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Introduction to Teaching Listening

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 Introduction to Teaching Listening
WILLY A. RENANDYA AND GUANGWEI HU

Less than two decades ago, Alderson and Bachman (2001, p. x) observed: “The
assessment of listening abilities is one of the least understood, least developed and
yet one of the most important areas of language testing and assessment.” The
same was also true of research on listening in general and second language (L2)
listening in particular. Because of this lack of understanding, listening was consid-
ered the Cinderella skill in L2 learning for many years (Nunan, 2002). Unlike the
other three skills of speaking, writing, and reading, listening was not given a
prominent place in the L2 curriculum. In recent years, however, research has
­provided sufficient empirical evidence that demonstrates the important role of
auditory input in language acquisition. Research has also shown that systematic
listening instruction can help improve students’ ability to comprehend spoken
language, which in turn can help enhance the acquisition process. The growing
body of theoretical and empirical research on L2 listening has elevated the status
of the language skill in and out of the classroom. Listening is now a key feature in
most language programmes, where it is offered as a stand-alone course or
­integrated with a speaking course. Because of its central role in the L2 curriculum,
listening is customarily included in high-stakes language tests and examinations
(for example, university admission tests, standardized international tests such as
TOEFL and IELTS).
This collection provides a comprehensive overview of L2 listening and is divided
up into four sections according to the predominant focus of each entry. The first
section, Theorizing Listening, examines the theoretical construct of L2 listening and
includes entries that discuss the linguistic, cognitive, affective, and social factors
that influence L2 comprehension. Entries in this section also deal with the nature
of L2 listening processes, different types of listening, macro- and micro-listening
skills, the roles of metacognition and working memory in listening, and knowl-
edge sources needed for successful comprehension.
The second section, Researching Listening, provides a synthesis of findings from
L2 listening research in varied learning contexts and on different aspects of

The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching, First Edition.

Edited by John I. Liontas (Project Editor: Margo DelliCarpini).
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/9781118784235.eeltv03a
2 Introduction to Teaching Listening

listening, describes different ways of researching listening, and also identifies key
areas in L2 listening that need more systematic research. Entries cover methods for
researching listening, similarities and differences between L1 and L2 listening, as
well as linguistic, discoursal, cognitive, metacognitive and social variables that
affect listening.
The third section, Pedagogical Perspectives on Listening, focuses on a wide range of
L2 listening instructional strategies that both researchers and practitioners have
found to be effective in helping L2 students comprehend spoken texts and develop
competence in an L2. Entries in this section include different approaches to listen-
ing instruction (for example, the comprehension approach and the task-based
approach), listening instruction for different age groups, the teaching of listening
for detailed and general comprehension, development of bottom-up listening pro-
cesses and strategies (for example, lexical segmentation and sound blending) and
top-down ones (for example, activation of relevant schemas and making predic-
tions about what to hear), listening activities, and the integration of listening with
speaking.
The last section, Assessing Listening, discusses different aspects of listening
that are typically assessed in low-stakes as well as high-stakes listening tests.
Included in this section are entries such as procedures for designing listening
tests for various purposes (for example, diagnostic, placement, formative, and
summative assessment), different types of listening assessment (for example,
discrete, integrative, and communicative testing of listening), the construct of
listening, the development of listening test specifications, integrative and com-
municating testing of listening, and assessing academic listening. Also discussed
are the listening subtests of such widely adopted high-stakes tests as IELTS
and TOEFL.
Each entry in the collection is organized around three major headings: Framing
the Issue, Making the Case, and Pedagogical Implications, designed to help the read-
ers see clear links between theory, research, and practice. The topic is first defined
in the first two sections of the entry in which key concepts are introduced and
carefully described and relevant research findings are provided to make clear the
significance, relevance, and complexity of the issues addressed. The last part of
the entry provides practical guidelines and activities that teachers could use in
their teaching. The cross-references provided at the end of the entry enable the
reader to identify related entries, and the reference section of the entry provides
key readings and additional resources for the readers who wish to explore the
topic further.
We are grateful to the authors who have worked so hard to write high quality
entries in this volume. We hope that the readers will find these entries useful in
helping them to understand the theory and research that define L2 listening and
draw on their enriched understanding to challenge received ideas, rethink ways of
developing listening competence, and design and deliver effective L2 listening
instruction.
 Introduction to Teaching Listening 3

­References

Alderson, J. C., & Bachman, L. (2001). Series editors’ preface. In G. Buck, Assessing listening
(pp. x-xi). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Nunan, D. (2002). Listening in language learning. In J. C. Richards & W. A. Renandya (Eds.),
Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice (pp. 238–41). Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.

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