Foreign Language Teaching Methods: Listening

Guiding Principles

As you start thinking of listening and how to integrate it within your curriculum, consider some general questions related to the listening skill:

Question: Is listening a passive skill, as it is referred to sometimes? In speaking, we actively produce language; what do we do when we listen?

lc/lc-02-01-principles-1.xml

Language teachers discuss the view of listening as a passive skill.

Duration: 02:16

Question: To what extent is listening comprehension dependent on the listener's schema, or sociocultural perspective and prior knowledge? How does our schema help us form expectations when listening to something and thereby support comprehension?

lc/lc-02-01-principles-3.xml

On schema-based understanding and top-down processing.

Duration: 01:09

Question: What other type of processing do learners employ to comprehend a listening text?

lc/lc-02-01-principles-4.xml

On bottom-up processing in listening.

Duration: 01:40

Question: What kind of listening input is needed to develop listening proficiency in students? How can this input be provided? How can we deal with students at the elementary or low intermediate levels?

lc/lc-02-01-principles-5.xml

On the importance of providing large input in listening in the form of authentic materials.

Duration: 01:45

Question: To what extent should input in listening be based on authentic texts?

lc/lc-02-01-principles-6.xml

Discussion of why authentic texts are used in listening.

Duration: 01:21