Teaching Listening Strategies in the Second Language Classroom

Abstract

In this chapter we consider whether and how listening strategy instruction can improve learners’ ability to listen. It is important to acknowledge first of all, however, that there have also been other kinds of approaches to improving listening that have been evaluated through research and which are worth considering here. Many of these are summarised in Vandergrift (2007). They include approaches that offer training in bottom-up areas, that is, the ability to perceive and recognise words, or, as Siegel (2014a) usefully puts it, activities that involve ‘phonemic perception, syntactic parsing, and intonation. Bottom-up activities target learners’ abilities to process the acoustic input they receive’ (p. 24). Such activities might involve training in perception (Hulstijn, 2003), prosody (intonation/stress patterns) (Harley, 2000) and dictation (Kiany & Shiramiry, 2002). The outcomes of empirical studies using bottom-up approaches have been largely positive, at least in the short-term. Space does not permit a detailed consideration of the studies but interested readers should consult Vandergrift (2007). Further practical examples of what training in perception might look like in the classroom can be found in Field (2008).