There have been two broad goals behind this book. One was to examine first and second language listening in depth in order to assist teachers to make more informed decisions in their choice of materials, methods and tasks. The other was to propose approaches to practising the skill which might produce more tangible results than those currently in use: approaches which aim to produce better listeners rather than simply providing more opportunities to listen. A wide range of ideas and possible approaches has been discussed. The purpose of this final chapter is to place them in a wider framework by providing some broad guidelines as to where the priorities of listening instructors should lie.

Possible approaches

A number of different approaches to the teaching of L2 listening have been put forward. Let us briefly review what the options are.

1. A process approach. The principal recommendation made here was for a programme introducing learners in a systematic way to the processes that contribute to expert listening. It would consist of practice exercises, each of which focus upon a single aspect of the skill. They might target (a) features of the language that are likely to cause difficulties of decoding or meaning building for the L2 listener; or (b) processes that have been shown by research to form part of L1 performance. Many of these exercises can make use of transcription and be as short as ten minutes. In decoding, the goal of practising a single aspect so intensively is to develop the automatic processing that characterises skilled listening. In meaning building, the goal is to encourage the learner to transfer processes already well established in L1 but not employed in the unfamiliar circumstances of listening to a foreign language. See Chapter 7 and Chapters 9 to 13.

2. […]