Listening is “the leader” of the four language skills. According to Morley (1999), “we listen twice as much as we speak, four times as much as we read, and five times as much as we write” (p. 16). In first-language acquisition, listening is the first language skill to develop. It therefore serves as the foundation for the child’s developing knowledge of language (Feyten, 1991). Listening plays an equally important role in the acquisition of additional languages. Vandergrift (2007) advised that “Listening comprehension is at the heart of L2 learning; and the development of L2 listening skills has demonstrated a beneficial impact on the development of other skills” (p. 191).

Although listening is so critical to language acquisition, the development of listening skills is often neglected in the language classroom. Some instructors believe that because learners “are listening to me speak English,” the learners’ listening development has been taken care of. However, this is far from true. Listening is a complex process that requires learners to access their knowledge of phonology, semantics, syntax, pragmatics, and discourse as well as to have an understanding of nonverbal communication.

Listening becomes further complicated because it can occur in a variety of contexts. Some situations, such as listening to a lecture or watching a video, may involve unidirectional listening. Other situations, such as having a telephone conversation or participating in a classroom discussion, may be bidirectional and require the listener to also be a speaker. On top of context variation, add all the different types of technologies that the learner may have to use, such as telephones, iPods, and computers.

Because of the complexity of the listening comprehension process, the range of contexts in which listening must be practiced, and the variety of technologies that might be employed, instructors must make a conscious effort to develop their learners’ listening ability in a systematic way. We would like to tell you of a new instructor resource for teaching listening that can help you in this endeavor.

Teaching Listening: Voices From the Field (Ashcraft & Tran, 2010) was published in December as part of TESOL Publications’ Classroom Practice Series. In this 13-chapter volume, English language instructors from around the world relate the classroom practices that they have used to develop their learners’ listening skills. The practitioners who share their experiences in this book work in elementary education, secondary education, intensive English programs, universities, and adult education programs in both ESL and EFL settings. The practices they describe include actual classroom activities as well as insights on conducting needs analyses and using corpora to enhance understanding of spoken language. The authors explain how they develop their students’ listening abilities by using resources such as poems, songs, movies, audiobooks, recorded telephone messages, academic lectures, and podcasts, as well as student-generated materials and classroom interaction. Each chapter is presented in a format that includes the context in which the instructor teaches; the curriculum, tasks, or materials employed; and the instructor’s reflection on the practice. Furthermore, each practice is situated in the research literature on listening and how this skill develops. The volume’s table of contents can be viewed and sample chapters can be downloaded at www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=326&DID=13554.

REFERENCES

Ashcraft, N., & Tran, A. (Eds.) (2010). Teaching listening: Voices from the field. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL).

Feyten, C. M. (1991). The power of listening ability: An overlooked dimension in language acquisition. The Modern Language Journal, 75(2), 173-180.

Morley, J. (1999). Current perspectives on improving aural comprehension. ESL Magazine 2(1), 16-19.

Vandergrift, L. (2007). Recent developments in second and foreign language listening comprehension research. Language Teaching, 40, 191-210.

Nikki Ashcraft, PhD, gonikki@hotmail.com, is an assistant professor at Shenandoah University, Virginia, USA. She has taught ESL/EFL and conducted teacher training in the United States, Mexico, Chile, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Her current research focuses on English as a global language and its impact on teacher education.

Anh Tran, PhD, anh.tran@wichita.edu, is an associate professor at Wichita State University, Kansas, USA. Her research interests lie in TESOL, multicultural education, and general education. Dr. Tran is also a trainer and trainer of trainers in the areas of diversity, multicultural education, and cultural efficiency.