Featured Speech, The 4th Pan-Asian Conference, Taiwan, November 2002.
Listening is the Cinderella skill in second language learning. All too often, it has been overlooked by its elder sister, speaking. For most people being able to claim knowledge of a second language means being able to speak and write in that language. Listening and reading are therefore seen as secondary skills, means to other ends, rather than ends in themselves. However, interest in listening comprehension research has been revived by recent developments in second language acquisition theory which suggest that comprehensible input is an important factor in second language acquisition, and that a comprehension-before-production approach can facilitate language acquisition, particularly in the early stages. This presentation will set out some of the theoretical, empirical, and practical aspects of listening comprehension. The presenter will also suggest strategies and techniques for developing both bottom-up and top-down listening skills in learners, and will stress the importance of a strategies-based approach to the teaching of listening. Such an approach is particularly important in classrooms where students are exposed to substantial amounts of authentic data because they will not (and should not expect to) understand every word that they hear. The presentation will conclude with a list of design features that characterize an effective listening course. These include explicit listening goals, materials based on a wide range of authentic texts, schema-building tasks, the incorporation of listening strategies, task chaining, and personalized content.
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