An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

A: Jane, have you met the new office secretary? 
B: No, not yet. Why? 
A: She’s really nice. Did you know that she’s pregnant?
(Mendelsohn 1994: 90)
They would then discuss the difference in meaning between the two dialogues 
and hopefully come to the conclusion that when the last line is whispered, it 
implies secrecy and not merely a statement of fact.
Two notes of caution should be sounded about strategy instruction. First, if 
strategy instruction is to be effective, it requires thorough preparation of teacher 
and students, and it needs to be provided over an extended period with plenty 
of practice. A number of research projects testing the effectiveness of strategy 
instruction have found it made no significant difference, which may well have 
been due to insufficient training. On the other hand, in a long-term study 
designed to meet the conditions described above, Thompson and Rubin (1996) 
found that strategy instruction was very effective, and they helpfully discuss in 
detail the conditions that support listening improvement. Our second caveat on 
strategy instruction is that it should not be regarded as the answer to ‘everything’. 
A successful listener is not simply someone that is good at compensating for their 
weaknesses by skilful use of top-down strategies, but someone who also possesses 
and uses form-oriented L2 listening skills effectively in bottom-up processing. 
Some of the most important features of listening are discussed in the following 
section. 
Skills Training
As we noted earlier, a certain level of linguistic proficiency is required in order to 
handle listening comprehension. This includes a minimum level of mastery of the 
features of the sound system, but also of the grammatical system (at sentence level) 
and of discourse. As Brown (1990: 11–12) states, despite the current emphasis on 
top-down processing, ‘you still need to be able to monitor the incoming acoustic 
signals so that you know which of your predictions is being confirmed and which 
is not’. 
This mastery of basic linguistic competence as it relates to listening to spoken 
English should be assessed through diagnostic testing and, if necessary, taught 
early on in a listening course, and prior to the detailed strategy instruction. (For 
more detail, see Mendelsohn, 1994: Chapter 5.) Some of the features that need to 
be practised are:

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194 An Introduction to Applied Linguistics
• Discriminating between similar sounds.
• Coping with and processing ‘fast speech’.
• Processing stress and intonational differences.
• Processing the meaning of different discourse markers.
• Understanding communicative functions and the non-one-to-one equivalence 
between form and function.
Conclusion
Listening processes are complex, and listening comprehension is difficult in a 
second or foreign language. Until relatively recently, teachers either did not teach 
listening at all, or attempted to teach it, but did so rather ineffectively; arguably, 
learners who learned to comprehend the spoken language did so ‘in spite of the 
teaching’, not because of it. We have made substantial progress in the past 40 or so 
years in our understanding of listening, and how we should go about teaching the 
relevant skills and strategies. It now remains for materials writers and teachers not 
only to endorse the importance of a strategic approach to L2 listening instruction, 
but also to strike a balance between practice-focused listening skills work and 
practice in the use of strategies that will enhance their comprehension of the 
target language. 
FURTHER READING 
Field, J. (ed.) (2008) Special issue on listening. System 36: 1. A collection of eight 
papers reflecting current research into (first and second language) listening processes. 
Most of the contributors address bottom-level (perception) issues in listening, but there 
are also papers on listening strategy use and the testing and teaching of listening skills.
Flowerdew, J, and L. Miller. (2005) Second Language Listening: Theory and Practice. 
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. The authors discuss a pedagogic model of listening 
that broadens the scope of listening tasks to offer a range of ‘listenings’ – individualized, 
cross-cultural, social, affective, contextualized, strategic, intertextual and critical.
Lynch, T. (2009) Teaching Second Language Listening. Oxford: Oxford University 
Press. This book draws on current research to suggest ways of evaluating and designing 
L2 classroom listening activities. In particular, it highlights ways of focusing on the learner 
in listening: involving learners in the design of listening activities for use in the classroom 
and the self-access centre, and suggesting how learners can develop their listening skills 
beyond the classroom. 
Mendelsohn, D. and Rubin, J. (eds.) (1995) A Guide to the Teaching of Second 
Language Listening. San Diego: Dominie Press. A collection of papers by leading 
authors in the listening field, offering language teachers practical advice on appropriate 
methods for teaching listening. Part One explores the principles underlying good practice, 
including strategies in both L1 and L2 listening, and the cognitive dimensions of difficulty 
in understanding. Part Two addresses practical pedagogy. 
Vandergrift, L. (2007) Recent developments in second and foreign listening 
comprehension research. Language Teaching 40: 191–210. A comprehensive round-up 

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Listening
of research since the turn of the century into the cognitive, social and affective factors 
that influence L2 listening. It offers an integrated strategic approach to instruction and 
discusses recent investigations of multi-media applications in listening.