of response
that listening to a particular selection would elicit in a non-classroom
situation. For example, after listening to a weather report one might decide
what to wear the next day; after listening to a set of instructions, one might
repeat them to someone else; after watching and listening to a play or
video, one might discuss the story line with friends.
Use this response type as a base for selecting appropriate post-listening
tasks. You can then develop a checklist or rubric that will allow you to
evaluate each student's comprehension of specific parts of the aural text.
(See Assessing Learning for more on checklists and rubrics.)
For example, for listening practice you have students listen to a weather
report. Their purpose for listening is to be able to advise a friend what to
wear the next day. As a post-listening activity, you ask students to select
appropriate items of clothing from a collection you have assembled, or
write a note telling the friend what to wear, or provide oral advice to
another student (who has not heard the weather report). To evaluate
listening comprehension, you use a checklist containing specific features of
the forecast, marking those that are reflected in the student's clothing
recommendations.

Teaching Listening

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening

Instructors want to produce students who, even if they do not have
complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for
themselves in communication situations. In the case of listening, this
means producing students who can use listening strategies to maximize
their comprehension of aural input, identify relevant and non-relevant
information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.
Focus: The Listening Process

To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather

than on its product.
They develop students' awareness of the listening process and
listening strategies by asking students to think and talk about how
they listen in their native language.
They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening
strategies by using authentic listening tasks.
They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student
communication as a listener rather than as a teacher.
When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the
strategies that will work best for the listening purpose and the type of
text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.
They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them
to practice outside of class in their listening assignments. They
encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they
complete listening tape assignments.
They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their
strategy use immediately after completing an assignment. They build
comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class listening

assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular

strategies.
They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of
listening strategies by using the target language to conduct classroom
business: making announcements, assigning homework, describing
the content and format of tests.
They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one
task to another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can
be used in a different type of listening task or with another skill.
By raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active
engagement, and by explicitly teaching listening strategies, instructors help
their students develop both the ability and the confidence to handle
communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom. In
this way they give their students the foundation for communicative
competence in the new language.
Integrating Metacognitive Strategies

Before listening: Plan for the listening task

Set a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for
Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed
Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the
overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and
phrases)
During and after listening: Monitor comprehension
Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses
Decide what is and is not important to understand
Listen/view again to check comprehension
Ask for help
After listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use
Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area

 Evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of

listening tasks
Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for
the task
Modify strategies if necessary
Using Authentic Materials and Situations

Authentic materials and situations prepare students for the types of

listening they will need to do when using the language outside the
classroom.
One-Way Communication
Materials:
Radio and television programs
Public address announcements (airports, train/bus stations, stores)
Speeches and lectures
Telephone customer service recordings
Procedure:
Help students identify the listening goal: to obtain specific
information; to decide whether to continue listening; to understand
most or all of the message
Help students outline predictable sequences in which information
may be presented: who-what-when-where (news stories); who-flight
number-arriving/departing-gate number (airport announcements);
"for [function], press [number]" (telephone recordings)
Help students identify key words/phrases to listen for
Two-Way Communication
In authentic two-way communication, the listener focuses on the speaker's
meaning rather than the speaker's language. The focus shifts to language
only when meaning is not clear. Note the difference between the teacher as

teacher and the teacher as authentic listener in the dialogues in the popup
screens.

Teaching Listening

Strategies for Developing Listening Skills

Language learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input
that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to
interact in spoken communication.
Effective language instructors show students how they can adjust their
listening behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and
listening purposes. They help students develop a set of listening strategies
and match appropriate strategies to each listening situation.
Listening Strategies

Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to

the comprehension and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be
classified by how the listener processes the input.
Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background
knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the
language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that
help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come
next. Top-down strategies include
listening for the main idea
predicting
drawing inferences
summarizing
Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in
the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that
creates meaning. Bottom-up strategies include
listening for specific details

 recognizing cognates
recognizing word-order patterns
Strategic listeners also use metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and
evaluate their listening.
They plan by deciding which listening strategies will serve best in a
particular situation.
They monitor their comprehension and the effectiveness of the
selected strategies.
They evaluate by determining whether they have achieved their
listening comprehension goals and whether the combination of
listening strategies selected was an effective one.
Listening for Meaning

To extract meaning from a listening text, students need to follow four basic
steps:
Figure out the purpose for listening. Activate background knowledge
of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify
appropriate listening strategies.
Attend to the parts of the listening input that are relevant to the
identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables
students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the
amount of information they have to hold in short-term memory in
order to recognize it.
Select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the
listening task and use them flexibly and interactively. Students'
comprehension improves and their confidence increases when they
use top-down and bottom-up strategies simultaneously to construct
meaning.
Check comprehension while listening and when the listening task is
over. Monitoring comprehension helps students detect
inconsistencies and comprehension failures, directing them to use
alternate strategies.

Improving ESL Learners' Listening Skills: At the Workplace and

Beyond

Carol Van Duzer

Center for Applied Linguistics
Project in Adult Immigrant Education (PAIE)
February 1997
Listening is a critical element in the competent language performance of
adult second language learners, whether they are communicating at
school, at work, or in the community. Through the normal course of a day,
listening is used nearly twice as much as speaking and four to five times
as much as reading and writing (Rivers, 1981). In a recent study of
Fortune 500 Corporations, Wolvin and Coakley (1991) found that listening
was perceived to be crucial for communication at work with regards to
entry-level employment, job success, general career competence,
managerial competency, and effectiveness of relationships between
supervisors and subordinates. Yet listening remains one of the least
understood processes in language learning despite the recognition of the
critical role it plays both in communication and in language acquisition
(Morley, 1991). As language teaching has moved toward comprehensionbased approaches, listening to learn has become an important element in
the adult English as a second language (ESL) classroom (Lund, 1990).
This Q&A summarizes what is known about the listening process as it
relates to adult second language learners; it discusses the factors
affecting listening; it describes the listening process; it suggests
guidelines to consider in teaching listening; and it gives examples of
activities for practicing and developing listening skills in adults learning
English as a second language. Although most of the activities described
have a workplace program context, the same types of activities could be
used in any adult ESL class to improve learners' listening in all facets of
life: at school, at work, or in the community.

What are some factors that affect the listening process?

Listening is a demanding process, not only because of the complexity of
the process itself, but also due to factors that characterize the listener, the
speaker, the content of the message, and any visual support that
accompanies the message (Brown & Yule, 1983).
The Listener
Interest in a topic increases the listener's comprehension; the listener
may tune out topics that are not of interest. A listener who is an active
participant in a conversation generally has more background knowledge
to facilitate understanding of the topic than a listener who is, in effect,
eavesdropping on a conversation between two people whose
communication has been recorded on an audiotape. Further, the ability to
use negotiation skills, such as asking for clarification, repetition, or
definition of points not understood, enable a listener to make sense of the
incoming information.
The Speaker
Colloquial language and reduced forms make comprehension more
difficult. The extent to which the speaker uses these language forms
impacts comprehension. The more exposure the listener has to them, the
greater the ability to comprehend. A speaker's rate of delivery may be too
fast, too slow, or have too many hesitations for a listener to follow.
Awareness of a speaker's corrections and use of rephrasing ("er. . . I
mean . . .That is . . .") can assist the listener. Learners need practice in
recognizing these speech habits as clues to deciphering meaning.
Content
Content that is familiar is easier to comprehend than content with
unfamiliar vocabulary or for which the listener has insufficient background
knowledge.
Visual Support
Visual support, such as video, pictures, diagrams, gestures, facial
expressions, and body language, can increase comprehension if the
learner is able to correctly interpret it.

What happens when we listen?

Although once labeled a passive skill, listening is very much an active
process of selecting and interpreting information from auditory and visual
clues (Richards, 1983; Rubin, 1995). Most of what is known about the
listening process stems from research on native language development;
however, as the importance of teaching listening comprehension has
increased, so has the inquiry into second language listening
comprehension. (See Rubin, 1994, for a comprehensive review of recent
studies.)
There are several basic processes at work in listening. These do not
necessarily occur sequentially; they may occur simultaneously, in rapid
succession, or backward and forward as needed. The listener is not
usually conscious of performing these steps, nor of switching back and
forth between them. The listener:
1.

determines a reason for listening;

2.

takes the raw speech and deposits an image of it in short-term

memory;

3.

attempts to organize the information by identifying the type of

speech event (conversation, lecture, radio ad) and the function of the
message (persuade, inform, request);

4.

predicts information expected to be included in the message;

5.

recalls background information (schemata) to help interpret the

message;

6.

assigns a meaning to the message;

7.

checks that the message has been understood;

8.

determines the information to be held in long-term memory;

9.

deletes the original form of the message that had been received
into short-term memory (Brown 1994; Dunkel, 1986).

Each of these steps influences the techniques and activities a teacher

might choose to incorporate into instruction in order to assist learners in
learning to listen as well as listening to learn.

What other processes are at work?

At the same time, two types of cognitive processing are also occurring:
bottom-up and top-down processing.
Top-down processing
Top-down processing refers to utilizing schemata (background knowledge
and global understanding) to derive meaning from and interpret the
message. For example, in preparing for training on the operation of a new
floor polisher, top-down processing is activated as the learner engages in
an activity that reviews what the learner already knows about using the
old floor polisher. This might entail discussing the steps in the polishing
process; reviewing vocabulary such as switch, on, off, etc.; or generating
a list of questions that the learner would like answered in the training.
Bottom-up processing
Bottom-up processing refers to deriving the meaning of the message
based on the incoming language data, from sounds, to words, to
grammatical relationships, to meaning. Stress, rhythm, and intonation
also play a role in bottom-up processing. Bottom-up processing would be
activated as the learner is signaled to verify comprehension by the
trainer/teacher asking a question using the declarative form with rising
intonation ("You see that switch there?"). Practice in recognizing
statements and questions that differ only in intonation help the learner
develop bottom-up processing skills.
Learners need to be aware that both of these processes affect their
listening comprehension, and they need to be given opportunities to
practice employing each of them.
How can listening help the adult learner acquire English?
Current research and theory point to the benefit of providing a silent or
pre-speaking period for the beginning-level learner (Dunkel, 1991).
Delaying production gives learners the opportunity to store information in
their memories. It also spares them the trauma of task overload and
speaking before they are ready. The silent period may be long or short. It
could comprise several class periods of listening activities that foster
vocabulary and build comprehension such as in the Total Physical
Response (TPR) approach. In this approach, the teacher gives a series of
commands while demonstrating each one. Learners then show their
comprehension by acting out the commands as repeated by the teacher.
Learners themselves begin to give the commands as they feel comfortable
speaking. Or, the silent period may consist of learners listening to a tape-

recorded conversation two or three times before answering questions

about the content. A listening period consistent with the demands of the
following productive task works to enhance rather than inhibit language
acquisition and helps the more advanced-level learner as well as the
beginner.
What should be considered when selecting listening techniques
and activities?
What is known about the listening process and the factors that affect
listening can be a guide when incorporating listening skill development
into adult ESL classes. The following guidelines have been adapted from a
variety of sources including Brod (1996), Brown (1994), Dunkel (1991),
Mendelsohn (1994), Morley (1991), Peterson (1991), Richards (1983),
and Rost (1991).
Listening should be relevant.
Because learners listen with a purpose and listen to things that interest
them, accounting for the goals and experiences of the learners will keep
motivation and attention high. For example, if learners at a worksite need
to be able to understand new policies and procedures introduced at staff
meetings, in class they should be helped to develop the abilities to
identify main ideas and supporting details, to identify cause and effect, to
indicate comprehension or lack of comprehension, and to ask for
clarification.
Material should be authentic.
Authenticity should be evident both in language and in task. The language
should reflect real discourse, including hesitations, rephrasing, and a
variety of accents. Although the language needs to be comprehensible, it
does not need to be constantly modified or simplified to make it easier for
the level of the listener. Level of difficulty can be controlled by the
selection of the task. For example, in a unit on following instructions, at
the beginning level, the learner might hear a command ("May I borrow
your hammer?") and respond by choosing the correct item. At an
intermediate level, the learner might hear a series of instructions ("Go to
the broom closet, get the floor polisher, take it to the hall in front of the
cafeteria, polish the floor there, then go to the . . .") and respond
appropriately by tracing the route on a floor plan of the worksite. An
advanced-level learner might listen to an audio tape of an actual work
meeting and write a summary of the instructions the supervisor gave the
team. Use of authentic material, such as workplace training videos, audio
tapes of actual workplace exchanges, and TV and radio broadcasts,
increases transferability to listening outside of the ESL classroom
context--to work and to community.

Opportunities to develop both top-down and bottom-up processing skills

should be offered.
As mentioned above, top-down oriented activities encourage the learners
to discuss what they already know about a topic, and bottom-up practice
activities give confidence in accurate hearing and comprehension of the
components of the language (sounds, words, intonation, grammatical
structures).
The development of listening strategies should be encouraged.
Predicting, asking for clarification, and using non-verbal cues are
examples of strategies that increase chances for successful listening. For
example, using video can help learners develop cognitive strategies. As
they view a segment with the sound off, learners can be asked to make
predictions about what is happening by answering questions about
setting, action, and interaction; viewing the segment again with the sound
on allows them to confirm or modify their hypothesis (Rubin, 1995).
Activities should teach, not test.
Teachers should avoid using activities that tend to focus on memory
rather than on the process of listening or that simply give practice rather
than help learners develop listening ability. For example, simply having
the learners listen to a passage followed by true/false questions might
indicate how much the learners remembered rather than helping them to
develop the skill of determining main idea and details. Pre- and postlistening task activities would help the learners to focus attention on what
to listen for, to assess how accurately they succeeded, and to transfer the
listening skill to the world beyond the classroom.
What are the steps in a listening lesson? The teacher can facilitate
the development of listening ability by creating listening lessons that
guide the learner through three stages: pre-listening, the listening task,
and post-listening.
Engage the learners in a pre-listening activity.
This activity should establish the purpose of the listening activity and
activate the schemata by encouraging the learners to think about and
discuss what they already know about the content of the listening text.
This activity can also provide the background needed for them to
understand the text, and it can focus attention on what to listen for.
Do the listening task itself.
The task should involve the listener in getting information and in
immediately doing something with it.
Engage in a post-listening activity.
This activity should help the listener to evaluate success in carrying out

the task and to integrate listening with the other language skills. The
teacher should encourage practice outside of the classroom whenever
possible.
For example, at a worksite where schedule changes are announced at
weekly team meetings, learners may need practice recognizing details
such as their names, times, and dates within a longer stream of speech. A
tape of such announcements may be used along with any pertinent forms
or a weekly calendar. The lesson stages might proceed as follows:
Listening Lesson Example

Do a pre-listening activity:
Ask the learners questions about what happens at the weekly
meetings. Ask specifically about schedule changes. Show any form
or the weekly calendar. Discuss its use and demonstrate how to fill
it out if necessary.
Describe the task:
Tell the learners they will be listening to a tape of a meeting. On the
form/calendar they are to write down the schedule they hear.
Demonstrate.
Have the learners do the task:
Play the tape while they fill out the form.
Do a post-listening activity:
Ask the learners how they thought they did. Was it easy or difficult?
Why? They may listen again if they want to. Have them compare
their forms with a partner or check the information by filling a form
out as a whole class.
Then have the learner be the boss and write a script with schedule
changes. Have them practice in pairs or small groups giving and
recording schedule changes.

What kinds of listening tasks are appropriate?

There are numerous activities to choose from for developing listening

skills. Lund (1990) has categorized them according to nine responses that
can be observed as comprehension checks:
1.

Doing: the listener responds physically such as in Total

PhysicalResponse (TPR);

2.

Choosing: the listener selects from alternatives such as pictures,

objects, texts, or actions;

3.

Transferring: the listener transforms the message such as drawing a

route on map, or filling in a chart;

4.

Answering: the listener answers questions about the text;

5.

Condensing: the listener takes notes or makes an outline;

6.

7.

Extending: the listener goes beyond the text by continuing the story
or solving a problem;
Duplicating: the listener simply repeats or translates the message;

8.

Modeling: the listener performs a similar task, e.g. gives

instructions to a coworker after listening to a model or;

9.

Conversing: the listener is an active participant in a face-to-face

conversation.

A listening component can be built into an adult ESL lesson based on

these activity response types in concert with the guidelines mentioned
above. For example, choosing as a response may by used to develop
bottom-up skills as learners listen to series of sentence patterns with
rising and falling intonation and check column 1 (rising) or column 2
(falling) according to the pattern heard; or, the top-down skill of getting
the gist of the message may be developed as learners hear sentences
describing a work task and select the appropriate picture (Peterson,
1991). An activity involving conversing might be to set up projects which
call for learners to conduct interviews with native speakers outside of
class on a theme related to a particular unit of study. For example, in a
unit on Problem Solving on the Job, learners might ask questions about
where and to whom coworkers go for help when they have a problem with
a piece of equipment or with another worker or with understanding
internal memos. (See Nunan and Miller (1995) and Rost (1991) for
descriptions of listening tasks.)

Conclusion
Assisting learners in the development of listening comprehension is a
challenge. It is a challenge that demands both the teacher's and the
learner's attention because of the critical role that listening plays, not only
in communication, but also in the acquisition of language. Knowledge of
the listening process and factors that affect listening enable teachers to
select or create listening texts and activities that meet the needs of the
their adult ESL learners. Teachers, then, must weave these listening
activities into the curriculum to create a balance that mirrors the realworld integration of listening with speaking, reading, and writing.

References

Brod, S. (1996). Teaching listening in the workplace English language

training program at the Spring Institute. Unpublished manuscript.
Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1983). Teaching the spoken language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Brown, H.D. (1994). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to
language pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
Dunkel, P. (1986). Developing listening fluency in L2: Theoretical
principles and pedagogical considerations. The Modern Language
Journal, 70(2), 99-106.
Dunkel, P. (1991). Listening in the native and second/foreign language:
Toward an integration of research and practice. TESOL Quarterly, 25(3),
431- 457.
Lund, R.J. (1990). A taxonomy for teaching second language
listening. Foreign Language Annals, 23, 105-115.
Mendelsohn, D.J. (1994). Learning to listen: A strategy-based approach
for the second-language learner. San Diego: Dominie Press.
Morley, J. (1991). Listening comprehension in second/foreign language

instruction. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching english as a second or

foreign language (2nd ed.)(pp. 81-106). Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Nunan, D., & Miller, L. (Eds.). (1995). New Ways in Teaching Listening.
Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.
(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 388 054)
Peterson, P.W. (1991). A synthesis of methods for interactive listening. In
M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.),Teaching English as a second/foreign language
(2nd ed.) (pp.106-122). Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Richards, J. (1983). Listening comprehension: Approach, design,
procedure. TESOL Quarterly, 17(2), 219-240.
Rivers, W.M. (1981). Teaching foreign language skills (2nd ed.). Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Rost, M. (1991). Listening in action: Activities for developing listening in
language teaching. New York: Prentice Hall.
Rubin, J. (1994). A review of second language listening comprehension
research. The Modern Language Journal. 78(2),199-221.
Rubin, J. (1995). The contribution of video to the development of
competence in listening. In D. Mendelsohn & J. Rubin (Eds.), A guide for
the teaching of second language listening (pp. 151-165). San Diego:
Dominie Press.
Wolvin, A., & Coakley, C. (1991). A survey of the status of listening
training in some Fortune 500 Corporations. Communication Education, 40,
152-164.

Implications
Importance of Developing Communication Strategies
EAP teachers should devote serious time and energy to making their
ESL students aware of and ready for the interactive nature of U.S.
classrooms. Even though the majority of ESL students at our own
institution are first-generation immigrants who have lived and gone

to school in the U.S. for many years, they still express discomfort with
small-group discussions and graded group projects in their general
education and major courses, despite feeling quite at home with these
same types of activities in their ESL classes. Somehow, we need to help
them bridge the gap between the safe interactions they experience in
ESL classes and the activities they find more challenging and threatenACADEMIC
LISTENING/SPEAKING TASKS 311ing in content classes. This could involve explicit
discussion and observation of the differences in classroom discourse patterns
between their
home culture and U.S. educational culture.
As with discussions of contrasting rhetorical patterns in academic
writing classes, teachers can suggest that nonnative students add to,
rather than replace their repertoire of communicative strategies (I
know that in your country its not considered polite to interrupt the
teacher by asking questions or to argue with the teacher or your classmates. But
U.S. university professors expect you to let them know if
you dont understand something and think its fine to express your
opinionpolitelywhen you disagree.) Such discussions can be supported by
in-class role plays or simulations. In addition, it would be
helpful to have subject-matter college professors come and address
EAP students about their expectations of their own students, perhaps
even providing demonstrations of the type of give and take they might
allow or expect from their students.
Importance of Developing Listening Strategies
Teachers should also be aware that the growing trend toward inclusion of student
questions, comments, and presentations in classroom
discourse may place an even greater burden on nonnative speakers
than the traditional chalk-and-talk lecture. As discussed above, Flowerdew (1995)
outlines qualitative differences between academic listening and
conversational listening (pp. 1112). But a classroom
situation in which there is frequent give and take between teacher and

students, including perhaps formal, planned lecture material, informal

questions or comments from the students, and unplanned responses
to students by the professor, really fits into neither side of Flowerdews
dichotomy. Such a hybrid form of classroom discourse may minimize
(or render nonexistent) the advantages of both academic and conversational
listening (e.g., the rhetorical devices of planned lectures which
can signal information to listeners or the negotiation between interlocutors in
conversation which can aid comprehension).
The most obvious pedagogical solution to students dilemma is to
train professors to respond clearly and effectively to students informal
questions and comments (Lynch, 1995b). Assuming this is not always
feasible, ESL teachers should simulate free-form classroom lecturediscussions for
their students and analyze videotaped classroom interactions with their students
so that ESL students can be better prepared
for the realities of the U.S. college/university classroom. In any case,
it is unfair to let students think that all of their classroom listening
will involve a traditional, carefully planned, predictable chalk-and-talk
312 TESOL QUARTERLYlecture and that all of their speaking will be low risk (e.g.,
in smallgroup discussions) or preplanned (in formal presentations).
The recurrent theme of these pedagogical suggestions is authenticity. Even
though many U.S. ESL/EAP classes are already communicative and student
centered and involve a variety of interactive activities,
some of these tasks may not adequately reflect the more rough-tuned
discourse they will confront in their other classes. Further, what the
respondents in this study said over and over is that ESL students need
to move out of their comfort zone in preparing for college coursework:
They need to hear subject-matter professors giving actual lectures, to
communicate with native speakers, to grapple with technical texts and
vocabulary, and to practice authentic writing tasks. Though these professors are
doubtless unaware of the general versus genre-specific EAP
debates in which ESL professionals engage, the majority, if asked,

would most likely come down on the side of genre-specific academic

preparation. It should also be remembered, however, that these respondents
were discussing major courses, rather than general education classes. It is
possible that a more diverse sample of faculty would
have expressed a wider range of opinions.
As several respondents noted, ESL teachers should be more involved
in training subject-matter lecturers, not just ESL students. These comments echo
those of L2 researchers (e.g., Flowerdew, 1995; Lynch,
1995b). In particular, Flowerdew (1995) notes
In terms of cost effectiveness, it might well be that a higher level of
understanding would be achieved by the lecturers modifying their lecturing
style,
so as to enhance comprehension optimally, than by the learners and their
language teachers struggling to improve their level of listening proficiency.
(p. 240)
To this end, Lynch ( 1995b) suggests strategies for training lecturers
for international audiences, particularly the selection of culturally
accessible examples when giving explanations and the management
of audience questions (p. 269). It should not be inferred from this
suggestion that such training should lead to the oversimplification of
the curriculum or discourse of the U.S. university but rather that
subject-matter instructors would become more aware of the issues
facing L2 students in academic listening comprehension and would
be given some strategies to help their students respond effectively to
the demands placed upon them

Conclusion
Studies in learning strategies that focus specifically on L2
listening as a skill are essential to understanding the process of

listening. Language teachers, therefore, need to understand

that they cannot take a laisser faire stand, hoping students will
somehow pick up this skills by "osmosis" any more than any
other L2 skill (Mendelsohn, 1984, as cited in Mendelsohn
1994). With planning and continuous practice, language
teachers can help their students acquire strategic skills that
enhance listening comprehension and develop autonomy.