Listening Comprehension: Approach, Design, Procedure

This article outlines three dimensions in the teaching of listening comprehension. In approach, it discusses the nature of spoken discourse and offers a theory of listening comprehension that takes into account the processes that listeners make use of. In design, it analyzes learners' listening needs, proposes a taxonomy of microskills, and establishes objectives for teaching these skills. And finally, in procedure, it presents classroom activities and exercise types that can be used to attain these objectives. Not to let a word get in the way of its sentence Nor to let a sentence get in the way of its intention, But to send your mind out to meet the intention as a guest; THAT is understanding. Chinese proverb, fourth century B.C. In this article, three dimensions of conceptualization, planning, and performance involved in the teaching of listening comprehension are considered. These are referred to as approach, design, and procedure (Richards and Rodgers 1982). Initially, an outline of some of what is known about the processes involved in listening is presented. This is the level of approach, where assumptions about how listeners proceed in decoding utterances to extract meanings are spelled out. The next level, that of design, is where an operationalization is made of the component micro-skills which constitute our competence as listeners. This in turn enables objectives to be defined for the teaching of listening comprehension. At the third level, that of procedure, questions concerning exercise types and teaching techniques are examined. These three levels illustrate the domain of methodology in language teaching.