Developing General Listening Skills

It is important to teach listening skills in class. Exam practice is useful, but it isn't enough if you want to improve your students' listening ability.

Students should gain practice in listening to as wide a range of materials as possible, including both monologues and dialogues. The materials should convey both factual information and the speakers' attitudes and opinions.

Listening is closely related to speaking and reading, so it's useful to practise the three skills in relation to each other.

Here are some ways to help students improve their general listening skills:

• Organise activities which require listening along with other skills.
• Use music and video in class: this can be more interesting for students than simply using spoken texts on cassette.
• Find out if there are English clubs in your neighbourhood where your students can go to practise their English.
• Encourage your students to
  - speak and listen to each other, both in and out of class time.
  - listen to the radio (e.g. through the internet), watch films and TV, and listen to music in English out of class time.
  - bring in their own listening materials (music, video, and cassettes), either to use in class or to exchange with each other.
  - make the most of any listening they do on their own by noting down interesting phrases or words they hear - these could become a topic to discuss at the beginning or end of class.