Developing Listening Skills

Has listening ever been difficult for you? Have you ever faced a situation when you understand the listening text but cannot complete a listening task? Or, perhaps, you don't understand why your answer is incorrect? Maybe your learners have faced this situation? This course will help you identify the problem, and find ways to help your learners become competent listeners.

Listening is an essential skill for both successful language learning and communication. It requires no less attention and practice than other language skills (reading, speaking, and writing). It is not obvious, though, how to develop and practise it, since, unlike reading, it is often not taught on purpose, and it is difficult to decide what to start with, what to focus on, or why students fail to improve their listening skill despite the teacher's effort. 

In this course, we will look at listening as a receptive skill, and the difference between listening as a general ability and listening as a language skill we need to help students develop. The course also looks at typical problems with listening in class, why they come about, and how to address them. We will also be talking about using soundscripts in listening lessons. 

This course is aimed at both novice and experienced teachers, who would like to learn about listening as a vital part of language learning, the main listening sub-skills and their development.