Teaching Listening

Two themes will wind through this discussion. The first is the necessity of supporting students’ learning. Listening in another language is a hard job, but we can make it easier by applying what we know about activating prior knowledge, helping students organize their learning by thinking about their purposes for listening, and if speaking is also a goal of the classroom, using well-structured speaking tasks informed by research.

Teaching and Listening : From Theory to Practice

Courses in listening and speaking skills have a prominent place in language programs around the world today. Ever-growing needs for fluency in English around the world because of the role of English as the world’s international language have given priority to finding more effective ways to teach English.

The Lost Art of Listening

Nothing hurts more than the sense that the people we care about aren’t really listening. We never outgrow the need to have our feelings known. That’s why a sympathetic ear is such a powerful force in human relationships—and why the failure to be understood is so painful. My ideas about listening have been sharpened by thirty-five years as a psychoanalyst and family therapist. Refereeing arguments between intimate partners, coaching parents to communicate with their children, and struggling myself to sustain empathy as my patients faced their demons has led me to the conclusion that much of the conflict in our lives can be explained by one simple fact: people don’t really listen to each other.

Talking without listening is like snipping an electrical cord in half and hoping that somehow something will light up. Most of the time, of course, we don’t deliberately set out to break the connection. In fact, we’re often baffled and dismayed by feeling left in the dark. Download the book.