Academic Listening/Speaking Tasks for ESL Students: Problems, Suggestions, and Implications

Survey research on academic skills that ESL students need to function effectively at English-speaking universities has, for the most part, focused extensively on reading and writing skills. Complementary research on subject-matter instructors' perceptions of linguistic/ academic problems of ESL students has similarly emphasized literacy tasks. The present study therefore investigates college/university professors' views on ESL students' difficulties with listening/speaking tasks. Content-area instructors at four different institutions and in a variety of academic disciplines responded to questions and provided comments about their ESL students' aural/oral skills. Respondents felt that their ESL students have great difficulty with class participation, asking and responding to questions, and general listening comprehension (as opposed to lecture comprehension). They also suggested strongly that ESL instructors strive for authenticity in their EAP activities, specifically that they give students opportunities to practice listening to real lectures by a variety of speakers, interact with native speakers, and cope with genre-specific vocabulary, reading materials, and writing tasks.