Developing A2 Learners' Listening Skills With Interactive Podcasting and Real-World Audio Tasks

Listening is the most difficult skill for many elementary learners because speech is fast, transient and unrepeatable in real life. This article examines how interactive podcasting and real-world audio tasks can develop the listening skills of A2 (CEFR) learners. It answers three methodological questions: what to teach (listening sub-skills, language and strategies appropriate for A2), who to teach (the profile and needs of A2 learners) and how to teach (a staged, task-based, metacognitive procedure supported by podcast materials). The study follows the IMRAD structure: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. A six-week instructional design is proposed, with instruments for measuring gains in comprehension, strategy use and motivation. The article concludes that short, graded, interactive audio tasks combined with explicit strategy instruction offer a practical and motivating route to better listening at A2.